German Minority Research Articles

Sprachsensibler Fachunterricht an „Nationalitätenschulen“ in Regionen mit autochthonen deutschen Minderheiten – Modelle und Herausforderungen

Abstract This article deals with so-called “nationality schools”, educational institutions in which the primary language of instruction generally differs from the language of the majority society. Conceptually, this applies to minority schools in regions with autochthonous German minorities, which since the 1990s have tended to develop into schools of encounter, as the proportion of autochthonous native speakers has fallen to a maximum of 5 percent of the student body. This makes the educational institutions, which are often referred to as elite schools, all the more sought-after by the majority society. The social relevance of these schools is based on a pedagogical concept that transcends national borders in education and training and makes international perspectives a matter of course in early school years. It opens up transnational educational spaces in which linguistic diversity and multilingualism are part of everyday life. Subject lessons at these schools are usually taught in the pupils’ second or foreign language and require language-sensitive subject teaching, which requires the teaching and learning of the subject matter, the educational language of the subject and the foreign language German in equal measure (Content and Language Integrated Learning). Various models are presented for locating the language of education, which illustrate the particular importance of linking language and subject learning. Only mastery of the language of education enables difficult and cognitively demanding contexts to be penetrated linguistically and information to be processed. Educational language is therefore an indispensable prerequisite and at the same time a challenge for subject teaching a second or foreign language. The article shows examples of the educational language tools that need to be taught at different levels and provides a possible structuring aid for teachers and learners by discussing the “scaffolding” model.

THE GERMAN MINORITY IN ROMANIA IN THE PAST AND IN THE PRESENT

The German language and culture have played a significant part in the Romanian history and cultural development for centuries. The following paper presents the perspective of different representatives of the German Minority who chose to return to their hometowns after emigrating and spending many years abroad, mostly in Germany. Nowadays most of them are committed to keep their cultural heritage alive. By telling some of their stories I aim to show their understanding of the multicultural identity, to explore the reasons behind their return and to analyze to what extent their ethnic background has influenced their destiny and their everyday lives. In the first part of the paper I am discussing the historical reasons for the massive emigration of the German Minority from Romania in the 20th century and I try to define the concept of cultural identity. The second part is dedicated to the interviews with the members of the community who are now living in Romania by choice and by conviction.

Postępowanie władz czeskich i położenie ludności polskiej na Śląsku Cieszyńskim w okresie przedplebiscytowym (luty 1919–lipiec 1920) w świetle dokumentów z Archiwum Instytutu Józefa Piłsudskiego w Ameryce

The subject of the article is the conduct of the Czech authorities towards Poles and the situation of the Polish population in Cieszyn Silesia in the period from the end of February 1919 to July 1920. The aim of the considerations was to identify and describe selected phenomena characterizing the situation of the Polish population and Polish-Czech social tensions, contributing to the deepening of the Polish-Czechoslovak dispute over Cieszyn Silesia in the pre-plebiscite period. The research material consisted of documents from the Archives of the Józef Piłsudski Institute in America, and auxiliary documents as well as studies from scientific literature were used too. The analysis of the presented material allows us to conclude that Polish messages indicated numerous manifestations of the anti-Polish activities from the Czech authorities in Cieszyn Silesia. Czech propaganda and agitation activities, persecution and attempts to bribe the Polish population, obstruction of the development of Polish education, and the use of the army and gendarmerie to support the Czechization of the region were taken into account. An important role was assigned to paralyzing the professional activity of Poles in workplaces, especially in the mining industry. The activities of the German minority and Silesian circles in destabilizing the region and strengthening Polish-Czech social tensions were noted. Reference was made to the resettlement of the Polish population and the Czech foreign propaganda aimed at supporting the policy of Czechoslovakia in gaining international support for Cieszyn Silesia.

Forced migration and local economic development: Evidence from postwar Hungary

We investigate the effects of forced migration on sending economies using the post-WW2 expulsion of German minorities from Hungary as a natural experiment. We combine historical and contemporary data sources to show that the forced migrations led to lasting reductions in economic activity. Plausible mechanisms driving this result appear to be sectoral change (shift towards agriculture) and skills differences between Germans and the settlers that replaced them. Our analysis reveals that forced migration can cause lasting regional inequalities in sending economies.

German minority in urban space of a textile manufacturing centre: the case of 19th century city of Łódź

German settlement in Poland has been the subject of numerous studies. The causes and determinants of migratory movements have been discussed extensively, while little attention has been paid to the spatial aspects of the phenomenon. The aim of this study, which is part of geographical and historical research, is to determine the size of the influx of migrants of German nationality into the rapidly developing textile production centre of Łódź in the 19th century, as well as the geographical origins and distribution of this nationality group in the urban space. These considerations are complemented by the identification of key issues related to the social integration and assimilation processes of the German minority. In the first half of the 19th century, the influx of skilled labour, almost entirely recruited from the German population, conditioned the development of the textile industry in Łódź. It also had a key influence on the demographic development of Łódź, which soon became the largest centre of textile production in Poland. In subsequent decades, there was a tendency among German immigrants towards separation in the sphere of professional and social activities, but already by the end of the 19th century the German community settled in Łódź was diverse in terms of the sense of nationality. In addition to a certain proportion of the immigrants who were already Polonised, there were persons declaring German nationality, as well as those undecided about the issue.

„Miasto nigdy się nie kończy…”. Mroczne oblicze miasta w prozie Herty Müller

One of the recurring motifs in Herta Müllerʼs work is the experience of the city, which often becomes a space of threat, violence, uncertainty, and finally repression and death. The German Nobel Prize laureate describes urban spaces, where the fate of the city is intertwined with the fate of the protagonists, depicting a world of people who are downtrodden, lost, defeated, and yet not without hope. This article discusses selected works by Herta Müller, in which the multidimensional image of the city opens up new fields for reflection and allows us to gain insight into how a totalitarian state functions. The cities the author describes are reflective of all Romanian cities under the dictatorship of Nicolae Ceaușescu; they are places of depravity and terror. This article also explores the aesthetics of ugliness which affects the understanding of the role of cities in Herta Müllerʼs prose, and analyzes important urban symbols such as asphalt, apartment blocks, parks and the flora and fauna characteristic of communist cities. In many of Müllerʼs texts, cities form a dramatic backdrop for acts of violence and repression against ‘the Stranger’ – for instance, the German minority,the Roma community, and women. Thus, the experience of an individual becomes the experience of the whole community, which makes Herta Müllerʼs work enduringly relevant.

Între „Vaterland” și „Mutterland”: Relația Grupului Etnic German cu statul român reflectată în presa românească

The paper focuses on how two Romanian newspapers, Universul (The Universe) and Curentul (The Current), reflected the tensions between the German Ethnic Group and the Romanian state between 1941 and 1944. Consequently, the paper has three parts. The first part will describe the general political context in Romania before August 1944 and how it influenced the liberty of speech and press. Also, I will include relevant information about the chosen newspapers to argue why I chose them for my analysis. This approach will explain why Universul and Curentul refrained from commenting critically on the activity of the GEG and why their published materials had similar, if not identical, content when referring to the German minority. In the second part, I will provide an overview of the GEG's political evolution, why its relations with the Romanian state became tense since the autumn of 1940 and why the conflict amplified in the following months. The third part will employ a qualitative analysis of how Universul and Curentul mapped the growing conflict between GEG and the Romanian state. Thus, official declarations of the Nazi leaders in Romania and Germany and a non-interrupted series of articles about the German minority’s allegiance to the state are analyzed to undercover the hidden reasons that prompted their publication in the press. A last point to consider is the involvement of GEG in the Romanian humanitarian campaign of the Winter Help to prove their commitment to the Antonescu regime and strengthen the military collaboration between Romania and Germany.

Der Völkerbund und der Schutz der deutschen Minderheit in Rumänien

The study analyzes the way in which the German minority in Romania related, in the period 1920–1933, to the system ensuring the protection of linguistic, racial and religious minorities that operated under the authority of the League of Nations. We note that, while the German minorities in other European states (Poland, Czechoslovakia, Yugoslavia) were more active in their relationship with the League of Nations, sending petitions to Geneva, the sizable German minority in Romania did not turn to this “international court” in order to raise the problems it was facing in its relations with the Romanian state authorities. Although they were dissatisfied with the content of some laws adopted in the first interwar decade, the Germans in Romania did not refer to the League of Nations, as the Hungarian, Jewish or Russian minorities in Romania did, on issues related to agrarian reform and education laws. The German community in Romania chose the path of internal politics to make their demands known and pursue their economic, political and cultural objectives. Even if at certain moments the Germans in Romania considered the option of appealing to the League of Nations, this option had rather the role of “sensitizing” the ruling parties to the needs of the German minority. Nevertheless, I have identified and analyzed two petitions accepted by the League of Nations Secretariat, which are related, in a way, to the particular problems of the German minorities and to Romania’s post-imperial state status

Challenged Reciprocity: The German Minority in Poland and the Polish Minority in Germany

Challenged Reciprocity: The German Minority in Poland and the Polish Minority in Germany

Polish Physical Culture in Germany and the German Minority's Physical Culture in Poland until 1939 – A Comparative Study

The article represents the first attempt to depict the similarities and differences in the development of Polish physical culture in Germany and German physical culture in Poland during the interwar period of the 20th century. In both Poland and Germany, up until 1939, national minorities, notably the Germans in Poland and the Polish in Germany, played a significant role in fostering the development of physical culture. Drawing upon scholarly research and archival sources, commonalities between Polish physical culture in Germany and German physical culture in Poland can be discerned. They included: significant politicization, utilization for shaping patriotic attitudes and national integration, activity in the field of physical education, sports, and tourism, similar forms of activity of the Sokół Gymnastic Society in Germany and the German Turner Association in Poland, concern for the development of physical education among children and youth, and support from the respective home countries. However, notable disparities exist, including the longer-standing traditions of German physical culture on Polish soil, the considerably smaller scale of material support from Polish authorities for minorities in Germany, and the involvement of Deutsche Turnerschaft in Poland in a revisionist campaign against Poland in 1939.

Grupul Etnic German din România și Serviciul Special de Informaţii (1940-1944)

One can safely state that the «Andreas Schmidt era» (1940-1944) could be considered one of the most difficult periods of the history of the German minority in Romania. From the very beginning, the activity of Nazi controlled organization entitled the German Ethnic Group in Romania and its leader (Andreas Schmidt) was perceived by the Romanian authorities with suspicion and concern. This concern was legitimate since the aggressive policies of the leadership of the German Ethnic Group in Romania let to increasing tensions between the latter, on one side, and the Romanian authorities and the Romanian local population in mixed Romanian-German communities, on the other side. Consequently, the Special Intelligence Service (Serviciul Special de Informaţii, one of the Romanian secret services in the interwar period), the intelligence service of the Romanian army (entitled in Romanian: Secţia a II-a Informaţii a Marelui Stat Major), the General Inspectorate of the Gendarmerie, and the General Directorate of the Police kept under close surveillance the hostile activities of the German Ethnic Group towards the Romanian state. The reports of these aforementioned intelligence institutions emphasized the totalitarian character of the German Ethnic Group in Romania and illustrates how this Nazi controlled organization turned under the leadership of Andreas Schmidt into an effective tool of the Third Reich in South Eastern Europe.

Analysis of the situation and impact of german national minority language teaching in Gödöllő

The study analyses the situation of the German minority in Gödöllő and the possibilities of language education, the added value of teaching in the national minority language for children, the impact of national minority language education on attitudes towards language learning and further education, the feeling of belonging to the national minority, and the sense of national community. The impact of the socialisation environment at home, culture and family, language use, will also be analysed. Drawing on the literature, we will review the historical and legislative background, the language use of Germans in Hungary, and the guidelines for national minority schooling. The study is based on a presentation of the German national minority language teaching at the Petőfi Sándor Primary School in Gödöllő. Based on this, an online questionnaire survey was carried out, in which 105 pupils (36 national minority language speakers and 69 non-national minority language speakers) were interviewed, focusing on the links between language socialisation and mother tongue education. The results from the questionnaires were processed using SPSS and Microsoft Excel.

Die Vermittlung von siebenbürgisch-sächsischem Kulturgut ausgehend von dem Kinderbuch Das Amenchen. Mäuseleben (2019) der rumäniendeutschen Schriftstellerin Anne Junesch

Abstract The German minority emigrated massively from Romania after the fall of the communist regime in 1989, so the void left by it had to be filled with representatives of Romanian ethnicity. The main actors for the relations between the Saxons and the Romanians in Transylvania are the children who study in schools with German as a mother tongue. They will carry on the cultural heritage left by the Saxons. But how can we reach out for these children? The answer is given to us by the writer Anne Junesch in her book „Das Amenchen. Mäuseleben”, published in 2019. An attempt is being made to sensitize young readers to Transylvanian culture. With the help of a story centered around a fortified church and a main character from Germany, a world full of secrets and of the unknown is revealed to us. With small steps, an incursion is thus made into the almost lost world of the Transylvanian Saxons.

Bildungssprache Deutsch an deutschen Auslandsund DSD – Schulen (in Regionen mit autochthonen deutschen Minderheiten)

Abstract The article deals with the educational language German at German schools abroad and DSD schools in Romania. Schools in regions with autochthonous German minorities are given special consideration, as these contribute to the preservation of the minority‘s cultural identity. Existing empirical studies on language use and language retention at DSD schools are discussed and it is proposed that analyzes should not only be devoted to the norm-orientation in the language use of pupils, but to interactive processes in subject teaching.

Dyskurs postkolonialny w powieści „Dzieci Wołgi" Guzel Jachiny

In this article, Paulina Wójcikowska-Wantuch analyzes the presence of postcolonial discourse in A Volga Tale, a novel by Guzel Yakhina, a Russian author of Tatar origin, whose fiction is concerned with themes of history and identity. Yakhina focuses on the tragic events of the Soviet period shown from the perspective of a single person and her fictions represent the post-memory trend in literature. She stresses the cultural and linguistic distinctness of the German minority, which ultimately fell victim to Stalin’s imperialistic policy. Yakhina exposes the destructive mechanisms of the imperial power, but refrains from unambiguous assessments of historical reality. She focuses on the problem of responsibility for one’s neighbors, emphasizing the importance of the characters’ individual choices. In the light of the ethical issues raised in the novel, the problem of national identity is of secondary importance. In connection with the above, A Volga Tale and also other novels by Yakhina elude any unambiguous assignment to postcolonial literature.

Like Snow in the Sun? The German Minority in Denmark in Historical Perspective

Like Snow in the Sun? The German Minority in Denmark in Historical Perspective

History of German-language teacher training in Hungary between 1777 and 1907

The present study examines the history of German-language teacher training since appearance of the Ratio Educationis (1777) till the end of the 19. century. A systemic review of regulations, laws and curricula enable an examination of the changes in teacher training institutions, including the language of instruction in teacher training. 2019 marked the two-hundredth anniversary of elementary-level teacher training for the German minority in Hungary. The most important historical sources of this study, which will be examined in this qualitative research analysis, are curricula, educational laws and regulations as well as textbooks and timetables, in addition to the review of related publications. An in-depth look of the documents makes it possible to follow the continuously changing attitudes toward minority teacher training throughout the different epochs of Hungarian education.

Kultur und Werte, Blut und Boden: Siebenbürgisch-sächsische Biopolitik in den „langen“ 1920er-Jahren

The paper deals with the topic of eugenics (“Erbgesundheitslehre” or “Rassenhygiene”) among the Germans in Romania, which was mainly carried by Transylvanian Saxon actors. Based on Tudor Georgescu’s monograph The Eugenic Fortress: The Transylvanian Saxon Experiment in In terwar Romania (2016), the topic is analyzed in depth for the 1920s. Using Heinrich Siegmund’s Sächsisches Wehr- und Mehrbuch, which was published in 1914 and in a revised form in 1922, as well as other source examples, it is shown that the eugenic discourse was not only a transfer from the “West” to Transylvanian Saxony, but took on a specific form. The central actors of the biopo litical discourse among the Transylvanian Saxons, especially Heinrich Siegmund and later Alfred Csallner, acted in an interpersonal and intertextual network, especially one supported by institu tions, that was primarily connected to Germany—the exchange on eugenics was thus a reciprocal process, not an exclusively one-sided “import” from the “West.” However, it is further noted that there was relatively little demonstrable exchange with Romanian and Hungarian eugenicists. The implementation of the teachings of eugenics was intended to counter a demographically induced decrease in the population of the German minority. The main target was the younger generation, especially in rural areas—this milieu was seen as having the best chances of resisting the “decline” by means of biopolitical measures. On the one hand, the analyzed discourse reveals the intertwin ing of traditional and contemporary topoi; on the other hand, a radicalization of biopolitical concepts can be seen parallel to political developments.

Like Snow in the Sun? The German Minority in Denmark in Historical Perspective, edited by P. Thaler

Like Snow in the Sun? The German Minority in Denmark in Historical Perspective, edited by P. Thaler

The manifestation of cultural sensitivity in the documents of minority education and the National Curriculum – Word frequency analysis

The aim of the study is to examine the specific situation of the German minority in the domestic education system in the context of cultural sensitivity and cultural awareness (Tomalin & Stemplesk, 1993)within the framework of early language development. The author supports the findings obtained through the examination of domestic educational documents (National Curriculum, documents on minority education/Roots and Wings) to demonstrate the specific manifestation of cultural awareness in early language development. Overall conclusion: Preserving and passing on minority culture is still inconceivable without special institutional support.