The Germans in Slovenia
Since the high Middle Ages, German nobles, bourgeoisie, clerics, farmers,
industrialists and workers have lived in the land between the Pannonian basin,
Alps and Adriatic Sea: in the Krain and in Lower Styria. A region that now
belongs to the Republic of Slovenia. Although they remained a minority of the
population over the centuries, Germans exerted a substantial influence on the
fate of their homeland through their economic and social position in society.
German settlement in the 10th century followed the founding of markets
and cities such as Marburg/Maribor, Cilli/Celje and Pettau/Ptuj in Lower Styria,
as well as Krainburg/Kranj and Laibach/Ljubljana in the Krain. All of these had
a substantial German element in the population in the Middle Ages. In the 14th
century, German farmers and foresters settled the Gottscheer Land (Kočevsko)
in the Lower Krain. In the period between the reformation and the counter-
reformation, there was an increasing differentiation in class as to the use of the
German and Slovenian languages.
During the period of romantic nationalism in the 19 th and 20th centuries, the
linguistically determined nationality of an individual became a decisive criteria
and thereby a central element of conflicts. During this period, Slovenes and
Germans went from living peacefully and productively with one another to the
nationalistic confrontation characterizing the time of Franz Josef, during which
both groups, struggling for their own political position, increasingly lived
parallel to one another, not with one another.
The Germans became a minority in the Yugoslav state created between the
World Wars. The Germans experienced discrimination in political and societal
life. After the occupation of Lower Styria and the Upper Krain in 1941, and their
de facto absorption into National Socialist Germany, the Nazi leadership
attempted to forcibly Germanize the area. The Gottscheer, whose homeland had
been annexed by fascist Italy, were brought “Home to the Reich” in the
occupied area of Lower Styria. The actions by the German occupants soon
engendered resistance on the part of the Slovenian population. The conflict
between German and Slovene partisans became increasingly brutal in the war
years 1941 to 1945.
Joint German-Slovene history ended with the Expulsion of the Germans
from Yugoslavia in May 1945. Only a very small number of Germans were able
to remain in the country and they began to organize in the 1990s. These
organizations have as their mission preserving the cultural heritage and mother
tongue of their group.
At the start of the third millennium, there are efforts underway to heal the
wounds of the past and to place that what unifies the two peoples before that
which divides them. On this stony path there will be many barriers to overcome
-- for one, the lack of Slovenian government recognition the Germans as an
autochthon ethnic group. But the knowledge of long tradition of mutual
enrichment as well as the frank discussion of open issues between the two
peoples can make this path easier to navigate.