The first German settlers arrived in the area during the 12^th and 13^th centuries. After the wars against the Turks, the Hungarian uprising against the Habsburgs, plague (1709-1711) and the resulting depopulation, the local feudal lords of the Károly family, solicited catholic German farmers, mostly from Upper Swabia, for settlement on their land. Settlers started arriving in 1712, but the majority arrived in the 1720s and 1730s. The center of settlement was Großkarol (Romanian: Carei Mare; Hungarian: Nagykároly).

An estimated 10,000 ethic Germans (called Sathmar Swabians; Sathmarer Schwaben in German) lived in the Komitat around 1800. The region became part of Romania by the Treaty of Trianon (1919). The Romanian census of 1920 counted 47,000 ethnic Germans in the Satu Mare/Maramureş region. Due to assimilation efforts supported by the Catholic Church, by 1930 their number had been reduced to 31,000 persons, with only 22,000 declaring themselves as German-speaking.

The Sathmar Swabians were not subjected to displacement after World War II, but some 3,000 fled to the West in 1944, and about 6,000 were deported to the Soviet Union for forced labor. Many Sathmar Swabians emigrated to western countries, especially to Germany, in the 1950s to 1990s.

Today, the Sathmar Swabians are considered part of the larger group of Danube Swabians (Donauschwaben in German). In Germany, they are represented by the Landsmannschaft der Sathmarer Schwaben (Homeland Community of Sathmar Swabians). Those remaining in Romania are represented, along with other German-speaking groups, by the Democratic Forum of Germans in Romania (DFDR).

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News & Updates . . .
Last Updated: 24 Feb 2012

Landsmannschaft der Sathmarer Schwaben in der Bundesrepublik Deutschland

(Society of Sathmar Swabians in Germany) [www.sathmarer-schwaben.de]

The Sathmarer Schwaben Online-Zeitung (Newspaper) [www.ssoz.de]

The Democratic Forum of Germans - [www.schwabe.ro/]

Satu Mare District (Satu Mare DFDK) belongs to the Democratic Forum of Germans in Romania (DFDR) and has represented its founding in 1990, the interests of the German minority in the district of Satu Mare. The DFDR is an association of the German minority in Romania and has 5 regional forums.  The County Satu Mare Forum belongs, together with the District Forum Maramures, Bihor Salasch and, to the Regional Forum Northern Transylvania and is divided into 23 local Ortsforen circle Satu Mare. The District Forum represents the interests of its members in economic, social, cultural and political terms. Focus of activity is the preservation and development of ethno-cultural identity and to promote the German language through numerous projects.

Democratic Forum of the Germans in Sathmar
Horea 10
RO 3900 Satumare
Tel. 0040 - 261 - 713629
Chairman: Johann Schwarz
Managing director: Josef Höltzli [stiftung@p5net.ro]

Szatmári Magyar Hírlap, Sathmarer Zeitung auf ungarisch (Sathmarer Newspaper in Hungarian) Informatia Zilei, eine rumänsiche Zeitun aus Kreis Sathmar [www.hirlap.ro/mh/]

1980 Sathmar Photos

Satu-Mare Today

 

Zipser Germans

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Last updated:
24 Feb 2012