Romaniani­zation and Half-Hearted Concessions. The Last Four Years of German-Language Education in Southern Bessarabia (1936-1940)

Abstract

The article discusses the status of German-language education in Southern Bessarabia in the last years of Romanian domination, before the Soviet takeover in June 1940 and the subsequent resettlement of the local German population in September 1940. It shows that neither the national-liberal government (1933-1938) nor the regime of King Carol II (1938-1940) complied with the 28 October 1920 treaty between the principal allied powers and Romania respecting Bessarabia, an agreement that granted the Romanian nationals of German ethnicity the right to establish and manage schools, as well as to use the German language in the educational sphere. Both the national-liberal government and the regime of King Carol II obstructed public and confessional German-language education in Southern Bessarabia.