The Exodus of Romanias German-speaking Minority | People & Politics 

My Great Grandparents were Germans living in Romania but managed to escape through Greece to England and finally to the US.

Such a shame we lost so many of our germans. We need them now more than ever.

Didn't the germans in Romania speak a dialect which is very different from standard German?

Siebenbürgen is so beautiful. Been there a couple of times when i was young. During soviet times you needed chocolate for the dog patrols in the train. They forgot checking passports over their beloved chocolate! :D Post soviet times it was a pack of coffee and a pair of shoes for the border guards so they don't strip your whole car apart :) As friendly as everyone i know and remember is/was, I am glad my grandmother left centuries of (family-)history behind and left so we (the coming generation) would grow up in germany. Bless grandma...the most authoritarian tyrant i ever met

In my distant ancestry, I had 6th and 7th great grandparents who were living in Romania. They were Hutterites who were exiled from German lands because, as Anabaptists, they were neither Catholics nor Lutherans. The original Hutterites of old were living in Alwinz (Vintu de Jos) as early as 1622, while the Carinthian (of Austria) deportees were shipped to Timisoara via boat on the Danube from Ybbs, Austria, in 1755. They joined the original group the same year, and even converted the dialect from that of Baden-Wurttemberg to Carinthian, which is what they still speak in America today. The group lived in Rumes (Romos), some were imprisoned in Hermannstadt (Sibiu) but were eventually released, and then passed through Cincu, Crit, Rasnov, Campina, and other settlements before making new homes just west of Bucharest. Ultimately they were pushed to moving to Ukraine (then part of the Russian Empire) because of the 2nd Russo-Turkish War, and by 1770 they left Romanian borders. They lived in Ukraine for 103-ish years before being forced to move to the US in groups when Russia was undergoing a pro-Slavic and militarization movement, so they made their way here to South Dakota, where they would establish their own colonies outside of standard American towns. Now they live all over both Dakotas, Montana, Washington States, Manitoba, Alberta, and Saskatchewan. I’d love to be able to find more history behind my distant Romanian cousins who I’ve discovered, it’s really an intriguing part of history!!

Ask yourself how many Romanians wanted to leave Communist Romania as well, but couldn't because there was no "West Romania" where they could go to? Overall an interesting report, but slightly one-sided. I have no doubt West Germany also benefited from receiving highly-skilled and well-educated Transylvanian Saxons and Banat Schwabians. 6,000 euros for an engineer... quite a low price for a skilled worker.

people keep forgetting that Romania is a western nation in the eastern side of Europe. We speak a Latin derived language that is more closely related to Latin than even the Italian language, Everybody forgets how Winston Churchill SOLD Romania to the Russian in 1948 at for peace of mind for the UK (see "The percentages agreement" on wikipedia). We still suffer today at the hands of corrupt peasants instated to power by the Russian socialist colonization.

Actually Lindenfeld is close to where I live, a ghost village, there is only a shepheard left and a bunch of ruins. Also the view is amazing. If anyine is interested in visting, there is a newly built place where you can get food.

My ancestor Otto Gagel, a German, had a mill, bread factory, and bakeries throughout Romania. His properties were expropriated after WWII. What happened to the Gagel family? The palace was built on the site of his factory.

I got some friends who's parents fled from Siebenbürgen in the 80s and early 90s. One told me when his mom got a job here in bavaria, working with computers, she thought computers were actally "human-like robots", because she never saw one before :D he also told me that when his mom and dad were watching a german comedy-show which made fun of then-chancellor helmut kohl, his mother got scared because in Romania it was very dangerous to make fun of a politician (dictatorship), and she told her husband to switch of the TV immediately. when my their son (then 18 years old/good friend of mine) walked to our town hall to get a passport, the office secretary asked him "a german passport?". he was shocked to be told that he obviously also had (has?) the romanian citizenship. he wanted the german passport of course, and to this day never went back to Siebenbürgen where he left as a baby. His father still visits Siebenbürgen from time to time, always carring some cigarette packs...for the romanian police as a "gift".

We need some good germans here !

from 3;34 to 3;54 the translation is not correct .The guy didnt mention about asking more money for people from banat.Please pay fair

Funny that i am a german romanian , my family stayed but i left in the 2000-s , visited lindenfeld 2010 .

interesting report, thanks.

Why can’t you guys come back home? Germany is not your home,Romania was your home for centuries and now you’re just gone... Don’t forget that We didn’t sell you and the communists did.

I finished watching the video. I left my previous comment at the halfway point. It was actually more balanced than what I expected from the video's opening. Solid work by Deutsche Welle!

Yes exactly like that hurr durr!

RIP Klaus Kinkel

Looks like germany relationship is very complicated with eastern Europe for centuries compared to west Europe. They are literally no such real speaking communities in ancient west Europe.

Near WWII things had changed. "Where the German plow enters ..." Know what happened ?

Tragic.

Romania regrets and wants back

Sad. 😢😢😢😢

but the question is why the grrmans went there in romania?

And all this was posible because a bad boy of austrian origin Dolfi H.by name started the devastating ww II that had as consequence the redrawing of Europe political map.So Romania has been transformed from Kingdom of Romania ruled by a dinasty of german origin-Hohenzollern-Sigmaringen-into a Popular Republic i.e. Comunist dictatorship.

Unfortunately, this exodus was a bad thing for Romania and for germans who left their homeland(some centuries of presence in Sibiu, Brasov...) for the hope of a better life. I doubt they found a better life, given the fact that they were not an oppresed population of Transilvania, but a priveleged one. Just think that Sibiu city have a german ethinic mayor, Klaus Johannis. The romanians regarded the german ethnics as a superior nation.

Ok.. don't get me wrong here. Ceausescu was a monster and did horrible things to his own people. But is anyone else disturbed after watching this video about the German concern for their own ethnic group only? Not good.

How can you loose a German ?? Like the wallet ? Don't worry, their houses are fulllll of life. Gypsies are there, mating. A wonderful life.

I agree with the former foreign minister of Germany pretty discusting behaviour by the Romanian government at the time. Practically holding people for ransom.

So sad..these people were among the most productive in Romania-now the Transylvanian heartland is reverting to forest.

They did the same with Hungarians

Transylvania was part of Dacian Kingdom long ago 1th century CE. The Hungarian kingdom occupied Transylvania around 16th century.

Thank you, Germany.

Pay back