page_title: Banat Republic
section_title: Greater Romania
hierarchical_section_title: Banat Republic / Legacy / Greater Romania
caption_attribution_description: English: Map of the proposed Republic of Banatia (proposed by Banatian Germans at a Paris Peace Conference in 1920). Српски / srpski: Мапа предложене Републике Банатије (предлог су изнели Немци из Баната на Мировној конференцији у Паризу 1920. године).
context_page_description: The Banat Republic was a short-lived state proclaimed in Timișoara in November 1918, days after the dissolution of Austria-Hungary. The Republic claimed as its own the multi-ethnic territory of the Banat, in a bid to prevent its partition among competing nationalisms. Openly endorsed by the local communities of Hungarians, Swabians and Jews, the German-speaking socialist Otto Roth served as its nominal leader. This project was openly rejected from within by communities of Romanians and Serbs, who were centered in the eastern and western halves of the region, respectively. The short-lived entity was recognized only by the neighboring Hungarian Republic, with which it sought a merger. Its military structures were inherited from the Common Army, and placed under the command of a Hungarian officer, Albert Bartha.
  The Republic advocated the establishment of a Swiss cantonal model in Eastern Europe, and favored peaceful cooperation among ethnicities, as alternatives to partition. It had limited control of the country outside of Timișoara: it never held Pančevo, which became the center of Serb self-government, and failed to fully control the Romanian cities of Lugoj and Caransebeș.
context_section_description: In late May 1919, units of the Romanian Land Forces moved in from Transylvania, and were garrisoned alongside the French in Lugoj. That city was allowed to fly the Romanian tricolor. As reported by Émile Henriot, Timișoara Swabians were generally in favor of this development, though a minority supported independence for the Banat and Bačka as a federal state. Their faction preferred incorporation into Hungary, but viewed emancipation as a next-best solution. Such groups also referenced the Swiss model, but did not want French tutelage; they preferred an American occupation. During the remaining months of French occupation, however, various Republican officials were again employed by the administration. In autumn 1919, Tőkés of the Losonczy Lodge became Alispán of Temes.
  The project of making the Banat into an independent buffer state was aired in early 1919 by George D. Herron, an American socialist and pacifist. French diplomats gave some support to Herron's designs, a matter which aggravated Franco–Romanian relations. On 16 April 1920, Swabian activists submitted to the Peace Conference another failed proposal for Banatian–Bačkan independence, specifically referencing the Swiss cantonal model. The "neutral and independent republic of Banatia" was mostly embraced by Swabians of French (Lorrain) descent, who also proposed a separate canton for their subgroup. By then, however, the Franco-Swabian Stefan Frecôt had joined efforts with Michael Kausch and created a "German–Swabian People's Party" (DSVP), which competed with Muth's Autonomous Swabian Party. Muth and Imbroane both won seats in Romania's Lower Chamber during the race of May 1920. Both deputies spoke out against the planned partition of the Banat, though Muth also pressed for the Swabians to have cultural autonomy as described by the Minority Treaties.
  The Banat frontier was largely settled under the Treaty of Trianon of June 1920. The area was effectively partitioned between Yugoslavia and Romania during July, though there were still border adjustments to 1924. During that interval, the Bunjevac-Šokac Party began advocating autonomy for the Bunjevci and other Catholics, including for areas of the Yugoslav Banat. Only a small portion in the region's northwest was incorporated by the reconstructed Hungarian Kingdom, a state which also hosted 145,000 refugees from other parts of the Banat. For seven days in August 1921, this Banatian extremity was annexed to the Serbian-Hungarian Baranya-Baja Republic, which was in part a sample of Bunjevci separatism.
  On 10 August 1920, one week after a Romanian takeover in Timișoara, thirty-three Swabian communes voted to support the annexation. A final delegation, chaired by Frecôt and claiming to represent 68% of the whole Banat population, petitioned the Allies with a more ambitious project. It wanted the entire region merged into Romania, but this proposal was not followed through. In parallel, the DSVP and the Autonomist Party dissolved into the German Party, which had reconciled with Romanian centralism and was acting as a shared caucus for all Germans of Romania; the German National Council was renamed Community of the German Swabians, and survived as such to 1943.
  Roth was arrested by the Romanian authorities and released in 1920, reportedly promising to keep out of politics. He focused on his photographic studio and his contribution to the Timișoara Chamber of Labor. In the 1930s and '40s, Roth discreetly aligned himself with Groza, rekindling Banatian regionalism within the far-left Ploughmen's Front. For a while in the 1920s, full regional self-determination "to the point of separation" was also endorsed by the illegal Communist Party of Romania, which followed guidelines set by the Comintern. Its 1928 Resolution on the National Issue specifically referred to the Banat as a victim of Romanian "imperialism".
  More mainstream support for regionalism was promoted from within the People's Party by Imbroane's brother Nicolae, who in 1926 established a distinct parliamentary club. Divided into counties (Caraș, Severin, Timiș
caption: Republic of Banatia, as proposed by Swabians in April 1920
exif: {}