German Anti-Fascist Committee for Romania

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The German Antifascist Committee for Romania (later Antifascist Committee of the German Working People in Romania , in the Banat initially German Antifascist Organization , Romanian Comitetul Antifascist German , also Antifa ) represented the minority of Romanian Germans in the People's Republic of Romania from 1949 to 1953 .

history

In 1948 the communist leadership of Romania decided to ideologically re-educate the German population, whereby the “German working masses” were seen as “an active factor in the socialist construction of Romania”. A decree issued in December 1948 extended the legal provisions of the statute of nationalities and the corresponding clauses of the constitution to include the German population, who had in fact been granted exceptional rights after the Second World War .

On February 13, 1949, following lengthy preliminary negotiations, the “German Anti-Fascist Committee for Romania” (DAK) was founded on the instructions of the political leadership. In Resita , Timisoara and Brasov , the first local organizations established themselves over the coming weeks and months. The chairman of the committee based in Bucharest was Emmerich Stoffel , who was also appointed to the ministerial council in the ministry of nationalities. The secretary was the carpenter Filip Geltz from Arad , who took over the chairmanship in 1951. Editor of the newly established official organ Neuer Weg was Anton Breitenhofer from Orăştie . Further members of the committee were Josef Puvak (Bucharest), Michael Schuster (Brașov), Viktor Berger ( Sibiu ), Andreas Krestel (Brașov), Adolf Schmutzer ( Lugoj ), Johann Székler (Timișoara), Martin Tausch ( Mediaș ) and Desiderius Lindner ( Sibiu). In total, the DAK had 15 members when it was founded. The committee, whose “anti-fascist” spokesman were initially unknown, was initially hardly noticed by the German population as the official “representation of ethnic German interests” recognized by the government.

The tasks of the DAK were the removal of the "fascist remnants", the "fight against their own bourgeoisie", the "education in the spirit of fraternization with the majority people and the other minorities of Romania" as well as the "mobilization of the masses for the fulfillment of the state plan" . The DAK also took care of school matters and prepared the return of the houses and gardens in rural areas that were expropriated in 1945. It campaigned for the right to participate in the People's Council elections on December 3, 1950, in which over 1000 deputies of German descent proposed by the DAK were elected. Furthermore, the DAK endeavored to repatriate and provide jobs for those returning from the deportation of Romanian Germans to the Soviet Union and supported the cultural work in German.

After four years of existence, the committee was dissolved on the grounds that "the nationality problem in the Romanian People's Republic had been resolved in the spirit of proletarian internationalism and the fraternization of the working people of all nationalities".

It was not until 1968 that the German minority in Romania was again represented, the Council of Working People of German Nationality .

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Hannelore Baier : The "Antifa" and the "New Way". Some of the history of the German Antifascist Committee. In: General German newspaper for Romania , January 15, 2009
  2. ↑ a b Institute for Danube Swabian History and Regional Studies , Horst Fassel : The German State Theater Timisoara after 50 years against the background of German theater development in Europe and in the Banat since the 18th century: Contributions to the International Scientific Conference in Timisoara from 5.-7. May 2003 , 2005, 191S., P. 143.
  3. ↑ Der Spiegel : Purposefully proletarianized. With traces of fascism , issue 12/1949, March 19, 1949
  4. ↑ a b Federal Ministry for Expellees, Refugees and War Victims : Documentation of the Expulsion of Germans from Eastern Central Europe , Volume III The fate of Germans in Romania , 1957, pp. 101E, 102E
  5. ↑ a b Hans Fink : How attitudes towards school and studies changed after the Second World War ( Memento of the original from February 2, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , 2010 @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.banaterra.eu
  6. ↑ Annemarie Weber: Romaniendeutsche ?: Discourses on the group identity of a minority (1944-1971) , Böhlau Verlag, Cologne / Weimar 2010, ISBN 3-41220-538-9 , 342S., P. 111ff.