German: Banater Berglanddeutsche | |
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Regions with significant populations | |
Banat (south-western Romania), more specifically Caraș-Severin County | |
Languages | |
German (with the Banat Swabian dialect, a local type of the Swabian dialect) | |
Religion | |
Primarily Roman Catholicism | |
Related ethnic groups | |
Germans (most notably Swabians and Danube Swabians respectively) | |
Native to south-western present-day Romania |
The Banat Highland Germans or Banat Mountainous Germans (German : Banater Berglanddeutsche, Romanian : Germanii din Banatul montan) are an ethnic German sub-group which is part of the Banat Swabians (and the broader Danube Swabian group) who have been living in the mountainous part of the Banat (German : Banater Bergland or Montanbanat), [1] corresponding to Caraș-Severin County (German : Kreis Karasch-Severin) situated in present-day south-western Romania (and to a smaller extent Serbia as well). [2]
Within the larger community of Banat Highland Germans, there have also been Zipser Germans (German : Zipser Sachsen), an ethnic German minority group which mostly settled in Maramureș and southern Bucovina from Zips, present-day Slovakia. The Banat Highland Germans are part of the Romanian Germans.
The Banat Highland Germans are a mixture of various German-speaking settlers from Salzkammergut (contemporary Austria), South Tyrol (contemporary northern Italy), Bohemian Forest (contemporary Czech Republic), and Bavarian Forest (including the historical region of Swabia). [3] [4] [5] There were also Zipser colonists in the mountainous Banat. Consequently, they speak a certain series of different German dialects than the Banat Swabians in the lowlands of Banat, hence the differentiation in their name based on altitude or elevation.
The Banat Highland Germans constituted themselves as an ethnic German sub-group in the present-day mountainous region of Banat during the late modern period, in the time of Austria-Hungary.
Like all other German minority groups in Romania, the Banat Highland Germans are represented by the Democratic Forum of Germans in Romania (FDGR/DFDR), more specifically by the local branch in the mountainous Banat known in German as Demokratisches Forum der Banater Berglanddeutsche. [6]
Banat is a geographical and historical region that straddles Central and Eastern Europe and which is currently divided among three countries: the eastern part lies in western Romania ; the western part of Banat is in northeastern Serbia ; and a small northern part lies within southeastern Hungary.
The Danube Swabians ) is a collective term for the ethnic German-speaking population who lived in various countries of central-eastern Europe, especially in the Danube River valley, first in the 12th century, and in greater numbers in the 17th and 18th centuries. Most were descended from earlier 18th-century Swabian settlers from Upper Swabia, the Swabian Jura, northern Lake Constance, the upper Danube, the Swabian-Franconian Forest, the Southern Black Forest and the Principality of Fürstenberg, followed by Hessians, Bavarians, Franconians and Lorrainers recruited by Austria to repopulate the area and restore agriculture after the expulsion of the Ottoman Empire. They were able to keep their language and religion and initially developed strongly German communities in the region with German folklore. Thousands also came from Eastern Europe.
The Banat Republic was a short-lived state proclaimed in Timișoara c. 31 October 1918, during the dissolution of Austria-Hungary. The Republic claimed as its own the multi-ethnic territory of the Banat, in a bid to prevent its partition among competing nationalisms. Openly endorsed by the local communities of Hungarians, Swabians and Jews, the German-speaking socialist of Jewish origin Otto Roth served as its nominal leader. This project was openly rejected from within by communities of Romanians and Serbs, who were centered in the eastern and western halves of the region, respectively. The short-lived entity was recognized only by the neighboring Hungarian Republic, with which it sought a merger. Its military structures were inherited from the Common Army, and placed under the command of a Hungarian officer, Albert Bartha.
The Voivodeship of Serbia and Banat of Temeschwar or Serbian Voivodeship and the Banate of Temes, known simply as the Serbian Voivodeship, was a crownland of the Austrian Empire that existed between 1849 and 1860.
About 9.3% of Romania's population is represented by minorities, and 13% unknown or undisclosed according to 2021 census. The principal minorities in Romania are Hungarians and Romani people, with a declining German population and smaller numbers of Poles in Bukovina, Serbs, Croats, Slovaks and Banat Bulgarians, Ukrainians, Greeks, Jews, Turks and Tatars, Armenians, Russians, Afro-Romanians, and others.
The Germans of Romania represent one of the most significant historical ethnic minorities of Romania.
The Banat Swabians are an ethnic German population in the former Kingdom of Hungary in Central-Southeast Europe, part of the Danube Swabians and Germans of Romania. They emigrated in the 18th century to what was then the Austrian Empire's Banat of Temeswar province, later included in the Habsburg Kingdom of Hungary, a province which had been left sparsely populated by the wars with the Ottoman Empire. At the end of World War I in 1918, the Swabian minority worked to establish an independent multi-ethnic Banat Republic; however, the province was divided by the Treaty of Versailles of 1919, and the Treaty of Trianon of 1920. The greater part was annexed by Romania, a smaller part by the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes and a small region around Szeged remained part of Hungary.
The Democratic Forum of Germans in Romania is a political party organised on ethnic criteria representing the interests of the German minority in Romania.
The Zipser Germans, Zipser Saxons, or, simply, just Zipsers are a German-speaking sub-ethnic group in Central-Eastern Europe and national minority in both Slovakia and Romania. Along with the Sudeten Germans, the Zipser Germans were one of the two most important ethnic German groups in the former Czechoslovakia. An occasional variation of their name as 'Tzipsers' can also be found in academic articles. Former Slovak President Rudolf Schuster is partly Zipser German and grew up in Medzev.
The Germans of Yugoslavia is a term for German-speakers who form a minority group in former Yugoslavia, namely Croatia, Serbia, Bosnia and Herzegovina or Slovenia. Despite the name for the group, the label includes ethnic Germans, primarily Danube Swabians, and Austrians. The largest German minority was found in Serbia prior to dissolution of Yugoslavia.
The Bukovina Germans, also known and referred to as Buchenland Germans, or Bukovinian Germans, are a German ethnic group which settled in Bukovina, a historical region situated at the crossroads of Central and Eastern Europe, during the modern period. They are part of the larger group of Romanian Germans since the early 20th century, when they were initially living in the Kingdom of Romania.
Glogonj is a village in Serbia, situated in the South Banat District of the province of Vojvodina. It is located on the banks of the Tamiš River, about 20 kilometers northwest of Pančevo, and about 20 kilometers direct north of Belgrade. It has a Serb ethnic majority, numbering 2,657 people as of 2022. Its neighboring villages are Sefkerin to the north and Jabuka to the south. All of them lie on the Tamiš.
The Germans of Serbia are an ethnic minority of Serbia which numbers 2,573 people according to the last population census from 2022. The Germans of Serbia usually refer to themselves as Swabian, and they are grouped into the Danube Swabians or Banat Swabians in the Vojvodina region, where the majority of the population resides. Germans settled parts of Serbia in the late 17th century during Habsburg administration. The German population of Vojvodina was more numerous in the past.
Nițchidorf is a commune in Timiș County, Romania. It is composed of three villages: Blajova, Duboz and Nițchidorf.
Moravița is a commune in Timiș County, Romania. It is composed of four villages: Dejan, Gaiu Mic, Moravița and Stamora Germană. Moravița is the site of a rail and road border crossing with Serbia.
Săcălaz is a commune in Timiș County, Romania. It is composed of three villages: Beregsău Mare, Beregsău Mic and Săcălaz.
Zipser German is a dialect of the German language which developed in the Upper Zips region of what is now northeastern Slovakia among people who settled there from present-day central Germany and the northern Lower Rhine river beginning in the 13th century.
Josef Lapp was a Danube Swabian and was the vice banus of Banat from 1941 until 1944.
Count, Karl von Möller AOL O was an officer, journalist, author and politician from Banat. He was an enthusiastic supporter of Hitler's National Socialism. In 1932, he published the antisemitic newspaper "Der Stürmer" in Timișoara, an imitation of the German Nazi publication. He was married to Margarete Jung, with whom he had two children.
Banat Swabian is a local German dialect spoken in Banat, present-day southwestern Romania by the Banat Swabians, an ethnic German sub-group which is part of the larger German minority of Romania and a branch of the Danube Swabians respectively. In comparative linguistics, it is a West Central German dialect and it also has some features which correspond to Hessian dialects.