Germans
From The Art and Popular Culture Encyclopedia
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Germans (Template:Lang-de) are the citizens or native-born people of Germany; or people of descent to the ethnic and ethnolinguistic group associated with the German language. This connection may be ethnic, historical, ancestral, cultural, legal or residential. The English term Germans has historically referred to the German-speaking population of the Holy Roman Empire since the Late Middle Ages. Legally, Germans are citizens of the Federal Republic of Germany.
Of approximately 100 million native speakers of German in the world, roughly 70 million consider themselves Germans. There are an additional 80 million people of German ancestry mainly in the United States, Brazil (almost totally in the country's South Region), Argentina, Canada, South Africa, post-Soviet states (mainly in Russia and Kazakhstan), France, Australia, Chile and Italy (mainly in South Tyrol). Thus, the total number of Germans worldwide lies between 66 and 160 million, depending on the criteria applied (native speakers, single-ancestry ethnic Germans, partial German ancestry, etc.).
Today, people from countries with a German-speaking majority such as Austria, Switzerland, Liechtenstein and Luxembourg, have developed their own national identity, and since the end of World War II, have not referred to themselves as "Germans" in a modern context.
See also
- Die Deutschen (ZDF's documentary television series)
- German eastward expansion
- Names for the German language
- Organised persecution of ethnic Germans
- List of Alsatians and Lorrainians
- List of Austrians
- List of ancient Germanic peoples
- List of Swiss people
- List of terms used for Germans
- Ethnic groups in Europe
- Genetic history of Europe
- Anti-German sentiment
