The culture and language of the Hungarian minority are being preserved and promoted through schools, newspapers, periodicals, books, theater, and other cultural activities. Members of the Hungarian minority, however, frequently complain that the number of schools, books, and other cultural material available to them in their own language is far short of the demand and not nearly proportionate to their numbers.
Germans
Approximately 380,000 Germans lived in Romania in 1966. The size of the German minority was greatly reduced through voluntary repatriation since the 1930s, when it numbered over 600,000. It has continued to decrease since 1966 through emigration to the Federal Republic of Germany (West Germany) supported by the West German government and permitted in varying volume by the Romanian authorities.
The German population is divided into two groups—the Saxons and the Swabians. Although more or less equal in size, the groups differ in origin and, partly, in culture. The origin of the group usually identified as Saxons is not quite clear, but it was settled by the Hungarian rulers in the Transylvanian borderlands in the twelfth century for the same purpose as the Szeklers. The Saxons live mainly in the cities, such as Sibiu, Brasov, and Sighisoara, which they themselves founded and which have distinctly German characteristics. Some live in rural areas surrounding these cities.
Forming the majority population in a small area, the Saxons have lived in relative isolation until modern times. Their dialect and culture have retained medieval characteristics long abandoned by Germans elsewhere. All Saxons have been Lutheran since that denomination was introduced into Transylvania in the sixteenth century.
The Swabians are Roman Catholics and live in the Banat region. As with the Saxons, their designation as Swabians does not truly reflect their origin. They were settled in the Banat during the eighteenth century to work the land recently vacated by the Turks. Before their arrival there, the language and culture of the Swabians had undergone various modifications to which the Saxons had not been exposed. Most Swabians are peasants farming the rich plain around Timisoara.
Like the Hungarians, the German minority in Romania has resisted assimilation and maintains its cultural identity through German-language schools, books and newspapers, radio and television programs, and theatrical performances and through the perpetuation of their characteristic dress, dances, and folk art.
Jews
In those censuses in which they are identified (but not including that of 1966), Jews are listed as an ethnic group or nationality rather than as members of a religious denomination. In the 1956 census they represented the third largest minority in the country with a membership of 146,000. In early 1972 Western observers roughly estimated the number of Jews still residing in Romania at slightly under 100,000.
The influx of Jews into Romania took place during the first half of the nineteenth century when large numbers left the unsettled conditions of Poland and Russia to seek new opportunities in prospering Moldavia and, later, Walachia. A small number of Jews from various parts of Austria-Hungary settled in Transylvania at the same time and earlier. By 1900 Jews constituted more than one-half of the urban population of Romania, most of them engaged in commerce, banking, or industry. Not allowed to assimilate by various restrictions on their movement and activities, the Jews remained apart from the rest of the population. This apartness and their role in the economy engendered distrust and resentment, which periodically erupted into persecution by some elements of the population (see ch. 2).