Die Entstehung der Landler-Identität: Gruppenbildungsprozesse als Folge von Migrationen nach Siebenbürgen im 18. Jahrhundert
Developing the Landler Identity: Forced Migration and Group Building in 18th Century Transylvania

Summary/Abstract: Because they did not want to convert to Catholicism, during the 18th century (1734–1737, 1752–1756, 1773–1776) around 4,000 Austrian crypto-Protestants were deported from core lands of the Habsburg Monarchy to Transylvania, predominantly into the communities of Turnişor (Neppendorf), Cristian (Großau), and Apoldu de Sus (Großpold) north of Sibiu. The Viennese Court expected that in Transylvania the deportees would be assimilated by the Protestant Saxons in a short time. But the measures of the Viennese Court to promote assimilation were overshadowed by the picture of heretics and trouble-makers that the discrimination against the “transmigrants” had created in the Austrian settlement regions. It went hand in hand with the rejection of the newcomers by the population of the communities of Transylvanian Saxons. They saw the newcomers as potential competitors. As a consequence, despite their varied regional origins, the newcomers developed a group identity with local characteristics in the mentioned three communities. It found expression in the group name Landler, which became established in Transylvania since the middle of the 19th century.

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