Germans of Romania
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| Total population | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| (36,884 (2011 census) [1]) | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Regions with significant populations | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Central and North East Romania (Eastern carpathians) | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Languages | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| mainly German, Swabian German, Transylvanian Saxon dialect also Romanian, Hungarian etc. |
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| Religion | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Lutheranism and Roman Catholicism | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
The Germans of Romania or Rumäniendeutsche are an ethnic group of Romania. They were of a number of 786,000 of Germans in interwar Romania in 1939,[1][2] a number that had fallen to 36,884 by 2011 in modern Romania. They are not a single group; thus, to understand their language, culture, and history, one must view them as independent groups:
- Transylvanian Saxons – the largest and oldest, often simply equated with the Germans of Romania
- Satu Mare Swabians and most Banat Swabians, groups of Danube Swabians in Romania
- Transylvanian Landler Protestants
- Zipser Germans in Maramureş (Borşa, Vişeu)
- Regat Germans, including the Dobrujan Germans
- Bukovina Germans (Suceava, Rădăuți, Târgu Neamț, Gura Humorului and Câmpulung Moldovenesc, also indigenous to Cernăuți between 1918–1940)
- Bessarabia Germans (for the period 1918–1940)
See Democratic Forum of Germans in Romania for their official representation.
Contents
House of Hohenzollern in Romania
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Prince Karl of Hohenzollern Sigmaringen.jpg
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King Ferdinand of Romania.jpg
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Mihai.jpg
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King Carol II of Romania young.jpg
Members of the German family of Hohenzollern who ruled over Romania for a period:
- 1866–1914: Karl I (also Prince of Romania)
- 1914–1927: Ferdinand
- 1927–1930: Michael
- 1930–1940: Karl II
- 1940–1947: Michael (again)
Notable communities for the German minority (at least 1%)
- Petrești (Petrifeld) – 27.32%
- Urziceni (Schinal) – 23.91%
- Brebu Nou (Weidenthal) – 23.52%
- Cămin (Kalmandi) – 22.62%
- Beltiug (Bildegg) – 11.4%
- Tiream (Wiesenfeld) – 10.91%
- Laslea (Großlasseln) – 7,3%
- Anina (Steierdorf) – 5.65%
- Ațel (Hatzeldorf) – 5.38%
- Cârlibaba (Mariensee) – 5.06%
- Ardud (Erdeed) – 4.47%
- Vișeu de Sus (Oberwischau) – 4.03%
- Deta (Detta) – 4.02%
- Tomnatic (Triebswetter) – 3.88%
- Semlac – 3.6%
- Sântana (Sanktanna) – 2.91%
- Jimbolia (Hatzfeld) – 2.86%
- Lovrin (Lowrin) – 2.35%
- Carei (Großkarol) – 2.26%
- Buziaș (Busiasch) – 2.15%
- Periam (Perjamosch) – 2.15%
- Sânnicolau Mare (Großsanktnikolaus) – 2.1%
- Pâncota (Pankota) – 2.07%
- Lenauheim – 1.87%
- Lugoj (Lugosch) – 1.85%
- Miercurea Sibiului (Reußmarkt) – 1.84%
- Reșița (Reschitz) – 1.71%
- Ciacova (Tschakowa) – 1.64%
- Cisnădie (Heltau) – 1.51%
- Mediaș (Mediasch) – 1.48%
- Sighișoara (Schäßburg) – 1.43%
- Oțelu Roșu (Ferdinandsberg) – 1.42%
- Timișoara (Temeswar) – 1.37%
- Nițchidorf (Nitzkydorf) – 1.37%
- Merghindeal (Mergeln) – 1.32%
- Beba Veche (Altbeba) – 1.29%
- Hărman (Honigberg) – 1.22%
- Lipova (Lippa) – 1.19%
- Becicherecu Mic (Kleinbetschkerek) – 1.15%
- Caransebeș (Karansebesch) – 1.07%
- Bocșa (Neuwerk) – 1.04%
- Satu Mare (Sathmar) – 1.01%
- Sibiu (Hermannstadt) – 1%
- Mănăstirea Humorului - 1%
- Agnita (Agnetheln) – 1%
Notable German-Romanians
- Horst Köhler (Bessarabian German), the former President of Germany, whose parents were from Romania
- Herta Müller (Banat Swabian), Nobel Prize-winning author who has depicted the history of Romanian Germans
- Klaus Iohannis (Transylvanian Saxon), the current President of Romania
- Karl Schmidt (Bessarabian German), one of the best mayors of Chișinău, currently in the Republic of Moldova
- Hermann Oberth (Transylvanian Saxon from Schäßburg), pioneer of rocket development
- Helmuth Duckadam (Banat Swabian), former football goalkeeper
- Johnny Weissmueller (Banat Swabian from Freidorf, Temeschburg), gold medal-winning Olympic swimmer, actor noted for role of Tarzan
- Nikolaus Lenau (Banat Swabian from Lenauheim), renowned lyric poet
- Stefan Hell, (Banat Swabian), Nobel Prize in Chemistry
- Robert Dornhelm, (Banat Swabian), prominent film and television director of Romanian ancestry
- Mattis Teutsch, (Transylvanian Saxon), painter, sculptor, graphic artist, art critic, and poet
- Artur Phleps, (Transylvanian Saxon from Birthälm in Sibiu County), Waffen-SS general
- Friedrich Miess, (Transylvanian Saxon), painter and art teacher; mentor of Mattis Teutsch.
War crimes 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 Selbstschutz ("Self-protection").
German colonists and Selbstschutz forces engaged in extensive acts of ethnic cleansing, massacring Jewish and Roma populations.
In the German colony of Schonfeld, Romas were burned in farms. During the winter of 1941/1942, German Selbstschutz units participated in the shooting, together with Ukrainian militia and Romanian gendarmes, of some 18,000 Jews. In the camp of Bogdanovka, tens of thousands of Jews were subject to mass shootings, barn burnings and killing by hand grenades.
Heinrich Himmler was sufficiently impressed by the Volksdeutsche communities and the work of the Selbstschutz to order that these methods be copied in Ukraine.[3]
Expulsion of Germans from Romania after World War II
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| Historical population | ||
|---|---|---|
| Year | Pop. | ±% |
| 1887 | 50,000 | — |
| 1930 | 745,421 | +1390.8% |
| 1948 | 343,913 | −53.9% |
| 1956 | 384,708 | +11.9% |
| 1966 | 382,595 | −0.5% |
| 1977 | 359,109 | −6.1% |
| 1992 | 119,462 | −66.7% |
| 2002 | 59,764 | −50.0% |
| 2011 | 36,042 | −39.7% |
| Starting with the 1930 figures, the reference is to all German-speaking groups in Romania. | ||
See also
References
- ↑ Dr. Gerhard Reichning, Die deutschen Vertriebenen in Zahlen, Teil 1, Bonn 1995, Page 17
- ↑ Die deutschen Vertreibungsverluste. Bevölkerungsbilanzen für die deutschen Vertreibungsgebiete 1939/50. Herausgeber: Statistisches Bundesamt – Wiesbaden. - Stuttgart: Verlag W. Kohlhammer, 1958 Page 46
- ↑ Moses, Dirk A. (editor) Empire, Colony, Genocide: Conquest, Occupation and Subaltern Resistance in World History, Berghahn Books, December 2009, ISBN 978-1-84545-719-8, p. 389
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