German:Siebenbürger Landler | |
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 Detail of a church window in Sibiu/Hermannstadt dedicated to the memory of the Austrian Protestants of Evangelical Lutheran faith. | |
| Regions with significant populations | |
 TransylvaniaCounties
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| Languages | |
| German(with theTransylvanian Landler dialect as well) | |
| Religion | |
| Lutheranism | |
| Related ethnic groups | |
| Austrians andGermans | |
A German-speaking community which has been living inSibiu County and inSebeș,Alba County, southern Transylvania since the 18th century onwards. |
TheLandlers orTransylvanian Landlers (German:Siebenbürger Landler or Die siebenbürgischen Landler)[3] are an ethnicGerman sub-group which has been living on the territory of today's Romania, more specifically in southernTransylvania (mostly corresponding to present-daySibiu County) since the 18th century onwards.
Their ancestors wereProtestants (more specificallyLutherans), who were expelled and settled fromSalzkammergut area,Austria toTransylvania near Hermannstadt (present-daySibiu) from 1734 to 1756 underEmperorCharles VI and EmpressMaria Theresa. This was done so given the fact that theAustrian Empire needed to beRoman Catholic by excellence and the Landlers refused to convert to Roman Catholicism.[4] They speak theTransylvanian Landler dialect (German:Landlerisch) which is a southernGerman dialect. During the 18th century,c. 4,000 Austrian Protestants were expelled to Transylvania.[5] They are part of theRomanian Germans.
The areas from which the ancestors of the modern Transylvanian Landlers stemmed wereUpper Austria (German:Oberösterreich),Carinthia (German:Kärnten), andStyria (German:Steiermark).[6] Since Transylvania had been depopulated by theTurkish wars and the plague, the 634 expelledUpper Austrians were given vacant farms to work. Some of the Landlers who were deported fromCarinthia in 1755 joined theHutterites in Transylvania. Transylvania was also a very tolerant country in the past with respect to other religions or confessions as well as a prosperous land in natural resources, hence the Landlers founded the needed impetus and environment to thrive in, just like the Transylvanian Saxons did before them (seeSiebenbürgenlied). In total,c. 4,000 Protestant Austrians were expelled and settled in southern Transylvania during theModern Age.[7]
The Transylvanian Landlers' German dialect is still maintained and is spoken by both those who moved toGermany as well as the few Landlers left behind in their former villages ofNeppendorf (Romanian:Turnișor),Großau (Romanian:Cristian), andGroßpold (Romanian:Apoldu de Sus).[8] As in the case of other German-speaking ethnic groups in Romania, the Landler are politically represented by theDemocratic Forum of Germans in Romania (FDGR/DFDR).[9] A prominent member of the Transylvanian Landler community isMartin Bottesch who formerly served as the president of the County Council of Sibiu County between 2004 and 2012.
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