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Germans

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This article is about the people of Germany. For other uses, see German.

The Reichstag, seat of the German Parliament

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.[1][2] The constitution of Germany, implemented in 1949 following the end of World War II, defines a German as a German citizen.[3] 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.[4] Today, the German language is widely seen as the primary, though not exclusive, criterion of German identity.[5] Estimates on the total number of Germans in the world range from 100 to 150 million, most of whom live in Germany.[6]

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.

In the 19th century, the Holy Roman Empire dissolved, and German nationalism began to grow. The Kingdom of Prussia incorporated most Germans into its German Empire in 1871, and a substantial additional number of Germans were in the multiethnic kingdom of Austria-Hungary. During this time, a large number of Germans emigrated to the New World, particularly to the United States, especially to present-day Pennsylvania. Large numbers also emigrated to Canada and Brazil, and they established sizable communities in New Zealand and Australia. The Russian Empire also included a substantial German population.

Following the end of World War I, Austria-Hungary and the German Empire were partitioned, resulting in many Germans becoming ethnic minorities in newly established countries. In the chaotic years that followed, Adolf Hitler became the dictator of Nazi Germany and embarked on a genocidal campaign to unify all Germans under his leadership. His Nazi movement defined Germans in a very broad way which included Austrians, Luxembourgers, eastern Belgians, and so-called Volksdeutsche, which were ethnic Germans elsewhere in Europe and globally. However, this Nazi conception expressly excluded German citizens of Jewish or Roma background. Nazi policies of military aggression and its persecution of those deemed non-Germans in the Holocaust led to World War II in which the Nazi regime was defeated by allied powers, led by the United States, the United Kingdom, and the former Soviet Union. In the aftermath of Germany's defeat in the war, the country was occupied and once again partitioned. Millions of Germans were expelled from Central and Eastern Europe. In 1990, West Germany and East Germany were reunified. In modern times, remembrance of the Holocaust, known as Erinnerungskultur ("culture of remembrance"), has become an integral part of German identity.

Owing to their long history of political fragmentation, Germans are culturally diverse and often have strong regional identities. Arts and sciences are an integral part of German culture, and the Germans have been represented by many prominent personalities in a significant number of disciplines, including Nobel prize laureates where Germany is ranked third among countries of the world in the number of total recipients.

Names

Further information: List of terms used for Germans and Names of Germany

The English term Germans is derived from the ethnonym Germani, which was used for Germanic peoples in ancient times.[7][8] Since the early modern period, it has been the most common name for the Germans in English. The term Germans may also be applied to any citizens, natives or inhabitants of Germany, regardless of whether they are considered to have German ethnicity.

In some contexts, people of German descent are also called Germans.[2][1] In historical discussions the term "Germans" is also occasionally used as a way to refer to members of the Germanic peoples during the time of the Roman empire.[1][9][10]

The German endonym Deutsche is derived from the High German term diutisc, which means "ethnic" or "relating to the people". This term was used for speakers of West-Germanic languages in Central Europe since at least the 8th century, after which time a distinct German ethnic identity began to emerge among at least some them living within the Holy Roman Empire.[7] However, variants of the same term were also used in the Low Countries, for the related dialects of what is still called Dutch in English.

History

See also: History of Germany
A 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

Ancient history

See also: Germania Antiqua, Limes Germanicus, Germanic peoples, and Germania
The Holy Roman Empire in 972 (red line) and 1035 (red dots) with the Kingdom of Germany, including Lotharingia, marked in blue

The first information about the peoples living in what is now Germany was provided by the Roman general and politician Julius Caesar, who gave an account of his conquest of Gaul in the 1st century BC. Gaul included parts of what is now Germany, west of the Rhine river. He specifically noted the potential future threat which could come from the related people east of the river. Under Caesar's successors, the Romans began to conquer and control the entire region between the Rhine and the Elbe which centuries later constituted the core of medieval Germany. These efforts were significantly hampered by the victory of a local alliance led by Arminius at the Battle of the Teutoburg Forest in 9 AD, which is considered a defining moment in German history.[11] The early Germanic peoples were later famously described in more detail in Germania by the 1st century Roman historian Tacitus. At this time, the Germanic peoples, or Germani, were fragmented into a large number of peoples who were frequently in conflict with both the Roman Empire and one another.[12] He described them as a diverse group, dominating a much larger area than Germany, stretching to the Vistula in the east, and Scandinavia in the north.

At the time of Caesar's invasion, much of Central Europe was inhabited by Celts and strongly influenced by the celtic La Tène material culture.[11] Since at least the 2nd century BC, the Germanic languages associated with later Germanic peoples began approaching the Rhine areas.[13] The resulting demographic situation closer to the Romans was likely an assimilation of Celts and migrating Germanic peoples.[11] Scholars generally agree that it is possible to speak of Germanic languages existing as early as 500 BCE.[14] These Germanic languages are believed to have dispersed towards the Rhine from the direction of the Jastorf culture, which was a Celtic influenced culture that existed in the Pre-Roman Iron Age, in the region near the Elbe river. It is likely that first Germanic consonant shift, which defines the Germanic language family, occurred during this period.[15] The earlier Nordic Bronze Age of southern Scandinavia also shows definite population and material continuities with the Jastorf Culture,[16] but it is unclear whether these indicate ethnic continuity.[17]

Medieval history

Maps 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.
The Holy Roman Empire after the Peace of Westphalia, 1648

German ethnicity emerged in medieval times among the descendants of the Romanized Germanic peoples in the area of modern western Germany, between the Rhine and Elbe rivers, including Franks, Frisians, Saxons, Thuringii, Alemanni and Baiuvarii.[11] These peoples had been under the dominance of the western Franks starting with Clovis I, who established control of the Romanized and Frankish population of Gaul in the 5th century, and began a process of conquering the peoples east of the Rhine. The regions long continued to be divided into "Stem duchies", corresponding to the old ethnic designations.[13]

By the early 9th century AD, large parts of Europe were united under the rule of the Frankish leader Charlemagne, who expanded the Frankish empire in several directions including east of the Rhine, where he consolidated power over the Saxons and Frisians, thus establishing the Carolingian Empire. Charlemagne was crowned emperor by Pope Leo I in 800.[13] In the generations after Charlemagne the empire was partitioned at the Treaty of Verdun (843), eventually resulting in the long-term separation between the states of West Francia, Middle Francia and East Francia. Beginning with Henry the Fowler, non-Frankish dynasties also ruled the eastern kingdom, and under his son Otto I, East Francia, which was mostly German, constituted the core of the Holy Roman Empire.[18] Also under control of this loosely controlled empire were the previously independent kingdoms of Italy, Burgundy, and Lotharingia. The latter was a Roman and Frankish area which contained some of the oldest and most important German cities including Aachen, Cologne and Trier, all west of the Rhine. Leaders of the stem duchies which constituted this eastern kingdom — Bavaria, Franconia, Swabia, and Saxony ― continued to wield considerable power independently of the king.[13] German kings were elected by members of the noble families, who often sought to have weak kings elected in order to preserve their own independence. This prevented an early unification of the Germans.[19][20]

A warrior nobility dominated the feudal German society of the Middle Ages, while most of the German population consisted of peasants with few political rights.[13] The church played an important role among Germans in the Middle Ages, and competed with the nobility for power.[21] Between the 11th and 13th centuries, Germans actively participated in five Crusades to "liberate" the Holy Land.[21] From the beginnings of the kingdom, its dynasties also participated in a push eastwards into Slavic-speaking regions. At the Saxon Eastern March in the north, the Polabian Slavs east of the Elbe were conquered over generations of often brutal conflict. Under the later control of powerful German dynasties it became an important region within modern Germany, and home to its modern capital, Berlin. German population also moved eastwards from the 11th century, in what is known as the Ostsiedlung.[20] Over time, Slavic and German-speaking populations assimilated, meaning that many modern Germans have substantial Slavic ancestry.[18] From the 12th century, many Germans settled as merchants and craftsmen in the Kingdom of Poland, where they came to constitute a significant proportion of the population in many urban centers such as Gdańsk.[18] During the 13th century, the Teutonic Knights began conquering the Old Prussians, and established what would eventually become the powerful German state of Prussia.[20]

Further south, Bohemia and Hungary developed as kingdoms with their own non-German speaking elites. The Austrian March on the Middle Danube stopped expanding eastwards towards Hungary in the 11th century. Under Ottokar II, Bohemia (corresponding roughly to modern Czechia) became a kingdom within the empire, and even managed to take control of Austria, which was German-speaking. However, the late 13th century saw the election of Rudolf I of the House of Habsburg to the imperial throne, and he was able to acquire Austria for his own family. The Habsburgs would continue to play an important role in European history for centuries afterwards. The Holy Roman Empire itself remained weak, and by the late Middle Ages much of Lotharingia and Burgundy had come under the control of French dynasts, the House of Valois-Burgundy and House of Valois-Anjou. Italy, Switzerland and Savoy were no longer subject to effective imperial control.

Trade increased and there was a specialization of the arts and crafts.[21] In the late Middle Ages the German economy grew under the influence of urban centers, which increased in size and wealth and formed powerful leagues, such as the Hanseatic League and the Swabian League, in order to protect their interests, often through supporting the German kings in their struggles with the nobility.[20] These urban leagues significantly contributed to the development of German commerce and banking. German merchants of Hanseatic cities settled in cities throughout Northern Europe beyond the German lands.[22]

Modern history

Boundaries 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.
Victims of the Holocaust in a mass grave at Bergen-Belsen concentration camp
Germans expelled from Poland in 1948

The Habsburg dynasty managed to maintain their grip upon the imperial throne in the early modern period. While the empire itself continued to be largely de-centralized, the Habsburgs own personal power increased outside of the core German lands. Charles V personally inherited control of the kingdoms of Hungary and Bohemia, the wealthy low countries (roughly modern Belgium, Luxembourg and the Netherlands), the Kingdoms of Castile, Aragon, Sicily, Naples, and Sardinia, and the Dukedom of Milan. Of these, the Bohemian and Hungarian titles remained connected to the imperial throne for centuries, making Austria a powerful multilingual empire in its own right. On the other hand, the low countries went to the Spanish crown and continued to evolve separately from Germany.

The introduction of printing by the German inventor Johannes Gutenberg contributed to the formation of a new understanding of faith and reason. At this time, the German monk Martin Luther pushed for reforms within the Catholic Church. Luther's efforts culminated in the Protestant Reformation.[21]

Religious schism was a leading cause of the Thirty Years' War, a conflict that tore apart the Holy Roman Empire and its neighbours, leading to the death of millions of Germans. The terms of the Peace of Westphalia (1648) ending the war, included a major reduction in the central authority of the Holy Roman Emperor.[23] Among the most powerful German states to emerge in the aftermath was Protestant Prussia, under the rule of the House of Hohenzollern.[24] Charles V and his Habsburg dynasty defended Roman Catholicism.

In the 18th century, German culture was significantly influenced by the Enlightenment.[23]

After centuries of political fragmentation, a sense of German unity began to emerge in the 18th century.[7] The Holy Roman Empire continued to decline until being dissolved altogether by Napoleon in 1806. In central Europe, the Napoleonic wars ushered in great social, political and economic changes, and catalyzed a national awakening among the Germans. By the late 18th century, German intellectuals such as Johann Gottfried Herder articulated the concept of a German identity rooted in language, and this notion helped spark the German nationalist movement, which sought to unify the Germans into a single nation state.[19] Eventually, shared ancestry, culture and language (though not religion) came to define German nationalism.[12] The Napoleonic Wars ended with the Congress of Vienna (1815), and left most of the German states loosely united under the German Confederation. The confederation came to be dominated by the Catholic Austrian Empire, to the dismay of many German nationalists, who saw the German Confederation as an inadequate answer to the German Question.[24]

Throughout the 19th century, Prussia continued to grow in power.[25] In 1848, German revolutionaries set up the temporary Frankfurt Parliament, but failed in their aim of forming a united German homeland. The Prussians proposed an Erfurt Union of the German states, but this effort was torpedoed by the Austrians through the Punctation of Olmütz (1850), recreating the German Confederation. In response, Prussia sought to use the Zollverein customs union to increase its power among the German states.[24] Under the leadership of Otto von Bismarck, Prussia expanded its sphere of influence and together with its German allies defeated Denmark in the Second Schleswig War and soon after Austria in the Austro-Prussian War, subsequently establishing the North German Confederation. In 1871, the Prussian coalition decisively defeated the Second French Empire in the Franco-Prussian War, annexing the German speaking region of Alsace-Lorraine. After taking Paris, Prussia and their allies proclaimed the formation of a united German Empire.[19]

In the years following unification, German society was radically changed by numerous processes, including industrialization, rationalization, secularization and the rise of capitalism.[25] German power increased considerably and numerous overseas colonies were established.[26] During this time, the German population grew considerably, and many emigrated to other countries (mainly North America), contributing to the growth of the German diaspora. Competition for colonies between the Great Powers contributed to the outbreak of World War I, in which the German, Austro-Hungarian and Ottoman Empires formed the Central Powers, an alliance that was ultimately defeated, with none of the empires comprising it surviving the aftermath of the war. Under the terms of the Treaty of Versailles, the German and Austro-Hungarian Empires were both dissolved and partitioned, resulting in millions of Germans becoming ethnic minorities in other countries.[27] The monarchical rulers of the German states, including the German emperor Wilhelm II, were overthrown in the November Revolution which led to the establishment of the Weimar Republic. The Germans of the Austrian side of the Dual Monarchy proclaimed the Republic of German-Austria, and sought to be incorporated into the German state, but this was forbidden by the Treaty of Versailles and Treaty of Saint-Germain.[26]

What many Germans saw as the "humiliation of Versailles",[28] continuing traditions of authoritarian and antisemitic ideologies,[25] and the Great Depression all contributed to the rise of Austrian-born Adolf Hitler and the Nazis, who after coming to power democratically in the early 1930s, abolished the Weimar Republic and formed the totalitarian Third Reich. In his quest to subjugate Europe, six million Jews were murdered in the Holocaust. WWII resulted in widespread destruction and the deaths of tens of millions of soldiers and civilians, while the German state was partitioned. About 12 million Germans had to flee or were expelled from Eastern Europe.[29] Significant damage was also done to the German reputation and identity,[27] which became far less nationalistic than it previously was.[28]

The German states of West Germany and East Germany became focal points of the Cold War, but were reunified in 1990. Although there were fears that the reunified Germany might resume nationalist politics, the country is today widely regarded as a "stablizing actor in the heart of Europe" and a "promoter of democratic integration".[28]

Language

The 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.
Main article: German language
Further information: Geographical distribution of German speakers

German is the native language of most Germans. It is the key marker of German ethnic identity.[7][12] German is a West Germanic language closely related to Frisian (in particular North Frisian and Saterland Frisian), Luxembourgish, English, Dutch, and Low German.[7] Modern Standard German is based on High German and Central German, and is the first or second language of most Germans, but notably not the Volga Germans.[30]

The history of the German language begins with the High German consonant shift during the Migration Period, which separated Old High German dialects from Old Saxon. This sound shift involved a drastic change in the pronunciation of both voiced and voiceless stop consonants (b, d, g, and p, t, k, respectively)

Today, German is one of the major languages of the world. It is the most spoken native language within the European Union. German is also widely taught as a foreign language, especially in continental Europe (where it is the third most taught foreign language after English and French), and in the United States. The language has been influential in the fields of philosophy, theology, science, and technology. It is the second-most commonly used scientific language [citation needed] and among the most widely used languages on websites. The German-speaking countries are ranked fifth in terms of annual publication of new books, with one-tenth of all books (including e-books) in the world being published in German.

Low German, which is often considered to be a distinct language from both German and Dutch, was the historical language of most of northern Germany, and is still spoken by many Germans, often as a second language.[citation needed]

Geographic distribution

See also: German diaspora
German diaspora
Deutsche Auswanderung (German)
Map of the German diaspora in the world
Total population
c. 70 million worldwide[31]
Regions with significant populations
Brazil, Argentina, United States, France, Colombia, Canada, Peru, Uruguay, Australia, Venezuela, Germany, Switzerland, United Kingdom, Belgium, Chile and Paraguay
Languages
German, other languages of Germany, English, French, Spanish, Portuguese and Italian
Religion
Christianity (predominantly Catholicism and Protestantism)[32]
Related ethnic groups
European diaspora, Germans

It is estimated that there are over 100 million Germans today, most of whom live in Germany, where they constitute the majority of the population. [33] There are also sizable populations of Germans in Austria, Switzerland, the United States, Brazil, France, Kazakhstan, Russia, Argentina, Canada, Poland, Italy, Hungary, Australia, South Africa, Chile, Paraguay, and Namibia.[34][35]

In the United States census of 1990, 57 million people identified as being fully or partly of German ancestry or as German Americans, forming the largest single ethnic group in the country[note 1] as well as the largest population of Germans outside of Germany. According to the United States Ancestry Census of 2009, there were 50,764,352 people of German descent in the U.S.[36] People of German ancestry form an important minority group in several countries, including Canada (roughly 10% of the population), Argentina (roughly 8% of the population), Brazil (roughly 3% of the population),[37] Australia (roughly 4.5% of the population),[38] Chile (roughly 3% of the population), Namibia and in central and eastern Europe—(Poland, Hungary, Romania, and Russia).

German Brazilians (German: Deutschbrasilianer, Hunsrik: Deitschbrasiliooner, Portuguese: teuto-brasileiros) refers to Brazilians of full or partial German ancestry. German Brazilians live mostly in the country's South Region,[39] with a smaller but still significant percentage living in the Southeast Region.

Between 1824 and 1972, about 260,000 Germans settled in Brazil, the fifth largest nationality to immigrate after the Portuguese, the Italians, the Spanish, and the Japanese.[40] By 1940, the German diaspora in Brazil totaled about a million.[41]

The rapid increase in numbers was due to a relatively high birth rate, the highest in Brazil amongst immigrant groups although still lower than that of the local population.

The majority settled in the Brazilian states of Rio Grande do Sul, Santa Catarina, Paraná, São Paulo and Rio de Janeiro. Less than 5% of Germans settled in Minas Gerais, Pernambuco, and Espírito Santo.[40]

According to a 1999 survey by IBGE researcher Simon Schwartzman, in a representative sample of the Brazilian population, 3.6% said they had some degree of German ancestry, a percentage that in a population of about 200 million amounts to 7.2 million descendants.[42] In 2004, Deutsche Welle cited the number of 5 million Brazilians of German descent.[43]

According to a 2016 survey published by Institute of Applied Economic Research, in a universe of 46,801,772 names of Brazilians analyzed, 1,525,890 or 3.3% of them had the only or the last surname of German origin, a proportion that represents about 6.7 million individuals if applied to the entire population in that year.

German dialects together make up the second most spoken first language in Brazil after Portuguese.[44]

German Argentines (German: Deutschargentinier, Spanish: germano-argentinos) are Argentines of German ancestry as well as German citizens living in Argentina. They are descendants of Germans who immigrated to Argentina from Germany and elsewhere in Europe. Some German Argentines originally settled in Brazil, then later immigrated to Argentina. Although Germany as a political entity was founded in 1871, the German language and culture have traditionally been more important than the country of origin, as the basis of the ethnic identity. Today, German Argentines make up the fifth-largest ethnic group in Argentina, with over two million citizens of Volga German descent alone.[45]

German Argentines have founded German schools such as the Hölters Schule and German-language newspapers such as the Argentinisches Tageblatt ("Argentine Daily").[46] German descendants even make up the majority of the population in several localities in the interior of the country.

Culture

See also: Culture of Germany
A Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe in Berlin; remembering the Holocaust is an essential part of modern German culture.[25]

The Germans are marked by great regional diversity, which makes identifying a single German culture quite difficult.[47] The arts and sciences have for centuries been an important part of German identity.[48] The Age of Enlightenment and the Romantic era saw a notable flourishing of German culture. Germans of this period who contributed significantly to the arts and sciences include the writers Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, Friedrich Schiller, Johann Gottfried Herder, Friedrich Hölderlin, E. T. A. Hoffmann, Heinrich Heine, Novalis and the Brothers Grimm, the philosopher Immanuel Kant, the architect Karl Friedrich Schinkel, the painter Caspar David Friedrich, and the composers Johann Sebastian Bach, Ludwig van Beethoven, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Joseph Haydn, Johannes Brahms, Franz Schubert, Richard Strauss and Richard Wagner.[47]

Popular German dishes include brown bread and stew. Germans consume a high amount of alcohol, particularly beer, compared to other European peoples. Obesity is relatively widespread among Germans.[47]

Carnival (German: Karneval, Fasching, or Fastnacht) is an important part of German culture, particularly in Southern Germany and the Rhineland. An important German festival is the Oktoberfest.[47]

A steadily shrinking majority of Germans are Christians. About a third are Roman Catholics, while one third adheres to Protestantism. Another third does not profess any religion.[12] Christian holidays such as Christmas and Easter are celebrated by many Germans.[49] The number of Muslims is growing.[49] There is also a notable Jewish community, which was decimated in the Holocaust.[50] Remembering the Holocaust is an important part of German culture.[25]

Identity

Further information: German nationalism and Pan-Germanism

A German ethnic identity began to emerge during the early medieval period.[51] These peoples came to be referred to by the High German term diutisc, which means "ethnic" or "relating to the people". The German endonym Deutsche is derived from this word.[7] In subsequent centuries, the German lands were relatively decentralized, leading to the maintenance of a number of strong regional identities.[19][20]

The German nationalist movement emerged among German intellectuals in the late 18th century. They saw the Germans as a people united by language and advocated the unification of all Germans into a single nation state, which was partially achieved in 1871. By the late 19th and early 20th century, German identity came to be defined by a shared descent, culture, and history.[4] Völkisch elements identified Germanness with "a shared Christian heritage" and "biological essence", to the exclusion of the notable Jewish minority.[52] After the Holocaust and the downfall of Nazism, "any confident sense of Germanness had become suspect, if not impossible".[53] East Germany and West Germany both sought to build up an identity on historical or ideological lines, distancing themselves both from the Nazi past and each other.[53] After German reunification in 1990, the political discourse was characterized by the idea of a "shared, ethnoculturally defined Germanness", and the general climate became increasingly xenophobic during the 1990s.[53] Today, discussion on Germanness may stress various aspects, such as commitment to pluralism and the German constitution (constitutional patriotism),[54] or the notion of a Kulturnation (nation sharing a common culture).[55] The German language remains the primary criterion of modern German identity.[4]

See also

Notes

References

  1. ^ a b c "German Definition & Meaning". Merriam-Webster. Archived from the original on 13 November 2020. Retrieved 25 November 2020.
  2. ^ a b "German". Oxford Dictionary of English. Oxford University Press. 2010. p. 733. ISBN 978-0199571123. Archived from the original on 4 February 2021. Retrieved 22 December 2020.
  3. ^ Bundesministerium der Justiz und für Verbraucherschutz (ed.). "Article 116". Basic Law for the Federal Republic of Germany. Archived from the original on 7 November 2020. Retrieved 3 June 2021. Unless otherwise provided by a law, a German within the meaning of this Basic Law is a person who possesses German citizenship or who has been admitted to the territory of the German Reich within the boundaries of 31 December 1937 as a refugee or expellee of German ethnic origin or as the spouse or descendant of such person.
  4. ^ a b c Moser 2011, p. 172. "German identity developed through a long historical process that led, in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, to the definition of the German nation as both a community of descent (Volksgemeinschaft) and shared culture and experience. Today, the German language is the primary though not exclusive criterion of German identity."
  5. ^ Haarmann 2015, p. 313. "After centuries of political fragmentation, a sense of national unity as Germans began to evolve in the eighteenth century, and the German language became a key marker of national identity."
  6. ^ Moser 2011, p. 171. "The Germans live in Central Europe, mostly in Germany... Estimates of the total number of Germans in the world range from 100 million to 150 million, depending on how German is defined, but it is probably more appropriate to accept the lower figure."
  7. ^ a b c d e f Haarmann 2015, p. 313.
  8. ^ Hoad, T. F. (2003). "German". The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology. Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/acref/9780192830982.001.0001. ISBN 9780192830982. Archived from the original on 24 September 2021. Retrieved 22 December 2020.
  9. ^ "Germans". Columbia Electronic Encyclopedia. Columbia University Press. 2013. Archived from the original on 30 November 2020. Retrieved 5 December 2020.
  10. ^ Drinkwater, John Frederick (2012). "Germans". In Hornblower, Simon; Spawforth, Antony; Eidinow, Esther (eds.). The Oxford Classical Dictionary (4 ed.). Oxford University Press. p. 613. doi:10.1093/acref/9780199545568.001.0001. ISBN 9780191735257. Archived from the original on 9 June 2021. Retrieved 22 December 2020.
  11. ^ a b c d Heather, Peter. "Germany: Ancient History". Encyclopædia Britannica Online. Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc. Archived from the original on 31 March 2019. Retrieved 21 November 2020. Within the boundaries of present-day Germany... Germanic peoples such as the eastern Franks, Frisians, Saxons, Thuringians, Alemanni, and Bavarians—all speaking West Germanic dialects—had merged Germanic and borrowed Roman cultural features. It was among these groups that a German language and ethnic identity would gradually develop during the Middle Ages.
  12. ^ a b c d Moser 2011, p. 172.
  13. ^ a b c d e Minahan 2000, pp. 288–289.
  14. ^ Steuer 2021, p. 32.
  15. ^ Steuer 2021, p. 89, 1310.
  16. ^ Timpe & Scardigli 2010, p. 636.
  17. ^ Todd 1999, p. 11.
  18. ^ a b c Haarmann 2015, pp. 313–314.
  19. ^ a b c d Haarmann 2015, p. 314.
  20. ^ a b c d e Minahan 2000, pp. 289–290.
  21. ^ a b c d Moser 2011, p. 173.
  22. ^ Minahan 2000, p. 290.
  23. ^ a b Moser 2011, pp. 173–174.
  24. ^ a b c Minahan 2000, pp. 290–291.
  25. ^ a b c d e Moser 2011, p. 174.
  26. ^ a b Minahan 2000, pp. 291–292.
  27. ^ a b Haarmann 2015, pp. 314–315.
  28. ^ a b c Haarmann 2015, p. 316.
  29. ^ Troebst, Stefan (2012). "The Discourse on Forced Migration and European Culture of Remembrance". The Hungarian Historical Review. 1 (3/4): 397–414. JSTOR 42568610.
  30. ^ Minahan 2000, p. 288.
  31. ^ "Sono circa 80 milioni gli oriundi italiani nel mondo" (in Italian). 4 February 2020. Retrieved 10 November 2021.
  32. ^ https://www.deutschland.de/en/topic/knowledge/mother-tongue-german-in-42-countries-around-the-world
  33. ^ Moser 2011, pp. 171–172.
  34. ^ Haarmann 2015, p. 313. "Of the 100 million German speakers worldwide, about three quarters (76 million) live in Germany, where they account for 92 percent of the population. Populations of Germans live elsewhere in Central and Western Europe, with the largest communities in Austria (7.6 million), Switzerland (4.2 million), France (1.2 million), Kazakhstan (900,000), Russia (840,000), Poland (700,000), Italy (280,000), and Hungary (250,000). Some 1.6 million U.S. citizens speak German as their first language, the largest number of German speakers overseas."
  35. ^ Moser 2011, pp. 171–172. "The Germans live in Central Europe, mostly in Germany... The largest populations outside of these countries are found in the United States (5 million), Brazil (3 million), the former Soviet Union (2 million), Argentina (500,000), Canada (450,000), Spain (170,000), Australia (110,000), the United Kingdom (100,000), and South Africa (75,000). "
  36. ^ "Regular Session 2009-2010 Senate Resolution 141 P.N. 1216". Retrieved 5 March 2015.
  37. ^ Levy, Maria Stella Ferreira (1974). "O Papel Da Migração Internacional Na Evolução Da População Brasileira (1872 a 1972)" (PDF). p. 57.
  38. ^ "Reflecting a Nation: Stories from the 2011 Census, 2012–2013". 2011 Census. Australian Bureau of Statistics. 21 June 2012. Retrieved 19 March 2013.
  39. ^ Latin America: Regions and People, p. 24, at Google Books
  40. ^ a b Levy, Maria Stella Ferreira (June 1974). "O papel da migração internacional na evolução da população brasileira (1872 a 1972)". Revista de Saúde Pública. 8: 49–90. doi:10.1590/S0034-89101974000500003.
  41. ^ Schoonover, Thomas (2008). Hitler's Man in Havana: Heinz Luning and Nazi Espionage in Latin America. United States of America: The University Press of Kentucky. p. 35. ISBN 978-0-8131-2501-5. Archived from the original on 2 November 2023. Retrieved 21 January 2021.
  42. ^ Many authors. Os Alemães no Sul do Brasil, Editora Ulbra, 2004 (2004).
  43. ^ "As Diferentes Fases da Imigração Alemã no Brasil". Deutsche Welle. Archived from the original on 5 September 2019. Retrieved 21 January 2021.
  44. ^ "Olivet Second Most Spoken Languages Around the World". olivet.edu. 7 April 2015. Archived from the original on 29 July 2018. Retrieved 29 March 2016.
  45. ^ Centro Argentino Cultural Wolgadeutsche Archived October 6, 2011, at the Wayback Machine
  46. ^ Argentinisches Tageblatt. "Página Oficial" (in German). Retrieved 23 February 2014.
  47. ^ a b c d Moser 2011, pp. 176–177.
  48. ^ Waldman & Mason 2005, pp. 334–335.
  49. ^ a b Moser 2011, p. 176.
  50. ^ Minahan 2000, p. 174.
  51. ^ Haarmann 2015, p. 313 "Germans are a Germanic (or Teutonic) people that are indigenous to Central Europe... Germanic tribes have inhabited Central Europe since at least Roman times, but it was not until the early Middle Ages that a distinct German ethnic identity began to emerge."
  52. ^ Rock 2019, p. 32.
  53. ^ a b c Rock 2019, p. 33.
  54. ^ Rock 2019, pp. 33–34.
  55. ^ Rock 2019, p. 34.

Bibliography

Further reading

External links

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