ATTITUDE OF GERMANS FROM THE YUGOSLAV BANAT TOWARDS ROMANIA AND THEIR RELATIONSHIP WITH THE ROMANIAN AUTHORITIES: MEDIA CONFLICTS AND ACTIVITIES WITHIN THE GERMAN NATIONAL MINORITY

The paper examines the number and percentage representation of the German national minority in the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenians, i.e. the Kingdom of Yugoslavia after unification. There have been especially analyzed certain German media, as well as the economic activities and land ownership of Vojvodina Germans in the interwar period and the attitude of Germans from the Yugoslav Banat towards Romania, and their relationships with the Romanian authorities. The authors have found that a significant number of German-language newspapers written in German Language were published in Timisoara and Arad at the time of the disintegration of the Austro-Hungarian monarchy. The authors of the paper have analyzed the Young German Movement that operated under the leadership of Nikolaus Hasslinger, who acted from the Yugoslav positions, advocated for the cooperation of the majority nation and Germans, and opposed Nazism. They have also analyzed writing of media of the Young German Movement, media of the German minority organization Kulturbund, as well as newspapers written in Serbian language which supported the Young German Movement. Despite the failure to gain a large number of supporters, the Young German Movement was significant not only politically, but also in the light of media as an attempt to oppose the nazification of the Kulturbund and its open implementation of the policy of the Third Reich.