The Identity of the Satu Mare Swabians

Abstract

This article discusses various aspects of identity and group belonging, questions still posed by anthropological research. The study focuses on the case of a German minority, those called the Satu Mare Swabians (Germ. Sathmarer Schwaben, Rom. Şvabi sătmăreni, Hung. Szatmári svábok) who live in Transylvania, Satu Mare county, near the border with Hungary. The Satu Mare Swabians migrated from Württemberg during the 18th and 19th century and settled in the region of Carei (Germ. Großkarol, Rom. Carei, Hung. Nagykároly). Beginning in the late 19th century, given that almost all the Satu Mare Swabians were peasants with few if any intellectuals among them, they began to speak Hungarian and to integrate themselves into the Hungarian culture. A considerable part of them abandoned the Swabian dialect. In the beginning of the 20th century, most of the Swabian villages in Satu Mare were divided according to their pro-Hungarian or pro-German/Swabian feelings, which eventually evolved into a series of conflicts between these two groups. Today, their identity is still positioned among the concepts: resistance, conflicts and diffuse identity.