Transylvania - Transylvania

(I use these two terms synonymously in the following. Perhaps this is wrong and you have to differentiate between them. I would be happy to hear from you.)

When I went to this area, of course, my head was full of stereotypes.

One thinks of a rather remote country where time has stood still, wild animals, bears, wolves, Carpathians - and next door Wallachia. As a young person I still thought these place names were pure fiction.

What exactly did I expect? It all started with a visit from a friend who lives on a farm in Transylvania, in one of the typical street villages where courtyard to courtyard stretches along the street, with a large gate on the outside and two buildings on the left and right that house the Enclose the inner courtyard, behind it stables and behind stables and barn there are orchards and vegetable gardens and a meadow for animals. But we not only stayed in the village, we had also planned a small round trip.

Since I am always interested in history, it was of course not possible this time either: Transylvania is halfway between the center of the former Holy Roman Empire of the German nation, namely Vienna, and the center of the former Ottoman Empire, Istanbul.

This had an impact on a number of things in Transylvania: at least the German population was mentally oriented towards the German-speaking area, while the defense was directed against the Ottomans, who often moved through the country on the way to Vienna, which they wanted to conquer, which, as is well known, they did not succeed is. But the Turks were also interested in the prosperous Eastern Province of the Kingdom of Hungary, which was so close to them.

Wealthy and German population?

Transylvania (and today's Romania) has different population groups: the largest are the Romanians and Hungarians, followed by Germans and Roma.

How did Germans get to Romania? As early as the 12th century, settlers from the Middle Rhine and the Moselle Franconian area migrated to Transylvania in search of a better life and founded settlements there, including Hermannstadt, Kronstadt, Schäßburg, Mühlbach, Klausenburg etc. and some marketplaces.

Transylvania was rich, gold, silver and salt from mines in the Carpathians and good trade from Danzig to the Crimea brought prosperity.

In the 18th century they were followed by the Danube Swabians, who emigrated downstream on the wooden boats called "Ulmer Schachteln" across the Danube to the Banat, which became Austrian in 1718, the region that is today in the far west of Transylvania with the metropolis Timisoara.

Also in the 18th century, under the reign of Maria Theresa, Vienna deported Lutheran Protestants to Transylvania in order to consolidate the Catholic faith in the multi-ethnic state of Austria. Transylvania was a very remote region in the empire and Lutherans were not allowed to return.

All German Transylvanians are Protestant. Presumably they were supposed to form a first Christian bulwark against the Turks in the east and in case of losses, from the Austro-Habsburg point of view it was only Protestants. It is questionable whether Transylvania was able to weaken the Turks. Rather, the region has always been a found victim.

The country kept growing new populations, because the constant Turkish invasions led to considerable losses of people, as entire villages were usually enslaved.

In order to defend themselves against the Turks, the Transylvanians built church castles, i.e. places of worship with defensive towers, protective walls, defensive walls, storerooms, etc., where they would retreat and defend themselves in the event of a renewed invasion and hope that the castle would stand up.

When I read about it and rummaged around, the fortified churches seemed to me like "Helms Klamm" in the film epic The Lord of the Rings.