Nijemci


Nijemci is a village and a municipality in the Vukovar-Srijem County in Croatia.
In the 2011 census, there were 4,705 inhabitants in the municipality, 87.78% of which were Croats. The second largest ethnic group are Serbs who live mainly in two villages in the north of the municipality. There are only 0.06% aforementioned Germans living in this municipality.

Languages and names

The village's name means "Germans" in Croatian. The root of the word "nijem" means "mute", and is a known Slavonic ethnonym for the name of the Germans.
Before World War II there was a substantial Danube Swabian minority resident here. The Communist regime of Josip Broz Tito expelled almost all of them at the end of World War II after 1945.
In villages Šidski Banovci and Vinkovački Banovci, along with Croatian which is official in the whole country, as a second official language has been introduced Serbian language with Cyrillic script.

Geography

Municipality is located in historical regions of Syrmia. Municipality total area is 224.68 km2. Rivers Spačva i Bosut flows through the municipality. The territory of the municipality is completely flat very fertile black soil.

Climate and weather

Nijemci municipality has a moderately warm and rainy continental climate as defined by the Köppen climate classification. Due to the influence of continentality temperature differences within one year are more pronounced than in the rest of country.

Population

Municipality of Nijemci have a 4705 inhabitants according to 2011 Census. 1605 were living in the village of Nijemci at that time.

Economy

Nijemci is underdeveloped municipality which is statistically classified as the First Category Area of Special State Concern by the Government of Croatia.

Education

Local elementary school for the first eight grades operate in the village of Nijemci since the 1760.

Settlements

The following settlements comprise the Nijemci municipality:
SettlementPopulation
Nijemci1,605
Lipovac814
Đeletovci511
Donje Novo Selo498
Banovci432
Podgrađe371
Apševci305
Vinkovački Banovci169

Notable natives and residents