Introduction
The Grisons (Grigioni in Italian; Grischun in Romansh; Graubünden in German) is a canton in southeastern Switzerland which is divided between three groups: Germans, Italians and Romansh.
Until the end of the 13th century, Italian (in the form of Lombard dialect) and Romansh (a group of Western Ladin dialects) were the only languages spoken in the Grisons. In fact, until that time there was not a single German village in the entire region. Aside from the Germanic feudal lords and some foreign-born clergy, the entire population was Latin. Beginning in the late 13th century, however, a gradual Germanization of some areas began to take place. Despite this, at the beginning of the 19th century the Romansh-speakers and Italian-speakers still formed two-thirds of the population. And yet today these ancient indigenous groups of the Grisons are facing extinction. How did this come to be? What follows is a brief overview which is incomplete but sufficient to get a general idea of what occurred.
For the sake of brevity we will have to omit any discussion of the political, administrative, institutional and ecclesiastical changes which took place between the 9th and 12th centuries, which enabled and facilitated the subsequent ethno-linguistic transformation. Instead we will concentrate only on the ethnic and demographic changes themselves.
The Walser Migration
The first German infiltrations took place between the 13th and 14th centuries as a result of the Walser migrations. Needles to say, the Walsers were neither invited nor welcomed by the Romansh population. They were invited to settle by the Germanic feudal lords and progressively expanded into other nearby Romansh territories. Although in some cases the Walsers lived alongside the Romansh and absorbed them, in many cases the lands in which they settled were confiscated from the Romansh, who were forced to renounce and abandon the territory.
Unlike the Romansh, moreover, the Walser colonists obtained special rights and privileges from the feudal lords. In exchange the Walsers agreed to defend the feudal lords' interests, making themselves the military instruments of the feudal lords. They were also theoretically responsible for police activities and for suppressing any potential peasant revolts by the Romansh. The relationship between the free Walsers and the feudal lords was one of willing servants and patrons, whereas the relationship between the Romansh and the feudal lords was one of serfs and masters. Therefore, from the outset, the Walsers represented a foreign class whose interests were in direct opposition to those of the Romansh.
Overall, from the demographic point of view, the Walser migration in the Grisons was not as intense as it may seem at first glance, because the affected areas in general remained sparsely populated.
The following is a brief town-by-town summary of the Walser colonization:
Another example is that of the struggle between the Romansh and Germans at Klosters in 1489: a dispute over who should occupy the office of Ammann (first magistrate) — since both parties wished to elect an Ammann from their own ethnic group — resulted in murder and bloodshed. It was later decided by Sigismund, Duke of Austria, that the office should alternate each year between Romansh and German candidates, meanwhile the right to hold elections was abolished.
Courting traditions provide yet another example. For their part, young Walser men from the Grisons would often travel as far as Italy to find potential brides among the Walser villages of Piedmont, rather than seeking spouses among the women of the much closer Romansh communities.
The expansion of the Walsers in the Surselva Valley was halted in 1457 by the Romansh of the Lumnezia Valley, whose count issued a decree imposing restrictions on property rights and mixed marriages between Romansh and Walsers. The Walsers of Vals belonged politically to Lumnezia, which always remained Romansh. The Romansh denied the Walsers of Vals the right to vote in public assemblies until the 17th century.
The Alemannian Migration
Almost contemporaneous to the Walser colonization, a very small migration of Alemanns — today called Bündnerdeutsche — to the Landquart region began. Two examples:
Germanization of Other Romansh Areas
Some other Romansh areas were also Germanized between the 14th and 16th centuries, although they were never colonized by Germans. Some examples:
Germanization During the Protestant Reformation
In most cases the spread of the German language among the Romansh in the 16th century — favored by the German administrators and by the Walsers of the League of the Ten Jurisdictions — also coincided with the spread of Protestantism, which however was not accompanied by any mass migration of Germans. These cases, therefore, just like those previously mentioned, generally constituted a linguistic rather than ethnic substitution. Some examples:
The Germanization of Chur
Then there is the unique case of Chur.
Chur (Coira) was a Romanic city until the 16th century. In 1464, following a terrible fire that nearly destroyed the entire city, a large number of German artisans and workers arrived from Vorarlberg and Liechtenstein to help rebuild the city. These workers remained permanently in Chur, which later led to the unintended suppression of the Romansh language.
From the late 15th to the 16th century the newly-rebuilt city and its surroundings were inhabited by both Romansh and Germans. Towards the middle of the 16th century Romansh was still spoken but was already eclipsed by German. The city was definitively Germanized — at least in its public acts — by the end of the 16th century in the wake of the Protestant Reformation.
In this way the Romansh lost their only urban center and from that moment onward became exclusively a rural population. As a result, from that moment until today, being urban means being Germanized.
Romansh-speakers continued to inhabit that quarter outside the city walls still today called Welschdörfli, which means 'Italian village' or 'Romansh village' (from 'Welschen', a term used by the Germans to refer to Latin peoples), the last remaining vestige of old Romansh Chur. However, over time these inhabitants also became Germanized.
The Extent of Germanization Before and After the Reformation
These Germanic penetrations between the 13th and 16th centuries, in the grand scheme of things, compared to what would occur later, were more or less minor cases of Germanization, substantially affecting only the Landquart, Plessur, Rheinwald and Prättigau-Davos regions. The areas colonized by the Walsers — with the exception of Davos, which became the largest Walser center — in general remained sparsely inhabited by just a few families. Meanwhile, the Germanization of Chur, although a severe blow from the point of view of urbanism, did not lead to the Germanization of the entire territory of the Grisons. Despite the storm, most of the Grisons was still Latin (that is, Romansh and Italian) and remained so until the 19th and 20th centuries.
Let's briefly examine the situation before and after the Reformation:
At the beginning of the 15th century Chur, Churwalden, the Schanfigg Valley, the Prättigau Valley, Maienfeld and the Fünf Dörfer district (the Five Villages) in Landquart were still largely Romansh, indeed almost exclusively Romansh, as evidenced by the language of the tribunals. During that century some of these areas began to undergo various degrees of Germanization. The most affected were Chur, Maienfeld, the Five Villages, Klosters and the south-western villages of the Prättigau Valley (Furna, Jenaz, Fideris, Conters). The total Germanization of all these regions, however, was completed only by the end of the following century, after the Reformation.
At the dawn of the 16th century — shortly before the Protestant Reformation in the Grisons and prior to the process of Germanization of South Tyrol initiated by the Habsburgs in the wake of the apostasy of the neighboring Romansh valleys — the Romansh of the Grisons and the Ladins of western South Tyrol still constituted a geo-linguistic bloc which extended from the Uri-Surselva border and the Chur Rhine Valley (Churer Rheintal) to the Val di Non in northwestern Trentino. However, it should be noted that the Landquart, Klosters and Chur areas were by now divided between Romansh-speakers and German-speakers, thus increasingly isolating the villages of the Prättigau Valley which at this time were still Romansh.
It should be noted also that by this time the geo-linguistic link with the current Ladin area of South Tyrol had already been broken — at least partially — by a wedge of Italian-speakers and German-speakers in the Oltradige-Bassa Atesina (Überetsch-Unterland), the Bolzano area (Bozner Land), the Merano area (Meraner Land), the Passiria Valley (Passeiertal), the Ultimo Valley (Ultental), the Sarentino Valley (Sarntal), and the Renon Plateau (Ritten), which formed a trilingual zone and isolated the western Ladins (the Romansh and the inhabitants of the Venosta Valley) from the central and eastern Ladins (the Dolomite Ladins and the Friulians).
This wedge interrupted an otherwise perfect geographical continuity which would have extended from the Rhine Valley to Julian Venetia, since at that time the Lower Val Monastero (Val Müstair), the Val Venosta (Vinschgau), the Val di Non, the Val di Sole, the Lower Isarco Valley (Eisacktal), the Lower Pusteria (Unterpustertal), the valleys of Luson and Tires (Lüsental-Tierser Tal), Castelrotto (Kastelruth), the Agordino, the Cadore, the Zoldano Valley, Eastern Friuli (Trieste, Gorizia, Caporetto/Kobarid, Tolmino/Tolmin, Postumia/Postojna, Vipacco/Vipava, Idria/Idrija, Circhina/Cerkno, Canale/Kanal, etc.), Istria, Imboden, the Surselva region, the Viamala region, the Albula region, the Engadin, the Prättigau Valley, four of the Five Villages in Landquart, the city of Chur and neighboring municipalities were all still inhabited by Rhaeto-Romance populations, thus forming the aforementioned Ladin bloc from the Chur Rhine Valley to the Val di Non, as well as a second bloc from the Lower Isarco and Lower Pusteria to the Quarnaro Gulf and Julian Alps.
By the end of the 16th century, in the aftermath of the Reformation, the German and Germanized areas in the Grisons were still limited to the following: Landquart; Prättigau; Schanfigg; Rheinwald; isolated Walser villages such as Avers, Mutten, Obersaxen, Vals and those of the Safien Valley; Davos and neighboring towns such as Klosters; Chur and neighboring towns such as Churwalden and Haldenstein, and a few other small towns like Felsberg and Tamins, in addition to the other towns and villages mentioned earlier.
The rest of the Grisons remained compactly Latin (Romansh and Italian). Finally, unlike South Tyrol and Eastern Friuli, the ethno-linguistic boundaries of the Grisons remained quite stable from the post-Reformation period until the 19th century.
Germanization During the 19th and 20th Centuries
For the most part the Germanization of the Grisons dates back only to the 19th and 20th centuries, and in recent times it has proceeded very rapidly. It occurred through all the various familiar means: the migration of German-speakers; the imposition of the German language; the creation of German schools in the Romansh areas; compulsory education in German; the refusal of the German ruling class to recognize the Romansh language in public life; the influence of the mass media; the cultural, political and economic prestige of the German language, etc.
To these one could also add other factors such as the lack of Romansh urban centers, the absence of a standardized language and therefore a lack of national literature, religious division, regional rivalries, and finally the failure of the Romansh to unite their cultural and political interests with those of the neighboring Italic populations in Ticino, the Italian Grisons and Trentino-Alto Adige.
And this despite the fact that Romansh literature was born in Italy in the 19th century among Engadin emigrants known as Randulins: Gian Battista Sandri, Conradin de Flugi, Gian Fadri Caderas, Simeon Caratsch, Zaccaria Pallioppi, Giovanni Mathis, Gian Singer, Gian Pitschen Balastèr, Alexander Balletta, Clementina Gilli, Peider Lansel, etc. These Italo-Engadin poets were among the founders of Romansh poetry. What could have been a very important step towards Italian-Romansh solidarity, both during and immediately after the Risorgimento, in the end amounted to a missed opportunity.
As for the attitude of the Swiss authorities towards the Romansh population, it is sufficient to recall that it was only in 1938 that the Romansh language received nominal recognition by the Swiss government (and this with the express purpose of countering growing irredentism and of alienating the Romansh from the Italians) and it was only in 2004, when it was already on the verge of death, that Romansh finally became an official language with equal legal status as German.
As previously mentioned, the major Germanization process dates back only to the 19th and 20th centuries. At the beginning of the 19th century, the Romance or neo-Latin peoples — that is to say the Italian-speakers and Romansh-speakers — formed the absolute majority of the population in the Grisons. Here are the precise figures:
Thus, in the span of about 200 years, the Latin population, from an absolute majority in 1803, has became a minority in its own land, although it should be noted that the vast majority of today's German-speakers are in fact recently-Germanized Romansh peoples, as is demonstrated by the surnames and by historical linguistic data. To these one could add also those German-speakers of Romansh origin in the Landquart Valley and in the Prättigau Valley, who were already Germanized several centuries ago.
More than the Germanization of a region, what has taken place is the near total Germanization of the Romansh themselves, both culturally and linguistically, so much so that in some cases the Germanized Romansh have become more Swiss than the Swiss, manifesting a sort of Stockholm syndrome towards their old masters, not dissimilar to the attitude of certain Germanized Ladins in South Tyrol.
The Germanization of St. Mortitz, Samnaun and Bivio
The Germanization of the Grisons is not an ancient event which dates back to the barbarian invasions; on the contrary the phenomenon has largely occurred during the our parents and grandparents lifetime, and today it is still occurring. Emblematic in this regard are the cases of St. Moritz, Samnaun and especially Bivio, whose Germanization took place before our very eyes.
St. Moritz (San Maurizio) was a majority Romansh village until the late 19th century. By 1880, following a wave of German immigration and the transformation of the small village into a major tourist resort, those who spoke Romansh as a first language decreased to 50% of the population. The figure fell to 20% in 1941, to 8% in 1970%, to 6.23% in 1990 and to 4.72% in 2000. In 1900 Italian was spoken by 31% of the population. The figure fell to 22.83% by the year 2000. Today German is the only official language in schools and administration. Romansh — the indigenous language spoken here at least since 1137 AD — today is taught only as a secondary foreign (!) language.
Samnaun (Samignone), for geographical reasons, was for many years reachable only from Austrian territory. In spite of this, for a thousand years, up until the 19th century, all the inhabitants spoke Vallader, a Romansh dialect closely related to Dolomitic Ladin. In the 19th century this language was replaced by a Bavarian-Tyrolean dialect. The last native Romansh Vallader-speaker died in 1935.
Bivio was founded in the 9th century by Italian farmers from the Bregaglia Valley who spoke a Lombard dialect. In 1860 the Italians of Bivio amounted to 83% of the population (47 Italian families; 9 Romansh families). In 1870 the percentage remained static although the number of families increased to 82 Italian families and 16 Romansh families. By 1980 Italian was spoken by only 42% of the village. By 1990 the figure had fallen to 34.08%, and by 2000 it had fallen to 29.41%. In 2005 German became the new official language, replacing Italian.
The Germanization of Other Romansh Towns
The following is a list of some other towns that were still completely Romansh in the 19th and 20th centuries, but which today are predominantly German-speaking:
• Albula/Alvra
• Andeer
• Bergun/Bravuogn
• Bever
• Bonaduz/Panaduz
• Cazis
• Celerina
• Domat/Ems
• Fledern/Flearda
• Filisur/Filisour
• Flims/Flem
• Ilanz/Glion
• Lantsch/Lenz
• Paspels
• Pontresina
• Rhäzüns/Razen
• Samedan
• Scharans/Scharons
• Sils im Engadin/Segl
• Sils im Domleschg/Seglias
• Silvaplana
• Trin
• Tumegl/Tomils
• Vaz/Obervaz
• Zillis-Reischen/Ziran-Reschen
• Zuoz
The list could go on.
The Latin Population in the Grisons Today
Today in the Italian-speaking valleys there are fewer than 15,000 inhabitants, of which only approximately 85% are Italian, while in 2015 the Romansh-speakers amounted to only 29,826 people or 15.4% of the total population of the Grisons. Overall the Italian-speakers and Romansh-speakers are almost equal in number. Both however are now in the minority from the linguistic point of view.
Ever since the fall of Rome the Latins of the Alps have been in retreat; their territory has become increasingly smaller over the centuries, completely surrounded by the ever-expanding Germanic and Slavic peoples. In the canton of the Grisons, the Latins are now an endangered species and threatened with extinction due to the ever increasing influence of the Germans.
This much-vaunted trilingual canton of Switzerland is in reality dominated by the German-speaking element. Without knowledge of German one cannot survive, neither economically, nor politically, nor culturally: the resulting consequences have already been enumerated. Unless there is a radical change in culture and politics, the ancient Roman and Latin character of the Grisons will die and the entire canton will inevitably be swallowed up by the Germanic world.
Bibliography
• Durich Chiampell [Ulrich Campbell], Raetiae alpestris topographica descriptio (1573)
• Valentin Bühler, Davos in Graubünden (Heidelberg, 1872)
• August Sartorius von Waltershausen, Die Germanisierung der Rätoromanen in der Schweiz (Stuttgart: Verlag von J. Engelhorn, 1900)
• Erich Branger, Rechtsgeschichte der Freien Walser in der Ostschweiz (Bern, 1905)
• Carlo Salvioni, Ladinia e Italia (Pavia, 1917)
• August Kübler, Die romanischen und deutschen örtlichkeitsnamen des kantons Graubünden (C. Winter, 1926)
• Paolo Drigo, Limiti e forme della penetrazione alloglotta nel canton Grigioni (Bassano Del Grappa: Arti grafiche Bassanesi, 1948)
• Angelo Monteverdi, Manuale di avviamento agli studi romanzi (Milano: F. Vallardi, 1952)
• Carlo Battisti, Polemica atesina (Firenze, 1960)
• Pieder Cavigelli, Die Germanisierung von Bonaduz in geschichtlicher und sprachlicher Schau (Frauenfeld: Huber, 1969)
• Peter Nichols Richardson, German-Romance Contact: Name-giving in Walser Settlements (Amsterdam, 1974)
• R. H. Billigmeier, A Crisis in Swiss Pluralism: The Romansh and Their Relations With the German- and Italian-Swiss in the Perspective of a Millenium (The Hague: Mouton, 1979)
• R. H. Billigmeier, Land und Volk der Rätoromanen: eine Kultur- und Sprachgeschichte (Frauenfeld: Verlag Huber, 1983)
• Iso Niedermann, Zur Geschichte der Katholischen Pfarrei Mastrils (1987)
• Fernando Iseppi, Storia dei Grigioni, vol. 1-3 (Coira: Pro Grigioni Italiano, 2000)
• Enrico Rizzi, Storia dei Walser dell'est: Grigioni, Liechtenstein, Vorarlberg, Tirolo (Fondazione Enrico Monti, 2005)
The Grisons (Grigioni in Italian; Grischun in Romansh; Graubünden in German) is a canton in southeastern Switzerland which is divided between three groups: Germans, Italians and Romansh.
Until the end of the 13th century, Italian (in the form of Lombard dialect) and Romansh (a group of Western Ladin dialects) were the only languages spoken in the Grisons. In fact, until that time there was not a single German village in the entire region. Aside from the Germanic feudal lords and some foreign-born clergy, the entire population was Latin. Beginning in the late 13th century, however, a gradual Germanization of some areas began to take place. Despite this, at the beginning of the 19th century the Romansh-speakers and Italian-speakers still formed two-thirds of the population. And yet today these ancient indigenous groups of the Grisons are facing extinction. How did this come to be? What follows is a brief overview which is incomplete but sufficient to get a general idea of what occurred.
For the sake of brevity we will have to omit any discussion of the political, administrative, institutional and ecclesiastical changes which took place between the 9th and 12th centuries, which enabled and facilitated the subsequent ethno-linguistic transformation. Instead we will concentrate only on the ethnic and demographic changes themselves.
The Walser Migration
The first German infiltrations took place between the 13th and 14th centuries as a result of the Walser migrations. Needles to say, the Walsers were neither invited nor welcomed by the Romansh population. They were invited to settle by the Germanic feudal lords and progressively expanded into other nearby Romansh territories. Although in some cases the Walsers lived alongside the Romansh and absorbed them, in many cases the lands in which they settled were confiscated from the Romansh, who were forced to renounce and abandon the territory.
Unlike the Romansh, moreover, the Walser colonists obtained special rights and privileges from the feudal lords. In exchange the Walsers agreed to defend the feudal lords' interests, making themselves the military instruments of the feudal lords. They were also theoretically responsible for police activities and for suppressing any potential peasant revolts by the Romansh. The relationship between the free Walsers and the feudal lords was one of willing servants and patrons, whereas the relationship between the Romansh and the feudal lords was one of serfs and masters. Therefore, from the outset, the Walsers represented a foreign class whose interests were in direct opposition to those of the Romansh.
Overall, from the demographic point of view, the Walser migration in the Grisons was not as intense as it may seem at first glance, because the affected areas in general remained sparsely populated.
The following is a brief town-by-town summary of the Walser colonization:
- The Rheinwald (Valrain), although scarcely populated, belonged to the Romansh area until the arrival of the Walsers, who came from the Val Formazza in northern Piedmont around the year 1270. Some believe Hinterrhein (Valragn) — located in the Rheinwald Valley — to be the first Walser colony in the Grisons.
- Obersaxen (Sursaissa), a linguistic island located in the middle of the Surselva Valley, was founded in the late 13th century by Walser immigrants in an area previously inhabited by a Romansh population. Together with Hinterrhein, it is believed to be the oldest Walser colony in the Grisons.
- Avers (Avras), another linguistic island and previously a Romansh town, was occupied by the Walsers after 1280.
- Davos (Tavate) was a Romansh town until the year 1280 or 1284 with the arrival of the Walsers, who used the town as a base of expansion into other nearby Romansh areas.
- Splügen (Speluca), located in the Rheinwald Valley, belonged to the Romansh area until 1290 when it was colonized by Walser immigrants.
- Sufers (Subere), located in the Rheinwald Valley, was inhabited by the Romansh until being occupied around 1300 by Walser immigrants from Nufenen and Hinterrhein.
- The Safien Valley (Stossavia) consisted of several Romansh villages until the 14th century with the arrival of Walser colonists from the Rheinwald Valley.
- Vals (Val) was inhabited by the Romansh until the 14th century with the arrival of the Walsers.
- Mutten (Mut), a Walser linguistic island in the Viamala region, was inhabited by the Romansh until the 14th century.
- Tschappina (Tschupegna), which still belonged to the Romansh area in the 14th century, became a Walser colony around the year 1396.
- Says, a hamlet of Trimmis, in the Landquart region, was inhabited by Romansh — albeit sparsely — until the 14th century.
- Valzeina, a sparsely-populated Romansh area, was occupied by Walsers in the 14th century.
- Arosa, formerly a pasture or farmland belonging to the Romansh, was taken over by Walsers in the 14th century.
- Praden (Prada) belonged to the Romansh region before being colonized by Walser immigrants at the beginning of the 14th century.
- Langwies (Prauliung) was a hinterland belonging to the Romansh village of Prada and to the parish church of Son Peder. Beginning in 1307 it was colonized by Walser immigrants from Davos, who occupied Fondei, Medergen (Mederi) and Sapun (Samponi), before occupying the entire area later in the 14th century.
- Schmitten (Ferrera), formerly Romansh, was colonized by Walsers from Davos between the 14th and 15th centuries; however the Romansh presence was never completely extinguished: still today the Romansh remain a minority in the town.
- Igis (Eigias), a hamlet of the newly-formed municipality of Landquart, was inhabited by the Romansh until the 15th century when they were forced to move south due to a migration of Walsers.
- Mastrils, once part of the former Romansh village of Zizers, today a hamlet of Landquart, was colonized by Walsers from Valzeina e from the Tamina Valley in the Canton of St. Gallen between the 15th and 16th centuries (although the first documented presence of Walsers in Mastrils dates only to the year 1515).
- Furna (Fuorn), Jenaz (Gianatsch), Fideris (Fidrisio) and Conters im Prättigau (Cunter en il Partenz) were all Romansh areas before being colonized by Walsers between the 14th and 15th centuries.
- St. Antönien (S. Antönia), composed of the former towns of Ascharina, Castels and Ruti, was uninhabited but belonged to the Romansh region and was used as agricultural land by the local Romansh villagers. The valley was gradually occupied by Walsers from the Davos-Klosters area between the 14th and 15th centuries.
- Saas im Prättigau (Sausch), today a hamlet of Klosters-Serneus, was a Romansh village colonized by Walsers from St. Antönien and Klosters between the 14th and 15th centuries, which led to the disappearance of the Romansh language and the Germanization of the local Romansh population.
- Klosters (Claustra) was a Romansh area that was colonized by Walsers from Davos beginning in the 14th century. Towards the end of the 15th century it was undergoing a process of Germanization but still had a strong Romansh population roughly equal in number to the German one. In 1489 it was half German; by the 16th century the area was predominantly German-speaking.
- Valtanna, a hamlet of Trimmis previously belonging to the Romansh region, was occupied by Walsers from Valzeina in the 15th and 16th centuries.
Another example is that of the struggle between the Romansh and Germans at Klosters in 1489: a dispute over who should occupy the office of Ammann (first magistrate) — since both parties wished to elect an Ammann from their own ethnic group — resulted in murder and bloodshed. It was later decided by Sigismund, Duke of Austria, that the office should alternate each year between Romansh and German candidates, meanwhile the right to hold elections was abolished.
Courting traditions provide yet another example. For their part, young Walser men from the Grisons would often travel as far as Italy to find potential brides among the Walser villages of Piedmont, rather than seeking spouses among the women of the much closer Romansh communities.
The expansion of the Walsers in the Surselva Valley was halted in 1457 by the Romansh of the Lumnezia Valley, whose count issued a decree imposing restrictions on property rights and mixed marriages between Romansh and Walsers. The Walsers of Vals belonged politically to Lumnezia, which always remained Romansh. The Romansh denied the Walsers of Vals the right to vote in public assemblies until the 17th century.
The Alemannian Migration
Almost contemporaneous to the Walser colonization, a very small migration of Alemanns — today called Bündnerdeutsche — to the Landquart region began. Two examples:
- Fläsch (Fiasca), formerly a Romansh town, was Germanized in the 14th century by Alemannian immigrants.
- Malans (Mellanze) was Germanized by Alemannian immigrants between the 15th and 16th centuries. There was still a Romansh presence until the mid-16th century.
Germanization of Other Romansh Areas
Some other Romansh areas were also Germanized between the 14th and 16th centuries, although they were never colonized by Germans. Some examples:
- Haldenstein (Lantsch sut) was formerly a Romansh village. Towards the end of the 15th century, between about 1470 and 1500, it switched to the German language.
- Jenins (Gianin), Trimmis (Termin), Untervaz (Vaz sut) and Zizers (Zizure) were all Romansh-speaking villages in the 15th century. In the same century the Germanization process was already underway, and by the 16th century the villages all appear to be completely Germanized, despite there being no documented migratory movement, apart from some very small nearby hamlets which had been colonized by Walsers.
- Maienfeld (Maiavilla), capital of the old Grisons Lordship (Bündner Herrschaft), was at one time a Romansh town. In the 14th century several villages were founded near the town by Walser immigrants: Sturfis, Rofels, Guscha and others. In the 16th century, as a result of the combined influence of these villages and the neighboring Alemannians, the town switched to the German language, thus becoming Germanized. The Walsers, however, did not obtain citizenship until the 18th century, and the villagers of Grusha not before 1897.
- Felsberg (Villa Fagonio) and Tamins (Tumein) were Romansh towns which at an unknown date and without any known causes abandoned the Romansh language and adopted German. Some think that the towns were already Germanized in the 15th century, but according to Prof. Pieder Cavigelli the transition occurred in the 16th century in the wake of the Protestant Reformation.
Germanization During the Protestant Reformation
In most cases the spread of the German language among the Romansh in the 16th century — favored by the German administrators and by the Walsers of the League of the Ten Jurisdictions — also coincided with the spread of Protestantism, which however was not accompanied by any mass migration of Germans. These cases, therefore, just like those previously mentioned, generally constituted a linguistic rather than ethnic substitution. Some examples:
- Rongellen (Runtgaglia) and Urmein (Urmino) were Romansh villages which, under the influence of the nearby Walser colony of Tschappina, switched from Romansh to German between the 14th and 16th centuries. Some think that Rongellen may have been a Walser colony which expelled or displaced the native Romansh, however there is no documentation proving the existence of a Walser colony in Rongellen.
- Churwalden (Curvalda) and Parpan (Parpaun) were Romansh towns Germanized between the 15th and 16th centuries, mainly due to the influence of the Abbey of Churwalden, which was linked to Roggenburg Abbey in Bavaria.
- Grüsch (Crusa), Küblis (Convalle), Luzein (Lucegno), Schiers (Sceria), Seewis im Prättigau (Sausch) and Serneus — towns located in the Prättigau Valley — were all inhabited by the Romansh. Indeed in the mid-15th century the Romansh language was still dominant throughout the valley. The Germanization of the Prättigau Valley, spreading from the nearby Walser municipalities, began in the 15th century and was completed by the second half of the 16th century. The Romansh chronicler Durich Chiampell reported that around 1540 many inhabitants of the Prättigau Valley used the Walser dialect of Davos in public but spoke Romansh in private; only Seewis and Serneus continued the public use of Romansh. Around 1577 or 1582 the inhabitants of these two towns also switched to German but were openly mocked for their poor mastery of the German language. In some towns such as Luzein there was a migration of some Walser families who mixed with the local Romansh, thus contributing to the Germanization. However, the surnames demonstrate that even after the 16th century most of the population was still Romansh, albeit Germanized.
- Calfreisen (Chiaunreis-Cafrassino), Castiel (Castello), Lüen (Leone), Maladers (Maladro), Molinis (Molinas), Pagig (Pagiai), Peist (Peste), St. Peter (Son Peder) and Tschiertschen (Cercene) — villages located in the Schanfigg Valley — were all Romansh villages until the end of the 16th century. The first of these to adopt the German language were Maladers and Peist, while Calfreisen, Castiel and Lüen for some time remained bilingual. In Maladers, Molinis, Peist and St. Peter the Romansh continued to exist but already in 1577 they were reduced to a minority in the face of German-speakers. It is said — without any conclusive documentation however — that the last Romansh-speakers in the latter four villages died of the plague and were replaced by German immigrants.
- Malix (Umbligo), a hamlet of Churwalden, underwent Germanization in the second half of the 16th century, passing from the Romansh language to German.
- Thusis (Tosana) and Masein (Mazegno) were Romansh villages which, under the influence of Tschappina, passed to the German language between the 16th and 17th centuries.
The Germanization of Chur
Then there is the unique case of Chur.
Chur (Coira) was a Romanic city until the 16th century. In 1464, following a terrible fire that nearly destroyed the entire city, a large number of German artisans and workers arrived from Vorarlberg and Liechtenstein to help rebuild the city. These workers remained permanently in Chur, which later led to the unintended suppression of the Romansh language.
From the late 15th to the 16th century the newly-rebuilt city and its surroundings were inhabited by both Romansh and Germans. Towards the middle of the 16th century Romansh was still spoken but was already eclipsed by German. The city was definitively Germanized — at least in its public acts — by the end of the 16th century in the wake of the Protestant Reformation.
In this way the Romansh lost their only urban center and from that moment onward became exclusively a rural population. As a result, from that moment until today, being urban means being Germanized.
Romansh-speakers continued to inhabit that quarter outside the city walls still today called Welschdörfli, which means 'Italian village' or 'Romansh village' (from 'Welschen', a term used by the Germans to refer to Latin peoples), the last remaining vestige of old Romansh Chur. However, over time these inhabitants also became Germanized.
The Extent of Germanization Before and After the Reformation
These Germanic penetrations between the 13th and 16th centuries, in the grand scheme of things, compared to what would occur later, were more or less minor cases of Germanization, substantially affecting only the Landquart, Plessur, Rheinwald and Prättigau-Davos regions. The areas colonized by the Walsers — with the exception of Davos, which became the largest Walser center — in general remained sparsely inhabited by just a few families. Meanwhile, the Germanization of Chur, although a severe blow from the point of view of urbanism, did not lead to the Germanization of the entire territory of the Grisons. Despite the storm, most of the Grisons was still Latin (that is, Romansh and Italian) and remained so until the 19th and 20th centuries.
Let's briefly examine the situation before and after the Reformation:
At the beginning of the 15th century Chur, Churwalden, the Schanfigg Valley, the Prättigau Valley, Maienfeld and the Fünf Dörfer district (the Five Villages) in Landquart were still largely Romansh, indeed almost exclusively Romansh, as evidenced by the language of the tribunals. During that century some of these areas began to undergo various degrees of Germanization. The most affected were Chur, Maienfeld, the Five Villages, Klosters and the south-western villages of the Prättigau Valley (Furna, Jenaz, Fideris, Conters). The total Germanization of all these regions, however, was completed only by the end of the following century, after the Reformation.
At the dawn of the 16th century — shortly before the Protestant Reformation in the Grisons and prior to the process of Germanization of South Tyrol initiated by the Habsburgs in the wake of the apostasy of the neighboring Romansh valleys — the Romansh of the Grisons and the Ladins of western South Tyrol still constituted a geo-linguistic bloc which extended from the Uri-Surselva border and the Chur Rhine Valley (Churer Rheintal) to the Val di Non in northwestern Trentino. However, it should be noted that the Landquart, Klosters and Chur areas were by now divided between Romansh-speakers and German-speakers, thus increasingly isolating the villages of the Prättigau Valley which at this time were still Romansh.
It should be noted also that by this time the geo-linguistic link with the current Ladin area of South Tyrol had already been broken — at least partially — by a wedge of Italian-speakers and German-speakers in the Oltradige-Bassa Atesina (Überetsch-Unterland), the Bolzano area (Bozner Land), the Merano area (Meraner Land), the Passiria Valley (Passeiertal), the Ultimo Valley (Ultental), the Sarentino Valley (Sarntal), and the Renon Plateau (Ritten), which formed a trilingual zone and isolated the western Ladins (the Romansh and the inhabitants of the Venosta Valley) from the central and eastern Ladins (the Dolomite Ladins and the Friulians).
This wedge interrupted an otherwise perfect geographical continuity which would have extended from the Rhine Valley to Julian Venetia, since at that time the Lower Val Monastero (Val Müstair), the Val Venosta (Vinschgau), the Val di Non, the Val di Sole, the Lower Isarco Valley (Eisacktal), the Lower Pusteria (Unterpustertal), the valleys of Luson and Tires (Lüsental-Tierser Tal), Castelrotto (Kastelruth), the Agordino, the Cadore, the Zoldano Valley, Eastern Friuli (Trieste, Gorizia, Caporetto/Kobarid, Tolmino/Tolmin, Postumia/Postojna, Vipacco/Vipava, Idria/Idrija, Circhina/Cerkno, Canale/Kanal, etc.), Istria, Imboden, the Surselva region, the Viamala region, the Albula region, the Engadin, the Prättigau Valley, four of the Five Villages in Landquart, the city of Chur and neighboring municipalities were all still inhabited by Rhaeto-Romance populations, thus forming the aforementioned Ladin bloc from the Chur Rhine Valley to the Val di Non, as well as a second bloc from the Lower Isarco and Lower Pusteria to the Quarnaro Gulf and Julian Alps.
By the end of the 16th century, in the aftermath of the Reformation, the German and Germanized areas in the Grisons were still limited to the following: Landquart; Prättigau; Schanfigg; Rheinwald; isolated Walser villages such as Avers, Mutten, Obersaxen, Vals and those of the Safien Valley; Davos and neighboring towns such as Klosters; Chur and neighboring towns such as Churwalden and Haldenstein, and a few other small towns like Felsberg and Tamins, in addition to the other towns and villages mentioned earlier.
The rest of the Grisons remained compactly Latin (Romansh and Italian). Finally, unlike South Tyrol and Eastern Friuli, the ethno-linguistic boundaries of the Grisons remained quite stable from the post-Reformation period until the 19th century.
Germanization During the 19th and 20th Centuries
For the most part the Germanization of the Grisons dates back only to the 19th and 20th centuries, and in recent times it has proceeded very rapidly. It occurred through all the various familiar means: the migration of German-speakers; the imposition of the German language; the creation of German schools in the Romansh areas; compulsory education in German; the refusal of the German ruling class to recognize the Romansh language in public life; the influence of the mass media; the cultural, political and economic prestige of the German language, etc.
To these one could also add other factors such as the lack of Romansh urban centers, the absence of a standardized language and therefore a lack of national literature, religious division, regional rivalries, and finally the failure of the Romansh to unite their cultural and political interests with those of the neighboring Italic populations in Ticino, the Italian Grisons and Trentino-Alto Adige.
And this despite the fact that Romansh literature was born in Italy in the 19th century among Engadin emigrants known as Randulins: Gian Battista Sandri, Conradin de Flugi, Gian Fadri Caderas, Simeon Caratsch, Zaccaria Pallioppi, Giovanni Mathis, Gian Singer, Gian Pitschen Balastèr, Alexander Balletta, Clementina Gilli, Peider Lansel, etc. These Italo-Engadin poets were among the founders of Romansh poetry. What could have been a very important step towards Italian-Romansh solidarity, both during and immediately after the Risorgimento, in the end amounted to a missed opportunity.
As for the attitude of the Swiss authorities towards the Romansh population, it is sufficient to recall that it was only in 1938 that the Romansh language received nominal recognition by the Swiss government (and this with the express purpose of countering growing irredentism and of alienating the Romansh from the Italians) and it was only in 2004, when it was already on the verge of death, that Romansh finally became an official language with equal legal status as German.
As previously mentioned, the major Germanization process dates back only to the 19th and 20th centuries. At the beginning of the 19th century, the Romance or neo-Latin peoples — that is to say the Italian-speakers and Romansh-speakers — formed the absolute majority of the population in the Grisons. Here are the precise figures:
In 1803 the population of the Grisons was thus divided:
- Latins c. 64% (36,700 Romansh-speakers; c. 10,276 Italian-speakers)
- Germans/Germanized c. 36% (c. 26,424 German-speakers)
In 1850 the population of the Grisons was thus divided:
- Latins 60% (42,439 Romansh-speakers; 11,956 Italian-speakers)
- Germans/Germanized 39% (35,500 German-speakers)
In 1880 the population of the Grisons was thus divided:
- Latins 54% (37,794 Romansh-speakers; 12,976 Italian-speakers)
- Germans/Germanized 46% (43,664 German-speakers)
In 1910 the population of the Grisons was thus divided:
- Latins 49,3% (37,662 Romansh-speakers; 20,689 Italian-speakers)
- Germans/Germanized 50,6% (56,944 German-speakers)
In 1950 the population of the Grisons was thus divided:
- Latins 42% (40,109 Romansh-speakers; 18,079 Italian-speakers)
- Germans/Germanized 56% (77,096 German-speakers)
In 1980 the population of the Grisons was thus divided:
- Latins 35% (36,017 Romansh-speakers; 22,199 Italian-speakers)
- Germans/Germanized 59% (98,645 German-speakers)
In 2015 the population of the Grisons was thus divided:According to official statistics, it was only in 1880 that German-speakers constituted the relative majority for the first time in history, and it was not until 1910 that they became the absolute majority. Since that time, the percentage of German-speakers has rapidly increased with each passing decade.
- Latins 28% (29,826 Romansh-speakers; 25,033 Italian-speakers)
- Germans/Germanized 73% (142,378 German-speakers)
Thus, in the span of about 200 years, the Latin population, from an absolute majority in 1803, has became a minority in its own land, although it should be noted that the vast majority of today's German-speakers are in fact recently-Germanized Romansh peoples, as is demonstrated by the surnames and by historical linguistic data. To these one could add also those German-speakers of Romansh origin in the Landquart Valley and in the Prättigau Valley, who were already Germanized several centuries ago.
More than the Germanization of a region, what has taken place is the near total Germanization of the Romansh themselves, both culturally and linguistically, so much so that in some cases the Germanized Romansh have become more Swiss than the Swiss, manifesting a sort of Stockholm syndrome towards their old masters, not dissimilar to the attitude of certain Germanized Ladins in South Tyrol.
The Germanization of St. Mortitz, Samnaun and Bivio
The Germanization of the Grisons is not an ancient event which dates back to the barbarian invasions; on the contrary the phenomenon has largely occurred during the our parents and grandparents lifetime, and today it is still occurring. Emblematic in this regard are the cases of St. Moritz, Samnaun and especially Bivio, whose Germanization took place before our very eyes.
St. Moritz (San Maurizio) was a majority Romansh village until the late 19th century. By 1880, following a wave of German immigration and the transformation of the small village into a major tourist resort, those who spoke Romansh as a first language decreased to 50% of the population. The figure fell to 20% in 1941, to 8% in 1970%, to 6.23% in 1990 and to 4.72% in 2000. In 1900 Italian was spoken by 31% of the population. The figure fell to 22.83% by the year 2000. Today German is the only official language in schools and administration. Romansh — the indigenous language spoken here at least since 1137 AD — today is taught only as a secondary foreign (!) language.
Samnaun (Samignone), for geographical reasons, was for many years reachable only from Austrian territory. In spite of this, for a thousand years, up until the 19th century, all the inhabitants spoke Vallader, a Romansh dialect closely related to Dolomitic Ladin. In the 19th century this language was replaced by a Bavarian-Tyrolean dialect. The last native Romansh Vallader-speaker died in 1935.
Bivio was founded in the 9th century by Italian farmers from the Bregaglia Valley who spoke a Lombard dialect. In 1860 the Italians of Bivio amounted to 83% of the population (47 Italian families; 9 Romansh families). In 1870 the percentage remained static although the number of families increased to 82 Italian families and 16 Romansh families. By 1980 Italian was spoken by only 42% of the village. By 1990 the figure had fallen to 34.08%, and by 2000 it had fallen to 29.41%. In 2005 German became the new official language, replacing Italian.
The Germanization of Other Romansh Towns
The following is a list of some other towns that were still completely Romansh in the 19th and 20th centuries, but which today are predominantly German-speaking:
• Albula/Alvra
• Andeer
• Bergun/Bravuogn
• Bever
• Bonaduz/Panaduz
• Cazis
• Celerina
• Domat/Ems
• Fledern/Flearda
• Filisur/Filisour
• Flims/Flem
• Ilanz/Glion
• Lantsch/Lenz
• Paspels
• Pontresina
• Rhäzüns/Razen
• Samedan
• Scharans/Scharons
• Sils im Engadin/Segl
• Sils im Domleschg/Seglias
• Silvaplana
• Trin
• Tumegl/Tomils
• Vaz/Obervaz
• Zillis-Reischen/Ziran-Reschen
• Zuoz
The list could go on.
The Latin Population in the Grisons Today
Today in the Italian-speaking valleys there are fewer than 15,000 inhabitants, of which only approximately 85% are Italian, while in 2015 the Romansh-speakers amounted to only 29,826 people or 15.4% of the total population of the Grisons. Overall the Italian-speakers and Romansh-speakers are almost equal in number. Both however are now in the minority from the linguistic point of view.
Ever since the fall of Rome the Latins of the Alps have been in retreat; their territory has become increasingly smaller over the centuries, completely surrounded by the ever-expanding Germanic and Slavic peoples. In the canton of the Grisons, the Latins are now an endangered species and threatened with extinction due to the ever increasing influence of the Germans.
This much-vaunted trilingual canton of Switzerland is in reality dominated by the German-speaking element. Without knowledge of German one cannot survive, neither economically, nor politically, nor culturally: the resulting consequences have already been enumerated. Unless there is a radical change in culture and politics, the ancient Roman and Latin character of the Grisons will die and the entire canton will inevitably be swallowed up by the Germanic world.
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