The presence of German-speaking populations in Central and Eastern Europe is rooted in centuries of history, with the settling in northeastern Europe of Germanic peoples predating even the founding of the Roman Empire. The presence of independent German states in the region (particularly Prussia), and later the German Empire as well as other multi-ethnic countries with German-speaking minorities, such as Hungary, Poland, Imperial Russia, etc., demonstrates the extent and duration of German-speaking settlements.

The number of ethnic Germans in Central and Eastern Europe dropped dramatically as the result of the post-1944 German flight and expulsion from Central and Eastern Europe. There are still substantial numbers of ethnic Germans in the Central European countries that are now Germany and Austria's neighbors to the east—Poland, Czechia, Slovakia, and Hungary. Finland, the Baltics (Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania), the Balkans (Slovenia, Croatia, Bosnia, Serbia, Romania, Bulgaria, Turkey), Eastern Europe (Moldova, Ukraine, Belarus, Russia), the Caucasus (Georgia, Armenia, Azerbaijan), and KazakhstanAssessment for Germans in Kazakhstan , The MAR Project also have smaller but still significant numbers of citizens of German descent.

Early Middle Ages settlement area During the 4th and 5th centuries, in what is known as the Migration Period, Germanic peoples (ancient Germans) seized control of the decaying Western Roman Empire in the South and established new kingdoms within it. Meanwhile, formerly Germanic areas in Eastern Europe and present-day Eastern Germany, were settled by Slavs.

In the early Middle Ages, Charlemagne had subdued a variety of Germanic peoples in Central Europe dwelling in an area roughly bordered by the Alps in the South, the Vosges Mountains in the West, the North Sea and Elbe River in the North and the Saale River in the East. These heterogeneous Germanic peoples comprised several tribes and groups who either formed, stayed or migrated into this area during the Migration Period.

After the Carolingian Empire was divided, these people found themselves in the eastern part, known as East Francia or Regnum Teutonicum, and over time became known as Germans. The area was divided into the stem duchies of Swabia (Alamannia), Franconia, Saxony, and Bavaria (including Carinthia). Later, the Holy Roman Empire would be constituted largely, but not exclusively of these regions.

Medieval settlements (Ostsiedlung)

The medieval German (literally Settling eastwards), also known as the German eastward expansion or East colonization refers to the expansion of German culture, language, states, and settlements to vast regions of Northeastern, Central and Eastern Europe, previously inhabited since the Great Migrations by Balts, Finno-Ugrics and, since about the 6th century, the Slavs.Peter Heather, Empires and Barbarians: Migration, development and the birth of Europe (2009), pp. 389-396. The affected territory stretched roughly from modern Estonia in the North to modern Slovenia in the South.

Population growth during the High Middle Ages stimulated the movement of peoples from the Rhenish, Flemish, and Saxon territories of the Holy Roman Empire eastwards into the less populated Baltic region and Poland. These movements were supported by the German nobility, the Slavic kings and dukes, and the medieval Church. The majority of this settlement was peaceful, although it sometimes took place at the expense of Slavs and pagan Balts (see Northern Crusades). accelerated along the Baltic with the advent of the Teutonic Order.Sebastian Haffner, The Rise and Fall of Prussia, pp. 6–10. Likewise, in Styria and Carinthia, German communities took form in areas inhabited by Slovenes.

In the middle of the 14th century, the settling progress slowed as a result of the Black Death; in addition, the most arable and promising regions were largely occupied. Local Slavic leaders in late Medieval Pomerania and Silesia continued inviting German settlers to their territories.

In the outcome, all previously Wendish territory were settled by a German majority and the Wends were almost completely assimilated. In areas further east, substantial German minorities were established, which either kept their customs or were assimilated by the host population. The density of villages and towns increased dramatically. German town law was introduced to most towns of the area, regardless of the percentage of German inhabitants.

Areas settled during Ostsiedlung

The following areas saw German settlement during the : within current eastern and northern Germany: Brandenburg, Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, Saxony, Saxony-Anhalt, Holstein Bohemia and Moravia, specifically Sudetenland (Sudeten Germans) Prussia, especially western parts, with southern and north-eastern parts largely settled by Poles and Lithuanians, respectively (now divided between Poland and Russia) Poland, including the regions of Silesia and Pomerania (see History of Poland during the Piast dynasty) Walddeutsche New March, i.e. Brandenburgian-annexed territories of western Poland Duchy of Pomerania (now divided between Poland and Germany) Transylvania as well as significant parts of Moldavia (especially Bukovina) and Wallachia (Transylvanian Saxons) Carpathian Mountains (Carpathian Germans) Memelland and Livonia (now in Lithuania, Estonia and Latvia) (Baltic Germans) Bulgaria (see Germans in Bulgaria) Slovenia (see Gottscheers) and others

German-run enterprises resulting in German settlements

Hanseatic League

Between the 13th and 17th centuries, trade in the Baltic Sea and Central Europe (beyond Germany) became dominated by German trade through the Hanseatic League. The league was a predominantly Low-German-speaking military alliance of trading guilds that established and maintained a trade monopoly over the Baltic and to a certain extent the North Sea. Hanseatic towns and trade stations usually hosted relatively large German populations, with merchant dynasties being the wealthiest and political dominant fractions.

Teutonic Knights

From the second half of the 13th century to the 15th century, the crusading Teutonic Knights ruled Prussia through their monastic state, and annexed Eastern Pomerania with Gdańsk from Poland in the 14th century. As a consequence, German settlement accelerated along the southeastern coast of the Baltic Sea. These areas, centered around Gdańsk (Danzig) and Königsberg, remained one of the largest closed German settlement area outside the Holy Roman Empire.

17th to 19th century settlements Thirty Years' War aftermath

When the Thirty Years' War devastated Central Europe, many areas were completely deserted, others suffered severe population drops. These areas were in part resettled by Germans from areas hit less. Some of the deserted villages, however, were not repopulated - that is why the Middle Ages' density of settlements was higher than today's.

Poland

In the 16th and 17th centuries, settlers from the Netherlands and Friesland, often of Mennonite faith, founded villages in the province of Royal Prussia, along the Vistula River and its tributaries, and in Kuyavia, Mazovia and Greater Poland. The law under which these villages were organized was called the Dutch or Olęder law; such villages were called Holendry or Olędry. The inhabitants of such villages were called Olędrzy, regardless of their ethnicity. In fact, the vast majority of Olęder villages in Poland were settled by ethnic Germans, usually Lutherans, who spoke the Low German dialect called Plautdietsch.Jerzy Szałygin, Katalog Zabytkow Osadnictwa Holenderskiego Na Mazowszu (Warsaw: DiG Wydawnictwo, 2004), pp. 15-28

Danube Swabians of Hungary and the Balkans

With the decline of the Ottoman Empire, German settlers were called into devastated areas of Hungary, by then comprising a larger area than today, in the late 17th century. The Danube Swabians settled in Swabian Turkey and other areas, more settlers were called in even throughout the 18th century, in part to secure Hungary's frontier with the Ottomans. The Banat Swabians and Satu Mare Swabians are examples of Danube Swabian settlers from the 18th century.

An influx of Danube Swabians also occurred toward the Adriatic coast in what would later become Yugoslavia.

Settlers from Salzkammergut were called into Transylvania to repopulate areas devastated by the wars with the Turks. They became known as Transylvanian Landler.

Galicia

After the First Partition of Poland the Austrian Empire took control of south Poland, later known as Kingdom of Galicia and Lodomeria. The colonization of the new crown land began afterwards, especially under the rule of Joseph II.

Russian Empire

Since 1762, Russia called in German settlers. Some settled the Volga area northwest of Kazakhstan and therefore became known as Volga Germans. Others settled toward the coast of the Black Sea (Black Sea Germans, including Bessarabia Germans, Dobrujan Germans, and Crimea Germans) and the Caucasus area (Caucasus Germans). These settlements occurred throughout the late 18th and the 19th centuries.

In the late 19th century, many Vistula Germans (or Olędrzy) immigrated to Volhynia, as did descendants of early Mennonite settlers, whose ancestors had lived in West Prussia since the . Prussia imposed heavy taxes due to their pacifist beliefs. In Russia, they became hence known as Russian Mennonites.

According to the 1926 (1939) census, there were 1,238,000 (1,424,000) Germans living in the Soviet Union, respectively.Ezra Mendelsohn, Jews and Other Ethnic Groups in a Multi-ethnic World, 1987, p.85, ,

Turkey

Since the 1840s, Germans moved to Turkey who by then had become an ally of the German Empire. Those settling in the Istanbul area became known as Bosporus Germans.

1871–1914

By the 19th century, every city of even modest size as far east as Russia had a German quarter and a Jewish quarter. Travellers along any road would pass through, for example, a German village, then a Czech village, then a Polish village, etc., depending on the region.

Certain parts of Central and Eastern Europe beyond Germany, especially those close to the border of Germany contained areas in which ethnic Germans constituted a majority.

German Empire and European nationalism

The latter half of the 19th century and the first half of the 20th century saw the rise of nationalism in Europe. Previously, a country consisted largely of whatever peoples lived on the land that was under the dominion of a particular ruler. Thus, as principalities and kingdoms grew through conquest and marriage, a ruler could wind up with peoples of many different ethnicities under his dominion.

The concept of nationalism was based on the idea of a people who shared a common bond through race, religion, language and culture. Furthermore, nationalism asserted that each people had a right to its own nation. Thus, much of European history in the latter half of the 19th century and the first half of the 20th century can be understood as efforts to realign national boundaries with this concept of "one people, one nation".

In 1871, the German Empire was founded, partly as a German nation-state. This is closely associated with chancellor Otto von Bismarck. While the empire included German settled Prussian regions formerly outside of its predecessors, it also included areas with Danish, Kashub and other minorities. In some areas, such as the Province of Posen or the southern part of Upper Silesia, the majority of the population were Poles.

Ethnic German Austria remained outside the empire, and so did many German-settled or mixed regions of Central and Eastern Europe. Most German settled regions of South Central and Southeastern Europe were instead included in the multi-ethnic Habsburg monarchy of Austria-Hungary.

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