Identitate națională, confesională și loialitate dinastică în Regimentul de graniță germano-bănățean nr. 12 (1764–1872)
National, Confessional Identity and Dynastic Loyalty in the German-Banat Frontier Regiment no. 12 (1764–1872)

Summary/Abstract: Border guards from Banat repeatedly proved their loyalty to the House of Habsburg and to the Monarchy, participating in numerous wars waged by Austria against the Turks, but also on other European fronts. Starting from the privileges granted by Emperor Leopold I during the Serbian Migration of 1690, the idea of loyalty to the dynasty was present among Serbs in the situation in which they enjoyed religious and school autonomy and the exemption from feudal obligations in the Military Frontier, subordinated directly to the military authorities in Vienna. On the territory of the German-Banat Regiment no. 12, with headquarters in Pančevo, there was a heterogeneous population in terms of their ethnic and religious affiliation, consisting of Serbs, Romanians, Germans, Slovaks and Hungarians, and it is from this population that theborder guards were recruited. The ethnic/national identity of the Serbs and Romanians in the villages and towns belonging to this regiment went through several stages during their existence, which became more and more evolved throughout the decades and whichreached maturity during the events of 1848/49. At certain points in this period, their fidelity to the Emperor was partially questioned, but it eventually ended with them maintaining the attitude of obedience to the monarch. The rise of national sentiment in the years after the Revolution did not significantly contribute to the change of attitude towards the supreme power in the following period. The abolition of the Banat Frontier in 1872–73 caused dissatisfaction among the border guards, who saw this act as the loss of the privileges they had enjoyed up to then and the inclusion in the civil society of Hungary, which they considered to pose a threat to the free expression of their nationality and religious affiliation.

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