Editing German diaspora (section)

== History ==

[[File:Bevölkerung Mitteleuropas um 895.jpg|thumb|320px|German eastward expansion 895—1400]]
[[File:Lange diercke sachsen deutschtum erde.jpg|thumb|Map depicting the distribution of the German diaspora during the early 20th century]]

From [[Celts|Celtic]] times, the early [[Germanic peoples|Germanic tribes]] settled from the [[Baltic Sea|Baltic]] all the way to the [[Black Sea]] until the great migrations of the 4-6th century AD.

Medieval Germans migrated eastwards during the medieval period [[Ostsiedlung]] until the [[expulsion of Germans after World War II|flight, evacuation and expulsion of Germans after World War II]]; many areas in [[Central Europe|Central]] and [[Eastern Europe]] had an ethnic German population.<ref>{{Cite book|url=http://www.igipz.pan.pl/en/zpz/Political_migrations.pdf|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150626151411/http://www.igipz.pan.pl/en/zpz/Political_migrations.pdf|url-status=dead|archive-date=2015-06-26|title=Political Migrations in Poland 1939-1948. 8. Evacuation and flight of the German population to the Potsdam Germany|last=Eberhardt|first=Piotr|publisher=Didactica|year=2006|isbn=9781536110357|location=Warsaw}}</ref><ref name=":2">{{Cite book|url=http://rcin.org.pl/Content/15652/WA51_13607_r2011-nr12_Monografie.pdf|title=Political Migrations On Polish Territories (1939-1950)|last=Eberhardt|first=Piotr|publisher=Polish Academy of Sciences|year=2011|isbn=978-83-61590-46-0|location=Warsaw}}</ref> In the [[Middle Ages]], Germans were invited to migrate to Poland and the central and eastern regions of the German [[Holy Roman Empire]] and also the [[Kingdom of Hungary]] following the [[Mongols|Mongol]] invasions of the 12th century, and then once again during the late 17th century after the Austrian-Ottoman wars to set up farms and repopulate the eastern regions of the [[Austrian Empire]] and [[Balkans]].

The Nazi government termed such ethnic Germans ''[[Volksdeutsche]]'', regardless of how long they had been residents of other countries. (Now they would be considered ''[[Auslandsdeutsche]]''). During World War II, Nazi Germany classified ethnic Germans as [[Übermensch#The Übermensch and the Nazis|Übermenschen]], while [[Jews]], [[Romani people|Gypsies]], [[Slavic peoples]], mainly [[Polish people|ethnic Poles]] and [[Serbs]], along with [[black people|Black]] and [[Multiracial|mixed-race people]] were called [[Untermensch]]en. After the war, Central European nations such as Poland, the [[Czechoslovakia]], Hungary, as well as the [[Soviet Union]] in Eastern Europe, and [[Yugoslavia]] in the Balkan region of Southern Europe, expelled most of the ethnic Germans living in their territories.

There were significant ethnic German populations in such areas as Romania, [[Moldova]], and Ukraine at one time. As recently as 1990, there were one million standard German speakers and 100,000 Plautdietsch speakers in [[Kazakhstan]] alone{{Citation needed|date=September 2007}}, and 38,000, 40,000 and 101,057 standard German speakers in Ukraine, [[Uzbekistan]], and [[Kyrgyzstan]], respectively.{{Citation needed|date=September 2007}}

There were reportedly 500,000 ethnic Germans in Poland in 1998.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.ethnologue.com/show_country.asp?name=poland |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20011006082523/http://www.ethnologue.com/show_country.asp?name=Poland |archive-date= 6 October 2001 |title=Ethnologue report for Poland |publisher=Ethnologue.com |access-date=2012-08-25}}</ref> Recent official figures show 147,000 (as of 2002).<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.mswia.gov.pl/index.php?dzial=61&id=37#niemcy |title=Ministerstwo Spraw Wewnętrznych |publisher=Mswia.gov.pl |access-date=2012-08-25 |archive-date=26 September 2007 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070926222814/http://www.mswia.gov.pl/index.php?dzial=61&id=37#niemcy |url-status=dead }}</ref> Of the 745,421 [[Germans in Romania]] in 1930,<ref>[http://www.hungarian-history.hu/lib/minor/min02.htm German Population of Romania, 1930-1948] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070817040031/http://www.hungarian-history.hu/lib/minor/min02.htm |date=17 August 2007 }}</ref> only about 60,000 remain.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.auswaertiges-amt.de/diplo/en/Laenderinformationen/01-Laender/Rumaenien.html |title=German minority |language=de |publisher=Auswaertiges-amt.de |access-date=2012-08-25 |archive-date=17 September 2008 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080917200535/http://www.auswaertiges-amt.de/diplo/en/Laenderinformationen/01-Laender/Rumaenien.html |url-status=dead }}</ref> In Hungary the situation is quite similar, with only about 220,000.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.ec.europa.eu/education/policies/lang/languages/langmin/euromosaic/hu2_en.html|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060919160038/http://www.ec.europa.eu/education/policies/lang/languages/langmin/euromosaic/hu2_en.html|title=EUROPA – Education and Training – Regional and minority languages – Euromosaïc study|archive-date=19 September 2006|access-date=5 March 2015}}</ref> There are up to one million Germans in the [[Commonwealth of Independent States|former Soviet Union]], mostly in a band from southwestern Russia and the [[Volga]] valley, through [[Omsk]] and [[Altai Krai]] (597,212 [[History of Germans in Russia and the Soviet Union|Germans in Russia]], [[Demographics of Russia|2002 Russian census]]) to Kazakhstan (353,441 [[Germans of Kazakhstan|Germans in Kazakhstan]], [[Demographics of Kazakhstan|1999 Kazakhstan census]]). Germany admitted approximately 1.63 million ethnic Germans from the former Soviet Union between 1990 and 1999.<ref>{{cite journal|url=http://www.ingentaconnect.com/content/routledg/cjms/2000/00000026/00000004/art00003 |title=German and Jewish migration from the former Soviet Union to Germany |journal=Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies |publisher=Ingentaconnect.com |date=1 October 2000 |volume=26 |issue=4 |pages=635–652 |access-date=2012-08-25|last1=Dietz |first1=Barbara |doi=10.1080/713680499 |s2cid=146462430 }}</ref>

These ''[[Auslandsdeutsche]]'', as they are now generally known, have been streaming out of the former [[Eastern Bloc]] since the early 1990s. For example, many ethnic Germans from the former Soviet Union have taken advantage of the German ''[[Aussiedler|Law of Return]]'', a policy which grants citizenship to all those who can prove to be a refugee or expellee of German ethnic origin or the spouse or descendant of such a person. This exodus has occurred despite the fact that many of the ethnic Germans from the former Soviet Union were highly assimilated and spoke little or no German.

===Historical countries===

====Former Soviet Union====
{{Main|History of Germans in Russia and the Soviet Union}}
{{Further|Black Sea Germans|Bessarabia Germans|Bukovina Germans|Crimea Germans|Germans of Kazakhstan|Caucasus Germans|Russian Mennonite|Volga Germans}}

====Former Yugoslavia====
{{Main|Germans of Yugoslavia}}

According to the 1921 census, the German community was the largest minority group in the [[Kingdom of Yugoslavia]] (505,790 inhabitants or 4.22%).<ref>{{cite web|url=http://hdr.undp.org/en/reports/nationalreports/europethecis/serbia/Serbia_nhdr_2005.pdf |title=UNDP Human Development Report for Serbia 2005 |access-date=2012-08-25}}</ref>