Community Structures - Expression of the Transylvanian Saxon Identity

摘要

Since its establishment as a state entity, Transylvania has been a cohabitation space for a multitude of ethnic communities. With the province's integration into the Hungarian Kingdom, later into the Habsburg Empire, and finally into the Austro-Hungarian Empire, the rights granted to the Szekely (Szeklers) and the Saxons allowed these two large ethnic communities to evolve into autonomous structures in specific areas of Transylvania. By the middle of the 14th century, the Szekely Territory (in the South-Eastern corner of the province), as well as the Fundus Regius (the land inhabited by the Saxons including the areas of the Secase, the two Tdrnave, and the fortified mediaeval cities of Sibiu, Bistrita and Brasov) are two such areas. The autonomous structures of the Saxons included a series of other forms of community association, carefully organized and monitored by religious and school authorities. Chronologically, these structures were established prior to their political counterparts, constituting an exclusive element of Saxon ethnic unity in both urban and rural areas. This study focuses on the specific structures known as neighbourhoods (civic entities comprising the inhabitants of a street), a vivid example of mutual help with respect to the unwritten rules within the community; the children and youth associations (organized by age categories and observing gender differences). These were intended to involve the local children and youths in various after school activities and prepare them for religious confirmation within the Reformed Church, as well as for family life and sports activities. Alongside these there were also women's and youth's reading associations bringing together higher educated members from a Saxon locality, dance ensembles and instrumental formations. All these elements of the Saxon structures lasted a long time after 1876, thus providing a unique model of community life to their Romanian and Szekely neighbours.The information included in this paper is based on the research conducted on a brief period in the history of the Saxons from Transylvania and on their community structures. The scientific investigation focused on the Sighisoara and Rupea Settlements and relied on documents from the Romanian State Archives, the County Directorates of Brasov, Sibiu, Sfantul Gheorghe, Cluj and Targu Mures, as well as from the National Archives from Budapest and from the archives of Haus, Hof und Stadtarchiv Wien.