Carpathian Germans

Germans in Slovakia
Karpatendeutsche

Johann Andreas Segner Maximilian Hell Paul Kray Philipp Lenard Herta Däubler-Gmelin Joseph Petzval Rudolf Schuster File:Gruberova 2008 - web.jpg Edita Gruberová
Total population
(4,690 (2011 census))
Regions with significant populations
Bratislava, Košice, Spiš, Hauerland
Languages
Slovak, German
Religion
Roman Catholicism 55,5% Atheism 21,0%, Lutheranism 14,2% and others.

Carpathian Germans (German: Karpatendeutsche, Mantaken, Hungarian: Felvidéki németek, Slovak: Karpatskí Nemci) are a group of ethnic Germans. The term was coined by the historian Raimund Friedrich Kaindl (1866–1930), originally generally referring to the German-speaking population of the area around the Carpathian Mountains: the Cisleithanian (Austrian) crown lands of Galicia and Bukovina, as well as the Hungarian half of the Austro-Hungarian monarchy (including the Zips region), Bosnia-Herzegovina and the northwestern (Maramuresch) region of Romania. Since the First World War, only the Germans of Slovakia (the Slovak Germans or Slowakeideutsche, including the Zipser Germans) and those of Carpathian Ruthenia in Ukraine have commonly been called Carpathian Germans.

History

Kingdom of Hungary

Germans settled in the northern territory of the medieval Kingdom of Hungary (then called Upper Hungary, present-day Slovakia) from the 12th to 15th centuries (see Ostsiedlung), mostly after the Mongol invasion of Europe in 1241. There were probably some isolated settlers in the area of Pressburg (Bratislava) earlier. The Germans were usually attracted by kings seeking specialists in various trades, such as craftsmen and miners. They usually settled in older Slavic market and mining settlements. Until approximately the 15th century, the ruling classes of most cities in present-day Slovakia consisted almost exclusively of Germans.

Pressburger Zeitung, 1869

Westungarischer Grenzbote, 1891

The main settlement areas were in the vicinity of Pressburg and some language islands in the Spiš (Hungarian: Szepesség; German: Zips; Latin: Scepusium) and the Hauerland regions. The settlers in the Spiš region were known as Zipser Sachsen (Zipser Saxons). Within Carpathian Ruthenia, they initially settled around Teresva (Theresiental) and Mukachevo (Munkatsch).

The Carpathian Germans, like the Slovaks, were subjected to Magyarization policies in the latter half of the 19th and the beginning of the 20th century. Furthermore, many Carpathian Germans voluntarily magyarized their names to climb the social and economic ladder.

On 28 October 1918, the National Council of Carpathian Germans in Kežmarok declared their loyalty to the Kingdom of Hungary, but a Slovak group declared Slovakia part of Czechoslovakia two days later.

First Czechoslovak Republic

During the First Czechoslovak Republic (1918–1938), Carpathian Germans had a specific political party, the Zipser German Party (1920–1938) of Andor Nitsch, who was elected from 1925 to 1935 on a common Hungarian-German list for parliamentary elections. In 1929, another party, more nationalist-oriented, was formed in Bratislava, the Karpathendeutsche Partei, which made a common list at the 1935 parliamentary elections with the Sudeten German Party, whose leader Konrad Henlein became its head in 1937 with Franz Karmasin as deputy. In 1935, both parties obtained a seat in both parliamentary assemblies. In 1939, the KdP was renamed Deutsche Partei with Franz Karmasin as führer, who had become in October 1938 state secretary for German Affairs in the Tiso government.

The status of Slovak Republic as a client state of Nazi Germany during World War II made life difficult for Carpathian Germans at the war's end. Nearly all remaining Germans fled or were evacuated by the German authorities before the end of the war. Most Germans from Spiš evacuated to Germany or the Sudetenland before the arrival of the Red Army. This evacuation was mostly due to the initiative of Adalbert Wanhoff and the preparations of the diocese of the German 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.

After WWII

After the end of the war, one third of the evacuated or fugitive Germans returned home to Slovakia. However, on 2 August 1945, they lost the rights of citizenship, by 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, while around 20,000 persons were allowed/forced to remain in Slovakia because they were able, on petition, to use the "Slovakisation" process, which meant that they declared themselves as Slovaks and changed their names into their Slovak equivalent or simply Slovakized them., while others were simply forced to do so because their skills were needed. Out of approximately 128,000 Germans in Slovakia in 1938, by 1947 only some 20,000 (15.6% of the pre-war total) remained. The citizenship consequences of the Benes decrees were revoked in 1948, but not the expropriation. There were many massacres in 1944-45, such as that of 270 civilians from the Uppser Zips and Dobšiná, Carpathian Germans who had fled to Bohemia as refugees and intended to return home after the war.

Today

Plate in memory of the expellees on the Hungarian and German museum in Bratislava

Plate on the Hungarian and German museum in Bratislava

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, and since 2005 there is also a museum of the culture of Carpathian Germans in Bratislava. There are two German-language media financially helped by the Slovak government, Karpatenblatt (monthly) and IKEJA news (Internet), plus minority broadcasting in German on the Slovak radio. 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.

Amongst prominent member ethnic Germans in post WWII Slovakia is Rudolf Schuster, the second President of Slovakia (1999–2004).

The Carpathian and other German-speaking groups in Romania are currently represented by the Democratic Forum of Germans in Romania (DFDR).

Language

Due to the isolation of the German from countries where German has been standardized (Germany, Austria, and Switzerland), there are many obscure German dialects that still exist in Slovakia. Many of these dialects are in danger of extinction.

In the Upper and Lower Zips regions (and later in Romania), the Zipser Germans spoke Zipserisch. A community of speakers remains in Hopgarten, speaking a distinctive dialect called "Outzäpsersch" (German: Altzipserisch, literally "Old Zipserish").

File:German as Mother Tongue Lower Zips.pdf

2011 Census data for number of German speakers in the Lower Zips / Dolný Spiš geographic region.

See also

• Sudeten Germans
• Oberlander Jews
• Upper Hungary
• Volksdeutsche
• Walddeutsche