Review article
Germans in Croatia
Vladimir Geiger
; Zagreb, Croatia
Abstract
The paper presents some very basic information on the presence of Germans in South-East Europe from antiquity, through the Middle Ages, to most recent times. The author concentrates more fully on the history and the fate of Germans in the South Slav area, from the time of their settlement (in the 18th and 19th century) to the time of their exodus in the first years after the Second World War. Due to limited time and space, he concerns himself mostly with the history of Germans in the Croatian lands (within the present borders of Croatia). The author does not treat the history of Germans in other lands of former Yugoslavia and of South-East Europe where they once lived. Taking into consideration the historic, political, culturological, linguistic and other perspectives, the aim of the paper is to describe the manner, the time and the cause of German settlement in Croatia. It was especially interesting to review the formation of this ethnic community, its life-style, and the merging of mutual contacts with other peoples in this area, and finally to examine the ways in which the few thousand Germans left in Croatia – after all that had happened in the last world war – are attempting to find their identity and recreate it.
Keywords
Germans; Croatia; settlement; Volksdeutscher
Hrčak ID:
127354
URI
Publication date:
31.12.1991.
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