Review article
POLITICAL, SOCIAL AND CULTURAL CONTEXT OF GERMANCROATIAN LANGUAGE CONTACTS IN VARAŽDIN
Sanja Županić
; Varaždin
Abstract
The first contacts of local people and the German language, society and culture
occurred in Varaždin in the Middle Ages, when royal guests, the so called hospites, arrived
in the town from primarily German-speaking area. Further arrival of Germans,
along with the influence of their language and socio-cultural features, dates back to the
establishment of the Military Frontier. Due to the military and political position during
the existence of the Military Frontier, German and Austrian armies did not only pass
through Varaždin, but their officers and administration clerks also settled down there,
representing the most influential people in the town who often caused trouble to the
local people. In the nineteenth century, Varaždin’s influential citizens, officers and aristocrats
primarily spoke the German language. During the reign of the Habsburg Monarchy,
the connections between Varaždin’s people and the Germans became even more
intense, moreover, during the period of Bach’s Absolutism, Varaždin became a true
German town, in which all inhabitants used German as the official language. When the
First World War broke out, the people of Varaždin stopped looking up to everything
originating from the German-speaking area, and for the first time the downward trend
in the number of inhabitants who speak and study the German language occurred,
which has continued until the present day.
Keywords
hospites; Varaždin’s Germans; Military Frontier; Habsburg Monarchy; Bach’s Absolutism; German-Croatian language; social and cultural contact
Hrčak ID:
171597
URI
Publication date:
30.12.2016.
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