The Germans of Romania (; ; ) represent one of the most significant historical ethnic minorities of Romania from the modern period onwards.
Throughout the interwar period, the total number of ethnic Germans in the country amounted to as many as 800,000 (according to some sources and estimates dating to 1939, just on the verge of World War II),Dr. Gerhard Reichning, Die deutschen Vertriebenen in Zahlen, Teil 1, Bonn 1995, Page 17Die deutschen Vertreibungsverluste. Bevölkerungsbilanzen für die deutschen Vertreibungsgebiete 1939/50. Herausgeber: Statistisches Bundesamt – Wiesbaden. - Stuttgart: Kohlhammer Verlag, 1958 Page 46 a figure which has subsequently drastically fallen to 36,000 (according to the 2011 census) and dropped even more to 22,900 (as per the 2021 Romanian census, postponed one year because of the COVID-19 pandemic and conducted in 2022).
Overview and classification of Romanian-Germans
The Germans of Romania (or Romanian-Germans) are not a single, unitary, homogeneous group, but rather a series of various regional sub-groups, each with their different culture, traditions, folklore, dialect or dialects, and history.
This claim stems from the fact that various German-speaking populations had previously arrived in the territory of present-day Romania in different waves or stages of settlement, initially starting with the High Middle Ages, firstly to southern and northeastern Transylvania, Kingdom of Hungary (some of them even crossing the outer Carpathians to neighbouring Moldavia and Wallachia), then subsequently during the Modern Age in other Habsburg-ruled lands (such as Bukovina, at the time part of Cisleithania, or the Banat).
Subsequently, the Romanian Old Kingdom (, ) was also colonized by Germans, firstly in Dobruja and then gradually in other areas of Moldavia and Wallachia.
Therefore, given their rather complex geographic background and the fact that major border changes took place in the region throughout history (after World War I, Romania expanded its territory from the pre-war to ), the Germans of Romania are generally divided into the following independent sub-groups in an attempt to better understand their language, culture, customs, and history:
Transylvanian Saxons – the largest and oldest German community in the territory of modern-day Romania (often simply equated with all Romanian-Germans); Transylvanian Landlers – expelled Protestants (Evangelical Lutherans) from the region of Salzkammergut, contemporary Austria to southern Transylvania during the 18th century; Danube Swabian () sub-groups in Romania Most Banat Swabians, including the Banat Highland Germans (); The Sathmar Swabians in their entiretyMonica Barcan, Adalbert Millitz, The German Nationality in Romania (1978), page 42: "The Satu Mare Swabians are true Swabians, their place of origin being Württemberg, in the land of Baden-Württemberg. They were colonized between 1712 and 1815. Their most important settlements are Satu Mare () and Petrești () in northwestern Romania." Bukovina Germans – once with a sizable or overwhelming demographic presence in all urban centres from the historical region of Bukovina (more specifically Suceava, Gura Humorului, Siret, Rădăuți, Vatra Dornei, and Câmpulung Moldovenesc) or some rural areas of the nowadays Suceava County in northeastern Romania; equally indigenous to Cernăuți and contemporary Chernivtsi province in western Ukraine between the years 1780–1940. Moreover, even to this date, Suceava County is one of the Romanian counties with some of the most significant amount of ethnic Germans in the country; Zipser Germans, mostly from Maramureş (including Borșa and Vişeu), but also with a smaller presence in southern and south-western Bukovina beginning in the 18th century;Oskar Hadbawnik, Die Zipser in der Bukowina (1968) discusses the Zipserfest held in Jakobeny in 1936 to commemorate 150 years since the Zipsers migrated to Jakobeny in 1786.І. Я. Яцюк, Тернопільський національний педагогічний університет ім. Володимира Гнатюка, Наукові записки. Серія "Філологічна", УДК 81'282.4:811.112.2(477): Lexikalische Besonderheiten Deutscher Dialekte in Galizien- und der Bukowina: "Die Siedler in den ursprünglichen Bergwerksgemeinden im Südwesten der Bukowina sprachen Zipserisch und zwar Gründlerisch, wie es in der Unterzips gesprochen wurde. Dabei wurde [v] im Anlaut wie [b] ausgesprochen: Werke – berka, weh – be, Schwester – schbesta. Anlautendes [b] wurde zu [p]: Brot – prot, Brücke – prik." Regat Germans (including the Dobrujan Germans); Bessarabia Germans, Romanian citizens for the period 1918–1940, indigenous to Budjak in southern Bessarabia; Black Sea Germans, for a brief period of time during World War II, namely from 1941 to 1944, indigenous to the former Transnistria Governorate and registered in the 1941 Romanian census; Alsatians as well as small groups of Walsers vintners who also settled in Banat from Alsace, Lorraine, and Switzerland at the invitation of the Austro-Hungarian Empire in the 19th century (though they were not only Alemannic-speaking Swiss but also French and Italian); Subsequently, these settlers came to be known as 'Français du Banat' (i.e. 'Banat French').
History
Settlement during the High Middle Ages
While an ancient Germanic presence on the territory of present-day Romania can be traced back to late antiquity and is represented by such migratory peoples as the Buri, Vandals, Goths (more specifically Visigoths), or the Gepids, the first waves of ethnic Germans on the territory of modern Romania came during the High Middle Ages, firstly to Transylvania (then part of the Kingdom of Hungary) and then to the neighbouring and emerging medieval principalities of Moldavia and Wallachia. The first major German group to arrive and settle in what is now Romania were the Transylvanian Saxons (, , ), partly under the protection of the Teutonic Knights, who came to Transylvania (, meaning seven cities/citadels, i.e. from the seven fortified medieval cities/citadels which they founded) at the request of Hungarian King Géza II (, , ) during the late 12th century. The main tasks of these settlers was to develop the areas of Transylvania where they settled as well as to defend them, and, implicitly, the rest of the Kingdom of Hungary, from the invading incursions of the migratory Asian peoples such as the Cumans, the Pechenegs, or, ultimately, the Mongols and then the Tatars. Later on, the Transylvanian Saxons further fortified both their rural and urban settlements against the invading Ottoman Empire.
Slowly but steadily, the Saxon colonists managed to build solid and prosperous communities in the Carpathian Basin, more specifically in south-eastern, southern, and north-eastern Transylvania. These Transylvanian Saxons are very tied with their initial origin which stems from Western Europe, more specifically from Luxembourg and the Rhine-Moselle river valley. Their dialect, Transylvanian Saxon, is a strong testimony to this as it reflects many similarities with Luxembourgish.
Subsequently, as the Teutonic Knights left Transylvania (forced by the Hungarian rulership), the Transylvanian Saxon colonists remained and were given more rights through local autonomies, according to Diploma Andreanum (, ) issued by Andrew II of Hungary in the early 13th century. Their autonomous lands were later known as the 'Royal Lands' or 'Saxon Lands'.
In these lands, they lived together with the Romanian ethnic majority as well as with the Hungarians (who formed a significant minority). Eventually, they also sporadically rebelled against the Hungarian rulership, most notably in the proximity of Rupea (, Transylvanian Saxon: Räppes) led by graf () Henning of Petersdorf/Petrești in 1324.
Across the Carpathians, the Saxons settled along with the Romanians in Wallachia and Moldavia and contributed to the establishment of the first major urban centres and capitals of these two Romanian medieval principalities. Noteworthy towns and medieval capitals co-founded by Saxons include Baia in present-day Suceava County or Târgu Neamț () in Neamț County as well as Târgoviște () in Dâmbovița County or Câmpulung Muscel () in Argeș County. Here they brought urbanisation and German laws as they did in Suceava as well, in which the local administration had operated for some time under the Magdeburg law, just like Siret (), Baia, or Neamț. They even briefly served as Schultheiß (), or the equivalent of the administrative title of medieval mayor in these communities. Nonetheless, along with the passing of time, the Saxons were assimilated in the larger Romanian communities of Romanians, both of the Wallchians and Moldavians.
Back in Transylvania, they managed to thoroughly fortify their villages and towns. In bygone times, there used to be as many as 300 (or approximately 300) villages with fortified churches built by the Transylvanian Saxons. Now their number is close to half, but among these there are many very well preserved ones which are both UNESCO-recognized (as World Heritage Sites) and important tourist destinations in Romania.
Settlement during the Modern Age
During the Modern Age, other groups of Germans commenced to arrive and settle parts of contemporary Romania, more specifically in the historical regions of Bukovina, Banat, and once more in Transylvania. As the Kingdom of Hungary became weakened by the Ottoman wars and the Habsburgs were on the rise and continuously expanding their domains eastward, larger groups of Bukovina Germans, Banat Swabians, and Zipser Germans settled the aforementioned Romanian historical regions, mainly for economic and socio-demographic reasons. In Transylvania, other groups of Transylvanian Saxons settled there along with expelled Protestants from Salzkammergut, Austria during Empress Maria Theresa's reign to Sibiu region, Evangelical Lutheran settlers henceforth known as Transylvanian Landlers or, simply, landlers.
At the same time, during the 19th century, in the Romanian Old Kingdom (, ), concomitantly with the crowing of King Carol I, a large influx of German settlers came to Muntenia and Oltenia. These Germans are known as Regat Germans. In addition, Germans also settled in Dobruja and this group is known as Dobrujan Germans.
At around the same time, in Bessarabia, then part of the Russian Empire, larger numbers of German settlers established colonies in preponderantly in Budjak (), a constituent historical region of Bessarabia situated in its south towards the Danube's end to the Black Sea. These settlers were requested by the then imperial Russian authorities in order to develop the agriculture of the land and boost the region's economy as well as to instill urbanisation.
As the Modern Age came to an end, gradually so did the privileged class status of the Saxons in Transylvania which eventually drew them closer to Romania and voting the declaration of union of Transylvania with the Kingdom of Romania in the wake of World War I in 1918. Other groups of Germans from other previously Austrian-ruled Romanian historical regions (and the previously Russian-ruled historical region of Bessarabia) also voted for the union of their respective regions with the Kingdom of Romania from a wide variety of reasons. One of the most important reason was that the Romanian monarchy was also German in origin, being a branch of the House of Hohenzollern from the principality of Hohenzollern-Sigmaringen in Swabia.
Recent history (20th century onwards)