150-521: The German diaspora ( German : Deutschstämmige ) consists of German people and their descendants who live outside of Germany. The term is used in particular to refer to the aspects of migration of German speakers from Central Europe to different countries around the world. This definition describes the "German" term as a sociolinguistic group as opposed to the national one since the emigrant groups came from different regions with diverse cultural practices and different varieties of German. For instance,
300-767: A Northern Low Saxon dialect. 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 . Prior to World War II, approximately 1.5 million Danube Swabians lived in Hungary, Romania, and Yugoslavia. Today
450-640: A citizen of Germany living more or less permanently in another country (including expatriates such as long-term academic exchange lecturers and the like), who are allowed to vote in the Republic's elections, but who usually do not pay taxes to Germany but in their resident states. In a looser but still valid sense, and in general discourse, the word is frequently used in lieu of the ideologically tainted term Volksdeutsche , denoting persons living abroad without German citizenship but defining themselves as Germans (culturally or ethnically speaking). Ethnic Germans are
600-460: A de facto official language of Namibia after the end of German colonial rule alongside English and Afrikaans , and had de jure co-official status from 1984 until its independence from South Africa in 1990. However, the Namibian government perceived Afrikaans and German as symbols of apartheid and colonialism, and decided English would be the sole official language upon independence, stating that it
750-465: A market economy from a command economy in 1990–1991 and made efforts to rebuild and restructure their economic systems, often following neoliberal shock therapy policies, with varying results. In all, the process triggered severe economic declines, with gross domestic product (GDP) dropping by more than 40% overall between 1990 and 1995. This decline in GDP was much more intense than the 27% decline that
900-731: A roadmap for future integration and established the Eurasian Economic Commission (modelled on the European Commission ). The Eurasian Economic Commission serves as the regulatory agency for the Eurasian Customs Union, the Single Economic Space and the Eurasian Economic Union. The Eurasian Economic Union is an economic union of post-Soviet states. The treaty aiming for the establishment of
1050-402: A second language , and 75–100 million as a foreign language . This would imply the existence of approximately 175–220 million German speakers worldwide. German sociolinguist Ulrich Ammon estimated a number of 289 million German foreign language speakers without clarifying the criteria by which he classified a speaker. As of 2012 , about 90 million people, or 16% of
1200-587: A "commonly used" language and the Pan South African Language Board is obligated to promote and ensure respect for it. Cameroon was also a colony of the German Empire from the same period (1884 to 1916). However, German was replaced by French and English, the languages of the two successor colonial powers, after its loss in World War I . Nevertheless, since the 21st century, German has become
1350-819: A German Evangelical Church. Lisbon also hosts a Catholic German Church and a German cemetery since 1821. Many Luso-Germans have acquired fame throughout the years. Individuals of the community include Alfredo Keil (1850–1907), composer of A Portuguesa , the Portuguese national anthem , archaeologist Virgínia Rau (1907–1973), banker and industrialist António Champalimaud (1918–2004), architect Francisco Keil do Amaral (1910–1975) and former prime minister Ernesto Hintze Ribeiro (1849–1907). Contemporary figures of German descent include football player Diego Moreira , Eurovision song contest winner Salvador Sobral , surfer Nic von Rupp , actresses Catarina Wallenstein and Vera Kolodzig , and tennis player Maria João Koehler . Amongst
1500-591: A German variety as a first language in South Africa . 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
1650-409: A census): 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 Nazi Germany and the end of World War II . Post-1945 a broader Austrian national identity began to emerge, and over 90% of
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#17329061167621800-508: A free trade area, but the agreements were never signed. On 19 October 2011, Armenia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Moldova, Russia, Tajikistan and Ukraine signed a free trade agreement. Uzbekistan joined the free trade area in 2013. The Eurasian Economic Community (EURASEC), formerly the CIS Customs Union, was established by Russia , Belarus , Kazakhstan , Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan . Ukraine and Moldova have observer status in
1950-556: A greater need for regularity in written conventions. While the major changes of the MHG period were socio-cultural, High German was still undergoing significant linguistic changes in syntax, phonetics, and morphology as well (e.g. diphthongization of certain vowel sounds: hus (OHG & MHG "house") → haus (regionally in later MHG)→ Haus (NHG), and weakening of unstressed short vowels to schwa [ə]: taga (OHG "days")→ tage (MHG)). A great wealth of texts survives from
2100-487: A minority group in many countries. The following sections briefly detail the historical and present distribution of ethnic Germans by region, but generally exclude modern expatriates , who have a presence in the United States, Scandinavia and major urban areas worldwide. In the United States census of 1990, 57 million people identified as being fully or partly of German ancestry, forming the largest single ethnic group in
2250-453: A native tongue today, mostly descendants of German colonial settlers . The period of German colonialism in Namibia also led to the evolution of a Standard German-based pidgin language called " Namibian Black German ", which became a second language for parts of the indigenous population. Although it is nearly extinct today, some older Namibians still have some knowledge of it. German remained
2400-617: 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
2550-550: A number of communities still have a large number of speakers and some even have German language schools. Around 17,000 German Nationals lived in South Africa in 2020. 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
2700-1121: A number of multinational organizations such as: Regarding political freedom in the former Soviet republics, Freedom House 's 2021 report listed the following: Similarly, the Press Freedom Index published by Reporters Without Borders in 2022 recorded the following as regards press freedom : It has been remarked that several post-Soviet states did not change leadership for decades since their independence, such as Nursultan Nazarbayev in Kazakhstan until his surprise resignation in 2019, and Islam Karimov in Uzbekistan, until his death in September 2016. All of these had originally more limited terms but through decrees or referendums prolonged their stay in office (a practice also followed by Presidents Alexander Lukashenko of Belarus and Emomali Rahmon of Tajikistan). Askar Akayev of Kyrgyzstan had likewise served as President since its independence until he
2850-623: A popular foreign language among pupils and students, with 300,000 people learning or speaking German in Cameroon in 2010 and over 230,000 in 2020. Today Cameroon is one of the African countries outside Namibia with the highest number of people learning German. In the United States, German is the fifth most spoken language in terms of native and second language speakers after English, Spanish , French , and Chinese (with figures for Cantonese and Mandarin combined), with over 1 million total speakers. In
3000-673: A pressure for democracy. This is one of the few social disasters that the church has survived, in which it was not the cause. But if successful politically, it faces economic challenges beyond its grasp." The Central Asian states ( Kazakhstan , Kyrgyzstan , Tajikistan , Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan ) plus Azerbaijan in the Southern Caucasus are Muslim , except for their dwindling Russian and other European minorities. The Baltic countries are historically Western Christian ( Protestant and Roman Catholic ), which adds another layer of pro-Western orientation to those countries, although
3150-475: A result, the surviving texts are written in highly disparate regional dialects and exhibit significant Latin influence, particularly in vocabulary. At this point monasteries, where most written works were produced, were dominated by Latin, and German saw only occasional use in official and ecclesiastical writing. While there is no complete agreement over the dates of the Middle High German (MHG) period, it
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#17329061167623300-475: A successful transition to capitalism and more democracy." Commenting on Milanović's report in 2021, Kristen Ghodsee says this view is "essentially correct" and perhaps underestimates "the negative impacts of transition by focusing only on GDP, inequality and democratic consolidation" whereas Mitchell A. Orenstein says this view is "overly pessimistic" and notes that "Poland had done spectacularly well and living standards had increased in many countries." Most of
3450-497: Is Oslo . 3,743 Germans live in the city, thereby making up 0.55% of the total population. 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. The remaining German minority in Poland (109,000 people were registered in the 2011 census) enjoys minority rights according to Polish minority law. There are German speakers throughout Poland, and most of
3600-487: 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. Successively since 1850 groups of specialised workers from Styria , Austria, followed by German miners from Freiburg settled in
3750-504: Is a closely related organization. Observer countries include Armenia , Bulgaria and Poland . Just like GUAM before it, this forum is largely seen as intending to counteract Russian influence in the area. This is the only international forum centered in the post-Soviet space in which the Baltic countries also participate. In addition, the other three post-Soviet states in it are all members of GUAM. The Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO),
3900-580: Is a recognized minority language in the following countries: In France, the High German varieties of Alsatian and Moselle Franconian are identified as " regional languages ", but the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages of 1998 has not yet been ratified by the government. Namibia also was a colony of the German Empire, from 1884 to 1915. About 30,000 people still speak German as
4050-636: Is a small community of Germans remaining in Tanzania . In the United States are ca. 160,000 German Citizens Registered. 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,
4200-596: Is also notable for its broad spectrum of dialects , with many varieties existing in Europe and other parts of the world. Some of these non-standard varieties have become recognized and protected by regional or national governments. Since 2004, heads of state of the German-speaking countries have met every year, and the Council for German Orthography has been the main international body regulating German orthography . German
4350-546: Is an Indo-European language that belongs to the West Germanic group of the Germanic languages . The Germanic languages are traditionally subdivided into three branches: North Germanic , East Germanic , and West Germanic . The first of these branches survives in modern Danish , Swedish , Norwegian , Faroese , and Icelandic , all of which are descended from Old Norse . The East Germanic languages are now extinct, and Gothic
4500-472: Is called the "German Sprachraum ". German is the official language of the following countries: German is a co-official language of the following countries: Although expulsions and (forced) assimilation after the two World wars greatly diminished them, minority communities of mostly bilingual German native speakers exist in areas both adjacent to and detached from the Sprachraum. Within Europe, German
4650-430: Is complicated by the existence of several varieties whose status as separate "languages" or "dialects" is disputed for political and linguistic reasons, including quantitatively strong varieties like certain forms of Alemannic and Low German . With the inclusion or exclusion of certain varieties, it is estimated that approximately 90–95 million people speak German as a first language , 10–25 million speak it as
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4800-456: Is composed of China and five post-Soviet states, namely Russia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan. The organization was founded in 2001, though its predecessor, the Shanghai Five grouping, has existed since 1996. Its aims revolve around security-related issues such as border demarcation, terrorism and energy. Apart from above, the former Soviet republics also hold membership in
4950-533: 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
5100-520: Is generally seen as ending when the 1346–53 Black Death decimated Europe's population. Modern High German begins with the Early New High German (ENHG) period, which Wilhelm Scherer dates 1350–1650, terminating with the end of the Thirty Years' War . This period saw the further displacement of Latin by German as the primary language of courtly proceedings and, increasingly, of literature in
5250-595: Is generally seen as lasting from 1050 to 1350. This was a period of significant expansion of the geographical territory occupied by Germanic tribes, and consequently of the number of German speakers. Whereas during the Old High German period the Germanic tribes extended only as far east as the Elbe and Saale rivers, the MHG period saw a number of these tribes expanding beyond this eastern boundary into Slavic territory (known as
5400-559: Is less closely related to languages based on Low Franconian dialects (e.g., Dutch and Afrikaans), Low German or Low Saxon dialects (spoken in northern Germany and southern Denmark ), neither of which underwent the High German consonant shift. As has been noted, the former of these dialect types is Istvaeonic and the latter Ingvaeonic, whereas the High German dialects are all Irminonic; the differences between these languages and standard German are therefore considerable. Also related to German are
5550-435: Is one of the major languages of the world . German is the second-most widely spoken Germanic language , after English, both as a first and as a second language . German is also widely taught as a foreign language , especially in continental Europe (where it is the third most taught foreign language after English and French), and in the United States. Overall, German is the fourth most commonly learned second language, and
5700-532: Is one of the three biggest newspapers in Namibia and the only German-language daily in Africa. An estimated 12,000 people speak German or a German variety as a first language in South Africa, mostly originating from different waves of immigration during the 19th and 20th centuries. One of the largest communities consists of the speakers of "Nataler Deutsch", a variety of Low German concentrated in and around Wartburg . The South African constitution identifies German as
5850-401: Is partly derived from Latin and Greek , along with fewer words borrowed from French and Modern English . English, however, is the main source of more recent loanwords . German is a pluricentric language ; the three standardized variants are German , Austrian , and Swiss Standard German . Standard German is sometimes called High German , which refers to its regional origin. German
6000-569: Is sometimes used to refer to the post-Soviet states other than Russia. Following the end of the Cold War , the international community de facto recognized Russia as the successor state to the Soviet Union as a whole, rather than to just the Russian SFSR. In contrast, the other post-Soviet states were recognized as successors only to their corresponding Union Republics. However, Russia's status as
6150-510: Is the Sachsenspiegel , the first book of laws written in Middle Low German ( c. 1220 ). The abundance and especially the secular character of the literature of the MHG period demonstrate the beginnings of a standardized written form of German, as well as the desire of poets and authors to be understood by individuals on supra-dialectal terms. The Middle High German period
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6300-566: Is the only language in this branch which survives in written texts. The West Germanic languages, however, have undergone extensive dialectal subdivision and are now represented in modern languages such as English, German, Dutch , Yiddish , Afrikaans , and others. Within the West Germanic language dialect continuum, the Benrath and Uerdingen lines (running through Düsseldorf - Benrath and Krefeld - Uerdingen , respectively) serve to distinguish
6450-481: Is understood in all areas where German is spoken. Approximate distribution of native German speakers (assuming a rounded total of 95 million) worldwide: As a result of the German diaspora , as well as the popularity of German taught as a foreign language , the geographical distribution of German speakers (or "Germanophones") spans all inhabited continents. However, an exact, global number of native German speakers
6600-673: The Ostsiedlung ). With the increasing wealth and geographic spread of the Germanic groups came greater use of German in the courts of nobles as the standard language of official proceedings and literature. A clear example of this is the mittelhochdeutsche Dichtersprache employed in the Hohenstaufen court in Swabia as a standardized supra-dialectal written language. While these efforts were still regionally bound, German began to be used in place of Latin for certain official purposes, leading to
6750-627: The Alamanni , Bavarian, and Thuringian groups, all belonging to the Elbe Germanic group ( Irminones ), which had settled in what is now southern-central Germany and Austria between the second and sixth centuries, during the great migration. In general, the surviving texts of Old High German (OHG) show a wide range of dialectal diversity with very little written uniformity. The early written tradition of OHG survived mostly through monasteries and scriptoria as local translations of Latin originals; as
6900-517: The Alsatians and Hessians were often simply called "Germans" once they set foot in their new homelands. Volksdeutsche ("ethnic Germans") is a historical term which arose in the early 20th century and was used by the Nazis to describe ethnic Germans, without German citizenship, living outside of Nazi Germany , although many had been in other areas for centuries. During World War II , Hitler forbade
7050-1227: The Armenian SSR , the Azerbaijan SSR , the Byelorussian SSR , the Estonian SSR , the Georgian SSR , the Kazakh SSR , the Kirghiz SSR , the Latvian SSR , the Lithuanian SSR , the Moldavian SSR , the Russian SFSR , the Tajik SSR , the Turkmen SSR , the Ukrainian SSR , and the Uzbek SSR . In Russia, the term " near abroad " ( Russian : ближнее зарубежье , romanized : bližneye zarubežye )
7200-512: The Baltic states (Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania) were the first to break away from the Soviet Union by proclaiming the restoration of their national independence in 1990; they cited legal continuity from the original Baltic states , asserting that Baltic sovereignty had continued on a de jure basis due to the belligerent nature of the 1940 Soviet annexation . Subsequently, the 12 remaining Union Republics seceded, with all of them jointly establishing
7350-843: 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
7500-839: The Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) and most of them later joining the Russian-led Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO). On the other hand, the three Baltic states pursued a policy of near-total disengagement with the Russian-dominated post-Soviet sphere, instead focusing on integrating themselves with the European Union (EU) and the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO). They successfully attained NATO membership and were granted EU membership in 2004. Since
7650-442: The Community for Democracy and Rights of Nations which aims to forge closer integration. The Community of Democratic Choice (CDC) was formed in December 2005 at the primary instigation of Ukraine and Georgia, and composed of six post-Soviet states (Ukraine, Georgia, Moldova, Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania) and three other countries of Eastern and Central Europe ( Slovenia , Romania and North Macedonia ). The Black Sea Forum (BSF)
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#17329061167627800-410: The Democratic Forum of Germans in Romania (FDGR/DFDR). 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,
7950-407: The Early Middle Ages . German is an inflected language , with four cases for nouns, pronouns, and adjectives (nominative, accusative, genitive, dative); three genders (masculine, feminine, neuter) and two numbers (singular, plural). It has strong and weak verbs . The majority of its vocabulary derives from the ancient Germanic branch of the Indo-European language family, while a smaller share
8100-417: The European Union 's population, spoke German as their mother tongue, making it the second most widely spoken language on the continent after Russian and the second biggest language in terms of overall speakers (after English), as well as the most spoken native language. The area in central Europe where the majority of the population speaks German as a first language and has German as a (co-)official language
8250-483: 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 Austrians saw themselves as ethnic Germans until
8400-415: 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 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,
8550-455: The German states . While these states were still part of the Holy Roman Empire , and far from any form of unification, the desire for a cohesive written language that would be understandable across the many German-speaking principalities and kingdoms was stronger than ever. As a spoken language German remained highly fractured throughout this period, with a vast number of often mutually incomprehensible regional dialects being spoken throughout
8700-554: The Holy Roman Emperor Maximilian I , and the other being Meißner Deutsch , used in the Electorate of Saxony in the Duchy of Saxe-Wittenberg . Alongside these courtly written standards, the invention of the printing press led to the development of a number of printers' languages ( Druckersprachen ) aimed at making printed material readable and understandable across as many diverse dialects of German as possible. The greater ease of production and increased availability of written texts brought about increased standardisation in
8850-439: The Old High German language in several Elder Futhark inscriptions from as early as the sixth century AD (such as the Pforzen buckle ), the Old High German period is generally seen as beginning with the Abrogans (written c. 765–775 ), a Latin-German glossary supplying over 3,000 Old High German words with their Latin equivalents. After the Abrogans , the first coherent works written in Old High German appear in
9000-438: The Partnership for Peace and Individual Partnership Action Plan program include Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Moldova, Russia, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan. Four member states, namely Georgia , Ukraine , Azerbaijan and Moldova , established the GUAM group that was largely seen as intending to counter Russian dominance in the region. Notably, these four nations do not participate in any of
9150-427: The Sprachraum in Europe. German is used in a wide variety of spheres throughout the country, especially in business, tourism, and public signage, as well as in education, churches (most notably the German-speaking Evangelical Lutheran Church in Namibia (GELK) ), other cultural spheres such as music, and media (such as German language radio programs by the Namibian Broadcasting Corporation ). The Allgemeine Zeitung
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#17329061167629300-422: The Standard German language in its written form, and the Duden Handbook was declared its standard definition. Punctuation and compound spelling (joined or isolated compounds) were not standardized in the process. The Deutsche Bühnensprache ( lit. ' German stage language ' ) by Theodor Siebs had established conventions for German pronunciation in theatres , three years earlier; however, this
9450-400: The Upper German dialects spoken in the southern German-speaking countries , such as Swiss German ( Alemannic dialects ) and the various Germanic dialects spoken in the French region of Grand Est , such as Alsatian (mainly Alemannic, but also Central–and Upper Franconian dialects) and Lorraine Franconian (Central Franconian). After these High German dialects, standard German
9600-463: The dissolution of the Soviet Union . Only organizations that are mainly (or completely) composed of post-Soviet states are listed in this section; organizations with wider memberships are not discussed. The 15 post-Soviet states are divided in their participation to the regional blocs: The Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) consists of 10 former Soviet Republics that differ in their membership status. As of December 2010, 9 countries have ratified
9750-408: The pagan Germanic tradition. Of particular interest to scholars, however, has been the Hildebrandslied , a secular epic poem telling the tale of an estranged father and son unknowingly meeting each other in battle. Linguistically, this text is highly interesting due to the mixed use of Old Saxon and Old High German dialects in its composition. The written works of this period stem mainly from
9900-405: The 2000s, many EU officials have stressed the importance of establishing EU Association Agreements with the other post-Soviet states. Ukraine and Georgia have actively sought NATO membership due to increasingly hostile Russian interference in their internal affairs . Due to the post-Soviet conflicts , several disputed states with varying degrees of international recognition have emerged within
10050-491: The 745,421 Germans in Romania in 1930, only about 60,000 remain. In Hungary the situation is quite similar, with only about 220,000. There are up to one million Germans in the former Soviet Union , mostly in a band from southwestern Russia and the Volga valley, through Omsk and Altai Krai (597,212 Germans in Russia , 2002 Russian census ) to Kazakhstan (353,441 Germans in Kazakhstan , 1999 Kazakhstan census ). Germany admitted approximately 1.63 million ethnic Germans from
10200-490: The Austrians now see themselves as an independent nation. 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. During
10350-410: 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. Due to Brexit , the number of Germans in the UK has declined significantly, in 2021 there were only 135,000 Germans in the UK. During the long decline of
10500-410: The CIS charter and are full CIS members (Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Moldova, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Russia, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan), one country (Turkmenistan) is an associate member and two countries (Georgia, Ukraine) left the organization in 2009 and in 2018. In 2014, Ukraine declined its CIS chairmanship and considered withdrawal from the organization. In 1994, the CIS countries agreed to create
10650-625: 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. Around 29,505 German Citizens living in Sweden in 2020 . 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, 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
10800-656: The Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO), this being an expansion of the previous Collective Security Treaty (CST). Uzbekistan which (alongside Georgia and Azerbaijan) withdrew from the CST in 1999, joined GUAM. Then in 2005, it withdrew from GUAM and joined the CSTO in 2006. On 28 June 2012, Uzbekistan suspended its membership in the CSTO. Three former Soviet states are members of NATO: Estonia , Latvia and Lithuania . Georgia, where both public opinion and
10950-733: 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
11100-822: The EAEU was signed on 29 May 2014 by the leaders of Belarus , Kazakhstan and Russia , and came into force on 1 January 2015. Treaties aiming for Armenia 's and Kyrgyzstan 's accession to the Eurasian Economic Union were signed on 9 October 2014 and 23 December respectively. Armenia's accession treaty came into force on 2 January 2015. Kyrgyzstan ratified its accession's treaty in May 2015, and it came into force in August 2015. Moldova and Tajikistan are prospective members. Seven CIS member states, namely Russia , Belarus , Kazakhstan , Kyrgyzstan , Tajikistan , Uzbekistan and Armenia , have enhanced their military cooperation, establishing
11250-714: The Empire. Its use indicated that the speaker was a merchant or someone from an urban area, regardless of nationality. Prague (German: Prag ) and Budapest ( Buda , German: Ofen ), to name two examples, were gradually Germanized in the years after their incorporation into the Habsburg domain; others, like Pressburg ( Pozsony , now Bratislava), were originally settled during the Habsburg period and were primarily German at that time. Prague, Budapest, Bratislava, and cities like Zagreb (German: Agram ) or Ljubljana (German: Laibach ), contained significant German minorities. In
11400-718: The Frisian languages— North Frisian (spoken in Nordfriesland ), Saterland Frisian (spoken in Saterland ), and West Frisian (spoken in Friesland )—as well as the Anglic languages of English and Scots. These Anglo-Frisian dialects did not take part in the High German consonant shift, and the Anglic languages also adopted much vocabulary from both Old Norse and the Norman language . The history of
11550-500: The Georgian language. While the Soviet system placed severe restrictions on religious intellectual life, traditions continued to survive. After the dissolution of the Soviet Union, Islamic movements have emerged alongside ethnic and secular ones. Vitaly Naumkin gives the following assessment: "Throughout the time of change, Islam has served as a symbol of identity, a force for mobilization, and
11700-622: 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
11850-475: The German language begins with the High German consonant shift during the Migration Period , which separated Old High German dialects from Old Saxon . This sound shift involved a drastic change in the pronunciation of both voiced and voiceless stop consonants ( b , d , g , and p , t , k , respectively). The primary effects of the shift were the following below. While there is written evidence of
12000-473: 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. Around 178,000 Germans live in Hungary. There are smaller, unique populations of Germans who arrived so long ago that their dialect retains many archaic features heard nowhere else:
12150-447: The German states; the invention of the printing press c. 1440 and the publication of Luther's vernacular translation of the Bible in 1534, however, had an immense effect on standardizing German as a supra-dialectal written language. The ENHG period saw the rise of several important cross-regional forms of chancery German, one being gemeine tiutsch , used in the court of
12300-725: 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 In South Korea, there are Germans in Korea . 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
12450-675: The Germanic dialects that were affected by the High German consonant shift (south of Benrath) from those that were not (north of Uerdingen). The various regional dialects spoken south of these lines are grouped as High German dialects, while those spoken to the north comprise the Low German and Low Franconian dialects. As members of the West Germanic language family, High German, Low German, and Low Franconian have been proposed to be further distinguished historically as Irminonic , Ingvaeonic , and Istvaeonic , respectively. This classification indicates their historical descent from dialects spoken by
12600-709: The Germans live in the Opole Voivodeship 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. As of December 2022, there are 20,500 German nationals residing in Portugal. This number only include foreign nationals and thus excludes German citizens who have acquired Portuguese citizenship (around 400 people since 2008) as well as Portuguese people of German descent. Around 6,000 Germans live in
12750-646: The Irminones (also known as the Elbe group), Ingvaeones (or North Sea Germanic group), and Istvaeones (or Weser–Rhine group). Standard German is based on a combination of Thuringian - Upper Saxon and Upper Franconian dialects, which are Central German and Upper German dialects belonging to the High German dialect group. German is therefore closely related to the other languages based on High German dialects, such as Luxembourgish (based on Central Franconian dialects ) and Yiddish . Also closely related to Standard German are
12900-1008: The Italian autonomous province of South Tyrol . It is also an official language of Luxembourg , Belgium and the Italian autonomous region of Friuli-Venezia Giulia , as well as a recognized national language in Namibia . There are also notable German-speaking communities in France ( Alsace ), the Czech Republic ( North Bohemia ), Poland ( Upper Silesia ), Slovakia ( Košice Region , Spiš , and Hauerland ), Denmark ( North Schleswig ), Romania and Hungary ( Sopron ). Overseas, sizeable communities of German-speakers are found in Brazil ( Blumenau and Pomerode ), South Africa ( Kroondal ), Namibia , among others, some communities have decidedly Austrian German or Swiss German characters (e.g. Pozuzo , Peru). German
13050-507: The MHG period. Significantly, these texts include a number of impressive secular works, such as the Nibelungenlied , an epic poem telling the story of the dragon -slayer Siegfried ( c. thirteenth century ), and the Iwein , an Arthurian verse poem by Hartmann von Aue ( c. 1203 ), lyric poems , and courtly romances such as Parzival and Tristan . Also noteworthy
13200-509: The Middle Ages and also during Norway's union with Denmark . During the Union with Denmark, a lot of German miners migrated to the town of Kongsberg . As of 2020, there are 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 respectively. The city with the biggest population of Germans
13350-521: 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
13500-504: The Soviet Union in 1991. Prior to their independence, they existed as Union Republics , which were the top-level constituents of the Soviet Union . There are 15 post-Soviet states in total: Armenia , Azerbaijan , Belarus , Estonia , Georgia , Kazakhstan , Kyrgyzstan , Latvia , Lithuania , Moldova , Russia , Tajikistan , Turkmenistan , Ukraine , and Uzbekistan . Each of these countries succeeded their respective Union Republics:
13650-499: The Soviet Union occurred against a backdrop of economic stagnation and regression within the economy of the USSR . This period marked the breakdown of the Gosplan , the state planning agency responsible for economic planning and inter-republic economic connections, exacerbating the effects on the economies of the post-Soviet states. Most of the formerly Soviet states began the transition to
13800-461: The United States suffered in the wake of the Great Depression between 1930 and 1934. The reconfiguration of public finance in compliance with capitalist principles resulted in dramatically reduced spending on health, education and other social programs, leading to a sharp increase in poverty and economic inequality . The economic shocks associated with wholesale privatization resulted in
13950-483: The anti-Akayev climate that led to his overthrow. Economic, political, national, military and social problems have all been factors in separatism in the post-Soviet space. In many cases, problems due to factors such as ethnic divisions existed before the fall of the Soviet Union, and upon the fall of the union were brought into the open. Such territories and resulting military conflicts have so far been: Civil wars unrelated to separatist movements have occurred twice in
14100-856: 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
14250-484: The broader Russian invasion of Ukraine . In the political language of Russia and some other post-Soviet states, the term near abroad ( Russian : ближнее зарубежье , romanized : blizhnee zarubezhe ) refers to the independent republics that emerged after the dissolution of the Soviet Union . Increasing usage of the term in English is connected to assertions of Russia's right to maintain significant influence in
14400-1028: The central and eastern regions of the German Holy Roman Empire and also the Kingdom of Hungary following the 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 Übermenschen , while Jews , Gypsies , Slavic peoples , mainly ethnic Poles and Serbs , along with Black and mixed-race people were called Untermenschen . After
14550-637: The community; however, Ukraine has declared its desire not to become a full member state. Because having common borders with the rest of the community is a prerequisite for full membership, Moldova is barred from seeking it. Uzbekistan applied for membership in October 2005, when the process of merging Central Asian Cooperation Organization and the Eurasian Economic Community began; it joined on 25 January 2006. Uzbekistan subsequently suspended its membership in 2008. On 10 October 2014 an agreement on
14700-730: The countries has been rising. The constitutional background for taxation is similar. Central banks are often independent state institutions, which possess the monopoly on managing and implementing a state's or federation's monetary policy. Besides monetary policy, some of them also perform the supervision of the financial intermediary system . Change in gross domestic product (GDP) in constant prices, 1991–2015 *Economy of most Soviet republics started to decline in 1989–1990, thus indices for 1991 do not match pre-reform maximums. **The year when GDP decline switched to GDP growth ***World bank publishes GDP data for Estonia only from 1995 onwards. Figures for Estonia are relative to 1995 GDP. List of
14850-506: The country as well as the largest population of Germans outside of Germany. According to the United States Ancestry Census of 2009, there were 50,764,352 people of German descent in the U.S. People of German ancestry form an important minority group in several countries, including Canada (roughly 10% of the population), Argentina (roughly 8% of the population), Brazil (roughly 3% of the population), Australia (roughly 4.5% of
15000-430: The development of non-local forms of language and exposed all speakers to forms of German from outside their own area. With Luther's rendering of the Bible in the vernacular, German asserted itself against the dominance of Latin as a legitimate language for courtly, literary, and now ecclesiastical subject-matter. His Bible was ubiquitous in the German states: nearly every household possessed a copy. Nevertheless, even with
15150-452: The dialect so as to make the work as natural and accessible to German speakers as possible. Copies of Luther's Bible featured a long list of glosses for each region, translating words which were unknown in the region into the regional dialect. Luther said the following concerning his translation method: One who would talk German does not ask the Latin how he shall do it; he must ask the mother in
15300-590: The early Germanic tribes settled from the 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 flight, evacuation and expulsion of Germans after World War II ; many areas in Central and Eastern Europe had an ethnic German population. In the Middle Ages , Germans were invited to migrate to Poland and
15450-507: The eastern provinces of Banat , Bukovina , and Transylvania (German: Banat, Buchenland, Siebenbürgen ), German was the predominant language not only in the larger towns—like Temeschburg ( Timișoara ), Hermannstadt ( Sibiu ), and Kronstadt ( Brașov )—but also in many smaller localities in the surrounding areas. In 1901, the Second Orthographic Conference ended with a (nearly) complete standardization of
15600-620: The emergence of Russian-backed states in Ukraine in 2014: the Republic of Crimea in southern Ukraine briefly proclaimed independence before being annexed by Russia in 2014 ; and the Donetsk People's Republic and the Luhansk People's Republic , both located in Ukraine's Donbas , were occupied and subsequently declared independence in 2014 before being formally annexed by Russia in 2022 , amidst
15750-594: The end of World War II they can technically also be called Germans. The province was part of the Austrian County of Tyrol before the 1919 dissolution of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. South Tyroleans 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, Romania, Yugoslavia, Hungary and Italy. Their dialect
15900-485: 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 They speak mainly Standard German and South Jutlandic . A few speak Schleswigsch ,
16050-469: The excess deaths of roughly 1 million working age individuals throughout the former Soviet bloc in the 1990s. A study by economist Steven Rosefielde asserts that 3.4 million Russians died premature deaths from 1990 to 1998, partly as the result of the shock therapy policies imposed by the Washington Consensus . The initial transition decline was eventually arrested, and after 1995 the economy in
16200-653: 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. From Celtic times
16350-624: The former Soviet Union between 1990 and 1999. German language German (German: Deutsch , pronounced [dɔʏtʃ] ) is a West Germanic language in the Indo-European language family , mainly spoken in Western and Central Europe . It is the most spoken native language within the European Union . It is the most widely spoken and official (or co-official) language in Germany , Austria , Switzerland , Liechtenstein , and
16500-435: The home, the children on the streets, the common man in the market-place and note carefully how they talk, then translate accordingly. They will then understand what is said to them because it is German. When Christ says ' ex abundantia cordis os loquitur ,' I would translate, if I followed the papists, aus dem Überflusz des Herzens redet der Mund . But tell me is this talking German? What German understands such stuff? No,
16650-474: The influence of Luther's Bible as an unofficial written standard, a widely accepted standard for written German did not appear until the middle of the eighteenth century. German was the language of commerce and government in the Habsburg Empire , which encompassed a large area of Central and Eastern Europe . Until the mid-nineteenth century, it was essentially the language of townspeople throughout most of
16800-512: The language lost its status in other post-Soviet states after the end of the Soviet Union. It maintains semi-official status in all CIS member states, because it is the organisation's official working language, but in the three Baltic states, the Russian language is not recognized in any official capacity. Georgia, since its departure from the CIS in 2009, has begun operating its government almost exclusively in
16950-406: The largest concentrations of German speakers are in the states of Rio Grande do Sul (where Riograndenser Hunsrückisch developed), Santa Catarina , and Espírito Santo . Post-Soviet states The post-Soviet states , also referred to as the former Soviet Union ( FSU ) or the former Soviet republics , are the independent sovereign states that emerged/re-emerged from the dissolution of
17100-606: The modern Afrikaners (who total around 3.5 million) have 34.4% German ancestry. 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. Mostly originating from different waves of immigration during the 19th and 20th centuries, an estimated 12,000 people speak German or
17250-757: The most notable Luso-Germans there is undoubtedly João Frederico Ludovice , who was commissioned the project for the Mafra National Palace in 1711. As of 2022, according to the Romanian Census , there were circa 22,900 ethnic Germans recorded in Romania. 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
17400-402: The mother in the home and the plain man would say, Wesz das Herz voll ist, des gehet der Mund über . Luther's translation of the Bible into High German was also decisive for the German language and its evolution from Early New High German to modern Standard German. The publication of Luther's Bible was a decisive moment in the spread of literacy in early modern Germany , and promoted
17550-587: The municipalities of Lisbon , Oeiras , Sintra or Cascais , in the Portuguese Riviera . On the other hand, around 5,000 Germans live in the southern region of Algarve . The German community is especially noticeable in Lisbon and Porto . Each city hosts a German Evangelical Church , a German school and offers German libraries. There is also a German church as well as a German school in Algarve while Madeira hosts
17700-409: The new states' constitutions define directly or indirectly the economic system of the countries parallel to the democratic transition of the 1990s, emphasising the free market economy . The average government debt in these countries is nearly 44%, but the deviation is great, because the lowest figure is close to 10% but the highest is 97%. The trend shows that the sovereign debt-to-GDP ratio in most of
17850-630: The ninth century, chief among them being the Muspilli , Merseburg charms , and Hildebrandslied , and other religious texts (the Georgslied , Ludwigslied , Evangelienbuch , and translated hymns and prayers). The Muspilli is a Christian poem written in a Bavarian dialect offering an account of the soul after the Last Judgment , and the Merseburg charms are transcriptions of spells and charms from
18000-501: The other regional organizations that sprang up in the region since the dissolution of the Soviet Union (other than the CIS). The Union State of Russia and Belarus was originally formed on 2 April 1996 under the name Commonwealth of Russia and Belarus , before being tightened further on 8 December 1999. It was initiated by the president of Belarus, Alexander Lukashenko . On paper, the Union of Russia and Belarus intends further integration, beyond
18150-523: 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. 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 . Before World War II , some 30% of
18300-478: The politics of some post-Soviet States. Heydar Aliyev , after constructing an extensive and ongoing cult of personality , handed the Presidency of Azerbaijan to his son, Ilham Aliyev . Theories about the children of other leaders in Central Asia being groomed for succession abound. The participation of Akayev's son and daughter in the 2005 Kyrgyz parliamentary elections boosted fears of dynastic succession being used in Kyrgyzstan as well, and may have contributed to
18450-503: The population in Czechia were ethnic Germans, and in the border regions and certain other areas they were in the majority. There are about 21,000 Germans in the Czech Republic (number of Czechs who have at least partly German ancestry probably runs into the hundreds of thousands). Their number has been consistently decreasing since World War II. According to the 2011 census, there remain 11 municipalities and settlements in Czech Republic with more than 6% Germans. The situation in Slovakia
18600-445: The population), Chile (roughly 3% of the population), Namibia and in central and eastern Europe—( Poland , Hungary , Romania , and Russia ). Distribution of German citizens and people claiming German ancestry (figures are only estimates and actual population could be higher, because of wrongly formulated questions in censuses in various countries (for example in Poland) and other different factors, f.e. related to participant in
18750-546: The post-Soviet states began to recover, with GDP switching from negative to positive growth rates. By 2007, 10 of the 15 post-Soviet states had recovered their 1991 GDP levels. According to economist Branko Milanović , in 2015 many former Soviet republics and other former communist countries still have not caught up to their 1991 levels of output, including Bosnia-Herzegovina , Georgia , Kyrgyzstan , Moldova , Serbia , Tajikistan and Ukraine . He concluded that "only 1 out of 10 people living in 'transition' countries have seen
18900-404: The present gross domestic product (GDP) (figures are given in 2023 United States dollars for the year 2023 according to the IMF ) The post-Soviet states listed according to their Human Development Index scores in 2021: Very High Human Development: High Human Development: Medium Human Development: A number of regional organizations and cooperating blocs have sprung up since
19050-462: The pronunciation of the ending -ig as [ɪk] instead of [ɪç]. In Northern Germany, High German was a foreign language to most inhabitants, whose native dialects were subsets of Low German. It was usually encountered only in writing or formal speech; in fact, most of High German was a written language, not identical to any spoken dialect, throughout the German-speaking area until well into the 19th century. However, wider standardization of pronunciation
19200-491: The region. The concept has been compared to the Monroe Doctrine , central to American grand strategy in the 20th century. The AP Styleguide recommends avoiding use of the shorthand "former Soviet republic(s)" unless relevant to the story. The 15 states may be divided into four subregions . Not included in these categories are the several de facto independent states presently lacking international recognition (read below: Separatist conflicts ). The dissolution of
19350-487: The region: Since 2003, a number of (largely) peaceful " colour revolutions " have happened in some post-Soviet states after disputed elections, with popular protests bringing into power the former opposition. There is a significant Russophone population in most of the post-Soviet states, whose political position as an ethnic minority varies from country to country. While Belarus, Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan, in addition to Russia, have kept Russian as an official language,
19500-463: The ruling government favor NATO membership, is in the Intensified Dialogue program with NATO. Ukraine also declared joining NATO as its geopolitical goal once again in 2017 (the first time being right after the Orange Revolution and in the beginning of presidency of Viktor Yushchenko ), after the presidency of Viktor Yanukovych , during which the government officially declared non-alignment status and ceased to seek NATO membership. Other states in
19650-426: The same area. Some Germans influenced building and toponym is still visible in this area. In Norway, there are 27,770 Germans making them the ninth largest ethnic minority in the country, thus constituting 0.52% of Norway's total population, and 2.94% of all foreign residents in Norway. Immigration from Germany to Norway has occurred since the Middle Ages . There have been many Germans who migrated to Bergen during
19800-515: The scope of mere cooperation, including the introduction of the rouble as a common currency. The Economic Cooperation Organization was originally formed in 1985 by Turkey , Iran and Pakistan but in 1992 the organization was expanded to include Afghanistan and the six primarily Muslim former Soviet republics: Azerbaijan , Kazakhstan , Kyrgyzstan , Tajikistan , Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan . The post-Soviet disputed states of Abkhazia , South Ossetia and Transnistria are all members of
19950-426: The sole legitimate successor in this capacity has been disputed by Ukraine, which has proclaimed by law that it is the successor state to both the Ukrainian SSR and the Soviet Union as a whole. The question of whether Russia or Ukraine succeeded the Soviet Union in 1991 arose due to a comprehensive dispute between the two countries over what had been collective Soviet state-owned properties. The Union Republics of
20100-492: The states of North Dakota and South Dakota , German is the most common language spoken at home after English. As a legacy of significant German immigration to the country , German geographical names can be found throughout the Midwest region , such as New Ulm and Bismarck (North Dakota's state capital), plus many other regions. A number of German varieties have developed in the country and are still spoken today, such as Pennsylvania Dutch and Texas German . In Brazil,
20250-431: The termination of the Eurasian Economic Community was signed in Minsk after a session of the Interstate Council of the EAEC. The Eurasian Economic Community was terminated from 1 January 2015 in connection with the launch of the Eurasian Economic Union . Russia , Belarus , Kazakhstan created a customs union that entered into force in July 2010. Ukraine , Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan indicated interest in joining at
20400-471: The territory of the former Soviet Union. These include: Transnistria , an unrecognized Russian-backed state in eastern Moldova; and Abkhazia and South Ossetia , two partially recognized Russian-backed states in northern Georgia. The United Nations (UN) has historically considered Russian-backed states in the "near abroad" to be illegitimate and instead views them as constituting Russian-occupied territories . The aftermath of Ukraine's Maidan Revolution saw
20550-449: The third most commonly learned second language in the United States in K-12 education. The language has been influential in the fields of philosophy, theology, science, and technology. It is the second most commonly used language in science and the third most widely used language on websites . The German-speaking countries are ranked fifth in terms of annual publication of new books, with one-tenth of all books (including e-books) in
20700-430: The time. Russia has been eager for Armenia , Moldova and Ukraine to join the custom union instead of the European Union , and the Moldovan break-away state of Transnistria has supported this. In 2013, Kyrgyzstan and Armenia announced plans to seek membership, but division over the issue in Ukraine led to the Revolution of Dignity after the Ukrainian government backed out of an EU Eastern Partnership in favor of
20850-537: 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
21000-427: The union. In 2014, voters in the Moldovan autonomous region of Gagauzia rejected closer ties to the EU in favor of the union. On 1 January 2012, Russia, Kazakhstan and Belarus established the Single Economic Space which ensures the effective functioning of a single market for goods, services, capital and labour, and to establish coherent industrial, transport, energy and agricultural policies. The agreement included
21150-433: The use of the term because it was being used in a derogatory way against the many ethnic Germans in the SS . It is used by many historians who either deliberately or innocently are unaware of its Nazi history. Auslandsdeutsche ( adj. auslandsdeutsch ) is a concept that connotes German citizens, regardless of which ethnicity, living abroad, or alternatively ethnic Germans entering Germany from abroad. Today, this means
21300-725: 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, and 38,000, 40,000 and 101,057 standard German speakers in Ukraine, Uzbekistan , and Kyrgyzstan , respectively. There were reportedly 500,000 ethnic Germans in Poland in 1998. Recent official figures show 147,000 (as of 2002). Of
21450-438: The world being published in German. German is most closely related to other West Germanic languages, namely Afrikaans , Dutch , English , the Frisian languages , and Scots . It also contains close similarities in vocabulary to some languages in the North Germanic group , such as Danish , Norwegian , and Swedish . Modern German gradually developed from Old High German , which in turn developed from Proto-Germanic during
21600-415: The written form of German. One of the central events in the development of ENHG was the publication of Luther's translation of the Bible into High German (the New Testament was published in 1522; the Old Testament was published in parts and completed in 1534). Luther based his translation primarily on the Meißner Deutsch of Saxony , spending much time among the population of Saxony researching
21750-429: Was a "neutral" language as there were virtually no English native speakers in Namibia at that time. German, Afrikaans, and several indigenous languages thus became "national languages" by law, identifying them as elements of the cultural heritage of the nation and ensuring that the state acknowledged and supported their presence in the country. Today, Namibia is considered to be the only German-speaking country outside of
21900-407: Was an artificial standard that did not correspond to any traditional spoken dialect. Rather, it was based on the pronunciation of German in Northern Germany, although it was subsequently regarded often as a general prescriptive norm, despite differing pronunciation traditions especially in the Upper-German-speaking regions that still characterise the dialect of the area today – especially
22050-424: 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
22200-427: Was established on the basis of public speaking in theatres and the media during the 20th century and documented in pronouncing dictionaries. Official revisions of some of the rules from 1901 were not issued until the controversial German orthography reform of 1996 was made the official standard by governments of all German-speaking countries. Media and written works are now almost all produced in Standard German which
22350-408: Was forced to resign as a result of the Kyrgyz revolution of 2005 . Saparmurat Niyazov in Turkmenistan ruled from independence until his death in 2006, creating a personality cult around himself. His successor, Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedov, has maintained a personality cult of his own that has replaced the worshipping of Niyazov. The issue of dynastical succession has been another element affecting
22500-402: 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
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