Sinti and Roma

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Sinti and Roma is the word pair implemented in the Federal Republic of Germany in the early 1980s by interest groups of the Roma , who have long been resident in Central Europe , for the overall minority of the Roma, including their numerous subgroups. Sinti are a subgroup of the European Romanesque speaking minority of the Roma. They have long been native to central and western Europe and northern Italy.

The word pair should replace the foreign designation " Gypsy ", from which it differs fundamentally in its content. In Austria the variant "Roma and Sinti" is now widespread. Both double designations, like the internationally dominant term “Roma”, preferred by the International Roma Union , represent a break with a manner of description that is perceived as stigmatizing and demand a non-discriminatory perspective.

About semantics

The word pair is a peculiarity within the German-speaking area as a description of the overall minority of the Roma . The order of the two individual names differs in the use by associations of the minority in Germany or in Austria, depending on which of the subgroups is larger and more influential. It therefore expresses a ranking according to the “different national circumstances (internal structures of the minority)”. In Austria there is the variant "Roma and Sinti". It is represented there by Roma organizations, the majority or exclusively of which do not belong to the group of Sinti, who form a minority within the overall Austrian minority.

The leading German interest group, the Central Council of German Sinti and Roma , and its member associations, which predominantly represent the Sinti subgroup , emphasize by expanding the word pair with the addition " German " (originally: "Central Council of German Sinti and Roma") or as a component of association names in capital letters " German ", their membership of the German population and their right to representation.

"German Sinti and Roma" as used by the Central Council:

  • as “German Sinti” that part of the subgroup of the Sinti (or Manouches ) of the Roma, which is made up of the “members of the minority who have lived in the German-speaking Central European countries for 600 years”;
  • as "German Roma" that part of the subgroup of Eastern European Roma whose "ancestors ... in the 19th century (immigrated) from Eastern Europe [to the area of ​​the German Reich founded in 1871 ]" and who are in possession of German citizenship. This means that the numerous, long-naturalized “guest worker Roma” and their children and grandchildren are not included in the definition.

That the representation interest is limited to "German Sinti and Roma" with an "identity as a German ethnic group " such as the "German Sorbs in the east [...], the German Danes in southern Schleswig and the German Frisians in the northwest of the republic" ( Romani Rose ) In order to do without the Roma, who have been living in Germany for many generations, the question of the right to stay for Eastern European Roma migrants is neglected. This includes that the Central Council supports the state efforts to make living conditions in the former Yugoslav countries of origin for Roma migrants return-friendly. He partially supported the program of the North Rhine-Westphalian state government to return Macedonian Roma to Skopje. In the meantime, the chairman of the Central Council is in favor of “not deporting any minority members to Kosovo” as long as Kosovo is unsafe for returnees. The return agreement should be suspended and the Kosovar Roma who have been living in Germany for a long time should be granted permanent residence.

Concept history

It was a concern of the civil rights movement that emerged in the 1970s and the self-organizations of the European Roma that were founded to implement a new, non-discriminatory perspective on the minority and to give it linguistic expression. This was served by turning away from “Gypsy” and “Gypsy” (and similar foreign names in other languages), which were replaced by the Romanes term “Roma”. In 1978 the 2nd World Roma Congress in Geneva decided that Roma should be the successor to Gypsy . In the Federal Republic of Germany, this convention was initially adopted by the civil rights movement and the self-organizations. During the transition from external to self-designation, it emerged that in parallel to this, “Sinti” or “Sinte”, the self-designation of a large part of the German Roma minority, was introduced by their representatives. “Roma” initially remained the main category. As in 1980 in a joint memorandum of the International Romani Union ( IRU ) and the Association of German Sinti: “The majority of German Gypsies describe themselves as Sinti; the international gypsy movement refers to the gypsy people as Roma. "

The later rigid sequence “Sinti and Roma” was not yet fixed. In 1989, the predecessor association of today's state association of North Rhine-Westphalia German Sinti and Roma referred to itself as the “Association of German Roma and Sinti e. V. NRW ". Later on, the dominant branch of the West German Sinti movement, which soon became the Central Council of German Sinti and Roma and which was also joined by long-established Roma, succeeded in establishing the pair of terms “Sinti and Roma” in Germany. It has remained a peculiarity of the German-speaking area and is now used next to the general term “Roma”, as it has now generally found its way into the language of international governmental and semi-governmental organizations. In Italy , too, the term “Sinti e Rom” is used in scientific discourse.

With the establishment of self-designations in the public discourse in Germany, “German Sinti and Roma” have worn away, removing the national attribution to “Sinti and Roma”. As a result, misrepresentation in the media and politics often results in the use of "Sinti and Roma" in areas in which Sinti as one of the minority groups does not exist ("The Flamenco - Sinti and Roma in Music", "Sinti and Roma are drawn to the district "," Sinti and Roma in Albania "and the like). “Conceptual inconsistency ” causes a linguistic merging of the subgroups that is undesirable from the perspective of some Sinti.

Street naming

In Munich there has been a Sinti-Roma square in the Schwanthalerhöhe district since 2002.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Karola Fings , Ulrich F. Opfermann : Glossary [Lemma "Self-designations"]. In: Karola Fings, Ulrich F. Opfermann (ed.): Gypsy persecution in the Rhineland and in Westphalia 1933–1945. History, reappraisal and memory. Paderborn 2012, pp. 337–359, here p. 352.
  2. ↑ See e.g. B. the homepage of the Cultural Association of Austrian Roma ( online ( Memento from January 12, 2012 in the Internet Archive )).
  3. ↑ See: Regional Association of German Sinti and Roma NRW . There also: “The members of the minority in Eastern Europe also call themselves Roma.”; cf. also a statement from 1982 from the response of the Federal Government to a major question by various MPs on the "Situation and demands of the Sinti, Roma and related groups", German Bundestag, 9th electoral period, December 21, 1982, printed matter 9 / 2.360, p. 1: “Sinti are the gypsies who have lived in the German-speaking area for centuries. In this sense, Roma are the groups who immigrated to Germany from Poland and Hungary in the previous century. The word 'Roma' in the Gypsy language also denotes the entirety of all Gypsies. ”Cf. Karola Fings, Ulrich F. Opfermann: Glossary [Lemma“ Self-denominations ”]. In: Karola Fings, Ulrich F. Opfermann (ed.): Gypsy persecution in the Rhineland and in Westphalia 1933–1945. History, reappraisal and memory. Paderborn 2012, pp. 337–359, here p. 352.
  4. ↑ Joachim S. Hohmann (Ed.): Sinti and Roma in Germany. Attempt to take stock. Frankfurt a. M. 1995, pp. 231-251; see also: idmedienpraxis.de ( Memento from May 25, 2013 in the Internet Archive ).
  5. ^ Romani Rose: On the situation in Kosovo. Statement by the chairman of the Central Council of German Sinti and Roma on the planned deportation of more than 10,000 Roma from Germany to Kosovo. In: Hinterland. Quarterly magazine of the Bavarian Refugee Council, No. 13, June 12, 2010, pp. 4–5 ( PDF ( Memento from January 20, 2012 in the Internet Archive )).
  6. ↑ Michael Zimmermann: Gypsy Policy and Gypsy Discourse in Europe in the 20th Century. In: Michael Zimmermann (ed.): Between education and destruction. Gypsy Politics and Gypsy Research in Europe in the 20th Century. Stuttgart 2007, pp. 13–70, here p. 63; General information on the early Roma civil rights movement, but also on the “choice of the term 'Rome' as the official self-designation” see the rombase page of the University of Graz: Roma ( Memento from May 18, 2013 in the Internet Archive ).
  7. ↑ See: History of the International Roma Day and international Roma movement ( online ).
  8. ↑ "Sinte" or "Sinti" could stand next to each other, see z. B. the language use of a member of the executive committee of the Association of Sinti Germany e. V. and later chairman of the Central Council: Romani Oskar Rose: Reparation only for the strong? In: Tilman Zülch (Ed.): Gassed in Auschwitz, persecuted to this day. On the situation of the Roma (Gypsies) in Germany and Europe. Reinbek 1979, pp. 257-261.
  9. ↑ See e.g. B. the jointly published by the Society for Threatened Peoples and the Association of German Sinti of the magazine pogrom for III. World Roma Congress, (Göttingen) 1981.
  10. ^ In: Sinti and Roma in the former Bergen-Belsen concentration camp on October 27, 1979. Göttingen 1980, p. 136.
  11. ↑ The Greens parliamentary group in the Westphalia-Lippe Regional Association, GAL / Die Grünen Münster (ed.): Nazi persecuted 40 years excluded and forgotten. Documentation of a hearing on February 18, 1989 in Münster. Munster 1989.
  12. ^ Paola Trevisan: Le ricerche sull'internamento dei Sinti e dei Rom in Italia durante il regime fascista. In: Hannes Obermair , Sabrina Michielli (Hrsg.): A comparison of cultures of remembrance of the 20th century - Culture della memoria del Novecento a confronto. (Booklets on the history of Bolzano 7). City of Bozen: Bozen 2014. ISBN 978-88-907060-9-7 , pp. 189–205.
  13. ↑ Some examples: Wilhelm Klümper: Immigration. Sinti and Roma are drawn to the area. In: WAZ, January 2, 2014; chs: Sinti and Roma. Wave of asylum seekers from the Balkans worries countries. In: Der Spiegel, November 13, 2010, see: [1] ; "It was the Sinti and Roma who made flamenco their own." In: [2]
  14. ^ Section “Self-denominations” in: Karola Fings , Ulrich F. Opfermann : Glossary: ​​Gypsy persecution in the Rhineland and in Westphalia 1933-1945. History, reappraisal and memory. Paderborn 2012, pp. 337–369, here p. 352.
  15. ↑ Sinti-Roma-Platz , in the internet portal muenchen.de, accessed on June 15, 2019.