Portal:Germans

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Introduction

Germans (German: Deutsche, pronounced [ˈdɔʏtʃə] ^ⓘ) are the natives or inhabitants of Germany, or sometimes more broadly any people who are of German descent or native speakers of the German language. The constitution of Germany, implemented in 1949 following the end of World War II, defines a German as a German citizen. During the 19th and much of the 20th century, discussions on German identity were dominated by concepts of a common language, culture, descent, and history. Today, the German language is widely seen as the primary, though not exclusive, criterion of German identity. Estimates on the total number of Germans in the world range from 100 to 150 million, most of whom live in Germany.

The history of Germans as an ethnic group began with the separation of a distinct Kingdom of Germany from the eastern part of the Frankish Empire under the Ottonian dynasty in the 10th century, forming the core of the Holy Roman Empire. In subsequent centuries the political power and population of this empire grew considerably. It expanded eastwards, and eventually a substantial number of Germans migrated further eastwards into Eastern Europe. The empire itself was politically divided between many small princedoms, cities and bishoprics. Following the Reformation in the 16th century, many of these states found themselves in bitter conflict concerning the rise of Protestantism. (Full article...)

Selected general articles

Image 1

Volksdeutsche of Sudetendeutsches Freikorps in Czechoslovakia, 1938

In Nazi German terminology, Volksdeutsche (German pronunciation: [ˈfɔlksˌdɔʏtʃə] ) were "people whose language and culture had German origins but who did not hold German citizenship." The term is the nominalised plural of volksdeutsch, with Volksdeutsche denoting a singular female, and Volksdeutscher, a singular male. The words Volk and völkisch conveyed the meanings of "folk".

Ethnic Germans living outside Germany shed their identity as Auslandsdeutsche (Germans abroad), and morphed into the Volksdeutsche in a process of self-radicalisation. This process gave the Nazi regime the nucleus around which the new Volksgemeinschaft was established across the German borders. (Full article...)
Image 2

Hutterite women at work

Hutterites (German: Hutterer), also called Hutterian Brethren (German: Hutterische Brüder), are a communal ethnoreligious branch of Anabaptists, who, like the Amish and Mennonites, trace their roots to the Radical Reformation of the early 16th century and have formed intentional communities.

The founder of the Hutterites, Jakob Hutter, "established the Hutterite colonies on the basis of the Schleitheim Confession, a classic Anabaptist statement of faith" of 1527, and the first communes were formed in 1528. Since the death of Hutter in 1536, the beliefs of the Hutterites, especially those espousing a community of goods and nonresistance, have resulted in hundreds of years of diaspora in many countries. The Hutterites embarked on a series of migrations through central and eastern Europe. Nearly extinct by the 18th century, they migrated to Russia in 1770 and about a hundred years later to North America. Over the course of 140 years, their population living in community of goods recovered from about 400 to around 50,000 at present. Today, almost all Hutterites live in Western Canada and the upper Great Plains of the United States. (Full article...)
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Levoča (German: Leutschau), one of the former historical centres of the Zipser Germans in Slovakia

The Zipser Germans, Zipser Saxons, or, simply, just Zipsers (German: Zipser or Zipser Deutsche, Romanian: Țipțeri, Hungarian: Cipszer, Slovak: Spišskí Nemci) are a German-speaking (more specifically Zipser German-speaking as native dialect) sub-ethnic group in Central-Eastern Europe and national minority in both Slovakia and Romania (there are also Zipser German settlements in the Zakarpattia Oblast, in the historical region of Carpathian Ruthenia, present-day western Ukraine). Along with the Sudeten Germans (German: Sudetendeutsche), the Zipser Germans were one of the two most important ethnic German groups in the former Czechoslovakia. An occasional variation of their name as 'Tzipsers' can also be found in academic articles. Former Slovak President Rudolf Schuster is partly Zipser German and grew up in Medzev (German: Metzenseifen).

The Zipser Germans were previously native to the Szepes County (German: Zips; Slovak: Spiš, Hungarian: Szepes) of Upper Hungary—today mostly north-eastern Slovakia—as that region was settled by colonists from present-day central Germany (and other parts of contemporary Germany) during the High Middle Ages, more specifically beginning in the mid 12th century, as part of the Ostsiedlung. Beginning in at least the 18th century, many members of this German ethnic sub-group migrated to southern Bukovina, Maramureș, Transylvania, and in the mountainous Banat (all of the aforementioned regions situated in contemporary Romania). Most of the Zipser German community in Romania lives in Maramureș County and across the Rodna Mountains respectively. (Full article...)

German citizens in the Czech Republic (recent history)
Year	Pop.	±%
1994	4,195	—
2000	4,968	+18.4%
2005	7,187	+44.7%
2010	13,871	+93.0%
2015	20,464	+47.5%
2018	21,267	+3.9%
2020	20,861	−1.9%
2021	14,792	−29.1%
2022	14,032	−5.1%

There are various communities of Germans in the Czech Republic (Czech: Německá menšina v Česku, German: Deutsche in Tschechien). After the Czech Republic joined the European Union in the 2004 enlargement and was incorporated into the Schengen Area, migration between the two countries became relatively unrestricted. Both countries share a land border of 815 kilometers (506 mi). (Full article...)

Image 5
Germans in the United Kingdom form one of the largest minority groups in the country. Today, there are many Germans living in the United Kingdom, and many Britons or German British (German: Deutsch-Briten) have German ancestry, including the British royal family. While those born in Germany constitute one of the UK's largest foreign-born groups, many are British nationals, rather than German nationals, who were born in Germany to British military personnel based there. (Full article...)
Image 6
Stages of German eastern settlement in pink and three shades of green; the black line represents the border of the Holy Roman Empire (Germany) according to the 1348 Treaty of Namysłów

Ostsiedlung (German pronunciation: [ˈɔstˌziːdlʊŋ], lit. 'East settlement') is the term for the Early Medieval and High Medieval migration of ethnic Germans and Germanization of the areas populated by Slavic, Baltic and Finnic peoples, the most settled area was known as Germania Slavica. Germanization efforts included eastern parts of Francia, East Francia, and the Holy Roman Empire and beyond; and the consequences for settlement development and social structures in the areas of settlement. Other regions were also settled, though not as heavily. The Ostsiedlung encompassed multiple modern and historical regions, primarily Germany east of the Saale and Elbe rivers, the states of Lower Austria and Styria in Austria, Poland and the Czech Republic, but also in other parts of Central and Eastern Europe.

The majority of Ostsiedlung settlers moved individually, in independent efforts, in multiple stages and on different routes. Many settlers were encouraged and invited by the local princes and regional lords, who sometimes even expelled part of the indigenous populations to make room for German settlers. (Full article...)
Image 7
Example of bilingual labeling in German and Polish on the town hall of the Polish village of Cisek.

The registered German minority in Poland (Polish: Niemcy w Polsce) at the Polish census of 2021 were 144,177.

The German language is spoken in certain areas in Opole Voivodeship, where most of the minority resides, and in Silesian Voivodeship. German speakers first came to these regions (present-day Opole and Silesian Voivodeships) during the late Middle Ages. However, there are no localities in either Upper Silesia or Poland as a whole where German could be considered a language of everyday communication. The predominant home or family language of Poland's German minority in Upper Silesia used to be the Silesian German language (mainly Oberschlesisch (Upper Silesian dialect), but also Mundart des Brieg-Grottkauer Landes (dialect of the land of Brieg-Grottkau) was used west of Opole), but since 1945 Standard German replaced it as these Silesian German dialects went generally out of use except among the oldest generations which have by now completely died off. The German Minority electoral committee benefits from the provision in Polish election law which exempts national minorities from the 5% national threshold. (Full article...)
Image 8
Reichsdeutsche, literally translated 'Germans of the Reich', is an archaic term for those ethnic Germans who resided within the German state that was founded in 1871. In contemporary usage, it referred to German citizens, the word signifying people from the German Reich, i.e., Imperial Germany or Deutsches Reich, which was the official name of Germany between 1871 and 1949.

The opposite of the Reichsdeutsche is, then, depending on context and historical period, Volksdeutsche, Auslandsdeutsche (however, usually meaning German citizens living abroad), or a more specific term denoting the area of settlement, such as Baltic Germans or Volga Germans (Wolgadeutsche). (Full article...)
Image 9
The former Tyrol today
----
  South Tyrol (Italy)
  Trentino (Italy)
  Parts of the former county now within other Italian provinces

Modern-day South Tyrol, an autonomous Italian province created in 1948, was part of the Austro-Hungarian County of Tyrol until 1918 (then known as Deutschsüdtirol and occasionally Mitteltirol). It was annexed by Italy following the defeat of the Central Powers in World War I. It has been part of a cross-border joint entity, the Euroregion Tyrol-South Tyrol-Trentino, since 2001. (Full article...)
Image 10

Zanzibar is an insular semi-autonomous region which united with Tanganyika in 1964 to form the United Republic of Tanzania. It is an archipelago in the Indian Ocean, 25–50 km (16–31 mi) off the coast of the African mainland, and consists of many small islands and two large ones: Unguja (the main island, referred to informally as Zanzibar) and Pemba Island. The capital is Zanzibar City, located on the island of Unguja. Its historic centre, Stone Town, is a World Heritage Site.

Zanzibar's main industries are spices, raffia, and tourism. The main spices produced are clove, nutmeg, cinnamon, coconut, and black pepper. The Zanzibar Archipelago, together with Tanzania's Mafia Island, are sometimes referred to locally as the "Spice Islands". Tourism in Zanzibar is a more recent activity, driven by government promotion that caused an increase from 19,000 tourists in 1985, to 376,000 in 2016. The islands are accessible via 5 ports and the Abeid Amani Karume International Airport, which can serve up to 1.5 million passengers per year. (Full article...)
Image 11
The Germans of Serbia (Serbian: Nemci u Srbiji/Немци у Србији, German: Serbiendeutsche) are an ethnic minority of Serbia which numbers 4,064 people according to last population census from 2011. The Germans of Serbia usually refer to themselves as Swabian (Schwaben, Švabe), and they are grouped into the Danube Swabians or Banat Swabians in the Vojvodina region, where the majority of the population resides. Germans settled parts of Serbia in the late 17th century during Habsburg administration. The German population of Vojvodina was more numerous in the past (about 350,000 before World War II). More than 250,000 left during the withdrawal of Nazi forces. As a consequence of the World War II events in Yugoslavia, the Yugoslav Communist government took a reprisals on ethnic citizens of German origin in Yugoslavia (including Vojvodina): they had their citizenship revoked and their belongings and houses were nationalized and taken from them. Between 1944 and 1946, a prison camp system was established for Yugoslav citizens of German origin, usually in settlements where they lived. After prison camps were abolished, ethnic Germans of Yugoslavia regained their rights and citizenship and most of them emigrated to Germany or Austria in the following years because of economic reasons. (Full article...)
Image 12
Templers in Wilhelma, Palestine

The German Templer Society, also known as Templers, is a Radical Pietist group that emerged in Germany during the mid-nineteenth century, the two founders, Christoph Hoffmann and Georg David Hardegg, arriving in Haifa, Palestine, in October 1868 with their families and a few fellow Templers in order to establish a colony. Templer theology is rooted in the legacy of preceding centuries during which various Christian groups undertook to establish the perfect Christian religion in preparation for Christ's promised return. The movement was founded by Christoph Hoffmann, [1815-1885] who believed that humanity's salvation lay in the gathering of God's people in a Christian community. He also believed that the second coming of Christ was imminent, and that according to Biblical prophecy it would take place in Jerusalem, where God's people were to gather as a symbol of the rebuilding of the temple.

Hoffmann's thinking was inspired by the 1st-century Christian community and based on Matthew's Gospel in regard to Old Testament prophecies and their relevance to the coming of Jesus Christ. Hoffmann also believed that these "prophecies concerned mainly the founding of the Kingdom of God on earth." (Full article...)
Image 13

Hybrid Flag of Namibia and Germany

German Namibians (German: Deutschnamibier) are a community of people descended from ethnic German colonists who settled in present-day Namibia. In 1883, the German trader Adolf Lüderitz bought what would become the southern coast of Namibia from Josef Frederiks II, a chief of the local Oorlam people, and founded the city of Lüderitz. The German government, eager to gain overseas possessions, annexed the territory soon after, proclaiming it German South West Africa (German: Deutsch-Südwestafrika). Small numbers of Germans subsequently immigrated there, many coming as soldiers (German: Schutztruppe), traders, diamond miners, or colonial officials. In 1915, during the course of World War I, Germany lost its colonial possessions, including South West Africa (see History of Namibia); after the war, the former German colony was administered as a South African mandate. Roughly half of the German settlers were allowed to remain and, until independence in 1990, German remained an official language of the territory alongside Afrikaans and English. (Full article...)
$Image 14 Church of the Saviour, a German church in Baku, Azerbaijan Caucasus Germans (German: Kaukasiendeutsche) are part of the German minority in Russia and the Soviet Union. They migrated to the Caucasus largely in the first half of the 19th century and settled in the North Caucasus, Georgia, Azerbaijan, Armenia and the region of Kars (present-day northeastern Turkey). In 1941, the majority of them were subject to deportation to Central Asia and Siberia during Joseph Stalin's population transfer in the Soviet Union. After Stalin's death in 1953 and the beginning of the Khrushchev Thaw, the Caucasus Germans were allowed to return, though only few did. Many assimilated and, after 1991, emigrated to Germany. Although the community today is a fraction of what it once was, many German buildings and churches are still extant, with some turned into museums. (Full article...)$

Image 14
Church of the Saviour, a German church in Baku, Azerbaijan

Caucasus Germans (German: Kaukasiendeutsche) are part of the German minority in Russia and the Soviet Union. They migrated to the Caucasus largely in the first half of the 19th century and settled in the North Caucasus, Georgia, Azerbaijan, Armenia and the region of Kars (present-day northeastern Turkey). In 1941, the majority of them were subject to deportation to Central Asia and Siberia during Joseph Stalin's population transfer in the Soviet Union. After Stalin's death in 1953 and the beginning of the Khrushchev Thaw, the Caucasus Germans were allowed to return, though only few did. Many assimilated and, after 1991, emigrated to Germany. Although the community today is a fraction of what it once was, many German buildings and churches are still extant, with some turned into museums. (Full article...)
Image 15
There is a small population of Germans in Kyrgyzstan. (Full article...)
Image 16

Lomé (UK: /ˈloʊmeɪ/ LOH-may, US: /loʊˈmeɪ/ loh-MAY) is the capital and largest city of Togo. It has an urban population of 837,437 while there were 2,188,376 permanent residents in its metropolitan area as of the 2022 census. Located on the Gulf of Guinea at the southwest corner of the country, with its entire western border along the easternmost edge of Ghana's Volta Region, Lomé is the country's administrative and industrial center, which includes an oil refinery. It is also the country's chief port, from where it exports coffee, cocoa, copra, and oil palm kernels.

Its city limits extends to the border with Ghana, located a few hundred meters west of the city center, to the Ghanaian city of Aflao and the South Ketu district where the city is situated, had 160,756 inhabitants in 2010. The cross-border agglomeration of which Lomé is the centre has about 2 million inhabitants as of 2020. (Full article...)
Image 17
Zebe is a small town in Togo located on the north side of the lagoon near Aného. It was the second capital of the German colony of Togoland from 1887, when it replaced Bagid (present day Baguida) until 1897 when it was replaced by the present capital, Lomé. (Full article...)
Image 18

A timberframed house in the village of Stalewo, Poland

Olenders (Polish: Olędrzy Polish: [ɔˈlɛ̃dʐɨ] or Olendrzy, singular form: Olęder, Olender; German: Holländer, Hauländer) were people, often of Dutch, Frisian or German ancestry, who lived in settlements in Poland organized under a particular type of law.

The term Olender has been used to describe two related, but slightly different, groups of settlers. First, it describes settlers in Poland from Friesland and the rest of the Netherlands, most often of the Mennonite faith, who in the 16th and 17th centuries founded villages in Royal Prussia, along the Vistula River and its tributaries, in Kuyavia, Mazovia and Greater Poland. They possessed knowledge of flood control, and a well-developed agrarian culture. At that time, they were the wealthiest group of peasants. They maintained personal freedom, and their own religion and beliefs. After the First Partition of Poland, some of them emigrated to southern Ukraine. (Full article...)
Image 19
A German Guatemalan is a citizen of Guatemala whose ancestors were German settlers (along with other settlers from Belgium) who arrived in the 19th and 20th century. Guatemala had a massive immigration of Germans in the nineteenth century. The government of Justo Rufino Barrios provided them with farmlands for coffee in the departments of Quetzaltenango, Alta Verapaz and Baja Verapaz, and by the early 20th century Germans populated Guatemala City, Zacapa and Jutiapa. Guatemala currently has a strong community of Germans who make up the majority of European immigrants in the country, and it is also the most numerous German community in all Central American countries.

In the 1940s, 8,000 German immigrants lived in Guatemala. During World War II several hundred Germans were expelled to the United States by the Guatemalan government as part of the deportation of Germans from Latin America during World War II. (Full article...)
Image 20

Detail of a church window in Sibiu/Hermannstadt dedicated to the memory of the Austrian Protestants of Evangelical Lutheran faith.

The Landlers or Transylvanian Landlers (German: Siebenbürger Landler or Die siebenbürgischen Landler) are an ethnic German sub-group which has been living on the territory of today's Romania, more specifically in southern Transylvania (mostly corresponding to present-day Sibiu County) since the 18th century onwards.

Their ancestors were Protestants (more specifically Evangelical Lutherans), who were expelled and settled from Salzkammergut area, Austria to Transylvania near Hermannstadt (present-day Sibiu) from 1734 to 1756 under Emperor Charles VI and Empress Maria Theresa in the process of the Josephine colonization (German: Josephinisches siedlung or Josephinisches kolonization). This was done so given the fact that the Austrian Empire needed to be Roman Catholic by excellence and the Landlers refused to convert to Roman Catholicism. They speak the Transylvanian Landler dialect (German: Landlerisch) which is a southern German dialect. During the 18th century, c. 4,000 Austrian Protestants were expelled to Transylvania. They are part of the Romanian Germans. (Full article...)
Image 21
The Germans of Kazakhstan (German: Kasachstandeutsche; Kazakh: Қазақстандық немістер) are a minority in Kazakhstan, and make up a small percentage of the population. Today they live mostly in the northeastern part of the country between the cities of Astana and Oskemen, the majority being urban dwellers.

Their number peaked at nearly 1 million (957 thousand people per 1989 census) near the time of the Soviet dissolution, but most have emigrated since then, usually to Germany or Russia. However, after a significant decrease from 1989 to 2009, by 2015 the number had seen a slight increase of a few thousand, the first time since the dissolution of the Soviet Union. Between 2009 and 2021 the German population had increased by 26.7%, though mostly due to changes in patterns of ethnic identity rather than actual population growth. (Full article...)
Image 22

Flag of Volga Germans

The Volga Germans (German: Wolgadeutsche, pronounced [ˈvɔlɡaˌdɔɪ̯t͡ʃə] ; Russian: поволжские немцы, romanized: povolzhskiye nemtsy) are ethnic Germans who settled and historically lived along the Volga River in the region of southeastern European Russia around Saratov and close to Ukraine nearer to the south.

Recruited as immigrants to Russia in the 18th century, they were allowed to maintain their German culture, language, traditions and churches (Lutheran, Reformed, Catholics, Moravians and Mennonites). In the 19th and early 20th centuries, many Volga Germans emigrated to the United States, Canada, Brazil, and Argentina. (Full article...)
Image 23

Atif Bashir · Elsa Kazi

There are a number of Germans in Pakistan, consisting of German expatriates in Pakistan, students, families, dual national Pakistani-Germans and Pakistani citizens of German ancestry. Their number may be as much as 100,000 in entire Pakistan. There are Germans in Peshawar. Germany maintains a healthy diplomatic presence in the country, with an embassy in Islamabad, a consulate in Karachi and honorary-consulate in Lahore. (Full article...)

Did you know...

... that although the Germans boasted that they captured British radio traffic with ease, the Wireless Set Number 10 was so secure that they never even knew of its existence?
... that after the 1871 German victory parade in Paris 151 years ago today, the French symbolically scrubbed the streets on which the Germans had marched?
... that Eleonore Schönborn, who had to leave Czechoslovakia in 1945 with two young children, received an Austrian award in 2013 for cultural and social improvement?
... that many Germans' belief that homosexuality was a communicable disease limited the success of the first homosexual movement?
... that Polish-Jewish Post-Impressionist painter and Dadaist Marcel Słodki was arrested by the Germans in France and died in Auschwitz concentration camp?
... that Awet Tesfaiesus was the first black woman ever elected to the Bundestag?

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Selected images

Image 1The Holy Roman Empire after the Peace of Westphalia, 1648 (from Germans)
Image 2The German language in Europe:
  German Sprachraum: German is the official language (de jure or de facto) and first language of most of the population.
  German is a co-official language but not the first language of most of the population.
  German (or a German dialect) is a legally recognized minority language (squares: geographic distribution too dispersed/small for map scale).
  German (or a variety of German) is spoken by a sizeable minority but has no legal recognition.
(from Germans)
Image 3The Holy Roman Empire in 972 (red line) and 1035 (red dots) with the Kingdom of Germany, including Lotharingia, marked in blue (from Germans)
Image 4Victims of the Holocaust in a mass grave at Bergen-Belsen concentration camp (from Germans)
Image 5Germans expelled from Poland in 1948 (from Germans)
Image 6Boundaries of the German Confederation in red, Prussia in blue, Austria in yellow, and other member states in grey. Large parts of Austria and some parts of Prussia did not belong to the German Confederation. (from Germans)
Image 7A Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe in Berlin; remembering the Holocaust is an essential part of modern German culture. (from Germans)
Image 8Maps depicting the Ostsiedlung, also known as the German eastward settlement. The left map shows the situation in roughly 895 AD; the right map shows it about 1400 AD. Germanic peoples (left map) and Germans (right map) are shown in light red. (from Germans)
Image 9A map depicting the short-lived Roman province of Germania Antiqua, situated between the Rhine and Elbe rivers, a region which the early Roman Empire attempted to conquer and control (from Germans)