Carpathian Germans: Difference between revisions

{{Infobox ethnic group

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[[File:skkadepressburger1869.jpg|thumb|''Pressburger Zeitung'', 1869]]

[[File:skkadegrenzbote1891.jpg|thumb|''Westungarischer Grenzbote'', 1891]]

[[File:Nemci 1900.png|thumb|Carpathian Germans in 1900]]

 

The Carpathian Germans, like the Slovaks, were subjected to policies of [[Magyarization]] in the latter half of the 19th and the early the 20th century. Furthermore, many Carpathian Germans voluntarily magyarized their names to climb the social and economic ladder.<ref name="voluntary">{{Cite web|url=http://www.policy.hu/discus/messages/102/canek-czroma.pdf|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20030520135505/http://www.policy.hu/discus/messages/102/canek-czroma.pdf|url-status=dead|title=Policy.hu|archivedate=May 20, 2003}}</ref>

 

==First Czechoslovak Republic==

 

The status of the Slovak Republic as a [[client state]] of [[Nazi Germany]] during [[World War II]] made life difficult for Carpathian Germans after the war. Nearly all remaining Germans had fled or were evacuated by the German authorities before the end of the war. Most Germans from Spiš were evacuated to Germany or the [[Sudetenland]] before the arrival of the [[Red Army]]. The evacuation was mostly the initiative of Adalbert Wanhoff and prepared the diocese of the German [[Evangelical Church in Germany|Evangelical Church]] between mid-November 1944 and 21 January 1945. The Germans from Bratislava were evacuated in January and February 1945 after long delays, and those of the Hauerland fled at the end of March 1945. The Red Army reached Bratislava on 4 April 1945.

 

 

On 2 August 1945, Carpathian Germans lost the rights of citizenship,<ref>[[Germans in Czechoslovakia (1918-1938)|Sudeten Germans]] in the border regions of the [[Czech lands]] and the Hungarians in the south of Slovakia also lost their citizenship.</ref> by [[Beneš decrees|Beneš decree]] no. 33, and they were interned in camps such as in Bratislava-Petržalka, [[Nováky]], and in Krickerhau [[Handlová]]. In 1946 and 1947, about 33,000 people were expelled from Slovakia under the [[Potsdam Agreement]], and around 20,000 persons were allowed or forced to remain in Slovakia because they were able, on petition, to use the "[[Slovakisation]]" process,<ref name="voluntary" /> which meant that they declared themselves as Slovaks and either changed their names to Slovak equivalents or simply Slovakized them,<ref name="voluntary" /> and others were simply forced to remain because their skills were needed. Out of approximately 128,000 Germans in Slovakia in 1938, only some 20,000 (15.6% of the prewar total) remained by 1947. The citizenship rules of the Beneš decrees were revoked in 1948 but not the expropriations.

== Today ==

 

 

According to national censuses, there were 6,108 (0.11%) Germans in Slovakia in 2007, 5,405 in 2001, 5,414 in 1991 and 2,918 in 1980. A Carpathian German Homeland Association has been created to maintain traditions,<ref>[http://www.kdv.sk/ Karpatendeutscher Verein]</ref> and since 2005, there is also a museum of culture of Carpathian Germans in Bratislava.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.snm.sk/?about-the-museum-9|title=About the museum, Slovak National Museum|website=www.snm.sk}}</ref> There are two German-language media that are assisted financially by the Slovak government: ''Karpatenblatt'' (monthly) and ''IKEJA news'' (Internet). There is also minority broadcasting in German on the Slovak radio.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.coe.int/t/dghl/monitoring/minorities/3_FCNMdocs/PDF_2nd_SR_SlovakRepublic_en.pdf|title=Second report on the implementation of the Framework Convention for the Protection of National Minorities in the Slovak Republic|year=2005|access-date=6 August 2011|location=Bratislava}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.coe.int/t/dghl/monitoring/minorities/3_FCNMdocs/PDF_3rd_SR_SlovakRepublic_en.pdf|title=Third report on the implementation of the Framework Convention for the Protection of National Minorities in the Slovak Republic|date=May 2009|access-date=6 August 2011|location=Bratislava}}</ref> After the war, their countrymen, now living in Germany and Austria, founded cultural associations as well. There is also a Carpathian German Landsmannschaft of [[North America]].<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.karpatendeutsche.de/|title=Die Karpatendeutschen - Willkommen|website=www.karpatendeutsche.de}}</ref>

=== Language ===

 

 

The isolation of the German from countries in which German has been standardised ([[Germany]], [[Austria]], and [[Switzerland]]) has caused many obscure German dialects to continue to exist in Slovakia, but many are in danger of extinction.

 

In the Upper and Lower [[Zips (region)|Zips regions]] (and later in Romania), the [[Zipser Germans]] spoke [[Zipser German|Zipserisch]]<!--The German name is used only to avoid "Zipser Germans spoke Zipser German"-->. A community of speakers remains in [[Hopgarten]] and speaks a distinctive dialect, ''Outzäpsersch'' (German: Altzipserisch, literally "Old Zipserish"). In Dobsina, they spoke what they called ''Dobschauisch'' or ''Topschauisch''. In Metzenseifen (Medzev), they spoke Mantak, but only a few dozen people speak it today. The German schools were closed after World War II in all former German-speaking towns, and children were forced to learn Slovak. German was not to be used in the workplace or even publicly on the street.{{Citation needed|date=July 2019}}

 

== Outside Slovakia ==

 

 

* [[Pavshyno]] (Pausching)

* [[Sudeten Germans]]

* [[Oberlander Jews]]