Ethnic Germans
This article is about the German
diaspora. See Germans for the German
ethnicity in general.
Ethnic Germans (German: Deutschstäm-
mige, historically also Volksdeutsche), also
collectively referred to as the German dia-
spora, are those who are considered, by
themselves or others, to be of German origin
ethnically, not necessarily born or living with-
in the present-day Federal Republic of Ger-
many, holding its citizenship or speaking the
German language. Ethnic Germans have a
rich history and folklore.
In English usage, but less often in Ger-
man, the term may be used for assimilated
descendants of German emigrants. The tradi-
tional American English language practice
has been to refer to the ethnic Germans of a
given country by combining the country or
region
name
(or
its
adjective)
with
"Germans"; for example, "Brazilian Germans"
was at least traditionally used (see below) to
refer to ethnic Germans living in Brazil. In
the past, this practice broke down when re-
ferring to countries that no longer existed
("Kingdom of Hungary" Germans) or regions
that transcended national boundaries (thus
"Black Sea Germans"), "Alsatian Germans"
and "Baltic Germans".
However, the modern trend is to emphas-
ize the status as citizens of the new country
and to invert the order of the compound ex-
pression. According to this system, one uses
the word "German" as an adjective, not a
noun. For example, German Americans are
called German Americans but never "U.S.
Germans" or "American Germans". For sever-
al decades, many ethnic German groups pre-
ferred to call themselves in a way that em-
phasized that they were assimilated members
of the society of their new country.
German ethnicity is historically equivalent
to the German language Sprachraum. Thus,
Swiss Germans still held strong ties with and
sympathies towards Germany during World
War I, although separating from the Holy Ro-
man Empire between the 13th and 17th cen-
tury. The first attempts to create a conscious-
ness of the "Austrian nation" took place
during