Bukovina Germans

The Bukovina Germans (German: Bukowinadeutsche or Buchenlanddeutsche) are a German ethnic group which settled in Bukovina, a historical region situated at the crossroads of Central and Eastern Europe. Their main demographic presence lasted from the last quarter of the 18th century, when Bukovina was annexed by the Habsburg Empire, until 1940, when nearly all Bukovina Germans (almost 100,000 people)[1] were resettled into the Third Reich as a part of the Heim ins Reich National Socialist population transfer policy.[2][3]

Ethnic groups in entire Bukovina according to the 1930 Romanian census, with German-speaking populations marked in black in both the southern and northern part of the region.

According to the 1910 Imperial Austrian census (which recorded inhabitants by language), the Bukovina Germans represented an ethnic minority accounting for approximately 21.2% of the multi-ethnic population of the Duchy of Bukovina (German: Herzogtum Bukowina).[4] Of those 21.2%, a large proportion was represented by German-speaking Jews.[5] By excluding the Jews, however, the Germans in Bukovina constituted a minority of about 73,000 people (or 9.2%).[6]

Subsequently, in absolute numbers, 75,533 ethnic Germans (or about 9% of the population) were registered in Bukovina when it was still part of the Kingdom of Romania (as per the Romanian population census of 1930). Historically, some of them developed their own dialect over the course of several hundred years which they called 'Buchenländisch', while others speak a series of other distinct German dialects, depending on their region of origin.[7][8][9][10]

To this day, sparse and very small rural and urban communities of Germans still reside in southern Bukovina (i.e., Suceava County in Romania) and are politically represented by the Democratic Forum of Germans in Romania (FDGR/DFDR).[11][12] Lastly, another interesting aspect on the German presence in Bukovina is the fact that the historical/geographic region as a whole has been previously sometimes labeled as 'Switzerland of the East'.[13][14][15]

History

Initial settlement during the Middle Ages (13th century to 14th century)
14th century seal of Baia, evoking the legend of Saint Hubertus, the patron saint of hunters.
Ruins of the medieval Roman Catholic Cathedral situated in Baia (German: Moldenmarkt), Suceava County, north-eastern Romania.

Ethnic Germans known as Transylvanian Saxons (who were mainly craftsmen and merchants stemming from present-day Luxembourg and Rhine-Moselle areas of Western Europe), had sparsely settled in the western mountainous regions of the Principality of Moldavia over the course of the late medieval Ostsiedlung migration (which, in this particular case, took place throughout the 13th and 14th centuries).

These settlers encouraged trade and urban development. Additionally, they founded (and were also briefly in charge under the title of Schultheiß) of some notable medieval settlements such as Baia (German: Stadt Molde or Moldenmarkt), the first capital of the Principality of Moldavia, or Târgu Neamț (German: Niamtz).[16] Subsequently, most of them had been gradually assimilated in these local cultures by the dominant ethnic group of Romanians.

Under the Habsburgs and within the Austrian Empire (1774–1918)
Main article: Josephine colonization
The coat of arms of the Duchy of Bukovina conceived by Austrian heraldist Hugo Gerard Ströhl.

Following the Russo-Turkish War, in 1774–75 the Habsburg monarchy annexed northwestern Moldavia which was predominantly inhabited by Romanians (as many as 85 percent), with smaller numbers of Ukrainians (including Hutsuls and Ruthenians), Armenians, Poles, and Jews.[17]

Since then, the region has been known as Bukovina (German: Bukowina or Buchenland). From 1774 to 1786, the settlement of German craftsmen and farmers in existing villages increased.[18] The settlers included Zipser Germans from the Zips region of Upper Hungary (today mostly Slovakia), Banat Swabians from Banat, and ethnic Germans from Galicia (more specifically Evangelical Lutheran Protestants), but also immigrants from the Rhenish Palatinate, the Baden and Hesse principalities, as well as from impoverished regions of the Bohemian Forest (German: Böhmerwald).[19][20]

Thus, four distinct German linguistic groups were represented as follows:

During the 19th century, the developing German middle class comprised much of the intellectual and political elite of the region; the language of official business and education was predominantly German, particularly among the upper classes. Population growth and a shortage of land led to the establishment of daughter settlements in Galicia, Bessarabia, and Dobruja.

After 1840, a shortage of land caused the decline into poverty of the German rural lower classes; in the late 19th century parts of the German rural population alongside a few Romanians emigrated to the Americas, mainly to the United States (most notably to Ellis and Hays, both located in Kansas) but also to Canada.[25][26][27][28]

Between 1849 and 1851, and from 1863 to 1918, the Duchy of Bukovina became an independent crown land within the Austrian Empire (see also: Cisleithania). However, at this time, in comparison with other Austrian crown lands, Bukovina remained a relatively underdeveloped region on the periphery of the realm, primarily supplying raw materials. This did not prevent it from being called '[the] Switzerland of the Orient' (i.e., of Eastern Europe) or 'Europe in miniature', due to its ethnic and cultural diversity spread over such a small territory.[29]

The Franz-Josephs-Universität (Francisco-Josephina) in Cernăuți (Czernowitz) was founded in 1875, then the easternmost German-speaking university.[30][31] In 1910–11, the Bukovinian Reconciliation (a political agreement between the peoples of Bukovina and their political representatives in the Landtag assembly on the question of autonomous regional administration) took place between the representatives of the nationalities. During the first round of the 20th century, local German-language literature flourished through the writings of Rose Ausländer, Alfred Kittner, Alfred Margul Sperber, or Paul Celan.[32][33][34] Other notable German writers of Bukovina include mixed Ukrainian-German intellectuals Ludwig Adolf Staufe-Simiginowicz and Olha Kobylianska (who was also remotely related to renowned German poet Zacharias Werner).

  • Cernăuți (German: Czernowitz) town hall, c. 1905
  • Suceava (German: Suczawa) town hall (nowadays administrative palace), early 20th century
  • Roman Catholic church in Gura Humorului (German: Gura Humora), early 20th century
  • View of Iacobeni (German: Jakobeny), a Zipser German village, early 20th century
  • Bilingual German-Romanian postcard from Vatra Dornei (German: Dorna-Watra), early 20th century
  • Former Evangelical Lutheran (now Orthodox) church in Ilișești (German: llischestie)

Early 20th century and Kingdom of Romania (1918–1939)
Coat of arms of interwar Suceava County, as part of the Kingdom of Romania
Map of German minorities in Eastern Europe during the interwar period, also highlighting German settlements in the Kingdom of Romania, including Bukovina.

From 1918 to 1919, following the end of World War I and the dissolution of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, Bukovina became part of the Kingdom of Romania. At the General Congress of Bukovina held on November 28, 1918,[35] the political representatives of the Bukovina Germans voted and supported the union of Bukovina with the Romanian kingdom, alongside the Romanian and Polish representatives.

From 1933 up until 1940, some German societies and organizations opposed the propaganda of the Third Reich and the National Socialist-aligned so-called 'Reformation Movement'. Beginning in 1938 however, due to the poor economic situation and powerful National Socialist propaganda, a pro-Third Reich mentality developed within the Bukovina German community. Because of this, many increased their preparedness for evacuation.

Outbreak of World War II and Heim ins Reich (1939–1941)
Main article: Heim ins Reich
Bukovina and Bessarabia Germans arriving in Graz, Austria, in November, 1940, on their way of resettlement to Nazi-occupied Poland.

When Nazi Germany signed the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact with the Soviet Union in 1939 (just before the outbreak of World War II), the fate (unknown to those affected) of the Germans in Bukovina was sealed. In a secret supplementary protocol, it was agreed (among other points) that the northern part of Bukovina would be annexed by the Soviet Union under a territorial re-organization in Central-Eastern Europe, with the German sub-populations therein undergoing compulsory resettlement to other future Nazi-occupied territories.[36] Under this military partitive accord, the Soviet Union occupied northern Romania in 1940.

Consequently, the Third Reich resettled nearly the entire German population of Bukovina (about 96,000 ethnic Germans) to, most notably, Nazi-occupied Poland, where the incoming evacuees were frequently compensated with expropriated farms.[37] From 1941 to 1944, Bukovina was almost entirely Romanian-populated. Additionally, most of the Jewish population (c. 30% of the regional population as a whole) were murdered by the Third Reich in collaboration with fascist Romania under Marshal Ion Antonescu during the Holocaust.

Resettlement in the wake of World War II (1945–1947)

In 1944–45, as the Russian front moved closer, the Bukovina Germans settled in Polish areas (like the remaining German population), fled westward or wherever they could manage. Some remained in East Germany; others went to Austria. In 1945, the 7,500 or so remaining Germans in Bukovina were evacuated to Germany, ending (except for a relatively feeble number of individuals) a significant German presence in Bukovina, Romania after 1940.

During the postwar era, the Bukovina Germans, as other 'homeland refugees', assimilated into the Federal Republic, Austria, or the German Democratic Republic (German: Deutsche Demokratische Republik).[38] Nonetheless, small numbers of ethnic Germans (along with their families) returned to Romania after the resettlement plan failed, most notably the Zipser Germans, but also some Bukovina Germans.[39][40][41][42]

After World War II and life under Communist Romania (1945–1989)

After the end of World War II, the German community of Bukovina declined dramatically in numbers, with only several thousand ethnic Germans still residing in Suceava County (German: Kreis Suczawa) and a few waves of returning expelled Bukovina Germans re-settling the county. As with the rest of the German community in Bukovina, they were constantly harassed by and under the surveillance of the Securitatea, the secret police in Communist Romania, as recorded for the first time in their logs in October 1956.[43]

The documents of the Romanian Communist secret police showcase the fact that many remaining Bukovina Germans expressed their interest to flee the country and immigrate to West Germany. Furthermore, only a few of them had been suspected on the grounds of anti-national sentiment alongside some Ukrainians, as shown by the same reports of the Communist Romanian secret police. In the meantime, mixed Romanian-German families formed in this part of Romania as well, as they have formed prior to the end of World War II and the rise of Communism as well.

In contemporary Romania (1989–present)

During the early 21st century, the German community of Bukovina had dwindled dramatically and is currently on the verge of extinction.[44][45] Nowadays, according to an estimate, the German community in Suceava County represents 0.3% of the total population of the county.[46] Nevertheless, the local branches of FDGR/DFDR in Suceava County are still functional and many local German culture-based festivals (akin to Haferland week of the Transylvanian Saxons) have been held thus far, with numerous members of the Bukovina German diaspora returning home on their occasion, especially in the town of Suceava (German: Suczawa).[47] Furthermore, Germany is also the second most important economic partner and foreign investor of Suceava County, as reported by the prefect of the county in 2021.[48]

Demographics
Historical population
YearPop.±%
1910 73,000—    
1930 75,533+3.5%
1940 100,000+32.4%
1956 3,981−96.0%
1966 2,830−28.9%
1977 2,265−20.0%
1992 2,376+4.9%
2002 1,773−25.4%
2011 717−59.6%
Austrian and Romanian censuses and estimates. After 1940, statistics refer solely to the extent of present-day Suceava County.
Source: [49]

The 1930 Romanian census recorded c. 75,000 ethnic Germans in Bukovina.[50] According to another source, namely an article of the Romanian Academy from 2019, there were c. 76,000 ethnic Germans in Bukovina in 1930 and 44% of them lived in urban settlements.[51] Thus, the Bukovina Germans made up 12.46% of the total population of the interwar Suceava County at that time.

According to the 2011 Romanian census, the German minority in southern Bukovina makes up only 0.11% of the total population (including Zipsers and smaller numbers of Regat Germans in Fălticeni).[52] Consequently, the rural and urban settlements of Suceava County, where small German communities still live to this day, are the following ones (according to the 2011 Romanian census):

  • Suceava (German: Suczawa): 0.18%
  • Rădăuți (German: Radautz): 0.27%
  • Gura Humorului (German: Gura Humora): 0.52%
  • Câmpulung Moldovenesc (German: Kimpolung): 0.25%
  • Fălticeni (German: Foltischeni): 0.02%
  • Mănăstirea Humorului (German: Humora Kloster): 1%
  • Vatra Moldoviței (German: Watra): 0.25%
  • Cârlibaba (German: Ludwigsdorf/Mariensee): 5.06%
  • Solca (German: Solka): 0.63%
  • Siret (German: Sereth): 0.42%
  • Vatra Dornei (German: Dorna-Watra): 0.23%

Organisations
Flag of the Bukovina Germans

The political representation of the Bukovina Germans (and of all other German-speaking groups in contemporary Romania) is the DFDR/FDGR (German: Demokratisches Forum der Deutschen in Rumänien, Romanian: Forumul Democrat al Germanilor din România) which has a local branch operating in Suceava County with headquarters in the city of Suceava (German: Suczawa).[53] The regional president of FDGR/DFDR Bucovina/Buchenland is Josef-Otto Exner, who is also in charge of the ACI Bukowina Stiftung, a cultural foundation aiming to enhance ties between Romania and Germany.[54]

After World War II, the Bukovina Germans who settled in West Germany founded the Landsmannschaft der Buchenlanddeutschen im Bundesrepublik Deutschland (Homeland Association of the Bukovina Germans in the Federal Republic of Germany). Others, who decided to settle in Austria, founded the Landsmannschaft der Buchenlanddeutschen in Österreich (Homeland Association of the Bukovina Germans in the Federal Republic of Austria).[55]

Notable people

See also

References
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