Are Danube/Banat Swabians German or Austrian? What did the kaiser and the Austrians consider all the ethnic Germans of the Austrian empire in the Danube? Did they consider them Austrians or just Germans?

by Dogmund69

I have ancestors who were Banat (Romania temeshwar) Swabians and migrated to America in 1904, would you guys consider them to be Austrians as they were Germans born in the Austrian empire, be it Romania in the kingdom of Hungary, or do you just consider then ethnic Germans and Banat Swabians? Thanks !

My biggest question is why wouldn’t they be called Austrians. They were ethnic Germans who were part of the Austrian empire. And back then the Austrians simply looked at themselves as ethnic Germans of the Austrian empire, there was no super distinct Austrian identity untill post 1871 and really up untill 1945 they considered themselves Austrian-Germans.

I can see it either way, Austrian because they were the same ethnicity (German) and spork the same language (German) as the Austrians and lived in the Austrian empire (albeit The Romanian part within the kingdom of Hungary) from 1780-1904. But also maybe not Austrians since they weren’t born in core Austria and came from Germany in 1780.

Questions

1: what do you consider them to be?

2: what did the officials like the kaiser and all of the Austrian empire consider them to be?

sunagainstgold

Just a reminder:

AskHistorians does not allow questions/answers based on personal anecdotes. If you're going to post a response here, please limit yourself to OP's second question--what did the government of the Austrian Empire categorize various people as.

Personal thoughts are best taken to a more discussion and opinion oriented sub.

Thanks!