Carpathian Germans (, or felvidéki németek, ) are a group of ethnic Germans. The term was coined by the historian Raimund Friedrich Kaindl (1866–1930), originally generally referring to the German-speaking population of the area around the Carpathian Mountains: the Cisleithanian (Austrian) crown lands of Galicia and Bukovina, as well as the Hungarian half of the Austro-Hungarian monarchy (including Szepes County), and the northwestern (Maramuresch) region of Romania. Since the First World War, only the Germans of Slovakia (the Slovak Germans or Slowakeideutsche, including the Zipser Germans) and those of Carpathian Ruthenia in Ukraine have commonly been called Carpathian Germans. Kingdom of Hungary Germans settled in the northern territory of the medieval Kingdom of Hungary (then called Upper Hungary, today mostly Slovakia) from the 12th to the 15th centuries (see Ostsiedlung), mostly after the 1241 Mongol invasion of Europe. There had probably already been some isolated settlers in the area of Pressburg (Pozsony, today's Bratislava). The Germans were usually attracted by kings seeking specialists in various trades, such as craftsmen and miners. They usually settled in older Slavic market and mining settlements. Until approximately the 15th century, the ruling classes of most cities in present-day Slovakia were almost exclusively Germans. The main settlement areas were in the vicinity of Pressburg and some language islands in Szepes County (Hungarian: Szepesség; German: Zips; Latin: Scepusium, today Spiš region in Slovakia) and the Hauerland regions. The settlers in the Szepes County were known as Zipser Sachsen (Zipser Saxons, Hungarian: cipszerek). Within Carpathian Ruthenia, they initially settled around Taracköz (German: Theresiental, today Teresva in Ukraine) and Munkács (German: Munkatsch, today Mukachevo in Ukraine). The Carpathian Germans, like the Slovaks, were subjected to policies of Magyarization in the latter half of the 19th and the early the 20th century. Furthermore, many Carpathian Germans voluntarily magyarized their names to climb the social and economic ladder. On 28 October 1918, the National Council of Carpathian Germans in Késmárk (German: Käsmark, today Kežmarok, Slovakia) declared their loyalty to the Kingdom of Hungary, but a Slovak group declared it to be part of Czechoslovakia two days later. First Czechoslovak Republic During the First Czechoslovak Republic (1918–1938), Carpathian Germans had a specific political party, the Zipser German Party (1920–1938), led by Andor Nitsch, who was elected from 1925 to 1935 on a common Hungarian-German list for parliamentary elections. In 1929, the more nationalist-oriented, was formed in Bratislava, the Carpathian German Party