Bukovina Germans

14th century seal of Baia, evoking the legend of Saint Hubertus, the patron saint of hunters.

Ruins of the medieval Roman Catholic Cathedral situated in Baia (German: Moldenmarkt), Suceava County, north-eastern Romania.

Ethnic Germans known as Transylvanian Saxons (who were mainly craftsmen and merchants stemming from present-day Luxembourg and Rhine-Moselle areas of Western Europe), had sparsely settled in the western mountainous regions of the Principality of Moldavia over the course of the late medieval Ostsiedlung migration (which, in this particular case, took place throughout the 13th and 14th centuries).

These settlers encouraged trade and urban development. Additionally, they founded (and were also briefly in charge under the title of Schultheiß) of some notable medieval settlements such as Baia (German: Stadt Molde or Moldenmarkt), the first capital of the Principality of Moldavia, or Târgu Neamț (German: Niamtz).[11] Subsequently, most of them were gradually assimilated in these local cultures.

The coat of arms of the Duchy of Bukovina conceived by Austrian heraldist Hugo Gerard Ströhl.

Following the Russo-Turkish War, in 1774–75 the Habsburg Monarchy annexed northwestern Moldavia which was predominantly inhabited by Romanians (as many as 85 percent), with smaller numbers of Ukrainians (including Hutsuls and Ruthenians), Armenians, Poles, and Jews.[12]

Since then, the region has been known as Bukovina (German: Bukowina or Buchenland). From 1774 to 1786, the settlement of German craftsmen and farmers in existing villages increased.[13] The settlers included Zipser Germans from the Zips region of Upper Hungary (today mostly Slovakia), Banat Swabians from Banat, and ethnic Germans from Galicia (more specifically Evangelical Lutheran Protestants), but also immigrants from the Rhenish Palatinate, the Baden and Hesse principalities, as well as from impoverished regions of the Bohemian Forest (German: Böhmewald).[14][15]

Thus, four distinct German linguistic groups were represented as follows:

• Austrian High German (Österreichisches Hochdeutsch) was spoken in urban centres like Cernăuți (Czernowitz), Rădăuți (Radautz), Suceava (Suczawa), Gura Humorului (Gura Humora), Câmpulung (Kimpolung), and Siret (Sereth);
• Bohemian-Bavarian German (Deutschböhmisch or Böhmerwäldisch) was spoken by woodsmen in Huta Veche (Althütte), Crăsnișoara Nouă (Neuhütte), Gura Putnei (Karlsberg), Voievodeasa (Fürstenthal), Vadu Negrilesei (Schwarzthal), Poiana Micului (Buchenhain), Dealu Ederii (Lichtenberg), Bori (early colony in Gura Humorului), and Clit (Glitt);[16]
• Palatine Rhine Franconian (Pfälzisch) and Swabian German (Schwäbisch) was spoken in farming villages like Arbore (Arbora), Bădeuți (Deutsch Badeutz), Frătăuții Vechi (Alt Fratautz), Frătăuții Noi (Neu Fratautz), Ilișești (Illischestie), Ițcani (Itzkany), Satu Mare (Deutsch Satulmare) and Tereblestie;[17][18]
• Zipser German (Zipserisch) was spoken by mine workers and their descendants in Cârlibaba (Mariensee or Ludwigsdorf), Iacobeni (Jakobeny), Stulpicani (Stulpikany), and elsewhere.[19]

During the 19th century, the developing German middle class comprised much of the intellectual and political elite of the region; the language of official business and education was predominantly German, particularly among the upper classes. Population growth and a shortage of land led to the establishment of daughter settlements in Galicia, Bessarabia, and Dobruja.

After 1840, a shortage of land caused the decline into poverty of the German rural lower classes; in the late 19th century parts of the German rural population alongside a few Romanians emigrated to the Americas, mainly to the United States (most notably to Ellis and Hays, both located in Kansas) but also to Canada.[20][21][22][23]

Between 1849 and 1851, and from 1863 to 1918, the Duchy of Bukovina became an independent crown land within the Austrian Empire (see also: Cisleithania). However, in comparison to other Austrian crown lands, Bukovina remained an underdeveloped region on the periphery of the realm, primarily supplying raw materials.

The Franz Josephs Universität in Cernăuți (Czernowitz) was founded in 1875, then the easternmost German-speaking university.[24][25] In 1910–11, the Bukovinian Reconciliation (a political agreement between the peoples of Bukovina and their political representatives in the Landtag assembly on the question of autonomous regional administration) took place between the representatives of the nationalities. During the first round of the 20th century, local German-language literature flourished through the writings of Rose Ausländer, Alfred Kittner, Alfred Margul Sperber, or Paul Celan.[26][27][28] Other German writers include mixed Ukrainian-German intellectuals Ludwig Adolf Staufe-Simiginowicz or Olha Kobylianska (remotely related with German poet Zacharias Werner).

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  Cernăuți (German: Czernowitz) town hall, c. 1905
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  Suceava (German: Suczawa) town hall (nowadays administrative palace), early 20th century
• 
  Roman Catholic church in Gura Humorului (German: Gura Humora), early 20th century
• 
  View of Iacobeni (German: Jakobeny), a Zipser German village, early 20th century
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  Bilingual German-Romanian postcard from Vatra Dornei (German: Dorna-Watra), early 20th century
• 
  Former Evangelical Lutheran (now Orthodox) church in Ilișești (German: llischestie)

Map of German minorities in Eastern Europe during the interwar period, also highlighting German settlements in the Kingdom of Romania, including Bukovina.

From 1918 to 1919, following the end of World War I and the dissolution of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, Bukovina became part of the Kingdom of Romania. At the General Congress of Bukovina held on November 28, 1918,[29] the political representatives of the Bukovina Germans voted and supported the union of Bukovina with the Romanian kingdom, alongside the Romanian and Polish representatives.

From 1933 up until 1940, some German societies and organizations opposed the propaganda of the Third Reich and the National Socialist-aligned so-called 'Reformation Movement'. Beginning in 1938 however, due to the poor economic situation and the powerful national socialist propaganda, a pro Third Reich mentality developed within the Bukovina German community. Because of this, many increased their preparedness for evacuation.

Bukovina and Bessarabia Germans arriving in Graz, Austria, in November, 1940, on their way of resettlement to Nazi-occupied Poland.

When Nazi Germany signed the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact with the Soviet Union in 1939 (just before the outbreak of World War II), the fate (unknown to those affected) of the Germans in Bukovina was sealed. In a secret supplementary protocol, it was agreed (among other points) that the northern part of Bukovina would be annexed by the Soviet Union under a territorial re-organization in Central-Eastern Europe, with the German sub-populations therein undergoing compulsory resettlement to other future Nazi-occupied territories. Under this accord, the Soviet Union occupied northern Romania in 1940.

Consequently, the Third Reich resettled nearly the entire German population of Bukovina (about 96,000 ethnic Germans) to, most notably, Nazi-occupied Poland, where the incoming evacuees were frequently compensated with expropriated farms. From 1941 to 1944, Bukovina was entirely Romanian. Additionally, most of the Jewish population (c. 30% of the regional population as a whole) were murdered by the Third Reich in collaboration with fascist Romania under Marshal Ion Antonescu during the Holocaust.

In 1944–45, as the Russian front moved closer, the Bukovina Germans settled in Polish areas (like the remaining German population), fled westward or wherever they could manage. Some remained in East Germany; others went to Austria. In 1945, the 7,500 or so remaining Germans in Bukovina were evacuated to Germany, ending (except for a very feeble number of individuals) a significant German presence in Bukovina, Romania after 1940. During the postwar era, the Bukovina Germans, as other 'homeland refugees', assimilated into the Federal Republic, Austria, or the German Democratic Republic (German: Deutsche Demokratische Republik).[30] Nonetheless, small numbers of ethnic Germans (along with their families) returned to Romania after the resettlement plan failed, most notably the Zipser Germans, but also some Bukovina Germans.[31][32][33][34]