Swabians

Swabians

Schwaben
Roman Catholicism

Swabians (

The name is ultimately derived from the medieval

Early Modern period

.

Culture

Swabian culture, as distinct from its Alemannic neighbours, evolved in the later medieval and early modern period. After the disintegration of the Duchy of Swabia, a Swabian cultural identity and sense of cultural unity survived, expressed in the formation of the Swabian League of Cities in the 14th century, the Swabian League of 1488, and the establishment of the Swabian Circle in 1512. During this time, a division of culture and identity developed between Swabia and both the Margraviate of Baden to the west and the Swiss Confederacy to the south.

Swabian culture retains many elements common to Alemannic tradition, notably the carnival traditions forming the Swabian-Alemannic Fastnacht.

As the national cultural consensus surrounding

of Weimar Classicism).

As a consequence, southern Germany and by extension both the Swabians and the Bavarians came to be seen as marked deviations from generic Standard German, and a number of clichés or stereotypes developed. These portrayed the Swabians as stingy, overly serious or prudish

. On the positive side, the same stereotype may be expressed in portraying the Swabians as frugal, clever, entrepreneurial and hard-working. The economic recovery of Germany after the Second World War, known as the Wirtschaftswunder, was praised by songwriter Ralf Bendix in his 1964 Schaffe, schaffe Häusle baue / Und net nach de Mädle schaue ("[let's] work and work, and build a house / and not look out for girls" in Swabian dialect). The first line of his song has since become a common summary of Swabian stereotypes known throughout Germany. In a widely noted publicity campaign on the occasion of the 50th anniversary of Baden-Württemberg, economically the most successful state in modern Germany, the Swabians famously embraced their stereotyping, "We can do everything—except speak Standard German" (Wir können alles. Außer Hochdeutsch).

Swabian stereotypes persist in contemporary Germany, as expressed e.g. in the "Schwabenhass" conflict (surrounding gentrification in Berlin due to the large number of well-to-do Swabians moving to the capital), or a remark by chancellor Angela Merkel in praise of the "thrifty Swabian housewife" (recommending Swabian, and by extension German economic prudence as a model for Europe during the

Swabian German

The ethno-linguistic group of Swabians speak Swabian German, a branch of the Alemannic group of German dialects. Swabian is cited as "40 percent intelligible" to speakers of Standard German.^[4] As an ethno-linguistic group, Swabians are closely related to other speakers of

SIL Ethnologue

cites an estimate of 819,000 Swabian speakers as of 2006.

Emigration

Hollandgänger

During the 17th and 18th century the

Their presence among the Dutch at the Cape contributed to the Dutch term swaapstreek (literally: "Swabian shenanigans"), likely referencing the Seven Swabians tale.

Ostsiedlung

During the 18th century

and others (although the name "Danube Swabians" was applied also to German settlers of non-Swabian background).

Swabians settled also in eastern Croatia (Slavonia and Syrmia), and southern and western Hungary,^[7] including part of what is now Serbia and Romania (the Danube Swabians, Satu Mare Swabians, Banat Swabians and Swabian Turkey) in the 18th century, where they were invited as pioneers to repopulate some areas. They also settled in Russia, Bessarabia, and Kazakhstan. They were well-respected as farmers.

Almost all of the several million Swabians were expelled from Hungary, Romania, and Yugoslavia during the period 1944–1950, as part of the ethnic cleansing against their German minorities. There still are Swabians living near the city of Satu Mare in Romania, who are known as Satu Mare Swabians.^[8]

Overseas

Because of overpopulation and increasingly smaller land-holdings, many Swabians sought land in the Western Hemisphere, especially in the 19th century. Swabian settlements can be found in Brazil, Canada, and the United States. Among the Germans who emigrated to the United States in the 19th century, Swabians in some areas maintained their regional identity and formed organizations for mutual support.^[9]

Recent migration within Germany

Significant numbers of Swabians moved to Berlin following the city's reinstatement as German capital in 2000.

By the 2010s, their number was estimated as close to 300,000. As the Swabians in Berlin tended to be wealthier than the local Berliner, this resulted in a gentrification conflict, covered under the term Schwabenhass (literally "hatred of Swabians") by the German press in 2012–2013.^[10]

List of notable Swabians

• Frederick Barbarossa (1122–1190), Duke of Swabia and later Holy Roman Emperor
• Albertus Magnus (c. 1200 – 1280), Dominican friar, philosopher, scientist, and bishop
• Duke of Württemberg
• Jakob Fugger (1459–1525), merchant, mining entrepreneur, and banker
• Hans Holbein the Younger (1497/98–1543), painter and printmaker
• Protestant reformer
• Johannes Kepler (1571–1630), astronomer, mathematician, and astrologer
• Christoph Martin Wieland (1733–1813), novelist, poet, and translator
• Friedrich Schiller (1759–1805), playwright, poet, philosopher, and historian
• Johann Friedrich Pfaff (1765–1825), mathematician, doctoral advisor of Carl Friedrich Gauss
• Friedrich Hölderlin (1770–1843), poet and philosopher
• Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel (1770–1831), philosopher
• Friedrich Wilhelm Joseph Schelling (1775–1854), philosopher
• Justinus Kerner (1786–1862), poet, physician, and medical writer
• Ludwig Uhland (1787–1862), poet, philologist, and literary historian
• Friedrich Silcher (1789–1860), composer and folksong collector
• Wilhelm Hauff (1802–1827), novelist
• Eduard Mörike (1804–1875), poet and novelist
• Julius Robert Mayer
  (1814–1878), physician, chemist, and physicist
• Emanuel Leutze (1816–1868), history painter
• Gottlieb Daimler (1834–1900), engineer, industrial designer, and co-founder of Daimler Motoren Gesellschaft
• Count Ferdinand von Zeppelin (1838–1917), general and later inventor of the Zeppelin rigid airships
• Wilhelm Maybach (1846–1929), engine designer and co-founder of Daimler Motoren Gesellschaft
• Margarete Steiff (1847–1909), company founder
• Robert Bosch GmbH
• Hermann Hesse (1877–1961), novelist, poet, and painter, Nobel laureate in Literature
• Clara Ritter (1877–1959), co-founder of Ritter Sport^[11]
• Theodor Heuss (1884–1963), politician, first President of the Federal Republic of Germany (1949–1959)
• Heinkel Flugzeugwerke
• Martin Heidegger (1889–1976), philosopher
• Erwin Rommel (1891–1944), field marshal during World War II
• Bertolt Brecht (1898–1956), theatre practitioner, playwright, and poet
• Claus von Stauffenberg (1907–1944), army officer best known for his failed attempt on 20 July 1944 to assassinate Adolf Hitler
• Thaddäus Troll (1914–1980), journalist, writer, and Swabian dialect poet
• Artur Fischer (1919–2016), inventor and company founder
• Richard von Weizsäcker (1920–2015), politician, President of the Federal Republic of Germany (1984–1994)
• Maria Beig (1920–2017), novelist
• Gerhard Müller (1955–2021), former professional football player
• Ralf Rangnick (1958–), football manager and former player
• Jürgen Klinsmann (1964–), football manager and former player
• Gert Mittring (1966–), mental calculator
• Jürgen Klopp (1967–), football manager and former player
• Diana Damrau (1971–), soprano opera singer
• Joshua Walter Kimmich (1995–), professional football player

• 
  Jakob Fugger
• 
  Johannes Kepler
• 
  Friedrich Schiller
• 
  Georg Friedrich Wilhelm Hegel
• 
  Gottlieb Daimler
• 
  Robert Bosch

References

See also

• Swabian children
• Alsatians
• Bavarians
• Alemannic separatism
• German tribes