Germanii din Bucovina în preocupările Ligii Culturale a Germanilor din România (1922–1931)
The Germans from Bukovina as Reflected in the Preoccupations of the Cultural League of the Germans in Romania (1922 - 1931)

Summary/Abstract: In 1930 there were 75, 533 Germans in Bukovina, which represented 10% of the total number of Germans in Romania and 8.4% from the population of their province. They had a distinctive national identity since up to 1918 they were part of the dominant nation in the Austrian–Hungarian Empire. They were difference from the other seven groups of Germans in Romania, because they enjoyed the status of national minority also before 1918.In the current paper we deal with the relations of the Cultural League of the Germans in Romania with the Germans in Bukovina, based on the documents of this association, which are stored in the Archives from Sibiu. The Cultural League was founded in 1922 and had as purpose to contribute to strengthening the connections between the eight groups of Germans in Romania and to preserving their cultural identity.The Germans from Bukovina had a far more intellectuals than the other groups (except the Saxons). They attended the post – graduate summer courses from Sibiu, both in the roles of students, as well as lecturers. In 1924 an attempt to organize these courses in Cernăuţi, the capital city of Bukovina, was registered. The project was not completed in the following years either, Richard Csaki, the leader of the League came to the towns of Bukovina to hold the conference. Orchestras, theatre companies also came here, as part of the tournaments organized by the League.The Cultural League has helped the Germans in Bukovina to keep their private schools in the German language, because the Romanian state took ownership of the German schools, claiming that these schools had belonged to the Austrian state. The League sent books and didactic materials to the German schools. Its publications (magazines, books) reached even the Germans in Bukovina. The distribution of the books was not as successful as it had been in other provinces, because here there used to be German libraries since before 1918.It was through the League that scholarships provided by associations in Germany were granted and the German students from Bukovina also received such support (thirteen in 1928). All these actions contributed to the integration of the Germans from Bukovina in the German minority as a whole, as well as to the preservation and consolidation of their national identity.

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