German diaspora

Ethnic Germans in Hungary and parts of adjacent Austrian territories, census 1890

Austria, Switzerland, and Liechtenstein 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 the Third Reich and the end of World 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.[63][64][65]

Aside from the Germans who migrated to other parts of Europe, the German diaspora also covered the Eastern and Central European states such as Croatia, Hungary, Poland, the Czech Republic, and Slovakia, along with several post-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.[66] During the periods of colonization, for instance, there was an influx of Germans who came to Bohemia 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.[66]

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 including Limburgish and Luxembourgish.

Though the Luxembourgish language is closely related to the German language, Luxembourgers do not consider themselves ethnic Germans. In a 1941 referendum held in Luxembourg by ethnic German residents, more than 90% proclaimed themselves Luxembourgish by nationality, mother tongue and ethnicity.[67]

Before World War II, some 30% of the population in Czechia (historically known as Bohemia) were ethnic Germans, and in the border regions and certain other areas they were in the majority.[68] There are about 40,000 Germans in the Czech Republic (number of Czechs who have at least partly German ancestry probably runs into the hundreds of thousands).[69] Their number has been consistently decreasing since World War II. According to the 2001 census there remain 13 municipalities and settlements in Czech Republic with more than 10% Germans.

The situation in Slovakia was different from that in Czech Republic, in that the number of Germans was considerably lower and that the Germans 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.

Many representatives of expellee organizations support the erection of bilingual signs in all formerly German-speaking territory as a visible sign of the bilingual linguistic and cultural heritage of the region. The erection of bilingual signs is permitted if a minority constitutes 10% of the population.

In Denmark, the part of Schleswig that is now South Jutland County (or Northern Schleswig) is inhabited by about 12,000–20,000 ethnic Germans[70] They speak mainly Standard German and South Jutlandic. A few speak Schleswigsch, a Northern Low Saxon dialect.

Prior to World War II, approximately 1.5 million Danube Swabians lived in Hungary, Romania and Yugoslavia.[71] 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 the Iron Curtain in 1990.

Map of Austria-Hungary in 1911, showing areas inhabited by ethnic Germans in pink

There are smaller, unique populations of Germans who arrived so long ago that their dialect retains many archaic features heard nowhere else: the Cimbrians are concentrated in various communities in the Carnic Alps, north of Verona, and especially in the Sugana Valley on the high plateau northwest of Vicenza in the Veneto region; the Walsers, who originated in the Swiss Wallis, live in the provinces of Aostatal, Vercelli, and Verbano-Cusio-Ossola; the Mòchenos live in the Fersina Valley. Smaller German-speaking communities also exist in the Friuli Venezia Giulia region: the Carinthians in the Canale Valley (municipalities of Tarvisio, Malborghetto Valbruna and Pontebba) and the Zahren and Timau Germans in Carnia.

Contrarily to the before-mentioned minorities, the German-speaking population of the province of South Tyrol cannot be categorized as "ethnic German" according to the definition of this article, but as Austrian minority. However, as Austrian saw themselves as ethnic Germans until the end of World War II they can technically also be called Germans.[72] The province was part of the Austrian County of Tyrol before the 1919 dissolution of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. South Tyrolians 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, 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 of Sardinia since the 13th century.[73] Successively since 1850 groups of specialised workers from Styria, Austria, followed by German miners from Freiburg settled in the same area. Some Germans influenced building and toponym is still visible in this area.[74][75]

In Norway, there are 27,770 Germans making Germans the ninth largest ethnic minority in the country, making up 0.52% of Norway's total population, and 2.94% of all foreign residents in Norway.[76] Immigration from Germany to Norway has been going on since the Middle Ages. There was many Germans that migrated to Bergen during the Middle Ages and during Norway's union with Denmark. During the Union with Denmark a lot of German miners migrated to the town of Kongsberg.[77] As of 2020 there is 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. The city with the biggest population of Germans is Oslo. 3,743 Germans lives in the city making up 0.55% of the total population.[78] Germany is also the country that sends the most foreign exchange students to Norway, in 2016, 1,570 exchange students came to Norway from Germany.[79]

German minority in Poland, 1925

The remaining German minority in Poland (109,000 people were registered in the 2011 census[80]) enjoys minority rights according to Polish minority law. There are German speakers throughout Poland, and most of the Germans live in the Opole Voivodship in Silesia. 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.

Since the High 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 the Democratic Forum of Germans in Romania.

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. 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%). 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.

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 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 of Corsica.

In the United Kingdom, a German-Briton ethnic group of around 300,000 exists. Some are descended from nineteenth-century immigrants. Others are 20th-century immigrants and their descendants: (Ethnic Jews who fled Nazi Germany in the 1930s are not ethnic Germans), and World War II prisoners 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 the London and southeast part of England, in particular, Richmond (South West London).

The British Royal Family are partially descended from German monarchs.

The Anglo-Saxon tribe were the population in Britain descended from the Germanic tribes who migrated from continental Europe and settled the south and east of the island beginning in the early 5th century. The Anglo-Saxon period denotes the period of English history after their initial settlement through their creation of the English nation, up to the Norman conquest; that is, between about 550 and 1066.[1][2] The term Anglo-Saxon is also used for the language, today more correctly called Old English, that was spoken and written by the Anglo-Saxons in England (and parts of south-eastern Scotland) between at least the mid-5th century and the mid-12th century, after which it is known as Middle English.[3]

Examples of German language signage in Namibia.

During the long decline of the Roman Empire and the ensuing great migrations Germanic tribes such as the Vandals (who sacked Rome) migrated into North Africa and settled mainly in the lands corresponding to modern Tunisia and northeastern Algeria. 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 company C. 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, including German East Africa and German 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. In Namibia 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 as Swakopmund and Lüderitz, where German architecture is highly visible.

In South Africa, a number of Afrikaners and Boers are of partial German ancestry, being the descendants of German immigrants who intermarried with Dutch settlers and adopted Afrikaans as their mother tongue. Professor JA Heese in his book Die Herkoms van die Afrikaner (The Origins of Afrikaners) claims the modern Afrikaners (who total around 3.5 million) have 34.4% German ancestry.[81]

Germans also emigrated to South Africa during the 1850s and 1860s, and settled in the Eastern Cape area around Stutterheim, and in Kwazulu-Natal in the Wartburg area, where there is still a large German-speaking community.[82] 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 in South Africa.[83] Germans settled quite extensively in South Africa, with many Calvinists immigrating from Northern Europe. Later on, more Germans settled in the KwaZulu-Natal and elsewhere. Here, one of the largest communities are the speakers of "Nataler Deutsch", a variety of Low German, who are concentrated in and around Wartburg. German is slowly disappearing elsewhere, but a number of communities still have a large number of speakers and some even have German language schools.

When mainland Tanzania, Rwanda, and Burundi were under German control they were named German East Africa and received some migration from German communities. After Tanganyika and Ruanda-Urundi became British and Belgian mandates following Germany's defeat in World War I, some of these communities remained. There is a small community of Germans remaining in Tanzania.

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 the Prairie provinces (areas coloured in yellow).

• Belize: 5,763 Mennonite Low-German speakers.
• Canada (3.2 million, 10% of the population), see also German Canadians.
• Mexico: See German immigration to Mexico, 100,000 Mennonites;[84] 22% of Mennonites also speaks Low German which is not Standard German but derived from Old Saxon, 30% speaks Spanish, 5% speaks English and 5% speaks Russian as second language.[85] Different sources estimates that there are between 15 000 and 40 000 German citizens and Mexicans of German-citizen origin account for over 1,500,000 people today.[86] 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 million Americans 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.[87] including various groups such as the Pennsylvania 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 the Upper Midwest.[88][89]
• Central America: In 1940, there were 16,000 Germans living in Central America; half of them in Guatemala, and most of the remainder were established in Costa Rica.[90]

German Argentines celebrate Oktoberfest in Villa General Belgrano.

German population in Southern Brazil.

  Less than 1% of population (Uruguay)

  Between 1 – 5% of population (State of São Paulo)

  Between 5 – 10% of population (State of Paraná)

  Between 10 – 25% of population (State of Rio Grande do Sul)

  Around 35% of population (State of Santa Catarina)

Mennonites in San Ignacio, Paraguay

• Argentina: Those of German ancestry constitute about 8% of the Argentine population — over 3 million — most of them Volga Germans alone — about 2 million.[2] There are more than 400,000 of other German ancestries including Mennonites and German 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 of Villa 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.[91] By 1940, there were 250,000 people of German descent living in the country.[90] 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 includes other ethnic Germans who emigrated from Austria, Switzerland, Russia/USSR, etc.).[92][93] 50,000 German citizens live in Argentina.[10]

Nazi Minister Walther Darré was born in Argentina. After the Second World War, almost a thousand prominent Nazi leaders and politicians fled to Argentina. Adolf Eichmann and Josef Mengele were among them. Kurt Tank, who developed some of the greatest World War II aircraft fighters, also entered Argentina in the late 1940s.[94]

There are about 500,000 German-speakers in Argentina,[95] slightly over 1% of population.

• Bolivia: There are 2 different German groups, the descendants of those who emigrated from Germany and Brazil (estimated in about a quarter of million, 2.0% of Bolivian population[96]), and the descendants of Mennonites that emigrated from Canada and Mexico (at least 85,000 of them live in agrarian communities).[97][98] Germans are 237,000 or 2,5% of Bolivian population.[99]

There are over 20,000 Standard German-speakers,[96] plus 85,000 Mennonite Low German-speakers.[97]

• Brazil: Mostly living in Southern 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 by IBGE researcher Simon 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.[100] In 2004, Deutsche Welle cited the number of 5 million Brazilians of German descent.[101] Hunsrückisch and East Pomeranian are some of the most prominent groups.[102][103][104]

By 1940, the German diaspora in Brazil amounted about a million.[90]

There are 3 million German-speakers in Brazil,[95] 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).[105] There are 40,000 Standard German-speakers.[106]
• Paraguay : 166,000 Standard German-speakers (including 18,000 Mennonites, who don't speak Plattdeutsch or Mennonite Low German), most Germans in Paraguay are of Brazilian descent and Portuguese speakers;[96] plus 20,000 Mennonite Low German, spoken by Mennonites who live in Chaco and Eastern Paraguay[96] The Mennonites emigrated to Paraguay from Chihuahua State (in Mexico), the Soviet Union, Canada, and Bolivia.[107][108] Non-Mennonites German emigrated to Paraguay mainly from Brazil, the Kingdom of Prussia, and the German Empire.[108]

Those of German ancestry are 290,000 or 4.4% of Paraguayan population.[28]

• Peru: The communities of Oxapampa, Pozuzo, and Villa 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[109] In the 18th century, German immigrants settled the areas of Tingo Maria, Tarapoto, Moyobamba, and the Amazonas Department.[110] German immigrants largely settled in Lima, and to a lesser extent Arequipa.[111]
• Uruguay: By 1940, there were 50,000 Germans living in the country.[90]
• Venezuela:

In Japan, during the Meiji 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 few Germans in Japan, since Germany's and Japan's fairly parallel modernization made Germans ideal O-yatoi gaikokujin. (See also Germany–Japan relations)

In China, the German trading colony of Jiaozhou Bay in what is now Qingdao existed until 1914, and did not leave much more than breweries, including Tsingtao Brewery.

Smaller numbers of ethnic Germans immigrated in the former Southeast Asian territories of Malaysia (British), Indonesia (Dutch) and the Philippines (American) in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. In Indonesia, some of them became well-known figures in history, such as C.G.C. Reinwardt (founder and first director of Bogor Botanical Garden), Walter Spies (German of Russian origin, who became the artist that made Bali known to the world), and Franz Wilhelm Junghuhn (owner of a big plantation in the south of Bandung and dubbed "the Humboldt of the East" because of his ethno-geographical notes).

Members of the German religious group known as Templers settled in Palestine in the late 19th century and lived there for several generations, but were expelled by the British from Mandatory Palestine during World War II, due to pro-Nazi sympathies expressed by many of them.

Communist East Germany had relations with Vietnam and Uganda in Africa, but in these cases population movement went mostly to, not from, Germany. After the German reunification, a large percentage of "guest workers" from Communist nations sent to East Germany returned to their home countries.

See also: German colonial empire and List of former German colonies

People with German ancestry as a percentage of the population in Australia divided geographically by statistical local area, as of the 2011 census

• 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 Prussian Lutheran settlers in South Australia (see German 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.

There have been ethnic Germans in Australia since the founding of the New South Wales colony in 1788, Governor Arthur Phillip (the first Governor 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 the Hesse-Nassau state and the Rheingau). From there after, thousands of Germans emigrated to Australia until World War I. Also, German Australian was the most identified ethnicity behind English and Irish in Australia until World War I.

After World War II, large numbers of Germans emigrated to Australia to escape war-torn Europe.

• 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). Many German 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 former Prime Minister David 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.

According to the 1921 census, the German community was the largest minority group in the Kingdom of Yugoslavia (505,790 inhabitants or 4.22%).[120]

As EU citizens, Germans can live and work indefinitely in other EU countries and the EFTA 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. See List of diplomatic missions of Germany and List 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 the European Arrest Warrant, the extradition of German citizens was generally prohibited by the German Basic Law.

Germany regularly publishes travel warnings on the website of the Auswärtiges 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.

On 17 April 2020, the German Auswärtiges Amt (Federal Foreign Office) published a worldwide travel warning on its website and advised German citizens not to take unnecessary trips abroad.
Meanwhile (July 2020), the warning has been revoked for other EU countries, the EFTA countries, and the microstates (Andorra, Monaco, San Marino, and Vatican City).
The German Government advises its citizens against traveling to Ireland, Malta, and the United Kingdom because of their strict quarantine prescriptions.
On its website, the Auswärtiges Amt will regularly update travel information.