Germans of Serbia

1910 census in Vojvodina: red: German majority; pink: German plurality

Germans started to settle in the territory of present-day Serbia in the end of the 17th century, when Habsburg monarchy took parts of these areas from the Ottoman Empire. During Habsburg rule, Germans were privileged nationality in the Monarchy and German language was a lingua franca of the country, used by members of other ethnicities as well. After the Austro-Hungarian compromise from 1867, present-day northern Serbia was included into the Hungarian part of the Dual Monarchy and Hungarian language replaced German as a main language of administration and inter-ethnic communication.

In 1918, following the dissolution of Austria-Hungary, a short-lived Banat Republic was proclaimed in Banat region, mainly as an initiative of local Germans. Soon, the territory of this republic was divided between the newly formed Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes and the Kingdom of Romania. In 1929, regions of present-day Serbia that had sizable German population (Banat, Bačka, Syrmia) were included into the newly formed Danube Banovina province.

In the interwar period, Germans were one of the largest national minorities on the territory of present-day Serbia, second only to the Hungarians. According to 1931 census, Germans formed the largest part of population in the districts ("srez") of Bačka Palanka, Odžaci, Kula, Apatin, and Sombor. They also formed the largest part of population in several important cities and towns such are Vršac, Ruma, Bačka Palanka, Inđija, Vrbas, Futog, Apatin, Nova Pazova, Bela Crkva, Crvenka, Odžaci, Bački Jarak, Bač, Banatski Karlovac, Plandište, Žitište, Jaša Tomić, Sečanj, etc., as well as in one number of other settlements.

During the Axis occupation of Yugoslavia, from 1941 to 1944, Banat was an autonomous German-administered region within occupied Serbia. The 7th SS Volunteer Mountain Division Prinz Eugen formed in 1941 from Volksdeutsche (ethnic German) volunteers from the Banat was a German mountain infantry division of the Waffen-SS, the armed wing of the German Nazi Party. The notorious SS Division committed massive war crimes against the Serbian civilian population. In 1943 Heinrich Himmler introduced compulsory military service for ethnic Germans in Serbia.[2] The German military defeat in World War II resulted in flight or imprisonment of the almost entire German community (which numbered about 350,000) in Serbia's territory. It is estimated that about 200,000 Germans were evacuated during the flight of the German army from Serbian territory, while about 140,000 who remained in the country were sent to prison camps run by the new communist authorities. After prison camps were dissolved (in 1948), most of the remaining German population left Serbia because of economic reasons.

In 2007, the minority formed a national council for the first time since the Second World War.[3] In the 2000s several monuments to the pre-war German population have been erected.[4] In 2008 the Association of Danube Swabians requested that the government of the city of Sremska Mitrovica exhume the bodies of Germans who died in a post-war camp in the town.[5]

• 
  Provinces of the Habsburg Monarchy in the territory of present-day Serbia, 1718–1739
• 
  Banat Republic, proclaimed in 1918
• 
  Republic of Banatia, proposed in 1920
• 
  South German buffer state, planned in 1941

Most of the Germans (3,272) are living in the autonomous Vojvodina region, with sizable number (498) also in Belgrade region.

• Ivan Bek
• Lujza Mišić
• Ignjat Sopron
• Đorđe Vajfert
• Helmar Müller, West German olympic track and field athlete
• Anna Stein, West German olympic artistic gymnast

• Germany-Serbia relations
• Serbs in Germany
• German exonyms (Vojvodina)

• Zoran Janjetović (2009). Nemci u Vojvodini. INIS. ISBN 978-86-7005-073-0.
• Nenad Stefanović, Jedan svet na Dunavu, Beograd, 2003.
• Dr Anđelija Ivkov, Demografska slika Vojvodine, Beograd, 2006.
• Saša Kicošev; Drago Njerovan (2013) [2010], Razvoj etničke i verske strukture Vojvodine, Novi Sad: Prometej, ISBN 978-86-87513-20-4
• Borislav Jankulov (2003) [1961], Pregled kolonizacije Vojvodine u XVIII i XIX veku, Matica Srpska
• Dragomir Jankov, Vojvodina - propadanje jednog regiona, Novi Sad, 2004.

• Aleksandar Krel (2010), Etnički identitet: Nemci u Vojvodini : doktorska disertacija
• Krel, A., 2012. Sprechen sie deutsch? German language and revitalization of ethnic identity of the Germans in Bačka. Glasnik Etnografskog instituta SANU, 60(2), pp. 171–185.

• Official Website by the Germans of Serbia: Nacionalni savet nemačke nacionalne manjine