Dr. Mariana Hausleitner
Panel 5 The German Minorities
Abstract
Given that both Romania and Serbia claimed the whole region of the Banat after the First World War, the partition agreed upon by the Paris peace treaties satisfied neither side. The majority of the Romanian population were farmers with high hopes for the 1921 land reform. But the majority of Swabians, of which 76.5% were farmers according to the 1930 census, did not stand to benefit from the reform. On the contrary, the communal grounds administered by the Catholic Church, used to finance schools as well as social institutions, were appropriated by the Romanian state.
