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Hungarian Germans – Identity questions: past and present
Ethnologia Balcanica, 2004. 8: 115-127.
Hungary became a full member of the European Union in 2004. After nearly 500 years, and
as a result of the successful referendum of April 12, 2003 has joined Europe again. From the
point of view of this great occasion I shall analyse the circumstances under which the
Hungarian Germans lived, and the situation of those still living in Hungary. In my opinion,
Hungarian Germans form a bridge between the other people in Hungary and Europe and I will
argue that the openness after 1990 has led to a change in the process of identity construction,
the main points, facts, and causes of which I want to discuss.
The data was gathered in several Swabian villages in County Baranya (Nagynyárád,
Somberek, Palotabozsok, Véménd) in County Pest (Dunabogdány), in County Komárom-
Esztergom (Csolnok) by participating observation and collection of detailed life- and family
histories.
The past
Generally speaking the Germans always played an important role in the history of Hungary.
The first German settlers arrived a thousand years ago. Gisela, the wife of Stephen I., King of
Hungary, came from Bavaria. With the help of German knights and the Catholic Church
Stephen I founded the Hungarian state. With this act the country was linked to Europe and
West European culture, interrupted only by the Turkish occupation. Until then migrants from
Germany continuously headed towards Hungary.
After the expulsion of the Turks from the territory of Hungary by Eugen of Savoya at the end
of the 17 th century, the migration of German colonists – including peasants and craftsmen –
was organised at first by the Hungarian landlords, later by the Habsburg rulers Maria Theresa
and Joseph II, who encouraged the colonists to settle on the depopulated territories of
Hungary. The Germans initially lived in villages since they were intended to rebuild the
Hungarian agriculture which had been devastated during the long Turkish occupation. The
first settlers of that period actually came from Schwaben, and so the following settlers were
all called Swabians. The immigration of settlers from all parts of Germany and Austria lasted
up to the end of the 19 th century. As a consequence of this long period of immigration and
their different places of origin, the German minority never formed a homogenous ethnic unit
with a common language, history and culture. There were also differences as to how they
were identified: Germans, Swabians, Donauschwaben, 424 Hungarian Germans were all terms
used to describe a single ethnic group living within the borders of Hungary. In the past they
called themselves Swabians but even today most of the people of the Hungarian German
minority – as they are officially labelled – still use this term to define themselves. There are,
however, villages where the name „German” is preferred. In this respect the terms Swabians
424 The term was first used by Robert Sieger, Graz and a Herman Rüdiger, Stuttgart. This incorrect
term from a geographic as well as historical point of view was used in the interwar period for
expressing the völkisch ideology (Seewann 1992). In spite of this connotation, he term is still widely
used in Germany.
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