Germans of Romania
Encyclopedia
- Transylvanian SaxonsTransylvanian SaxonsThe Transylvanian Saxons are a people of German ethnicity who settled in Transylvania from the 12th century onwards.The colonization of Transylvania by Germans was begun by King Géza II of Hungary . For decades, the main task of the German settlers was to defend the southeastern border of the...
- the largest and oldest, often simply equated with the Germans of Romania - Satu Mare SwabiansSatu Mare SwabiansThe Satu Mare Swabians are a German ethnic group that lives near the city of Satu Mare in Romania, and forms part of the broader group known as Danube Swabians. Most were originally farmers in Upper Swabia who came to Hungary/Partium during the 18th century East Colonisation...
and most Banat SwabiansBanat SwabiansThe Banat Swabians are an ethnic German population in Southeast Europe, part of the Danube Swabians. They emigrated in the 18th century to what was then the Austrian Banat province, which had been left sparsely populated by the wars with Turkey. This once strong and important ethnic Banat Swabian...
, groups of Danube SwabiansDanube SwabiansThe Danube Swabians is a collective term for the German-speaking population who lived in the former Kingdom of Hungary, especially alongside the Danube River valley. Because of different developments within the territory settled, the Danube Swabians cannot be seen as a unified people...
in Romania - Transylvanian LandlerTransylvanian LandlerThe Landler or Transylvanian Landler were Protestants, who were deported from the Salzkammergut Region of Austria to Transylvania near Hermannstadt from 1734 to 1737 under Emperor Charles VI....
Protestants - Zipser GermansZipser GermansThe Zipser Germans were/are a German-speaking ethnic group in former northern Kingdom of Hungary, now in Slovakia and in the northwest area of Romania called Maramureş. Those who did not escape from the Red Army were mostly expelled from Czechoslovakia....
in Maramureş (BorşaBorsaBorșa is a town in eastern Maramureş County, northern Romania, in the valley of the Vişeu River and near the Prislop Pass. Linking Transylvania to Bukovina, Prislop Pass is surrounded by the Rodna and Maramureş Mountains, both ranges of the Carpathians...
, VişeuViseu de SusVişeu de Sus is a town in Maramureş County, northern Romania, located at the confluence of the Vişeu and the Vaser. It has an area of 443 km² and administers one village, Vişeu de Mijloc.-Population:Its population is under 17,000...
) - Regat GermansRegat GermansRegat Germans or Old Kingdom Germans are an ethnic German group of the eastern and southern parts of Romania. The Regat is land that was part of Romania before the First World War...
, including the Dobrujan GermansDobrujan GermansThe Dobrujan Germans were an ethnic German group, within the larger category of Black Sea Germans, for over one hundred years. German-speaking colonists entered the approximately 23,000 km² area of Dobruja around 1840 and left during the relocation of 1940... - Bukovina GermansBukovina GermansThe Bukovina Germans were a German ethnic group that mainly lived from about 1780 to the 1940s in Bukovina, part of present-day western Ukraine and northern Romania...
- Bessarabian Germans (for the period 1918-1940)
See ethnic German
Ethnic German
Ethnic Germans historically also ), also collectively referred to as the German diaspora, refers to people who are of German ethnicity. Many are not born in Europe or in the modern-day state of Germany or hold German citizenship...
s for the complete list.
See Democratic Forum of Germans in Romania
Democratic Forum of Germans in Romania
The Democratic Forum of Germans in Romania is a centrist political party representing the German minority in Romania. It was founded at the end of 1989. Despite originally being a German minority party, the party is popular also with many ethnic Romanians, notably in parts of Transylvania...
for their official representation.
Role in Second World War
After Romania acquired parts of Soviet Ukraine, the Germans there came under the authority of the Volksdeutsche Mittelstelle, which deployed SS personnel to several settlements. They eventually contained German mayors, farms, schools and ethnic German paramilitary groups functioning as police called SelbstschutzSelbstschutz
Selbstschutz stands for two organisations:# A name used by a number of paramilitary organisations created by ethnic Germans in Central and Eastern Europe# A name for self-defence measures and units in ethnic German, Austrian, and Swiss civil defence....
.
Those German colonists and Selbstschutz forces engaged in ethnic cleansing, massacring Jewish and Roma population near their settlements. In the German colony Shonfeld gypsies were burned on farms, and during the winter 1941/1942 German Selbstschutz units participated in shooting (together with Ukrainian militia and Romanian gendarmes) 18,000 Jews
Jews
The Jews , also known as the Jewish people, are a nation and ethnoreligious group originating in the Israelites or Hebrews of the Ancient Near East. The Jewish ethnicity, nationality, and religion are strongly interrelated, as Judaism is the traditional faith of the Jewish nation...
. In the camp of Bogdanovka
Bogdanovka
Bogdanovka was a concentration camp for Jews that was established by the Romanian authorities during World War II as part of the Holocaust.- Location :...
tens of thousands of Jews were subject to mass shootings, barn burnings and killing by hand grenades. Heinrich Himmler
Heinrich Himmler
Heinrich Luitpold Himmler was Reichsführer of the SS, a military commander, and a leading member of the Nazi Party. As Chief of the German Police and the Minister of the Interior from 1943, Himmler oversaw all internal and external police and security forces, including the Gestapo...
was most impressed by the Volksdeutsche
Volksdeutsche
Volksdeutsche - "German in terms of people/folk" -, defined ethnically, is a historical term from the 20th century. The words volk and volkische conveyed in Nazi thinking the meanings of "folk" and "race" while adding the sense of superior civilization and blood...
communities and the work of the Selbstschutz and ordered to these methods be copied in Ukraine.
Notable Romanian Germans
- Horst KöhlerHorst KöhlerHorst Köhler is a German politician of the Christian Democratic Union. He was President of Germany from 2004 to 2010. As the candidate of the two Christian Democratic sister parties, the CDU and the CSU, and the liberal FDP, Köhler was elected to his first five-year term by the Federal Assembly on...
(Bessarabian German), the former President of GermanyPresident of GermanyThe President of the Federal Republic of Germany is the country's head of state. His official title in German is Bundespräsident . Germany has a parliamentary system of government and so the position of President is largely ceremonial...
, whose parents were from Romania - Herta MüllerHerta MüllerHerta Müller is a Romanian-born German novelist, poet and essayist noted for her works depicting the effects of violence, cruelty and terror, usually in the setting of Communist Romania under the repressive Nicolae Ceauşescu regime which she experienced herself...
(Banat Swabian), Nobel PrizeNobel PrizeThe Nobel Prizes are annual international awards bestowed by Scandinavian committees in recognition of cultural and scientific advances. The will of the Swedish chemist Alfred Nobel, the inventor of dynamite, established the prizes in 1895...
-winning author who has depicted the history of Romanian Germans - Klaus Iohannis (Transylvanian Saxon), a 2009 opposition candidate for Prime Minister of RomaniaPrime Minister of RomaniaThe Prime Minister of Romania is the head of the Government of Romania. Initially, the office was styled President of the Council of Ministers , when the term "Government" included more than the Cabinet, and the Cabinet was called The Council of Ministers...
- Hermann OberthHermann OberthHermann Julius Oberth was an Austro-Hungarian-born German physicist and engineer. He is considered one of the founding fathers of rocketry and astronautics.- Early life :...
(Transylvanian Saxon), inventor of spacerocketry