193-468: The Banat Republic ( German : Banater Republik , Hungarian : Bánáti Köztársaság or Bánsági Köztársaság , Romanian : Republica bănățeană or Republica Banatului , Serbian : Банатска република / Banatska republika ) was a short-lived state proclaimed in Timișoara c. 31 October 1918, during the dissolution of Austria-Hungary . The Republic claimed as its own the multi-ethnic territory of
386-460: A de facto official language of Namibia after the end of German colonial rule alongside English and Afrikaans , and had de jure co-official status from 1984 until its independence from South Africa in 1990. However, the Namibian government perceived Afrikaans and German as symbols of apartheid and colonialism, and decided English would be the sole official language upon independence, stating that it
579-402: A second language , and 75–100 million as a foreign language . This would imply the existence of approximately 175–220 million German speakers worldwide. German sociolinguist Ulrich Ammon estimated a number of 289 million German foreign language speakers without clarifying the criteria by which he classified a speaker. As of 2012 , about 90 million people, or 16% of
772-587: A "commonly used" language and the Pan South African Language Board is obligated to promote and ensure respect for it. Cameroon was also a colony of the German Empire from the same period (1884 to 1916). However, German was replaced by French and English, the languages of the two successor colonial powers, after its loss in World War I . Nevertheless, since the 21st century, German has become
965-513: A Hungarian Guard intervened against anti-Jewish rioters in Făget, killing as many as 16 Romanians. According to Romanian priest Traian Birăescu, the 3rd Honvéd Regiment, serving the Republic, committed wanton atrocities in Făget, Racovița , and Topolovățu Mare . He counts 160 victims of such incidents, between 3 and 17 November. During that same interval, the Republic's National Guard grew to incorporate
1158-455: A Republican one, created by Zsolt Réthy, and a Romanian one, under Remus Dobo. A Serb National Council had already been set up in Timișoara during the earliest days of the Republic. Presided upon by Svetozar Davidov and Georgije Letić , this assembly largely refused cooperation with Roth's Commissioners, only recognizing them as an ad hoc city government; it demanded that Allied Powers occupy
1351-560: A Romanian takeover in Timișoara, thirty-three Swabian communes voted to support the annexation. A final delegation, chaired by Frecôt and claiming to represent 68% of the whole Banat population, petitioned the Allies with a more ambitious project. It wanted the entire region merged into Romania, but this proposal was not followed through. In parallel, the DSVP and the Autonomist Party dissolved into
1544-665: A Swabian "national canton" was advanced in December 1918 by Miksa Strobl. Roth's polity is occasionally referred to as "Banat autonomous republic", or as a "limited autonomy within the Magyar state". Croat scholar Ladislav Heka sees the Republic as resulting from an alliance between Hungarians and Swabians; he also notes that the Bunjevci , a Slavic Catholic community in neighboring Bačka , also preferred Hungarian rule to some extent. Several Romanian and Serb historians agree that Hungarian designs were
1737-556: A greater need for regularity in written conventions. While the major changes of the MHG period were socio-cultural, High German was still undergoing significant linguistic changes in syntax, phonetics, and morphology as well (e.g. diphthongization of certain vowel sounds: hus (OHG & MHG "house") → haus (regionally in later MHG)→ Haus (NHG), and weakening of unstressed short vowels to schwa [ə]: taga (OHG "days")→ tage (MHG)). A great wealth of texts survives from
1930-511: A hypothetical Thracian * Donaris . The Proto-Indo-European root of this presumed name is related to the Iranic word " don- "/" dan- ", while the supposed suffix -aris is encountered in the ancient name of the Ialomița River , Naparis , and in the unidentified Miliare river mentioned by Jordanes in his Getica . Gábor Vékony says that this hypothesis is not plausible, because
2123-594: A large assembly of Romanians, who validated Cosma's efforts and also voted for the creation of Romanian military units. These issues were again raised and endorsed at another assembly, held at Caransebeș on 7 November. The city hall here was topped by the Romanian tricolor . Hungarian presence disintegrated in eastern Banat, with leftover authorities complaining that Romanians had read the "People's Government policy" as authorizing secession in majority-Romanian localities. However, Caransebeș continued to host two parallel Councils:
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#17328513414812316-453: A native tongue today, mostly descendants of German colonial settlers . The period of German colonialism in Namibia also led to the evolution of a Standard German-based pidgin language called " Namibian Black German ", which became a second language for parts of the indigenous population. Although it is nearly extinct today, some older Namibians still have some knowledge of it. German remained
2509-561: A next-best solution. Such groups also referenced the Swiss model, but did not want French tutelage; they preferred an American occupation. During the remaining months of French occupation, however, various Republican officials were again employed by the administration. In autumn 1919, Tőkés of the Losonczy Lodge became Alispán of Temes. The project of making the Banat into an independent buffer state
2702-582: A popular assembly, reissuing demands for a "Romanian Captaincy", but under Austrian supervision. This action was not supported, and in December the region and the Voivodeship were folded back into the Kingdom of Hungary (or Lands of the Crown of Saint Stephen ). The Romanian focus shifted toward forming a separate crown land for the community, unifying the Banat with Transylvania and Bukovina . The "Captaincy" project
2895-679: A popular foreign language among pupils and students, with 300,000 people learning or speaking German in Cameroon in 2010 and over 230,000 in 2020. Today Cameroon is one of the African countries outside Namibia with the highest number of people learning German. In the United States, German is the fifth most spoken language in terms of native and second language speakers after English, Spanish , French , and Chinese (with figures for Cantonese and Mandarin combined), with over 1 million total speakers. In
3088-521: A presence in Timișoara. By then, the rump Republic and the Serb Council had become foes. The Council's newspaper, Srpski Glasnik , commented that Roth was a "chameleon" in politics, bringing up evidence that he was plotting a pro-Hungarian coup. On 20 February, the German National Council and the remaining executive institutions of the Republic were dissolved. One version of the events credits
3281-426: A province called Banat, Bačka and Baranja . On 25 November, this view was enforced by the all-Slav Popular Assembly of Novi Sad . It hosted 72 Serb, Bunjevci, Slovak , Montenegrin , Šokci and Krashovani deputies from throughout the disputed areas. Non-Slavs were excluded on principle, though not entirely absent—with the exception of Romanians, who boycotted this rally. Some Romanians were by then driven out by
3474-776: A recognized national language in Namibia . There are also notable German-speaking communities in France ( Alsace ), the Czech Republic ( North Bohemia ), Poland ( Upper Silesia ), Slovakia ( Košice Region , Spiš , and Hauerland ), Denmark ( North Schleswig ), Romania and Hungary ( Sopron ). Overseas, sizeable communities of German-speakers are found in Brazil ( Blumenau and Pomerode ), South Africa ( Kroondal ), Namibia , among others, some communities have decidedly Austrian German or Swiss German characters (e.g. Pozuzo , Peru). German
3667-575: A request for union with Romania; this was formally endorsed on 15 April, when all Swabian group leaders met in Timișoara. On the Romanian side, a new version of Banatian regionalism was reemerging from nationalist groups opposed to the PNR: in mid 1919, a National Union from Banat , led by Avram Imbroane and Petru Groza , rallied support for that cause. Its manifestos demanded decentralization and minority rights, but without full autonomy. In late May 1919, units of
3860-737: A resolution, prompting the CNRC to call for a Romanian national assembly at Alba Iulia , Transylvania, on 1 December. To avoid antagonizing the Serbian administration, elections for the assembly were not held in the Banat, which was advised to send only informal representatives "from all social classes". Some 182 of these were present for the vote, despite the Serbian Army's attempts to block access. Another 200, however, were arrested before departure, then deported to Serbia or to occupied Albania . The delegates held coordination meetings which voted against autonomy for
4053-475: A result, the surviving texts are written in highly disparate regional dialects and exhibit significant Latin influence, particularly in vocabulary. At this point monasteries, where most written works were produced, were dominated by Latin, and German saw only occasional use in official and ecclesiastical writing. While there is no complete agreement over the dates of the Middle High German (MHG) period, it
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#17328513414814246-533: A second experiment in Banatian autonomy was carried out after 1850, when the Austrians appointed Čarnojević's Aromanian son-in-law, Andrei Mocioni , as governor over the eastern half of the Voivodeship. This change was largely advantageous for the Romanian population, which controlled the administration, but ended in 1852, when Mocioni resigned over his conflicts with central government. In November 1860, Mocioni organized
4439-480: A sign of regional affiliation, and was prominently displayed during the anti-government rallies of 2014 . This issue was highlighted by the pro-government Social Democrats , who saw it as a move toward autonomy or independence; that claim was denied by members of the Banat League. German language German (German: Deutsch , pronounced [dɔʏtʃ] ) is a West Germanic language in
4632-509: A single Guard unit. The "Octobrist" republic of Kusić–Zlatica, whose leaders had attempted a march on Bela Crkva , was also repressed during the interval. The general purpose of this offensive was to secure as much of the region as possible before the Paris Peace Conference , obtaining the most favorable terms for the region's split between Serbia and Romania. Serbia regarded the Banat under its control as an acquired territory, part of
4825-584: A university of their own. While Muth himself switched to the Yugoslavian plan, most of his colleagues became supporters of Greater Romania. Roth allegedly aligned himself with the Hungarian Soviets, although, by his own account, he was their ideological enemy. He also introduced another political solution, presented by him in direct talks with French officials: he proposed an "independent Banat under French protection", and suggested its subsequent inclusion into
5018-521: Is 4,152 km (1,603 sq mi), of which 3,446 km (1,331 sq mi) are in Romania. If one includes the lagoons of Razim-Sinoe (1,015 km (392 sq mi) of which 865 km (334 sq mi) water surface), which are located south of the delta proper, but are related to it geologically and ecologically (their combined territory is part of the World Heritage Site),
5211-580: Is a recognized minority language in the following countries: In France, the High German varieties of Alsatian and Moselle Franconian are identified as " regional languages ", but the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages of 1998 has not yet been ratified by the government. Namibia also was a colony of the German Empire, from 1884 to 1915. About 30,000 people still speak German as
5404-641: Is also home to numerous diverse carp and sturgeon , as well as salmon and trout . A few species of euryhaline fish, such as European seabass , mullet , and eel , inhabit the Danube Delta and the lower portion of the river. Today the river carries its name from its source confluence in Donaueschingen , Germany , to its discharge into the Black Sea via the Danube Delta in Romania and Ukraine . The river
5597-596: Is also notable for its broad spectrum of dialects , with many varieties existing in Europe and other parts of the world. Some of these non-standard varieties have become recognized and protected by regional or national governments. Since 2004, heads of state of the German-speaking countries have met every year, and the Council for German Orthography has been the main international body regulating German orthography . German
5790-546: Is an Indo-European language that belongs to the West Germanic group of the Germanic languages . The Germanic languages are traditionally subdivided into three branches: North Germanic , East Germanic , and West Germanic . The first of these branches survives in modern Danish , Swedish , Norwegian , Faroese , and Icelandic , all of which are descended from Old Norse . The East Germanic languages are now extinct, and Gothic
5983-472: Is called the "German Sprachraum ". German is the official language of the following countries: German is a co-official language of the following countries: Although expulsions and (forced) assimilation after the two World wars greatly diminished them, minority communities of mostly bilingual German native speakers exist in areas both adjacent to and detached from the Sprachraum. Within Europe, German
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6176-430: Is complicated by the existence of several varieties whose status as separate "languages" or "dialects" is disputed for political and linguistic reasons, including quantitatively strong varieties like certain forms of Alemannic and Low German . With the inclusion or exclusion of certain varieties, it is estimated that approximately 90–95 million people speak German as a first language , 10–25 million speak it as
6369-612: Is divided into three main parts, separated by "gates" where the river is forced to cut through mountainous sections: Mean annual discharge on the hydrological stations (period from 2000 to 2023); 1 - Reni , Isaccea ; 2 - Silistra ; 3 - Pristol ; 4 - Batina , Bezdan ; 5 - Nagymaros , Szob ; 6 - Bratislava , Wolfsthal ; 7 - Untergriesbach Multiannual average, minimum and maximum discharge (water period from 1876 to 2010) Simulated water and suspended sediment results from climate-driven decadal study (with STD through specific decade): P – Simulated average precipitation in
6562-637: Is estimated that the Danube upper course will one day disappear entirely in favor of the Rhine, an event called stream capturing . The hydrological parameters of Danube are regularly monitored in Croatia at Batina , Dalj , Vukovar and Ilok . The Danube basin was the site of some of the earliest human cultures. The Danubian Neolithic cultures include the Linear Pottery cultures of the mid-Danube basin. Many sites of
6755-520: Is generally seen as ending when the 1346–53 Black Death decimated Europe's population. Modern High German begins with the Early New High German (ENHG) period, which Wilhelm Scherer dates 1350–1650, terminating with the end of the Thirty Years' War . This period saw the further displacement of Latin by German as the primary language of courtly proceedings and, increasingly, of literature in
6948-595: Is generally seen as lasting from 1050 to 1350. This was a period of significant expansion of the geographical territory occupied by Germanic tribes, and consequently of the number of German speakers. Whereas during the Old High German period the Germanic tribes extended only as far east as the Elbe and Saale rivers, the MHG period saw a number of these tribes expanding beyond this eastern boundary into Slavic territory (known as
7141-559: Is less closely related to languages based on Low Franconian dialects (e.g., Dutch and Afrikaans), Low German or Low Saxon dialects (spoken in northern Germany and southern Denmark ), neither of which underwent the High German consonant shift. As has been noted, the former of these dialect types is Istvaeonic and the latter Ingvaeonic, whereas the High German dialects are all Irminonic; the differences between these languages and standard German are therefore considerable. Also related to German are
7334-435: Is one of the major languages of the world . German is the second-most widely spoken Germanic language , after English, both as a first and as a second language . German is also widely taught as a foreign language , especially in continental Europe (where it is the third most taught foreign language after English and French), and in the United States. Overall, German is the fourth most commonly learned second language, and
7527-587: Is one of the three biggest newspapers in Namibia and the only German-language daily in Africa. An estimated 12,000 people speak German or a German variety as a first language in South Africa, mostly originating from different waves of immigration during the 19th and 20th centuries. One of the largest communities consists of the speakers of "Nataler Deutsch", a variety of Low German concentrated in and around Wartburg . The South African constitution identifies German as
7720-401: Is partly derived from Latin and Greek , along with fewer words borrowed from French and Modern English . English, however, is the main source of more recent loanwords . German is a pluricentric language ; the three standardized variants are German , Austrian , and Swiss Standard German . Standard German is sometimes called High German , which refers to its regional origin. German
7913-510: Is the Sachsenspiegel , the first book of laws written in Middle Low German ( c. 1220 ). The abundance and especially the secular character of the literature of the MHG period demonstrate the beginnings of a standardized written form of German, as well as the desire of poets and authors to be understood by individuals on supra-dialectal terms. The Middle High German period
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8106-566: Is the only language in this branch which survives in written texts. The West Germanic languages, however, have undergone extensive dialectal subdivision and are now represented in modern languages such as English, German, Dutch , Yiddish , Afrikaans , and others. Within the West Germanic language dialect continuum, the Benrath and Uerdingen lines (running through Düsseldorf - Benrath and Krefeld - Uerdingen , respectively) serve to distinguish
8299-653: Is to implement the Danube River Protection Convention by promoting and coordinating sustainable and equitable water management, including conservation, improvement, and rational use of waters and the implementation of the EU Water Framework Directive and the Danube Strategy . The Danube Commission is concerned with the maintenance and improvement of the river's navigation conditions. It was established in 1948 by seven countries bordering
8492-481: Is understood in all areas where German is spoken. Approximate distribution of native German speakers (assuming a rounded total of 95 million) worldwide: As a result of the German diaspora , as well as the popularity of German taught as a foreign language , the geographical distribution of German speakers (or "Germanophones") spans all inhabited continents. However, an exact, global number of native German speakers
8685-673: The Ostsiedlung ). With the increasing wealth and geographic spread of the Germanic groups came greater use of German in the courts of nobles as the standard language of official proceedings and literature. A clear example of this is the mittelhochdeutsche Dichtersprache employed in the Hohenstaufen court in Swabia as a standardized supra-dialectal written language. While these efforts were still regionally bound, German began to be used in place of Latin for certain official purposes, leading to
8878-672: The Argonautica by Apollonius Rhodos (Argon. IV. 282). At the end of the Okeanos Potamos , is the holy island of Alba (Leuke, Pytho Nisi, Isle of Snakes ), sacred to the Pelasgian (and later, Greek) Apollo, greeting the sun rising in the east. Hecateus Abderitas refers to Apollo's island from the region of the Hyperboreans, in the Okeanos. It was on Leuke, in one version of his legend, that
9071-522: The 11th Colonial Infantry Division were in charge of Krassó-Szörény. By 27 January, French soldiers had full control over the eastern Banat, establishing a buffer zone centered on Timișoara. Roth preserved power, having been reconfirmed by Jouinot-Gambetta. The city was not entirely relinquished by the Yugoslav side. In parallel to the French advance, the new Royal Yugoslav Army , under General Grujić, consolidated
9264-627: The Alamanni , Bavarian, and Thuringian groups, all belonging to the Elbe Germanic group ( Irminones ), which had settled in what is now southern-central Germany and Austria between the second and sixth centuries, during the great migration. In general, the surviving texts of Old High German (OHG) show a wide range of dialectal diversity with very little written uniformity. The early written tradition of OHG survived mostly through monasteries and scriptoria as local translations of Latin originals; as
9457-536: The Banat , in a bid to prevent its partition among competing nationalisms. Openly endorsed by the local communities of Hungarians , Swabians and Jews , the German-speaking socialist of Jewish origin Otto Roth served as its nominal leader. This project was openly rejected from within by communities of Romanians and Serbs , who were centered in the eastern and western halves of the region, respectively. The short-lived entity
9650-630: The Black Forest south into the Black Sea . A large and historically important river, it was once a frontier of the Roman Empire . In the 21st century, it connects ten European countries, running through their territories or marking a border. Originating in Germany , the Danube flows southeast for 2,850 km (1,770 mi), passing through or bordering Austria , Slovakia , Hungary , Croatia , Serbia , Romania , Bulgaria , Moldova , and Ukraine . Among
9843-410: The Black Sea via the Danube Delta in Romania and Ukraine . Once a long-standing frontier of the Roman Empire , the river passes through or touches the borders of 10 countries. Its drainage basin extends into nine more (ten if Kosovo is included). In addition to the bordering countries (see above), the drainage basin includes parts of nine more countries: Bosnia and Herzegovina (4.6% of
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#173285134148110036-510: The Bystroye Canal . In 2022, there was a major heat wave in Europe. As a result, there was less water flowing in the rivers. As the water level decreased, a number of ship wrecks from World War II emerged in the Danube River. Many of the ships were from Nazi Germany 's Black Sea Fleet and had been scuttled to stop them from falling into enemy hands. The International Commission for
10229-414: The Celtic ' danu ' or ' don ' (both Celtic gods), which itself derived from the Proto-Indo-European * deh₂nu . Other European river names from the same root include the Dunaj, Dzvina/ Daugava , Don , Donets , Dnieper , Dniestr , Dysna and Tana/Deatnu . In Rigvedic Sanskrit , danu (दनु) means "fluid, dewdrop" and danuja (दनु-ज) means "born from danu " or "born from dew-drops". In Avestan ,
10422-425: The Clisura area, setting up a Council led by Triša Kojičić. Around November, Roth himself made a brief return to the Banat administration, representing the Social Democratic Party chapter in Timiș-Torontal. This group also hosted his political rival of 1918, Petru Bârnau, who was by then mayor of Reșița. During the subsequent interval, much of the Swabian population was lost, as a number left as refugees along with
10615-410: The Danubian Limes was the northeastern border of the Empire, with occasional interruptions such as the fall of the Danubian Limes in 259. The crossing of the Danube into Dacia was achieved by the Imperium Romanum , first in two battles in 102 and then in 106 after the construction of a bridge in 101 near the garrison town of Drobeta at the Iron Gate. This victory over Dacia under Decebalus enabled
10808-407: The Early Middle Ages . German is an inflected language , with four cases for nouns, pronouns, and adjectives (nominative, accusative, genitive, dative); three genders (masculine, feminine, neuter) and two numbers (singular, plural). It has strong and weak verbs . The majority of its vocabulary derives from the ancient Germanic branch of the Indo-European language family, while a smaller share
11001-417: The European Union 's population, spoke German as their mother tongue, making it the second most widely spoken language on the continent after Russian and the second biggest language in terms of overall speakers (after English), as well as the most spoken native language. The area in central Europe where the majority of the population speaks German as a first language and has German as a (co-)official language
11194-456: The French colonial empire . The French Ambassador in Yugoslavia, Louis Gabriel de Fontenay, rejected the plan altogether, and in particular its claim that Romanians also favored independence. However, as recorded by Berthelot himself, the prospect of sustaining Banatian republicanism was still advocated in April 1919 by Paul-Joseph de Lobit , who commanded over the French Army of Hungary. In the meantime, Swabian delegations presented Berthelot with
11387-442: The Gendarmes . These sources reported back that Germany intended to carve out a "Danube Land" for the Swabians. The Nazi autonomist policy was being pursued more expansively in occupied Serbia . In 1941, Romania and Hungary vied with each other for being granted control of the region by Germany; eventually, a Banat administrative unit was created out of the former Yugoslav partition. At the height of Antonescu's dictatorship, Groza
11580-411: The German Party , which had reconciled with Romanian centralism and was acting as a shared caucus for all Germans of Romania ; the German National Council was renamed Community of the German Swabians, and survived as such to 1943. Roth was arrested by the Romanian authorities and released in 1920, reportedly promising to keep out of politics. He focused on his photographic studio and his contribution to
11773-455: The German states . While these states were still part of the Holy Roman Empire , and far from any form of unification, the desire for a cohesive written language that would be understandable across the many German-speaking principalities and kingdoms was stronger than ever. As a spoken language German remained highly fractured throughout this period, with a vast number of often mutually incomprehensible regional dialects being spoken throughout
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#173285134148111966-405: The Habsburg monarchy took over the region. In 1694, Serb settlers in the still-unnamed area obtained an imperial pledge granting them self-government, but this was never put into practice. After the 1718 Treaty of Passarowitz , the region became a Habsburg province called the Banat of Temeswar . Hungarian geographer Sándor Kókai considers it an early predecessor to the Banat, rendering plausible
12159-554: The Holy Roman Emperor Maximilian I , and the other being Meißner Deutsch , used in the Electorate of Saxony in the Duchy of Saxe-Wittenberg . Alongside these courtly written standards, the invention of the printing press led to the development of a number of printers' languages ( Druckersprachen ) aimed at making printed material readable and understandable across as many diverse dialects of German as possible. The greater ease of production and increased availability of written texts brought about increased standardisation in
12352-465: The Indo-European language family , mainly spoken in Western and Central Europe . It is the most spoken native language within the European Union . It is the most widely spoken and official (or co-official) language in Germany , Austria , Switzerland , Liechtenstein , and the Italian autonomous province of South Tyrol . It is also an official language of Luxembourg , Belgium and the Italian autonomous region of Friuli-Venezia Giulia , as well as
12545-439: The Old High German language in several Elder Futhark inscriptions from as early as the sixth century AD (such as the Pforzen buckle ), the Old High German period is generally seen as beginning with the Abrogans (written c. 765–775 ), a Latin-German glossary supplying over 3,000 Old High German words with their Latin equivalents. After the Abrogans , the first coherent works written in Old High German appear in
12738-419: The Romanian Land Forces moved in from Transylvania, and were garrisoned alongside the French in Lugoj. That city was allowed to fly the Romanian tricolor. As reported by Émile Henriot , Timișoara Swabians were generally in favor of this development, though a minority supported independence for the Banat and Bačka as a federal state. Their faction preferred incorporation into Hungary, but viewed emancipation as
12931-429: The Romanian National Party (PNR), who proceeded to organize for Banat's merger into Greater Romania. This caucus held its own rally in Liberty Square, demonstrating the numerical strength of its following and performing the Romanian nationalist anthem . Its importance was acknowledged by Roth, who recalled that "the streets trembled with the lockstep of [Cosma's] powerful guards". The core events of Romanian resistance to
13124-453: The Soviet occupation forces , demanding that they end their anti-German abuse. Groza, by then the Prime Minister of Romania , favored a degree of segregation between the Romanians and Swabians, but praised the latter for their socialist traditions, and proposed to have them merge into the urban proletariat. Soviet presence peaked with the establishment of a Romanian communist state in 1948. During its early stages, this new regime redesigned
13317-427: The Sprachraum in Europe. German is used in a wide variety of spheres throughout the country, especially in business, tourism, and public signage, as well as in education, churches (most notably the German-speaking Evangelical Lutheran Church in Namibia (GELK) ), other cultural spheres such as music, and media (such as German language radio programs by the Namibian Broadcasting Corporation ). The Allgemeine Zeitung
13510-422: The Standard German language in its written form, and the Duden Handbook was declared its standard definition. Punctuation and compound spelling (joined or isolated compounds) were not standardized in the process. The Deutsche Bühnensprache ( lit. ' German stage language ' ) by Theodor Siebs had established conventions for German pronunciation in theatres , three years earlier; however, this
13703-534: The Union of Communist Youth , prompting the intervention of official censors . Writing in samizdat form during the 1980s, philosopher Ion Dezideriu Sîrbu argued that repression and "darkness" were prompting the provinces back into autonomist stances. As he noted, the Banat and other regions needed to be devolved by a Romanian " perestroika ". The anti-communist Revolution of 1989 , which began in Timișoara, reignited controversies about autonomy and separatism. Before his toppling and execution , Ceaușescu accused
13896-454: The Upper German dialects spoken in the southern German-speaking countries , such as Swiss German ( Alemannic dialects ) and the various Germanic dialects spoken in the French region of Grand Est , such as Alsatian (mainly Alemannic, but also Central–and Upper Franconian dialects) and Lorraine Franconian (Central Franconian). After these High German dialects, standard German
14089-462: The pagan Germanic tradition. Of particular interest to scholars, however, has been the Hildebrandslied , a secular epic poem telling the tale of an estranged father and son unknowingly meeting each other in battle. Linguistically, this text is highly interesting due to the mixed use of Old Saxon and Old High German dialects in its composition. The written works of this period stem mainly from
14282-604: The "Octobrists". Following the Hungarian armistice , which allowed the Allied Powers to seize portions of Hungary, Bartha resigned in protest. On 12 November, the Royal Serbian Army entered the Banat with endorsements from both Hungary and the Allies. A force led by Colonel Čolović took control of Timișoara on 17 November, being acclaimed by all communities as a guarantee of "freedom and democracy". Both Cosma and Roth spoke on
14475-543: The 1520s; these were only rarely represented in the " feudalized " Pannonian land. Interwar journalist Cora Irineu proposes that an early instance of "autonomous policy" in the eastern Banat stemmed from the weakness of the Hungarian crown, which had difficulty defending itself against the Ottoman Empire during a long series of incursions . Matthias Corvinus also organized the west into a separate "Captaincy", whose purpose
14668-547: The Austrians found regional backing from the rival government of " Serbian Vojvodina ", which aimed to incorporate the entire Banat. Between 1849 and 1860, the Banat, together with the Bačka and Syrmia , was part of a new Habsburg–Serb province, the Voivodeship of Serbia and Banat of Temeschwar ; the shared capital of all these entities was Timișoara. Seen as a "hybrid", this arrangement was not generally welcomed by Romanians. However,
14861-578: The Banat "as soon as possible". On 5 November, Banat Serbs created another dissident National Council, at Pančevo . On 10 November, the two Councils, alongside other Serb bodies, sent delegates to the Popular Assembly which voted for the Banat's immediate union with the Kingdom of Serbia . However, Roth was able to create disunity between the Bunjevci and other Slavs: on 7 November, a "Bunjevac People's Republic"
15054-614: The Banat and also called for French or English troops to take over administration. On 1 December, now remembered as the " Great Union Day ", the Great National Assembly of Alba Iulia proclaimed the Transylvanian–Banatian merger with Romania ; at the same time Serbia merged into a Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes (commonly known as Yugoslavia). This polarization also divided the Swabian voters, between those who favored
15247-492: The Banat as a victim of Romanian "imperialism". More mainstream support for regionalism was promoted from within the People's Party by Imbroane's brother Nicolae, who in 1926 established a distinct parliamentary club. Divided into counties ( Caraș , Severin , Timiș-Torontal ), the region was given some political representation with the establishment of a short-lived Ministerial Directorate for Romania's south-west; full regionalism
15440-476: The Banat had been established in parallel with the Serbian occupation: French and African patrols, coordinated by François Léon Jouinot-Gambetta , were stationed just outside Timișoara, and in places such as Igriș and Vojvodinci. On 3 December, after tensions between Romania and Yugoslavia had escalated and threatened to erupt into a regional war, 15,000 French troops answering to Generals Paul Prosper Henrys and Henri Berthelot occupied Timișoara. On 18 December,
15633-459: The Banat's citizens to remain calm when interacting with the intruders, and from 16 November "existed only on paper". By 20 November, Serbian forces had camped along the Mureș River , from Szeged to Lipova . In their advance eastwards, they stopped at Caransebeș and Orșova . Serbian garrisons disarmed the surviving Guards of Timișoara and Reșița, while forcing the two Lugoj Councils to establish
15826-647: The Bunjevci and other Catholics, including for areas of the Yugoslav Banat. Only a small portion in the region's northwest was incorporated by the reconstructed Hungarian Kingdom , a state which also hosted 145,000 refugees from other parts of the Banat. For seven days in August 1921, this Banatian extremity was annexed to the Serbian-Hungarian Baranya-Baja Republic , which was in part a sample of Bunjevci separatism. On 10 August 1920, one week after
16019-921: The Common Army took over control over the villages and established over 40 independent councils. Already in October, the Timișoara Citizens' Guard, comprising paramilitaries of all nationalities, fought and defeated groups of liberated prisoners, restoring legitimate control over the Central Post Office. Many Serbs who had been prisoners of war in Russia returned home with military training, social grievances, and communist beliefs. Known as "Octobrists", they joined up with deserters and outlaws (" Green Cadres ") and began raiding in Clisura area. Coriolan Băran , who took charge of
16212-431: The Danube basin; T – Simulated average temperature in the Danube basin; Q – Simulated average discharge in the Danube River at delta; S – Simulated sediment load in the Danube River at delta ; Historical average flow to the present day; Measured and reconstructed average water flows from 1742. The reconstructed and observed streamflow (Q – m /s) at Ceatal Izmail for the 1742 to 2022: The land drained by
16405-1035: The Danube extends into many other countries. Many Danubian tributaries are important rivers in their own right, navigable by barges and other shallow-draught boats. From its source to its outlet into the Black Sea, its main tributaries are (as they enter): 18. Tisza (entering near Titel ) 19. Sava (entering at Belgrade ) 20. Timiș (river) (entering at Pančevo ) 21. Great Morava (entering near Smederevo ) 22. Mlava (entering near Kostolac ) 23. Karaš (entering near Banatska Palanka ) 24. Jiu (entering at Bechet ) 25. Iskar (entering near Gigen ) 26. Olt (entering at Turnu Măgurele ) 27. Osam (entering near Nikopol, Bulgaria ) 28. Yantra (entering near Svishtov ) 29. Argeș (entering at Oltenița ) 30. Ialomița 31. Siret (entering near Galați ) 32. Prut (entering near Galați ) The Danube flows through many cities, including four national capitals (shown below in bold), more than any other river in
16598-632: The Danube has been a traditional trade route in Europe. Today, 2,415 km (1,501 mi) of its total length are navigable. The Danube is linked to the North Sea via the Rhine–Main–Danube Canal , connecting the Danube at Kelheim with the Main at Bamberg . The river is also an important source of hydropower and drinking water . The Danube river basin is home to such fish species as pike , zander , huchen , Wels catfish , burbot and tench . It
16791-627: The Danube was variously known as Danubius , Danuvius , Ister or Hister . The Latin name is masculine, as are all its Slavic names, except Slovene (the name of the Rhine is also masculine in Latin, most of the Slavic languages, as well as in German). The German Donau ( Early Modern German Donaw , Tonaw , Middle High German Tuonowe ) is feminine, as it has been re-interpreted as containing
16984-591: The Danube's, today subsurface rivers carry much water from the Danube to the Rhine. On many days in the summer, when the Danube carries little water, it completely oozes away noisily into these underground channels at two locations in the Swabian Alb, which are referred to as the Donauversickerung ( Danube Sink ). Most of this water resurfaces only 12 km (7.5 mi) south at the Aachtopf , Germany's wellspring with
17177-512: The Danube. Today the Commission include riparian and non-riparian states. Although the headwaters of the Danube are relatively small today, geologically, the Danube is much older than the Rhine , with which its catchment area competes in today's southern Germany. This has a few interesting geological complications. Since the Rhine is the only river rising in the Alps mountains which flows north towards
17370-714: The Empire. Its use indicated that the speaker was a merchant or someone from an urban area, regardless of nationality. Prague (German: Prag ) and Budapest ( Buda , German: Ofen ), to name two examples, were gradually Germanized in the years after their incorporation into the Habsburg domain; others, like Pressburg ( Pozsony , now Bratislava), were originally settled during the Habsburg period and were primarily German at that time. Prague, Budapest, Bratislava, and cities like Zagreb (German: Agram ) or Ljubljana (German: Laibach ), contained significant German minorities. In
17563-578: The French garrison in Arad . The following period restructured Swabian political camps: Muth's initial option for Hungary was widely discredited when, in March, Károlyi fell from power and a Hungarian Soviet Republic was established. Meanwhile, Reinhold Heegen, replacing Filipon as Serbian-appointed Mayor of Timișoara, began campaigning with some success for the Banat to join Yugoslavia, and promised that Swabians would own
17756-521: The French troops in the Republican capital, came to be disliked by the Romanian community there, being widely perceived as a Hungarophile; by contrast, local Magyars experienced a surge of Francophile sentiment. Berthelot was finally persuaded by the Romanians to demand that most Yugoslav troops withdraw from the central and eastern portions of the Banat. On 25 January, Léon Gaston Jean-Baptiste Farret and
17949-668: The French with having taken this decision. Another account informs that the Yugoslav contingent in Timișoara was behind the move, and mentions that fighting occurred between the Serbs and the Republican National Guard. Timișoara's commander was by then the Swabian Josef Geml , who refused to recognize Yugoslavian rule from Novi Sad, leaving the city exposed to threats of a retaliatory blockade. On 21 February, in territories they still controlled, Yugoslav commanders began replacing
18142-718: The Frisian languages— North Frisian (spoken in Nordfriesland ), Saterland Frisian (spoken in Saterland ), and West Frisian (spoken in Friesland )—as well as the Anglic languages of English and Scots. These Anglo-Frisian dialects did not take part in the High German consonant shift, and the Anglic languages also adopted much vocabulary from both Old Norse and the Norman language . The history of
18335-524: The German language begins with the High German consonant shift during the Migration Period , which separated Old High German dialects from Old Saxon . This sound shift involved a drastic change in the pronunciation of both voiced and voiceless stop consonants ( b , d , g , and p , t , k , respectively). The primary effects of the shift were the following below. While there is written evidence of
18528-447: The German states; the invention of the printing press c. 1440 and the publication of Luther's vernacular translation of the Bible in 1534, however, had an immense effect on standardizing German as a supra-dialectal written language. The ENHG period saw the rise of several important cross-regional forms of chancery German, one being gemeine tiutsch , used in the court of
18721-675: The Germanic dialects that were affected by the High German consonant shift (south of Benrath) from those that were not (north of Uerdingen). The various regional dialects spoken south of these lines are grouped as High German dialects, while those spoken to the north comprise the Low German and Low Franconian dialects. As members of the West Germanic language family, High German, Low German, and Low Franconian have been proposed to be further distinguished historically as Irminonic , Ingvaeonic , and Istvaeonic , respectively. This classification indicates their historical descent from dialects spoken by
18914-629: The Greeks borrowed the Istros form from the native Thracians. He proposes that the Romanian name is a loanword from a Turkic language ( Cuman or Pecheneg ). Classified as an international waterway , it originates in the town of Donaueschingen , in the Black Forest of Germany , at the confluence of the rivers Brigach and Breg . The Danube then flows southeast for about 2,730 km (1,700 mi), passing through four capital cities ( Vienna , Bratislava , Budapest , and Belgrade ) before emptying into
19107-552: The Hungarian National Council, represented by Alispán György Kórossy. Other accounts credit initiative to Otto Roth , a member of the Hungarian Social Democratic Party (MSZDP). As reported by these, Roth, who had already served as Timișoara councilor, met with his party colleagues on 30 October, and afterward approached Bartha. The process also involved local Freemasons, including two members of
19300-646: The Irminones (also known as the Elbe group), Ingvaeones (or North Sea Germanic group), and Istvaeones (or Weser–Rhine group). Standard German is based on a combination of Thuringian - Upper Saxon and Upper Franconian dialects, which are Central German and Upper German dialects belonging to the High German dialect group. German is therefore closely related to the other languages based on High German dialects, such as Luxembourgish (based on Central Franconian dialects ) and Yiddish . Also closely related to Standard German are
19493-558: The Losonczy Lodge—Kálmán Jakobi and István Tőkés. Roth acknowledged that he spoke on that night at the Military Casino , where he did not proclaim the republic, but rather expressed his support for the concept. Instead, he announced that Bartha was in charge of the city's military command, and asked for a People's Council to be formed. Romanian attendees opposed this move: their nominal leader, Aurel Cosma , also spoke on
19686-507: The MHG period. Significantly, these texts include a number of impressive secular works, such as the Nibelungenlied , an epic poem telling the story of the dragon -slayer Siegfried ( c. thirteenth century ), and the Iwein , an Arthurian verse poem by Hartmann von Aue ( c. 1203 ), lyric poems , and courtly romances such as Parzival and Tristan . Also noteworthy
19879-530: The MSZDP. As reported by Nova Zora newspaper of Vršac , this parliamentary body introduced tax brackets , forcing an individual tax of 400,000 Kronen on highest-income individuals. Though anti-Habsburg, Hungary's own republican regime, headed by Mihály Károlyi , sought to preserve as much as possible from the older Kingdom's territory, and to resist the advance of competing Romanian and Serb nationalisms within its borders. Although Hungarian troops withdrew from
20072-702: The North Sea, an invisible line beginning at Piz Lunghin divides large parts of southern Germany, which is sometimes referred to as the European Watershed . Before the last ice age in the Pleistocene , the Rhine started at the southwestern tip of the Black Forest, while the waters from the Alps that today feed the Rhine were carried east by the so-called Urdonau (original Danube). Parts of this ancient river's bed, which
20265-590: The Protection of the Danube River (ICPDR) is an organization that consists of 14 member states (Germany, Austria, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Slovenia, Hungary, Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Serbia, Bulgaria, Romania, Moldova, Montenegro, and Ukraine) and the European Union . The commission, established in 1998, deals with the whole Danube river basin, which includes tributaries and groundwater resources. Its goal
20458-626: The Province of Dacia to be created, but in 271 it was abandoned by emperor Aurelian . Avars used the river as their southeastern border in the 6th century. Part of the rivers Danubius or Istros was also known as (together with the Black Sea) the Okeanos in ancient times, being called the Okeanos Potamos (Okeanos River). The lower Danube was also called the Keras Okeanoio (Gulf or Horn of Okeanos) in
20651-525: The Republic closely followed the developments in Timișoara. After a meeting of the Romanians in Reșița on 31 October, a "National Council" and a self-defense force were created, co-opting some Romanian members of the MSZDP. This was later transformed into a "Workers' Council", presided upon by Petru Bârnau. Meanwhile, Reșița's mostly German and Hungarian workers celebrated the Republic at a public rally on 1 November. On 3 November, Valeriu Braniște hosted at Lugoj
20844-659: The Republic's claim to territorial and cultural coherence. According to the Serb medievalist Jovan Radonić , it is at this stage that the region acquired its name, as it had "never before been one administrative unit". This Banat was abolished in 1778, when its components were merged into the Habsburg Kingdom of Hungary . In the 1790s, the Serbs became divided between those who pressed for a separate territory and those who, like Sava Tekelija , argued in favor of Josephine centralism . The project of reserving Banat for Serb self-government
21037-521: The Republican bureaucracy with their co-nationals. From the Yugoslav point of view, Roth's replacement was Martin Filipon , who was both Timișoara's Mayor and the regional Župan . In his sectors, Berthelot allowed Hungarian civilian administrators to resume their work for the duration of French rule, and proceeded to ban all other national councils, as well as displays of nationalist flags. The Károlyi government attempted one final time to reassert control over
21230-553: The Revolution, Banatian autonomy or independence were again taken up as causes—in this instance, by various members of the Romanian majority in the eastern Banat. These groups, flying a white cross on green as their flag, became interested in recovering the region's Habsburg heritage, and in some cases declared themselves ethnically distinct from other Romanians. In 2013, activists from this movement endorsed both regional independence and European federalism . The green flag became popular as
21423-620: The Romanian guards in Sânnicolau Mare , made note of a conflict opposing Romanians to the Banat Bulgarians of Stár Bišnov . A social revolt was sparked on 1 November, when the sugar mill of Margina , northeast of Lugoj, was taken over by peasants from the surrounding region; another nucleus was at Ciacova , south of Timișoara. Former soldiers directed repression against the notaries public , identified as responsible for wartime injustice. Such incidents peaked at Ghilad , where one notary
21616-557: The Romanian option and those who acted in favor of a Yugoslavian project. The pro-Romanian lobby was enforced by Transylvanian Saxons , in particular the writer Viktor Orendi-Hommenau . The latter had established a Swabian cultural and political club, Kultur der Schwaben . In parallel, Kaspar Muth continued to press for an autonomous republic, and, in January 1919, set up the Autonomous Swabian Party . A small French presence in
21809-630: The Serbian and the Romanian stretches of the Danube. However, the transgressions may not be considered acts of piracy, as defined according to the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea , but rather instances of "river robbery". On the other hand, media reports say the crews on transport ships often steal and sell their own cargo and then blame the plundering on "pirates", and the alleged attacks are not piracy but small-time contraband theft along
22002-466: The Serbian intervention. They include Băran, who began organizing Banatian guards from Transylvania, as well as Caius Brediceanu and Ioan Sârbu , who asked for the French to step in as peacekeepers. Romanian peasants were originally sympathetic to the Serbian administration, as Serbia and Romania were both in the Allied camp. However, requisitions, overhunting, abuse against property owners, and conflicts over
22195-535: The Swabians' German National Council reemerged and openly asked for its own military self-defense units, or Volksmiliz . These were to be directly modeled on the Swiss Armed Forces . Romanian community leaders and Orendi-Hommenau's followers celebrated the French intervention, but, by January, came to fear that France was tolerating another buildup of Yugoslavian forces. Jouinot-Gambetta, who was assigned command over
22388-576: The Swabians-proper and descendants of the Banat French; the latter were led by Frecôt. In November 1940, under a friendly National Legionary State , Germany obtained the creation of an autonomous organism, or "German Ethnic Group", which was entirely Nazified. This arrangement was maintained under Germany's subsequent ally, Ion Antonescu , though the Ethnic Group itself came to be secretly monitored by
22581-441: The Timișoara Chamber of Labor. In the 1930s and '40s, Roth discreetly aligned himself with Groza, rekindling Banatian regionalism within the far-left Ploughmen's Front . For a while in the 1920s, full regional self-determination "to the point of separation" was also endorsed by the illegal Communist Party of Romania , which followed guidelines set by the Comintern . Its 1928 Resolution on the National Issue specifically referred to
22774-439: The administrative map , and by 1952 had re-amalgamated the Romanian Banat into Regiunea Timișoara . From 1956, the unit was extended northwards, incorporating parts of Arad Region . The advent of Romanian national communism in 1960 was initially signaled by the renaming of territorial units with their more traditional form: the creation of Regiunea Banat was welcomed as a sign of " re-Romanianization " and "partial return to
22967-403: The area, Bartha was recognized as Károlyi's commissioner, and the Banat continued to be represented in Budapest by János (Johann) Junker. While Roth's proclamation is sometimes rendered as a declaration of independence, Republican officials openly acknowledged that their ultimate plan was to create a federal and democratic Hungary, with units modeled on the Swiss cantons . A specific proposal for
23160-472: The area. According to Ljubivoje Cerović, "the leaders of the Banat Republic aimed primarily at ensuring Hungarian [territorial] integrity". As noted by researcher Carmen Albert, the "so called 'Banatian republic'" remains a mysterious detail in regional history, but could be regarded as "essentially anti-union", in that it opposed Greater Romania . According to estimates by Sándor Kókai, the Republic sought to cover "one of Europe's most complex areas". The region
23353-488: The basin area), the Czech Republic (2.9%), Slovenia (2.0%), Montenegro (0.9%), Switzerland (0.2%), Italy (<0.15%), Poland (<0.1%), North Macedonia (<0.1%) and Albania (<0.1%). The total drainage basin is 801,463 km (309,447 sq mi) in area, and is home to 83 million people. The highest point of the drainage basin is the summit of Piz Bernina at the Italy–Switzerland border , at 4,049 m (13,284 ft). The Danube River Basin
23546-472: The country outside of Timișoara: it never held Pančevo , which became the center of Serb self-government, and failed to fully control the Romanian cities of Lugoj and Caransebeș . Before the Hungarian armistice , the Banat was threatened with invasion by the French Danube Army . Roth's government also fought against a surge of peasant rebellions, and, though militarily weak, managed to quell uprisings in Denta , Făget and Cărpiniș . In late November 1918,
23739-401: The creation of a Nazified Banat ; liberal Swabians such as Stefan Frecôt opposed this trend, and came to advocate full delimitation between French and German Swabians. After many decades, Romania witnessed a revival of separatist projects in the Banat in the 2010s, where they became associated with regional, rather than ethnic, identities. The Banat is a natural geographical region located on
23932-430: The development of non-local forms of language and exposed all speakers to forms of German from outside their own area. With Luther's rendering of the Bible in the vernacular, German asserted itself against the dominance of Latin as a legitimate language for courtly, literary, and now ecclesiastical subject-matter. His Bible was ubiquitous in the German states: nearly every household possessed a copy. Nevertheless, even with
24125-404: The dialect so as to make the work as natural and accessible to German speakers as possible. Copies of Luther's Bible featured a long list of glosses for each region, translating words which were unknown in the region into the regional dialect. Luther said the following concerning his translation method: One who would talk German does not ask the Latin how he shall do it; he must ask the mother in
24318-471: The distance to the Black Sea by 400 km (250 mi); the Rhine–Main–Danube Canal is about 171 km (106 mi), finished in 1992, linking the North Sea to the Black Sea. A Danube-Aegean canal has been proposed. Danube River cruise for sightseeing is popular, especially between Passau , Germany, to Budapest , Hungary. In 2010–12, shipping companies, especially from Ukraine, claimed that their vessels suffered from "regular pirate attacks " on
24511-435: The eastern provinces of Banat , Bukovina , and Transylvania (German: Banat, Buchenland, Siebenbürgen ), German was the predominant language not only in the larger towns—like Temeschburg ( Timișoara ), Hermannstadt ( Sibiu ), and Kronstadt ( Brașov )—but also in many smaller localities in the surrounding areas. In 1901, the Second Orthographic Conference ended with a (nearly) complete standardization of
24704-496: The entire region was occupied by the Kingdom of Serbia , which in December became the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes , or colloquially Yugoslavia. Roth remained in place as governor, and the Republic continued to have a nominal existence. The following January, the French intervened to prevent a clash between Yugoslavia and the Kingdom of Romania . The rump Republic was toppled on 20 February 1919, resulting in significant violence. Roth escaped arrest and fled to Arad , where he
24897-524: The final stage of World War I, with the collapse of Austro-Hungarian rule: the Aster Revolution toppled the Kingdom, and in mid November 1918 established a Hungarian Republic . In Timișoara, the anti-war protests that began in early October grew in extent and intensity towards the end of the month, with several statues representing Austrian authority toppled by the populace. The Banat state was actually proclaimed during one such popular assembly, on 31 October or 2 November. Lieutenant Colonel Albert Bartha , who
25090-477: The gorge) by the Iron Gate II Hydroelectric Power Station . On 13 April 2006, a record peak discharge at Iron Gate Dam reached 15,400 m /s (540,000 cu ft/s). There are three artificial waterways built on the Danube: the Danube-Tisa-Danube Canal (DTD) in the Banat and Bačka regions ( Vojvodina , northern province of Serbia); the 64 km (40 mi) Danube-Black Sea Canal , between Cernavodă and Constanța (Romania) finished in 1984, shortens
25283-416: The hero Achilles was buried (to this day, one of the mouths of the Danube is called Chilia). Old Romanian folk songs recount a white monastery on a white island with nine priests. Between the late 14th and late 19th centuries, the Ottoman Empire competed first with the Kingdom of Serbia , Second Bulgarian Empire , Kingdom of Hungary , Principality of Wallachia , Principality of Moldavia and later with
25476-423: The highest flow, an average of 8,500 L/s (300 cu ft/s), north of Lake Constance —thus feeding the Rhine. The European Water Divide applies only for those waters that pass beyond this point, and only during the days of the year when the Danube carries enough water to survive the sinkholes in the Donauversickerung. Since such large volumes of underground water erode much of the surrounding limestone, it
25669-435: The home, the children on the streets, the common man in the market-place and note carefully how they talk, then translate accordingly. They will then understand what is said to them because it is German. When Christ says ' ex abundantia cordis os loquitur ,' I would translate, if I followed the papists, aus dem Überflusz des Herzens redet der Mund . But tell me is this talking German? What German understands such stuff? No,
25862-466: The idea of an independent Banat was taken up by the Autonomous Swabian Party and by Swabians of French descent; Romanians such as Avram Imbroane and Petru Groza were sympathetic toward minority rights and decentralization, but did not endorse autonomy. As far-left militants, Groza and Roth collaborated with each other throughout the interwar period. Swabian-centered autonomist projects were also taken up by Nazi Germany during World War II, resulting in
26055-417: The influence of Luther's Bible as an unofficial written standard, a widely accepted standard for written German did not appear until the middle of the eighteenth century. German was the language of commerce and government in the Habsburg Empire , which encompassed a large area of Central and Eastern Europe . Until the mid-nineteenth century, it was essentially the language of townspeople throughout most of
26248-591: The large rally that had previously been announced in Timișoara's Liberty Square. The participants flew socialist red flags . Eventually, an assembly of local politicians elected Roth "President of the Republic" and made Bartha, who was already head of the Military Council, commander of the Banat's military forces. Accounts converge on noting that the Republic was proclaimed from the balcony of Timișoara City Hall. The rally ended with renditions of Hungary's Himnusz and La Marseillaise . Also designated as Commissioner-in-Chief, Roth appointed sub-Commissioners in charge of
26441-415: The largest concentrations of German speakers are in the states of Rio Grande do Sul (where Riograndenser Hunsrückisch developed), Santa Catarina , and Espírito Santo . Danube The Danube ( / ˈ d æ n . j uː b / DAN -yoob ; see also other names ) is the second-longest river in Europe , after the Volga in Russia . It flows through Central and Southeastern Europe , from
26634-431: The latter was further borrowed into Romanian as a regionalism ( Turlă ). The Thraco- Phrygian name was Matoas , "the bringer of luck". The Middle Mongolian name for the Danube was transliterated as Tho-na in 1829 by Jean-Pierre Abel-Rémusat . The modern languages spoken in the Danube basin all use names derived from the Latin name Danubius : Danube is an Old European river name derived from
26827-430: The left bank of the Danube , within the Pannonian plain and along the westernmost slope of the eponymous mountains . It was first organized into territorial units by the Angevin Hungarian Kingdom : the lowlands as counties , and the mountainous areas as a Banate of Severin . The latter coexisted with the somewhat informal jurisdictions of proto-Romanian knyazes and voivodes , some of which were still attested in
27020-456: The main drivers behind the establishment of a Banat Republic, which they see as a proxy for Hungarian rule: "Mihály Károly's government desired a 'Banat autonomous republic' within a Magyar state [...], earning intense propaganda support from the Timișoara lawyer Otto Roth and from other Magyar, German and Jewish intellectuals." Ion D. Suciu proposes that the republic was a "parody" and a "final diversion" in Károly's attempts to maintain control over
27213-431: The many cities on the river are four national capitals: Vienna , Bratislava , Budapest , and Belgrade . Its drainage basin amounts to 817,000 km (315,000 sq mi) and extends into nine more countries. The Danube's longest headstream Breg rises in Furtwangen im Schwarzwald , while the river carries its name from its source confluence in the palace park in Donaueschingen onwards. Since ancient times,
27406-402: The mother in the home and the plain man would say, Wesz das Herz voll ist, des gehet der Mund über . Luther's translation of the Bible into High German was also decisive for the German language and its evolution from Early New High German to modern Standard German. The publication of Luther's Bible was a decisive moment in the spread of literacy in early modern Germany , and promoted
27599-438: The new arrivals, numbering at some 500 per district. There were open clashes between these units and their Romanian counterparts: the occupation of Făget was only relieved when Axente Iancu and Dinu Popescu established and armed a Romanian Guard which ordered Republican troops to leave town. Another enduring rebellion was that of Serb villagers in Kusić and Zlatica , who established their own "Soviet republic" with assistance from
27792-423: The ninth century, chief among them being the Muspilli , Merseburg charms , and Hildebrandslied , and other religious texts (the Georgslied , Ludwigslied , Evangelienbuch , and translated hymns and prayers). The Muspilli is a Christian poem written in a Bavarian dialect offering an account of the soul after the Last Judgment , and the Merseburg charms are transcriptions of spells and charms from
27985-409: The northern barbarian Thracian and Illyrian tribes by advancing from Macedonia as far as the Danube in 336 BCE. Under the Romans, the Danube formed the border of the Empire with the tribes to the north almost from its source to its mouth. At the same time, it was a route for the transport of troops and the supply of settlements downstream. From 37 CE to the reign of the Emperor Valentinian I (364–375)
28178-405: The northern communes of Severin. The reform was sanctioned by a dictatorial National Renaissance Front , with Alexandru Marta assigned as Royal Commissioner; his tenure only strengthened centralization. During World War II, Nazi Germany involved itself in endorsing regional government for the Swabians. In Romania, it promoted Swabian identity as a Nazi construct, prompting a major split between
28371-420: The occasion, and informed the other attendees that he and his peers would form national institutions of their own. Years later, Roth recalled being amazed that no Hungarian present moved to assassinate either him, for being a republican, or Cosma, for being a Romanian nationalist . The MSZDP local chapter organized the effort to create both the People's Council and subsequent Republican government, beginning with
28564-418: The occasion, saluting the intervention; Roth greeted Čolović with the slogan "Long live internationalism!" On 16–17 November, the National Guard of the Republic was disbanded, and, according to Birăescu, "hundreds of Romanian peasants" were set free from Republican jails. Roth was technically confirmed as civilian governor, and the People's Council remained in place as a regional legislature. Government instructed
28757-415: The other Council delegates and a number of sympathetic Swabians, Banat Romanians participated in negotiations with Károly's representative, Oszkár Jászi . The CNRC issued demands for the whole territory of the Banat Republic to be annexed by Romania, alongside the counties of Csanád and Békés ; Jászi replied with promises of cantonal federalism within a "new democratic country". Talks were suspended without
28950-424: The peasant movement, notably at Jebel , where 17 were killed in the confrontation. Government remained largely powerless, but its task was taken up by loyalist troops from Timișoara. At Margina, they reportedly relied on 33 mercenaries employed by the sugar industry, who resorted to terrorizing the population. On 4 November, loyalist units stormed into Denta and Cărpiniș , executing some tens of looters. The same day,
29143-441: The planned partition of the Banat, though Muth also pressed for the Swabians to have cultural autonomy as described by the Minority Treaties . The Banat frontier was largely settled under the Treaty of Trianon of June 1920. The area was effectively partitioned between Yugoslavia and Romania during July, though there were still border adjustments to 1924. During that interval, the Bunjevac-Šokac Party began advocating autonomy for
29336-425: The population, namely those to whom the Serbs and Romanians afforded no say regarding the region's future. Roth himself belonged to a minority: he was of Jewish origins, but did not practice Judaism. His government was primarily backed by Hungarian and German workers, and found core support among the Swabian Catholic intellectuals. Roth's policies were contested from within the Republic's nominal territory by Cosma and
29529-462: The pronunciation of the ending -ig as [ɪk] instead of [ɪç]. In Northern Germany, High German was a foreign language to most inhabitants, whose native dialects were subsets of Low German. It was usually encountered only in writing or formal speech; in fact, most of High German was a written language, not identical to any spoken dialect, throughout the German-speaking area until well into the 19th century. However, wider standardization of pronunciation
29722-442: The reemergence of Hungarian Gendarmes sparked a number of conflicts between the occupied and occupiers. Also on 12 November, the local Romanian community aligned itself with the Central Romanian National Council (CNRC) of Transylvania , which was becoming the main ethnic representation body. Iosif Renoi, a Romanian member of the MSZDP and a resident of Bocșa , was elected on the CNRC leadership board. During November, together with
29915-404: The region in appointing an Alispán for Krassó-Szörény. Following Romanian protests, this move was vetoed by the French. Protests and strikes followed soon after Roth's toppling from power. Timișoara's German and Hungarian workers asked the French to intervene against the consolidation of a "Serbian empire" and to preserve the armistice agreement. Pursued by the Yugoslavs, Roth found refuge with
30108-415: The region under a unified government. This setback prompted Mocioni to withdraw from politics altogether. Ethnic federalism was again redrawn in the 1900s by Aurel Popovici . However, his project, the " United States of Greater Austria ", suggested the Banat's partitioning between a Romanian Transylvania and a rump Hungary, with a special status for Swabian-settled areas. The Banat issue was revisited during
30301-411: The retreating German army , while many of the ones left were the target post-war expulsions . In the easternmost counties, some 7,000 Swabians were deported as labor conscripts in the Soviet Union . Although many refugees and deportees were accepted in West Germany , 10,000 of those identified as French, having left the Banat by 1945, were relocated to France. In Caraș, the Social Democrats clashed with
30494-524: The revolutionaries of wanting to separate Transylvania and the Banat from Romania. This charge was again proffered in disputes between the post-communist National Salvation Front and its opponents. Members of the former spuriously claimed that the latter's Proclamation of Timișoara was about regional autonomy. During the Ceaușescu era, the Swabian exodus had been accelerated, as the regime had agreed to provide exit visas for tens of thousands of Romanian Germans in exchange for hard currency. Especially after
30687-465: The river has been part of a trans-European waterway from Rotterdam on the North Sea to Sulina on the Black Sea, a distance of 3,500 km (2,200 mi). In 1994 the Danube was declared one of ten Pan-European transport corridors , routes in Central and Eastern Europe that required major investment over the following ten to fifteen years. The amount of goods transported on the Danube increased to about 100 million tons in 1987. In 1999, transport on
30880-481: The river was made difficult by the NATO bombing of three bridges in Serbia during the Kosovo War . Clearance of the resulting debris was completed in 2002, and a temporary pontoon bridge that hampered navigation was removed in 2005. At the Iron Gate , the Danube flows through a gorge that forms part of the boundary between Serbia and Romania; it contains the Iron Gate I Hydroelectric Power Station dam, followed at about 60 km (37 mi) downstream (outside
31073-426: The river. The Danube Delta ( Romanian : Delta Dunării pronounced [ˈdelta ˈdunərij] ; Ukrainian : Дельта Дунаю , romanized : Del'ta Dunayu ) is the largest river delta in the European Union . The greater part of the Danube Delta lies in Romania (Tulcea county), while its northern part, on the left bank of the Chilia arm, is situated in Ukraine (Odesa Oblast). The approximate surface
31266-443: The river. Members include representatives from Austria, Bulgaria, Croatia, Germany, Hungary, Moldova, Slovakia, Romania, Russia, Ukraine, and Serbia; it meets regularly twice a year. It also convenes groups of experts to consider items provided for in the commission's working plans. The commission dates to the Paris Conferences of 1856 and 1921, which established for the first time an international regime to safeguard free navigation on
31459-491: The same word means "river". The Finnish word for Danube is Tonava , which is most likely derived from the name of the river in German , Donau . Its Sámi name Deatnu means "Great River". It is possible that dānu in Scythian as in Avestan was a generic word for "river": Dnieper and Dniestr , from Danapris and Danastius , are presumed to continue Scythian * dānu apara "far river" and * dānu nazdya- "near river", respectively. In Latin,
31652-427: The sixth-to-third millennium BCE Vinča culture (Vinča, Serbia), are sited along the Danube. The third millennium BCE Vučedol culture (from the Vučedol site near Vukovar , Croatia ) is famous for its ceramics. Darius the Great , king of Persia , crossed the river in the late 6th century BCE to invade European Scythia and to subdue the Scythians . Alexander the Great defeated the Triballian king Syrmus and
31845-492: The states of North Dakota and South Dakota , German is the most common language spoken at home after English. As a legacy of significant German immigration to the country , German geographical names can be found throughout the Midwest region , such as New Ulm and Bismarck (North Dakota's state capital), plus many other regions. A number of German varieties have developed in the country and are still spoken today, such as Pennsylvania Dutch and Texas German . In Brazil,
32038-415: The suffix -ouwe "wetland". Romanian differs from other surrounding languages in designating the river with a feminine term, Dunărea ( IPA: [ˈdunəre̯a] ). This form was not inherited from Latin, although Romanian is a Romance language. To explain the loss of the Latin name, scholars who suppose that Romanian developed near the large river propose that the Romanian name descends from
32231-449: The third most commonly learned second language in the United States in K-12 education. The language has been influential in the fields of philosophy, theology, science, and technology. It is the second most commonly used language in science and the third most widely used language on websites . The German-speaking countries are ranked fifth in terms of annual publication of new books, with one-tenth of all books (including e-books) in
32424-483: The three traditional counties ( Temes , Torontál , Krassó-Szörény ). Republican officials boasted that, by 4 November, they had already created a new administrative apparatus, as well as setting up a National Guard. The core of government was a 20-member Executive Committee, which proceeded to deal with the issues of supplies and famine. On 3 November, the Republic and its confederation with Hungary earned support from another Swabian popular assembly, whose chief organizer
32617-490: The total area of the Danube Delta reaches 5,165 km (1,994 sq mi). The Danube Delta is also the best-preserved river delta in Europe, a UNESCO World Heritage Site (since 1991) and a Ramsar Site . Its lakes and marshes support 45 freshwater fish species. Its wetlands support vast flocks of migratory birds of over 300 species, including the endangered pygmy cormorant ( Phalacrocorax pygmaeus ). These are threatened by rival canalization and drainage schemes such as
32810-403: The traditional forms of administrative organization". Within eight years, the larger units were folded back into counties by the national-communist leader, Nicolae Ceaușescu . The nationalist drive later came with renewed suspicion toward autonomy movements, and toned down internationalism. In 1972, an article by C. Mîcu, which contained some praise of the 1918 Republic, was mistakenly published by
33003-438: The world being published in German. German is most closely related to other West Germanic languages, namely Afrikaans , Dutch , English , the Frisian languages , and Scots . It also contains close similarities in vocabulary to some languages in the North Germanic group , such as Danish , Norwegian , and Swedish . Modern German gradually developed from Old High German , which in turn developed from Proto-Germanic during
33196-431: The world. Ordered from the source to the mouth they are: The Danube is navigable by ocean ships from the Black Sea to Brăila in Romania (the maritime river sector), and further on by river ships to Kelheim , Bavaria , Germany; smaller craft can navigate further upstream to Ulm , Württemberg , Germany. About 60 of its tributaries are also navigable. Since the completion of the German Rhine–Main–Danube Canal in 1992,
33389-415: The written form of German. One of the central events in the development of ENHG was the publication of Luther's translation of the Bible into High German (the New Testament was published in 1522; the Old Testament was published in parts and completed in 1534). Luther based his translation primarily on the Meißner Deutsch of Saxony , spending much time among the population of Saxony researching
33582-412: Was Kaspar Muth . The state legislature was the same as the People's Council of Timișoara, and included 70 members from the local Civic Party and other "bourgeois parties", 60 from the national military committees, 40 from the Workers' Council , and the entire 20-member Timișoara city council. According to the Romanian author Gheorghe Iancu , in terms of individual affiliation, the Council was dominated by
33775-429: Was a "neutral" language as there were virtually no English native speakers in Namibia at that time. German, Afrikaans, and several indigenous languages thus became "national languages" by law, identifying them as elements of the cultural heritage of the nation and ensuring that the state acknowledged and supported their presence in the country. Today, Namibia is considered to be the only German-speaking country outside of
33968-422: Was aired in early 1919 by George D. Herron , an American socialist and pacifist. French diplomats gave some support to Herron's designs, a matter which aggravated Franco–Romanian relations . On 16 April 1920, Swabian activists submitted to the Peace Conference another failed proposal for Banatian–Bačkan independence, specifically referencing the Swiss cantonal model. The "neutral and independent republic of Banatia"
34161-407: Was an artificial standard that did not correspond to any traditional spoken dialect. Rather, it was based on the pronunciation of German in Northern Germany, although it was subsequently regarded often as a general prescriptive norm, despite differing pronunciation traditions especially in the Upper-German-speaking regions that still characterise the dialect of the area today – especially
34354-415: Was assigned Commissioner in the Banat, tasked with imposing martial law against conservative rebels. In parallel, the concept of a Romanian Banat was being advanced by Romanian radicals. One of these was Eftimie Murgu , who organized a popular assembly in June and proclaimed a "Romanian Captaincy" within revolutionary Hungary. This effort was mainly directed against the Habsburg ( Imperial Austrian ) regime;
34547-421: Was attempting to organize a Hungarian front against the advancing French Danube Army , claims that he created the Republic as a buffer zone; he also records 31 October as the Republic's official birth date. Also that day, the Common Army split into National Committees representing the constituent nationalities. This was done by agreement between German Austria , still represented locally by Baron von Hordt , and
34740-399: Was defend the border against the Turkish advances. From 1552, most areas now regarded as the Banat were absorbed into a single Ottoman administrative unit, named Eyalet of Temeşvar . Before 1568, the east was an autonomous Banate of Lugos , administered by the Transylvanian Principality before most of it was folded back into the Eyalet. Upon emerging victorious in the Great Turkish War ,
34933-427: Was established on the basis of public speaking in theatres and the media during the 20th century and documented in pronouncing dictionaries. Official revisions of some of the rules from 1901 were not issued until the controversial German orthography reform of 1996 was made the official standard by governments of all German-speaking countries. Media and written works are now almost all produced in Standard German which
35126-448: Was home to 1.58 million people; of them, 592,049 (37.42%) were Romanian, 387,545 (24.50%) were Swabian or other German, 284,329 (17.97%) were Serbs, and 242,152 (15.31%) Hungarian, with 4.8% belonging to "fourteen smaller ethnic groups". 855,852 (54.10%) belonged to the Eastern Orthodox churches, while 591,447 (37.38%) were Catholics. Relying on similar data, historian Mircea Rusnac argues that the Republic could claim to represent some 47% of
35319-450: Was known to the ancient Greeks as the Istros ( Ἴστρος ) from a root possibly also encountered in the ancient name of the Dniester ( Danaster in Latin, Tiras in Greek) and akin to Iranic turos 'swift' and Sanskrit iṣiras ( इषिरस् ) 'swift', from the PIE * isro- , * sreu 'to flow'. In the Middle Ages, the Greek Tiras was borrowed into Italian as Tyrlo and into Turkic languages as Tyrla ;
35512-446: Was mostly embraced by Swabians of French ( Lorrain ) descent, who also proposed a separate canton for their subgroup. By then, however, the Franco-Swabian Stefan Frecôt had joined efforts with Michael Kausch and created a "German–Swabian People's Party" (DSVP), which competed with Muth's Autonomous Swabian Party . Muth and Imbroane both won seats in Romania's Lower Chamber during the race of May 1920 . Both deputies spoke out against
35705-414: Was much larger than today's Danube, can still be seen in (now waterless) canyons in today's landscape of the Swabian Alb . After the Upper Rhine valley had been eroded, most waters from the Alps changed their direction and began feeding the Rhine. Today's upper Danube is thus an underfit stream . Since the Swabian Alb is largely shaped of porous limestone , and since the Rhine's level is much lower than
35898-439: Was placed under arrest for his involvement with the antifascist Union of Patriots ; Roth himself was able to organize an effort to free Groza. He was nevertheless submitted to the racial legislation for the remainder of the war, during which time he contemplated exiling himself and all other Jewish Banatians to Madagascar . Following the King Michael Coup of August 1944, Serb partisan units experimented with self-government in
36091-550: Was proclaimed at Sombor as a close ally of the Banat Republic. According to his own recollections, Bartha began separate negotiations with the French, falsely claiming that he had 40,000 soldiers prepared to resist them. In reality, he acknowledged, there were less than 4,000. His rivals Cosma and Lucian Georgevici had set themselves the goal of creating Romanian military units in each small locality; they reported 60,000 recruits in Temes alone. However, all competing sides had limited control over rural areas: peasants and returnees from
36284-422: Was recognized only by the neighboring Hungarian Republic , with which it sought a merger. Its military structures were inherited from the Common Army , and placed under the command of a Hungarian officer, Albert Bartha . The Republic advocated the establishment of a Swiss cantonal model in Eastern Europe, and favored peaceful cooperation among ethnicities, as alternatives to partition. It had limited control of
36477-431: Was regarded as in breach of the 1923 Constitution . This status quo was challenged by Romulus Boilă of the National Peasants' Party , who proposed dividing Romania into autonomous entities—though his project was never popular with the electorate. The Banat was reestablished as a single "land" in 1938–1940, taking the name of Ținutul Timiș . The new structure also annexed non-Banatian areas, namely Hunedoara County and
36670-403: Was revived in part by a coalition of Serb and Romanian deputies in the Hungarian Diet , including Svetozar Miletić , Vincențiu Babeș , and Sigismund Popoviciu . During 1866, they proposed laws to redefine Hungary on the basis of ethnic federalism and corporatism . However, the Austro-Hungarian Compromise of 1867 cemented the Banat's annexation to the Lands of the Hungarian Crown , and kept
36863-455: Was said to be in contact with representatives of the Hungarian Soviet Republic . He continued to propose solutions for Banat's autonomy, including a plan to have the region absorbed into the French colonial empire . In 1920, the Banat was divided between Yugoslavia, Romania, and Regency Hungary . Banat separatist and federalist schemes continued to be drafted during the early interwar period, being especially popular with Swabians. Before 1921,
37056-579: Was tried and executed by a self-appointed court, and again at Denta , where the archive was devastated and its curator seriously injured. The mayor of Bunya (now Făget ) was murdered, and the schoolteacher and priest were chased out. The rebel groups also organized looting against landowners of all nationalities—including attacks on the Mocioni family estate at Birchiș , the Bissingen-Nippenburg residence in Vojvodinci , and Géza Szalay's manor in Voiteg . In that context, Roth's Republic resorted to applying martial law . Its National Guard attempted to repress
37249-421: Was ultimately rejected by Leopold II . The status quo was challenged by the rise of Hungarian nationalism and liberalism . In 1834, mountainous eastern Banat hosted a Masonic Lodge which preached republicanism. These ideas were at the forefront of the Hungarian Revolution of 1848 , which proclaimed independence for the entire Kingdom, maintaining its hold on the Banat. A pro-Hungarian Serb, Petar Čarnojević ,
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