The Carpathian Germans were a small German people living in the territory of today's Slovakia
from the 12th century to 1945, when they suffered genocide. This is the history, and the current
doings, of the people I come from. This page is provided as a private volunteer public service.
It does not represent the official opinions of the Carpathian German Landsmannschaft, but only my
own. Links are provided only for information. Their contents are not the responsability of the
webmaster of this page.
Dr. Thomas Reimer
: 10/20/2000
Back to the HOMEPAGE
CARPATHIAN GERMAN ORGANIZATIONS
This Webpage is under construction.
The KDL, in Germany, Slovakia, Austria and USA, works with volunteers and a small budget to save Carpathian German
culture, and help the survivors in the old homeland rebuild their lives after 50 years of oppression. Consider sending a
donation, to honor your Carpathian German ancestors, or simply out of empathy with a small ethnic group that suffered
grieviously in a forgotten World War II tragedy. In general, to send money from the USA to Germany, Austria or Slovakia,
send money orders, (but not postal money orders, which are valid only within the U.S.). The money orders sold by your
supermarket are accepted by European banks for a low fee, (usually $3), while personal checks are virtually useless
because of the high cost of cashing them. In Europe, they do not seem to share our habit of sending letters of acknowledgment,
and neither do the KDL and KDV. However, donations to the Lutheran Hilfskommittee and the Catholic Hilfsbund are noted
in the Karpatenpost, as are those over $50 to the Landsmannschaft in Austria. In Slovakia, the KDV members work hard to
rebuild schools, etc, but wages are very low, while prices slowly achieve Austrian levels for many goods. As of Winter
1998/1999, the minimum wage (received by about half the people, especially in the poor East) is $85/month, and the
average wage in Pressburg, the richest area, $166/month. This explains why in this crucial period of reconstruction, Carpathian
Germans need support.
Carpathian Germans in USA and Kanada
John E. Scholtz, Secretary
14100 Worthington Road, Philadelphia, PA 19116
Organizes annual meeting.
Hans Weiss Gallery
138 Oakland Street; Manchester, CT 06040
Artist from Malthern in the Zips, in Eastern Slovakia. His etchings and drawings also deal with
Carpathian German motives. They are not on his webpage, so write him for list.
Langsam Library. Few libraries in North America have works on Carpathian Germans.
Usually, if at all, it is an odd book here and there. But the University of Cincinatti has a decent number of books. Check their catalogue.
When searching, remember that the changing fortunes of the area produced a salad of keywords these books are listed under,
e.g. Germans--Carpathian Mountains, Germans--Hungary, Germans--Czechoslovakia, Germans--Slovakia, etc.
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FEDERAL REPUBLIC OF GERMANY
The four organizations in the Federal Republic share a new Website.
Karpatendeutsche Landsmannschaft
Haus der Heimat; Schloss-strasse 92/II; 70176 Stuttgart; Germany
Tel.: (49)711-626262, FAX: (49) 711-625576
Publishes since 1950 the monthly Karpatenpost, in German, with news about culture, legal status, and
personal events concerning Carpathian Germans worldwide, with emphasis on Germany. Cost: $28 a year
per surface mail. The KDL also publishes the Karpatenjahrbuch, a handsome, 150-200 pages annual, with
articles on local history and folklore ($25) of formerly German places in Slovakia. The
Karpatenpost is also the newsletter for the following two religious organizations.
Hilfskomitee fuer die Evangelisch-Lutherischen Slowakeideutschen
Dr. Emmerich Streck, chairman.
Anisweg 9; D-70619 Stuttgart; Germany
Hilfsbund karpatendeutscher Katholiken
Rev. Johann Kotschner, chairman
Magdalenenstrasse 52; D-64574 Gernsheim; Germany
Karpatendeutsches Kulturwerk Slowakei
Stadtbibliothek-Archiv Sammlungen; Suedlicher Herrenhof 1; 76133 Karlsruhe; Germany
Has exposition of Carpathian German folklore, archives etc. Exposition is in Schloss Karlsburg,
Pfinztalstrasse, D-76227 Karlsruhe.
FEDERAL REPUBLIC OF AUSTRIA
Karpatendeutsche Landsmannschaft in Oesterreich
Quellenstrasse 95; 1100 Wien; Austria. Publishes bi-monthly Heimatblatt. Like Karpatenpost,
but centered more on news concerning people from Pressburg (today Bratislava).
Their Website is in progress
Heimatmuseum der Stadtgemeinde Hainburg--Karpatendeutsche Heimatstube
Wienertor, A-2140 Hainburg/Donau. Tel: 02165/62111. Open from Mai to October.
See: Hainburg
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Karpatendeutscher Verein
Lichardova 20, SK-04000 Kos"ice, Republic of Slovakia
Tel: (421)-95-622-41-54.
Karpatenblatt
Karpatenblatt Website
Namestie Sv. Egidia 50/55; SK-05801 Poprad; Republic of Slovakia
Tel. and Fax: (421) 92-724 217.
Monthly organ of the KDV, edited by Gabriele Kintzler, and since 2/2000 by Vladimir Majovsky. In German with some Slovak,
with news from the rebuilding of the Carpathian German community in Slovakia. Cost, about $20 p.a. by surface mail. Air mail
from Slovakia is expensive. If you wish it per air mail, send an additional $10.
Slovak National Museum-- Carpathian German Department
Muzeum kultury karpatskych Nemcov. Dr. Ondrej Poess, Director
Z"iz"kova 14; SK-81436 Bratislava; Republic of Slovakia
Excellent exhibition of Carpathian German culture. Worth seeing if in Pressburg (Bratislava).
Located since Summer 1997 in a pretty renovated old building, one of the few remaining
of the Zuckermandlerstrasse, right under the old castle next to the Archaeological Museum.
Webpage (in Slovak only right now): Muzea, e-mail:
muzeumkkn@ba.telecom.sk
Tel.: (421) 7-54415570 FAX: (421) 7-54415557
Karpatendeutscher Verein--Region Pressburg
Halas^ova 22; SK-83103 Bratislava; Republic of Slovakia
This is one of six Carpathian German cultural centers in Slovakia. Worth visiting, to meet
local survivors, hear what' s going on, and see how our little people is striving to survive.
Begegnungshaeuser in Slovakia
Carpathian German Cultural Centers, called "Meeting Houses," exist in the following
cities. Several have nice rooms to rent to fellow Carpathian Germans at a low price that helps pay for operating
costs. I do not have the addresses of all of them at this time, and will fill them in later.
Kesmark (Kes^marok)
Einsiedel a.d. Goellnitz (Mnis^ek nad Hnilcom) in the Zips
Metzenseifen (Medzev)
Deutsch-Proben (Nitrianske Pravno)
Krickerhau (Handlova) in the Hauerland
Pressburg (Bratislava) Halas"ova 22, Bratislava.
Kaschau (Kos^ice)
Schwedler (S"vedlar).
Hopgarten (Chmelnica)
The Cultural Center has four 2-bed rooms, a common kitchen and showers, which can be rented at a cost of DM 10 per bed/night.
For info (no street): Franz Richweis, SK 05334 S^vedlar 25. Tel: (421) 944-95261, Mrs Kristina Mal.
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Slovakia
The historical overviews of some of these pages need to be read with anything between a pinch to a pound of salt, as Slovaks
were subjected to 50 years of hate-propaganda against all things German. Even those who wish their former neighbors well do not
always know much about them.The Slovak Information Office webpage, for instance, reporting about the area of
Boesing/Pezinok, manages to describe its
formerly mainly German vintner villages without saying "Carpathian German" once!
Other Germans from South Eastern Europe, and European Minority issues:
The genocide of the Carpathian Germans was not unique. Many ethnic groups in Eastern Europe suffered a
similar fate, on the orders of the Communist leader Josef Stalin, the Nazi Adolf Hitler, the Czech nationalist
Eduard Benesch, and a host of butchers, large and small. Since American media focus singled-mindedly on the
suffering of a particular group, the agony of the members of many others is scarcely known. Yet, they were as
human as the Jewish victims of Hitler, and their children screamed no less when their murderers came.
This list of individual German groups is by no means complete--there used to be German populations in Bessarabia (today's Moldavia),
Russia, Georgia in the Caucasus Mountains, just to name a few. This sampling is just to give some English language
material about prewar German life in Eastern Europe, and their end after the war. Also, its members often have similar concerns
and questions about how to proceed with their research, and just reading about them may spark some ideas for you as well:
More general sites on minority issues in Europe:
- Karpathy, a Polish directory of sites related to the
Carpathian Mountains, mainly in Polish, but with some in English from area ethnic groups, including our own.
- Minorities, our website is at the bottom.
- FUEN, a non-governmental federation of European minorities.
- Alfred de Zayason the Vertreibung.
German and German-American Life and History
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