Pearce, Sibylle. The Danube Swabians: settlement, expulsion, and building a new Heimat in post-1945 Germany. Retrieved from https://doi.org/doi:10.7282/t3-cga6-x837
DescriptionThe focus of this essay is the history and the formation of cultural identity of the Danube Swabians, an ethnic German minority which migrated to Southeastern Europe in the 18th century. The Danube Swabians were initially subjects of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, which ruled the respective area until 1919, after which the Danube Swabians were separated among the nation-states of newly independent Hungary, Romania, and Yugoslavia.
This essay examines how the experiences of the Danube Swabians, first as imperial subjects and then later as an ethnic minority, determined their understanding of cultural identity in the face of rising nationalism among other ethnic groups in the region. Furthermore, the essay also highlights how this ethnic group was affected by developments within the German Reich in the interwar years as well as after Hitler’s ascent to power in the 1930s, and how these ties would lastly lead to this group’s violent removal from its settlement area following the end of World War II.
The topic of this essay was inspired by the experiences of the author’s aunt, a Danube Swabian refugee from former Yugoslavia, who escaped the violence with her mother in the 1940s.