German minorities in Europe : ethnic identity and cultural belonging /

This compendium provides systematic comparative information on German-speaking minorities in contemporary Europe. Each chapter offers a brief political historical overview before developing current issues of demography, language, institutions (especially schools), and local and transnational questions of ethnic identity. The first section deals with Germans in Western Europe (Denmark, Belgium, Alsace, and South Tyrol) as the people turn from wrenching wars to the renegotiation of multiple identities in a united Europe. Seven subsequent chapters examine Germans in Central and Eastern Europe, including Poland, Carpathia (Czechoslovakia, Slovakia, and Ukraine), the Czech Republic, Hungary, Romania, the former Yugoslavia, and Russia and other countries of the former Soviet Union, where issues of shifting borders and regimes, political repressions, and new transnational ties to Germany loom large. Finally, two chapters explore the role of German states, policies, and treaties dealing with these foreign minorities since WW I. An introduction and conclusion begin to set these descriptive essays within wider debates over culture, ethnicity, and identity in the social sciences, but the book is primarily valuable for its systematic case study data, which contribute sometimes-overlooked chapters to ongoing discussions of complexity in 21st century Europe. All levels. G. W. McDonogh Bryn Mawr College