Belonging of Banat Swabians in the early 20th century

This thesis investigates how Banat Swabian identity was constructed in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries through Adam Müller-Guttenbrunn's novella Der kleine Schwab. Situated in the multiethnic Banat region of the Habsburg Empire, this study combines conceptual history with narrative analysis to examine how the categories of Volk, nation, and state were mobilized to articulate notions of belonging. Using Riessman's narrative analysis, it explores thematic, structural, and interactional dimensions of the text, highlighting how autobiographical storytelling becomes a vehicle for cultural identity. The novella emerges as Volksbildungsliteratur, shaping collective memory by transforming local Swabian experiences into broader narratives of Germanness. Positioned between Heimatroman and Bildungsroman, it reflects both the ambivalence of borderland identities and the socio-political transformations of the Sattelzeit. The study contributes to scholarship on German minorities in Eastern Europe and demonstrates how literature functioned as a site where identity, memory, and political concepts converged.