German diaspora

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German diaspora (German: Deutschstämmige; also, under National Socialism: Volksdeutsche) are ethnic Germans and their descendants living outside Germany. It also refers to the aspects of migration of German speakers from central Europe to different countries around the world, including experiences such as the loss of Heimat or one's native language.[1] This definition describes the "German" term as a sociolinguistic group as opposed to the national one since the emigrant groups came from different regions with diverse cultural practices and different varieties of German. For instance, the Alsatians and Hessians were simply called Germans once they set foot in their new homelands.[1]

Outside Europe, descendants of Germans have largely assimilated into their host societies, including adopting the local language and adapting their German family names, such as through Anglicisation.

Terminology

Volksdeutsche ("ethnic Germans") is a historical term which arose in the early 20th century and was used by the Nazis to describe ethnic Germans without German citizenship living outside of the Third Reich, although many had been in other areas for centuries. During World War II, Hitler forbade the use of the term because it was being used in a derogatory way against the many ethnic Germans in the SS. It is used by many historians who either deliberately or innocently are unaware of its Nazi history.

Auslandsdeutsche (adj. auslandsdeutsch) is a concept that connotes German citizens, regardless of which ethnicity, living abroad, or alternatively ethnic Germans entering Germany from abroad. Today, this means a citizen of Germany living more or less permanently in another country (including expatriates such as 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 but in their resident states. In a looser 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).

Distribution

Ethnic Germans are a 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.

German diaspora

In the United States census of 1990, 57 million people were fully or partly of German ancestry, forming the largest single ethnic group in the country. According to the United States Ancestry Census of 2009, there were 50,764,352 people of German descent.[2] People of German ancestry form an important minority group in several countries, including Canada (roughly 10% of the population), Brazil (roughly 3% of the population),[3] Australia (roughly 4.5% of the population),[4] Chile (roughly 3% of the population),[5] Namibia, and in central and eastern Europe—(Poland, Hungary, Romania, and Russia).

Distribution of German citizens and people claiming German ancestry (figures are only estimates and actual population could be higher, because of wrongly formulated questions in censuses in various countries (for example in Poland)[6] and other different factors, f.e. related to participant in a census):

Country German ancestry German citizens Comments
 Germany 74,050,320 (2011)[7] see Demographics of Germany.
 United States 46,882,727 (2012) (almost all German Americans come from Germany)[8][note 1] see German American; the largest German population outside Germany.
 Brazil 12,000,000 (2000)[9] see German Brazilian; the second largest German population outside Germany.
 Argentina 3,500,000 (majority come from Russia and Germany)[10][11][12] 50,000[11] see German Argentine.
 Canada 3,203,330 (2011) (majority come from Germany)[13] see German Canadian.
 South Africa 1,200,000 (2009)[14][15][note 2] see Afrikaners.
 France 1,000,000 (2010)[16][17][note 3] 130,742(2012)[18][19] see Alsace and Lorraine.
 Australia 898,700 (2011) (majority come from Germany)[4][20] see German Australian.
 Chile 500,000[21] see German Chilean.
 Russia 394,138 (2010) (majority come from Prussia) see Germans in Russia, Volga Germans, Caucasus Germans, Black Sea Germans and Crimea Germans.
 Bolivia 375,000 (2014)[22] see Ethnic Germans in Bolivia.
 Netherlands 372,720 (2013)[23][24] 179,000[24]
 Italy 314,604 (2011)[25][note 4] see German-Italian relations
 United Kingdom 273,654 (2011)[26][note 5] 92,000[27] see German migration to the United Kingdom.
 Paraguay 290,000 (2000) (majority come from Brazil)[28]
  Switzerland see note[note 6] 266,000[29] see German immigration to Switzerland and Swiss people.
 Peru 240,000 [30] see German Peruvian
 Kazakhstan 178,409 (2009)[31]
 see Germans in Kazakhstan.
 Spain 138,917 (2014)[32] see Germany-Spain relations
 Poland 148,000 (2011)[33] see German minority in Poland.
 Hungary 131,951 (2011)[34] see Germans of Hungary.
 Austria see note[note 7] 170,475[35] see Austrians.
 Israel 100,000[36] see Sarona (colony), German Colony, Haifa and German Colony, Jerusalem
 Belgium 73,000 (2008)[note 8] see German-speaking Community of Belgium.
 Romania 36,884 (2011)[37] see Germans of Romania, Transylvanian Saxons, Zipser Germans.
 Uruguay 40,000 (2014)[38] 6,000[39]
 Czech Republic 18,772 (2011)[40] see Germans in the Czech Republic.
 Norway 25,000 (2012)[41] see Germany-Norway relations
 Ecuador 33,000[42]
 Ukraine 33,302 (2001) see Black Sea Germans and Crimea Germans.
 Namibia 30,000 (2013)[43] see German Namibian.
 Dominican Republic 25,000[44] 1,792(2012)[45]
 Denmark 15,000[46][47] see North Schleswig Germans.
 Greece 15,498[48] see Greece-Germany relations.
 Cuba 12,387 see German Cuban
 Ireland 10,000 (2006)[49] 11,305[50]
 Belize 10,865 (2010)[51] see Mennonites in Belize.
 Slovakia 5,000–10,000[52] see Carpathian Germans, Zipser Germans
 Kyrgyzstan 8,563 (2014) see Germans in Kyrgyzstan.
 Philippines 6,400[53] see German settlement in the Philippines.
 Ghana 3,900[54]
 Serbia 4,064 (2011) 850 (2016)[55] see Germans of Serbia.
 Croatia 2,965 (2011)[56] see Germans of Croatia.
 Turkmenistan 2,700[57]
 Tajikistan 2,700[57]
 Estonia 1,544 (2011)
 Liechtenstein see note[note 9] see Liechtensteiners.
 Luxembourg see note[note 10] see Luxembourgers.
 Latvia 4,975 (2014)
 Lithuania 2,418 (2011)
 Finland 5,447 (2010)
 Iceland 842 (2013)
 Portugal 15,498 (2007)
 Sweden 48,987 (2013) see Germany–Sweden relations
 Panama
 New Zealand 12,810 (2013) see German New Zealander.
 Costa Rica Unknown number of individuals of German descent
 Venezuela Unknown number of individuals of German descent[58][59] see German Venezuelan.
 Guatemala Unknown number of individuals of German descent[60] 7,000-10,000(2010)[61] see German Guatemalan
 Nicaragua Unknown number of individuals of German descent see German Nicaraguan.
 Colombia Unknown number of individuals of German descent 9,668(2011)[62] see German Colombian.
 Jamaica 160 (2004)[63] see Germans in Jamaica.

Europe

German language area in 1910–11, the boundaries of states are in red. Pan-German nationalists wanted to unite much of the green areas into one German nation-state.

Alpine nations

Ethnic Germans in Hungary and parts of adjacent Austrian territories, census 1890

Austria, Switzerland, and Liechtenstein each have a German-speaking majority, though the vast majority of the population do not identify themselves as German anymore. Austrians historically were identified and considered themselves Germans until after the defeat of the Third Reich and the end of World War II. Post-1945 a broader Austrian national identity began to emerge, and over 90% of the Austrians now see themselves as an independent nation.[64][65][66]

East-Central Europe

Aside from the Germans who migrated to other parts of Europe, the German diaspora also covered the Eastern and Central European states such as Croatia, Hungary, Poland, the Czech Republic, and Slovakia, along with several post-Soviet states. There has been a continued historical presence of Germans in these regions due to the interrelated processes of conquest and colonization as well as migration and border changes.[67] During the periods of colonization, for instance, there was an influx of Germans who came to Bohemia and parts of Romania as colonizers. Settlements due to border changes were largely 20th century developments caused by the new political order after the two world wars.[67]

Baltic states

Belgium

In Belgium, there is an ethnic German minority. It is the majority in its region of 71,000 inhabitants. Ethnologue puts the national total of German speakers at 150,000, not including Limburgish and Luxembourgish.

Luxembourg

Though the Luxembourgish language is closely related to the German language, Luxembourgers do not consider themselves ethnic Germans. In a 1941 referendum held in Luxembourg by ethnic German residents, more than 90% proclaimed themselves Luxembourgish by nationality, mother tongue and ethnicity.[68]

Bulgaria

Czech Republic and Slovakia

Before World War II, some 30% of the population in the Czech lands (historically known as Bohemia and Moravia) were ethnic Germans, and in the border regions and certain other areas they were even in the majority.[69] There are about 40,000 Germans in the Czech Republic (number of Czechs who have at least partly German ancestry probably runs into the hundreds of thousands).[70] 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 a fraction of those who returned to Slovakia after the end of the war were deported with the Germans from the Czech lands.

Many representatives of expellee 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. The erection of bilingual signs is permitted if a minority constitutes 10% of the population.

Denmark

In Denmark, the part of Schleswig that is now South Jutland County (or Northern Schleswig) is inhabited by about 12,000–20,000 ethnic Germans [71] They speak mainly Standard German and South Jutlandic. A few speak Schleswigsch, a Northern Low Saxon dialect.

Hungary

Prior to World War II, approximately 1.5 million Danube Swabians lived in Hungary, Romania and Yugoslavia.[72] 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.

Italy

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

There are smaller, unique populations of Germans who arrived so long ago that their dialect retains many archaic features heard nowhere else: the Cimbrians are concentrated in various communities in the Carnic Alps, north of Verona, and especially in the Sugana Valley on the high plateau northwest of Vicenza in the Veneto region; the Walsers, who originated in the Swiss Wallis, live in the provinces of Aostatal, Vercelli, and Verbano-Cusio-Ossola; the Mòchenos live in the Fersina Valley. Smaller German-speaking communities also exist 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.

Contrarily to the before-mentioned minorities, the German-speaking population of the province of South Tyrol cannot be categorized as "ethnic German" according to the definition of this article, but as Austrian minority. However, as Austrian saw themselves as ethnic Germans until the end of World War II they can technically also be called Germans.[73] The province was part of the Austrian County of Tyrol before the 1919 dissolution of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. South Tyrolians were part of the over 3 million German speaking Austrians who in 1918 found themselves living outside of the newborn Austrian Republic as minorities in the newly formed or enlarged respective states of Czechoslovakia, Yugoslavia, Hungary and Italy. Their dialect is Austro-Bavarian German. Both standard German and dialect are used in schooling and media. German enjoys co-official status with the national language of Italian throughout this region.

Germans have been present in the Iglesiente mining region in the south west of Sardinia since the 13th century.[74] Successively since 1850 groups of specialised workers from Styria, Austria, followed by German miners from Freiburg settled in the same area. Some Germans influenced building and toponym is still visible in this area.[75][76]

Poland

The remaining German minority in Poland (109,000 people were registered in the 2011 census[77]) enjoys minority rights according to Polish minority law. There are German speakers throughout Poland, and most of the Germans live in the Opole Voivodship in Silesia. 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.

Romania

France

In France over 100,000 German nationals residing in the French country (the exact number is not known, some statistics indicate more than 300,000 Germans in France but are not officially sanctioned.) There, the Germans live mainly in the northeastern area of France, i.e., in regions close to the Franco-German border, and the sunny island of Corsica. German tourists are the most frequent visitors of France (more than British tourists in France) in the year 2013.

United Kingdom

In the United Kingdom, a German-Briton ethnic group of around 300,000 exists. Some are descended from nineteenth-century immigrants. Others are 20th-century immigrants and their descendants: (Ethnic Jews who fled Nazi Germany in the 1930s are not ethnic Germans), and World War II prisoners of war held in Great Britain who decided to stay there. Others arrived as spouses of English soldiers from post-war marriages in Germany, when the British were occupying forces. Many of the more recent immigrants have settled in the London and southeast part of England, in particular, Richmond (South West London).

The British Royal Family are partially descended from German monarchs.

The Anglo-Saxon tribe were the population in Britain descended from the Germanic tribes who migrated from continental Europe and settled the south and east of the island beginning in the early 5th century. The Anglo-Saxon period denotes the period of English history after their initial settlement through their creation of the English nation, up to the Norman conquest; that is, between about 550 and 1066.[1][2] The term Anglo-Saxon is also used for the language, today more correctly called Old English, that was spoken and written by the Anglo-Saxons in England (and parts of south-eastern Scotland) between at least the mid-5th century and the mid-12th century, after which it is known as Middle English.[3]

Africa

Examples of German language in Namibia's everyday life.

During the long decline of the Roman Empire and the ensuing great migrations Germanic tribes such as the Vandals (who sacked Rome) migrated into North Africa and settled mainly in the lands corresponding to modern Tunisia and northeastern Algeria.

Namibia

Germany was not as involved in colonizing Africa as other major European powers of the 20th century, and lost its overseas colonies, including 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 were more self-sufficient than other Europeans. In Namibia there are 30,000 ethnic Germans, 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.

South Africa

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. Professor JA Heese in his book Die Herkoms van die Afrikaner (The Origins of Afrikaners) claims the modern Afrikaners (who total around 3.5 million) have 34.4% German ancestry.[78]

Germans also emigrated to South Africa during the 1850s and 1860s, and settled in the Eastern Cape area around Stutterheim, and in Kwazulu-Natal in the Wartburg area, where there is still a large German-speaking community.[79]Mostly originating from different waves of immigration during the 19th and 20th centuries, an estimated 12,000 people speak German or a German variety as a first language in South Africa.[80] Germans settled quite extensively in South Africa, with many Calvinists immigrating from Northern Europe. Later on, more Germans settled in the KwaZulu-Natal and elsewhere. Here, one of the largest communities are the speakers of "Nataler Deutsch", a variety of Low German, who are concentrated in and around Wartburg. German is slowly disappearing elsewhere, but a number of communities still have a large number of speakers and some even have German language schools.

North America

Map of the USA
Counties where German ancestry (light blue) is the plurality in the United States, 2000
Map of Canada
People who have self-identified as having German ancestors are the plurality in many parts of the Prairie provinces (areas coloured in yellow).
  • Belize: 5,763 Mennonite Low-German speakers.
  • Canada (3.2 million, 10% of the population), see also German Canadians.
  • Mexico: See German immigration to Mexico, 100,000 Mennonites;[81] 22% of Mennonites also speaks Low German which is not Standard German but derived from Old Saxon, 30% speaks Spanish, 5% speaks English and 5% speaks Russian as second language.[82] Different sources estimates that there are between 15 000 and 40 000 German citizens and Mexicans of German-citizen origin.[83] Also of note, the 'Colegio Alemán Alexander von Humboldt', or Alexander von Humboldt school in Mexico City is the largest German school outside Germany.
  • In the United States, German Americans are the largest ethnic group. There are around 50 million Americans of at least partial German ancestry in the United States, or 17% of the U.S. population, the country's largest self-reported ancestral group.[84] including various groups such as the Pennsylvania Dutch. Of these, 23 million are of German ancestry alone ("single ancestry"), and another 27 million are of partial German ancestry, making them the largest group in the United States, followed by the Irish. Of those who claim partial ancestry, 22 million identify their primary ancestry ("first ancestry") as German. The 22 million Americans of primarily German ancestry are by far the largest part of the German diaspora, a figure equal to over a quarter of the population of Germany itself. Germans form just under half the population in the Upper Midwest.[85][86]
  • Central America: In 1940, there were 16,000 Germans living in Central America; half of them in Guatemala, and most of the remainder were established in Costa Rica.[87]

South America

German Argentines celebrate Oktoberfest in Villa General Belgrano.
German population in Southern Brazil.
  Less than 1% of population (Uruguay)
  Between 1 – 5 % of population (State of São Paulo)
  Between 5 – 10 % of population (State of Paraná)
  Between 10 – 25 % of population (State of Rio Grande do Sul)
  Around 35 % of population (State of Santa Catarina)
Mennonites in San Ignacio, Paraguay
  • Argentina: Those of German ancestry constitute about 8% of the Argentine population — over 3 million — most of them Volga Germans alone — about 2 million.[88] There are more than 400,000 of other German ancestries including Mennonites and German Swiss. These two groups are more common in Southern Argentina, and also in Santa Fe, Entre Rios and Cordoba provinces. A notable example is the town of Villa General Belgrano, founded by Germans in the 1930s. In the 1960s it became the site of the Fiesta Nacional de la Cerveza, or Oktoberfest, which has become a major attraction in Argentina.[89] By 1940, there were 250,000 people of German descent living in the country.[87] The German embassy in Argentina estimates that 660,000 Argentines, or 1.5% of the total population, are descendants of Germans who emigrated directly from Germany (It means that it doesn't includes other ethnic Germans who emigrated from Austria, Switzerland, Russia/USSR, etc.).[90][91] 50,000 German citizens live in Argentina.[11]
Nazi Minister Walther Darré was born in Argentina. After the Second World War, almost a thousand prominent Nazi leaders and politicians fled to Argentina. Adolf Eichmann and Josef Mengele were among them. Kurt Tank, who developed some of the greatest World War II aircraft fighters also entered Argentina in the late 1940s.[92]
There are about 500,000 German-speakers in Argentina,[93] slightly over 1% of population.
  • Bolivia: There are 2 different German groups, the descendants of those who emigrated from Germany and Brazil (estimated in about a quarter of million, 2.0% of Bolivian population[94]), and the descendants of Mennonites that emigrated from Canada and Mexico (at least 85,000 of them live in agrarian communities).[95][96] Germans are 375,000 or 3% of Bolivian population.[22]
There are over 20,000 Standard German-speakers,[94] plus 85,000 Mennonite Low German-speakers.[95]
  • Brazil: Mostly living in Southern Brazil. Brazil received 250,000 Germans between the 19th and 20th centuries; a source claimed there were 12 million people of German descent in 2000, 7% of the national population, but there are no official figures.[97] Hunsrückisch and East Pomeranian are some of the most prominent groups.[97][98][99]

By 1940, the German diaspora in Brazil amounted about a million.[87]

There are 3 million German-speakers in Brazil,[93] slightly over 1.5% of population.
  • Chile: The German-Chilean Chamber of Commerce estimated at 500,000 the descendants of Germans, about 3% of the total population of Chile estimated at 16 million (in the same source).[100] There are 40,000 Standard German-speakers.[101]
  • Paraguay : 166,000 Standard German-speakers (including 18,000 Mennonites, who don't speak Plattdeutsch or Mennonite Low German), most Germans in Paraguay are of Brazilian descent and Portuguese speakers;[94] plus 20,000 Mennonite Low German, spoken by Mennonites who live in Chaco and Eastern Paraguay[94] The Mennonites emigrated to Paraguay from Chihuahua State (in Mexico), the Soviet Union, Canada, and Bolivia.[102][103] Non-Mennonites German emigrated to Paraguay mainly from Brazil, the Kingdom of Prussia, and the German Empire.[103]
Those of German ancestry are 290,000 or 4.4% of Paraguayan population.[28]

Asia

In Japan, during the Meiji period (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. (See also Germany–Japan relations)

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.

Smaller numbers of ethnic Germans settled in the former Southeast Asian territories of Malaysia (British), Indonesia (Dutch) and the Philippines (American) in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. In Indonesia, some of them became well-known figures in history, such as C.G.C. Reinwardt (founder and first director of Bogor Botanical Garden), Walter Spies (German of Russian origin, who became the artist that made Bali known to the world), and Franz Wilhelm Junghuhn (owner of a big plantation in the south of Bandung and dubbed "the Humboldt of the East" because of his ethno-geographical notes).

Members of the German religious group known as Templers settled in Palestine in the late 19th century and lived there for several generations, but were expelled by the British from Mandatory Palestine during World War II, due to pro-Nazi sympathies expressed by many of them.

Communist East Germany had relations with Vietnam and Uganda in Africa, but in these cases population movement went mostly to, not from, Germany. After the German reunification, a large percentage of "guest workers" from Communist nations sent to East Germany returned to their home countries.

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

Oceania

People with German ancestry as a percentage of the population in Australia divided geographically by statistical local area, as of the 2011 census
  • Australia has received a significant number of 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 a large post-war wave of European immigration to Australia.

There have been ethnic Germans in Australia since the founding of the New South Wales colony in 1788, Governor Arthur Phillip (the first Governor of New South Wales) had a German father. But, the first significant wave of German immigration was in 1838. These Germans, mostly Prussian immigrants (but also winegrowers from the Hesse-Nassau state and the Rheingau). From there after, thousands of Germans emigrated to Australia until World War I. Also, German Australian was the most identified ethnicity behind English and Irish in Australia until World War I.

After World War II, a huge number of Germans emigrated to Australia to escape the war-torn Europe.

  • 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 approximately 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. New Zealanders of German descent include the late former Prime Minister David Lange (/ˈlɒŋi/ LONG-ee). The vast majority of Germans in New Zealand settled in the North Island, with a couple settling in the Christchurch area. Cities such as Tauranga, Nelson and, to a lesser extent, Auckland have been somewhat influenced by German culture and values.

History

From Celtic times the early Germanic tribes settled from the Baltic all the way to the Black Sea until the great migrations of the 4-6th century AD.

Medieval Germans migrated eastwards during the medieval period Ostsiedlung until the flight, evacuation and expulsion of Germans after World War II; many areas in Central and Eastern Europe had an ethnic German population.[108][109] In the Middle Age, Germans were invited to migrate to Poland and the central and eastern regions of the German Holy Roman Empire and also the Kingdom of Hungary following the Mongol invasions of the 12th century, and then once again during the late 17th century after the Austrian-Ottoman wars to set up farms and repopulate the eastern regions of the Austrian Empire and Balkans.

The Nazi government termed such ethnic Germans Volksdeutsche, regardless of how long they had been residents of other countries. (Now they would be considered Auslandsdeutsche). During World War II, Nazi Germany classified ethnic Germans as Übermenschen, while Jews, Gypsies, Slavic peoples, mainly ethnic Poles and Serbs, along with Black and mixed-race people were called Untermenschen. After the war, central European nations such as Poland, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Hungary, as well as the Soviet Union in eastern Europe, and Yugoslavia in the Balkan region of southern Europe, expelled most of the ethnic Germans living in their territories.

There were significant ethnic-German populations in such areas as Romania, Moldova, and Ukraine at one time. As recently as 1990, there were one million standard German speakers and 100,000 Plautdietsch speakers in Kazakhstan alone, and 38,000, 40,000 and 101,057 standard German speakers in Ukraine, Uzbekistan, and Kyrgyzstan, respectively.

There were reportedly 500,000 ethnic Germans in Poland in 1998.[110] Recent official figures show 147,000 (as of 2002).[111] Of the 745,421 Germans in Romania in 1930,[112] only about 60,000 remain.[113] In Hungary the situation is quite similar, with only about 220,000.[114] There are up to one million Germans in the former Soviet Union, mostly in a band from southwestern Russia and the Volga valley, through Omsk and Altai Krai (597,212 Germans in Russia, 2002 Russian census) to Kazakhstan (353,441 Germans in Kazakhstan, 1999 Kazakhstan census). Germany admitted approximately 1.63 million ethnic Germans from the former Soviet Union between 1990 and 1999.[115]

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 were highly assimilated and spoke little or no German.

Historical countries

Former Soviet Union

Former Yugoslavia

According to the 1921 census, the German community was the largest minority group in the Kingdom of Yugoslavia (505,790 inhabitants or 4.22%).[116]

Groupings

German Namibians in Keetmanshoop, 1926

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 people 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

German-language media worldwide

Distribution of native German speakers in the world today

A visible sign of the geographical extension of German language are the German-language media outside the German-speaking countries.

Footnotes

  1. ↑ This is an American Community Survey estimate, not a United States Census number.
  2. ↑ Afrikaners are predominantly of Dutch, but also of German and English ancestries.
  3. ↑ This number represents native Alsatian speakers.
  4. ↑ This number counts only Germans in South Tyrol.
  5. ↑ This figure includes children born to British Military personnel serving on British Military bases in Germany
  6. ↑ Depends on definition; see Swiss people.
  7. ↑ Depends on definition; see Austrians.
  8. ↑ Approximately 73,000 people constitute the German-speaking Community of Belgium.
  9. ↑ Depends on definition; see Liechtensteiners.
  10. ↑ Depends on definition; see Luxembourgers.

See also

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. 1 2 Schulze, Mathias; Skidmore, James; John, David; Liebscher, Grit; Siebel-Achenbach, Sebastian (2008). German Diasporic Experiences: Identity, Migration, and Loss. Waterloo, ON: Wilfrid Laurier University Press. pp. xiii, 4. ISBN 9781554580279.
  2. ↑ "Regular Session 2009-2010 Senate Resolution 141 P.N. 1216". Retrieved 5 March 2015.
  3. ↑ Levy, Maria Stella Ferreira (1974). "O Papel Da Migração Internacional Na Evolução Da População Brasileira (1872 a 1972)" (PDF). p. 57.
  4. 1 2 "Reflecting a Nation: Stories from the 2011 Census, 2012–2013". 2011 Census. Australian Bureau of Statistics. Retrieved 2013-03-19.
  5. ↑ "Alemanes en Chile: entre el pasado colono y el presente empresarial | Sociedad |" (PDF). DW.DE. 31 March 2011. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2 November 2012. Retrieved 7 January 2013.
  6. ↑ "Number of Germans in Silesia (difficulties with the latest census)" (in Polish). Lubczasopismo.salon24.pl. Retrieved 2013-01-07.
  7. ↑ 2011 "Zensus Ergebnisse", p. 7
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  10. ↑ Including Volga Germans, German Swiss, Mennonites, and other German ancestries"Centro Argentino Cultural Wolgadeutsche". Archived from the original on 6 October 2011. Retrieved 2011-05-31.
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  13. ↑ 2011 Canadian Census gives 2,594,805 total respondents stating their ethnic origin as partly German, with 608,520 stating "single-ancestry", see List of Canadians by ethnicity.
  14. ↑ "Germans in South Africa". Webcitation.org. Archived from the original on 25 October 2009. Retrieved 28 September 2011.
  15. ↑ Professor JA Heese in his book Die Herkoms van die Afrikaner (The Origins of Afrikaners) claims the modern Afrikaners (who total around 3.5 million) have 34.4% German heritage. How 'Pure' was the Average Afrikaner? Archived 13 October 2012 at the Wayback Machine.
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  20. ↑ German is spoken by ca. 135,000 , about 105,000 of them Germany-born, see Demographics of Australia
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  22. 1 2 "Bolivia". WorldStatesMen. Retrieved 16 June 2013. white 10% (of which German 3%) (2001)
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  28. 1 2 "Paraguay". WorldStatesMen. Retrieved 16 June 2013. Ethnic groups: mestizo (mixed white and Amerindian) 85.6%, white 9.3% (of which German 4.4%, Latin American 3.4%), Amerindian 1.8%, black 1%, other 2.3% (2000)
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  31. ↑ Перепись населения Казахстана (2009)
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Ethnologue entries:

  1. ↑ "Field listing: Location". CIA World Factbook. Retrieved 30 July 2017.
  2. ↑ "Field listing: Location". CIA World Factbook. Retrieved 30 July 2017.
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