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
: 02/2007
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 and maintain schools, etc, but wages are very low, while prices slowly achieve Austrian levels for many goods. As of May 2006, average wages
in Pressburg, the richest area, is around 12,000 Slovak Crowns ($350/month), and 6,000 Kronen in Eastern Slovakia. Pensions are accordingly low,
especially for Germans, as their years of slave labor are not counted by social security, and their confiscated homes have not been restituted.
This explains why Carpathian Germans need your support.
Carpathian Germans in USA and Kanada
John E. Scholtz, Secretary
14100 Worthington Road, Philadelphia, PA 19116
Organizes annual meeting. E-Mail: Dan (preferred) or
J. Scholtz Scholtz
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.
Evelyn's Golden Harvest
Homemade bee pollen, home remedies, and natural foods are found at EBS Golden Harvest, founded and managed
by a gal from Zipser Bela and Eisdorf. Try it out!
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 constitute the "Arbeitsgemeinschaft der Karpatendeutschen."
Website.
Karpatendeutsche Landsmannschaft
Haus der Heimat; Schloss-strasse 92/II; 70176 Stuttgart; Germany
Tel.: (49)711-626262, FAX: (49) 711-625576
E-mail: Karpatendeutsche and
KDL Website.
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: $30 a year
per surface mail. The KDL also publishes the Karpatenjahrbuch, a handsome, 150-200 pages annual, with
articles on local history and folklore ($30) 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, secular chairman, Rev. Metzl, spiritual chairman
Office at Karpatendeutsche Landsmannschaft in Stuttgart, Germany
HiKo Website
Hilfsbund karpatendeutscher Katholiken
Rev. Johann Kotschner, spiritual chairman
Office at: Stafflenbergstra�e 46; D-70184 Stuttgart; Germany
Tel.: 0711/1645-585; fax: 0711/1645-551
Hilfsbund Website
Karpatendeutsches Kulturwerk Slowakei
Chair: Dr. Joerg Meier, University of Leiden (Netherlands)
Stadtbibliothek-Archiv Sammlungen; Suedlicher Herrenhof 1; 76133 Karlsruhe; Germany
Has exposition of Carpathian German folklore, research archives etc. Exposition is in Schloss Karlsburg,
Pfinztalstrasse, D-76227 Karlsruhe.
Kulturwerk The current contact person is Dr. Michael Heck.
Kulturwerk Website
The KDL has currently the following Ortsgemeinschaften (OG), which can be helpful for genealogy and the like. The Addresses of the
people to contact for each can be requested from the KDL. OG's exist for the Pressburg & Danube areas: St Georgen, Tscherman;
Hauerland localities of: Blaufuss, Krickerhau, Kuneschhau, Neuhau, Oberstuben, Schmiedshau, Unterturz, Oberturz, Zeche;
Zips: Hollumtz, Gross-Lomnitz, Johannesberg (Arbeitskreiss, not OG), Malthern, Metzenseifen & Stoss, Zipser Bela.
Zentrum gegen Vertreibungen
Created by the federation of expellees to create a memorial and museum for the 15-16 million Germans who lost their homelands after World War II
and the estimated 2.5 to 3 million among them who died in the process. For the English language version, click on the small British flag in the right hand corner of
Zentrum against Ethnic Cleansing
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). The KDLOe has branches with
regular meetings in Hainburg and Salzburg, and a state organization in Steiermark Land.
Their webpage is on the site of the Haus der Heimat in Vienna, which is quite interesting also for other areas of old Hungary, such as
for Donauschwaben. VLOE Website. The KDL website at
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
Karpatendeutsche Landsmannschaft Ober-Oesterreich
Weissenwolf-Strasse 17a, A-4020 Linz. Office open Thursdays before noon.
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Karpatendeutscher Verein
Dr. Ondrej Poess, Chairman since April 1, 2003
Lichardova 20, SK-04001 Kos"ice, Republic of Slovakia
Tel: (421)-95-622-41-45.
E-Mail: Karpatendeutsche Slowakei or Karpatendeutsche Slowakei
Karpatenblatt
Karpatenblatt Website
New address (since 2005): Huszova 12, P.O. Box 47
SK-058-01 Poprad; Republic of Slovakia
Tel. and Fax: (421) 52-772 4217.
E-mail: Karpatenblatt
Monthly organ of the KDV, edited by Gabriele Kintzler till Jan. 2000, and from Feb. 2000 to Dec. 2006 by the late Vladimir Majovsky, and currently by the acting
chief editor Andrzej Mikolajczyk. In German, with occasional Slovak,
with news from the rebuilding of the Carpathian German community in Slovakia. Cost, about $25 p.a. by surface mail. Air mail
from Slovakia is expensive (40 Kronen, as of March 2007, the US-$ is 24 Kronen). If you wish it per air mail, send an additional $24. The Slovak Crown is tied to the Euro,
not the US-$, and currently the US-$ is lower. I send cash in a security envelope with "recorded delivery."
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 or Karpatendeutsche Slowakei
Tel.: (421) 7-54415570 FAX: (421) 7-54415557
Begegnungshaeuser in Slovakia
Carpathian German Cultural Centers, called "Meeting Houses," exist in the following cities. They are the headquarters of the local KDV branch.
Several have nice, clean simple rooms to rent to at a low price that helps pay for operating costs. Worth visiting, to meet local survivors, hear
what' s going on, and see how our little people is striving to survive. I do not have the addresses of all of them at this time, and will fill them
in later. Addresses can also be obtained by contacting the KDV or the Karpatenblatt
- Kesmark (Kes^marok). E-Mail: KDV Kesmark
- 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, SK-83103 Bratislava.
- Kaschau (Kos^ice)
- Schwedler (S"vedlar).
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 given): Franz Richweis, SK 05334 S^vedlar 25. Tel: (421) 944-95261, Mrs Kristina Mal.
- Hopgarten (Chmelnica)
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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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