Germans
Germans 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. The constitution of Germany, implemented in 1949 following the end of World War II, defines a German as a German citizen. 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. The German language remains dominant in Germany, and is still widely perceived as a necessary criterion for German "national belonging". The total number of Germans in the world range is about 100 million, most of whom live in Germany.
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 generally decentralized and politically divided between many small princedoms, cities and bishoprics, while the idea of unified German state came later. 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. At the same time however, the concept of German nationality became more complex. The multiethnic Kingdom of Prussia incorporated most Germans into its German Empire in 1871, and a substantial additional number of German speakers were in the multiethnic kingdom of Austria-Hungary. During this time, a large number of Germans also emigrated to the New World, particularly to the United States. 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 specific way which included Austrians, Luxembourgers, eastern Belgians, and so-called Volksdeutsche, who 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 led to World War II and the Holocaust in which the Nazi regime was defeated by allied powers, including the United States, 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, 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. Sixteen Länder make up modern Germany. Arts and sciences are an integral part of German culture, and the Germans have been represented by many prominent personalities in a significant number of disciplines, including Nobel prize laureates where Germany is ranked third among countries of the world in the number of total recipients.
Names
The English term Germans is derived from the ethnonym Germani, which was used for Germanic peoples in ancient times. Since the early modern period, it has been the most common name for the Germans in English, being applied to any citizens, natives or inhabitants of Germany, regardless of whether they are considered to have German ethnicity.In some contexts, people of German descent are also called Germans. In historical discussions the term Germans is also occasionally used to refer to the Germanic peoples during the time of the Roman Empire.
The German endonym Deutsche is derived from the Old High German term diutisc, which means or. This term was used for speakers of West-Germanic languages in Central Europe since at least the 8th century, after which time a distinct German ethnic identity began to emerge among at least some of them living within the Holy Roman Empire. However, variants of the same term were also used in the Low Countries, for the related dialects of what is still called Dutch in English, which is now a national language of the Netherlands and Belgium.
History
Ancient history
The first information about the peoples living in what is now Germany was provided by the Roman general and dictator Julius Caesar, who gave an account of his conquest of Gaul in the 1st century BC. He used the term Germani to describe the Germanic peoples living on both sides of the Rhine river, which he defined as a boundary between geographical Gaul and Germania. He emphasized that the Germani originated east of the river, and that this river border needed to be defended in order to avoid dangerous incursions. Archaeological evidence shows that at the time of Caesar's invasion, both Gaul and Germanic regions had long been strongly influenced by the same celtic La Tène culture. However, the Germanic languages associated with later Germanic peoples are indeed believed to have been entering the Rhine area from the east in this period. The resulting demographic situation reported by Caesar was that migrating Celts and Germanic peoples were moving into areas which threatened the Alpine regions and the Romans.The modern German language is a descendant of the Germanic languages which spread during the Iron Age and Roman era. Scholars generally agree that it is possible to speak of Germanic languages existing as early as 500 BCE. These Germanic languages are believed to have dispersed towards the Rhine from the direction of the Jastorf culture, which was itself a Celtic influenced culture that existed in the Pre-Roman Iron Age, in the region near the Elbe river. It is likely that first Germanic consonant shift, which defines the Germanic language family, occurred during this period. The earlier Nordic Bronze Age of southern Scandinavia also shows definite population and material continuities with the Jastorf Culture, but it is unclear whether these indicate ethnic continuity.
Under Caesar's successors, the Romans began to conquer and control the entire region between the Rhine and the Elbe which centuries later constituted the largest part of medieval Germany. These efforts were significantly hampered by the victory of a local alliance led by Arminius at the Battle of the Teutoburg Forest in 9 AD, which is considered a defining moment in German history. While the Romans were nevertheless victorious, rather than installing a Roman administration they controlled the region indirectly for centuries, recruiting soldiers there, and playing the tribes off against each other. The early Germanic peoples were later famously described in more detail in Germania by the 1st century Roman historian Tacitus. He described them as a diverse group, dominating a much larger area than Germany, stretching to the Vistula in the east, and Scandinavia in the north.
Medieval history
German ethnicity began to emerge in medieval times among the descendants of those Germanic peoples who had lived under heavy Roman influence between the Rhine and Elbe rivers. This included Franks, Frisians, Saxons, Thuringii, Alemanni and Baiuvarii – all of whom spoke related dialects of West Germanic.These peoples had come under the dominance of the western Franks starting with Clovis I, who established control of the Romanized and Frankish population of Gaul in the 5th century, and began a process of conquering the peoples east of the Rhine. The regions long continued to be divided into "Stem duchies", corresponding to the old ethnic designations. By the early 9th century AD, large parts of Europe were united under the rule of the Frankish leader Charlemagne, who expanded the Frankish empire in several directions including east of the Rhine, consolidating power over the Saxons and Frisians, and establishing the Carolingian Empire. Charlemagne was crowned emperor by Pope Leo III in 800.
In the generations after Charlemagne the empire was partitioned at the Treaty of Verdun, eventually resulting in the long-term separation between the states of West Francia, Middle Francia and East Francia. Beginning with Henry the Fowler, non-Frankish dynasties also ruled the eastern kingdom, and under his son Otto I, East Francia, which was mostly German, constituted the core of the Holy Roman Empire. Also under control of this loosely controlled empire were the previously independent kingdoms of Italy, Burgundy, and Lotharingia. The latter was a Roman and Frankish area which contained some of the oldest and most important old German cities including Aachen, Cologne and Trier, all west of the Rhine, and it became another Duchy within the eastern kingdom. Leaders of the stem duchies which constituted this eastern kingdom — Lotharingia, Bavaria, Franconia, Swabia, Thuringia, and Saxony ― initially wielded considerable power independently of the king. German kings were elected by members of the noble families, who often sought to have weak kings elected in order to preserve their own independence. This prevented an early unification of the Germans.
A warrior nobility dominated the feudal German society of the Middle Ages, while most of the German population consisted of peasants with few political rights. The church played an important role in the Holy Roman Empire in the Middle Ages, and competed with the nobility for power. Between the 11th and 13th centuries, German speakers from the empire actively participated in five Crusades to "liberate" the Holy Land. From the beginnings of the kingdom, its dynasties also participated in a push eastwards into Slavic-speaking regions. At the Saxon Eastern March in the north, the Polabian Slavs east of the Elbe were conquered over generations of often brutal conflict. Under the later control of powerful German dynasties it became an important region within modern Germany, and home to its modern capital, Berlin. German population also moved eastwards from the 11th century, in what is known as the Ostsiedlung. Over time, Slavic and German-speaking populations assimilated, meaning that many modern Germans have substantial Slavic ancestry. From the 12th century, many German speakers settled as merchants and craftsmen in the Kingdom of Poland, where they came to constitute a significant proportion of the population in many urban centers such as Gdańsk. During the 13th century, the Teutonic Knights began conquering the Old Prussians, and established what would eventually become the powerful German state of Prussia.
Further south, Bohemia and Hungary developed as kingdoms with their own non-German speaking elites. The Austrian March on the Middle Danube stopped expanding eastwards towards Hungary in the 11th century. Under Ottokar II, Bohemia became a kingdom within the empire, and even managed to take control of Austria, which was German-speaking. However, the late 13th century saw the election of Rudolf I of the House of Habsburg to the imperial throne, and he was able to acquire Austria for his own family. The Habsburgs would continue to play an important role in European history for centuries afterwards. Under the leadership of the Habsburgs the Holy Roman Empire itself remained weak, and by the late Middle Ages much of Lotharingia and Burgundy had come under the control of French dynasts, the House of Valois-Burgundy and House of Valois-Anjou. Step by step, Italy, Switzerland, Lorraine, and Savoy were no longer subject to effective imperial control.
Trade increased and there was a specialization of the arts and crafts. In the late Middle Ages the German economy grew under the influence of urban centers, which increased in size and wealth and formed powerful leagues, such as the Hanseatic League and the Swabian League, in order to protect their interests, often through supporting the German kings in their struggles with the nobility. These urban leagues significantly contributed to the development of German commerce and banking. German merchants of Hanseatic cities settled in cities throughout Northern Europe beyond the German lands.