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The
Germans of Hungary
by
Dr. Anton Schreiner
Introduction
by Hans Kopp
hans_kopp@hotmail.com
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Dr.
Anton Schreiner - Author
Ph.D. Professor (Emeritus)
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Foreword
By
Hans Kopp
In
his “New concise review; Documented International Causes of WWI”
Anton Schreiner, a Ph.D. Professor (Emeritus), at the North Carolina
State University, Raleigh, North Carolina, cites 4 root causes which
were anti German by design. As first root cause he sees; “The secret
agreement between
France
and
Spain
in 1904 signed in
London
with approval by
England
to conquer and divide the mineral-rich country
Morocco
. This was a major provocation of
Germany
, since
Germany
had major commercial trade agreements with
Morocco
. As second root cause he cites the secret meeting of French and
English military talks in 1906. As a third cause he sees joint secret
military talks in 1906 between Belgian and British although
Belgium
was suppose to be legally neutral. As fourth reason he mentioned
falsified highly inflated German armament numbers presented to the
British cabinet and Parliament by Mr. Mulliner. In brief these factors
counted heavily in initiating the move toward WWI.
Anton Schreiner also notes; “a full military mobilization by
a nation was viewed as its final act and signal of its imminent
declaration of war.” The chronological order of mobilization took
place in the following order;”
Serbia
,
Russia
,
Austria-Hungary
,
France
and
Germany
. At the 1919
Versailles
treaty the allied side was bullied by
France
’s Clemenceau, stating that the Central Powers Germany and
Austria-Hungary
sole prolocutors of t he war, although studies after 1919 revealed
that WWI was caused equally by both sides. Anton Schreiner used public
documentations as resources for his research.
After
the devastating defeat of World War I and the humiliating terms the German
and Austria-Hungary Empires had to except at
the peace treaty at
Versailles
,
Germany
’s intellectuals responded to the crisis in the following way. They
tried to make sense of what had happened and questioned what had gone
wrong both internally and externally.
***
The German identity
During the
1920’s the German identity gained momentum. The concept that Germans
are one people no matter where they live became more and more aware
now and was central to many newly formed organizations. The slow
moving often-encouraged self-awareness of a joint German identity
among all Germans seemed to be the result of the unfair treaties
handed to the Germans in
Versailles
which affected the Germans in all three countries. Some of them did
live fife or more generation removed from
Germany
, many of them now living abroad like
Poland
,
Czechoslovakia
and
Russia
, after the truncation of both empires which placed millions of
Germans under foreign governments. Although according to the treaty;
equal treatment was to be guaranteed to their minorities by these
nations or new nations, it was a mere myth. The populations born to
German parents were by no means treated equally by the countries they
were now subjects off.
Many
institutions in Germany raised public awareness regarding Germans now
living or were born abroad. Although, they had to think of these
Germans as foreign subjects but they also saw them as fellow citizens
who, because of their unfair treatments and sacrifices, were entitled
to special privileges from
Germany
. This line of reasoning was the hope that maybe the borders of
Germany
could be expanded eastward again, which would make up for the land
lost by the treaties. For example; during an election to determine if
Silesia
should stay with
Germany
. Despite 60% of the population voted in favor staying with
Germany
, the allied nations nullified the election and annexed
Silesia
to
Poland
.
In the volatile
political climate of the Weimar Republic, Germans tried to evaluate
their standing in Europe, deal with the humiliation of Versailles, and
regain some of Germany's former power and the power of German
nationality groups such as the Donauschwaben in the Kingdom of
Yugoslavia, who voted for an autonomy of the Batschka and Western
Banat, today’s Vojvodina which was also denied.
From the
Austrian half of the late Austrian Empire,
Yugoslavia
inherited
Slovenia
and
Dalmatia
. From the Hungarian half
Yugoslavia
inherited the former subkingdom of Croatia-Slavonia, the explicitly
Hungarian districts of the Batschka and Western Banat and from the
joint Austro-Hungarian administration, the
province
of
Bosnia-Herzegovina
.
Macedonia
and the Sanjak of Novibazar had been part of the
Ottoman
Imperial
Territories
until the Balkan Wars of 1912 and 1913.
***
The Ungarländischen Deutschen
What
effect did this have on the Ungarländischen Deutschen
(German-Hungarians) we refer to now as Donauschwaben, whose settlement
regions were now divided among Hungary, Romania and Yugoslavia? For
our discussion we concentrate ourselves primarily on the historic
evolution of the Donauschwaben in
Yugoslavia
although affected were all Germans in the former
Hungary
.
Ethnic
conflicts became widespread in the new Kingdom of
Yugoslavia
, but by the eve of World War II ethnic differences still remained
unrecognized. The German minority in the
Kingdom
of
Yugoslavia
is important for our discussion, because of the Donauschwaben
who were expelled during the postwar years of World War II. Today
there are less than 5,000 Donauschwaben of the former citizens of the
Kingdom
of
Yugoslavian
living in what is now called
Vojvodina
,
Serbia
which amounts to less than 1% of the 550,000.
With 1/3 of their population, the Donauschwaben had the
highest civilian casualty rate of any German Volksgroup
and as such are seen as victims, who bore the brunt of the Serbian
hatred and their unjust retaliation against their innocent citizens,
the helpless Donauschwaben of whom can be said, were to the largest
percentage loyal to the Kingdom and not involved in the war. Their
involvement was not as volunteers, as Tito claims, but by force as
history has clearly proven after the war by historians. Therefore
Tito’s history writers have written a distorted history which is now
is questioned by many scholars and young Serbian historians and is
seen in total “different” by them now.
War crimes do happen during the war,
however the retaliatory crimes against the Donauschwaben during the
post war time of 1944-1948 (Note; the war had ended in Yugoslavia in
November of 1944 when the Russians entered Yugoslavia) and should be
seen as such. This makes these crimes punishable under the law, as
crimes committed during peace time and should make the
Yugoslavia
government under Tito liable for damages on these innocent citizens
within that country.
We
also need to note that some thirty million Europeans were forcibly
resettled which included the German population in the German regions
East of the Oder-Neisse Line annexed to Poland and the Polish
population which lost the eastern part of Poland to Russia and was
resettled on German soil east of the Oder-Neisse Line.
The demise of the Donauschwaben on
the events surrounding the war itself has been the focal point for
several ethnic German studies. The way in which scholars studied the
ethnic German population in southeastern Europe, did not necessarily
reflect how the German minorities viewed themselves in their homes,
their ancestors settled centuries ago while the territories were part
of
Hungary
.
In the case of Donauschwaben it was more
than 250 years ago, for the Gottscheer’s it was 600 years ago, the
Transylvanian Saxons 800 years ago and in the case of
Lower Styrians
even longer. The Donauschwaben coexisted among Hungarians, Romanians,
Croats, Slovenians and Serbs and other minorities in the former
country of
Austria-Hungary
and after WWI in
Hungary
,
Romania
and newly formed
Kingdom
of
Yugoslavia
as friends and neighbors. Many Germans actually took pride in the fact
that they were able to coexist as an integral part with other cultures
like they did for centuries, but still maintained their own language,
cultural and social mores as the other nationalities did who lived
among them.
In the case of
the Donauschwaben, but according to the Communist Government of
Yugoslavia, they committed terrible crimes; one being the formation of
the Schwäbisch-Deutsche Kulturbund, a non political union, which was
founded in 1920 for the purpose to assist the Donauschwaben
economically, as well as, for their costumes, social mores and
cultural unity. The Kulturbund was active for four years and had
55,000 members in 128 villages in the
Western Banat
, Batschka and Syrmia prior to being declared illegal in 1924.
Although their
Motto was; “Staatstreu und
Volkstreu” which means; “Faithful
to their Country and Faithful to their People” in which they
faithfully stood firm, it did not seem to matter to the King’s
government. Again the Ethnic Germans were without representation and
could no longer assist their people. The other reason was; that the
same year in 1924 Dr. Ludwig Kremling and Dr. Stefan Kraft founded the
Deutsche Partei (German Party) which became illegal in 1929. In
addition to these struggles for their minority rights, the region
experienced an economic crisis in the early 1930’s. Thus the quality
of life deteriorated for many Donauschwaben to the brink of poverty.
However, it
would now be the Donauschwaben who entered an agreement with the
Weimar
Republic
, which provided the Donauschwaben with the latest state of the art in
agricultural tilling, harvesting equipment and machinery. They also
were instructed in “Kunstdünger” fertilizing techniques for them
to produce more and better crops. While the Donauschwaben in return
exported grain, hemp among other farm products to
Germany
, with which they not only paid for their depths but came out of the
depression first in
Europe
. With their high productions of farm product the Donauschwaben
minority of 4% in
Yugoslavia
, fed the Yugoslavian Nation and spurred the Nations export. In
addition the Apatin shipbuilding companies produced 20% of the gross
tonnage of
Yugoslavia
’s shipbuilding.
The Germans in
Yugoslavia
had provided for the education of their children with their own
capital, which was generally common among a German Volksgroup, but in
1922 all schools were nationalized and the Donauschwaben thus lost
control over the education of their children. This resulted in a huge
educational problem for the Germans, as most of them could not study
for higher educations in Serbian schools, because of the language
differences, thus forcing young German students to go to
Germany
and
Austria
to study, where they now would be exposed to the National Socialistic
Movement of the time.
After the
German Reich and the
Yugoslav
Kingdom
had improved their relations in the mid 1930s, political conditions
improved for the German minority in
Yugoslavia
. In 1931 a compromise was reached regarding German education and the
government allowed schools which had at least 30 German speaking
students to teach German in school. However, it was too late to quiet
the discontent among the younger generation and those who did not have
30 German students in their classes.
The “Erneuerer” (Renewers)
By the mid
1930’s the German Volksgroup experienced an internal crisis, the
younger generation, which came to be known as the; “Erneuerer” (Renewers),
were looking for allegiance with the Reich. The older generations had
been raised under the Austro-Hungarian Empire and saw a political
allegiance with
Germany
as dangerous. By 1938 this split made unified political thinking
impossible. The two factions attempted reconciliation but the rift
widened instead and their leader faced the impossible task to serve
their people, their country and the German Reich.
The
churches resisted the National Socialistic Movement and could not be
reconciled with their theology. Pastors held sermons in which they
denounced race hatred as anti-Christian. Catholics were frequently the
target and consequently some of them were particularly outspoken. Adam
Berenz, a Catholic clergyman, published the newspaper; “Die Donau”
(the
Danube
) in Apatin from 1934 until its publication was halted by the
Hungarian government in 1944. This was extremely courageous and
perhaps had a lot to do why so many of our people followed Berenz and
opposed the war, or refused to serve in the military. This is one of
the main reasons why many Donauschwaben did not flee with the German
Army in front of the Red Army, as they were convinced having done
nothing wrong to justify leaving their homes, their livelihood their
ancestor had provided them with, during the past 250 to 300 years.
“Camps with Special Status”
The Donauschwaben now met the full brunt of the Russian advances and
especially the Partisans hatred. Our men and women in their
prime were deported to
Russia
and other able bodies into forced labor camps in Communist Yugoslavia.
In addition the very young and the very old were incarcerated into
camps Tito so called; “Camps with Special Status”, where people
were taken to be starved to death. More then 80,000 of the 240,000
Donauschwaben exposed to the Tito Partisans, perished a cruel death
due to starvation followed by malnutrition, which in turn causing
severe illness and disease such as typhoid, malaria and many others.
Physical abuses, murder or pleasure butchering in the most inhuman way
were committed by the Serbs, often for their amusement. Many of our
people were tortured; women were raped, people were burring alive when
collapsing from excessive loads of work, limps were severed or bellies
opened while still alive, before death would relieve them from their
pain.
During
this decade, Berenz wrote over eighty articles against
race-ideological propaganda and the activities of the “Erneurer” (Renewers)
who were aligned with the National Socialistic Movement. The
literature of resistance is thus part of the historiography and proves
that the majority of the
Donauschwaben did not favor the war, nor were they affiliated with
National Socialists, but instead were forced into it. In other
words they had no say on their own behave justifying
Yugoslavia
’s claim that they betrayed their own country.
Now it
was quite clear, that the unfair treatment of the Donauschwaben by the
Serbs after WWI, closing their schools and force their children who
wanted a higher education to attend schools in Germany and Austria,
expropriating their lands which they had purchased legally prior to
the agrarian reform of Alexander, not permitting to enjoy their
minority rights as granted by the treaty of Trianon, all of these
facts should be just cause of objection by the Donauschwaben toward
the Kingdom of Yugoslavian they were subjects off since 1918.
These
facts can not be stressed enough and give us the satisfaction of being
able to say to our children we had no part in WWII nor did we have any
voice politically to determine the fate of our future. So, why was the “Volksgroup” of the
Donauschwaben collectively
accused of war crimes by Tito, by the Allied Nations? The
suffering placed upon the Donauschwaben must be condemned and
therefore be considered as heinous crimes against innocent human
beings, the Donauschwaben, who had to bear the brunt of the Serbian
hatred while the rest of the world celebrated peace, during the post
war years of WWII.
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