Germans and German diaspora in the World

Total population
c. 142.5 million(Germany:71,347,057[1])
Regions with significant populations
United States,Brazil,Argentina,France,Colombia,Canada,Mexico,Uruguay,Australia,Venezuela,Germany,Switzerland,United Kingdom,Belgium,Chile andParaguay,Austria

TheGerman diaspora (German:Deutschstämmige,pronounced[ˈdɔɪ̯t͡ʃˌʃtɛmɪɡə]^ⓘ) consists ofGerman people and their descendants living outside ofGermany. The term is used in particular to refer to the aspects of migration ofGerman speakers fromCentral Europe to different countries around the world. This definition describesGerman as asociolinguistic group as opposed to thenational one since the emigrant groups came from different regions with diverse cultural practices and different varieties of German. For instance, theAlsatians andHessians were often simply called "Germans" once they set foot in their new homelands.^{[citation needed]}

Volksdeutsche ("ethnic Germans") is a historical term which arose in the early 20th century and was used by theNazis to describeethnic Germans, without German citizenship, living outside ofNazi Germany, although many had been in other areas for centuries.^[2] DuringWorld War II,Hitler forbade the use of the term because it was being used in a derogatory way against the many ethnic Germans in theSS. It is used by many historians who either deliberately or innocently are unaware of itsNazi 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 acitizen of Germany living more or less permanently in another country (includingexpatriates such as long-term academic exchange lecturers and the like), who areallowed to vote in the Republic's elections,^[3] 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 termVolksdeutsche, denoting persons living abroad without German citizenship but defining themselves as Germans (culturally or ethnically speaking).

Ethnic Germans are a minority group in many countries. The following sections briefly detail the historical and present distribution of ethnic Germans by region, but generally exclude modernexpatriates, who have a presence in the United States,Scandinavia and major urban areas worldwide. People of partial German ancestry form an important minority group in several countries, includingCanada (roughly 10% of the population), Brazil (roughly 10 % of the population),^[4]Australia (roughly 4.5% of the population),^[5]Argentina (roughly 4% of the population),^[6][7]Chile (roughly 4% of the population),Namibia and incentral and eastern Europe—(Poland,Hungary,Romania,^[8] andRussia).

Distribution of German citizens and people claiming German ancestry (figures are only estimates and actual population could be higher, because of misleadingly formulated questions in censuses in countries like Poland,^[9] and other different factors, f.e. related to participant in a census):

Austria, Switzerland, andLiechtenstein each have a German-speaking majority, though the vast majority of the population do not identify themselves as German anymore.Austrians historically were identified as and considered themselves Germans until after the defeat of Nazi Germany and the end ofWorld 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.^[80][81][82]

Aside from the Germans who migrated to other parts of Europe, the German diaspora also covered the Eastern and Central European states such as Romania, Croatia, Hungary, Poland, the Czech Republic,^[8] and Slovakia, along with severalpost-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.^[83] During the periods of colonization, for instance, there was an influx of Germans who came toBohemia 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.^[83]

Main article:German-speaking Community of 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 includingLimburgish andLuxembourgish.

BeforeWorld War II, some 30% of the population inCzechia were ethnic Germans, and in the border regions and certain other areas they were in the majority.^[84] There are about 21,000 Germans in the Czech Republic (number ofCzechs who have at least partly German ancestry probably runs into the hundreds of thousands).^[85] Their number has been consistently decreasing since World War II. According to the 2011 census, there remain 11 municipalities and settlements in Czech Republic with more than 6% Germans.

The situation inSlovakia was different from that in Czech Republic, in that the number of Germans was considerably lower and that theGermans 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.^{[citation needed]}

In Denmark, the part ofSchleswig that is nowSouth Jutland County (orNorthern Schleswig) is inhabited by about 12,000–20,000 ethnic Germans^[86] They speak mainly Standard German andSouth Jutlandic. A few speakSchleswigsch, aNorthern Low Saxon dialect.

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 they 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 (i.e.Alsace), and the island ofCorsica.

Prior to World War II, approximately 1.5 million Danube Swabians lived in Hungary, Romania, and Yugoslavia.^[87] 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 theIron Curtain in 1990. Around 178,000 Germans live in Hungary.^{[citation needed]}

There are smaller, unique populations of Germans who arrived so long ago that their dialect retains many archaic features heard nowhere else: theCimbrians are concentrated in various communities in theCarnic Alps, north ofVerona, and especially in theSugana Valley on the high plateau northwest ofVicenza in theVeneto region; theWalsers, who originated in the SwissWallis, live in the provinces ofAostatal,Vercelli, andVerbano-Cusio-Ossola; theMòchenos live in theFersina Valley. Smaller German-speaking communities also exist in theFriuli-Venezia Giulia region: theCarinthians in theCanale Valley (municipalities ofTarvisio,Malborghetto Valbruna andPontebba) and theZahren andTimau Germans inCarnia.^{[citation needed]}

Contrarily to the before-mentioned minorities, the German-speaking population of the province ofSouth Tyrol cannot be categorized as "ethnic German" according to the definition of this article, but as Austrian minority. However, as Austrians saw themselves as ethnic Germans until the end of World War II, they can technically also be called Germans.^[88] The province was part of the Austrian County of Tyrol before the 1919 dissolution of the Austro-Hungarian Empire.^[89] South Tyroleans 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, Romania, 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 ofSardinia since the 13th century.^[90] Successively since 1850 groups of specialised workers fromStyria, Austria, followed by German miners fromFreiburg settled in the same area. Some Germans influenced building and toponym is still visible in this area.^[91][92]

In Norway, there are 27,770 Germans making them the ninth largest ethnic minority in the country, thus constituting 0.52% of Norway's total population, and 2.94% of allforeign residents in Norway.^[93] Immigration from Germany to Norway has occurred since theMiddle Ages. There have been many Germans who migrated toBergen during the Middle Ages and also duringNorway's union with Denmark. During the Union with Denmark, a lot of German miners migrated to the town ofKongsberg.^[94] As of 2020, there are 1,446 Germans in the city of Bergen, making up 0.51% of the total population, and in the town of Kongsberg there are 114 Germans, making up 0.41% of the total population respectively. The city with the biggest population of Germans isOslo. 3,743 Germans live in the city, thereby making up 0.55% of the total population.^[95] Germany is also the country that sends the mostforeign exchange students to Norway, in 2016, 1,570 exchange students came to Norway from Germany.^[96]

The remaining German minority in Poland (109,000 people were registered in the 2011 census^[97]) enjoys minority rights according to Polish minority law. There are German speakers throughout Poland, and most of the Germans live in theOpole Voivodeship inSilesia. 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.

As of December 2022, there are 20,500 German nationals residing in Portugal.^[59] This number only include foreign nationals and thus excludes German citizens who have acquiredPortuguese citizenship (around 400 people since 2008), as well as Portuguese people of German descent.^[60]

Around 6,000 Germans live in the municipalities ofLisbon,Oeiras,Sintra orCascais, in thePortuguese Riviera.^[98] On the other hand, around 5,000 Germans live in the southern region ofAlgarve.^[98] The German community is especially noticeable in Lisbon andPorto. Each city hosts aGerman Evangelical Church, aGerman school and offers German libraries. There is also a German church as well as a German school in Algarve whileMadeira hosts a German Evangelical Church.^{[99][100][101]} Lisbon also hosts a Catholic German Church and a German cemetery since 1821.^{[102][103][104][105]} Many Luso-Germans have acquired fame throughout the years. Individuals of the community includeAlfredo Keil (1850–1907), composer ofA Portuguesa, the Portuguesenational anthem, archaeologistVirgínia Rau (1907–1973), banker and industrialistAntónio Champalimaud (1918–2004), architectFrancisco Keil do Amaral (1910–1975) and former prime ministerErnesto Hintze Ribeiro (1849–1907). Contemporary figures of German descent include football playerDiego Moreira,Eurovision song contest winnerSalvador Sobral, surferNic von Rupp, actressesCatarina Wallenstein andVera Kolodzig, and tennis playerMaria João Koehler. Amongst the most notable Luso-Germans there is undoubtedlyJoão Frederico Ludovice, who was commissioned the project for theMafra National Palace in 1711.

As of 2022, according to theRomanian Census, there were circa 22,900 ethnic Germans recorded in Romania.

Since theHigh Middle Ages, the territory of present-day Romania has been continuously inhabited by German-speaking groups, firstly by Transylvanian Saxons then, gradually, by other immigrant groups of ethnic German origin. They are all politically represented by theDemocratic Forum of Germans in Romania (FDGR/DFDR).

There are 138,917 residents of German descent living in Spain in 2014, and112,000 German citizens. Settlement of German-speaking settlers began during Middle Ages, an example is the Preysler family, with ancestors moved to Spain from Austria and was involved in the trading of Austrian bred horses being brought to Spain in the mid-19th century.^[106]

Before World War II broke out,Sudeten German Prince Maximilian Eugene of Hohenlohe-Langenburg decided to take refuge in Spain. Similarly, after the war, all of his assets were confiscated through the Beneš Decrees. However, the fortune of his wife's family prevented him from falling out of favor. In Spain, one of his sons,Prince Alfonso, founded theMarbella Club Hotel, thus beginning the Marbella Golden Mile, which he catapulted as a destination for international luxury tourism, which since then has generated great wealth for Spain.

During the 11th century, Sweden was visited by missionaries from Germany. During the Middle Ages, Hanseatic merchants had a great influence on Swedish trade and also the Swedish language. According to a survey, the proportion of German loanwords in Swedish is 24–30 percent (slightly depending on how you calculate). During the period of great power, a number of German congregations were formed in Sweden. Including Karlskrona German parish, which then became part of Karlskrona Admiralty parish. Today, there are two more active German congregations in Sweden. They are part of the parishes of the Church of Sweden, the German Christinae parish and the German St. Gertrude's parish consists of German citizens or Swedes of German origin.^{[citation needed]}

In connection with the two world wars, several German children of war came to Sweden. Between the late 1940s and early 1990s, many East German refugees also came to Sweden. On 31 December 2014, there were 49,359 people in Sweden who were born in Germany, of whom 23,195 were men (47.0%) and 26,164 women (53.0%).^{[citation needed]} The corresponding figure for 31 December 2000 was 38,155, of which 16,965 men (44.5%) and 21,190 women (55.5%). There were 28,172 people in Sweden with German citizenship. In 2019, according to Statistics Sweden, German immigrants together with the Chinese were the most highly educated who migrate to Sweden, with a proportion of 70 per cent who are highly educated, which is well above the average for Sweden's population which is 30 per cent.^{[citation needed]} Around 29,505 German Citizens living inSweden in 2020.

In the United Kingdom, a German-Briton ethnic group of around 300,000 exists. Some are descended from 19th-century immigrants. Others are 20th-century immigrants and their descendants, and others areWorld War IIprisoners 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 theLondon and southeast part of England, in particular,Richmond (South West London).

TheBritish royal family are partially descended from German monarchs.

Due toBrexit, the number of Germans in the UK has declined significantly. In 2021, there were only 135,000 Germans in the UK.^[107]

During the long decline of the Roman Empire and the ensuing great migrations Germanic tribes such as theVandals (who sacked Rome) migrated intoNorth Africa and settled mainly in the lands corresponding to modernTunisia and northeasternAlgeria. While it is likely that some of the people living there at present are descended from these Germanic peoples, they did not leave visible cultural traces.

The first German trading post in the Duala area on the Kamerun River delta was established in 1868 by the Hamburg trading companyC. Woermann. The firm's agent in Gabon, Johannes Thormählen, expanded activities to the Kamerun River delta. In 1874, together with the Woermann agent in Liberia, Wilhelm Jantzen, the two merchants founded their own company, Jantzen & Thormählen there. At the outbreak of World War I, French, Belgian and British troops invaded the German colony in 1914 and fully occupied it during the Kamerun campaign. The last German fort to surrender was the one at Mora in the north of the colony in 1916. Following Germany's defeat, the Treaty of Versailles divided the territory into two League of Nations mandates (Class B) under the administration of Great Britain and France. French Cameroun and part of British Cameroons reunified in 1961 as Cameroon, though some Germans still remain in Cameroon.

Germany was not as involved in colonizing Africa as other major European powers of the 20th century, and lost its overseas colonies, includingGerman East Africa andGerman 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. InNamibia 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 asSwakopmund andLüderitz, where German architecture is highly visible.

In South Africa, a number ofAfrikaners andBoers are of partial German ancestry, being the descendants of German immigrants who intermarried with Dutch settlers and adoptedAfrikaans as their mother tongue. Professor JA Heese in his bookDie Herkoms van die Afrikaner (The Origins of Afrikaners) claims the modern Afrikaners (who total around 3.5 million) have 34.4% German ancestry.^[108]

Germans also emigrated to South Africa during the 1850s and 1860s, and settled in theEastern Cape area aroundStutterheim, and inKwazulu-Natal in theWartburg area, where there is still a large German-speaking community.^[109] 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 inSouth Africa.^[110] Germans settled quite extensively in South Africa, with manyCalvinists immigrating from Northern Europe. Later on, more Germans settled in theKwaZulu-Natal and elsewhere. Here, one of the largest communities are the speakers of "Nataler Deutsch", a variety ofLow German, who are concentrated in and aroundWartburg. German is slowly disappearing elsewhere, but a number of communities still have a large number of speakers and some even have German language schools. Around 17,000 German Nationals lived in South Africa in 2020.

When mainlandTanzania,Rwanda, andBurundi were under German control, they were namedGerman East Africa; they received some migration from German communities. AfterTanganyika andRuanda-Urundi became British and Belgianmandates following Germany's defeat in World War I, some of these communities remained.There is a small community of Germans remaining inTanzania.^{[citation needed]}

Counties where German ancestry (light blue) is the plurality in the United States, 2000

People who have self-identified as having German ancestors are the plurality in many parts of thePrairie provinces (areas coloured in grey).

In the United States are ca. 160,000 German Citizens Registered.

• Belize: 5,763Mennonite Low-German speakers.
• Canada (3.3 million, 9,6% of the population), see alsoGerman Canadians.
• Mexico: SeeGerman immigration to Mexico, 22% of Mennonites also speak Low German which is not Standard German but derived from Old Saxon, 30% speak Spanish, 5% speak English and 5% speak Russian as a second language.^[111] Sources estimate that there are around 15,000 German citizens and Mexicans of German-citizen origin account for about 75,000 today.^[112] 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" has been the largest self-identified ancestry group since 1990. There are around 50 millionAmericans 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.^[113] including various groups such as thePennsylvania 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 theUpper Midwest.^[114][115]
• Central America: In 1940, there were 16,000 Germans living in Central America; half of them inGuatemala, and most of the remainder were established inCosta Rica and a few in Nicaragua.^[116]

• Argentina: Those of German ancestry constitute about 8% of the Argentine population — over 3 million — most of themVolga Germans alone — about 2 million.^[117] There are more than 400,000 of other German ancestries includingMennonites andGerman 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 ofVilla 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.^[118] By 1940, there were 250,000 people of German descent living in the country.^[116] 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 include other ethnic Germans who emigrated from Austria, Switzerland, Russia/USSR, etc.).^[119][120] 50,000 German citizens live in Argentina.^[16]

Nazi MinisterWalther Darré was born in Argentina. After the Second World War, almost a thousand prominent Nazi leaders and politicians fled to Argentina.Adolf Eichmann andJosef Mengele were among them.Kurt Tank, who developed some of the greatest World War II aircraft fighters, also entered Argentina in the late 1940s.^[121]

There are about 500,000 German-speakers in Argentina,^[122] slightly over 1% of population.

Furthermore, a wave of Ashkenazi immigrants came after the rise of Nazism in 1933, followed by as many as 19,000 German Jews. From 1939 until the end of World War II, immigration was put to a halt by anti-immigrant feelings in the country and restrictions on immigration from Germany.

• Bolivia: There are two different German groups: the descendants of those who emigrated from Germany and Brazil (estimated in about 160,000, 2% of Bolivian population)^[123] and the descendants ofMennonites that emigrated from Canada and Mexico (at least 85,000 of them live in agrarian communities).^[124][125] Germans are 237,000 or 2,5% of Bolivian population.^[126]

There are over 20,000 Standard German-speakers,^[123] plus 85,000Mennonite Low German-speakers.^[124]

• Brazil: Mostly living inSouthern Brazil. Brazil received 250,000 Germans between the 19th and 20th centuries. According to Born and Dickgiesser (1989, p. 55) the number of Brazilians of German descent in 1986 was 3.6 million. According to a 1999 survey byIBGE researcherSimon Schwartzman, in a representative sample of the Brazilian population 3,6% said they had German ancestry, a percentage that in a population of about 200 million amount to 7.2 million descendants.^[127] In 2004,Deutsche Welle cited the number of 5 million Brazilians of German descent.^[128]Hunsrückisch andEast Pomeranian are some of the most prominent groups.^[129][130]

By 1940, the German diaspora in Brazil amounted about a million.^[116]

Around 14,000 German Citizens Registered in Brazil.

There are 3 million German-speakers in Brazil,^[122] 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),^[131] mostly living inSouth Chile. Most of German settlers migrated fromsouth Germany, particularly from traditionally CatholicBavaria,Baden and theRhineland; another group is Sudeten Germans from present-dayCzech Republic; even included wereAlsatians andPoles thruPartitions of Poland. German Chileans speak a local dialect calledLagunen-Deutsch. There are 40,000 Standard German-speakers.^[132]
• Ecuador: Ecuador has only few people of German descent. Notable is a small German population on the Island ofFloreana (Galapagos): Between 1929 and circa 1950, roughly half a dozenAussteigers were living on the Island. In 1934 three of them died under unclear circumstances, these events caused international media attention calledGalapagos-affair. Today, the descendants of the Floreana-Germans have been assimilated into the local Ecuadorian population or re-immigrated to Germany.^[133][134]
• Paraguay : 166,000 Standard German-speakers (including 18,000 Mennonites, who don't speakPlattdeutsch orMennonite Low German), most Germans in Paraguay are of Brazilian descent and Portuguese speakers;^[123] plus 20,000Mennonite Low German, spoken by Mennonites who live inChaco and Eastern Paraguay^[123] TheMennonites emigrated to Paraguay fromChihuahua State (in Mexico), theSoviet Union, Canada, and Bolivia.^[135][136] Non-Mennonites German emigrated to Paraguay mainly from Brazil, the Kingdom of Prussia, and the German Empire.^[136]

Those of German ancestry are 290,000, or 4.4% of Paraguayan population.^[33]

• Peru: The communities ofOxapampa,Pozuzo, andVilla Rica in the high jungles of the Peruvian Amazon basin were settled in the middle of the 19th century by Austrian and Prussian immigrants. Many of its present-day inhabitants speak German^[137] In the 18th century, German immigrants settled the areas ofTingo Maria,Tarapoto,Moyobamba, and theAmazonas Department.^[138] German immigrants largely settled inLima, and to a lesser extentArequipa.^[139]
• Uruguay: By 1940, there were 50,000 Germans living in the country.^[116]
• Venezuela:

In Japan, during theMeiji 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 fewGermans in Japan, since Germany's and Japan's fairly parallel modernization made Germans idealO-yatoi gaikokujin. (See alsoGermany–Japan relations) In South Korea, there areGermans in Korea. In China, the German trading colony ofJiaozhou Bay in what is nowQingdao existed until 1914, and did not leave much more than breweries, includingTsingtao Brewery.Smaller numbers of ethnic Germans immigrated in the former Southeast Asian territories ofMalaysia (British),Indonesia (Dutch) and thePhilippines (American) in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.^{[citation needed]}In Indonesia, some of them became well-known figures in history, such asC.G.C. Reinwardt (founder and first director ofBogor Botanical Garden),Walter Spies (German of Russian origin, who became the artist that madeBali known to the world), andFranz Wilhelm Junghuhn (owner of a big plantation in the south ofBandung and dubbed "theHumboldt of the East" because of his ethno-geographical notes).^{[citation needed]}

Members of the German religious group known asTemplers settled inPalestine in the late 19th century and lived there for several generations, but were expelled by the British fromMandatory Palestine duringWorld War II, due to pro-Nazi sympathies expressed by many of them. CommunistEast Germany had relations withVietnam andUganda in Africa, but in these cases population movement went mostly to, not from, Germany. After theGerman reunification, a large percentage of "guest workers" from Communist nations sent to East Germany returned to their home countries.^{[citation needed]}

• 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 PrussianLutheran settlers inSouth Australia (seeGerman 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.^{[citation needed]}

There have been ethnic Germans in Australia since the founding of the New South Wales colony in 1788, GovernorArthur Phillip (the firstGovernor 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 theHesse-Nassau state and theRheingau). From there after, thousands of Germans emigrated to Australia untilWorld War I. Also,German Australian was the most identified ethnicity behind English and Irish in Australia until World War I. AfterWorld War II, large numbers of Germans emigrated to Australia to escape war-torn Europe. Manu German Australians speak a dialect developed in Australia calledBarossa German, a German dialect developed inBarossa Valley.^{[citation needed]}

• 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). ManyGerman 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 formerPrime MinisterDavid Lange. 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.^{[citation needed]}

FromCeltic times, the earlyGermanic tribes settled from theBaltic all the way to theBlack Sea until the great migrations of the 4-6th century AD.

Medieval Germans migrated eastwards during the medieval periodOstsiedlung until theflight, evacuation and expulsion of Germans after World War II; many areas inCentral andEastern Europe had an ethnic German population.^[140][141] In theMiddle Ages, Germans were invited to migrate to Poland and the central and eastern regions of the GermanHoly Roman Empire and also theKingdom of Hungary following theMongol 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 theAustrian Empire andBalkans.

The Nazi government termed such ethnic GermansVolksdeutsche, regardless of how long they had been residents of other countries. (Now they would be consideredAuslandsdeutsche). During World War II, Nazi Germany classified ethnic Germans asÜbermenschen, whileJews,Gypsies,Slavic peoples, mainlyethnic Poles andSerbs, along withBlack andmixed-race people were calledUntermenschen. After the war, Central European nations such as Poland, theCzechoslovakia, Hungary, as well as theSoviet Union in Eastern Europe, andYugoslavia 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 inKazakhstan alone^{[citation needed]}, and 38,000, 40,000 and 101,057 standard German speakers in Ukraine,Uzbekistan, andKyrgyzstan, respectively.^{[citation needed]}

There were reportedly 500,000 ethnic Germans in Poland in 1998.^[142] Recent official figures show 147,000 (as of 2002).^[143] Of the 745,421Germans in Romania in 1930,^[144] only about 60,000 remain.^[145] In Hungary the situation is quite similar, with only about 220,000.^[146] There are up to one million Germans in theformer Soviet Union, mostly in a band from southwestern Russia and theVolga valley, throughOmsk andAltai Krai (597,212Germans in Russia,2002 Russian census) to Kazakhstan (353,441Germans in Kazakhstan,1999 Kazakhstan census). Germany admitted approximately 1.63 million ethnic Germans from the former Soviet Union between 1990 and 1999.^[147]

TheseAuslandsdeutsche, as they are now generally known, have been streaming out of the formerEastern Bloc since the early 1990s. For example, many ethnic Germans from the former Soviet Union have taken advantage of the GermanLaw 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.

According to the 1921 census, the German community was the largest minority group in theKingdom of Yugoslavia (505,790 inhabitants or 4.22%).^[148]

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

• Ungarndeutsche /Germans of Hungary (of theAustria-Hungary empire, 1867–1918).
• Serbiendeutsche /Germans of Serbia (formerYugoslavia).
• Rumäniendeutsche /Germans of Romania (one of Many Eastern European German settlements extending fromBelarus toSlovakia to Ukraine).

Roughly grouped:

• Germans of Bohemia and Moravia, often known asSudeten Germans (now theCzech Republic).
• Germans of Silesia (now Poland).
• Germans ofEast Prussia (the largest group), including
  • Germans of Poland; see also:
    • thePolonizedBambrzy (notice that Bambrzy are not part of German minority).
  • those fromLithuania:Prussian-Lithuanians andBaltic Germans.
  • Baltic Germans ofLatvia andEstonia,Prussian-Polonians,Prussian Latvians, and ethnic Germans inBelarus.
• TheGerman-Briton group of the United Kingdom (sometimes calledBritish Germans), and German Poles living in the UK since the end of World War II.
• Schleswigsch Germans inSouth Jutland County, Denmark, seeNorth Schleswig Germans.
• German-speaking citizens of the Netherlands (386,200 - 2.37% of the population), includingLimburger Germans.
• German-speakingBelgians, mostly in theGerman-speaking Community of Belgium (DGB -Deutschsprachige Gemeinschaft Belgiens), and about 1 to 3 percent of Belgians speak German.
• Cimbrians in Italy.
• Móchenos in Italy.
• Germans inSlovenia: in theGottschee County, in theLower Styrian towns ofMaribor,Celje andPtuj, and in theApače area.
• the originalHutterites.
• Russian Mennonites in Ukraine, including theMennonite Brethren.
• Transylvanian Saxons in Romania.
• Transylvanian Landler Protestants in Romania.
• Bukovina Germans fromBukovina, Romania.
• Carpathian Germans in Romania, as well as nearby Hungary, Slovakia and Ukraine.
  • Zipser, fromSpiš (Carpathian German heartland) to northern Romania.
• Regat Germans in southern and eastern Romania.
• Danube Swabians, including:
  • those in theBačka.
  • Banat Swabians in the Serbian and RomanianBanat, as well asa handful in Bulgaria.
  • Satu Mare Swabians in Romania, a much smaller colony as a result of the two world wars and the Communist era.
  • mostGermans of Hungary (especiallySwabian Turkey).
  • inCroatia (where it is a recognized minority language).
  • andBosnia and Herzegovina, though are now minuscule in number since World War II.
• Black Sea Germans in southern Ukraine, Moldova,Romania andBulgaria including:
  • Germans of the Crimea.
  • Dobrujan Germans of Romania and Bulgaria.
  • Bessarabia Germans roughly from what is nowMoldova.
• Germans ofVolhynia (German Volhynians).
• Galiziendeutsche inGalicia.
• German Russians, estimated at 5 million throughout Russia, andGerman Ukrainians, included in Ukraine.
• Caucasus Germans (also Swabians) in the northernCaucasus,Georgia, andAzerbaijan.
• the rest of theGermans in the former USSR, including:
  • Volga Germans.
  • Russian Mennonites.
  • Germans of Kazakhstan.
• Bosporus Germans, originally craftsmen in and aroundIstanbul, Turkey.
• Cyprus has a German expatriate community.

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

• German Canadians andGerman-Americans, the largest ethno-ancestral group in the USA documented by the2000 United States census.
  • Texas Germans (see also theList of German Texans).
  • Hutterites who speakHutterite German.
• German Mexicans, includingMennonites in Mexico as well as many notable figures, see German-, Austrian-, Hungarian-, and Polish- subcategories of European Mexicans, esp. in the Northern states.
• Deutschbrasilianer in Brazil, whose various languages compriseBrazilian German.
• German Argentines with prominent personalities and a notable German impact on Argentine culture.
  • Uruguay, known for a German community.
• Germans of Paraguay.
• Germans, mostly from outside the borders of Germany, in the rest of Latin America, especially:
  • German-Puerto Ricans (and a similar community in theVirgin Islands).
  • Heavy concentration of German, Austrian and Swiss descendants in Southern Chile. (German Chileans).
  • Peru, not many are German speakers, seeGerman Peruvian.
  • German Venezuelans, for exampleColonia Tovar where settlers came from Baden, andColonia Agrícola de Turén where settlers were Germans of the Bukovina Region and some Germans of Poland, in Colonia Tovar the dialectAlemán Coloniero is dramatically disappearing and losing popularity being replaced mainly by Spanish, meanwhile inColonia Agrícola de Turén some German is still spoken.
  • Colombia (German Colombians), Cuba and theDominican Republic.
  • Central America.

...or by ethnic or religious criteria:

• Pennsylvania Dutch - in the Northeastern US.
• Amish found in the US, notablyOhio,Pennsylvania,Indiana andNew York.
• Volga Germans andPlautdietsch-speakingRussian Mennonites.
  • in Canada, (e.g.Chortitzer Mennonite Conference).
  • in the United States, for instance inKansas, New York, andChicago, Illinois where millions of residents self-claim to be German (American).
  • throughoutLatin America, most notably in Mexico.
• Hutterites who speakHutterite German.
• "Germania" - from the mid 19th century to after World Wars I or II, a large ethnic and cultural German presence in many towns in the Midwestern US.

In Africa, Oceania, and East/Southeast Asia

• Germans of Namibia,Togo,Cameroon,Tanzania and South Africa, which was never a pre-WWI German colony.
• German Angolans
• German Australians andGerman New Zealanders.
• Germans in the colony ofJiaozhou Bay, China, who founded (among others) theTsingtao Brewery in today'sQingdao.
• Small numbers of German expatriates inEast Asia andSoutheast Asia (Burma, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Japan, Malaysia, Philippines, South Korea, Taiwan, Thailand and Vietnam).
• German cultural traits remain inPapua New Guinea.

A visible sign of the geographical extension of theGerman language is the German-language media outside the German-speaking countries.German is the second most commonly used scientific language^{[149][better source needed]} as well as the third most widely used language on websites after English and Russian.^[150]Deutsche Welle (German pronunciation: [ˈdɔʏtʃə ˈvɛlə]; "German Wave" in German), orDW, is Germany's public international broadcaster. The service is available in 30 languages. DW's satellite television service consists of channels in German, English, Spanish, and Arabic.^[151]

German-speakers can visit the websites of German-language newspapers and TV- and radio stations. The free softwareMediathekView allows the downloading of videos from the websites of some public German, Austrian, and Swiss TV stations and of the public Franco-German TV networkARTE. With the webpage "onlinetvrecorder.com," it is possible to record programs of many German and some international TV stations. Note that some material is region-restricted for legal reasons and cannot be accessed from everywhere in the world. Some websites have apaywall or limit the access for free/unregistered users.

See also:

• List of newspapers in Germany andList of German-language newspapers published in the United States
• List of magazines in Germany
• List of television stations in Germany andList of German-language television channels
• List of radio stations in Germany andList of German-language radio stations
• Goethe-Institut [ˈɡøːtə ʔɪnstiˌtuːt] (a non-profit German cultural association operational worldwide with 159 institutes, promoting the study of the German language abroad and encouraging international cultural exchange and relations.)

Since June 27, 2024, unrestricted dual citizenship has been possible.

Prior to that date,German nationality law alloweddual citizenship only with other EU countries and Switzerland; with other countries, in some cases:

1. With special permission ("Beibehaltungsgenehmigung"), for which German citizens must applybefore taking the other citizenship (otherwise, German citizenship isautomatically lost). Non-EU and non-Swiss citizens wanting to be naturalized in Germany must usually renounce their old citizenship, but may keep it if their country does not allow the renunciation of citizenship, or if the renunciation process is too difficult/humiliating/expensive, or, rarely, in individual cases if the renunciation of the old citizenship means enormous disadvantages for the concerned person.
2. If dual citizenship was obtained at birth. Some countries do not accept the "dual-citizenship-by-birth principle," so the concerned person must later choose one citizenship and renounce the other.
3. Under Article 116 par. 2 of the Basic Law (Grundgesetz), former German citizens who between 30 January 1933, and 8 May 1945, were deprived of their German citizenship on political, racial, or religious grounds may re-invoke their citizenship and the same applies to their descendants, and are permitted to hold dual (or multiple) citizenship.^[152]

A law adopted in June 2019 allows the revocation of the German citizenship of dual citizens who have joined or supported a terror militia such as theIslamic State and are at least 18 years old.

Naturalized Germans can lose their German citizenship if it is found out that they got it by willful deceit / bribery / menacing / giving intentionally false or incomplete information that had been important for the naturalization process. In June 2019, it was decided to prolong the deadline from 5 to 10 years after naturalization.

As of 10 September 2025, German citizens had visa-free or visa on arrival access to 188 countries and territories. Ranking theGerman passport 4th in terms of travel freedom, tied with the greatest access of allEuropean Union member states along with Italy, Luxembourg and Spain, according to theHenley Passport Index.^[154]

AsEU citizens, Germans can live and work indefinitely in other EU countries and theEFTA countries; however, the right to vote and work in certain sensitive fields (such as government, police, military) might in some cases be restricted to the local citizens only. The EU/EFTA countries can exclude immigrants from getting welfare for a certain time period to avoid "welfare tourism," and they can refuse welfare completely if the immigrants do not have a job after a certain period of time and do not try to get one. Immigrants convicted of welfare fraud can be deported and be refused the re-entry of the country.

When in a non-EU country where there is no German embassy, Germans as EU citizens have the right to get consular protection from the embassy of any other EU country present in that country. SeeList of diplomatic missions of Germany andList of diplomatic missions in Germany.

German citizens can be extradited only to other EU countries or to international courts of justice, and only if a law allows this (German Basic Law, Art. 16). Before the introduction of theEuropean Arrest Warrant, the extradition of German citizens was generally prohibited by the German Basic Law.

Germany regularly publishes travel warnings on the website of theAuswärtiges Amt (Federal Foreign Office) to its citizens. The Office allows German citizens to register online in a special list, the Krisenvorsorgeliste ("Crisis-Prevention List") before they travel abroad (Elektronische Erfassung von Deutschen im Ausland [ELEFAND] Electronic Registration of Germans Being Abroad). With a password, the registered persons can change or update their data. The registration is voluntary and free of charge. It can be used for longer stays (longer than 6 months), but also for a vacation of only two weeks. The earliest date of registration is 10 days before the planned trip.

• Geographical distribution of German speakers
• German question
• Germanic peoples
• Pan-Germanism
• Unification of Germany
• Völkisch movement

Most numbers are from the www.ethnologue.com, apart from a few from German language andGermans, as well as the following:

• A global map of the German digital Diaspora
• Standard German
• Plautdietsch
• German-American Heritage Foundation of the USA in Washington, DC
• Reassessing what we collect website – German London
• Sitio Internacional de Villa General Belgrano - Colonia Alemana Argentina

• German diaspora

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