Proceedings of GREAT Day Volume 2011 Article 8 2012 A Story of Ethnic Germans in Hungary: From their Origins to their Expulsion Sierra Hunt SUNY Geneseo Follow this and additional works at: https://knightscholar.geneseo.edu/proceedings-of-great-day Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License. Recommended Citation Hunt, Sierra (2012) "A Story of Ethnic Germans in Hungary: From their Origins to their Expulsion," Proceedings of GREAT Day: Vol. 2011 , Article 8. Available at: https://knightscholar.geneseo.edu/proceedings-of-great-day/vol2011/iss1/8 This Article is brought to you for free and open access by the GREAT Day at KnightScholar. It has been accepted for inclusion in Proceedings of GREAT Day by an authorized editor of KnightScholar. For more information, please contact [email protected]. Hunt: A Story of Ethnic Germans in Hungary A Story of Ethnic Germans in Hungary: From their Origins to their Expulsion Sierra Hunt Introduction expulsion. Finally, I was able to make sense and organize the fragmented stories I had been told The admiration I hold for my Oma’s about my whole life. generation is what initially inspired me to conclude Preceding each chapter, I have included a my years at Geneseo with a project about them. section from Henry Longfellow’s poem, Some of my earliest memories are filled with my “Evangeline.”. His epic poem told of a young Oma’s stories about her early days in Hungary. woman living in Acadia who, after being displaced Every time I leave a morsel of food on my plate, from her homeland to new Louisiana territory, my Oma screams “Don’t you know that we had no desperately searches for her true love, Gabriel. food during the war,” which then leads into an Upon first reading the poem, I was struck by the extensive recount of her early life as a German parallels to my family’s expulsion; though it growing up in Hungary during the years of World occurred 200 years apart and an ocean away, an War Two. Admittedly, my brother and I always extraordinary experience linked two groups of exchanged glances and laughed – partly because ordinary and honest people, affected by such scarcity is foreign to us. As a young girl, I extraordinary events they had no control over. found these stories fascinating just by imagining “Evangeline” speaks of the peace and contentment my Oma as young girl, such as myself. As I got of Acadians as well as the beauty and fertility of the older, more and more questions began arising; the land predating English occupation; it speaks of stories she told me remained as scattered fragments apprehension upon foreign occupation, the sadness that never tied together in a cohesive story line. of leaving land they knew so well to go to a land As I interviewed my family members and where they were unwelcome, and the struggle of researched the history surrounding their beginning again. It is for these reasons I have experiences, I was drawn to the complexity of the included relevant segments before each chapter history and the profoundness of what she and her begins, which I hope compliment all that follows in family endured; I can’t never help but compare my a more concise and eloquent way than I can ever own (once thought to be interesting, but now manage to do. comparatively banal) life up to their own. When I first began this project, I was startled by the sheer Part 1: Before the War lack of information present about the expulsion of ethnic Germans from Hungary. My personal “There, in the midst of its farms, reposed the Acadian village. Strongly built were the houses, with frames of oak and of chestnut, connection to this piece of history sparked a small Such as the peasants of Normandy built in the reign of the Henries. level of indignation on my own part - every aspect Thatched were the roofs, with dormer-windows; and gables projecting of history deserves, in some sense, its due attention. Over the basement below protected and shaded the door-way. There in the tranquil evenings of summer, when brightly the sunset I was initially intimidated, but later absorbed, Lighted the village street, and gilded the vanes on the chimneys, by the complexity of Hungary’s role in World War Matrons and maidens sat in snow-white caps and in kirtles Scarlet and blue and green, with distaffs spinning the golden II; Hitler had desperately and recklessly used them Flax for the gossiping looms, whose noisy shuttles within doors”1 as pawns in a hapless war even when defeat was inevitable for the Axis. Moreover, I was startled to The number of ethnic Germans in Hungary learn what a central role Western Allies had in the exceeded 600,000 just prior to World War Two.2 fate of German minorities after the war. In This group of people experienced the worst of both addition, though the interviews proved difficult at worlds during the war: they were subject to the times, I was provided with surprisingly informative brutal whims of Hitler and then were rather and insightful stories. The more I researched and ironically subject to punishment for Hitler’s crimes. spoke to my relatives, the more I realized the This paper seeks to shed light on ethnic German narrow focus of my paper had to widen; the story I minorities in Hungary; a struggle exemplified by sought to paint broadened to include, not only the the stories of two families from a village in expulsion, but the history German minorities in Hungary who were affected by the war, subject to a Hungary, their experience during World War II and year of tense Soviet occupation, then cast out of what happened to them in the years following the 79 Published by KnightScholar, 2012 1 Proceedings of GREAT Day, Vol. 2011 [2012], Art. 8 their homes in Hungary and forced to begin again. settlers followed the Danube River down to But perhaps this story best begins by untangling the Hungary during the so deemed ‘Great Swabian complex web of Ethnic German origins in Hungary. Migration’, which ultimately lead to a two-fold increase in the number of Germans within the Germans arrive in Hungary Carpathian Basin.6 Following this large wave of immigration, approximately 400 German Hungary, located on the Carpathian Basin in communities7 were established in Yugoslavia, central Europe, has been the epicenter of many Romania and Hungary with 450,000 Germans8 in turbulent wars shaking the stability of Europe. The Hungary. origins of German minorities to this area resulted In Hungary, German migrants occupied four from three waves of immigration to present day territories; one of which was the Buda environs, or Hungary. The third and greatest of these waves the areas surrounding Budapest.8 Following this occurred in between the years of 1718 and 1787 newly conquered land containing Germans and and came to be known as “The Great Swabian Hungarians, the Austrian Empire sought a Migration”3; the German peasants who migrated compromise with the Kingdom of Hungary in 1867. with this wave were called Danube Swabians in The Kingdom of Hungary unsurprisingly leapt at reference to the territory in Germany, Swabia, from the chance of regaining its lost homeland and the which most (though not all) migrated.4 two merged, forming the Austro-Hungarian The Kingdom of Hungary had been founded Empire. At this time, present day Hungary was a sometime around 1000 AD and encompassed the widely diverse nation: only 48.6% claimed Magyar present day regions of Hungary, Slovakia and (aboriginal Hungarian language) as their mother Croatia, as well as parts of Romania, Ukraine, tongue.9 Like all prior times of peace, the peace Serbia and Austria. A long period of cohesion and enjoyed by this merger was short-lived: soon after peace followed, but in 1526, the Ottoman Empire the Austro-Hungarian Empire became the epicenter began placing pressure and demands placed on the of World War I. Kingdom of Hungary. Soon after a hot and cold Following the defeat of the Central Powers war erupted; constant conflict ensued between the after World War I the Treaty of Trianon was signed two empires for nearly 150 years, with the borders as one of the many treaties designed to force war of the Kingdom of Hungary remaining somewhat reparations on the Austro-Hungarian Empire.10 dynamic and undefined. The Ottomans eventually These Treaties dramatically reestablished the post managed to take over a considerable portion of land war borders of many European countries and the from this Hungarian Kingdom, part of that land Treaty of Trianon specifically addressed Hungary; included present day Hungary.4 This Hungarian the Kingdom of Hungary had simply become the victory was fleeting. Soon after, a portion of the Republic of Hungary, consisting of 66% less land Ottoman territory was taken by the Austrian than it had before the war.11 Its new neighbors Empire in the late 17th century - part of the new included Slovakia to the north, the Ukraine and Austrian Empire land included present day Romania to the East, Serbia and Croatia to the Hungarian territory. south and Austria to the west. In just one hundred years, Hungary had been The Treaty of Trianon was established without shuffled between the hands of three major Empires: much regard for the minority nationalities that The Kingdom of Hungary to the Ottoman Empire happened to fall within the new borders12; many to the Austrian Empire. The Habsburgs Dynasty - Hungarians fell outside the new Hungarian lines, who had ruled the Austrian Empire at this time - while ethnic Germans in the Buda area found forcibly expelled the Turks from the newly themselves circled within a strictly Hungarian acquired territory.