This review is transcluded from Talk:Hans Otto Roth/GA1. The edit link for this section can be used to add comments to the review.

Nominator: Apollo468 (talk · contribs) 21:27, 19 July 2025 (UTC)[reply]

Reviewer: Thebiguglyalien (talk · contribs) 00:18, 1 December 2025 (UTC)[reply]

I'll check this article over the next few days to see whether it meets the good article criteria. Thebiguglyalien (talk) 🛸 00:18, 1 December 2025 (UTC)[reply]

This table checks 13 passages from throughout the article (10.2% of 128 total passages). These passages contain 13 inline citations (9.6% of 136 in the article). Generated with the Veracity user script.

Reference #	Letter	Source	Archive	Status	Notes
In the following years, Roth became increasingly anti-Nazi with the advent of the "renewal movement". This was because Roth's views were generally considered Christian left, which put him in opposition to many of the Nazi Party's views.
2	a	cdep.ro	web.archive.org	Y	The source says "Christian liberal" (creştin-liberală), which doesn't necessarily mean left-wing. I suggest describing it as "Christian liberal".
In 1919 he was a part of the Saxon delegation that handed the decision of the Saxon representatives to the government in Mediaş, and afterward, the Saxon Central Committee proclaimed the union of the Saxon people of Transylvania with the Kingdom of Romania.
9	b	turnulsfatului.ro		N	"the Saxon Central Committee proclaimed the union of the Saxon people of Transylvania with the Kingdom of Romania" copies the source exactly, just in English. It's a basic fact so I'm not concerned if it's kind of similar, but the source can't be copied into the article lest it become a copyright or plagiarism concern.
He also stated that the Germans had a desire to contribute to Romania's development with constructive work instead of disagreements.
16	a	ceeol.com		Y	Verified "constructive work" on p. 101, but what part of this says he contrasted it with "disagreements"?
In the autumn of 1921, the Hungarian Union proposed a joint political approach, which Roth rejected as too early until 1923 when the two parties began to collaborate extensively due to both minorities resisting the denominational school decrees.
15	c	epa.niif.hu		Y	It's not ideal that the information is being taken from a primary source like this, but it's done within reason.
However, his views were increasingly at odds as he still at first advocated for dissimilation, while at the same time saying no nation-state can be built on the annihilation of other people.
23	d	siebenbuerger.de		Y
He was then greatly attacked by Nazi-affiliated newspapers, who said that Roth's leadership was "rotting internally" without a backbone and accused him of disrespecting the Germans who died in the Battle of Langemarck and calling them "stupid boys".
28		deutsche-digitale-bibliothek.…		N	This doesn't demonstrate that he was attacked by Nazi newspapers broadly, just that there was once a paragraph that criticized him. The ideal source for this would be one that describes the pattern of attacks against him from a historical perspective. If that's not possible, then it should either be removed or be changed to say that this instance occurred without commenting on whether others occurred. This goes for any claims in the article that are sourced like this.
In September 1940 Ion Antonescu was appointed Prime Minister, and on 8 September he approached Roth asking him to join his cabinet as Minister of Justice, to which he refused, so Antonescu then offered him the Ministry of Education and eventually a ministry of his choice.
30	e	de.readkong.com		Y
The Securitate had made reports about his anti-Nazi views with his activities in the German ethnic group in Romania after the coup, but ignored his attempts as he was a former bourgeois politician.
39	a	adz.news		Y
The night before Roth's arrest the other prominent member of the German Party, Rudolf Brandsch, was also arrested in Sibiu.
39	g	adz.news		Y
He had been on a leave of absence since October 1948.
42	d	ceeol.com		Y
He was eliminated as regional church trustee in 1948 as a result of the "Sparkasse Trial", and despite being acquitted chose not to run again in 1949 presumably to stop attacks against Romanian Germans.
46	b	ceeol.com		Y
In 2022, a film was shown in Sibiu about the life and work of Roth.
53		radiobukarest.ro		Y
He was also included in a special exhibition at the History Museum in Sighişoara on the law and constitutional practices of the Transylvanian Saxons, which the Department for Interethnic Relations presented in 2024.
54		antenasatelor.ro		Y	Does this specifically say the exhibition was presented in 2024, or is there a chance it could have been maybe 2022 or 2023?

As a side note, it's helpful to cite the specific page numbers where you got the information instead of the whole page range, so it's easier for others to find it. Nothing to worry about now, but it's something to note for future articles you might work on. Thebiguglyalien (talk) 🛸 04:24, 2 December 2025 (UTC)[reply]

What makes Danube Swabian History (dvhh.org) a reliable source? It looks like it's run primarily by one person who isn't an established historian. Thebiguglyalien (talk) 🛸 16:36, 3 December 2025 (UTC)[reply]

I've made some copyedits myself to fix grammar issues, improve readability, and remove excessive links. You can look them over if you wish.

Early life and education:

• Avoid Easter egg links where you have to click on them to see what they're talking about. Does the source say he attended the School on the Hill? If so, then the article should name it directly. If not, then it shouldn't be linked.
• Does the source say what specific universities he attended? That would be preferable to only linking the cities.
• "he became the second editor" – Was he the second person to be "editor", or was he a secondary editor?
• It's unclear what "turning it into a state-level political action" means.
• "led a delegation to Cluj against them" – Against the reforms, or against the people who complained about the reforms?

Parliamentary work:

• "with constructive work instead of disagreements" – Could more specific examples be given?
• "and said that it showed the nation's commitment to minority rights" – Did Roth say this, or the legislation say this?
• "which was promoted by Cosulich Line" – What part of this was promoted by Cosulich Line, and in what way?
• "resisting the denominational school decrees" – What school decrees, and why did Roth and the German Party resist them?
• "Roth formally proposed a joint effort between the two parts, but it fell apart in 1926 when Roth found out that secret negotiations had taken place with the national Romanian parties." – Two parts of what, and negotiations about what?

Association of German Minorities:

• "as the Reich made sure that they would not be portrayed in a radical light" – That who wouldn't be portrayed, and portrayed by whom?

Rise of Nazism and World War II:

• NEDR and Kronstadter Zeitung are not defined in the article.
• What does "völkisch bodies" refer to? Is there an article that can be linked here?
• Is the National Renewal Front the same as the National Renaissance Front?
• "Roth declined the appointment..." – I'm having trouble understanding this sentence.
• What does the article mean by the "'now-named' German Ethnic Group in Romania"?

Coup d'état and subsequent memorandums:

• Who or what is Reichel?
• "that he was opposed to Phelps's view because he thought that Roth" – It's not clear who both of these "he"s refer to.
• "nothing that stood between the generations just a line with Nazism" – Unclear what this means.
• "Through the church" – Which church?
• "Roth blamed the SS for the conscription and deportation of ethnic Germans to the SS" – Unclear what this means.
• "and that they would pay for it" – Who would make them pay for it in Roth's mind, and how?

Arrests and death:

• "but ignored his attempts" – His attempts to what?

Leadership during Nazi control:

• The first few sentences of this section could probably be shortened down to one sentence saying that Staedel was appointed. It's not about Roth himself and only needs to provide basic context.
• Why did Roth support a transfer at first?
• "while at the same time supporting a compromise" – The proposal supported a compromise, or Roth did?
• "which led to Roth being somewhat blamed for letting this happen, which was thought of as a miscalculation by Roth or Glondys" – Unclear what this means.

Post Nazi-control period:

• What position did Staedel resign from?
• What was the Sparkasse Trial, and how did it affect Roth?

Roles in Transylvanian Saxon institutions:

• No issues.

Personal life:

• Do we know anything about Paula Copony?
• Is Roth's grandson significant? If not, it's probably unnecessary to name him in the article.

Everything that I feel needs clarification is listed above. If these points are resolved in the article, then it should meet the good article criteria. Thebiguglyalien (talk) 🛸 16:36, 3 December 2025 (UTC)[reply]

@Thebiguglyalien: Hi, thank you so much for reviewing the article. I tried to go a bit fast with finals, but I went through and addressed all your concerns. I just made the changes first in my sandbox and then copied them over. Just a few clarifications on points where the sources were limited or translations:

• 1. Regarding the universities: The source just says "Von 1908 bis 1912 folgte ein Studium der Rechtswissenschaften an den Universitäten Budapest, Wien, Berlin und Zürich.", which doesn't specify what universities in those cities, so I kept it general.
• 2. Regarding "with constructive work": The source says "den Wunsch der Deutschen ihren Beitrag zur Entwicklung Rumäniens zu leisten, genauer durch „die Notwendigkeit der konstruktiven Arbeit", so it is not clarified as to what kind of constructive work, so I've kept the general phrasing as that's what Roth actually said.
• 3. Regarding Völkisch bodies: The source is also kinda vague with this just stating “aufgelöste völkische Körperschaften, ersetzt durch treue Kommissare Roth's.” I just linked to the article on the Völkisch movement and then changed bodies to organizations for clarity so it is now “Völkisch organizations".
• 4. The National Renewal Movement is the same as the National Renaissance Front, it is just translated differently. I standardizied it to National Renewal Movement, though, since that is what the Wikipedia article is called.
• 5. I added "Bishop" before his name for extra clarity, although it was mentioned right after.
• 6. Unfortunately, there isn’t much info online about Copony. I could only find details about her father due to his politics, but nothing substantial about her personally.

Please let me know if anything needs further clarification, I'll try and respond as fast as I can. -- • Apollo468•  22:24, 4 December 2025 (UTC)[reply]

The changes look good. Is there any reason why they were reverted? And what happened to the paragraph about potential arrest and Artur Phleps? Also, I just noticed that the "Christian left" claim is only in the lead and not the body; the lead should only summarize what's already in the body. The only other thing to be addressed is the source checks in the collapsible table above. It's a relatively new tool so it might be formatted a little differently than other reviews, but the sources needing attention are labeled by red X's and yellow ticks. Thebiguglyalien (talk) 🛸 22:57, 4 December 2025 (UTC)[reply]

Hi,

Thanks for the quick response. Regarding everything:

1. For the reverted changes, I thought I changed something by accident, so I reverted my edit to double-check. I hadn't, but the changes are back in place.

2. For the paragraph, I just decided to remove it. It was sourced to dvhh.org, which looking back was unreliable. I did go looking and could find multiple newspapers saying the same stuff about the new documents, and I was able to find the names of the document. However, verifying the actual archival document would be a hastle since they're held in archives I don't have access to, and would take considerable time. Since the information wasn't critical to the article, I just went ahead and removed it.

3. I moved the sentence to the "Rise of Nazism and World War II" section.

Sources:

1. For ref9b I changed it

2. For ref 28 I changed it to just one documented issue. I can see through Arcanum that there were a lot of attacks at the time by doing date range from multiple newspapers, but describing this one instance flows better and avoids overstating.

3. For ref 54, the source is dated 12 September 2024 and describes the exhibition as "recent", so I presumed it was in 2024. Either way, just to make sure, the exhibition was "Andreanum 800 de ani" which was held in September 2024 at the ProEtnica Festival as seen here: https://www.proetnica.ro/ro/node/208 (this was the official website where the exhibition was held at).

Thanks, • Apollo468•  20:59, 5 December 2025 (UTC)[reply]