Germans
- Germans – There are 3,154 Germans or Danube Swabians in Vojvodina. They are part of a group that came in a couple waves mostly in the 18th century. The older ones mostly speak a form of Swabian German, with all of the children now fluent in Serbian, and often knowing High German (for economic reasons). The German population of Vojvodina was more numerous in the past (about 350,000 before World War II). 250,000 left during the withdrawal of Nazi forces. As a consequence of the World War II events in Yugoslavia, the Yugoslav Communist government took a reprisals on ethnic citizens of German origin in Yugoslavia (including Vojvodina): they had their citizenship revoked and their belongings and houses were nationalized and taken from them. Between 1944 and 1946, a prison camp system was established for Yugoslav citizens of German origin, usually in settlements where they lived. After prison camps were abolished, ethnic Germans of Yugoslavia regained their rights and citizenship and most of them emigrated to Germany or Austria in the following years because of economic reasons. Before this war, the largest concentrations of Germans were in the municipalities of Odžaci (68.9%), Vrbas (61.1%), and Apatin (60.3%). Nowadays some Germans who left from Yugoslavia in the aftermath of World War II have friendly contact with their former Serb, Hungarian, and other neighbors.
Read more about this topic: Ethnic Groups In Vojvodina
Famous quotes containing the word germans:
“Ilsa: That was the day the Germans marched into Paris.
Rick: Not an easy day to forget.
Ilsa: No.
Rick: I remember every detail. The Germans wore gray, you wore blue.”
—Julius J. Epstein (1909–1952)
“I think that both here and in England there are two schools of thought—those who would be altruistic in regard to the Germans, hoping that by loving kindness to make them Christian again—and those who would adopt a much tougher attitude. Most decidedly I belong to the latter school, for though I am not blood-thirsty, I want the Germans to know that this time at least they have definitely lost the war.”
—Franklin D. Roosevelt (1882–1945)
“That’s how the Germans are.... The aristocrats at the top hard as glass, cold as ice, servants of the King, the working masses willing, pliable, sentimental, susceptible to brutality, the middle class educated and cowardly to the point of servility.”
—Alfred Döblin (1878–1957)