German Minority Research Articles

The Fate of the Danube Swabian Minority in Southeastern Europe with special regard to the German Minority in Yugoslavia after World War II

The 18^th century in Europe can be understood as a period of frequent and substantial German emigrations. The Austrian-Hungarian and the Russian Empire looked for colonists to increase fairly unpopulated areas of their realms. Young and enterprising people from the South-West of the then existing Holy Roman Empire were attracted and used the opportunity to emigrate to fairly empty regions of the Kingdom of Hungaria, among different ethnic groups. Over the centuries, they increased in number and in prosperity. Since then peoples, states and nations of that part of Europe underwent considerable changes in extension and political structure, and the German minorities, with them the later so-called Danube Swabian population, were separated several times and added to various national states with their majorities, so that the ethnic Germans had to struggle for their ethnic heritage among different national languages and political creeds. Finally, the Second World War with the strong influence of the German National Socialists and ultimately, the total change of the Southeastern European countries to communism brought expropriation, execution, deportation, internment, torture, starvation. The highest death rate was among the German minority in Yugoslavia, especially among the Danube Swabians. After these historical reports, this essay focuses on the various historical perspectives of the history of the Danube Swabian group after WWII and develops the view of the author as a historian and witness of the times of the 1940es in Yugoslavia and Serbia.

NAROD I RAD: PRILOG PROUČAVANjU NACIFIKACIJE NEMACA U MEĐURATNOJ JUGOSLAVIJI

In mid-1930’s, previously united leadership of the German minority in Kingdom of Yugoslavia became torn apart by the fallout between two mutually opposed and irreconcilable fractions. Group of older and conservative but democratic politicians, with political experience gained already in pre-1918 Austria-Hungary was still in charge of affairs, holding key positions within Schwäbisch-deutsche Kulturbund, the umbrella Volksdeutsche organization in Yugoslavia; however, they were challenged by the so-called Renewalists – younger, energetic politicians who were educated in Germany where they embraced national-socialism and brought it home with them afterwards. Second half of 1930’s oversaw bitter and merciless struggle for power between these two parties that was eventually resolved in mid-1939 by complete victory for Nazis. This paper provides the analysis of the annual publication titled Volk und Arbeit (engl. People and Work), edited by leading Renewalists such as Jakob Awender, Sepp Janko, Gustav Halwax, Fritz Metzger, Heinrich Reister etc. In total of 3 issues available today, stemming from 1937 to 1939, this magazine (”calendar”) published cca. 60 various texts on subject of history, literature, physical education, racial hygiene (eugenics), music, political situation in regard of German minorities in Southeast-European countries etc. Accompanied with powerful and suggestive imagery, these written contributions openly disseminated Nazi ”blood and soil” propaganda among Yugoslav Volksdeutsche readership. However, the impact of Volk und Arbeit remains unclear, as there are no data regarding this matter – no surveys or statistic were made whatsoever. Nevertheless, views and ideas promoted through this magazine clearly indicate which way to look in order to find culprits for tragic events that occured not only during the war, but also in its close and immediate aftermath.

Nemci u Vojvodini u periodu osnivanja Kraljevine SHS - interdisciplinarni pristup

In this paper, we conducted an interdisciplinary analysis of the process of integration of the German minority in the historical context of the first Yugoslav state, Kingdom of Serbs, Croats, and Slovenes (1918-1929). In 1920, Swabian-German Cultural Association, Kulturbund, was founded as an important factor in preserving the German identity. Even though Kulturbund had interruptions in its activity, in 1924 and 1929, it remained the basic frame for cultural life of the German community during the period between the two wars. Officially, this organization was founded as non-political and loyal to new state, the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats, and Slovenes. The activities of Kulturbund were focused on preservation of German heritage through establishment of cultural institutions such as libraries and bookstores and through organization of cultural events in the area of literature, film, music, and theatre. Kulturbund was most active in Vojvodina. Vojvodina is still a unique model of co-existence of different ethnic groups and cultural patterns, and the German community historically contributed to multiculturalism, multi-confessionalism and multiethnicity of this region. We based our analyses on contributions in the field of sociology on ethnicity, cultural anthropology, and history. Specifically we found theoretical model of ethnical boundaries, established by Fredrik Barth within the interactional approach to exploring ethnicity, which proved to be useful. Barth's influential model allowed us to examine the ethnicity from very important aspect-social interaction. In that way, ethnicity is interpreted as a form of social organization of cultural differences. Also, this model implies that ethnical boundaries are flexible, but also resistant, and can be preserved in situations of intensive cultural contacts between different ethnical and cultural groups. According to Barth, the factors with the most influence to the strengthening of ethnical boundaries are social changes on the international level, such as wars.

Die Rolle des Radiointerviews im Landeskundeunterricht Ein Mediascher in Paraguay

Abstract The tendency to apply media in regional studies for students of German as a foreign language (Deutsch als Fremdsprache, DaF) is no longer a novelty. Thus, we see media applied as such in multiple different forms, like videos, press releases, radio segments or online statements. This contribution is focused on the radio interview, as a constitutive part of the regional studies’ courses for DaF students of Germanistik in Romania. As a starting point serves the assumption, that the application of visual media can be enhanced through dialogue sequences, which further highlight the subject of the course. Through chosen interviews, that have been aired by the state channels, students can become familiar with such issues, that affect the German minority in Romania. The authenticity that is being sought for, will result from the primary situation of the interviewer and the interviewee communicating, as well as through the utilization of Rumäniendeutsch as the standard language of the German minority, living in Romania. Thus can cultural, social, historical and linguistic phenomena that are specific for the local German speaking population and that are (re)constructing the cultural inheritance of Germans in Romania, be regarded in greater detail.

The Kaiser's lost African empire and the Alternative für Deutschland: Colonial guilt-denial and authoritarian populism in Germany

This article examines the role which the "imaginary" of the empire that Germany lost in 1919 plays in the contemporary German extreme right, and especially its leading expression, the Alternative für Deutschland (AfD). It focuses on the symbolic importance of the former colonies in South West Africa / Namibia and East Africa / Tanzania and of the less emotionally charged, although also significant, German 'informal empire' connections to South Africa. The article highlights that the AfD draws on a considerable legacy of political activism concerning Africa stretching back through the colonial revanchist nationalism of the Weimar era, the global network of the Nazi Party's "Foreign Organisation", and the post-war populism of Franz Josef Strauß. AfD ideologues glorify the achievements of the Kaiserreich, and emphasise that Germany has nothing to be ashamed of, in relation to its record in the colonial era. With the recent demands from Namibia for the payment of German reparations for the 1904-7 genocide in that country, this past has become a very live issue in German politics, and the AfD has made much of its opposition to any admission of German culpability. The article also shows how the AfD portrays itself as the defender of the German minority in Namibia and of white South Africans, whose position is represented as a warning of what happens when white people allow racial "others" to attain political power. The analysis seeks to avoid simple "culturalist" /historicist explanations of the presence of these issues in contemporary politics, embedding its account in the continuities of significant social, economic and strategic relationships between southern Africa and Germany.

The German-language Socialist Press in Banat in the Interwar Years. Case Study: Volkswille (The People’s Will) and Banater Arbeiter-Presse (Banat Workers’ Press)

"The German-language Socialist Press in Banat in the Interwar Years; Case Study: Volkswille (the People's Will) and Banater Arbeiter-Presse (Banat Workers' Press). This study analyses the development and characteristics of these two socialist newspapers from Banat in a period when the number of German publications was at its peak and the German minority press played a very important role for its readers. The text focuses on the content particularities of the publications with an emphasis on the dedication and commitment of the editors and journalists to inform, educate and support the readership through their articles. Keywords: Banat, German minority, socialist press, Volkswille (People's Will), Banater Arbeiter-Presse (Banat Workers' Press) "

Bewahren der deutschen Identitȁt und Sprache in Großrumȁnien. Das Vereinsleben

"Preserving the German Identity and Language in Romania after 1918. Cultural Associations. The present paper explores some cultural sociological aspects of the economic, leisure-related and professional associations of the German minority living in Romania at the time of the Weimar Republic (1918-1933), in the context of the social-political transformations and the development of the modern, interwar Romanian society. Although German associations existed in the now Romanian territories before 1918 as well, many new associations were founded and the activity of the already existing ones flourished during the interwar period. The associations are analysed in respect to the regions in which the Germans of Romania lived (Transylvania, Banat, Bukovina, the Romanian Old Kingdom and Bessarabia), the type of association, their objectives, publications and activities. The establishment of so many associations at the time of the Weimar Republic and their intense activities reveals, on one hand, the endeavours of the German minority to preserve its language and identity, and on the other hand, the freedom that the German community enjoyed – in other words, quite a liberal cultural politics of the Greater Romania. The associations were a part of the development of a socio-cultural field which granted the Germans a special place in Romania’s cultural history. Keywords: associations, Germans of Romania, Weimar Republic, Greater Romania, German language and identity "

Activities of the Social-Cultural Society of Germans in Opole Silesia in the aspect of ethnic policy of the Polish state

Some of the most important principles of state ethnic policy are to ensure national and ethnic minorities possibility of continuing their national distinction and to enable them participation in public life, including political. The German minority residing in Poland, the most numerous among national minorities, participates actively in realization of the above-mentioned principles. The German minority is most numerous in Upper Silesia area where since 1990 the biggest minority organization in Poland, the Social-Cultural Society of Germans in Opole Silesia (TSKN), has been operating.
 The basic aim of this article was to make an attempt to describe TSKN activities in the aspect of Polish state ethnic policy assumptions. Research tools and methods used were: historical, comparative, statistical, source study and literature review. Essential research was also study of Internet sources, first and foremost Ministry of Internal Affairs and Administration websites as well as TSKN websites. Research hypothesis had been formulated, according to which the Third Republic of Poland ethnic policy not only enable keeping national identity for the German minority living in the region of Opole Silesia, but also creates for the minority appropriate conditions to participate in public life of the region. As a result of research process above-mentioned hypothesis was verified positively.

Mihály Lieb or Mihály Munkácsy? Developing Cultural Identity in Hungary’s German National Minority Schools

In the Carpathian Basin, German-speaking peoples have lived alongside Hungarians for hundreds of years, resulting in many, shared points of cultural intermingling. (Although commonly referred to as svábok [‘Swabians’], this is not the correct term for Hungary’s German minorities since their origins differ from those of Swabians living in Germany today). After World War II, thousands of Hungarian Germans were deported to Germany. Those who remained could not use their native language and dialect in public. Today, young generations reconnect with their German roots in state-funded, national minority schools where, through the medium of Hochdeutsch, students are familiarized with their Hungarian German dialect, history and traditions in a subject called népismeret [‘folk education’]. This paper provides a brief overview of the current legal documents and rulings that determine the curriculum in Hungary’s national minority schools before detailing the topics studied in a Hungarian German folk education class. We contend that the overwhelming losses in cultural heritage that resulted from assimilation must be reversed in a process that simultaneously respects their unique, dual identity. To this end, we recommend adapting the curriculum of folk education to include an alternative, more inclusive perspective of famous, “Hungarian” individuals.

Majority group perceptions of minority acculturation preferences: The role of perceived threat

Recently, there has been growing focus on the intergroup influences of acculturation preferences, and in particular majority members’ perceptions of how minority members want to acculturate. This paper contributes to this emergent literature by examining the extent to which majority members in the UK perceive that minority members’ preferences for heritage culture maintenance and majority culture adoption are conflicting, and whether this is moderated by perceived threat. One hundred and sixty-three participants who self-reported being white British completed an online survey. Participants were asked about their perceptions of minority acculturation preferences for two target groups living in the UK: Pakistani and German minority groups. Overall, perceived culture maintenance and perceived culture adoption were weakly negatively associated for both groups. Moreover, results confirmed the pre-registered hypotheses, but only for the Pakistani target group. At higher levels of perceived threat, perceived culture maintenance was related to less perceived culture adoption. However, when threat was low, there was no association between perceived heritage culture maintenance and perceived culture adoption. For the German target group, threat did not moderate the relationship between perceived culture maintenance and perceived culture adoption. Findings suggest that depending on levels of perceived threat and the minority group in question, majority members perceiving that minority members maintain their heritage culture has different consequences. Results are discussed in relation to implications for integration, intergroup relations in culturally plural societies, and the need to focus on specific minority groups when studying acculturation processes.

The Dilemma of Dual Loyalty. Werner Hasselblatt and the Rise and Failure of Baltic German Minority Politics in the Inter-War Period

German minority politics in the Baltic states during the inter-war period has regained significant scholarly attention since the 1990s, when the Estonian concept of cultural autonomy from 1925 was rediscovered as a strategy for solving post 1989 minority conflicts as well as addressing issues of multiculturality. The case of the Baltic German politician Werner Hasselblatt, who is in the focus of this text, however, reveals a Janus-faced political approach: On the one hand, he had a significant share in the implementation of the law on cultural autonomy in Estonia, and he was also a major actor within the Congress of European Nationalities. On the other hand, from 1933 onwards Hasselblatt turned into an expert of Nazi resettlement and population politics, contrary to his earlier positions. Here, a critical analysis of his approach towards loyalty is undertaken, in order to discuss the tilting point in his political activities. My argument is that his attitude towards loyalty was based on the assumption of an irreconcilable conflict of dual loyalty to the ‘host’ state and the ‘kin’ nation. Whereas Hasselblatt regarded loyalty to German Volkstum not as a matter of individual choice for Baltic Germans and thus as not negotiable, he saw loyalty towards the Estonian state as connected to the fulfilment of the German minority’s political claims. Such an instrumental approach towards loyalty together with Hasselblatt’s primordial understanding of nationality in contrast to citizenship may be identified as crucial issues that led his concept of constructive minority politics tilt towards the destructive notion of ‘dissimilation’.

Zum Quellenwert der historischen Presseforschung in multiethnischen Räumen

The number of projects dedicated to the digitization of newspaper collections in libraries and archives has risen continuously in recent years. The main focus is on securing German-language press inventory outside of the German-speaking area, which often cannot be copied due to the aging process, and – with a view to developments, cross-connections and research approaches – making them available for broad use for future independent investigations. Through various funding programs, the ministries responsible for education and research and national research infrastructures also work to keep this cultural heritage alive, to digitize it on a larger scale, to develop it and to make it internationally accessible. The article therefore shows some of the noteworthy newspapers and magazines of the German minority in Central, Eastern and Southeastern Europe and some efforts for documentation of the German minority press in this region.

Contact phenomena in the verbal complex: the Walser connection in the Alpine area

Abstract In the context of the Alps – a broad region characterized by common geographical and cultural features – the isolation caused by the geographical setting makes it possible for conservative strategies to survive from the Middle Ages through present times. This isolation, however, does not exclude that conservative patterns evolve into innovative strategies. To illustrate this, we surveyed causative and progressive constructions in the historical German minority varieties on the southern side of the Alps. Greschòneytitsch, a particularly dynamic variety, shows the remarkable development of a causative particle, tònz, and the grammaticalization of an adverb, eister, into a marker of progressive aspect.

Bezpieczna tożsamość. Cele aktywności organizacyjnej mniejszości niemieckiej na Warmii i Mazurach

Celem artykułu jest charakterystyka bezpiecznej tożsamości narodowej członków stowarzyszeń mniejszości niemieckiej na Warmii i Mazurach jako wytworu celowych działań tych stowarzyszeń. Bezpieczna tożsamość jest definiowana jako niekonfliktowa tożsamość narodowa, odpowiednia w warunkach złożonej przeszłości regionu. Powstaje ona w rezultacie bezpośrednich i pośrednich relacji komunikacyjnych i rzeczowych w stowarzyszeniach, jest podtrzymywana poprzez kontakty z organizacjami niemieckimi. Charakterystyka bezpiecznej tożsamości jest rezultatem analizy działalności stowarzyszeń mniejszości niemieckiej, zadeklarowanej w statutach i opisanej w czasopismach stowarzyszeń. W analizie treści uwzględniono wskazania na cechy kontaktów pośrednich i bezpośrednich, cechy przeszłości służące do kształtowania tożsamości oraz najważniejsze obszary działalności stowarzyszeń.

Minority Groups as Socio-Economic Development Factor of the Emerging EU Region in the Opinion of Regional Authorities: Evidence from Poland and the German Minority

Purpose: This paper aims to show the positive role of the German minority in Poland by considering its influence on socio-economic development. Design/Methodology/Approach: The novel approach is to find the relationship between the presence of the German minority and the socio-economic regional development in the opinion of local authorities. For this purpose, the survey method was used. The surveys were conducted among the Opole Province local authorities concerning their opinion about the role of the German minority in respect of particular areas of socio-economic development. Findings: The main achievement of this paper is establishing that the German minority living in Poland, mainly in the Opole Province, has had a remarkable positive impact on several economic, social, cultural, and demographic phenomena, as well as on improving Polish-German relations in the opinion of regional authorities. Practical Implications: The results of the analysis might be used in shaping an appropriate development policy. They may also indicate the need for appropriate management of minority groups in regional development, and on the other hand, to use ethnic diversity as a potential of the region, a primarily economic one. Originality/Value: Research results can contribute to theoretical models regarding ethnic groups and local and regional development.

Niewypowiedziane cierpienie, czyli o fragmentarycznym przekazie pamięci wśród Niemców z serbskiej Wojwodiny

Inarticulate Suffering: On the Fragmentary Transfer of Memory among the Germans from Serbian Vojvodina The article deals with the issue of repression experienced by the Germans from Serbian Vojvodina after World War II (mostly in the period of 1944-48). The author is particularly interested in the mode in which the stories of these traumatic experiences function in the cross-generational tradition. Thus, the causes of the occurrence of such stories in German families are pinpointed. These considerations are supplemented with the excerpts of the statements made by the German minority representatives still living in Serbia. They serve to illustrate the basic theses of the paper.

Sudeten German Party Complaint to the League of Nations and the Situation of the German Minority in Czechoslovakia

The ethnic problem had never before been such a pressing issue at the international level as it was in the initial post-war years, in particular, in the areas of Central and Southeast Europe. Based on post-war negotiations, the idea of international protection of national minorities was born, which was closely connected with the system of peace treaties concluded with defeated states. The submitted study uses unpublished sources of Czechoslovak (National Archives in Prague, Archives of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Prague) and British (National Archives in Kew) provenance, published sources and specialist publications to look at the complaints of national minorities to the League of Nations during the 1930s; specifically — at the petition of the Sudeten German Party in Czechoslovakia in 1936, which concerned an instruction from the Ministry of National Defence to companies intending to apply for state contracts about the ethnic composition of their employees. It uses this example to demonstrate the instrumental nature of Sudeten German Party policy, showing that it did not represent a real attempt at improving the living conditions for the German minority in the First Czechoslovak Republic but rather was a deliberate effort to increase the visibility of the political entity and to internationalize the issue of the cohabitation of Czechs and Germans in interwar Czechoslovakia. The study also demonstrates that another objective of the Sudeten German Party was to attract attention from Great Britain, which had been avoiding significant engagement in Central Europe.

The Permanent Court of Justice and the German minority in Poland (1923–1934)

This study examines decisions of the Permanent Court of International Justice and their impact on the German-Polish dispute. It considers how international jurisdiction approached the question of minority protection and how the efficiency of this experiment in international justice was extremely influenced by political motives and contrasting political visions. The fragile balance between legal and political aspects was evident, and despite the efforts of the Court, political interests prevailed. It will be argued that the problems of the minority system and the German-Polish controversies proved that the international institutions could only provide the states with a support in settling their disputes: international stability could only be guaranteed by sincere mutual cooperation among the members of a community of states.

Between Two Kin-States: The Round Table Meetings on the German Minority in Poland and the Poles in Germany 2010–2019

ABSTRACT This paper analyses the series of Polish-German Round Table meetings on supporting members of the German minority in Poland and the Poles in Germany which took place during 2010–2019. The course and results of these talks can be interpreted as a clash of kin-state policies that treat these groups as a ‘foreign’ extension of the nation and emphasise the need to care for them. They carry interesting conclusions regarding: the role of minority groups themselves as non-state entities influencing and shaping kin-state policies; and the tension surrounding the use of the terms ‘national minority’ and ‘immigrant community’.

Polsko-niemieckie stosunki w sejmowej i senackiej debacie w latach 1989−1991

German-Polish Relations in the Sejm and Senate Debate The paper concerns the position of Polish MPs and senators on shaping the principles of German-Polish cooperation in a situation in which Poland regains full sovereignty in foreign policy. The position of Polish deputies was analysed on the basis of stenographic reports from plenary sessions of the Sejm and Senate concerning the preparation and ratification of treaties with Germany on confirming the border and on good neighbourhood. In particular, it was a question of examining whether MPs and senators supported the concept of a G erman-Polish community of interest, which was defined and presented in the Sejm by Foreign Minister Krzysztof Skubiszewski. During the ratification debate, supporters of both treaties pointed out that they enabled Poland to leave the Eastern Bloc, making Poland independent of the support of the USSR for the western border. They also provided an opportunity for German support on Poland’s way to the European Communities. MPs and senators understood that it was possible to build a G erman-Polish community of interest on the basis of supporting and expanding the integration process and thus completely change Poland’s geopolitical situation. This did not mean that the solutions adopted in the treaty on good neighbourhood, especially with regard to compensation, the status of Poles in Germany and the German minority in Poland, were fully accepted.