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In a context of antiquity (pre AD 500), "Germans" is used in the sense of Germanic tribes.
{{Ethnic group|group=Germans
Deutsche|image=
(left to right): Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart • Johann Wolfgang von Goethe • Otto von Bismarck •
Johannes Kepler• |population = ~80 million80 million is the minimal estimate, counting 75 million ethnic Germans, plus some 5-10 million primary ancestry, German-speaking ethnic Germans worldwide.|genealogy= ~160 million160 is the maximal estimate, counting all people claiming ethnic German ancestry in the USA, Brazil and elsewhere.|regions = 68 million
|region1 = |pop1 = 50 million|ref1 = 49.2 million German Americans as of 2005 according to the ; see also
Languages in the United States#German.
] reports 6 millions Brazilians with German "single-ancestry" and 12 million with partly German ancestry. See
German-Brazilian].
|region4 = |pop4 = 1,200,000|ref4 = According to the Asociación Argentina de Descendientes de Alemanes del Volga there are more than 1,200,000 descendants of Volga Germans in Argentina (figures do not include other German communities).
|region5 = The (mainly and )|pop5 = 1 million|ref5 = a result of
population transfer in the Soviet Union; see ethnologue
]. German is spoken by ca. 135,000 , about 105,000 of them Germany-born, see Demographics of Australia
], see
Demographics of Poland.
]
Swiss (people))|ref13 = 112,348 resident aliens (nationals or citizens) as of 2000 , see
Demographics of Switzerland. The CIA World Fact Book, identifies the 65% (4.9 million) Swiss German speakers as "ethnic Germans".
], if Austrians are regarded as Germans)|ref15 = 0.9% of the population (German nationals or citizens only) Statistik Austria - Census 2001, CIA World Factbook; see also Demographics of Austria;
Austrians are ethnically also included under "Germans", US Department of State
]: High German (
Upper German, Central German),
Low German (see
German dialects)],
Protestant (chiefly Lutheranism), secular, others-->
Germans () are defined as an ethnic group, in the sense of sharing a common
German culture, citizenship, speaking the
German language as a First language and being born in Germany. Germans are also defined by their
national citizenship, which had, in the course of
German history, varying relations to the above (
German culture), according to the influence of subcultures and society in general (also refer to
Imperial Germans, Federal Germans etc. and
Demographics of Germany).
Out of approximately 100 million native speakers of German in the world, about 75 million consider themselves Germans. There are an additional 70 million people of German ancestry (mainly in the USA, Brazil, Argentina, Kazakhstan and Canada) who are not native speakers of German but who may still consider themselves ethnic Germans, so that the total number of Germans worldwide lies between 75 and 160 million, depending to the criteria applied (native speakers, single-ancestry ethnic Germans or partial German ancestry). In the USA, 15.2% of citizens identify as of German American according to the United States Census of 2000, more than any other group.This figure accounts for self-reported ancestry rather than race or ethnicity. See demographics of the United States and
European American for more information.
History of the term
in 1512The English term
:wikt:German as used today translates German
:wikt:deutsch. It is derived from Latin
Germanus and has been used since the 16th century synonymously with "Teuton", after
teutonicus used in Latin since the 9th century to refer to the German language, from the name of the Teutones. Before the 16th century, the terms used in English were
Almain, from the name of the
Alemanni, or
Dutch, an imitation of both
Dutch language "
dietsch" (meaning "Dutch people") and the German language cognate "
deutsch" (meaning: "German"). The diffuse nature of the term mirrors the heterogeneous nature of the
Holy Roman Empire, from the 16th century also known as "Holy Roman Empire of the German nation". The linguistic affiliation of the
English language itself was hotly debated at the time, and English academia was split into "
Germanophiles" who preferred to include English as one of the "Germanic" or "Teutonic" languages, and "Scandophiles" who preferred to classify English as "Scandinavian" (now known as North Germanic)English is today classified as West Germanic, although as within a separate Ingvaeonic subgroup..With the rise of the German Empire as a threat to British interests in Hamburg, the "Germanophile" position came out of fashion and British romanticism turned to Scandinavia (see Viking revival). "German" from this period refers to the German Empire, already to the exclusion of Austria, the
Netherlands and Switzerland. Usage of
Dutch was narrowed to refer to the Netherlands exclusively during the early 16th century.
There is a lack of international consensus in regard to the characterization of certain historical persons and institutions as "German", like for instance Kafka,
Copernicus or the
Hanseatic League. In the 19th century, it was common in Germany to use "German" synonymously with "Germanic" for pre-modern times, and e.g. the Walhalla temple includes Gothic, Langobardic, Anglo-Saxon and Alemannic people among those honoured as 'Germans'.
Haydn,
Mozart and
Ludwig van Beethoven - who spent most of their lives in what is Austria today - may be considered to have been central within the German culture but may nevertheless, sometimes often be characterized as Austrians, not as Germans. Many people also consider them Austrian and German at once, like e.g. the U.S. State Department does on its report on current Austria, describing it as inhabited by Austrian nationals of which 98% are ethnic Germans.
Ethnic Germans
The term
Ethnic Germans may be used in several ways. It may serve to distinguish Germans from those who may have citizenship in the German state but are not Germans; or it may indicate Germans living as minorities in other nations. In English usage, but less often in German,
Ethnic Germans may be used for Cultural assimilation descendants of German emigrants.
Ethnic Germans form an important minority group in several countries in Central Europe and eastern Europe (Demographics of Poland, Demographics of Hungary, Demographics of Romania,
Demographics of Russia) as well as in Demographics of Namibia, southern Demographics of Brazil (German-Brazilian),
Paraguay,
Demographics of Argentina and
Demographics of Chile.
Some groups may be noted as Ethnic Germans despite no longer having German as their mother tongue or belonging to a distinct German culture. Until the 1990s, two million Ethnic Germans lived throughout the former Soviet Union, especially in Russia and Kazakhstan.
In the United States 1990 census, 57 million people are fully or partly of German ancestry, forming the largest single ethnic group in the country. Most Americans of German descent live in the Mid-Atlantic states (especially Pennsylvania) and the northern Midwest (especially in
Iowa,
Minnesota, Ohio,
Wisconsin,
Illinois,
Indiana,
North Dakota, South Dakota, and eastern Missouri), but historically Germanic immigrant enclaves can be found in many other states (e.g., the
German Texans).
Notable Ethnic German populations also exist in other
Anglosphere countries such as Demographics of Canada (approx. 9% of the population) and Demographics of Australia (approx. 4% of the population).
History
Origins
The Germans are a Germanic people which as an ethnicity emerged in southern Scandinavia in the centuries leading up to the
Migration Period, where they were in contact with other peoples, including Finnic peoples inhabitants of Scandinavia to the north,
Balto-Slavic peoples to the east and
Celts to the south. Later in history, Germanic peoples — as most other European people — mixed with bordering ethnic groups such as Gallo-Romans and Slavs.For the global genetic make-up of the Germans and other peoples, see also the and the National Geographic Genographic Atlas
, is here assumed to be Germanic, others consider it to have been Slavic, or mixedIn the course of the
Migration Period, Slavic peoples expanded westwards at the same time as Germans expanded eastwards. The result was German colonization as far East as
Romania, and Slavic colonization as far west as present-day Lübeck (at the Baltic Sea),
Hamburg (connected to the North Sea), and along the river Elbe and its tributary Saale further South.
Middle Ages
A "German" as opposed to generically "Germanic" ethnicity emerges in the course of the Middle Ages, under the influence of the unity of
Eastern Francia from the 9th century. The process is gradual and lacks any clear definition.
After Christianization of the Germanic peoples, the superior organization of the Roman Catholic Church lent the upper hand for a German expansion at the expense of the Slavs, giving the
medieval Drang nach Osten as a result. At the same time, naval innovations led to a German domination of trade in the Baltic Sea and Central–Eastern Europe through the
Hanseatic League. Along the trade routes, Hanseatic trade stations became centers of Germanness where German urban law
(Stadtrecht) was promoted by the presence of large, relatively wealthy German populations and their influence on the worldly powers.
This means that people whom we today often consider "Germans", with a common culture and worldview very different from that of the surrounding
rural peoples, colonized as far north of present-day Germany as Bergen, Norway (in Norway), Stockholm (in
Sweden), and Vyborg (now in
Russia). At the same time, it is important to note that the Hanseatic League was not exclusively German in any ethnic sense. Many towns who joined the league were outside of the Holy Roman Empire, which wasn't by far entirely German itself, and a number of them ought not at all be characterized as
German.It is only in the late 15th century that the Holy Roman Empire comes to be called Holy Roman Empire of the German nation, and even this was not in any way exclusively German, notably including a sizeable
Slavs minority.The
Thirty Years' War, a series of conflicts fought mainly in modern Germany, confirmed the dissolution of the Holy Roman Empire, and the Napoleonic Wars gave it its Coup de grace.
The Divided Germany
The idea that Germany is a divided nation is not new and not peculiar. Foreign powers had long interceded in German affairs, pitting one German principality against the other. Since the Peace of Westphalia, Germany has been "one nation split in many countries". The Austrian–Prussian split, confirmed when Austria remained outside of the 1871 created Imperial Germany, was only the most prominent example. Most recently, the division between East Germany and West Germany kept the idea alive.
In the 19th century, after the
Napoleonic Wars and the fall of the
Holy Roman Empire,
Austria and Prussia would emerge as two opposite poles in Germany, trying to re-establish the divided German nation. In 1870, Prussia attracted even
Bavaria in the
Franco-Prussian War and the creation of the German Empire as a German
nation-state, effectively excluding the multi-ethnic Austrian
Habsburg monarchy.
The dissolution of the Austria-Hungary after World War I led to a strong desire of the population of the new
Republic of Austria to be integrated into Germany. This was, however, prevented by the Treaty of Versailles.
The
Nazism attempted to unite "all Germans" in one realm. This idea was initially welcomed by many ethnic Germans in
Sudetenland, Austria, Poland, Danzig and Western Lithuania, but met with significant resistance among the
Swiss people and the
Dutch people, who saw themselves as separate nations at least since the
Peace of Westphalia of 1648.
The concept of a separate
Austrian people emerges in the 19th century, following the
Napoleonic wars, but German speaking Austrians continued to consider themselves Germans until 1919, when "German Austria" was dissolved following the
Treaty of Saint-Germain-en-Laye (1919). After
World War II, the Austrians increasingly saw themselves as a nation distinct from the other German-speaking areas of Europe; today, some polls have indicated that no more than 10% of the German-speaking Austrians see themselves as part of a larger German nation linked by ancestry or language.
Subgroups
The Germans are divided into sub-nationalities, some of which form dialectal unities with groups outside Germany that are not considered "Germans". The southern Upper German groups retain a pronounced identity, in the case of the Swabians historically even the cause of a limited movement of
Alemannic separatism. The Low German
Platt speakers also retain a certain ethnic identity, while the
Central German majority has largely abandoned individual nationalisms.
Ethnic nationalism
The reaction evoked in the decades after the Napoleonic Wars was a strong
ethnic nationalism that emphasized, and sometimes overemphasized, the cultural bond between Germans. Later alloyed with the high standing and world-wide influence of German science at the end of the 19th century, and to some degree enhanced by
Otto von Bismarck military successes and the following 40 years of almost perpetual economic boom (the
Gründerzeit), it gave the Germans an impression of cultural supremacy, particularly compared to the Slavic peoples.
Ethnic nationalism has essentially been a taboo in German society since
World War II, but it has seen a limited comeback since
German reunification, with the ethnic nationalist National Democratic Party of Germany receiving 1.6% of the popular vote in the
German federal election, 2005.
Religion
Today, the German identity includes both Protestants and Catholics. The groups are about equally represented in Germany, contrary to the belief that it is mostly Protestant. The Protestant Reformation started in the German cultural sphere, when in 1517, Martin Luther posted his
95 Theses to the door of the
Schlosskirche ("castle church") in Wittenberg. Among
Protestantism#Protestant denominations, the Lutherans are well represented by the Germans, while Calvinism are historically only to be found near the Netherlands border and in a few cities like Worms, Germany and Speyer. The late 19th century saw a strong movement among the
Jewry in Germany and Austria to assimilate and define themselves as
à priori Germans, i.e. as Germans of Judaism (a similar movement occurred in Hungary). In conservative circles, this was not always embraced, and, for the Nazis, it was unacceptable. The Nazi rule led to the death of almost all of the relatively small number of domestic Jews. Today Germany attempts to successfully integrate the
Gastarbeiter and later arrived refugees from ex-
Yugoslavia, especially Bosnian Muslims.
Minorities
In recent years, the German-speaking countries of Europe have been confronted with demographic changes due to decades of immigration. These changes have led to renewed debates (especially in the Federal Republic of Germany) about who should be considered German. Non-ethnic Germans now make up more than 8% of the German population, mostly the descendants of guest workers who arrived in the 1960s and 1970s. Turkish people, Italian people,
Greek people, and people from the Balkans in southeast Europe form the largest single groups of non-ethnic Germans in the country.
In addition, a significant number of German citizens (close to 5%), although traditionally considered
ethnic Germans, are in fact foreign-born and thus often retain the cultural identities and languages or their native countries in addition to being Germans, a fact that sets them apart from those born and raised in Germany. Of course, the idea of foreign-born repatriates is not unique to Germany. The English and British equivalent legal term is
lex sanguinis, which is exactly the same principle- that citizenship is inherited by the child from his/her parents. It has nothing to do with ethnicity.
Ethnic German repatriates from the former Soviet Union are a separate case and constitute by far the largest such group and the second largest ethno-national minority group in Germany. The repatriation provisions made for ethnic Germans in Eastern Europe are unique and have historical basis, since these were areas where Germans traditionally lived. A controversial example of repatriation involves the Volga Germans, descendents of ethnic Germans who settled in Russia during the 18th century, who have been able to claim German citizenship even though neither they nor their ancestors for several generations have ever been to Germany. In contrast, persons of German descent in North America, South America, Africa, etc. do not have an automatic right of return and must actually prove their eligibility for German citizenship according to the clauses pertaining to the
German nationality law. Other countries with post-Soviet Union repatriation programs include Greece, Israel and
South Korea.
Unlike these ethnic German repatriates, some non-German ethnic minorities in the country, including some who were born and raised in the Federal Republic, choose to remain non-citizens. Although citizenship laws have been recently relaxed to allow such individuals to become nationalized citizens, many choose not to give up allegiance to the countries of their ethnic roots and continue to live in Germany under an ambiguous status of an alien resident or a guest worker, especially since this status, though lacking certain political rights, often does not impede one's ability to work, get free public higher education and travel abroad.
As a result, close to 10 million people permanently living in the Federal Republic today distinctly differ from the majority of the population in a variety of ways such as race, ethnicity, religion, language and culture, yet often fail to be recognized as minorities in official statistical sources due to the fact that such sources traditionally survey only German citizens, and under the so called
jus sanguinis system, that has been in effect in Germany since the 19th century, and has only recently been partially replaced by the alternative
jus soli system. This situation contributes to the invisibility of Germany's minorities making Germany technically one of the most ethnically homogeneous nation in the world, whereas in all practicality the Federal Republic is today one of the most ethnically diverse countries in Europe.
References
See also
s are common in the US. Light blue indicates counties that are predominantly German ancestry.
External links
- Famous Germans
- German, Austrian and Swiss inventors
- Top 100 Germans
In a context of antiquity (pre AD 500), "Germans" is used in the sense of Germanic tribes.
{{Ethnic group|group=Germans
Deutsche|image=
(left to right): Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart •
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe •
Otto von Bismarck • Johannes Kepler• |population = ~80 million80 million is the minimal estimate, counting 75 million ethnic Germans, plus some 5-10 million primary ancestry, German-speaking ethnic Germans worldwide.|genealogy= ~160 million160 is the maximal estimate, counting all people claiming ethnic German ancestry in the USA, Brazil and elsewhere.|regions = 68 million
|region1 = |pop1 = 50 million|ref1 = 49.2 million
German Americans as of 2005 according to the ; see also Languages in the United States#German.
] reports 6 millions Brazilians with German "single-ancestry" and 12 million with partly German ancestry. See
German-Brazilian].
|region4 = |pop4 = 1,200,000|ref4 = According to the Asociación Argentina de Descendientes de Alemanes del Volga there are more than 1,200,000 descendants of Volga Germans in Argentina (figures do not include other German communities).
|region5 = The (mainly and )|pop5 = 1 million|ref5 = a result of
population transfer in the Soviet Union; see ethnologue
]. German is spoken by ca. 135,000 , about 105,000 of them Germany-born, see
Demographics of Australia], see Demographics of Poland.
]
Swiss (people))|ref13 = 112,348 resident aliens (nationals or citizens) as of 2000 , see Demographics of Switzerland. The CIA World Fact Book, identifies the 65% (4.9 million) Swiss German speakers as "ethnic Germans".
], if Austrians are regarded as Germans)|ref15 = 0.9% of the population (German nationals or citizens only) Statistik Austria - Census 2001, CIA World Factbook; see also Demographics of Austria;
Austrians are ethnically also included under "Germans", US Department of State
]:
High German (Upper German,
Central German), Low German (see German dialects)], Protestant (chiefly
Lutheranism), secular, others-->
Germans () are defined as an ethnic group, in the sense of sharing a common German culture,
citizenship, speaking the
German language as a First language and being born in Germany. Germans are also defined by their
national citizenship, which had, in the course of
German history, varying relations to the above (
German culture), according to the influence of
subcultures and
society in general (also refer to Imperial Germans,
Federal Germans etc. and
Demographics of Germany).
Out of approximately 100 million native speakers of German in the world, about 75 million consider themselves Germans. There are an additional 70 million people of German ancestry (mainly in the USA, Brazil, Argentina, Kazakhstan and Canada) who are not native speakers of German but who may still consider themselves ethnic Germans, so that the total number of Germans worldwide lies between 75 and 160 million, depending to the criteria applied (native speakers, single-ancestry ethnic Germans or partial German ancestry). In the
USA, 15.2% of citizens identify as of
German American according to the United States Census of 2000, more than any other group.This figure accounts for self-reported ancestry rather than race or ethnicity. See demographics of the United States and European American for more information.
History of the term
in 1512The English term
:wikt:German as used today translates German
:wikt:deutsch. It is derived from Latin
Germanus and has been used since the 16th century synonymously with "Teuton", after
teutonicus used in Latin since the 9th century to refer to the German language, from the name of the
Teutones. Before the 16th century, the terms used in English were
Almain, from the name of the
Alemanni, or
Dutch, an imitation of both
Dutch language "
dietsch" (meaning "Dutch people") and the German language cognate "
deutsch" (meaning: "German"). The diffuse nature of the term mirrors the heterogeneous nature of the Holy Roman Empire, from the 16th century also known as "Holy Roman Empire of the German nation". The linguistic affiliation of the English language itself was hotly debated at the time, and English academia was split into "Germanophiles" who preferred to include English as one of the "Germanic" or "Teutonic" languages, and "Scandophiles" who preferred to classify English as "Scandinavian" (now known as
North Germanic)English is today classified as West Germanic, although as within a separate Ingvaeonic subgroup..With the rise of the German Empire as a threat to British interests in Hamburg, the "Germanophile" position came out of fashion and British romanticism turned to Scandinavia (see
Viking revival). "German" from this period refers to the German Empire, already to the exclusion of Austria, the
Netherlands and Switzerland. Usage of
Dutch was narrowed to refer to the Netherlands exclusively during the early 16th century.
There is a lack of international consensus in regard to the characterization of certain historical persons and institutions as "German", like for instance
Kafka, Copernicus or the
Hanseatic League. In the 19th century, it was common in Germany to use "German" synonymously with "Germanic" for pre-modern times, and e.g. the Walhalla temple includes Gothic, Langobardic, Anglo-Saxon and Alemannic people among those honoured as 'Germans'.
Haydn,
Mozart and
Ludwig van Beethoven - who spent most of their lives in what is Austria today - may be considered to have been central within the German culture but may nevertheless, sometimes often be characterized as Austrians, not as Germans. Many people also consider them Austrian and German at once, like e.g. the U.S. State Department does on its report on current Austria, describing it as inhabited by Austrian nationals of which 98% are ethnic Germans.
Ethnic Germans
The term
Ethnic Germans may be used in several ways. It may serve to distinguish Germans from those who may have citizenship in the German state but are not Germans; or it may indicate Germans living as minorities in other nations. In English usage, but less often in German,
Ethnic Germans may be used for
Cultural assimilation descendants of German emigrants.
Ethnic Germans form an important minority group in several countries in Central Europe and
eastern Europe (Demographics of Poland,
Demographics of Hungary,
Demographics of Romania, Demographics of Russia) as well as in
Demographics of Namibia, southern
Demographics of Brazil (German-Brazilian), Paraguay,
Demographics of Argentina and
Demographics of Chile.
Some groups may be noted as Ethnic Germans despite no longer having German as their mother tongue or belonging to a distinct German culture. Until the 1990s, two million Ethnic Germans lived throughout the former Soviet Union, especially in
Russia and
Kazakhstan.
In the United States 1990 census, 57 million people are fully or partly of German ancestry, forming the largest single ethnic group in the country. Most Americans of German descent live in the
Mid-Atlantic states (especially Pennsylvania) and the northern
Midwest (especially in
Iowa, Minnesota,
Ohio,
Wisconsin, Illinois,
Indiana,
North Dakota, South Dakota, and eastern
Missouri), but historically Germanic immigrant enclaves can be found in many other states (e.g., the German Texans).
Notable Ethnic German populations also exist in other Anglosphere countries such as Demographics of Canada (approx. 9% of the population) and Demographics of Australia (approx. 4% of the population).
History
Origins
The Germans are a Germanic people which as an ethnicity emerged in southern Scandinavia in the centuries leading up to the
Migration Period, where they were in contact with other peoples, including Finnic peoples inhabitants of Scandinavia to the north, Balto-Slavic peoples to the east and
Celts to the south. Later in history, Germanic peoples — as most other European people — mixed with bordering ethnic groups such as Gallo-Romans and
Slavs.For the global genetic make-up of the Germans and other peoples, see also the and the National Geographic Genographic Atlas
, is here assumed to be Germanic, others consider it to have been Slavic, or mixedIn the course of the Migration Period, Slavic peoples expanded westwards at the same time as Germans expanded eastwards. The result was German colonization as far East as
Romania, and Slavic colonization as far west as present-day
Lübeck (at the Baltic Sea), Hamburg (connected to the
North Sea), and along the river Elbe and its tributary Saale further South.
Middle Ages
A "German" as opposed to generically "Germanic" ethnicity emerges in the course of the Middle Ages, under the influence of the unity of Eastern Francia from the 9th century. The process is gradual and lacks any clear definition.
After Christianization of the Germanic peoples, the superior organization of the
Roman Catholic Church lent the upper hand for a German expansion at the expense of the Slavs, giving the medieval
Drang nach Osten as a result. At the same time, naval innovations led to a German domination of trade in the Baltic Sea and Central–Eastern Europe through the
Hanseatic League. Along the trade routes, Hanseatic trade stations became centers of Germanness where German urban law
(Stadtrecht) was promoted by the presence of large, relatively wealthy German populations and their influence on the worldly powers.
This means that people whom we today often consider "Germans", with a common culture and worldview very different from that of the surrounding rural peoples, colonized as far north of present-day Germany as Bergen, Norway (in
Norway),
Stockholm (in
Sweden), and
Vyborg (now in Russia). At the same time, it is important to note that the Hanseatic League was not exclusively German in any ethnic sense. Many towns who joined the league were outside of the Holy Roman Empire, which wasn't by far entirely German itself, and a number of them ought not at all be characterized as
German.It is only in the late 15th century that the Holy Roman Empire comes to be called Holy Roman Empire of the German nation, and even this was not in any way exclusively German, notably including a sizeable Slavs minority.The Thirty Years' War, a series of conflicts fought mainly in modern Germany, confirmed the dissolution of the Holy Roman Empire, and the
Napoleonic Wars gave it its Coup de grace.
The Divided Germany
The idea that Germany is a divided nation is not new and not peculiar. Foreign powers had long interceded in German affairs, pitting one German principality against the other. Since the
Peace of Westphalia, Germany has been "one nation split in many countries". The Austrian–Prussian split, confirmed when Austria remained outside of the 1871 created
Imperial Germany, was only the most prominent example. Most recently, the division between East Germany and West Germany kept the idea alive.
In the 19th century, after the Napoleonic Wars and the fall of the
Holy Roman Empire,
Austria and Prussia would emerge as two opposite poles in Germany, trying to re-establish the divided German nation. In 1870, Prussia attracted even Bavaria in the
Franco-Prussian War and the creation of the
German Empire as a German nation-state, effectively excluding the multi-ethnic Austrian Habsburg monarchy.
The dissolution of the Austria-Hungary after World War I led to a strong desire of the population of the new
Republic of Austria to be integrated into Germany. This was, however, prevented by the
Treaty of Versailles.
The
Nazism attempted to unite "all Germans" in one realm. This idea was initially welcomed by many ethnic Germans in Sudetenland, Austria,
Poland, Danzig and Western
Lithuania, but met with significant resistance among the Swiss people and the
Dutch people, who saw themselves as separate nations at least since the
Peace of Westphalia of 1648.
The concept of a separate Austrian people emerges in the 19th century, following the Napoleonic wars, but German speaking Austrians continued to consider themselves Germans until 1919, when "
German Austria" was dissolved following the Treaty of Saint-Germain-en-Laye (1919). After World War II, the Austrians increasingly saw themselves as a nation distinct from the other German-speaking areas of Europe; today, some polls have indicated that no more than 10% of the German-speaking Austrians see themselves as part of a larger German nation linked by ancestry or language.
Subgroups
The Germans are divided into sub-nationalities, some of which form dialectal unities with groups outside Germany that are not considered "Germans". The southern Upper German groups retain a pronounced identity, in the case of the Swabians historically even the cause of a limited movement of
Alemannic separatism. The Low German
Platt speakers also retain a certain ethnic identity, while the Central German majority has largely abandoned individual nationalisms.
Ethnic nationalism
The reaction evoked in the decades after the Napoleonic Wars was a strong ethnic nationalism that emphasized, and sometimes overemphasized, the cultural bond between Germans. Later alloyed with the high standing and world-wide influence of German science at the end of the 19th century, and to some degree enhanced by
Otto von Bismarck military successes and the following 40 years of almost perpetual economic boom (the
Gründerzeit), it gave the Germans an impression of cultural supremacy, particularly compared to the Slavic peoples.
Ethnic nationalism has essentially been a taboo in German society since World War II, but it has seen a limited comeback since German reunification, with the ethnic nationalist
National Democratic Party of Germany receiving 1.6% of the popular vote in the
German federal election, 2005.
Religion
Today, the German identity includes both Protestants and
Catholics. The groups are about equally represented in Germany, contrary to the belief that it is mostly Protestant. The
Protestant Reformation started in the German cultural sphere, when in 1517, Martin Luther posted his 95 Theses to the door of the
Schlosskirche ("castle church") in
Wittenberg. Among
Protestantism#Protestant denominations, the
Lutherans are well represented by the Germans, while
Calvinism are historically only to be found near the
Netherlands border and in a few cities like Worms, Germany and
Speyer. The late 19th century saw a strong movement among the
Jewry in Germany and Austria to assimilate and define themselves as
à priori Germans, i.e. as Germans of
Judaism (a similar movement occurred in Hungary). In conservative circles, this was not always embraced, and, for the Nazis, it was unacceptable. The Nazi rule led to the death of almost all of the relatively small number of domestic Jews. Today Germany attempts to successfully integrate the
Gastarbeiter and later arrived refugees from ex-Yugoslavia, especially Bosnian Muslims.
Minorities
In recent years, the German-speaking countries of Europe have been confronted with demographic changes due to decades of immigration. These changes have led to renewed debates (especially in the Federal Republic of Germany) about who should be considered German. Non-ethnic Germans now make up more than 8% of the German population, mostly the descendants of guest workers who arrived in the 1960s and 1970s.
Turkish people,
Italian people,
Greek people, and people from the
Balkans in southeast Europe form the largest single groups of non-ethnic Germans in the country.
In addition, a significant number of German citizens (close to 5%), although traditionally considered
ethnic Germans, are in fact foreign-born and thus often retain the cultural identities and languages or their native countries in addition to being Germans, a fact that sets them apart from those born and raised in Germany. Of course, the idea of foreign-born repatriates is not unique to Germany. The English and British equivalent legal term is
lex sanguinis, which is exactly the same principle- that citizenship is inherited by the child from his/her parents. It has nothing to do with ethnicity.
Ethnic German repatriates from the former Soviet Union are a separate case and constitute by far the largest such group and the second largest ethno-national minority group in Germany. The repatriation provisions made for ethnic Germans in Eastern Europe are unique and have historical basis, since these were areas where Germans traditionally lived. A controversial example of repatriation involves the Volga Germans, descendents of ethnic Germans who settled in Russia during the 18th century, who have been able to claim German citizenship even though neither they nor their ancestors for several generations have ever been to Germany. In contrast, persons of German descent in North America, South America, Africa, etc. do not have an automatic right of return and must actually prove their eligibility for German citizenship according to the clauses pertaining to the German nationality law. Other countries with post-Soviet Union repatriation programs include
Greece,
Israel and South Korea.
Unlike these ethnic German repatriates, some non-German ethnic minorities in the country, including some who were born and raised in the Federal Republic, choose to remain non-citizens. Although citizenship laws have been recently relaxed to allow such individuals to become nationalized citizens, many choose not to give up allegiance to the countries of their ethnic roots and continue to live in Germany under an ambiguous status of an alien resident or a guest worker, especially since this status, though lacking certain political rights, often does not impede one's ability to work, get free public higher education and travel abroad.
As a result, close to 10 million people permanently living in the Federal Republic today distinctly differ from the majority of the population in a variety of ways such as race, ethnicity, religion, language and culture, yet often fail to be recognized as minorities in official statistical sources due to the fact that such sources traditionally survey only German citizens, and under the so called
jus sanguinis system, that has been in effect in Germany since the 19th century, and has only recently been partially replaced by the alternative
jus soli system. This situation contributes to the invisibility of Germany's minorities making Germany technically one of the most ethnically homogeneous nation in the world, whereas in all practicality the Federal Republic is today one of the most ethnically diverse countries in Europe.
References
See also
s are common in the US. Light blue indicates counties that are predominantly German ancestry.
External links
- Famous Germans
- German, Austrian and Swiss inventors
- Top 100 Germans
BBC - Languages - German Steps
Guided by a German teacher, you can start from scratch or brush up on a particular topic. ... Meeting people
BBC - GCSE Bitesize - German | Reading activities: foundation ...
In your German exam you might have to show you understand details about people or personalities featured in a magazine. This task would be the last (or hardest) question on a ...
Germans - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The German people (German: Deutsche) are an ethnic group, in the sense of sharing a common German culture, descent, and speaking the German language as a mother tongue.
German - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
People: Anna German, Polish-Russian singer; Edward German, musical composer; Lindsey German, English activist; Mike German, Welsh politician; German Kim, Kazakhstani professor; Germán ...
The Association of English- and German-Speaking People
The Association of English- and German-Speaking People . Programme 2008-09 . The Association has now moved to its new venue, the Didsbury pub on Wilmslow Road, about half-a-mile ...
Camden Council: Contacts for German people
Times: Meets weekly on Mon at 19.45 except for Bank Holidays, Jewish holidays and a 2 month summer break.
German People Prints by AllPosters.co.uk
German People Prints by AllPosters.co.uk. Choose from over 500,000 Posters, Prints & Art. Fast UK Delivery, Value Framing, 100% Satisfaction Guarantee.
German People (Photography) Prints by AllPosters.co.uk
German People (Photography) Prints by AllPosters.co.uk. Choose from over 500,000 Posters, Prints & Art. Fast UK Delivery, Value Framing, 100% Satisfaction Guarantee.
German National People's Party (DNVP)
The German National People's Party (DNVP) was formed in 1919. Mainly funded by the wealthy industrialist, Hugo Stinnes, this right-wing party opposed the Versailles Treaty ...
German Constitution: 1949
For decades, the division of Germany prevented the entire German people from living in such freedom. On October 3,1990, we accomplished the unity and liberty of Germany in free ...
