ural areas. Several Transylvanian
cities--including Cluj, Oradea, Baia-Mare, and Tirgu Mures--also have a
high percentage of Hungarian inhabitants.

Hungarians first moved into the territory occupied by modern Romania in
the ninth century as part of the Magyar invasion of the central European
plain. Their number grew through colonization during the period of
Hungarian rule of Transylvania, which began with the conquest of the
area in the eleventh century and ended in 1918. One group of
colonists--the Szeklers, or Szekelys--were settled in the eastern
borderlands of Transylvania in the first part of the twelfth century to
protect the plains from invaders. The ethnic origin of the Szeklers is
in dispute. Some authorities claim they are Magyars; others claim they
are non-Magyars who absorbed Magyar culture over long years of contact.
During the Middle Ages, Szeklers were distinct from Magyars in political
and social organization. Although the distinction between them and the
Hungarians has disappeared in modern times and Romanian official
statistics do not differentiate, Szekler culture is still considered
more purely Magyar than that of other Hungarians who have absorbed
influences from the West.

With the exception of some Szekler characteristics, the culture and
language of the Hungarian minority in Romania are indistinguishable from
those of their kinsmen in Hungary. They are, however, quite
distinguishable from the Romanians. This distinction is accentuated by
religious differences. Romanians are predominantly Orthodox, whereas
more than half of the Hungarians in the country are Roman Catholic, most
of the remainder are Calvinists, and some are Unitarians.

The culture and language of the Hungarian minority are being preserved
and promoted through schools, newspapers, periodicals, books, theater,
and other cultural activities. Members of the Hungarian minority,
however, frequently complain that the number of schools, books, and
other cultural material available to them in their own language is far
short of the demand and not nearly proportionate to their numbers.

Germans

Approximately 380,000 Germans lived in Romania in 1966. The size of the
German minority was greatly reduced through voluntary repatriation since
the 1930s, when it numbered over 600,000. It has continued to decrease
since 1966 through emigration to the Federal Republic of Germany (West
Germany) supported by the West German government and perm