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VISITING
AUTHOR/EDITOR ARTICLE
OCTOBER
2008
The Germans of
Hungary
 
Forwarded From German Cultural Society, St.
Louis
When Nobel Prize winner Enrico Fermi was asked if he
believed in extraterrestrials, he
replied: “They are among us,
but they call themselves
Hungarians.”
This small country is the
size of Indiana yet one of the oldest
European countries, situated in
the middle of the continent in
Central Europe.
Hungarians speak a language
and form a culture unlike any
other in the region. This
distinctiveness has been both a source
of pride and an obstacle for more
than 1100 years.
This is the country
• which boasts one of the world’s most beautiful cities:
Budapest, the “Pearl of the Danube”
• where 2000 year old Roman ruins and 400 year old Turkish
monuments can be found side by side
• where Central Europe’s largest fresh water lake - Balaton
- is located, providing a natural paradise for its visitors
• where hundreds of therapeutic mineral springs gush up
from the depths to offer relief to all who “take the waters”
This is also the country of the Magyars, a Finno-Ugric people,
who originated somewhere in the
Ural mountains, migrated
west and settled in Etelköz, a
region above the Black Sea.
Here, seven Magyar tribes
are believed to have joined forces
with three Kavar tribes to create
the Onogur or “Ten Arrows”
alliance, which is believed to be
the origin of the word Hungary.
Prompted by overpopulation
and the threat of attack, elected
leader Árpád guided the Magyars
further west into the largely
unoccupied Carpathian Basin in
896. This is still celebrated
by Hungarians as “honfoglalás”
- the conquest.
Germans of Hungary
One of the most influential minority groups in Hungary were
the Hungarian Germans (Ungarndeutsche)
. The Hungarian
Germans
are any German-speaking minority group in Hungary
who would be counted among the
Danube Swabians
(Donauschwaben). Danube Swabian is
a collective term for a
number of German ethnic groups who
lived in the former
Kingdom of Hungary, now the
modern-day countries of
Hungary, Romania, and several
former Yugoslav republics.
Hungarian Germans refers to
the descendants of Germans
who immigrated to the Carpathian
Mountains and surrounding
regions, and who are now
minorities in those areas. Many
Hungarian Germans were expelled
from the region between
1946 and 1948, and many now live
in Germany, Austria, South
America, Canada, Australia, and
the United States. However,
many are still dispersed within
the country of Hungary.
The immigration of German-speaking
peoples into modern-day
Hungary began around the year
1000, when knights who
came in the company of Giselle of
Bavaria, the German-born
queen of the first King of
Hungary, Stephen I, entered the
country.
In the Battle of Mohacs in 1526 against the Turks, King Ludwig
of Hungary lost his life.
Erzherzog Ferdinand of the Habsburg
dynasty,
who was married to the sister of King Ludwig, claimed
the Hungarian crown. In Pressburg
on December 17, 1526,
he was proclaimed King of Hungary.
In 1556 he became Kaiser
of the Habsburg Monarchy.
The largest wave of
German-speaking immigrants into
Hungary occurred after the
conquest of Ottoman Empire.
Between 1700 and 1750, German-speaking settlers from
Southern Germany, Austria, and
Saxony immigrated to the
regions of Pannonia, Banat, and Baèka,
which had been
depopulated by the Ottoman wars.
This influx of immigrants
helped to bring economic recovery
and cultural distinction to
these regions.
At the end of the 18th century, the Kingdom of Hungary
contained over one million
German-speaking residents. During
this time, a flourishing
German-speaking culture could be
found in the kingdom, with
German-language literary works,
newspapers, and magazines being
produced. A German
language theater also operated in
the kingdom’s capital,
Budapest.
Throughout the 19th century, a strong German industrial
community developed, with
glass-blowing, foundries, and
masonry being particularly
important. In response to this, the
second half of the century saw the
rise of a strong Hungarian
nationalist political movement,
whose purpose was to retain
German economic power by
assimilating the German-speaking
citizens into Hungarian culture.
As a way to
accomplish this quickly, the
German language was slowly
replaced with the Hungarian
language.
By 1914, at the onset of World War I, 1.5 million Danube
Swabians and other German-speaking
peoples lived in what
is now present-day Hungary,
Romania, and the former
Yugoslav republics. Between 1918
and 1945 several factors
greatly reduced the number of
German-speaking residents in
the kingdom so much that only
thirty percent of the original
German-speaking population was
left after World War II. More
than half of the Germans in the
Hungarian kingdom were lost
with the Treaty of Trianon in
1920, as the kingdom was forced
to give up large areas of its
territory to neighboring countries.
Meanwhile continuing
nationalist pushes under the
Magyarization Plan, to assimilate
German-speaking citizens,
forced a backlash within the
German-speaking community.
In 1924, under the leadership of Jakob Bleyer, the Hungarian
Germans’ Peoples’ Preservation
Society (Der Ungarnländische
Deutsche
Volksbildungsverein) was formed to
combat the forced dominance of the
Hungarian language in
schools and government. However,
the Hungarian government
proceeded with its Magyarization
programs.The Germanspeaking
community
of Hungary looked for foreign intervention
in its language predicament. This
fact was very interesting to
Hitler controlled Germany, and the
German and Hungarian
governments used the status of
German-speaking peoples
within the Hungarian state as a
political bargaining chip.
In 1938 a National Socialist German organization was formed,
The Volksbund der Deutschen in
Ungarn under the leadership
of Franz Anton Basch and it became
the most influential
political organization among the
Hungarian Germans. In 1940
it became the official
representative of the Hungarian Germans
and it was directly controlled
from Germany. The Volksbund
had representatives in the
Hungarian parliament until 1945.
After the end of World War II, the
German-speaking community
in Hungary was seen as a
scapegoat. Many were sent to work
camps in Soviet Russia, and others
were sent back to
Germany, first to the
American-occupied area of Germany,
and later to the Soviet-occupied
area. Overall, approximately
220,000 Germans were expelled from
Hungary. From that
point on, the history of Hungary
Germans focuses on two
points, the fate of Germans who
remained in Hungary, and
the fate of the exiles.
Expulsion
The expulsion of German-speaking people from Hungary
began in 1946 in Budapest and
continued until 1948. It must
be noted that the expulsion of
Germans from Hungary was
opposed by both the government and
the population of
Hungary. The Hungarian government
was forced to take action
by the occupying Soviet forces.
All of their objections were
rejected by the US and British
governments.
In the summer of 1945 the Hungarian Parliament decided the
German-speaking population must be
expelled from Hungary,
and they passed laws forming the
framework of such a
movement on December 22, 1945 with
an executive order
issued January 4, 1946. The
expulsion orders affected anyone
who claimed German nationality or
German as a mother
language in the 1941 Hungarian
census, anyone who was a
member of a German ethnic
organization, former members
of the SS, and anyone who changed
their Hungarianized
surnames back to their German
equivalents.
At first, expelled Hungarian Germans were sent to the
American-occupied section of
Germany, but this was stopped
on June 1, 1946, because the
Americans would not allow
Hungary to pay its war debts by
simply returning seized assets
to the displaced Germans.
Approximately 170,000 Germans
were sent to the American zone of
occupied Germany in this
time period. Another round of
expulsions began in August
1947, but this time the expelled
Germans were sent to the
Soviet-occupied area of Germany.
Many times, Germans were
expelled from Hungary because of
forced evictions from their
properties. This phase of
expulsions was more haphazard and
unplanned, as some villages of
Germans were expelled,
whereas others were left
untouched. Most Germans removed
in this round of expulsions moved
to refugee camps in the
Soviet-controlled German province
of Saxony.
Treatment
in Post-War Hungary
The Germans who remained in Hungary fared even worse.
Their citizenship was
revoked in 1945, and they were then
considered to be stateless. Their
citizenship was reinstated
in 1950, and given personal
identification. However, a difficult
period ensued between 1950 and
1956, when Hungarian
Germans were portrayed as enemies
to the state and had to
work, often for little or no pay,
for kulaks, wealthy farmers who
owned a majority of the land.
Hungarian German men were
still conscripted into the
Hungarian military, but were often
given no weapons and sub-standard
training, as they were
viewed as expendable. Even given
these conditions, the men
were expected to serve a
three-year tour of duty.
Many other inequalities also existed. There were numerous
instances when Hungarian German
students were denied
admission to universities. The
discrimination was so
widespread and pervasive that many
Hungarian Germans
abandoned the country in 1956
during the 1956 Hungarian
Revolution. Many moved to Germany
or to the United States,
Canada, or Australia. Speaking
German in public was widely
disdained, and often verbally
reproached, even into the 1970s.
However, things began to
improve for minority groups,
including the Hungarian Germans,
under a program of
economic liberalization called
Goulash Communism. This
movement, led by the General
Secretary of the Hungarian
Communist Party, János Kádár,
guaranteed certain economic
rights
to minority groups, as well as rights to practice their
own cultures. In 1955, a new
organization, the Association of
Hungarian
Germans (Verband der Ungarndeutschen), was
founded. Its main goals included
the interests of the Hungarian
German ethnic group and the
release of the Hungarian
Germans from Hungarian rule.
Another major focus of the group was the teaching of the
German language in Hungarian
schools. Because of the
government’s position on German
culture in the recent past,
very little German was taught in
schools at the time, and the
group’s organizer feared that
“a mute generation” had been
raised by the Hungarian school
system. The group’s
organizers felt that the Hungarian
German youth had a very
poor command of the German
language, including limited
speech comprehension, which they
found disturbing. The
group met with success in the
1980s, when German gained
status as a minority language,
thus gaining legal standing in
the Hungarian school system. The
number of bilingual schools
has continued to rise. In 2001,
62,105 people declared
themselves
to be Hungarian Germans. Remember, at the
onset of World War I, 1.5 million
Danube Swabians and other
German-speaking peoples lived in
what is now present-day
Hungary, Romania, and the former
Yugoslav republics.
The events which forced the Danube Swabians from their
homeland triggered a heightened
awareness of their unique
ethnic identity. In Austria, there
now exists the Danube
Swabian museum, the Danube Swabian
archives, and the
“Haus der Donauschwaben” at
Salzburg. In Germany, many
cities have active Danube Swabian
organizations, and Danube
Swabian newspapers and other
special publications exist. In
Sindelfingen, the Haus der
Donauschwaben has cultural
exhibits and a research archive.
There is also a genealogical
association which is totally
dedicated to genealogical research
on Danube Swabian families.
Danube Swabian organizations and groups can also be found
around the world in Australia,
Canada, South America, and
the United States. The eventual
result of the emigration of the
Danube Swabians from Hungary,
Romania and Yugoslavia is
the disappearance of their
cultural influence in the region. The
remaining German populations in
Hungary and Romania are
too small to make a cultural
impact. Since so many members
of younger generation have left,
the number of German
children being born continues to
diminish.
Although the emigrants continue to preserve memories of their
cultural heritage, first-hand
knowledge of the traditions will
disappear.
Change is inevitable in all societies, and it is
fortunate that so many
associations have been founded in so
many countries to preserve the
history of the Danube
Swabians, including our own German
Cultural Society.
Researched
and written by
Helga
Thalheimer
If you are interested in reading more about the Hungarian Germans, below
are some of the books and articles
used to research this piece. Others
were included that may simply be
worth reviewing in more depth.
Clark,
Charles Upson. United Romania New York: Arno Press & the New
York
Times, 1971.
Engelmann,
Nikolaus. The Banat Germans Translated by John Michels.
Bismarck,
ND: Univ of Mary Press, 1987.
Frey,
Katherine Stenger. The Danube Swabians: A People with Portable
Roots.
Belleville, Ont., Canada: Mika Publ. Co., 1982.
Kramar,
Zoltan. From the Danube to the Hudson: US Ministerial Dispatches
on
Immigration From the Habsburg Monarchy: 1850-1900. Foreward by
Steven
Bela Vardy. Program in the East European and Slavic Studies
Publication
Number 9. Atlanta: Hungarian Cultural Foundation, 1978.
Koehler,
Eve Eckert. Seven Susannahs: Daughters of the Danube.
Milwaukee:
Danube Swabian Societies of the US and Canada, 1976.
Macartney,
C.A. Hungary: A Short History Edinburgh Univ Press, 1962.
Marczali,
Henry. Hungary in the Eighteenth Century Introductory essay by
Harold
W. V. Temperley. Cambridge: Cambridge Univ Press, 1910; reprint
ed.,
New York: Arno Press and the New York Times, 1971.
Paikert,
Geza C. The Danube Swabians. The Hague: Martinus Nijhoff, 1967.
(Noted
to be the most thorough and well-documented work on the Danube
Swabians.)
Seton-Watson,
Robert William. Treaty Revision and the Hungarian
Frontiers.
London: Eyre and Spottiswood Ltd., 1934.
Spira,
Thomas. German-Hungarian Relations and the Swabian Problem.
Eastern
European Quarterly. New York: Columbia Univ Press, 1977.
Steigerwald,
Jacob. Donauschwäbische Gedankenskizzen aus USA -
Reflections
of Danube Swabians in America. Winona, MN: Translation and
Interpretation
Service, 1983.
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