Entwicklung und Erbe des donauschwäbischen Volksstammes: Festschrift für Josef Volkmar Senz ed. by Georg Wildmann (review)

108ROCKY MOUNTAIN REVIEW - Studies on selected themes: (items 698-1369) 1. Society and historical background 1. Imagery 3.Places 4.Philosophy and Psychology 5.Literature 6.The Theater 7.The Visual Arts 8.Music (also includes six titles of records, items 1370-1375) - Bibliographical studies (items 1376-1393) The two main divisions, General studies and Studies on selected themes, show the author's eclecticism anda rather random approach; comments after each entry are optional, and vary greatly in length, substance, and interest. Obviously fascinated by Proust and his contexts, Taylor seems to have embarked on an extensive reading expedition; the result shows the péripéties of an itinerary not exactly prescribed by academic guidelines — rather an individualistic tour which led to a wealth of personal discoveries. The work concludes with a section entitled Useful Addresses, and both a Subject Index and an Author and Editor Index are supplied. INGEBORG M. KOHN University of Arizona Georg Wildmann, ed. Entwicklung und Erbe des donauschwäbischen Volksstammes: Festschrift für Josef Volkmar Senz. Donauschwäbisches Archiv, Reihe I, Bd. 10. München, 1982. 463p. The Pannonian Basin has historically been the most diversified ethnic region of Europe. This basin comprises approximately two-thirds of the territory of preTrianon (1920) Hungary which was until the end of WWI a part of Austro-Hungary. With the collapse of the Hapsburg Empire, Srem, the southern part of the Baranya, and the western part of the Banat fell to Yugoslavia. The larger eastern part of the Banat came to Rumania. In modern times, Hungarians, Serbs, and Rumanians, along with half a dozen less numerous nationalities, inhabit the southern, central, and eastern regions ofthis vast and fertile plain. The German element, economically and socially considerably more advanced until recently than the other nationalities, arrived on the scene as colonists in 1683. (However, Germans were already present in the western half before the destructive Turkish occupation.) The so-called Donauschujaben (1900: 1.5 Mill.) were settled largely in those rural regions which had been almost totally depopulated during the Turkish rule. They also became the backbone of the city element (1880: 120,000 Germans in Buda and Pest together of a combined population of nearly 200,000 inhabitants). The rather harmonious coexistence of these ethnic blocks was gradually undermined in the course of the nineteenth century by a discriminatory linguistically-based nationalism which aimed at a speedy and total assimilation into the Magyar ethnic body. This tendency to denationalize their ethnic minorities was taken over after WWI by Rumania and Yugoslavia, and continued to be practiced by the now small state of Hungary. The Germans fell victim to the denationalization process much more readily than any of the other minorities. Book Reviews109 The present volume contains 25 representative studies which review major facets of the political, social, and economic life of the "DanubianSuebians," of whom presently over 300,000 live in North America. Scholars who are interested in minority culture and politics per se will be amply rewarded. However, linguists and literary historians who are interested in minority fiction and poetry, and in the struggle to keep the language of a minority alive, will not suffer from want either, for this volume is a treasury of socio-political, historical, and literary background material. There is, for instance, much to be learned in Hans Diplich's essay "Anton Valentin und die Banater Monatshefte" (pp. 211-229) about the aggressively or defensively oriented ethnic novel (Vol/cstumsroman) in the manner of Adam Müller-Guttenbrunn. The appended bibliography for the MB lists items which are along comparatist lines (e.g., on German and Rumanian lyric poetry), on lesser known literatures (e.g., contemporary Bulgarian story telling, translations from Rumanian, Finnish literature), on the reception of nationally explosive works (e.g., Hans Grimm's novels) by an ethnically defensive society, etc. Of lesser consequence, though still valuable, is Johann Wurtz's contribution "Wefstrecken im Zeichen des Wandels: Geschichte als literarisch-künstlerisches Motiv" (pp. 230-252). This study deals primarily with literary works in the dialect but is broad enough to refer in its argument, e.g., to the works of S. Petöfi, the great Hungarian poet of Serb extraction...