InCroatia, there are over 2,900 people who consider themselves German, most of these Danube Swabians. Germans are officially recognized as an autochthonous national minority, and as such, they elect a special representative to the Croatian Parliament, shared with members of eleven other national minorities.[2] They are mainly concentrated in the area around Osijek (German: Esseg) in eastern Slavonia.
The community traditionally inhabited northern Croatia and Slavonia. In the Early modern period they had settled from other territories in the Habsburg monarchy, and in what is today Croatia mainly settled territories of the Military Frontier.[3] The Danube Swabians that inhabited Western Slavonia were subject to strong Croatization.[4] The Croatian intelligentsia only acknowledged a German minority in 1865.[3]
Ethnic Germans in Austro-Hungarian lands, 1890 census
With the dissolution of the Austro-Hungarian Empire and the establishment of the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes, the Germans of Croatia became a minority. In 1920, Germans established the cultural association Kulturbund. The Kulturbund was banned on April 11, 1924, by Minister of the Interior Svetozar Pribićević.[5] The following government of Ljuba Davidović and the Democratic Party saw the ban lifted.
In 1922, they formed the German Party (Partei der Deutschen).[6] The party existed until it was banned as part of King Alexander's dictatorship in 1929.
The Croatian German population reached 85,781 in the 1900 census, while this number plummeted after the German exodus in the aftermath of World War II.[7] The Austro-Hungarian census of 1910 recorded 134,000 Germans.[8] After World War II, 100,000 Yugoslav Germans fled to Austria.[9] This population was not dealt with in the Potsdam Agreement which prevented them from being repatriated to Germany.[9] The Allies considered them Yugoslavian citizens and sought their repatriation there.[9] However, on June 4 the Communist Party of Yugoslavia released a decree that rescinded the citizenship of Yugoslavian Germans.[9] Their property was henceforth confiscated, and the majority settled in Germany and Austria. Some managed to return to Yugoslavia and returned to their homes.[9]
The historically predominantly German town of Čeminac built the parish Church of Sacred Heart of Christ in 1906–1907.[10] The German population in the town was forced to leave in 1945. After democratic changes in Croatia in 1990, former inhabitants of the town, mostly living in Germany, repaired the church. However, on April 10, 1992, the church was burnt by Serb forces as part of the Croatian War of Independence.[10] In 2001, various levels of the Croatian government contributed to its repairs, which were carried out by 2005.[10]
In 1996, Croatia and Germany signed an agreement to facilitate the marking of German graves from the World Wars in Croatia.[11] There are German military cemeteriesinPula, Split and Zagreb.[12] In 2005, the Croatian government passed a comprehensive law on the return of nationalized Austrian property to its rightful owners.[13]
There were many German settlements in the adjacent region of Syrmia (Symrien); there is still a village called Nijemci which literally translates to "Germans". The main locations in the Croatian part of Syrmia formerly settled by Germans include:
The Germans and Austrians have created the Society of Germans and Austrians of Croatia.[14] There is a German culture centre in Osijek, and a small number of German schools in the area.
Since the fall of communism and Croatian independence, the minority has held an annual academic conference titled Germans and Austrians in the Croatian cultural circle.[15]
Geiger, V. (2006). "Folksdojčeri u Hrvatskoj 1945". 1945.-Razdjelnica Hrvatske Povijest. Hrvatski institut za povijest: 271–287.
Richembergh, G. B. (2010). "Nijemci, Austrijanci i Hrvati: prilozi za povijest njemačko-austrijske nacionalne manjine u Hrvatskoj i Bosni i Hercegovini". Synopsis.
Škiljan, F. (2014). "Nacionalne manjine u hrvatskoj Baranji između čekića i nakovnja-slučaj baranjskih Nijemaca". Srpsko-hrvatski politički odnosi u 20.
Ščukanec, A. (2010). "Njemačka prezimena u Zagrebu i okolici i načini njihova prilagođivanja hrvatskom jezičnom sustavu". Folia Onomastica Croatica. 18: 149–169.
Geiger, V., 2008. Josip Broz Tito i sudbina jugoslavenskih Nijemaca. Časopis za suvremenu povijest, 40(3), pp. 789–818.
Mira Kolar-Dimitrijević, Skrivene biografije nekih Nijemaca i Austrijanaca u Hrvatskoj 19. i 20. stoljeća, Osijek, 2001.
Kolar-Dimitrijević, M., 1994. Nijemci u podravini. U: GB Richembergh (prir.), Nijemci u Hrvatskoj: Jučer i danas (Zbornik). Zagreb: Volksdeutsche Gemeinschaft, pp. 43–50.
Slađana Josipović; Filozofski fakultet Osijek (October 2008). "Odnos komunističkih vlasti prema svećenicima njemačkog podrijetla na primjeru daljskog župnika Petra Fischera" [Relations of the communist authorities towards priests of German background by the example of Petar Fischer]. Society of German National Minority Yearbook (in Croatian). 15 (1). Society of German National Minority - Association of Danube Swabians Croatia, Osijek. Retrieved 2012-02-27.
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