German Memories in Asia - A Discussion on Danube Swabians

Our talks on war-torn issues of the Jaffna Peninsula digressed into various issues of Stuttgart in Germany, which was a home for Turks and other minorities.

In recent years, the German-speaking countries of Europe have been confronted with demographic changes due to decades of immigration. These changes have led to renewed debates in Germany about who should be considered German. Turks, Italians, Greeks, and people from the Balkans in southeast Europe form the largest single group of non-ethnic Germans in the country.

In addition to the non-ethnic Germans, traditionally considered ethnic Germans also form a significant portion of the immigrant population. The ethnic Germans are foreign-born and often retain the cultural identities and languages of their native countries in addition to being Germans. The repatriation provisions made for this group of Germans are unique and have a historical basis, since these were areas where their ancestors traditionally lived.

Danube Swabians and Volga Germans are the major group of these ethnic Germans who immigrated or were forcibly sent back to Germany from their adopted lands by their ancestors several centuries ago.

The Danube Swabians (Donauschwaben) is a collective term for Germans who lived in the former Kingdom of Hungary, especially in the Danube River valley. Because of varying development within the territory settled, the Danube Swabians cannot be seen as a unified people. They include the Germans of Hungary (Ungarndeutsche), Satu Mare Swabians, the Banat Swabians (Banater Schwaben), and the Danube Swabians in Serbia's Vojvodina (Wojwodinedeutsche).

The Carpathian Germans and Transylvanian Saxons are not included within the Danube Swabian group.

Danube Swabians had an interesting history of origin. Beginning in the 12th century, German merchants and miners began to settle in the Kingdom of Hungary at the invitation of the Hungarian monarchy. Although there were significant colonies of Carpathian Germans in the Spis mountains and Transylvanian Saxons in Transylvania, German settlement throughout the rest of the kingdom had not been extensive until this time.

During the 17th-18th centuries, warfare between the Habsburg Monarchy and the Ottoman Empire devastated and depopulated much of the lands of the valley, referred geographically as the Pannonian plain. The Habsburgs ruling of Austria and Hungary at that time resettled the land with people of various ethnicities including Magyars, Slovaks, Croats, Serbs, Romanians, Ukrainians, and Germans.

The German settlers came at this time from Swabia, Hesse, Franconia, Bavaria, Austria, and Alsace-Lorraine. However, despite their origin, they were all referred to as Swabians.

The first wave of resettlement came as the Ottoman Turks were gradually being forced back after their defeat at the Battle of Vienna in 1683. The settlement was encouraged by the nobility whose lands had been devastated through warfare, and by military officers including Prince Eugene of Savoy and Claudius Mercy.

Many Germans settled in the Bakony (Bakonywald) and Vértes (Schildgebirge) mountains north and west of Lake Balaton (Plattensee), as well as around the town Buda (Ofen), now part of Budapest. The area of heaviest German colonization during this period was in the Swabian Turkey (Schwabische Turkei), a triangular region between the Danube River, Lake Balaton, and the Drava (Drau) River. Other areas settled during this time by Germans were Pécs (Fünfkirchen), Satu Mare (Sathmar), and south of Mukachevo (Munkatsch).

After the Banat area of Central Europe was annexed from the Ottomans by the Habsburgs in the Treaty of Passarowitz (1718), plans were made to resettle the region, which became known as the Banat of Temesvar (Temeschwar / Temeschburg), as well as the Backa (Batschka) region between the Danube and Tisza (Theiss) rivers.

Fledgling settlements were destroyed during another Austrian-Turkish war (1737-1739), but extensive colonization continued after the suspension of hostilities. The resettlement was accomplished through private and state initiatives.

After Maria Theresa of Austria assumed the throne as Queen of Hungary in 1740, she encouraged vigorous colonization on crown lands, especially between Timisoara and the Tisza. The land steadily rejuvenated: marshes near the Danube and the Tisza were drained, farms were rebuilt, and roads and canals were constructed. Many Danube Swabians served on Austria's Military Frontier (Militargrenze) against the Ottomans. Between 1740 and 1790 more than 100,000 Germans immigrated to the Kingdom of Hungary.

The Napoleonic Wars ended the large-scale movement of Germans to the Hungarian lands, although the colonial population grew steadily and was self-sustaining.

Small daughter-colonies developed in Slovenia and Bosnia.

After the creation of Austria-Hungary in 1867, Hungary established a policy of Magyarization whereby minorities, including the Danube Swabians, were induced by political and economic means to adopt the Magyar language and culture.