Group: | Sathmar Swabians |
Native Name: | German: link=no|Sathmarer Schwaben |
Native Name Lang: | German |
Languages: | German (with the Sathmar Swabian dialect) |
Religions: | Primarily Roman Catholicism |
Related Groups: | Germans (most notably Swabians and Danube Swabians respectively) |
Footnotes: | Native to north-western and northern Transylvania |
The Satu Mare Swabians or Sathmar Swabians (German: Sathmarer Schwaben) are a German ethnic group in the Satu Mare (German: link=no|Sathmar) region of Romania.[1] Romanian Germans, they are one of the various Danube Swabian (German: link=no|Donau Schwaben) subgroups that are actually Swabian in heritage,[1] and their dialect, Sathmar Swabian, is similar to the other varieties of the Swabian German dialect.[2]
Most were originally farmers in Upper Swabia who migrated to Partium (at the time Hungary, now Romania) in the 18th century, as part of a widespread eastward movement of German workers and settlers.[1] Their principal settlements were Satu Mare, Carei, Petrești,[1] and Foieni (German: link=no|Fienen) and they also settled in Urziceni (German: link=no|Schinal), Căpleni (German: link=no|Kaplau), Tiream (German: link=no|Terem), Beltiug (German: link=no|Bildegg), Ciumești (German: link=no|Schamagosch), and Ardud (German: link=no|Erdeed).
After World War II, many evacuated, migrated, or were expelled to what became West Germany.[3] Those who remain in Romania, along with other German-speaking groups in this country, are politically represented by the FDGR/DFDR (Democratic Forum of Germans in Romania); in Germany, the Landsmannschaft der Sathmarer Schwaben in Deutschland (Territorial Association of Sathmar Swabians in Germany) represents and assists them.[4] Nowadays, many are more or less magyarized and have become Hungarians.[5]
The Sathmar Swabians' ancestors stem from Upper Swabia (German: link=no|Oberschwaben) (situated in southern Württemberg area), present-day Germany when the first waves of agricultural colonists arrived in north-western and northern Transylvania during the 18th century, during the end of the Modern Age.