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Volksdeutsche (literally "members of the German people"; no English translation, adj. volksdeutsch) is a historical term which arose in the early 20th century to apply for Germans living outside of the German Empire. This is in contrast to Imperial Germans ( Reichsdeutsche), German citizens living within Germany. In that sense, it is the equivalent of today's legal definition of the term Auslandsdeutsche.This is the loosest meaning of the term, which was used mainly during the Weimar Republic. In a stricter sense, volksdeutsch came to mean (ethnic) Germans living abroad but without German citizenship, i.e., the juxtaposition with reichsdeutsch was sharpened to denote difference in citizenship as well as residence.
1 Origins
Over the last thousand years tens of thousands of Germans emigrated from traditional German lands in Central Europe and settled further east in Russia, present day Romania and other countries. Many Germans settled in the Baltic and parts of present day Poland in colonies established by the Teutonic Knights beginning in the Thirteenth Century. The Knights were also granted rights in Transylvania resulting in the settlement of many Germans.
Catherine the Great, who was herself German, invited German farmers to immigrate and settle in Russian lands along the Volga River which had recently been conquered from the Ottoman Empire. She guaranteed them the right to retain their language, religion and culture. In the Sixteenth Century Vasili IIIVasili III Ivanovich III in Russian) March 25, 1479 December 3, 1533) was the Grand Prince of Moscow from 1505 to 1533. He was the son of Ivan III Vasiliyevich and Sophia Paleologue and was born with the name Gavriil . Vasili III continued the policies of invited small numbers of German craftsmen, traders and professionals to settle in Russia so that the empire could exploit their skills. These settlers (many of whom intended to stay only temporarily) were generally confined to the German Quarter in MoscowMoscow ( Russian: Moskva capital of Russia, located on the river Moskva, and encompassing 878. The city's population is rapidly increasing, with 11. 2 million inhabitants counted in 2004. The city is in the federal district called Central Russia (which is (which also included Dutch, British and other western or northern European settlers who the Russians came to indiscrimately refer to as "Germans") and gradually in other cities so as to prevent the spread of alien ideas to the general population. In his youth, Peter the Great spent much time in the German quarter and when he became Tsar he brought more German experts (and other foreigners) into Russia and particularly into government service in his attempts to westernize the empire. He also brought in German engineers to supervise the construction of the new city of St. Petersburg.
2 During Nazi Times
Volksdeutsche in SudetenlandSudetenland was the name used before 1918 and in 1938 45 for the region inhabited mostly by Sudeten Germans ( German: Sudetendeutsche in the various places of Bohemia. The region was only partly confined to the mountains of Sudeten). In 1918 38 and after ( 1938Events January -June January 3 The March of Dimes is established by Franklin Delano Roosevelt. January 11 Frances Moulton is the first woman to become president of a US national bank. January 20 Wedding of king Farouk I of Egypt and Farida Zulficar in Cai).
During Nazi times, the term "Volksdeutsche" referred to foreign-born Germans living in countries occupied by Germany who applied for German citizenship. Prior to World War II, well above ten million ethnic Germans lived in Central and Eastern Europe. They constituted an important minority far into Russia. Before and during WW2 , Volksdeutsche in some countries (Czechoslovakia, Poland, Yugoslavia) actively supported the Nazis by espionage, sabotage and other services against their countries of origin. Most Volksdeutsche left or were expelled from their countries in the course of the German exodus from Eastern Europe. Tiny remnants of the ethnic German community remain in the former Soviet republics in Central Asia. There is also a small surviving German community in Siebenbürgen ( Transylvania) in Romania.
The Nazis popularized the terms Volksdeutsche, and also exploited this group for their own purposes. As a result, the term is not much used today - often one uses either Auslandsdeutsche, or names that more closely associate them with their earlier place of abode (such as Wolgadeutsche or Volga Germans ), the ethnic Germans living in the Volga basin in Russia; and Baltic Germans, those ethnic Germans who generally called themselves Balts and were removed to German-occupied Poland during WW2 by an agreement between Hitler and Stalin).
The Volga Germans were granted an autonomous republic after the Russian Revolution but the Volga German Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic was abolished by Stalin after the Nazi invasion of the USSR with many of its inhabitants being deported to Siberia.
Flag of Volksdeutsche in Croatia.
