Job Discussion Forums

Haft · Joined: 23 Jun 2007 Posts: 23

So, Germany is closing its gates to the barbarian hordes, eh? Let's see if we can cheat, namely by going to expatriate communities in all those territories left behind in the Eastern Bloc after the last few dozen times when the Reich receded to smaller borders. Poland, Slovakia, Romania, and other lands are supposed to have German communities. Anybody know if ESL business is happening around these areas? Or even if these communities retain their ethnolinguistic peculiarities? I might not be asking for something realistic, but you can see the overall idea: don't live IN Germany, live NEXT TO Germany, and then just drop in uninvited a few hundred times. Sound doable?

The Goethe will not have my hard-earned-verging-on-worthless American dollars!

nelly06 · Joined: 18 Sep 2006 Posts: 22 Location: Japan

I read about a small town in Slovakia called Hopgarten (Chelmnica) with a German school and kindergarten.
There are also Carpathian German Organisations you could contact.

There used to be a German enclave in Kaliningrad - former Koenigsberg- (between Poland and Lithuania, still under Russian rule), but as far as I know all Germans were expelled after WWII.

Anyway, good luck!

scot47 · Joined: 10 Jan 2003 Posts: 15343

Koenigsberg was the capital of Prussia. Transferred to USSR after 1945. The German population who survived the War were re-settled "Heim ins Reich."

Haft · Joined: 23 Jun 2007 Posts: 23

Sehr interessant!

Thank you for the replies. There would have been three by now, but somebody chose to delete their response, don't know why. Very useful to have a definitive opinion on K�nigsburg, and it's unfortunate that Kant's home town has been so thoroughly... changed.

But what about Poland? I tried some checking, and there is definitely a community somewhere in West Poland with official minority status. I don't know whether inquiries concerning the Germans of Poland should be posted here or on the Polish forum. I imagine the reaction I would get from Poland enthusiasts would be no different than if I were a European insisting on going to America for no other purpose than to meet the Amish...

scot47 · Joined: 10 Jan 2003 Posts: 15343

Still some Germans in Silesia and in Pomerania, around Stettin.