Swabia,
Suabia, or
Svebia () is both a historic and
linguistic (see
Swabian German) region in
Germany. Swabia consists of much of the present-day state of
Baden-Württemberg (specifically, historical
Württemberg and the
Hohenzollerische Lande, but not the western region of
Baden), as well as the
Bavarian
administrative region of Swabia. In the
Middle Ages, Baden,
Vorarlberg, the modern principality of
Liechtenstein, modern German-speaking
Switzerland, and
Alsace (now in
France) were also considered to be a part of Swabia.
History
Suebi
Europe in 400 AD, showing the Suebi in Swabia and their neighbors.
2000 years ago, the
Suebi or Suevi were an
Elbe Germanic people whose origin was near the
Baltic Sea, which was thus known to the Romans as the
Mare Suebicum (today, the term "Swabian Sea" is applied to
Lake Constance). They migrated to the southwest, becoming part of the
Alamannic confederacy. The Alamanni were ruled by independent kings throughout the 4th and 5th centuries. Also, a number of Suevi (20,000-50,000) reached the
Iberian Peninsula under king
Hermeric and established an independent kingdom in 410 in what is now northern
Portugal,
Galicia, and western regions of
Asturias and most of
León (in northwest Spain). Their kingdom was known as
Galliciense Regnum and endured until 585. Its political center was Braccara Augusta (present-day
Braga, Portugal).
Duchy of Swabia
Swabia became a duchy under the
Frankish Empire in 496, following the
Battle of Tolbiac. Swabia was one of the original
stem duchies of
East Francia, the later
Holy Roman Empire, as it developed in the 9th and 10th centuries. The
Hohenstaufen dynasty (the dynasty of
Frederick Barbarossa), which ruled the
Holy Roman Empire in the 12th and 13th centuries, arose out of Swabia, but following the execution of
Conradin, the last Hohenstaufen, on October 29, 1268, the original duchy gradually broke up into many smaller units.
Holy Roman Empire
Karl the Great's (or
Charlemagne) family is known to hail from Swabia. The major dynasties that arose out of the region were the
Habsburgs and the
Hohenzollerns, who rose to prominence in Northern Germany. Also stemming from Swabia are the local dynasties of the Dukes of
Württemberg and the
Margraves of
Baden. The
Welf family went on to rule in
Bavaria and
Hanover, and are ancestral to the
British royal family that has ruled since 1714. Smaller feudal dynasties eventually disappeared; however, for example, branches of the
Montforts and
Hohenems lived until modern times, and the
Fürstenberg survive still. The region proved to be one of the most divided in the Empire, containing, in addition to these principalities, numerous
free cities, ecclesiastical territories, and fiefdoms of lesser
counts and
knights.
The
Old Swiss Confederacy was
de facto independent from Swabia from 1499 as a result of the
Swabian War.
Fearing the power of the greater princes, the cities and smaller secular rulers of Swabia joined to form the
Swabian League in the 15th century. The League was quite successful, notably expelling the
Duke of Württemberg in 1519 and putting in his place a Habsburg governor, but the league broke up a few years later over religious differences inspired by the
Reformation, and the Duke of Württemberg was soon restored. The region was quite divided by the Reformation. While secular princes like the Duke of Württemberg and the Margrave of
Baden-Durlach, as well as most of the Free Cities, became
Protestant, the ecclesiastical territories (including the
bishoprics of
Augsburg,
Konstanz and others) remained
Catholic, as did the territories belonging to the Habsburgs, Hohenzollerns and the Margrave of
Baden-Baden.
Modern history
In the wake of the territorial reorganization of the Empire of 1803 by the
Reichsdeputationshauptschluss, the shape of Swabia was entirely changed. All the ecclesiastical estates were secularized, and most of the smaller secular states, and almost all of the free cities, were
mediatized, leaving only Württemberg, Baden and Hohenzollern as sovereign states. Much of Eastern Swabia became part of
Bavaria, forming what is now the Bavarian administrative region of Swabia.
From 1939 to 1945,
Nazi Germany claimed sovereignty over an area of
Antarctica, which was named
Neu-Schwabenland in honour of Swabia.
Swabian settlements abroad
Outside of Germany, many Swabians settled in
Hungary, including part of what is now
Serbia; and
Romania (the
Danube Swabians and
Swabian Turkey) in the 18th century, where they were invited as pioneers to repopulate some areas. They also settled in
Russia,
Bessarabia, and
Kazakhstan. They were well-respected as farmers. Outside of Europe, Swabian settlements can also be found in
Brazil,
Canada, and the
United States. The town of
Swaffham,
Norfolk means "homestead of the Swabians", some of whom must presumably have settled in
England alongside the
Angles and
Saxons.
In several languages of eastern and south-eastern Europe, the local name for "Swabian" has come to be used as a colloquial name for "Germans" in general.
Popular culture
A campaign sticker, translated, "We can do everything—except speak
High German." This is an allusion to the fact that
Baden-Württemberg is one of the principal centres for innovation in Germany with many inhabitants having distinctive
dialects.
Swabians have in former times been the target of many jokes and stories where they are depicted as excessively stingy, overly serious, prudish, or as simpletons, for instance in "The Seven Swabians" (
Die sieben Schwaben) published in
Kinder- und Hausmärchen by the
Brothers Grimm. However, this has ceased to a large extent, while Swabians are nowadays said to be frugal, clever, entrepreneurial and hard-working. In a widely respected publicity campaign on the occasion of the 50th anniversary of
Baden-Württemberg, the economically most successful state in modern Germany, the Swabians famously replied to the former jokes with: ""We can do everything - except speak
Standard German" (
Wir können alles. Außer Hochdeutsch), alluding to the region's distinct local dialect.
Many Swabian surnames end with the suffixes
-le,
-el,
-ehl, and
-lin. Examples would be:
Schäuble,
Egeler,
Rommel, and
Gmelin. The popular surname
Schwab is derived from this area, meaning literally "Swabian".
In
Switzerland, "Sauschwab" is a derogatory term for Germans, derived from the
Swabian War of 1499. In
Serbian,
Polish, and
Bulgarian, "Shvab" or "Szwab" may be a semi-abusive term for any German, not just one from Swabia. In parts of the former Yugoslavia (i.e.
Slovenia,
Slavonija in
Croatia, and
Vojvodina in
Serbia), the term
Swab (locally
Švab, from Шваб) is somewhat applied to all German peoples who lived in those regions until shortly after World War II, and many of their descendants; it is even occasionally used as a slang term to refer to all Germans as well as Austrians and Swiss German speaking people.
Related Alemannic dialects
Contemporary distribution of Alemannic dialects
Swabian (Schwäbisch) is one of the
Alemannic German dialects of High German, spoken in the region of Swabia, present in the North-Eastern area of the Alemannic
Sprachraum. A separate version of Wikipedia is maintained in Alemannic German.
Famous Swabians
The following is an abbreviated list of individuals who hailed from the region. Inclusion in this list is not indicative of descent from the original Swabians.
- Friedrich Schiller (historian and writer, Wilhelm Tell, Die Räuber, Maria Stuart, "Ode an die Freude"/"Ode to Joy")
- Lorenz Oken (biologist, anatomist, natural philosopher)
- Theodor Heuss (former President of the Federal Republic of Germany)
- Georg Elser (member of the resistance against the Nazis)
- Günther Rall (third-highest scoring ace of WWII, 275 victories)
- Hermann Graf (ninth-highest scoring ace of WWII, 212 victories)
- Jürgen Klinsmann (football (soccer) player and former coach of the German national team)
- Joachim Löw (football (soccer) player and current coach of the German national team)
- Gustav Schwab (writer, most popular for "die schönsten Sagen des klassischen Altertums")
See also
