No. 19-20 - 12 / 2015:
The Germany Minority in Romania

Editorial by Daniel Ursprung

The German Minority in Romania: a Historical Overview by Daniel Ursprung

Andreas Schmidt and the German Ethnic Group in Romania (1940-1944) by Ottmar Trasca

The Deportation of Germans from Romania to Forced Labor in the Soviet Union by Hannelore Baier

The year 2015 marks the 70th anniversary of the deportation of women and men of German origin from Romania to forced labor in the Soviet Union. In January 1945 nearly 70,000 working-age persons were coercively transported to the Donbass. For those affected, it seemed to be a cloak-and dagger operation. However, documents show that the exploitation of “German laborers” for the reconstruction of the areas of the Soviet Union destroyed by the war was addressed by the Allies and meticulously planned by the Soviet Ministry of Internal Affairs (NKVD). Ethnic Germans (Volksdeutsche) as well as German citizens from all over Central Eastern Europe were deployed for reconstruction.

The Deportation of the Romanian Germans to Forced Labor in the Soviet Union 1945–1949: The Example of the Siblings Elisabeth and Johann Weber from Hodoni in the Banat by Günter Klein

Romanian Germans and the Memory of the Deportation to the Soviet Union by Cristian Cercel

This contribution discusses the memorialisation of the deportation of Romanian Germans to the Soviet Union, which took place in 1945, emphasising the links between the deportation and previous events and processes such as the appeal of Fascism for Romanian German communities and the mass enrolment of Romanian Germans in the SS.

Literary Experiments under a Dictatorship – the Banat Action Group in Timisoara by Markus Bauer

The Romanian Germans and the Securitate Heritage. An Outline of the Problem and Research Potential by Florian Kührer-Wielach

This article deals with the efforts to assess the Securitate files, while focusing on Romanian German writers. I address, on the one hand, the explanatory power of this type of source and, on the other hand, the effects which the opening of secret service archives has had on a specific group, in this case the Romanian Germans. On the basis of an analysis of the media discourse regarding the unofficial involvement of Romanian-German actors in the Securitate that is centered around concepts of “guilt”, “justice” and “legality”, I will outline the most important problems in the process of coming to terms with the Securitate heritage: the uncertain explanatory power and the hardly manageable amount of sources, the (delayed) need to come to terms with both the national-socialist and communist past as well as the deep involvement of affected persons in the process itself. As a potential way out of these dilemmas, I will apply a professionalized instrument of analysis to this problematic type of source, which involves a stronger focus on comparable cases and issues which overcome the ethnocentric perspective.

Between their Will for Self-assertation and Securing their Livelihood. Challenges for the German Minority in Romania in the 21st Century – the Example of Hermannstadt/Sibiu by Benjamin Józsa