Memorial Plaque in Memory of Expelled Donauschwaben and Donauschwabinnen (Lieferinger Cultural Walking Tour)

Since 2004, a metal plaque in the Salzachsee settlement has commemorated the expelled Donauschwaben and -schwäbinnen who found a new home in Salzburg. These expelled people are descendants of German-speaking emigrants and emigrant women who settled areas of the former Kingdom of Hungary between the 17th and 19th centuries. After new border demarcations occurred during the end of the war in 1918, the settlement areas were now not only on Hungarian, but also on Romanian and Yugoslav territory. There, the Donauschwaben and -schwäbinnen were always afraid of losing their culture. This fact was exploited by the “German Reich,” which spread its propaganda among the German-speaking minority, with fruitful results: many Donauschwaben fought in the Wehrmacht or in the armies of Eastern European Axis powers. Towards the end of the war, numerous Donauschwaben and -schwäbinnen fled to NS territories; those who remained were dispossessed by the new rulers, often interned in camps or deported to the Soviet Union. After the end of the war in May 1945, around 130,000 Donauschwaben and -schwäbinnen came to Austria; more than 50 houses were built in the Salzachsee settlement.