Lorraine-Banaters

By Günther Philipp

 

The “Banat’s French” mostly originate from Lorraine, which was only annexed by France after their departure (1766). Before that, Lorraine was an independent duchy and part of the Holy Roman Empire of the German Nation. It had a mixed Romanesque and German population.

The Romanesque-speaking population, however, spoke a French dialect. Therefore, the Lorrainers should be referred to as Romanesque-speaking people of the Empire rather than as “French.” It is similar as the French-speaking Swiss today refer to themselves as Romanesque but not as French. The Walloons, incidentally, also do not consider themselves as French.

After the Second World War, out of necessity, a “Comite des Français du Banat” (Committee of French of the Banat) was formed in the Banat, primarily with the aim of avoiding deportation or expropriation of Germans by claiming to be French.

The situation was similar in Austria. Ethnic German refugees were not granted citizenship until 1956 because the victorious powers did not permit it. This led to the creative idea of ​​moving from Austria to France to be considered as the French of the Banat. I have some relatives who did this, as they were denied entry to West Germany at the time. However, after a year or two, these relatives realized that life in France wasn’t so easy after all, so they emigrated to Canada. To my knowledge, no one ever accused them of “treason” or anything similar

Those Banat Swabians who were successfully accepted into West Germany did not go to France. Back then, you simply had to look out for yourself.