Carpathian Germans: Difference between revisions

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.

 

[[File:skkadeplaque.jpg|thumb|Memorial plaque commemorating expelled Carpathian Germans, Bratislava]]

[[File:Skkadeplaque2.jpg|thumb|left|Plate in the Slovak Museum of German Culture in Bratislava]]

 

Amongst prominent member ethnic Germans in postwar Slovakia is [[Rudolf Schuster]], the country's second president (1999–2004). Others e.g.

 

 

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 in the street.{{Citation needed|date=July 2019}}

[[File:German as Mother Tongue Lower Zips.pdf|thumb|2011 Census data for number of German speakers in the Lower Zips/Dolný Spiš geographic region.]]

 

==See also==