The German minority in Romania : the past and the present

The Germans of Romania are not a single group, this is only purely geographical notion. The are independent groups: Transylvanian Saxons, Satu Mare Swabians, Banat Swabians, Landler, Zipser, Bukovina Germans, Bessarabia Germans and Dobruja Gemans. The largest and oldest group is Transylvanian Saxons. They entered this area in response to the invitation of Hungarian King Geza II. Swabians settlers in Banat colonized the wilderness left behind by the Turks during the reigns of Charles VI, Maria Theresia and Joseph II. In the 19th century German settlers come to Bessarabia from Russia. After the First World War Transylvania, the Bukovina, the Banat, Satu Mare and Bessarabia fell to Romania. They were a number more than 760 000 Germans in Romania in 1939, in 2011 only 37 000. The existence of German population in Romania is seriously endangered by emigration to Germany after 1989. In contemporary Romania the Germans are represented by the FDGR-party (The Democratic Forum of the Germans in Romania), which translates into only a single seat in the parliament. This minority plays a significant role in regional elections, one of example is the town Sibiu with Germans.