Ițcani

The main road linking Suceava with Ițcani in 2011

Ițcani (German: Itzkany) is a neighborhood of Suceava, the town-residence of Suceava County in Bukovina, northeastern Romania, located some 5 km northwest of the town center. Ițcani was initially established in the 15th century, following a 1453 document issued by Alexăndrel, Prince of Moldavia.

During the 1780s, 8 ethnic German families settled here in the course of the Josephine colonization.^[1]

After the unification of Bukovina with the Kingdom of Romania in 1918, Ițcani was subsequently recorded on official population censuses by the Romanian authorities as a commune composed of two separate villages, more specifically Ițcanii Noi (German: Neu Itzkany) and Ițcani Gară (German: Itzkany Bahnhof).

Furthermore, according to the Romanian 1930 census, as much as 45% of the commune's population was composed of ethnic Germans, many of whom were later re-settled in occupied Poland during World War II as part of the Heim ins Reich policy plan initiated by Hitler's national socialists. Suceava North railway station is located in Ițcani.

Demographics[]

The 1930 Romanian census recorded a relative majority for the ethnic Germans (more specifically the Bukovina Germans) living in Ițcani at that time, more specifically 45%, a percentage which overshadowed the other ethnic groups, among which most notably were the native Romanians. The latter only accounted for 21.4% of the total population. Other ethnic groups recorded then in the 1930 Romanian census were also the Jews, Ukrainians, Poles, Lipovans, and Hungarians.

Breakdown of ethnic groups in Ițcani in 1930:

Bukovina Germans (45%)

Romanians (21.4%)

Jews (17.84%)

Ukrainians (6.77%)

Poles (5.24%)

Russians (2.15%)

Hungarians (1.53%)

Cultural heritage of the German community in Ițcani[]

Even to this day, after the vast majority of the ethnic Germans from Ițcani were deported to Nazi-occupied Poland, the cultural heritage of this community endured throughout the decades following the end of World War II through the local architecture of some of the houses belonging to them and also through the local churches of former Evangelical Lutheran and Roman Catholic confession.

References[]

^ Welsch, Sophie A. (1986). "The Bukovina-Germans During the Habsburg Period: Settlement, Ethnic Interaction, Contributions" (PDF). Immigrants & Minorities. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2015-09-05.

Coordinates: 47°40′32″N 26°14′08″E / 47.675477°N 26.235572°E / 47.675477; 26.235572

[1] Welsch, Sophie A. (1986). "The Bukovina-Germans During the Habsburg Period: Settlement, Ethnic Interaction, Contributions" (PDF). Immigrants & Minorities. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2015-09-05.

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