Everything about German People totally explained
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In a context of antiquity (pre AD 500), "Germans" is used in the sense of Germanic tribes.
The
German people are an
ethnic group, in the sense of sharing a common
German culture,
descent, and speaking the
German language as a
mother tongue.
Within
Germany, Germans are defined by
citizenship (
Federal Germans,
Bundesdeutsche), distinguished from people of German ancestry (
Deutschstämmige). Historically, in the context of the
German Empire (1871-1918), German citizens (
Imperial Germans,
Reichsdeutsche) were distinguished from
ethnic Germans (
Volksdeutsche).
Out of approximately 100 million native speakers of German in the world, about 75 million consider themselves Germans. There are an additional 80 million people of German ancestry (mainly in the USA, Brazil, Argentina, Chile, France and Canada) who are not native speakers of German. Conversely,
Alemannic Swiss and
Austrians who are native speakers of German are not considered ethnic Germans.
Thus, the total number of Germans worldwide lies between 75 and 160 million, depending on the criteria applied (native speakers, single-ancestry ethnic Germans, partial German ancestry, etc.). In the
U.S., 15.2% of citizens identify as
German American according to the
United States Census of 2000. Although the percentage has declined, it's still more than any other group.
History of the term
The English term as used today translates German . It is derived from Latin
Germanus and has been used since the sixteenth century synonymously with, after
teutonicus used in Latin since the ninth century to refer to the German language, from the name of the
Teutones. Before the sixteenth century, the terms used in English were
Almain, from the name of the
Alemanni, or
Dutch, an imitation of both
Dutch "
diets" (meaning "
Dutch") and the
German cognate "
deutsch" (meaning: "German"). The diffuse nature of the term mirrors the heterogeneous nature of the
Holy Roman Empire, from the sixteenth century also known as "Holy Roman Empire of the German nation". The linguistic affiliation of the
English language itself was hotly debated at the time, and English academia was split into "
Germanophiles" who to include English one of the "Germanic" or "Teutonic" languages, and "
Scandophiles" who preferred to classify English as "Scandinavian" (now known as
North Germanic).
With the rise of the
German Empire as a threat to British interests in
Hamburg, the "Germanophile" position came out of fashion and British romanticism turned to Scandinavia (see
Viking revival). "German" from this period refers to the German Empire, already to the exclusion of
Austria, the
Netherlands and
Switzerland. Usage of
Dutch was narrowed to refer to the Netherlands exclusively during the early sixteenth century.
There is a lack of international consensus in regard to the characterization of certain historical persons and institutions as "German", like for instance
Kafka,
Copernicus or the
Hanseatic League. In the nineteenth century, it was common in Germany to use "German" synonymously with "Germanic" for pre-modern times, and for example the
Walhalla temple includes Gothic, Langobardic, Anglo-Saxon and Alemannic people among those honoured as 'Germans'.
Haydn,
Mozart and
Beethoven - who spent most of their lives in what is Austria today - may be considered central within the German culture but are sometimes characterized as Austrians, not as Germans. Many people also consider them Austrian and German at once; for example, the U.S. State Department does on its report on current Austria, describing it as inhabited by Austrian nationals of which 98% are ethnic Germans.
Ethnic Germans
The term
Ethnic Germans may be used in several ways. It may serve to distinguish Germans from those who may have citizenship in the German state but are not Germans; or it may indicate Germans living as minorities in other nations. In English usage, but less often in German,
Ethnic Germans may be used for
assimilated descendants of German emigrants.
Ethnic Germans form an important minority group in several countries in
central and
eastern Europe (
Poland,
Hungary,
Romania,
Russia) as well as in
Namibia, southern
Brazil (
German-Brazilian) and
Argentina.
Some groups may be classified as Ethnic Germans despite no longer having German as their mother tongue or belonging to a distinct German culture. Until the 1990s, two million Ethnic Germans lived throughout the former Soviet Union, especially in
Russia and
Kazakhstan.
In the
United States 1990 census, 57 million people are fully or partly of German ancestry, forming the largest single ethnic group in the country. Most Americans of German descent live in the
Mid-Atlantic states (especially
Pennsylvania) and the northern
Midwest (especially in
Iowa,
Minnesota,
Ohio,
Wisconsin,
Illinois,
Indiana,
North Dakota,
South Dakota, and eastern
Missouri), but historically Germanic immigrant enclaves can be found in many other states (for example, the
German Texans).
Notable Ethnic German populations also exist in other
Anglosphere countries such as
Canada (approx. 9% of the population) and
Australia (approx. 4% of the population).
History
The Germans are a
Germanic people which as an ethnicity emerged during the post-medieval
Unification of Germany. From the multi-ethnic
Holy Roman Empire, the
Peace of Westphalia (1648) left a core territory that was to become
Germany, already to the exclusion of
Austria,
Switzerland and the
Netherlands. "German" ethnogenesis was complete by the time of the
German Empire in 1871.
Origins
The area of modern-day Germany in the
European Iron Age was divided into the (
Celtic)
La Tène horizon in
Southern Germany and the (
Germanic)
Jastorf culture in
Northern Germany.
The predominant
Y-chromosome haplogroup in Germans is
R1b, followed by
I and
R1a; the predominant
mitochondrial haplogroup is
H, followed by
U and
T.
The Germanic peoples during the
Migrations Period came into contact with other peoples, in the case of the populations settling in the territory of modern Germany,
Celts to the south and
Balts and
Slavs towards the east.
The
Limes Germanicus was breached in AD 260, and migrating Germanic tribes commingled with the local
Gallo-Roman populations in what is now
Swabia and
Bavaria.
The migration period peoples that would coalesce into a "German" ethnicity are the
Saxones,
Frisii,
Franci,
Thuringii,
Alamanni and
Bavarii. By the
800s, the territory of modern Germany had been united under the rule of
Charlemagne, although much of what is now
Eastern Germany remained Slavonic-speaking (
Sorbs,
Veleti).
Medieval history
A "German" as opposed to generically "Germanic" ethnicity emerges in the course of the
Middle Ages, under the influence of the unity of
Eastern Francia from the 9th century. The process is gradual and lacks any clear definition.
After
Christianization, the superior organization of the
Roman Catholic Church lent the upper hand for a German expansion and settlement at the expense of Slavs and Balts (medieval
Wendish crusade and
Ostsiedlung), giving the
Drang nach Osten as a result. Massive German settlement led to the assimilation of Baltic (
Old Prussians) and Slavic (
Wends) populations exhausted by previous warfare.
At the same time, naval innovations led to a German domination of trade in the
Baltic Sea and parts of
Eastern Europe through the
Hanseatic League. Along the trade routes, Hanseatic trade stations became centers of Germanness where
German town law (Stadtrecht) was promoted by the presence of large, relatively wealthy German populations and their influence on the worldly powers.
This means that people whom we today often consider "Germans", with a common culture and
worldview very different from that of the surrounding
rural peoples, colonized as far north of present-day Germany as
Bergen (in
Norway),
Stockholm (in
Sweden), and
Vyborg (now in
Russia). The Hanseatic League wasn't exclusively German in any ethnic sense: many towns who joined the league were outside the Holy Roman Empire, which wasn't entirely German itself, and a number of them may only loosely be characterized as
German.
Early Modern period
It was only in the late fifteenth century that the Holy Roman Empire came to be called the
Holy Roman Empire of the German nation, and even this wasn't exclusively German, notably including a sizeable
Slavic minority.
The
Thirty Years' War, a series of conflicts fought mainly in modern
Germany, confirmed the dissolution of the Holy Roman Empire, and the
Napoleonic Wars gave it its
coup de grâce.
Since the
Peace of Westphalia, Germany has been "one nation split in many countries" (
Kleinstaaterei). The
Austrian–
Prussian split, confirmed when Austria remained outside of the 1871 created
Imperial Germany, was only the most prominent example. Most recently, the division between
East Germany and
West Germany kept the idea alive.
In the nineteenth century, after the
Napoleonic Wars and the fall of the
Holy Roman Empire (of the German nation),
Austria and
Prussia would emerge as two opposite poles in Germany, trying to re-establish the divided German nation.
Austria, trying to remain the dominant power in Central Europe, led the way in the terms of the
Congress of Vienna. The
Congress of Vienna was a very conservative act assuring that little would change in
Europe and would prevent
Germany from uniting. The terms of the
Congress of Vienna would come to a sudden halt following the
Crimean War in 1856. This paved the way for
German unification in the 1860s. In 1870, Prussia attracted even
Bavaria (the old ally of France) in the
Franco-Prussian War and the creation of the
German Empire as a German
nation-state, effectively excluding the multi-ethnic Austrian
Habsburg monarchy.
The concept of a separate
Austrian nation emerges in the nineteenth century, following the
Napoleonic wars, but German speaking Austrians continued to consider themselves Germans until 1919, when "
German Austria" was dissolved following the
Treaty of Saint-Germain.
20th century
The dissolution of the
Austrian-Hungarian Empire after
World War I led to a strong desire of the population of the new
Republic of Austria to be integrated into Germany. This was, however, prevented by the
Treaty of Versailles.
The
Nazis attempted to unite "all Germans" into one realm. This idea was initially welcomed by many ethnic Germans in
Czechoslovakia,
Austria,
Poland,
Danzig and Western
Lithuania, but met with significant resistance among the
Swiss, who saw themselves as separate nations at least since the
Peace of Westphalia of 1648.
After
World War II, the Austrians increasingly saw themselves as a nation distinct from the other German-speaking areas of Europe; today, some polls have indicated that no more than 10% of the German-speaking Austrians see themselves as part of a larger German nation linked by ancestry or language. This phenomenon became commonplace shortly after the Second World War, when Austrian identity was emphasized along with the "first-victim of Nazism" theory.
Subgroups
The Germans are divided into sub-nationalities, some of which form dialectal unities with groups outside Germany that are not considered "Germans". The southern
Upper German groups retain a pronounced identity, in the case of the Swabians historically even the cause of a limited movement of
Alemannic separatism. The Low German
Platt speakers also retain a certain ethnic identity, while the
Central German majority has largely abandoned individual nationalisms.
Ethnic nationalism
The reaction evoked in the decades after the Napoleonic Wars was a strong
ethnic nationalism that emphasized, and sometimes overemphasized, the cultural bond between Germans. Later alloyed with the high standing and world-wide influence of German science at the end of the nineteenth century, and to some degree enhanced by
Bismarck's military successes and the following 40 years of almost perpetual economic boom (the
Gründerzeit), it gave the Germans an impression of cultural supremacy, particularly compared to the
Slavs.
Ethnic nationalism has essentially been a taboo in German society since
World War II, but it has seen a limited comeback since
German reunification, with the ethnic nationalist
National Democratic Party of Germany receiving 1.6% of the popular vote in the
2005 federal election.
Religion
Today, the German identity includes both Protestants and
Catholics. The groups are about equally represented in Germany, contrary to the belief that it's mostly Protestant. Historically, the Protestants formed the majority; but with the loss of traditional Protestant regions after
World War II and the "conversion" of many Protestants (many more than Catholics) to "nonbelievers" especially in the former GDR now the two groups are about equally represented. Today, the "nonbelievers" are the majority. Also some large groups of immigrants were/are mostly Catholics (Poles/Italians). The
Protestant Reformation started in the German cultural sphere, when in 1517,
Martin Luther posted his
95 Theses to the door of the
Schlosskirche ("castle church") in
Wittenberg. Among
Protestant denominations, the
Lutherans are well represented by the Germans, while
Calvinists are historically only to be found near the
Dutch border and in a few cities like
Worms and
Speyer. The late nineteenth century saw a strong movement among the
Jewry in Germany and Austria to assimilate and define themselves as
à priori Germans, for example as Germans of
Jewish faith (a similar movement occurred in Hungary). In conservative circles, this wasn't always embraced, and, for the Nazis, it was unacceptable. The Nazi rule led to the
death or
exile of almost all of the relatively small number of domestic Jews. Today Germany attempts to successfully integrate the
Gastarbeiter and later arrived
refugees from ex-
Yugoslavia, especially Bosnian
Muslims.
Minorities
In recent years, the German-speaking countries of Europe have been confronted with demographic changes due to decades of immigration. These changes have led to renewed debates (especially in the Federal Republic of Germany) about who should be considered German. Non-ethnic Germans now make up more than 8% of the German population, mostly the descendants of guest workers who arrived in the 1960s and 1970s.
Turks,
Moroccans,
Italians,
Greeks, and people from the
Balkans in
southeast Europe form the largest single groups of non-ethnic Germans in the country.
In addition, a significant number of German citizens (close to 5%), although traditionally considered
ethnic Germans, are in fact foreign-born and retain cultural identities and languages from their native countries, a fact that sets them apart from ethnic Germans. Of course, the idea of foreign-born repatriates isn't unique to Germany. The English and British equivalent legal term is
lex sanguinis, which is exactly the same principle- that citizenship is inherited by the child from his/her parents. It has nothing to do with ethnicity.
Ethnic German repatriates from the former Soviet Union are a separate case and constitute by far the largest such group and the second largest ethno-national minority group in Germany. The repatriation provisions made for ethnic Germans in Eastern Europe are unique and have historical basis, since these were areas where Germans traditionally lived. A controversial example of repatriation involves the
Volga Germans, descendants of ethnic Germans who settled in Russia during the eighteenth century, who have been able to claim German citizenship even though neither they nor their ancestors for several generations have ever been to Germany. In contrast, persons of German descent in North America, South America, Africa, etc. don't have an automatic right of return and must actually prove their eligibility for German citizenship according to the clauses pertaining to the
German nationality law. Other countries with post-Soviet Union repatriation programs include
Greece,
Israel and
South Korea.
Unlike these ethnic German repatriates, some non-German ethnic minorities in the country, including some who were born and raised in the Federal Republic, choose to remain non-citizens. Although citizenship laws have been recently relaxed to allow such individuals to become nationalized citizens, many choose not to give up allegiance to the countries of their ethnic roots and continue to live in Germany under an ambiguous status of an alien resident or a guest worker, especially since this status, though lacking certain political rights, often doesn't impede one's ability to work, get free public higher education and travel abroad.
As a result, close to 10 million people permanently living in the Federal Republic today distinctly differ from the majority of the population in a variety of ways such as race, ethnicity, religion, language and culture, yet often fail to be recognized as minorities in official statistical sources due to the fact that such sources traditionally survey only German citizens, and under the so called
jus sanguinis system, that has been in effect in Germany since the nineteenth century, and has only recently been partially replaced by the alternative
jus soli system. This situation contributes to the invisibility of Germany's minorities making Germany technically one of the most ethnically homogeneous nation in the world, whereas in all practicality the Federal Republic is today one of the most ethnically diverse countries in Europe.
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