Editing Germans (section)

==Identity==
{{Further|German nationalism|Pan-Germanism}}
A German ethnic identity began to emerge during the [[Early Middle Ages|early medieval period]].<ref name="Haarmann_313">{{harvnb|Haarmann|2015|p=313}} "Germans are a Germanic (or Teutonic) people that are indigenous to Central Europe... Germanic tribes have inhabited Central Europe since at least Roman times, but it was not until the early Middle Ages that a distinct German ethnic identity began to emerge."</ref> These peoples came to be referred to by the High German term ''diutisc'', which means "ethnic" or "relating to the people". The German endonym ''[[:wikt:Deutsche|Deutsche]]'' is derived from this word.{{sfn|Haarmann|2015|p=313}} In subsequent centuries, the German lands were relatively decentralized, leading to the maintenance of a number of strong regional identities.{{sfn|Haarmann|2015|p=314}}{{sfn|Minahan|2000|pp=289–290}}

The German nationalist movement emerged among German intellectuals in the late 18th century. They saw the Germans as a people united by language and advocated the unification of all Germans into a single nation state, which was partially achieved in 1871. By the late 19th and early 20th century, German identity came to be defined by a shared descent, culture, and history.<ref name="Moser_172"/> ''[[Völkisch]]'' elements identified Germanness with "a shared Christian heritage" and "biological essence", to the exclusion of the notable Jewish minority.{{sfn|Rock|2019|p=32}} After the Holocaust and the downfall of Nazism, "any confident sense of Germanness had become suspect, if not impossible".{{sfn|Rock|2019|p=33}} East Germany and West Germany both sought to build up an identity on historical or ideological lines, distancing themselves both from the Nazi past and each other.{{sfn|Rock|2019|p=33}} After German reunification in 1990, the political discourse was characterized by the idea of a "shared, ethnoculturally defined Germanness", and the general climate became increasingly xenophobic during the 1990s.{{sfn|Rock|2019|p=33}} Today, discussion on Germanness may stress various aspects, such as commitment to pluralism and the German constitution ([[constitutional patriotism]]),{{sfn|Rock|2019|pp=33–34}} or the notion of a ''Kulturnation'' (nation sharing a common culture).{{sfn|Rock|2019|p=34}} The German language remains the primary criterion of modern German identity.<ref name="Moser_172"/>