The Fate of the German-Speaking Minority in Slovenia
Abstract
Half a million speakers of German found themselves living in the new Yugoslav state after the disintegration of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. A small portion of them (about 30,000 people or 2.5% of the population) lived in present-day Slovenia in 1931. In economic and social terms, they represented the most powerful and organized part of the German minority. Although the German-speaking minority had more rights than any other minority, these were contingent upon Yugoslav governments’ policy. After World War II, the new Yugoslav authorities made use of the German state’s ethnocide and occupation, and particularly the participation of members of the German minority in it, to settle scores with the German population once and for all. They were interned in concentration camps and then expelled from the country with their belongings confiscated. Several hundred people were subject to extrajudicial killings. The post-war retributions were so severe that only scattered remnants of the minority remained in Slovenia. It can be gathered from the population censuses that the number of Germans and Austrians, i.e. people identifying German as their mother tongue, never even reached a tenth of the number recorded before the war. The minority is characterized by its small number, geographical dispersion, non-native status, migrations, and a demographic structure that diverges from the Slovene average. A mere 963 people identifying German as their mother tongue, 181 of whom identified as Austrian and 499 as German, were recorded in the 2002 population census. A number of German associations emerged after the democratic changes in 1990. The Republic of Austria’s expectations that the German-speaking minority would achieve constitutional recognition in Slovenia were addressed by means of a cultural agreement between the states in 2001. However, this does not satisfy the expectations of the German-speaking community in Slovenia or of the Republic of Austria. They call for the constitutional recognition of the German-speaking minority in Slovenia, as well as for rights comparable to those granted to the Italian and Hungarian community.
Downloads
References
Archiv der Republik Slowenien (ARS) AS 1931, Schachtel 1062, Bericht über die Umsiedlungen der Volksdeutschen in den Jahren 1945–1946, 26.11.1951.
BIBER, Dušan (1966) Nacizem in Nemci v Jugoslaviji 1933–1941. Ljubljana: Cankarjeva založba.
Bundesministerium f. Vertriebene (1961) Dokumentation der Vertreibung der Deutschen aus Ost-Mitteleuropa. Das Schichsal der Deutschen in Jugoslawien. Bd. 5. Düsseldorf: BMV.
FERENC, Mitja (1993) Kočevska. Izgubljena kulturna dediščina kočevskih Nemcev / Gottschee. Das verlorene Kulturerbe der Gottscheer Deutschen. Ljubljana: Zavod RS za varstvo naravne in kulturne dediščine.
FERENC, Mitja (1998) „‚Nemci‘ na Slovenskem v popisih prebivalstva po drugi svetovni vojni.“ In: D. Nečak (Hrsg.), 271–322.
FERENC, Mitja (2005) Kočevska pusta in prazna. Nekdanje nemško jezikovno območje na Kočevskem po odselitvi Nemcev. Ljubljana: Modrijan.
FERENC, Mitja (2007) Nekdanji nemški jezikovni otok na Kočevskem / Die ehemalige Sprachinsel im Gottscheerland / Former German linguistic island in Kočevje region. Kočevje: Pokrajinski muzej Kočevje.
FERENC, Mitja (2011) „Etno- in socialnodemografska struktura »Nemcev« na Slovenskem v obdobju jugoslovanske države po 2. svetovni vojni.“ In: J. Malačič/M. Gams (Hrsg.) Soočanje z demografskimi izzivi, Zbornik 14. mednarodne multikonference Informacijska družbe. Heft B, 33–37.
FERENC, Mitja/Joachim HÖSLER (2011) Spurensuche in der Gottschee: deutschsprachige Siedler in Slowenien. Potsdam: Deutsches Kulturforum östliches Europa.
FERENC, Mitja/Božo REPE (2004) „Nemška manjšina v Sloveniji med obema vojnama / Die deutsche Minderheit in Slowenien in der Zwischenkriegszeit“. In: D. Nečak (et al.) (Hrsg.), 147–176.
FERENC, Mitja/Gojko ZUPAN (2006) Cerkve na Kočevskem nekoč in danes II. Opisi cerkva nekdanjega nemškega jezikovnega območja v župnijah Črmošnjice, Črnomelj, Planina, Semič/Die Kirchen im Gottscheerland einst und heute II. Beschreibungen der Kirchen der ehemaligen deitsvhen Sprachinsel in den Pfarren Tschermoschnitz. Črnomelj, Stockendorf, Pöllandl und Semič. Ljubljana: ZRC SAZU.
FERENC, Mitja/Gojko ZUPAN (2018) Gottschee Villages in Slovenia. The Gottschee Germans Used to Live among Us. Part I: A–J. Ljubljana: Znanstveni inštitut Filozofske fakultete.
FERENC, Mitja/Gojko ZUPAN/Mateja BAVDAŽ (2002) Pokopališča in nagrobniki kočevskih Nemcev / Friedhöfe und Grabsteine der Gottscheer Deutschen / Cemeteries and tombstones of the Gootscheer Germans. Ljubljana: Zavod za varstvo kulturne dediščine Slovenije.
FERENC, Tone (1968) Nacistična raznarodovalna politika v Sloveniji v letih 1941–1945. Maribor: Obzorja, 587–592.
FERENC, Tone (1998) „Nemci na Slovenskem med drugo svetovno vojno“. In: D. Nečak (Hrsg.), 99–144.
FRENSING, Hans Hermann (1970) Die Umsiedlung der Gottscheer Deutschen. Das Ende einer südostdeutschen Volksgruppe. München: Verlag R. Oldenbourg.
JANČAR, Matjaž (1996) Slovenska zunanjepolitična razpotja. Beograd: Međunarodna politika.
KARNER, Stefan Karner (1998) Die deutschsprachige Volksgruppe in Slowenien. Aspekte ihrer Entwicklung 1939–1997. Klagenfurt/Ljubljana/Wien: Hermagoras Verlag.
LAMPETER, Wilhelm/Ludwig KREN (Hrsg.) (1987) 35 Jahre Gottscheer Landsmannschaft in Deutschland. Weilheim: Gottscheer Landsmannschaft Deutschland.
LAMPETER, Wilhelm/Ludwig KREN (Hrsg.) (1994) Gottscheer Fluchtlingsschicksale. Berichte über Umsiedlung und Vertreibung sowie die Zeit danach. Weilheim: Gottscheer Landsmannschaft Deutschland.
MALNAR, Mateja (1997) Analiza fonda Kulturbunda v Arhivu MNZ. Diplomska naloga. Univerza v Ljubljani. Ljubljana: Oddelek za zgodovino Filozofske fakultete.
NEČAK, Dušan (1998) „‘Nemci‘ na Slovenskem 1945–1955 v luči nemških in avstrijskih dokumentov.” In: D. Nečak (Hrsg.), 173–244.
NEČAK, Dušan (Hrsg.) (1998a) „Nemci“ na Slovenskem 1941–1955. Izsledki projekta. Ljubljana: Znanstveni inštitut Filozofske fakultete.
NEČAK, Dušan (Hrsg.) (1998b) Die „Deutschen“ in Slowenien (1918–1955). Kurzer Abriss/»Nemci« na Slovenskem (1918–1955). Kratek oris. Ljubljana: Znanstveni inštitut Filozofske fakultete.
NEČAK, Dušan (et al.) (Hrsg.) (2004) Slovensko-avstrijski odnosi v 20. stoletju/Slowenisch-österreischische Beziehungen im 20. Jahrhundert. Ljubljana: Oddelek za zgodovino Filozofske fakultete.
NEČAK, Dušan (2004) „‘Nemci‘ v Sloveniji 1938–1948.“ In: D. Nečak (et al.) (Hrsg), 349–402.
PRINČIČ, Jože (1998) „Podržavljenje nemške imovine na slovenskem ozemlju po drugi svetovni vojni 1945–1955.“ In: D. Nečak (Hrsg.) (1998a), 245–270.
REPE, Božo (1998) „»Nemci« na Slovenskem po drugi svetovni vojni.“ In: D. Nečak (Hrsg.) (1998a), 145–172.
SUPPAN, Arnold (1988) „Zur Lage der Deutschen in Slowenien zwischen 1918 und 1938. Demographie – Recht – Gesellschafz – Politik.“ In: H. Rumpler/A. Suppan (Hrsg.), Geschichte der Deutschen im Bereich des heutigen Slowenien 1848–1941. Wien/München: R. Oldenbourg.
VOVKO, Andrej (1986) „Nemško manjšinsko šolstvo na Slovenskem v obdobju stare Jugoslavije.“ Zgodovinski časopis, 40, 3, 311–321.
WILDMANN, Georg/Hans SONNLEITNER/Karl WEBER (2000) Verbrechen an den Deutschen in Jugoslavien 1944–1948. Die Stationen eines Völkermords. München: Donauschwäbische Kulturstiftung.
ZAJŠEK, Boštjan (2011) Nemški evangeličani na Slovenskem med obema svetovnima vojnama. Kronika, 59, 91–106.
ZAVADLAV, Zdenko (1990) Iz dnevniških zapiskov mariborskega oznovca. Maribor: Založba za alternativno teorijo.
ZUPAN, Gojko/Mitja FERENC/Martin M. DOLINAR (1993) Cerkve na Kočevskem nekoč in danes/Die Gottscheer Kirchen einst und heute. Ljubljana: Župnija Kočevje.
ZWITTER, Fran (1993) „Nemci na Slovenskem.“ Sodobnost, 6, 3, 483–497.
Copyright (c) 2020 Mitja Ferenc
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.
Authors who publish with this journal agree to the following terms:
- Authors are confirming that they are the authors of the submitting article, which will be published (print and online) in journal Linguistica by Znanstvena založba Filozofske fakultete Univerze v Ljubljani (University of Ljubljana, Faculty of Arts, Aškerčeva 2, 1000 Ljubljana, Slovenia). Author’s name will be evident in the article in journal. All decisions regarding layout and distribution of the work are in hands of the publisher.
- Authors guarantee that the work is their own original creation and does not infringe any statutory or common-law copyright or any proprietary right of any third party. In case of claims by third parties, authors commit their self to defend the interests of the publisher, and shall cover any potential costs.
- Authors retain copyright and grant the journal right of first publication with the work simultaneously licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License that allows others to share the work with an acknowledgement of the work's authorship and initial publication in this journal.
- Authors are able to enter into separate, additional contractual arrangements for the non-exclusive distribution of the journal's published version of the work (e.g., post it to an institutional repository or publish it in a book), with an acknowledgement of its initial publication in this journal.
- Authors are permitted and encouraged to post their work online (e.g., in institutional repositories or on their website) prior to and during the submission process, as it can lead to productive exchanges, as well as earlier and greater citation of published work.
