Introduction
Migrations for religious reasons always touch the sphere of law; these are found in the context of the toleration, recognition, favoring and promoting or exclusion and persecution of certain religions. But they also have social and cultural effects on the migrants and on the post-migrant host society by triggering intercultural processes that influence collective identity and promote either tolerance or isolation. All of these processes are subject to change over the course of history.
Religious migrations have often become firmly rooted in the collective memory of the respective group. The exodus of the ancient Jews from the slavery of the Egyptian pharaoh under Moses' leadership, for example, is one of the central narratives of the “Tanakh“ “Tanakh“ The Tanakh, also referred to as the "Hebrew Bible", includes the books of the Torah, Nevi'im and Ketuvim. Its contents correspond to the Old Testament of the Christian Bible. 's origins and thus forms a basis of Jewish identity.2 Many Christian denominations, such as the members of the Armenian Apostolic Church or the Mennonites, also draw a sense of group consciousness from their historical persecution and diaspora situation.
Examples from the history of Eastern Europe
1. Poland as a host country for persecuted Jews
Krakow is the second largest city in Poland and is located in the Lesser Poland Voivodeship in the south of the country. The city on the Vistula River is home to approximately 775,000 people. The city is well known for the Main Market Square with the Cloth Halls and the Wawel castle, which form part of Krakow's Old Town, a UNESO World Heritage Site since 1978. Krakow is home to the oldest university in Poland, the Jagiellonian University.
Lublin (population 2023: 329,565) is the capital of the same-named voivodeship in eastern Poland. The city is one of the most important political centers and industrial sites in eastern Poland as well as one of the most important educational centers in the country. In addition to the state Maria Curie Skłodowska University, Lublin is also home to the renowned Catholic University of Lublin John Paul II. In 1569, the real union of the dual monarchy of Poland and Lithuania was established in the Union of Lublin. Lublin was briefly the capital of Poland in 1809, 1918 and 1944/45. In the 17th and 18th centuries, the city was a stronghold of Protestantism in Poland. In the 16th and 17th centuries, Lublin was the heart of Judaism in the country, and from the end of the 18th century it was the most important place for Hasidism. In 1930, the largest Talmud school in the world at the time was opened in Lublin, but had to close after the German invasion of Poland in 1939. Between 1939 and 1942, most of the city's Jewish population, initially imprisoned in the ghetto and later deported to concentration camps, including in the Lublin concentration camp in the Majdanek district, were murdered. After the Second World War, Lublin was an important location for the automotive industry. In 1980, the city was one of the most important centers of resistance against the Communist rulers.
2. From Friesland via Prussia and Russia into the world – the Mennonites
Gdansk is a large city on the Baltic Sea in the Polish Pomeranian Voivodeship (Pomorskie) with about 470,000 inhabitants. It is lying on the Motława River (German: Mottlau) on the Gdansk Bay.
Royal Prussia is the name for those parts of the historical region of Prussia that fell from the ecclesiastical Teutonic Order to the Kingdom of Poland in the 15th century. These included large parts of Pomerania, including Danzig, Warmia and the Kulm region. The parts of Prussia that remained under the rule of the Teutonic Order formed the secular Duchy of Prussia in the 16th century, which fell to Brandenburg in 1618. It was not until the first partition of Poland-Lithuania in 1772 that Royal Prussia also came under Brandenburg-Prussian rule.
The Russian Empire (or Empire of Russia) was a state that existed from 1721 to 1917 in Eastern Europe, Central Asia and North America. The country was the largest contiguous empire in modern history in the mid-19th century. It was dissolved after the February Revolution in 1917. The state was regarded as autocratically ruled and was inhabited by about 181 million people.
3. The Expulsion of Protestant Groups from the Habsburg Monarchy
'Upper Hungary' (Slovak Horné Uhorsko, Hungarian hist. Felsőmagyarország, currently Felvidék) was the name of an administrative district created in 1541 and comprised the northeastern part of Hungary, which remained Habsburg. Even after its dissolution in the 17th century, the name survived and is still used in Hungary to name the geographical territory of present-day Slovakia, which is viewed critically in Slovakia itself.
Ostpreußen ist der Name der ehemaligen, bis 1945 bestehenden östlichsten preußischen Provinz, deren Ausdehnung (ungeachtet historisch leicht wechselnder Grenzverläufe) ungefähr der historischen Landschaft Preußen entspricht. Die Bezeichnung kam erst in der zweiten Hälfte des 18. Jahrhunderts in Gebrauch, als neben dem 1701 zum Königreich erhobenen Herzogtum Preußen mit seiner Hauptstadt Königsberg weitere, zuvor polnische Gebiete im Westen (beispielsweise das sog. Preußen Königlichen Anteils mit dem Ermland und Pommerellen) zu Brandenburg-Preußen kamen und die neue Provinz Westpreußen bildeten.
Heutzutage gehört das Gebiet der ehemaligen preußischen Provinz überwiegend zu Russland (Oblast Kaliningrad) und Polen (Woiwodschaft Ermland-Masuren). Das ehemalige sog. Memelland (auch Memelgebiet, lit. Klaipėdos kraštas) kam erstmals 1920 und erneut ab 1945 zu Litauen.
The village of Neppendorf (Romanian Turnișor) was founded in the Middle Ages by Transylvanian Saxon immigrants; later Protestant religious refugees from the Salzkammergut and Carinthia also settled here. Today Neppendorf belongs to Sibiu and is located halfway between the old town and the international airport.
Großau (Romanian Cristian) is a village with about 3,600 inhabitants in Transylvania, a few kilometers west of the international airport Hermannstadt/Sibiu. It is known for its fortified church and is one of the places in the region where, in addition to the Transylvanian Saxons who had settled here since the Middle Ages, Protestant religious refugees from the Salzkammergut and Carinthia settled, later also known as "Landler".
Großpold (Romanian Apoldu de Sus) is a village in Transylvania. It has about 1,450 inhabitants and is located a few kilometers northwest of Sibiu. Großpold is one of the places in the region where, in addition to the Transylvanian Saxons who had settled here since the Middle Ages, Protestant religious refugees from the Salzkammergut and Carinthia settled, who were later also called "Landler".
Transylvania is a historical landscape in modern Romania. It is situated in the center of the country and is populated by about 6.8 million people. The major city of Transylvania is Cluj-Napoca. German-speaking minorities used to live in Transylvania.
Hirschberg valley, a Silesian landscape rich in castles and monuments, became known as the "Silesian Elysium" in the middle of the 19th century and remained a touristic hot spot until the Second World War. Many of its towns and villages date back to the settlement by Germans in the 13th century. As early as 1305, 24 villages in Hirschberg valley were mentioned in documents, Hirschberg itself followed in 1355.
Mysłakowice (hist. dt. Zillerthal-Erdmannsdorf) is a municipality in southwestern Poland. Erdmannsdorf was first documented in 1305. In the 19th century, Erdmannsdorf castle was the summer residence of the Prussian king. In 1837, Frederick William III. left a large part of the estate to protestant refugees from Zillertal in Tyrol, wo founded their Tyrolean-style settlement "Zillerthal" there. In 1937, Erdmannsdorf and Zillerthal were joined together as municipality of Zillerthal-Erdmannsdorf.
4. The Diaspora of the Russian Old Believers
Dobruja (rum. Dobrogea, bulg. Добруджа) is a historical landscape in the border area between southeastern Romania and northeastern Bulgaria. Dobrogea is situated on the Danube and the Black Sea.
The Danube begins at the confluence of the Breg and Brigach rivers, whose springs are both located in the central Black Forest . It is 2857 km long and today flows through Germany, Austria, Slovakia, Hungary, Croatia, Serbia, Bulgaria, Romania, Republic of Moldova and Ukraine. Before it flows into the Black Sea, it fans out to form the Danube Delta, which is now an ecological reserve.
Vylkove is situated in the Danube Delta, on the Ukrainian side of the border with Romania. It was founded by Lipovans at the end of the 18th century.
Due to the war in Ukraine, it is possible that this information is no longer up to date.
Sarichioi is situated in the Dobrogea in Romania and belongs to the district of Tulcea. In the years 1654-1796, Lipovan religious refugees settled there.
Romania is a country in southeastern Europe with a population of almost 20 million people. The capital of the country is Bucharest. The state is situated directly on the Black Sea, the Carpathian Mountains and borders Bulgaria, Serbia, Hungary, Ukraine and Moldova. Romania was established in 1859 from the merger of Moldova and Wallachia. Romania is home to Transylvania, the central region for the German minority there.
5. Armenians
Crimea is a peninsula separating the Black Sea from the Sea of Azov. It is inhabited by nearly 2.3 million people. The capital is Sevastopol. The island is largely inhabited by Russian-speaking populations. Its status has been disputed under international law since 2014.
The term Moldova here applies to the historical landscape in today's Romania, which goes back to several historical states and provinces like the former Principality of Moldova. Moldova borders Bessarabia to the east and Bukovina to the north.
Wallachia is a historical landscape in the South of Romania, bordering the mountain range of the Southern Carpathians and the historical landscape of Transylvania in the North, the Danube River in the South and Bulgaria in the political sphere. The biggest city of Wallachia is the Romanian capital Bucharest.
Poland is located on the Baltic Sea and is the largest state (population in 2023: 37,636,508, area: 313,964 km²) in East Central Europe. The name of the state is derived from the West Slavic Polans, who brought more and more territories under their rule from the 9th century onwards, which were known as Duchy of Poland in the 10th century. Under Mieszko (ca. 960-992), the extent of the country reached approximately its current borders. He was at times subject to tribute to the German Emperor, at least for parts of his land. Poland probably adopted Christianity in 966 and from 1025 it was a kingdom. Between 1138 and 1295, the country was fragmented as a result of inheritance disputes. The extinction of the ruling Piast dynasty led to a Polish-Hungarian personal union in 1370, which was replaced by a Polish-Lithuanian dual monarchy as early as 1386 due to pressure from the Polish nobility. The growing role of the nobility resulted in an elective monarchy in 1572. However, the disunity of the nobility led to the three partitions of Poland (1772-1795) between Prussia, Russia and the Habsburg Monarchy. Poland only became independent after the end of the First World War in 1918 and lost its independence in 1939 after the German attack from the west at the beginning of the Second World War and the Russian invasion from the east. From 1945-1989 it was a satellite state of the Soviet Union. Poland has been a member of the European Union since 2004.
Lwiw (deutsch Lemberg, ukrainisch Львів, polnisch Lwów) ist eine Stadt in der Westukraine in der gleichnamigen Oblast. Mit knapp 730.000 Einwohner:innen (2015) ist Lwiw eine der größten Städte der Ukraine. Die Stadt gehörte lange zu Polen und Österreich-Ungarn.
Aufgrund des Krieges in der Ukraine ist es möglich, dass diese Informationen nicht mehr dem aktuellen Stand entsprechen.
Zamość (population 2024: 57,516) is a city in the Lublin Voivodeship in eastern Poland, in the Roztocze region. Zamość was founded in 1580 as a planned city based on the Renaissance concept of an ideal city. In 1589, the city's founder moved the seat of his lordship here. In 1772, Zamość was occupied by the Habsburg Monarchy during the first partition of Poland-Lithuania, but after a brief period in the Duchy of Warsaw, the city fell to Russia in 1815. The architecture from the time of the city's founding in the old town has been on the UNESCO World Heritage List since 1992.
Elisabethstadt is a small town inhabited by 7,400 people in the historical region of Transylvania. It was founded in the Middle Ages by Transylvanian Saxons.
The Ottoman Empire was the state of the Ottoman dynasty from about 1299 to 1922. The name derives from the founder of the dynasty, Osman I. At its peak, the empire encompassed Asia Minor and parts of Arabia, Egypt, and the entire Balkans. In addition, it brought many other countries and territories in Eastern Europe, East Asia, and North Africa under its control. Its last capital was Constantinople (now Istanbul). The successor state of the Ottoman Empire is the Republic of Turkey.
6. The church integration of German displaced persons and refugees after 1945
Conclusion
Today, people are still fleeing persecution and war for religious reasons, for example Christian and Iraqi Syrians or Shiite Muslims from predominantly Sunni areas in the Middle East. While the importance of religion is declining in many European countries, in other parts of the world, belonging to a particular religious group continues to be a criterion for exclusion.
Let us return once again to the initial question: The Canadian singer-songwriter Leonard Cohen came from a Jewish family whose ancestors emigrated to North America from Lithuania, then part of the Russian Empire. The ancestors of New York director Woody Allen also migrated to the USA from various Jewish communities in the Tsarist Empire and
Austria-Hungary (Hungarian: Osztrák-Magyar Monarchia), also known as Imperial and Royal Hungary Monarchy, was a historical state in Central and Southeastern Europe that existed from 1867 to 1918.
Georgia is a republic in the South Caucasus. The land is inhabited by 3.7 million people and is located on the border between eastern Europe and western Asia. The capital of Georgia is Tbilisi. The country is located on the eastern end of the Black Sea and borders Russia as well as Turkey, Azerbaijan and Armenia. Georgia has been an independent state since the fall of the Soviet Union.
