Group: | Regat Germans |
Native Name: | German: Regatsdeutsche |
Regions: | Wallachia (Muntenia and Oltenia) and Western Moldavia |
Languages: | German, Romanian |
Religions: | Roman Catholicism and Evangelical Lutheranism |
Related Groups: | Germans and Austrians |
Footnotes: | Lived in Wallachia and Moldavia between the late 19th century and mid 20th century (and, in very smaller numbers, to the present day as well) |
Regat Germans or Old Kingdom Germans (German: Regatsdeutsche or German: Altreichsdeutsche/Altreich-Deutsche) are an ethnic German group of the eastern and southern parts of Romania. The Regat is a Romanian-language term ascribed for the initial territorial extent of the Kingdom of Romania before World War I, roughly the regions of the current state of Romania to the south and east of Transylvania.
Consequently, this territory includes Western Moldavia, Northern Dobruja, Muntenia, Oltenia, and the Hertsa region (now in Chernivtsi Oblast, southwestern Ukraine). Most of the Regat German population was re-settled in the mid 20th century during World War II through the Heim ins Reich national socialist population transfer policy. Nowadays, the remaining Regat Germans, as all other German groups in Romania, are represented in local and central politics by the Democratic Forum of Germans in Romania (FDGR/DFDR). The Regat Germans are part of the Romanian Germans.
As part of the Nazi-Soviet population transfers and the Heim ins Reich ("Home into the Empire") population transfer policy, Nazi Germany called ethnic Germans abroad to settle in the former Polish territories. Consequently, 77,000 Regat Germans were resettled in those regions in 1940.[1]
Ethnic Germans from Romania resettled by Nazi Germany between 1939 and 1944[2]
Territory of origin | Total | Re-settled in annexed eastern territories |
---|---|---|
93,342 | 89,201 | |
Northern Bukovina | 43,670 | 24,203 |
Southern Bukovina | 52,149 | 40,804 |
Dobruja | 15,454 | 11,812 |
Romania, Regat | 10,115 | 1,129 |