Germans of
Hungary
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Germans_of_Hungary |
Germans of Hungary (German:
Ungarndeutsche, Hungarian:
Magyarországi németek)
are the German-speaking
minority of Hungary
commonly called the Danube
Swabians (German: Donauschwaben). Danube Swabian is a
collective term for a number of German ethnic groups who lived
in the former Kingdom
of Hungary (today's Hungary, Romania,
and several former Yugoslav
republics). Hungary 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 Hungary Germans were expelled
from the region between 1946 and 1948, and many now live in Germany
or Austria,
but also in Brazil,
the United
States and Canada.
However, many are still dispersed within the country of Hungary.
History
The immigration of German-speaking peoples into Hungary began
in approximately 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.
Three waves of German migration can be distinguished in
Hungary before the 20th century. The first two waves of settlers
arrived to the Hungarian Kingdom in the Middle Ages (11th and
13th centuries) and formed the core of the citizens of the few
towns in Upper
Hungary and in Southern Transylvania
(Transylvanian
Saxons, "Siebenbürger Sachsen").[1]
The third, largest wave of German-speaking immigrants into
Hungary occurred due to a deliberate settlement policy of the Habsburg
government after the expulsion of the Ottoman
Empire from Hungarian territory. Between 1711 and 1780,
German-speaking settlers from Southern
Germany, Austria, and Saxony
immigrated to the regions of Southwest Hungary, Buda,
Banat
and Szatmár
County. 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 mean toward this end, the German
language was slowly replaced with the Hungarian
language.
By 1918, at the onset of World
War I, almost 2 million Danube Swabians and other
German-speaking peoples lived in what is now present-day
Hungary, Romania, Croatia, Slovakia 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. The number of Germans in the Hungarian kingdom was
more than halved by the Treaty
of Trianon in 1920, as the kingdom was forced to make large
cessions of its territory to neighboring countries.
In 1924, under the leadership of Jakob Bleyer, the Hungarian
Germans' Peoples' Preservation Society (German: Ungarnländische
Deutsche Volksbildungsverein) was formed to combat the
forced dominance of the Hungarian language in schools and
government.[citation
needed] However, the Hungarian government
proceeded with its Magyarization programs. In this situation,
the German-speaking community of Hungary looked for foreign
intervention in its language predicament.[citation
needed] 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.[citation
needed] 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.[2]
After the end of World War II, the German-speaking community
in Hungary was seen as a scapegoat
by Communists. The advancing Red Army, referring to
"security reasons", deported about 600,000 civilians
and prisoners of war from Hungary, of whom 40-65,000 were
Germans.[1]
On top of this, a great number of Germans, mostly members of
Nazi organisations, who felt threatened by the prospect of being
deported to Siberia, fled from Hungary as well (approx.
60-70,000).[1]
Many Germans 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 main factor that brought the expulsion of Germans from
Hungary into focus during the Potsdam
Agreement negotiations was the Czechoslovakian proposal of
expelling the Hungarian-speaking population from Slovakia
together with the Germans of the Sudetenland.[1]
Eduard
Benes demanded the expulsion of Hungarians alongside Germans
from Czechoslovakian territory already in 1943 supported by the
Soviet Union.[1]
(He originally planned to expel 600,000 Hungarians, around 90%
of the total Hungarian population at that time.[1])
Benes’ plan was not supported by the United States or Great
Britain.[1]
Due to the diplomatic pressure from the Soviet Union the treaty
imposed the expulsion of Germans on Hungary.[1]
In Hungary, the Potsdam decision was the starting point of
the expulsion process, whereas for Poland and Czechoslovakia the
Allied Powers’ decision gave official recognition to the
ethnic cleansing that had already been carried out.[1]
Moreover, Hungary, unlike other countries, had never demanded a
total expulsion of her Germans and did not start to expel the
German speaking population after the end of the war.[1]
The Hungarian Government rejected the idea of collective
responsibility, for as long as it could.[1]
The expulsion of Germans from Hungary was opposed by both the government
and the population of Hungary.[1]
The expulsion of German-speaking
people from Hungary began in 1946 in Budapest and continued
until 1948. The Hungarian government was forced to take action
by the occupying
Soviet
forces. All of their objections were rejected by the US and UK
governments.
The Hungarian Parliament decided in the summer of 1945 that
the German-speaking population must be expelled from Hungary,
and they passed laws forming the framework of such a movement on
December 22, 1945. They took effect under 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.
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