of the Sathmar Swabians – both representing sub-groups of the Danube Swabians () in Romania; The Banat Highland Germans (); Bukovina Germans – once with a sizable or overwhelming demographic presence in all urban centres from the historical region of Bukovina (more specifically Suceava, Gura Humorului, Siret, Rădăuți, Vatra Dornei, and Câmpulung Moldovenesc) or some rural areas of the nowadays Suceava County in northeastern Romania; equally indigenous to Cernăuți and contemporary Chernivtsi province in western Ukraine between the years 1780–1940. Moreover, even to this date, Suceava County is one of the Romanian counties with some of the most significant amount of ethnic Germans in the country; Zipser Germans, mostly from Maramureş (including Borșa and Vişeu), but also with a smaller presence in southern and south-western Bukovina beginning in the 18th century; Regat Germans (including the Dobrujan Germans); Bessarabia Germans, Romanian citizens for the period 1918–1940, indigenous to Budjak in southern Bessarabia; Alsatians as well as small groups of Walsers vintners who also settled in Banat from Alsace, Lorraine, and Switzerland at the invitation of the Austro-Hungarian Empire in the 19th century (though they were not only Alemannic-speaking Swiss but also French and Italian); Subsequently, these settlers came to be known as 'Français du Banat' (i.e. 'Banat French'). History Settlement during the High Middle Ages While an ancient Germanic presence on the territory of present-day Romania can be traced back to late antiquity and is represented by such migratory peoples as the Buri, Vandals, Goths (more specifically Visigoths), or the Gepids, the first waves of ethnic Germans on the territory of modern Romania came during the High Middle Ages, firstly to Transylvania (then part of the Kingdom of Hungary) and then to the neighbouring and emerging medieval principalities of Moldavia and Wallachia. The first major German group to arrive and settle in what is now Romania were the Transylvanian Saxons (, ), partly under the protection of the Teutonic Knights, who came to Transylvania (, meaning seven cities/citadels, i.e. from the seven fortified medieval cities/citadels which they founded) at the request of Hungarian King Géza II (, , ) during the late 12th century. The main tasks of these settlers was to develop the areas of Transylvania where they settled as well as to defend them, and, implicitly, the rest of the Kingdom of Hungary, from the invading incursions of the migratory Asian peoples such as the Cumans, the Pechenegs, or,