A trobriandi krikettől... - Magyar Elektronikus Könyvtár ...

The sample
Up to now more than 150 in-depth interviews have been made in several German villages
around Budapest (Dunabogdány), and in counties Baranya (Somberek, Véménd, Nagynyárád,
Feked), and Tolna (Gyönk), where the most Germans live and in county Komárom-Esztergom
(Csolnok). I have tried to select interviewees from different generations, social and
educational strata. For analyses three generational categories have been made. 419 Age of the
members of the first generation is between approx. 60 to 80 years. Their most important
collective experiences are the internment to Russia and resettlement to Germany after the
Second World War In the memory of the eldest people expulsion of the Germans out of the
homeland, Hungary, and the repressive years following the war are the most vivid sad
experiences. Members of this generation were the last whose ethnic socialization was more or
less continuous. The most important and decisive experience of the second generation, which
members are between approx. 40-60, is the dissolution of the ethnic community traditions and
norms, socialization on Hungarian language and not on the mother tongue, as well as the
increased possibility for mobility. In the life of this generation repression after the Second
World War resulted in a interruption in the continuity of handing down the language, habits,
ethnic norms and customs.
The basic experience of the third generation approx. 20-40 years of age is the total
spiritualization ofthe ethnic borders and as a consequence of their education, Hungarian
language became definitely their mother tongue. For members of the second and third
generation traditions of their forefathers became extern and they had to learn them in dance
groups, music schools, or in folk-song choirs. Members of the second generation, however,
continued on with cultivate their vineyards and making their own red wine, so in their spare
time they work in the. This may be the only internal habit which has survived.
If it was possible within a family, I have interviewed representatives of all generations to
follow up the development and changes of attitudes as well as behavioral patterns playing role
in the formation of the identity construction as well as what they have preserved in their
memory about the traditions of their forefathers. The overall tendency is the decreasing role of
the original ancient mother tongue, and on the contrary, there is an increasing desire to
maintain and handing down their traditional cultural habits, norms and customs. The revival
of cultural traditions gains more and more interest in the oral histories, as well.
In the praxis performances of rites represent the traditions and as such they are the main
stabilizers of the group culture, and constitute important survival strategies of minorities.
Two kinds of history: written and created
According to he written history the first immigrants from German speaking territories arrived
during the reign of Stephen I around 1000 A. D. to Hungary. Immigration of settlers from all
part of Germany and Austria lasted up to the end of the nineteenth century. As a consequence
of this long immigration period and different places of origin, the German minority does not
form a homogenous ethnic unit with a common language, history and culture.
There is no collective memory of the different groups of the Hungarian Germans either, since
they migrated to Hungary in different historical times and from different parts of the Holy
419 Researchers dealing with bilingualism generally divide the respondents in three generational
categories (Gal, 1979; Manherz, 1977).
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