A PANORAMA OF GERMAN POPULATION CENTERS IN ROMANIA, THEIR ORIGIN AND TRANSFORMATION. AN OUTLINE OF THE ISSUES (Panorama skupisk niemieckich w Rumunii, geneza i przemiany. Zarys problematyki)

This article introduces and generally characterizes various German centers in Romania, which together compose a contemporary picture of the German minority in the country. The article describes and briefly characterizes the circumstances and means of arrival of successive waves of German settlers in the territory of present Romania, in the context of the historical events and policy decisions which conditioned them. The aim of the paper is to present and characterize the cultural diversity that exists among individual groups of Germans residing in different regions of the present territory of Romania. This diversity is reflected in their different origins o arrival, tradition, religion, language and the role played by a group of settlers within the inhabited region of the country and other neighboring ethnic groups. The following analysis does not take into account the complicated fates of the German minority in the context of landmark historical events of the twentieth century, but it does briefly outline German settlers' current situation, as inhabitants of Romania.