Банат швабтары: тарихы мен қоныс аударуы

German ethnic group

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 (since 1929 Yugoslavia) and a small region around Szeged remained part of Hungary. Following World War II most Banat Swabians were expelled to the West by the Soviet Union and its subsidiaries, and after 1990 and the fall of the Soviet Union and its republics many of those remaining left for economic and emotional reasons.

The Banat colonists are often grouped with other German speaking ethnic groups in the area under the name Danube Swabians. Besides the Banat, these groups lived in nearby western Bačka in Vojvodina, Serbia, in Swabian Turkey (present day southern Hungary), in Slavonia, (present day Croatia), and in Satu Mare, Romania. All of these areas were in the Kingdom of Hungary under Austrian rule, when the Crown recruited German immigrants, particularly farmers. It wanted to repopulate the lands newly recovered from Turkish occupation and to revive agriculture in an area that had been frequently overrun by war.

Immigrants were encouraged to settle in the Banat by the Austrian emperors in the 18th century to repopulate a frontier province bordering the Turkish empire, and to add ethnic European Christians to the population of the newly occupied region. The Germans were offered free land and the privilege of keeping their language and religion. The Crown was seeking Roman Catholic immigrants, as were the Italian and the Spanish colonists who had come to the region. Most of the German settlers came from Alsace Lorraine, Austria, Bavaria, Franconia, and the Palatinate. A small group can be traced to Middle Germany. However, comparatively few came from the Swabian regions of what was then known as Further Austria. It is unclear how the group came to be called the Banat Swabians, but it is probably because the majority registered and embarked from the Swabian city of Ulm. They were transported on the Ulmer Schachteln (barges) down the Danube to Budapest or Belgrade, whence they set off on foot for their new homes. The colonists were generally the younger sons of poor farming families, who saw little chance of success at home. Under Maria Theresa, they received financial support and long term tax relief. Many of the earliest immigrants never married, since few German women traveled among them. Craftsmen were financially encouraged, as were teachers, doctors, and other professionals. Over the decades and more, the German spoken by these colonists became separate from that developing in Germany, particularly after its unification. It became known as Donau Swabian, an archaic form of the language. Those who came from French speaking or linguistically mixed communes in Lorraine maintained the French language (labelled Banat French or Français du Banat), as well as a separate ethnic identity for several generations. Beginning with 1893, because of the Magyarisation policies of the nationalistic Hungarian State, some Banat Swabians began to move to Bulgaria, where they settled in the village of Bardarski Geran, Vratsa Province, founded earlier by Banat Bulgarians. Their number eventually exceeded 90 families. In 1929 they built a separate Roman Catholic church after disagreements with Bulgarian Catholics. Some of these German speaking families later moved to Tsarev Brod, Shumen Province along with a handful of Banat Bulgarian families who went to another Banat Bulgarian village, Gostilya, Pleven Province. Between 1941 and 1943, 2,150 ethnic German Bulgarian citizens were relocated to Germany as part of Hitler's Heim ins Reich policy. These included 164 Banat Swabians from Bardarski Geran and 33 from Gostilya.

The collapse of the Austro Hungarian rule and its replacement by Romanian rule over the Banat after World War I had some benefits. In the late 19th century, Hungary had undergone a period of rapid Magyarization, during which it attempted to assimilate all of its minorities. Schools were required to teach only in the Hungarian language. Under Romanian rule, Banat Swabians could have German language schools again for the first time since 1868. Banat Swabian culture flourished. A German language theatre operated in Timișoara, and across Banat, German language newspapers were established. In 1921 a cultural association called the "Verband der Deutschen in Rumaenien" (Union of Germans in Romania) was founded. The most notorious camp was at Knićanin (formerly Rudolfsgnad), where an estimated 11,000 to 12,500 Swabians died. The situation improved in 1947, when foreign humanitarian aid reached the camps, and their work routines were loosened. The camp system was closed in March 1948, with the surviving inmates being conscripted for forced labor in the army or industry. Their flight also was usually tolerated. By the end of the 1950s, about 300,000 Yugoslav Swabians had managed to emigrate to Western countries, including the United States. The Serbian census from 2002 records only 3,901 Germans in Serbia, 3,154 of whom were in the province of Vojvodina. In December 2007 the remaining Swabians formed their own minority council in Novi Sad, having gained the required 3,000 voter signatures. The president, Andreas Biegermeier, stated the council would focus on property restitution, as well as marking mass graves and camp sites. He estimated the total number of remaining Danube Swabians in Serbia and their descendants as between 5,000 and 8,000.

In Hungary fewer than 62,000 Danube Swabians remain, but they do have political representation. Expulsion of the Swabian minority from Hungary by the communist government, dictated by Soviet Union, took place between 1945 and 1948. As a result, many have assimilated and changed their ethnicity to become Magyars in Hungary as well as in Yugoslavia and Romania.

The Banat Swabians who emigrated to Germany are generally well integrated into the society in which they live. They keep contact through cultural organisations (Landsmannschaften). In Vienna and in southern Germany, where most Banat Swabians now live, some maintain their customs and dialect, and offer support to those who remain in Romania. Banat Swabians in the United States, whose ancestors emigrated beginning in the 1950s, have also formed community associations, including one in the New York metropolitan area, one in the Detroit area, and one in the Cincinnati area. Others have created online communities like Donauschwaben Villages Helping Hands which is a non profit to keep the Danube Swabian legacy alive and to connect families and relatives with their ancestry.