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Green-White or White-Green

By Hans Kopp

Since the time of the Donauschwaben reached the shore of the USA a controversy developed about the colors of the flag of the Donauschwaben; "Green-White or White-Green", this controversy still seems to be present. Let us take a look at the history of the flag and how the primary colors of the flag derived to end any possible controversy which may still exist.

The colors of the Donauschwaben flag are White-Green and the order must be followed. Its origin can be traced to the city of Weißkirchen, Banat whose colors were also White-Green. During the turn of the 20th Century, Weißkirchen was the center of the awakening movement of the Donauschwaben under their leader Ludwig Kremling 1861-1930 of Weißkirchen. Ludwig Kremling became the first president of the "Ungarländische Deutsche Volkspartei" in 1906 when it was founding.

The selection of the colors should not be surprising. They were selected in honor of Weißkirchen most likely also in honor of Anton Kremling. There is the possibility that Red-White-Green of the Hungarian flag may have influenced the selection of the colors, since Hungary was the homeland of the Donauschwaben till 1918.

The symbolic representation of the colors are: "White" represents the peaceful character, work ethics and productivity of the Donauschwaben, "Green" represents the breadbasket they created and the land they cultivated which became their new homeland, their paradise.

Josef Volkmar Senz, the great teacher and author of the Donauschwaben finalist the colors in Salzburg, Austria in 1955, as "White-Green" in his book "Geschichte der Donauschwaben" (History of the Donauschwaben).

  

WHO ARE THE DANUBE SWABIANS?  (From the book “The History of the Danube Swabians” by Hans Kopp)  and from ....... * Dennis Bauer Genealogist for the New Jersey German club.

The Danube Swabians are the descendants of those German colonists, who settled during the three “Great Swabian Migrations” in Hungary. The colonization was done by explicit invitation of the Hungarian Landlords, during the reign of the Habsburgs as Kings of Hungary and Emperors of the “Holy Roman Empire of the German Nation”, to repopulate the land after the defeat of the Ottoman Empire by a contingency of German-Austrian allied forces (1683-1718). They became first known as the ‘Ungarlaendische Deutschen” (German-Hungarians). After the dismantling of the Austrian-Hungarian Empire at the end of WWI by the allied Nations, the regions the Germans had settled in Hungary were divided among three nations, Hungary, Romania and the newly created Yugoslavia, thus making the collective name “Ungarlaendische Deutschen” for the Germans no longer valid.

   * (EDITOR’S NOTE: The members of our club, having been founded in 1910, continue to call themselves “German-Hungarians”.)

The name “Danube Swabians” was coined in 1920 by Robert Sieger , a geographer from Graz and Dr. Herman Ruediger, a scientist from Stuttgart and defined by the German Foreign Department in 1930, during the Weimar Republic, acknowledging the German origin of the Danube Swabians. The Germans realized that, left unassisted and divided among Romanians, Yugoslavs and Hungarians, the Danube Swabians would not be able to resist assimilation attempts and as an ethnic group would disappear and with them a culture and values worth preserving. This collective name would identify and better describe the Germans, whose ancestors settled in Hungary during the three “Great Swabian Migrations”.

The name derived from the German province of Swabia (Schwaben) and the Danube (Duna/Donau) River. The name Danube derived from the Celtic word Danubius their name for the Danube. However, the name was not personally used by the “Danube Swabians”, the youngest of the German “Volksgruppen” (folks groups), until after their expulsion by the Communist Governments of their respective countries after WWII. The Danube Swabians are also referred to as “Donau-Deutsche” meaning Danube Germans.

 

 

        

               

Description of Coat of Arms

Gold and white are separated by a wavy blue chevron; the upper area has a black eagle spiced with red; below is a white fortress with six towers and a red-roofed building on green arable soil above which float the shining golden sun on the right and the white waning moon on the left.

The left and right are described-as customary in heraldry-not from the viewpoint of the observer, but rather from the eyes of the knight on a horse.

Meaning of the symbols and colors of the Coat of Arms.

As a distinctive imperial sign the eagle holds his wings protectively over the Pannonian countryside (Roman province) in the central region of the Danube and symbolizes the obligation of the Holy Roman Emperor to protect those borders of the Empire. The emperor Charlemagne chose the eagle as imperial symbol in the 9th century. Since the 12th century it has represented power and unity as the German coat of arms.

The wavy chevron symbolizes the Danube-the river of destiny for the new ethnic group on which the ancestors traveled in box-boats called "Ulmer Schachtel" (named after the city of embarkation, Ulm). They settled on both sides of the central Danube region from the Raab River in the north-west to the Iron Gate in the south-east, partially as the emperor's guards along the defensive military border (protecting against further attacks). A German landscape was thereby created. The geographical aspect of this group's name refers to the Danube, however, the ethnic content does not refer to a regional dialect, but rather to a ethnological and historical factors-combined with settlement and folklore-and has become an understandable expression. Amidst fertile farmland which the Danube-Swabians made arable stands the strong fortress of Temeschburg (Timisoara), a symbol of the imperial, German defense fortifications and military border against the Turks. The fortress is flanked by the half-moon, the temporal symbol of Islam representing the Turkish threat to Europe which was declining during the 17th and 18th centuries; then there is the bright rising sun, symbol of Christ, who is honored as the sun of justice and true light-a focal point for the future, and therefore representing victory and a new beginning for the Western, Christian culture against barbarity and retreating Islam. This victory was accomplished in the Pannonian basin during the 18th century. The six towers of the fortress represent the six main regions of settlement for the Danube-Swabians: Kis (Little) Alföld (the mountains of south-western Hungary), Swabian Turkey (south of Lake Balaton), Slavonia-Syrmia, Batschka, Banat, Sathmar with the Crisana-Maramures region.

The coat of Arms shows Germany's national colors-black, red and gold, and the Danube-Swabian ethnic colors-white and green. Black-red-gold, the symbol of German unification as well as colors of the German League, are incorporated into the coat of arms because Danube-Swabian history developed within the framework of the Holy Roman Empire (under Germanic kings) until 1806.

White is the symbol for the peaceful sentiments of Danube-Swabians; green represents hope and also the new fields of their homeland which were cultivated to become an important grain region.

Coat of arms originator: Hans Diplich, 1950 / authored by Hans Sonnleitner