Germans

Germans
German: Deutsche
Regions with significant populations
Germany72,569,978[a]
United States534,000[b]
c. 42,600,000[3]
Brazil21,000[c]
c. 5,000,000[4][5]
Canada157,000[d]
c. 3,322,405[6]
Australia125,000[e]
1,026,140[7]
Kazakhstanc. 900,000[8]
Russia142,000[f]
c. 840,000[8]
Argentina9,000[g]
c. 500,000[9]
Switzerland357,000[h]
United Kingdom310,000[i]
Hungary36,000[j]
c. 250,000[8]
New Zealand25,000[k]
c. 200,000[l]
Austria233,000[m]
Italy211,000[n]
France203,000[o]
Spain201,000[p]
Poland101,000[q]
148,000 (of whom 45,000 declared solely German ethnicity)[11]
Turkey102,592[12]
Mexico7,000[r]
c. 90,000[s]
Chile8,000[t]
c. 500,000 [14]
South Africa17,000[u]
c. 75,000[9]
Romania34,071[v]
c. 22,900[15]
Slovakia8,537[16][17]

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.[18][19] The constitution of Germany, implemented in 1949 following the end of World War II, defines a German as a German citizen.[20] 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.[21] Today, the German language is widely seen as the primary, though not exclusive, criterion of German identity.[22] Estimates on the total number of Germans in the world range from 100 to 150 million, most of whom live in Germany.[23]

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.

  1. ^ "Bevölkerung nach Nationalität und Geschlecht 2020" (in German). Archived from the original on 12 July 2021. Retrieved 13 January 2023.
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r "Immigrant and Emigrant Populations by Country of Origin and Destination". Migration Policy Institute. 10 February 2014. Archived from the original on 19 March 2022. Retrieved 11 November 2021.
  3. ^ "Table B04006 – People Reporting Ancestry – 2020 American Community Survey 5-Year Estimates". United States Census Bureau. Archived from the original on 13 July 2022. Retrieved 29 October 2022.
  4. ^ "German Immigration to Brazil". Deutsche Welle. Archived from the original on 31 January 2023. Retrieved 6 February 2023.
  5. ^ Moya, Jose (28 September 2020). "Immigration and the Historical Formation of Brazil". Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Latin American History. doi:10.1093/acrefore/9780199366439.013.894. ISBN 978-0-19-936643-9. Archived from the original on 11 March 2023. Retrieved 6 February 2023.
  6. ^ Government of Canada, Statistics Canada (17 June 2019). "Ethnic Origin (279), Single and Multiple Ethnic Origin Responses (3), Generation Status (4), Age (12) and Sex (3) for the Population in Private Households of Canada, Provinces and Territories, Census Metropolitan Areas and Census Agglomerations, 2016 Census – 25% Sample Data". www12.statcan.gc.ca. Archived from the original on 26 October 2017. Retrieved 28 September 2022.
  7. ^ "Ancestry | Australia | Community profile". Archived from the original on 21 June 2021. Retrieved 31 October 2021.
  8. ^ a b c 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."
  9. ^ a b 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). "
  10. ^ Bade, James N. (2015). "Germans". Te Ara – the Encyclopedia of New Zealand. Archived from the original on 14 April 2021. Retrieved 14 April 2021. In the early 2000s, about 200,000 New Zealanders were likely to have German heritage.
  11. ^ Przynależność narodowo-etniczna ludności – wyniki spisu ludności i mieszkań 2011 Archived 15 May 2020 at the Wayback Machine. GUS. Materiał na konferencję prasową w dniu 29. 01. 2013. p. 3. Retrieved 12 October 2022.
  12. ^ [1] Archived 22 November 2022 at the Wayback Machine' 'Türkiye'de ikamet eden yabancı ülke vatandaşlarının sayısı ne? (Turkish)Retrieved 22 November 2022.
  13. ^ Burchard, Gretha (April 2010). "The German Population in Mexico: Maintenance of German culture and integration into Mexican society" (PDF). p. 1. Archived (PDF) from the original on 27 May 2021. Retrieved 12 June 2021. the German embassy in Mexico City reports an estimated number of 15.000 Germans and 75.000 people of German origin living in Mexico
  14. ^ "Alemanes en Chile: Entre el pasado colono y el presente empresarial | DW | 31.03.2011". Deutsche Welle. Archived from the original on 4 June 2023. Retrieved 26 April 2023.
  15. ^ Bogdan Păcurar (30 December 2022). "Recensământ 2022. România are 19.053.815 locuitori. Țara noastră a pierdut peste un milion de locuitori față de acum 10 ani". Digi24.ro (in Romanian). Archived from the original on 30 December 2022. Retrieved 30 December 2022.
  16. ^ "SODB2021 – Obyvatelia – Základné výsledky". www.scitanie.sk. Archived from the original on 31 May 2022. Retrieved 25 August 2022.
  17. ^ "SODB2021 – Obyvatelia – Základné výsledky". www.scitanie.sk. Archived from the original on 15 July 2022. Retrieved 25 August 2022.
  18. ^ "German Definition & Meaning". Merriam-Webster. Archived from the original on 13 November 2020. Retrieved 25 November 2020.
  19. ^ "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.
  20. ^ 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.
  21. ^ 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."
  22. ^ 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."
  23. ^ 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."


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