Germans brought culture in many forms to the East

From the Handbook for Schooling the Hitler Youth

Chapter Nine: The German Culture Area (Handbook online is here)

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The following has been edited for greater brevity -cy

The region influenced by German culture extends far beyond the boundaries of the German population area, far into the east of Europe. It comprises the territories of many non-Germans who, however, remained for centuries under the over-lordship of the Reich or belonged to that state of many peoples, Austria.

The German colonists flowed into the lands of eastern Europe in three great waves: the eastward migrations from the 11th to the 14th centuries inclusive; from the 17th and 18th  centuries; and of the 19th century. About four million Germans now live in the Germanic regions of eastern Europe as successors to these colonists [at the time of writing - approximately 1937 -cy].

The first and second waves are distinguishable only by reason of the distance of the new settlements from the central core of the German people. The settlement of Transylvania, the Zips, the Baltic and the Gottsche go back to the time of the first eastward migration. The Zips lie in Czechoslovakia - about 42,000 Germans called Zip Saxons. In Gottche (Yugoslavia) there are 44 purely German localities with around 13,000 Germans. The Saxons of Transylvania constitute the oldest group of German nationals abroad. Around 1150 the first German settlers heeded the call of the Hungarian king, who settled them as a frontier watch against the onrushing Turks. During the period of knightly Orders, Transylvanians once more received emigrants from the Reich (1225), and after the Mongolain invasion (1241) a third stream of colonists came. For centuries the Saxons of Transylvania have lived in political independence and created their own great principality. They developed a culture on an agrarian basis and their own political consciousness, preserving their purity as a people through eight centuries. In the year 1526 they fell under Turkish over-lordship, and in 1700 came under Austro-Hungarian rule. In 1867 Transylvania merged with Hungary; since 1919 they have belonged to Rumania. The Saxons of Transylvania today number some 230,000 Germans who boldly maintain their own character.

The Baltic Germans in Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania are a century younger. German merchants, manual workers, knights and peasants moved into the Baltic region and founded cities and towns. They gave the land its cultural imprint. Up until the middle of the 15th century the Baltic countries together with East Prussia constituted a state of German Orders belonging to the Reich. With the decline of the Orders, the Reich lost the Baltic lands. For several centuries the fight for possession of them went on between Sweden, Poland and Russia. When the three countries fell to Russia in 1793, a new age blossomed forth. German culture and a high degree of self government made these provinces the most worthwhile part of the Czarist Empire. Yet a process of Russianization set in from which the Baltic Germans had to suffer until the World War. When the Baltic states came into existence, the Germans were able, with great expenditures of money and goods, to maintain their German culture. At the present time 150,000 Germans still live in the Baltic states.

The devastation of the Thirty Years' War had increased the economic needs of the German people immeasurably. Spiritual distress due to religious and political suppression and the narrow mindedness of little states added to the suffering. Many Germans longed for better living opportunities, so when in the 17th and 18th centuries the rulers of eastern Europe called for German colonists for the purpose of better settling their regions, large bands of Germans heeded their call. They were settled in Carpathian-Russia, Kongress-Poland, Sathmar, the Bukowina, along the middle Danube and the lower Volga.

The Danube-Swabians [my ancestors, see here -cy] and the Volga-Germans were the largest group of nationals at this time.

From 1722 to 1786 the Danube-Swabians were settled along the middle Danube by the Austrian emperor. The regions wrested from the Turks—Batschka, the Banat and the Baranya—had been almost completely depopulated and destroyed during the course of long periods of warfare, and were now to be built up again by German settlers. They transformed the regions into productive, arable land and, in consequence, expanded tremendously. In contrast to the Transylvania-Saxons, however, they did not have the right of self-government, thus were seriously threatened by the danger of Magyarization when they came under the control of Hungary after its awakening. Following the World War, the Swabian region was partitioned off to Yugoslavia, Rumania and Hungary, causing their national self-consciousness to develop strong cultural associations. Today over one million Germans continue to live in the Swabian region of these states along the Danube.

The Volga Germans originated during the same period. German born Czarina, Catherine (the Great), called peasants and manual workers to Russia, settling them along the lower Volga region. To draw them there, cultural and military freedom was promised 'for all time', yet at the end of the 19th century, military freedom was done away with, causing many of these Germans to migrate to North and South America. The Volga Germans turned the unproductive steppes into the corn crib of Russia and became models for the peasantry throughout the Russian Empire. Though they were awarded political self determination and an autonomous region the size of Belgium with 500,000 German inhabitants, it has done them little good. Bolshevism fought the well-to-do as Kulaks; many were consigned to forced labor or starved in the great famine.

In Croatia-Slovenia (Yugoslavia) the Swabians along the Danube created daughter colonies in which 160,000 Germans live today. In the Dobrutscha (Rumania) 15,000 Germans dwell in 31 villages, coming from settlements in southern Russia. About 320,000 Germans are still settled today in the Wolhynian regions in Poland and Soviet Russia, although many migrated to South America.

In the 19th century German settlers also came to Bessarabia; today 76,000 Germans live in 130 Bessarabian settlements. The colonisation of Galicia by Germans began around 1772 and numbers about 60,000 today. In Bosnia, Germans are more recent, with the number about 23,000. Thus the whole of the territory of western Europe is over-set with islands of Germans.

German cultural areas in the broadest sense also comprise the compact German settlements overseas. They have come into being primarily through migrations which began after the Thirty Years' War and reached their high point during the 19th century. About six million Germans, whose descendants amount to 10 to 12 million have migrated to the United States. Only a small part of these have remained German conscious, however. Some 400,000 Germans live in Canada. As a consequence of their wide dispersion and varied antecedents, the Germans of Canada lack a closely knit cohesiveness.

In Brazil, Argentina and Chile, many German schools, German newspapers and cultural associations are maintained. 700,000 Germans live in Brazil, 200,000 in Argentina and 30,000 in Chile. There is also a large number of Germans in Australia; since 1838 some 85,000 have migrated there. Perhaps 200,000 are of German descent, although many are no long folk conscious.

Overseas Colonies

The German Reich began to acquire colonies very late … for two reasons. First the Spanish Habsburgs sat on the throne of Germany at the time of great colonial expansion. They wished to establish Catholicism as the sole religion of their empire. The Reich was entangled in bloody religious wars while Spain, Portugal, England and France won for themselves an enormous colonial empire. The German Reich got the raw end of the deal. A second reason can be found in the fact that the German Reich did not attain the cohesive unity necessary for such an enterprise until the second half of the last century. [See map of German colonies here] 

In the year 1683 the Great Elector (Frederick I) conquered the territory along the Gold coast and in 1687 along the Cape of Arguin, but the attempt to establish permanent colonies did not succeed. It was Chancellor Bismarck who finally succeeded in acquiring colonial possessions. All our colonies were originally private business undertakings of German trading companies.

In this way the Bremen merchant, Adolf Luderitz, by treaty with the ruling house of the Hottentots, acquired in 1883 the Bight of Angra. In the following year he purchased additional stretches of land along the coast from the Orange River to Hottentot Bay. On April 24, 1884, Bismarck placed the territory under the protection of the German Reich. The first German colony was thereby established. Further treaties with the natives enlarged the colony to its present size. In January 1904 the Herero uprising broke out and in the fall of the same year the Hottentots revolted. By the end of 1906 peace was re-established. So German South-West Africa quickly blossomed forth: great irrigation projects, ranches, mines and flourishing little towns spread out over all the land. Before the War 13,500 Germans lived in German South-West Africa, which is twice the physical size of the Reich.

In July 1884, the explorer Dr. Nightingale was commissioned to raise the German flag in Togoland and Cameroon. Bismarck had to force the London Colonial Conference in August 1884 to recognize the three aforementioned African colonies. Cameroon was enlarged in 1911 to its present dimension.

German East Africa is due to the pioneer work of Dr. Karl Peters. At age 27 he acquired four large tracts of land. He received an imperial letter of protection from Bismarck in 1885. The final determination of boundaries followed through German-English agreement in 1890. All the land between the Indian Ocean and the three great lakes of Africa - the Victoria, Tanganyika and Niassa - was recognized as a German protectorate. Climatic conditions are favourable and permit Europeans to settle there. Large plantations sprang up from which coffee, hemp, cotton, oil seeds and spices were harvested. Before the War, 4700 Germans lived in East Africa.

Germans also acquired South Sea possessions. The German colonies were built up by great sacrifice on the part of the Reich. Their soil was not only moistened with the sweat of German planters and laborers, but watered with the blood of German soldiers. In spite of that the German people were denied the right to colonies at Versailles. The lie regarding colonies, which is refuted by the German successes and by the natives themselves, was intended merely to veil and to excuse the robbery. German East Africa fell to England; German South West Africa to the Union of South Africa. France received Cameroon, and Togoland was given to the Federation of Australia; the remaining South Sea possessions were assigned to France. To be sure, these countries received only the powers of Mandatories, so that legally the possibility exists of restoring them to the owner. The German Reich will at all events never cease to demand the restoration of its colonies.