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The paper begins by discussing the loyalty-faith-betrayal triad in relation to the Crown, the empire, and one's one nation, and then it proceeds to analyze the situation of the Banat region in the aftermath of World War I and the attitude of the local German population towards the tumultuous events that took place after November 1918. Among the elements thus highlighted we find the confusion experienced by the region's multiethnic population (Romanians, Germans, Serbs, and Hungarians), the intervention of the Entente forces, as well as the attempts made by the authorities in Budapest to maintain control over Banat--among other things, by trying to set up an administrative unit of Banat sometimes referred to as a "republic," which was never actually proclaimed, was never granted international legal status and never acquired its own institutions or distinct legislation, and was therefore ephemeral and practically non-existent. The authors then examine the options available to the German population in what concerned their chances of still living as Germans in a land they had profoundly shaped in economic and cultural terms for the past 200 years, at a time what the Romanians had clearly opted for a union with Romania, the vacillations of a population that included a modest intellectual class between the old loyalty towards the Hungarian state, the loyalty towards one's own community (amid the renewed hope of a German revival), and also the loyalty expected by the Romanian state (of which they knew little, and the little they knew tended to be mostly negative), without forgetting the decision--otherwise influenced by the Saxon leaders (Rudolf Brandsch)--to accept the union with Romania and to support this decision at the Paris Peace Conference. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The press in the native language, an area of great importance for the ethnic identity of each nation, was an essential milestone in the life of the Germanspeaking communities throughout Romania. It was the barometer that faithfully illustrated the wishes, hopes and expectations of this minority in the new constitutional framework. The press also revealed the image, the concerns and the ideological orientations of the population, but also the desired relations with the Romanian state authorities and the links with the German nation. The present article entitled "The Contribution of the Banat Swabians to the Development of Typography and the Press in the 18th and 19th Centuries" offers an overall picture of the most important stages in the evolution of the Banat products of the printing press. The article focuses on the political, social and financial difficulties of the German minority in Banat, as well as their outstanding achievements in the cultural and editorial field. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper investigates language ideology and language use in the families of Banat Swabians between the two world wars. It is argued that the linguistic practices of the Banat Swabians cannot be understood without insight into the historical context and the most important ideological nuclei of the Danube Swabians, as the ethnic group to which they belong. The analysis is therefore based on previous research on the Danube Swabians, primarily carried out by historians, anthropologists and linguists, and on contemporary field research carried out within the German Banat community. The paper shows that the Banat Swabians in the interwar period are characterized by the heterogeneity of language ideologies and practices, which depends on their family and social status, as well as on the changing socio-political circumstances in the Kingdom of Yugoslavia and Europe at that time. The language ideologies of the Banat Swabians, as shown in the paper, oscillated between national (standardizing) and local (vernacular). Language use was characterized by standard language culture and diglossia of Swabian (vernacular variety of German) and Hochdeutsch (literary, standardized variety). The social values attributed to local Swabian varieties in the school, in the local German press and within Swabian families also fluctuated between stigmatisation and admiration. As the Swabians inhabited areas where German was not the majority language, they praised and practiced multilingualism, especially in the public sphere. The language repertoire of all social strata included almost all the main languages of the Banat social environment – German, Hungarian, Serbian, Romanian, etc. Furthermore, we argue that the Banat Swabians perceived the entire area of the former Monarchy, and partly Germany, as interconnected cultural and social spaces. Transnational mobility was thus an integral part of their everyday and family life.

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The press in the native language, an area of great importance for the ethnic identity of each nation, was an essential milestone in the life of the Germanspeaking communities throughout Romania. It was the barometer that faithfully illustrated the wishes, hopes and expectations of this minority in the new constitutional framework. The press also revealed the image, the concerns and the ideological orientations of the population, but also the desired relations with the Romanian state authorities and the links with the German nation. The present article entitled "The Contribution of the Banat Swabians to the Development of Typography and the Press in the 18th and 19th Centuries" offers an overall picture of the most important stages in the evolution of the Banat products of the printing press. The article focuses on the political, social and financial difficulties of the German minority in Banat, as well as their outstanding achievements in the cultural and editorial field. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper aims at providing an overview of the Banat calendar press products during the interwar period, focusing on the place and duration of the publication on one hand, and on their structural and thematic features, on the other hand. The starting point of the study is an attempt to define this functional type of text by drawing out its characteristics. The article offers an overview of the structure, content and function of the German-language calendars of Banat during the interwar period, with the intention of underlining their peculiarities. The analysis of the calendars has shown that they are a living proof of the way of thinking and acting, but also a reflection of the cultural and linguistic identity of the Banat Swabians of that time. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Forschungen zur Volks- und Landeskunde is the property of Romanian Academy Publishing House / Editura Academiei Romane and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Die fast vollständige Auswanderung der Rumäniendeutschen in den letzten Jahrzehnten ist keineswegs mit dem Ende der deutschsprachigen Literatur in Rumänien gleichzusetzen. Der Beitrag setzt es sich zum Ziel, anhand exemplarischer Textanalysen eine Gesamtschau der deutschrumänischen Gegenwartsliteratur zu präsentieren. Mit seiner Siebenbürgischen Trilogie verfasst Eginald Schlattner deutschrumänische Romane über Treue und Verrat, wobei der Autor seinen kulturellen und geschichtlichen Kontext aufarbeitet. Vor allem im Roman Rote Handschuhe verarbeitet er die Geschichte des durch den rumänischen Geheimdienst inszenierten Kronstädter Schriftstellerprozesses aus dem Jahr 1959, in welchem Schlattner von der Securitate zum Hauptzeugen der Anklage aufgebaut wurde. Joachim Wittstocks Roman Bestätigt und besiegelt weist einen betonten memorialistischen Charakter auf. Eine persönlich fixierte Thematik prägt den Erzählband Amsel — Schwarzer Vogel Erzählungen und den Roman Patula lacht von Carmen Elisabeth Puchianu. Bei Balthasar Waitz wird im Roman Das rote Akkordeon und im Kurzprosaband Krähensommer und andere Geschichten aus dem Hinterland das banatschwäbische Dorf mit den Augen eines Kindes und Heranwachsenden zwischen Kind und Jugendlichen beobachtet. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In his response to the Laudatio delivered by Professor Rudolf Gräf, vice-rector of Babeş-Bolyai University, on the occasion of the Doctor Honoris Causa award ceremony, the recipient of the honorary degree, researcher Josef Wolf pays homage to the professors that played a significant formative role during his student years at Babeş-Bolyai University (Pompiliu Teodor, Ştefan Pascu, Liviu Maior, Vasile Vesa, and many others), offers some autobiographical data, and briefly presents his scholarly activity, dominated by his interest in regional history and especially in the history of the Banat Swabians. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

On 18 May 2018, researcher Josef Wolf of the Institute of History and Regional Studies of the Danube Swabians, Tübingen, was awarded the title of Doctor Honoris Causa of Babeş-Bolyai University. The Laudatio delivered by Professor Rudolf Gräf, vice-rector of the university, highlights the main aspects pertaining to the biography and the scholarly activity of the recipient of the honorary degree, from his formative years in Cluj to his later activities in Germany. Particular attention is given to the publication of maps and to the exhibitions curated by Josef Wolf, chief among the latter being the one entitled Floating Spaces: Maps of the Danube Region 1650-1800, organized in cooperation with Babeş-Bolyai University and the National Archives. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Forschungen zur Volks- und Landeskunde is the property of Romanian Academy Publishing House / Editura Academiei Romane and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

The text represents another contribution in the series of articles on Vojvodovo, the Czech village in Bulgaria, published in recent years. The author attempts to answer the question in his analysis why so many Vojvodovo Czech Protestants chose as their marriage partners inhabitants of a nearby village of Bărdarski Geran, both Banat Bulgarians (Paulicians) and Banat Swabians. In both villages religion was perhaps the most important organizational principle, religious endogamy being one of its main rules. One would expect absence of intermarriage between Vojvodovo and Bărdarski Geran for this reason; the opposite, however, was the case. The author shows that the reason why members of both communities felt a kind of mutual affinity was culture, as both groups shared many cultural traits. One of these cultural traits was deep and genuine religiosity, perhaps better expressed as belief. So, although at first sight religiosity (in the form of their creeds) would seem to prevent any closer contacts developing between the two communities, it actually is religiosity (as belief) that stands behind the surprising and unexpected number of marriages that took place between members of the two local communities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Banat Swabians represent in the years 1867-1918 one of the most exciting parts of regional history, and we tried to contribute to a more detailed knowledge of the multicultural and cross-cultural and multi-confessional physiognomy of the region Banat. Our research intends to provide more information on the past of this cultural-linguistic and confessional group. Its presence from the eighteenth century in the region between Mures, Tisa and the Danube is correlated with the Habsburg policy of modernization and with the ethnonational identities structured in the romantic era. The study seeks to enrich the history of regional history through a so-called marginal component, which has always played a key role in defining the specifics of a region as the Banat. We focused on the Austro-Hungarian period, highlighting the relevant passages in the life of this important community, namely, its social expression, economic and cultural development. Throughout the paper, our intention was to highlight the active participation of the Swabians at the modernization process.We chose the years 1867-1918 - those that coincide with the existence of the Austro-Hungarian Monarchy - because at that time, the Banat Swabians had a spectacular economic development and an ambivalent cultural creation, between German and Hungarian. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]