Ethnic Germans - Groupings

Groupings

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, which are:

• Austria, Belgium, Germany, Liechtenstein, Luxembourg and Switzerland.

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

• Ungarndeutsche / Germans of Hungary.
• Serbiendeutsche / Germans of Serbia.
• Rumäniendeutsche / Germans of Romania.

Roughly grouped:

• Germans in the Czech Republic, notably:
  • Sudeten Germans in the Sudetenland.
• Germans of East Prussia (the largest group), including
  • Germans of Poland; see also:
    • the Polonized Bambrzy (notice that Bambrzy are not part of German minority).
  • those from Lithuania: Prussian-Lithuanians and Baltic Germans.
  • Baltic Germans of Latvia and Estonia, Prussian-Polonians, Prussian Latvians, and ethnic Germans in Belarus.
• The German-Briton group of the United Kingdom (sometimes called British Germans), and German Poles living in the UK since the end of WWII.

• Schleswigsch Germans in South Jutland County, Denmark.
• German-speaking citizens of the Netherlands (386,200 - 2.37% of the population), including Limburger Germans.
• German-speaking Belgians, mostly in the German-speaking Community of Belgium (DGB - Deutschsprachige Gemeinschaft Belgiens), and about 1 to 3 percent of Belgians speak German.
• South Tyrol, a majority in this province of Italy.
• Walser originally from Wallis in Switzerland, now in Italy.
• Cimbrians in Italy.
• Móchenos in Italy.

• Germans in Slovenia: in the Gottschee County, in the Lower Styrian towns of Maribor, Celje and Ptuj, and in the Apače area.

• the Bruderhof Communities.
• the original Hutterites.
• Russian Mennonites in Ukraine, including the Mennonite Brethren.

• Transylvanian Saxons in Romania.
• Transylvanian Landler Protestants in Romania.
• Carpathian Germans in Romania, as well as nearby Hungary, Slovakia and Ukraine.
• Zipser, from Spiš (Carpathian German heartland) to northern Romania.
• Regat Germans in southern and eastern Romania.

• Danube Swabians, including:
  • those in the Bačka.
  • Banat Swabians in the Serbian and Romanian Banat, as well as a handful in Bulgaria.
  • Satu Mare Swabians in Romania, a much smaller colony as a result of the two world wars and the Communist era.
  • most Germans of Hungary (especially Swabian Turkey).
  • in Croatia (where it is a recognized minority language).
  • and Bosnia and Herzegovina, though are now minuscule in number since WWII.

• Black Sea Germans in southern Ukraine, Moldova, Romania and Bulgaria including:
  • Germans of the Crimea.
  • Dobrujan Germans of Romania and Bulgaria.
  • Bukovina Germans from Bukovina.
  • Bessarabia Germans roughly from what is now Moldova.

• Germans of Volhynia (German Volhynians).
• Galiziendeutsche in Galicia.

• German Russians, estimated at 5 million throughout Russia, and German Ukrainians, included in Ukraine.

• Caucasus Germans (also Swabians) in the northern Caucasus, Georgia, and Azerbaijan.

• the rest of the Germans in the former USSR, including:
  • Volga Germans.
  • Russian Mennonites.
  • Germans of Kazakhstan.

• Bosporus Germans, originally craftsmen in and around Istanbul, Turkey.
• Cyprus has a German expatriate community.
• Israel, many happen to be Jewish holocaust survivors.

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

• German Canadians and German-Americans, the largest ethno-ancestral group in the USA documented by the 2000 United States Census.
  • Texas Germans (see also the List of German Texans).
  • Hutterites who speak Hutterite German.
• German Mexicans, including Mennonites 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 comprise Brazilian German.
• German Argentines with prominent personalities and a notable German impact on Argentine culture.
• German-Chilean with prominent personalities and a notable impact in Southern Chile.
• Germans of Paraguay.
• Germans, mostly from outside the borders of Germany, in the rest of Latin America, especially:
  • German-Puerto Ricans
  • Peru, not many are German speakers, see German Peruvian.
  • Uruguay, known for a German community.
  • Venezuela, for example Colonia Tovar, where Alemán Coloniero is spoken.
  • Colombia, Cuba and the Dominican Republic.
  • Central America.

…or by ethnic or religious criteria:

• Pennsylvania Dutch
• Amish found in the USA, notably Ohio, Pennsylvania, Indiana and New York.
• Volga Germans and Plautdietsch-speaking Russian Mennonites.
  • in Canada, (e.g. Chortitzer Mennonite Conference).
  • in the United States, for instance in Kansas, New York State, and Chicago, Illinois where millions of residents self-claim to be German (American).
  • throughout Latin America, most notably in Mexico.
• Hutterites who speak Hutterite German.
• the Bruderhof Communities, the USA and Paraguay.

In Africa, Oceania, and East Asia

• Germans of Namibia, Togo, Cameroon, Tanzania and South Africa, which was never a pre-WWI German colony.
• German Australians and German New Zealanders.
• Germans in the colony of Jiaozhou Bay, China, who founded (among others) the Tsingtao Brewery in today's Qingdao.
• Small numbers of German expatriates in East Asia (Burma, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Japan, Malaysia, Philippines, Taiwan, Thailand and South Korea).
• German cultural traits remain in Papua New Guinea.