I find this discussion an interesting contrast to the history of German settlers in Europe. Various rulers had been in the habit of inviting Germans to come create towns and farms in their territory, since they felt that Germans were more orderly and productive subjects (and therefore a better tax base, I suppose). There were significant ethnic German minorities all through eastern Europe, western Russia, and the northern Balkans. (For example, there's a reason Bram Stoker thought German was a useful language for a visitor to Transylvania to speak.) This diaspora was probably useful from Austria-Hungary's point of view, and if that empire had survived, those German populations might be an example of the kind of ethnic and political shift you're talking about.
Except Austria-Hungary broke up, WWII happened, and those ethnic German enclaves pretty much vanished -- the people either died or migrated to Germany (often against their will), despite having resided in their "foreign" homes for generations. I suspect some of the bad feeling that triggered the expulsion of ethnic Germans may have been caused by a fear of the process you're postulating... especially since, IIRC, "protecting" an ethnic German population was Hitler's excuse for taking over parts of Czechoslovakia -- which, incidentally, he did with the agreement of other European nations.
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Date: 1 Jul 2011 02:45 am (UTC)I find this discussion an interesting contrast to the history of German settlers in Europe. Various rulers had been in the habit of inviting Germans to come create towns and farms in their territory, since they felt that Germans were more orderly and productive subjects (and therefore a better tax base, I suppose). There were significant ethnic German minorities all through eastern Europe, western Russia, and the northern Balkans. (For example, there's a reason Bram Stoker thought German was a useful language for a visitor to Transylvania to speak.) This diaspora was probably useful from Austria-Hungary's point of view, and if that empire had survived, those German populations might be an example of the kind of ethnic and political shift you're talking about.
Except Austria-Hungary broke up, WWII happened, and those ethnic German enclaves pretty much vanished -- the people either died or migrated to Germany (often against their will), despite having resided in their "foreign" homes for generations. I suspect some of the bad feeling that triggered the expulsion of ethnic Germans may have been caused by a fear of the process you're postulating... especially since, IIRC, "protecting" an ethnic German population was Hitler's excuse for taking over parts of Czechoslovakia -- which, incidentally, he did with the agreement of other European nations.