The Satu Mare Swabians or Sathmar Swabians (German: Sathmarer Schwaben) are a German ethnic group in the

Satu Mare Satu Mare (; ; ; or ) is a city with a population of 102,400 (2011). It is the capital of Satu Mare County, Romania, as well as the centre of the Satu Mare metropolitan area. It lies in the region of Maramureș, broadly part of Transylvania ...

() region of

Romania Romania is a country located at the crossroads of Central Europe, Central, Eastern Europe, Eastern and Southeast Europe. It borders Ukraine to the north and east, Hungary to the west, Serbia to the southwest, Bulgaria to the south, Moldova to ...

.Monica Barcan, Adalbert Millitz, ''The German Nationality in Romania'' (1978), page 42: "The Satu Mare Swabians are true Swabians, meaning that their place of origin is solely

Württemberg Württemberg ( ; ) is a historical German territory roughly corresponding to the cultural and linguistic region of Swabia. The main town of the region is Stuttgart. Together with Baden and Province of Hohenzollern, Hohenzollern, two other histo ...

(today part of

Baden-Württemberg Baden-Württemberg ( ; ), commonly shortened to BW or BaWü, is a states of Germany, German state () in Southwest Germany, east of the Rhine, which forms the southern part of Germany's western border with France. With more than 11.07 million i ...

, Germany). They were colonized between 1712 and 1815. Their most important settlements are Satu Mare () and Petrești () in northwestern Romania." Romanian Germans, they are one of the various

Danube Swabian The Danube Swabians ( ) is a collective term for the ethnic German-speaking population who lived in the Kingdom of Hungary in east-central Europe, especially in the Danube River valley, first in the 12th century, and in greater numbers in the 17 ...

() subgroups that are actually

Swabia Swabia ; , colloquially ''Schwabenland'' or ''Ländle''; archaic English also Suabia or Svebia is a cultural, historic and linguistic region in southwestern Germany. The name is ultimately derived from the medieval Duchy of Swabia, one of ...

n in heritage, and their dialect, Sathmar Swabian, is similar to the other varieties of the

Swabian German Swabian ( ) is one of the dialect groups of Upper German, sometimes one of the dialect groups of Alemannic German (in the broad sense), that belong to the High German dialect continuum. It is mainly spoken in Swabia, which is located in central ...

dialect. Most were originally farmers in Upper Swabia who migrated to

Partium Partium (from Latin '' partium'', the genitive plural of '' pars'' "part, portion") or ''Részek'' (in Hungarian) was a historical and geographical region in the Kingdom of Hungary during the early modern and modern periods. It consisted of the ...

(at the time

Hungary Hungary is a landlocked country in Central Europe. Spanning much of the Pannonian Basin, Carpathian Basin, it is bordered by Slovakia to the north, Ukraine to the northeast, Romania to the east and southeast, Serbia to the south, Croatia and ...

, now Romania) in the 18th century, as part of a widespread eastward movement of German workers and settlers. Their principal settlements were

Carei Carei (; , ; /, , ) is a municipiu, city in Satu Mare County, northwestern Romania, near the border with Hungary. The city administers one village, Ianculești (). Geography The municipality of Carei is situated in the north-west of Romania, aw ...

, Petrești, and Foieni () and they also settled in

Urziceni Urziceni () is a municipiu, city in Ialomița County, Muntenia, Romania, located around north-east of Bucharest. Geography The city is situated at the western edge of the Bărăgan Plain, on the banks of the Ialomița (river), Ialomița River ...

(),

Căpleni Căpleni (, Hungarian pronunciation: ; ) is a commune of 4,349 inhabitants in Satu Mare County, Romania along the border with Hungary. It is composed of a single village, Căpleni, and also included the village of Cămin until 2002, when it was ...

(), Tiream (),

Beltiug Beltiug (; or ''Béltek'') is a commune of 3,228 inhabitants situated in Satu Mare County, Transylvania, Romania. It lies on the banks of the Crasna River south of Ardud, 35 km south of the county seat, Satu Mare, along the main road E ...

(), Ciumești (), and

Ardud Ardud (, Hungarian pronunciation: ; ) is a town situated in Satu Mare County, Transylvania, Romania. It administers five villages: Ardud-Vii (), Baba Novac (), Gerăușa (), Mădăras (), and Sărătura (). History The town has a complex history ...

(). After

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

, many evacuated, migrated, or were expelled to what became

West Germany West Germany was the common English name for the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG) from its formation on 23 May 1949 until German reunification, its reunification with East Germany on 3 October 1990. It is sometimes known as the Bonn Republi ...

.Jacob Steigerwald, ''Tracing Romania's heterogeneous German minority from its origins to the Diaspora'' (1985), page 14: "Since the final stages of WWII, Romania has not been the only country where substantial groups of Sathmar Swabians can be found. For over thirty-five years now, there has been a growing community of Sathmar Swabians in West Germany also." Those who remain in Romania, along with other German-speaking groups in this country, are politically represented by the FDGR/DFDR (

Democratic Forum of Germans in Romania The Democratic Forum of Germans in Romania (, DFDR; , FDGR; in short or ) is a political party (legally recognized as an association of public utility according to the governmental decision HG 599 as per 4 June 2008) organised on ethnic criteria ...

); in Germany, the Landsmannschaft der Sathmarer Schwaben in Deutschland (Territorial Association of Sathmar Swabians in Germany) represents and assists them. Many Danube Swabians retain their cultural & ethnic heritage such as Klaus Iohannis the former Romanian President who served 2 terms & many other families who never took part in the forced Magyarization. A form of ethnic identity cleansing to that the vast majority of Germans rejected.

History

The Sathmar Swabians' ancestors stem from

Upper Swabia Upper Swabia ( or ) is a region in Germany in the federal states of Baden-Württemberg and Bavaria.''Brockhaus Enzyklopädie.'' 19. Auflage. Band 16, 1991, p. 72. The name refers to the area between the Swabian Jura, Lake Con ...

() (situated in southern

area), present-day Germany when the first waves of agricultural colonists arrived in north-western and northern Transylvania during the 18th century, during the end of the

Modern Age The modern era or the modern period is considered the current historical period of human history. It was originally applied to the history of Europe and Western history for events that came after the Middle Ages, often from around the year 1500 ...

. Between 1712 and 1815, Count

Alexander Károlyi Alexander () is a male name of Greek origin. The most prominent bearer of the name is Alexander the Great, the king of the Ancient Greek kingdom of Macedonia who created one of the largest empires in ancient history. Variants listed here are A ...

and his descendants recruited colonists from the Kingdom of Württemberg. Many emigrants came from the present-day districts of

Ravensburg Ravensburg ( or ; Swabian: ''Raveschburg'') is a city in Upper Swabia in Southern Germany, capital of the district of Ravensburg, Baden-Württemberg. Ravensburg was first mentioned in 1088. In the Middle Ages, it was an Imperial Free City and ...

and Biberach.

References

{{Authority control Hungarian-German people Danube-Swabian people 18th century in Transylvania Maramureș Ethnic groups in Transylvania Ethnic German groups in Romania

History

Further reading

References