Carpathian Germans
| Total population | |
|---|---|
| 4,690 (2011 census) | |
| Regions with significant populations | |
| Bratislava, Košice, Spiš, Hauerland | |
| Languages | |
| Slovak, German | |
| Religion | |
| Roman Catholicism 55,5% Atheism 21,0%, Lutheranism 14,2% and others. |
Carpathian Germans (German: Karpatendeutsche, Mantaken, Hungarian: kárpátnémetek or Felvidéki németek, Slovak: karpatskí Nemci) are a group of ethnic Germans. The term was coined by the historian Raimund Friedrich Kaindl (1866–1930), originally generally referring to the German-speaking population of the area around the Carpathian Mountains: the Cisleithanian (Austrian) crown lands of Galicia and Bukovina, as well as the Hungarian half of the Austro-Hungarian monarchy (including the Zips region), Bosnia-Herzegovina and the northwestern (Maramuresch) region of Romania. Since the First World War, only the Germans of Slovakia (the Slovak Germans or Slowakeideutsche, including the Zipser Germans) and those of Carpathian Ruthenia in Ukraine have commonly been called Carpathian Germans.
Germans settled in the northern territory of the medieval Kingdom of Hungary (then called Upper Hungary, present-day Slovakia) from the 12th to 15th centuries (see Ostsiedlung), mostly after the Mongol invasion of Europe in 1241. There were probably some isolated settlers in the area of Pressburg (Bratislava) earlier. The Germans were usually attracted by kings seeking specialists in various trades, such as craftsmen and miners. They usually settled in older Slavic market and mining settlements. Until approximately the 15th century, the ruling classes of most cities in present-day Slovakia consisted almost exclusively of Germans.
...
Wikipedia