Transformations In The Relationship Between Jews And Germans In The Bukovina 1910–1940

Abstract

In the Bukovina, a region which is today divided between Romania and the Ukraine, there have been ethnic tensions since the end of the nineteenth century. Until that time, despite its Austrian administration, political power was in the hands of Romanian large estate owners. When a small segment of intellectuals emerged among the Ukrainians there, the Romanian upper class tried to frustrate their political participation. Ukrainians lived mainly in the northern part of the Bukovina, comprising 38.4% (1910) of the population, slightly larger in size than the Romanians, who made up 34.4% of the population and dwelled mainly in the southern area. Germans and Jews lived everywhere. Together they comprised 20% of the population.1 This article argues that, before 1933, Jews and Germans shared the goal of modernizing the underdeveloped region of Bukovina. The first section of the article discusses how they together developed German culture within Bukovina under Austrian Rule, followed by a second section elaborating upon how, after 1918, Jews and Germans mutually turned against governmental policies of Romanization. The third section focuses upon the subsequent disintegration of this cooperation as a result of the influence of National Socialism. The fourth and fifth sections sketch out the consequences of the National Socialist influence for minority politicians from Romania as well as their contribution to the European Nationalities Congress.