Germans in Romania
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Distribution of Germans in Romania (2002 census)
|
|
| Total population | |
|---|---|
| (36,042) | |
| Regions with significant populations | |
| Transylvania, Banat, and Bukovina | |
| Languages | |
|
Mainly German (Standard German) but also Romanian and Hungarian |
|
| Religion | |
| Lutheranism and Roman Catholicism | |
| Related ethnic groups | |
Mainly German (Standard German) but also Romanian and Hungarian
Mainly Germans and Austrians; see also below
The Germans of Romania or Rumäniendeutsche are an ethnic group of Romania. During the interwar period in Romania, the total number of ethnic Germans amounted to as much as 786,000 (according to some sources and estimates dating to 1939), a figure which had subsequently fallen to circa 36,000 as of 2011 in contemporary Romania.
The Germans of Romania are not a single, homogenous group. That is because of the fact that they came in different waves of settlement as early as the High Middle Ages, firstly to southern and northeastern Transylvania (some of them even crossing the outer Carpathians to neighbouring Moldavia and Wallachia), and subsequently during the Modern Age in other Habsburg-ruled lands (such as Bukovina, at the time part of Cisleithania, or Banat), as well as in other areas of present-day Romania (such as Dobruja).
Thus, given their rather complex geographic background, in order to understand their language, culture, customs, and history, one must regard them as the following independent groups:
Members of the German House of Hohenzollern (Romanian branch, more specifically) who ruled over the Principality of Romania/Kingdom of Romania for a period:
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