[OfSanguineFire]

It is true in Romania, too. Since the ethnic Hungarian population isn’t Latin, interest in the German language has always been higher among them, and Germany has been a magnet for Hungarian emigration from Romania. But even leaving language aside, I know a number of ethnic Romanians from Cluj and Timisoara who moved to Germany, especially Berlin a decade ago when it was viewed as the hipster capital of Europe and still regarded as a cheap place to live.

[FirmwareBurner]

Sure, but the German speaking population in Romania is also due to it being part of the former Austrian empire, not because Romanians have a natureal affinity towards German.

[rcbdev]

In former Yugoslavia I feel like the parts that weren't part of Austria-Hungary are even more German-centric than the parts that were - Many Austrian companies (UNIQA, RBI, Strabag, Buwog, etc.) dominate the playing field while other, much bigger European counterparts like BNP (French) don't really put up a competition. (i.e. in Kosovo, part of Ottoman rule)

In summer time all you see are German, Austrian and Swiss license plates, the DACH area has always been a No. 1 destination for expats / refugees from the region and German language proficiency is quite high.

[FirmwareBurner]

>e In former Yugoslavia I feel like the parts that weren't part of Austria-Hungary are even more German-centric than the parts that were

Yeah, but how much that has to do with the German language influence itself, and how much to do with mass emigration there due with the proximity of former-Yugoslav countries to DACH countries following the wars? For most people, being 4h drive away from home, is better than flying to Netherlands/UK, nothing to do with their preference for German language.

Plus, former Yugoslavia isn't really all for Eastern Europe. Poland, Romania, Bulgaria, Ukraine, the Baltics have little affinity to the German language and they're huge population centers.

> Many Austrian companies (UNIQA, RBI, Strabag, Buwog, etc.) dominate the playing field

Because these large and ultra corrupt Austrian companies know how to play the corruption game in the Balkans. Funny how Austrian companies are so big there but not in other countries. Why is that I wonder.

[OfSanguineFire]

It’s not necessarily a matter of being part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire but the role of German as a major European language of culture and learning, one that for Romania’s ethnic Hungarian population was never quite replaced by French. German has been popular in Bulgaria, too, and Germany a major destination for Bulgarian emigration, in spite of that country always being well outside any German-speaking empires.

[FirmwareBurner]

>German as a major European language of culture and learning

Maybe, but that was not my experience growing up in Romania, unless maybe you refer to some niches of highly educated and cultured people in some posh circles of academia, but I'm talking more about the average joe. English was by far the most dominant foreign language learned by the youth due to the influence of Anglo entertainment industry, followed by French as a distant second, and then German.

The fact that more people emigrated to Germany than to France or the UK (maybe, I don't have statistics) has nothing to do with people's affinity for that country's language or culture, but to the economic opportunities available to them there. Most people didn't study German before emigrating to Germany, but learned it there out of necessity. This might just be my circles, but nobody I knew growing up had any affinity or interest for the German language or German culture as it was seen as an ugly and difficult to learn language of boring hard-working people who are only famous for building great cars and for that other thing (no offence, but that was the stereotype amongst clueless young people), people only wanted to learn German to emigrate there later in life for economic reasons.

>German has been popular in Bulgaria, too

Do you have a source on that? Like I said before, a country being a popular destination for labor immigration doesn't mean that foreign language is also popular in that country.

[OfSanguineFire]

German was and remains a common foreign language in Yugoslavian, Bulgarian, and Polish schools. Even if people might pursue English especially in their own time, they still often get German at school, which in turn equipped people to emigrate to Germany. The impact of German on the society of Yugoslavia and Bulgaria has been so strong, it’s not uncommon for a traveler to be greeted in German first even by young people, and only then will that person switch (or try to switch) to English. You make bold assertions, but other people here can see you don’t have any actual familiarity with the wider region (or even how ethnic-Hungarian schools in your own country operate).