Dr Harald Roth

Panel 5 The German Minorities

Abstract

Subsequent to the national ‘general assembly’ held on the 8 January 1919, the Transylvanian Saxons declared their collective ‘Anschluss’ to Greater Romania and intent to be “loyal members of that state to which we belong.” That said, the Saxons entered the interwar period with a self-perception formulated around two or three generations previously.  When the definition of ‘Saxons’ as a German-speaking protestant ethnic group, historically living in Transylvania, emerged around 1850, a large portion of this group had already developed strong identity patterns that were largely based on the legal guarantees awarded to them between the 13 and 15 centuries as the inhabitants of the autonomous Saxon territories (fundus regius). In early modern times this legal framework very gradually gave way to the self-perception of a group characterised by the same language, religion, and customs, and that only accepted into its ‘natio’ (an estate) those deemed to be similar regardless of where they came from.