Ethnic Germans

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This article is about the German diaspora. See Germans for the German ethnicity in general.

Ethnic Germans (German: Deutschstämmige, historically also Volksdeutsche), also collectively referred to as the German diaspora, are those who are considered, by themselves or others, to be of German origin ethnically, not born nor live within the present-day Federal Republic of Germany, nor necessarily hold its citizenship nor speak the German language.

In English usage, but less often in German, the term may be used for assimilated descendants of German emigrants.[citation needed] The traditional American English language practice has been to refer to the ethnic Germans of a given country by combining the country or region name (or its adjective) with "Germans"; for example, "Brazilian Germans" was at least traditionally used (see below) to refer to ethnic Germans living in Brazil. Already in the past, this practice broke down when referring to countries that no longer existed ("Kingdom of Hungary" Germans) or regions that transcended national boundaries (thus "Black Sea Germans"), "Alsatian Germans" and "Baltic Germans".

However, the modern trend is to emphasize the status as citizens of the new country and to invert the order of the compound expression.[citation needed] According to this system, one uses the word "German" as an adjective, not a noun. For example, German Americans are called German Americans but never "U.S. Germans" or "American Germans". Since several decades, many ethnic German groups preferred to call themselves in this way that emphasized that they were assimilated members of the society of their new country. for example the German Princess Tanja Niebergall prefers to be referred to as German American

German ethnicity is historically equivalent to the German language Sprachraum. Thus, Swiss German still hold strong ties with and sympathies towards Germany during World War I, although separating from the Kingdom of Germany between the 13th and 17th century. The first attempts to create a consciousness of the "Austrian nation" took place during the Napoleonic Wars (at which time "Austrian" identity included non-German-speaking subjects of the Austrian Empire) and in the 1930s during Dollfuss' Austro-Fascist period, but without much success. Many German-speaking Austrians used to consider themselves as ethnic Germans until after the Second World War (see German Austria). Since the end of World War II, Austrians have increasingly come (or are taught) to see themselves as a nation distinct from the German nation.[1]

Contents

[edit] Terminology

Main article: Volksdeutsche
Further information: Reichsdeutsche and Bundesdeutsche

Volksdeutsche "ethnic Germans" is a historical term which arose in the early 20th century to describe ethnic Germans living outside of the German Empire. This is in contrast to Imperial Germans (Reichsdeutsche), German citizens living within Germany.

This is the loosest meaning of the term, which was used mainly during the Weimar Republic. In a stricter sense, Volksdeutsch came to mean ethnic Germans living abroad but without German citizenship, i.e., the juxtaposition with Reichsdeutsch was sharpened to denote difference in citizenship as well as residence.

Auslandsdeutsche (adj. auslandsdeutsch) is a concept that denotes German citizens living abroad, or alternatively ethnic Germans entering Germany from abroad. Today, this means citizen of Germany living more or less permanently in another country (including long-term academic exchange lecturers and the like), who are allowed to vote in the Republic's elections, but who usually do not pay taxes to Germany. In a more loose but still valid sense, and in general discourse, the word is frequently used in lieu of the ideologically tainted term Volksdeutsche, denoting persons living abroad without German citizenship but defining themselves as Germans (culturally or ethnically speaking).

[edit] Distribution

Ethnic Germans are an important minority group in many countries. (See Germans, German language, and German as a minority language for more extensive numbers and a better sense of where Germans maintain German culture and have official recognition.) The following sections briefly detail the historical and present distribution of ethnic Germans by region, but generally exclude modern expatriates, who have a presence in the United States, Scandinavia and major urban areas worldwide. See Groups at bottom for a list of all ethnic German groups, or continue for a summary by region.

Ancestry according to the U.S. 2000 census: Counties with plurality of German ancestry in light blue
Ancestry according to the U.S. 2000 census: Counties with plurality of German ancestry in light blue

[edit] North America

  • There are over 60 million Americans of at least partial German ancestry in the United States including various groups as the Pennsylvania Dutch and the German Texans. Of these, 23 million are of German ancestry alone ("single ancestry"), and another 40 million are of partial German ancestry. Of those who claim partial ancestry, 22 million identify their primary ancestry ("first ancestry") as German. German (Americans) has been the largest ethnic-origin group in the United States for almost its entire history including before independence,[citation needed] but will soon be outnumbered by people of Mexican descent (legally) living in the United States within 10 to 20 years if current immigration levels and birth rates among the groups continue unchanged (people of "single ethnicity" Mexican descent living legally in the United States already outnumber "single ethnicity" ethnic-origin German-Americans since after the 2000 census[citation needed]). Germans form just under half the population in the Upper Midwest.[2][3]
  • Canada (2.7 million, 9% of the population)

[edit] South and Central America

They are a considerable part of the population in:

  • Brazil: Mainly in Southern Brazil and São Paulo; over 10% of the population has at least one German ancestor - about 18 million people.[4] Hunsrückisch and Pomeranian are some of the more prominent such groups.
Notable examples of German-Brazilians are former president Ernesto Geisel, politician Jorge Bornhausen, actress Vera Fischer, Cacilda Becker, top models as Gisele Bündchen, Ana Hickmann, Letícia Birkheuer and Rodrigo Hilbert, musicians like Andreas Kisser and Astrud Gilberto, architect Oscar Niemeyer, landscape architect Roberto Burle Marx, physicist and astronomer Marcelo Gleiser, physician Adolfo Lutz, basketball player Oscar Schmidt, tennis player Gustavo Kuerten, swimmer Fernando Scherer, tv host Xuxa Meneghel, the Catholic prelates Cláudio Cardinal Hummes and Paulo Evaristo Cardinal Arns and the renowned sailor Robert Scheidt among many others.
  • Argentina: About 6% of the Argentine population. 1,200,000 Volga Germans.[5] More than 400,000 with other German ancestries including Mennonites and German Swiss (these two groups more common in Southern Argentina, and also in Santa Fe and Cordoba provinces). A notable representation of this is the town of Villa General Belgrano, founded in the 1930's by Germans, it's numbers were swelled by survivors of the Graff Spee sinking. In the 1960s it became the site of the Fiesta Nacional de la Cerveza, or Oktoberfest - which has become a major attraction in Argentina [6]
An example of German Argentines is president Néstor Kirchner. Other notable examples of Argentine ethnic Germans are top model Nicole Neumann, basketball player Wálter Herrmann, football player Gabriel Heinze among many others.
  • Chile: During the middle 19th century 70,000 Germans emigrated to the south of Chile; almost 250,000-300,000 descendants of that people now live in the country: 45,000 counting standard German-speakers only, formed in several German schools among the country. Some notable German descendants in Chile are: TV presenter Mario Kreutzberger, Air Force General Commander Fernando Matthei Aubel, architect Mathias Klotz, tennis player Hans Gildemeister, female athlete Marlene Ahrens, Police General Commander Rodolfo Stange Ölckers, Musician Patricio Manns, Army Commanders in Chief Lieutenant General René Schneider and Division Generals Emil Körner, Economist Rolf Lüders, politicians Carlos Kuschel, Rolf Lüders Schwarzenberg, Miguel Kast and Evelyn Matthei, businessmen Horst Paulmann, Jürgen Paulmann, Werner Grob, Carlos Heller; TV presenters Karen Doggenweiler, Margot Kahl, Pamela Hodar, Michael Müller, writer César Müller (aka Oreste Plath), actresses Gloria Münchmeyer, Aline Küppenheim, actor Bastián Bodenhöfer, painter Rossy Ölckers. There are also many German speaking Swiss, generally assumed as Germans, of whom some notable descendants are: Presidents Eduardo Frei (father and son) and Economist Hernán Büchi.[citation needed]

Notable communities of ethnic Germans exist in:

[edit] Western Europe and the Alpine nations

Main article: German-speaking Europe

[edit] Italy

Map of Austria-Hungary in 1911, showing areas inhabited by ethnic Germans in pink
Map of Austria-Hungary in 1911, showing areas inhabited by ethnic Germans in pink

In Italy there are two main groups, the main one being at least 290,774 [7] ethnic[citation needed] Germans in Bolzano-Bozen, formerly part of the County of Tyrol (before the 1919 dissolution of the Austro-Hungarian Empire). Their dialects are Austro-Bavarian German.

There also exist smaller, unique populations of Germans which arrived so long ago that their dialect retains many archaic features heard nowhere else:

Smaller German-speaking communities exist also in the Friuli Venezia Giulia region: the Carinthians in the Canale Valley (municipalities of Tarvisio, Malborghetto Valbruna and Pontebba) and the Zahren and Timau Germans in Carnia.

[edit] Alpine Nations

Further information: Austrians and Swiss (people)

Austria, Switzerland and Liechtenstein have a German minority. An estimated 112,000 German nationals live in Switzlerland, another 74,000 in Austria.

[edit] France

A billingual streetsign in Strasbourg.
A billingual streetsign in Strasbourg.

In France, Alsace and the Moselle departement were originally German-speaking, but because of territorial transfers resulting from various wars, and given the French stance on language and ethnicity within the Republic, assimilation has decimated the Alsatian dialect. The German-speaking population is estimated at 1,500,000, plus another 40,000 for ethnic Luxembourgers.[citation needed]

German-speaking areas of Belgium.
German-speaking areas of Belgium.

[edit] Benelux

[edit] Belgium

In Belgium, there is also a German minority, which forms the majority in its region of 71,000 inhabitants (though Ethnologue puts the national total at 150,000, not including Limburgisch and Luxembourgish).

[edit] Luxembourg

Though their language (Luxemburgish) is very closely related to the German language, Luxembourgers do not consider themselves ethnic Germans. In a 1941 referendum held in Luxemburg by the German occupants, more than 90% proclaimed themselves Luxemburgish by nationality, mother tongue and ethnicity.[8]

[edit] The Netherlands

In the Netherlands, there are 380,000 Germans[9] and a similar number of Dutch people is estimated to live in Germany.[10]

[edit] Denmark

In Denmark, the part of Schleswig that is now South Jutland County (or Northern Schleswig) has about 12,000–20,000 Germans.[citation needed] These Germans mostly speak Standard German and South Jutlandic. A few speak the Schleswigsch variety of Low Saxon.

[edit] United Kingdom

In the United Kingdom, there exists a German-Briton/British Germans ethnic group of around 300,000, mainly descended from nineteenth century immigrants, World War Two prisoners of war & other refugees, and German workers who have emigrated from Germany during the European Union era[citation needed]. The vast majority have settled in the London & South East part of the United Kingdom, in particular, Richmond (South West London) and Oxfordshire[citation needed] Famously, the British Royal Family are partially descended from German Monarchs.

[edit] Central and Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union

Main article: History of German settlement in Eastern Europe
German language area in 1910–11
German language area in 1910–11

Historically, large populations of ethnic Germans have been concentrated in Central and Eastern Europe. In German, these populations are commonly referred to as Volksdeutsche. The number of ethnic Germans in Central and Eastern Europe dropped dramatically as the result of the German exodus from Eastern Europe, a reaction to the German invasion of Central Europe during the second world war. However, there are still a substantial number of ethnic Germans in the countries that are now Germany and Austria's neighbors to the east—Poland, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Hungary, and Slovenia. In addition, there are or have been significant populations in such areas as Romania, Moldova, Ukraine, and Russia.

[edit] History

The German presence in Central and Eastern Europe is rooted in centuries of history, that of Prussia, Austria-Hungary, Bukovina, Königsberg (now Kaliningrad), Bessarabia and of a fractious Germany and eastward parts of Europe made up of many city states, whose royal families ruled over multi-ethnic populations.

Every city of even modest size as far east as Russia had a German quarter and a Jewish quarter (though, of course, there were relatively few Jews east of the Pale of Settlement). Travellers along any road would pass through, for example, a German village, then a Czech village, then a Polish village, etc., depending on the region.

[edit] Eastward expansion

See main articles East Colonisation and Ostflucht

Near the end of the Migration Period (300–900 AD) that brought the Slavic tribes as well as the Huns, etc., to what is now Central Europe, Slavs expanded westwards at the same time as Germans expanded eastwards. The result was German colonization as far east as Romania and Volga, and Slavic colonization as far west as present-day Lübeck (on the Baltic Sea), Hamburg (connected to the North Sea), and along the river Elbe and its tributary Saale, further south. After Christianization, the superior organization and level of civilsation of the Germans led to further German expansion, known as the medieval Ostsiedlung. By 900 or so, various rulers were often inviting ethnic Germans to their territories as city builders, craftsmen, miners, or farmers. The crusades of the Teutonic Knights at times led to further German settlements in the Baltics.

German domination of trade in the Baltic Sea and Eastern Central Europe was established through the Hanseatic League. Such areas had become important within trade routes and flourished. German urban law within these regions, (Stadtrecht), was promoted by the presence of large, relatively wealthy "German" populations. At the time, their culture and worldview was very different from that of the surrounding rural peoples. These other "Germans", commoners that were often influenced by these powerful city-states, stretched as far away from present-day Germany as Bergen (in Norway), Stockholm (in Sweden), and Vyborg (in Finland). Some groups, such as the Baltic Germans, the Volga Germans, and the Transylvanian Saxons, had established residence in the eastern Baltic, southern Russia, and what is now Romania, respectively. Over time, other groups like this would be joined by later waves of Germans.

By the 1500s, Pomerania, Prussia, Bohemia, much of Bessarabia, Galicia, Tyrol, Carniola, and Lower Styria had German cities and villages. Numerous transfers and migrations occurred later: for example, within the Habsburg Monarchy at the end of Ottoman incursion into Europe (which penetrated as far as Vienna). Thus, the Danube Swabians settled in Pannonia and the Bukovina Germans in Bukovina.

[edit] The World Wars

By World War I, there were isolated groups of Germans or so-called Schwaben as far southeast as the Bosporus (Turkey), Georgia, and Azerbaijan. After the war, Germany's and Austria-Hungary's loss of territory and the rise of communism in the Soviet Union meant that more Germans than ever were minorities in various countries, though on the whole they still enjoyed fairly good treatment.

The status of ethnic Germans, and the lack of contiguity resulted in numerous repatriation pacts whereby the German authorities would organize population transfers (especially the NS-Soviet population transfers, and others with Benito Mussolini's Italy) so that both Germany and the other country would increase their homogeneity. However, this was but a drop in the pond, and the Back to the Reich call over the continued disjoint status of Danzig and East Prussia was a factor in the politics leading up to World War II, and is considered by many to be among the major causes of the war.

The actions of Pan-Slavist ideology ultimately had extremely negative consequences for most ethnic Germans in Central and Eastern Europe, who often fought on the side of the Polish regime - some were drafted, others volunteered. In places such as Yugoslavia, Germans were drafted by their country of residence, served loyally, and even held as POWs by the , and yet later found themselves drafted again, this time by the Nazis after their takeover.[citation needed] Because it was technically not permissible to draft non-citizens, many ethnic Germans ended up being (oxymoronically) forcibly volunteered for the Waffen-SS. Naturally, those closest to Germany were the most involved in fighting for her, but the Germans in remote places like the Caucasus were likewise accused of collaboration. The territorial changes following World War II can be very roughly understood as the following: Russia(Soviet Union) became bigger, Poland was shifted westwards resulting in a small decrease of territory, Germany became much smaller. This anecdotal summary can be somewhat extended to Germany's borders with France and Czechoslovakia as well.

[edit] Post-War situation

If the ethnic Germans of Eastern Europe survived the fighting, the ethno-politics of the victorious Allies aimed at removal of German population from new borders of countries neighboring Germany. In Poland and Czechoslovakia, millions fled the ethnic cleansing of the Red Army and local governments, mostly on foot and in wagons, but also by ship. The remaining population (also in Russia and Yugoslavia) was treated even more brutally, and frequently put into GuLags - the Concentration camps of Soviet Union. These camps usually where in Siberia and other remote parts of Russia. It must be said though that sending people of ethnicity other than Russian to such camps was a common trade in the Soviet Union Only recently this is being acknowledged by European historians. The remaining German inhabitants were expelled or fled from present-day Poland, Czechoslovakia, Hungary, today's Kaliningrad Oblast, and other East European countries. In Romania, Germans were forcibly transferred within the country, to destroy their cohesion as an ethnic group.

See also:

It was due to such population transfer in the Soviet Union that Germans (along with many other peoples) ended up as far east as Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan. As recently as 1990, there were 1 million standard German speakers and 100,000 Plautdietsch speakers in Kazakhstan alone[citation needed], and 38,000, 40,000 and 101,057 standard German speakers in Ukraine, Uzbekistan, and Kyrgyzstan, respectively.[citation needed]

There were reportedly 500,000 ethnic Germans in Poland in 1998.[citation needed] Recent official figures show 147,000 (as of 2002)[1]. But, because the census only registers declared nationalities, the actual figure is probably higher[citation needed]. Of the 700,000 Germans in Romania in 1988, only about 100,000 remained. In Hungary the situation is quite similar, with only about 150,000[citation needed]. There are 1 million in the former Soviet Union, mostly in a band from southwestern Russia and the Volga valley, through Omsk and Altai Krai to Kazakhstan[citation needed].

These Auslandsdeutsche, as they are now generally known, have been streaming out of the former Eastern Bloc since the early 1990s. For example, many ethnic Germans from the former Soviet Union have taken advantage of the German Law of return, a policy which grants citizenship to all those who can prove to be a refugee or expellee of German ethnic origin or the spouse or descendant of such a person. This exodus has occurred despite the fact that many of the ethnic Germans from the former Soviet Union speak little or no German.

[edit] Expelled Germans in postwar Germany

After World War II many expellees (German: Heimatvertriebene) from the land east of the Oder-Neisse found refuge in both West Germany and East Germany. Refugees who had fled voluntarily but were later refused to return are often not distinguished from those who were forcibly deported, just as people born to German parents that moved into areas under German occupation either on their own or as Nazi colonists.

In a document signed 50 years ago the Heimatvertriebene organisations have also recognized the plight of the different groups of people living in today's Poland who were resettled there by force. The Heimatvertriebene are just one of the groups of millions of other people, from many different countries, who all found refuge in today's Germany.

Some of the expellees are active in politics and belong to the political right-wing. Many others do not belong to any organizations, but they continue to maintain what they call a lawful right to their homeland.[citation needed] The vast majority pledged to work peacefully towards that goal while rebuilding post-war Germany and Europe.

The expellees are still highly active in German politics, and are one of the major political factions of the nation, with still around 2 million members.[citation needed] The president of their organization is as of 2004 still a member of the national parliament.

Although expellees and their descendants were active in West German politics, the prevailing political climate within West Germany was that of atonement for Nazi actions. However the CDU governments have shown considerable support for the expellees and German civilian victims.[citation needed]

[edit] Polish-German relations

Although relations between Poland and the Federal Republic of Germany have generally been cordial since 1991, there remain disputes about the War, the post-War expulsion, the treatment of the current German minority in Poland and the treatment of German heritage in modern day Western Poland and the Polish half of the former East Prussia.

Since 1990, historical events have been examined by the Polish Institute of National Remembrance. Its role is to investigate the crimes of the past without regard to the nationality of victims and perpetrators. In Poland, crimes motivated by the nationality of victims are not covered by a statute of limitations, therefore the criminals can be charged in perpetuity. In a few cases, the crimes against Germans were examined. One suspected perpetrator of retaliatory crimes against expelled innocent German civilians, Salomon Morel, fled the country to Israel, which has denied Polish requests for his extradition.

[edit] Finalization of the Polish-German border

The Oder-Neisse line was officially considered completely unacceptable by the CDU controlled German government for decades. Even certain factions within the Social Democrats, the SPD refused to accept the Oder-Neisse line. The Ostpolitik of Social Democratic Chancellor Willy Brandt confirmed the Oder-Neisse line as unalterable through the Treaty of Warsaw on the 7th of December 1970. The 1991 Polish-German border agreement finalized the Oder-Neisse line as the Polish-German border. The agreement gave to minority groups in both countries several rights, such as the right to use national surnames, speak their native languages, and attend schools and churches of their choice. These rights had been denied previously on the basis that the individual had already chosen the country in which they wanted to live.

[edit] Polish criticism of German "revisionism"

Some Poles criticise the current German historical view as tending to move toward the portrayal of Germans as both victims and perpetrators of the War, rather than being purely perpetrators.

Some German expellees, on the other hand, criticise the official Polish outlook on the War and post War events as mostly based on a collectivist view (of mixed communist and nationalist ideas) that does not look at the individual suffering on both sides, but emphazises the ethnic background of each individual.

Such positions are viewed critically in Poland as it allegedly ignores widespread collaboration and support for Nazi occupation by the German minority in the pre-1939 Polish Republic, and the fact that German people enjoyed privileged status during the war while Poles were classified as subhumans by German authorities.

[edit] Restrictions on the sale of property to foreigners

In November 2005 Der Spiegel published a poll from the Allensbach Institute which estimated that 61% of Poles believed Germans would try to get back territories that were formerly under German control or demand compensation[2],[3].

There are also some worries among Poles that rich descendants of the expelled Germans would buy the land the Polish state had confiscated in 1945. It is believed that this may result in large price increases, since current Polish land prices are low compared to Western Europe. This led to Polish restrictions on the sale of property to foreigners, including Germans; special permission is needed. This policy is comparable to similar restrictions on the Baltic Åland Islands. These restrictions will be lifted 12 years after the 2004 accession of Poland to the European Union, i.e. on May 1, 2016. The restrictions are viewed by some as weak - they aren't valid for companies and certain types of properties.

The attempts by German organisations to build a Centre Against Expulsions dedicated to the suffering of expellees during World War II (as well as other conflicts) has led Polish politicians and activists to propose a Center for Martyrology of the Polish Nation (called also Center for the Memory of Suffering of the Polish Nation). This would document the systematical oppression of Polish people by the Nazi state during World War II, serving to educate German people about atrocities perpetrated against their neighbours. However, this proposal was criticized by German politicians on the grounds that similar institutions already exist, whereas the expulsion of Germans has been relatively ignored [4].

[edit] Status of the German minority in Poland
Main article: German minority in Poland

The remaining German minority in Poland (152,897 people according to the 2002 census, some[who?] say much higher) enjoys minority rights according to Polish minority law. There are German speakers throughout Poland, and most of the Germans live in the Opole Voivodship. Bilingual signs are posted in some towns of the region. In addition, there are bilingual schools and German can be used instead of Polish in dealings with officials in several towns. According to Henryk Kroll, the leader of the minority, Germans in Poland are not loyal citizens and they are only concerned with Opole region.[citation needed][11]

See also: Bilingual communes in Poland

[edit] Czech-German relations

On 28 December 1989, Václav Havel, at that time a candidate for president of Czechoslovakia (he was elected one day later), suggested that Czechoslovakia should apologise for the expulsion of ethnic Germans after World War II. Most of other politicians of the country didn't agree. Later, the German President Richard von Weizsäcker answered this by apologizing to Czechoslovakia during his visit to Prague on March 1990 after Václav Havel repeated his apology saying that the expulsion was "the mistakes and sins of our fathers". The Beneš decrees however continued to remain in force in Czechoslovakia.

In Czech-German relations, the topic has been effectively closed by the Czech-German declaration of 1997. One principle of the declaration was that parties will not burden their relations with political and legal issues which stem from the past.

However, some expelled Sudeten Germans or their descendants are demanding return of their former property, which was confiscated without compensation after the war. Several such cases have been taken to Czech courts. As confiscated estates usually have new inhabitants, some of whom have lived there for more than 50 years, attempts to return to a pre-war state may cause fear. The topic comes to life occasionally in Czech politics. Like in Poland, worries and restrictions concerning land purchases exist in the Czech Republic. According to a survey by the Allensbach Institute in November 2005, 38% of Czechs believe Germans want to regain territory they lost or will demand compensation.

[edit] Recognition of Sudeten German anti-Nazis

In 2005 Czech Prime Minister Jiří Paroubek announced an initiative to publicise and formally recognise the deeds of Sudeten German Anti-Nazis. Although the move was received positively by most Sudeten Germans and the German minority, there has been criticism that the initiative is limited to Anti-Nazis who actively fought for the Czechoslovak state, but not Anti-Nazis in general. Despite their recognition as being Sudeten-German Anti-Nazi, they were not granted their lost properties or any apology for their expulsion after the war. The German minority in particular also expected some financial compensation for their mistreatment after the War.

[edit] Status of the German minority in the Czech Republic and Slovakia

There are about 40,000 Germans remaining in the Czech Republic (number of Czechs who have at least partly German ancestry probably runs into hundreds of thousands[5]). Their number has been consistently decreasing since World War II. According to the 2001 census there remain 13 municipalities and settlements in the Czech Republic with more than 10% Germans.

The situation in Slovakia was different from that in the Czech lands, in that the number of Germans was considerably lower and that the Germans from Slovakia were almost completely evacuated to German states as the Soviet army was moving west through Slovakia, and only the fraction of them that returned to Slovakia after the end of the war was deported together with the Germans from the Czech lands.

The German minority in the Czech Republic has been granted some rights on paper, however the actual use of the language in dealings with officials is usually not possible. There is no bilingual education system in Western and Northern Bohemia, where the German minority is most concentrated. The Czech authorities have enacted a unique hurdle in their minority act.[citation needed]

The Czech Republic has introduced a law in 2002 that guarantees the use of native minority languages (incl. German)as official languages in municipalities where autochthonous linguistic groups make up at least 10% of the population. Besides the use in dealings with officials and in courts the law also allows for bilingual signage and guarantees education in the native language. The law so far only exists on paper and has not been implemented anywhere, neither in the Polish speaking Tesin/Cieszyn area nor in Western and Northern Bohemia where a hand full of towns still have in excess of 10% German speakers.

Many representatives of expelees organizations support the erection of bilingual signs in all formerly German speaking territory as a visible sign of the bilingual linguistic and cultural heritage of the region. While the erection of bilingual signs is technically permitted if a minority constitutes 10% of the population, the minority is also forced to sign a petition in favour of the signs in which 40% of the adult minority population must participate.

[edit] German minority in Hungary

Today the German minority in Hungary have minority rights, organisations, schools and local councils but spontaneous assimilation is well under way. Many of the deportees visited their old homes after the fall of the Iron Curtain in 1990.

[edit] Russia

Many descendants of Germans who were expelled from the former city of Königsberg can be found today in Germany. Although the deportation of Germans from this northern part of former East Prussia often was conducted in a violent and aggressive way by Soviet officials who sought to revenge the Nazi terror in Soviet areas during the war, the present Russian inhabitants of the Kaliningrad sector (northern East Prussia) have much less animus against Germans. German names have even been revived in commercial Russian trade. Many old German Prussian villages are still intact, though they have become dilapidated over the course of time. The city centre of Kaliningrad however was entirely rebuilt, as the British bombing campaign of 1944 and the siege of Königsberg in 1945 had left it in ruins.

Examples of German language in Namibia's everday life.
Examples of German language in Namibia's everday life.

[edit] Africa, Oceania, and East Asia

Unlike other major European powers of the 20th century, Germany was not very involved in colonizing Africa (though mainly because it came too late and from a difficult geopolitical location), and lost German East Africa and German South-West Africa after World War I. Similarly to those in Latin America, the Germans in Africa tended to isolate themselves and be more self-sufficient than other Europeans. In Namibia there are 30,000 ethnic Germans, 6% of the population, though it is estimated that only a third of those retain the language. Most German-speakers live in the capital, Windhoek, and in smaller towns such as Swakopmund and Lüderitz, where German architecture is highly visible. In South Africa, a number of Afrikaners and Boers are of partial German ancestry, being the descendants of German immigrants who intermarried with Dutch settlers and adopted Afrikaans as their mother tongue.

Like North America, Australia has received many ethnic German immigrants from Germany and elsewhere. Numbers vary depending on who is counted, but moderate criteria give an estimate of 750,000 (4% of the population). The first wave of German immigration to Australia began in 1838, with the arrival of Prussian Lutheran settlers in South Australia (see German settlement in Australia). After the Second World War, Australia received a large influx of displaced ethnic Germans. In the 1950s and 1960s, German immigration continued as part of Australia's ambitious population program.

New Zealand has received modest, but steady, ethnic German immigration from the mid-19th century. Today the number of New Zealanders with German ancestry is estimated to be as high as 200,000 (5% of the population). Many German New Zealanders anglicized their names during the 20th century due to the negative perception of Germans fostered by World War I and World War II.

During the Meiji era (1868–1912), many Germans came to work in Japan as advisors to the new government. Despite Japan's isolationism and geographic distance, there have been a few Germans in Japan, since Germany's and Japan's fairly parallel modernization made Germans ideal O-yatoi gaikokujin.

In China, the German trading colony of Jiaozhou Bay in what is now Qingdao existed until 1914, and did not leave much more than breweries, including Tsingtao Brewery. Communist East Germany had relations with Uganda and Vietnam, but in these cases population movement went mostly to, not from, Germany.

See also: German colonial empire and List of former German colonies

[edit] Groupings

Note that many of these groups have since migrated elsewhere. This list simply gives the region with which they are associated, and does not include the Germans from countries with German as an official national language, which are:

In general, it also omits some collective terms in common use defined by political border changes where this is antithetical to the current structure. Such terms include:

Roughly grouped:

In the Americas, one can divide the groups by current nation of residence:

…or by ethnic or religious criteria:

In Africa, Oceania, and East Asia

[edit] Notes

Most numbers are from the www.ethnologue.com (see See also), apart from a few from German language and Germans, as well as the following in-line citations:

  1. ^ Austria. Library of Congress Country Studies, 2004.. Accessed 1 Oct 2006.
  2. ^ Who's Counting? The l990 Census of German-Americans. On the site of The Tricentennial Foundation German American Community Service. Accessed 12 Feb 2006.
  3. ^ Contents of ANCESTRY Table on the site of the United States Census Bureau. Accessed 12 Feb 2006.
  4. ^ "Brasil alemão" comemora 180 anos | Brasil | Deutsche Welle | 25.07.2004
  5. ^ Asociación Argentina de Descendientes de Alemanes del Volga
  6. ^ Fiesta de La Cerveza - Oktoberfest Argentina - Villa General Belgrano
  7. ^ http://www.provincia.bz.it/downloads/Siz_2006-eng.pdf
  8. ^ cf. the article on the Luxemburgish language on the German Wikipedia
  9. ^ See Demographics of the Netherlands
  10. ^ See Demographics of Germany.
  11. ^ (Polish) "Nas naprawdę nie obchodzi Rzeczpospolita, nas obchodzi Opolszczyzna." said Henryk Kroll in an interview for Gazeta Opolska weekly

[edit] See also

Three similar terms:

Other articles detailing the distribution of German language or people:


[edit] External links

Ethnologue entries:

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