Tap to unmute
Origin and History of the Germans
Embed
- Published on Mar 5, 2020 veröffentlicht
- What are the origins of the German ethnicity and other Germanic peoples such as the Austrians, Swiss, Dutch, Frisians and others? The German identity is a complex one, considering it is based off of thousands of years of complicated interactions between very diverse people groups, leading to the formation and rise of one of Europe's most prominent and formidable ethnic groups.
In today's video we will be discussing the origin and history of the German nation, or rather that of the continental Germanic tribes and peoples that would eventually evolve into the modern country of Germany that we see today. Thanks for watching!
Sources:
www.britannica.com/topic/Germ...
blogs.ancestry.com/cm/4-types...
www.britannica.com/topic/Germ...
www.renegadetribune.com/geneti...
joshuaproject.net/clusters/175
![Oliver Tree - With You [Music Video]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/Gpr5U0CQUZI/mqdefault.jpg)
I'm glad you mentioned that there remains a certain celtic influence and awareness of that past in Austria. My dad has taught me about the celtic roots of the names of local towns and small streams. He was always very proud of our regions celtic past and even referred to himself as celtic which... questionable. I thought for a long time he's just really into brave heart because I believed celtic is basically synonymous to Scottish 😂
My grandparents taught me too. They taught me their old celtic traditions and history too, showed me ancient ruins, and said we are Celtic, originally. He wasn't pulling your leg. It's very common in that entire region he speaks of in the video, especially in the mountains. My dad's hometown they've since found celtic fortifications and artefacts that are 9000 years old. Exactly like my grandmother heard from her grandmother, etc etc.
Glad to hear that, many people forget about the Celtic past of Switzerland, Austria and Germany
Celtic is not synonymous.with Scottish, scots are one of the Celtic ethnic groups the same with Irish, Welsh and Breton
Pretty sure Celts and Germanic peoples are the ancestors of Northern Italian people.
Just so people know the Angles, one of the Germanic tribes invading Britain during the Anglo-Saxon period, carved out the largest amount of territory on the island and the Angles territory was eventually referred to as Angle land and eventually that became, guess what? England. Angle land=England.
Most of the Germans people were not germanic tribe East Germans mixed with Slavs, South Germans mix with French, only Northwest Germans were Germanic tribe. germanic tribe is not referring to german people. german people call themself deutsh
@BlackPink GangsterThe Angles (Old English: Ængle, Engle; Latin: Angli; German: Angeln) were one of the main Germanic peoples[1] who settled in Great Britain in the post-Roman period. They founded several kingdoms in Anglo-Saxon England, and their name is the root of the name England ("land of Ængle"). According to Tacitus, writing before their move to Britain, Angles lived alongside Langobardi and Semnones in historical regions of Schleswig and Holstein, which are today part of southern Denmark and northern Germany
@TwoJacksAndAnAce i said most german are not germanic
@TwoJacksAndAnAce :)
This was surprisingly accurate and comprehensive - couldn't have put it better myself.
In a lot of places scattered across the region sometimes referred to as Germania Slavica there is tons of naming anomalies in some cases even rooting back to celtic (basically whoever ruled would coin existing names of landmarks and cities into their respective language or dialect and with shifting rulers names would change quite frequently over the centuries).
Now I will say that Germans are mostly a celto-germanic mix really with a noticable disparity between men and women - women generally more germanic and men more celtic in origin (not to mention the Czech who are on average more germanic in ancestry than Germans).
As for myself being from Saxony I find it a bit odd how the Slavic past is sometimes swept under the rug while it is clearly part of our identity here and I'm looking into learning the Sorb language eventually given that I have family ties there. The Slavic Elba migration that triggered the brief period of Slavic dominance in now eastern Germany is definitely a fundamental part of Eastern German identity and in my opinion the most accurate term for Germans living in most of political eastern Germany nowadays (or ppl who descended from there) is "Wendendeutsche" given that it's historically accomodating and inclusive. This does not include Thuringians that much - they did have a massive influence on now Saxony tho and we share their German dialect for that matter (the Saxon dialect is technically a Thuringian dialect or sometimes referred to as "Easyerlandian"). Thuringians however are among the predominantly celto-germanic peoples and while they are for political/historical reasons classified as east Germans too they are for the most part not "Wendendeutsche" but rather closer affiliated with the Frankonians. However the "Wendland" region in nether Saxony and East-Holstein in Schleswig-Holstein while not technically "east-German" are part of the "Wendendeutsche"-Realm.
I hope that in the future we will become more invested with the Slavic impact here again and pronounce it more as part of our identity (because it is part of it obviously) and simultaneously the Czech may become more invested in their celto-germanic rooting too.
Poland is a whole other story tho and a completely different realm of essentially "Polendeutschen".
A correction: The dialect of PIE that evolved into PGm went through the sound changes in Scandinavia and northern Germany, and Western Poland at the same time.
Edit: Another correction: you cant use haplogroups to deduce genetic composition, only autosomal DNA can do that. Also note that Germanic and Slavic are both evolutions of an earlier united language.
Edit again: "didn't have ethnic solidarity till 1800s" - Well the Germanic tribes described by Tacitus were part of a united tribal alliance that called itself Suebi, a term derived from a PIE root meaning "ones own" as in "ones own people." Its not exactly uncommon for people with mutually intelligible speech to look at themselves as an ingroup.
True. It seems Masaman makes these "mistakes" for political reasons.
Germanic and Slavic languages are separated by thousands of years. Proto-Germanic dates from 1000 B.C. while Proto-Slavic hails from the 800 A.D. They are not that related if you compare Germanic languages with Celtic and Romance languages.
@garlandstrife The Speech of 100 AD can be considered a late version of Proto-Germanic, it depends on how many sound shifts you require before it becomes truly Proto-Germanic. As for the degree of affinity to other IE families, Germanic and Slavic are much closer related to each other than many branches such as Anatolian, Tocharian, Indic, Iranic, etc. Do you have some recommended sources for Germanic being closer to Celtic and Romance than to Slavic? For a long time Ive been looking for a comprehensive discussion of the evolutions of "Classical PIE" into its daughter branches. From my understanding though Germanic has very archaic loanwords that can best be explained as loans from Proto-Balto-Slavic indicating an affinity.
@Arminius - Possibly but I think its just peoples' tendency to take on simplified versions of new knowledge and overlook nuance because the shear volume of information can be overwhelming. 10 years ago I was making many of the same oversimplifications Masaman makes. I still have a lot of respect for him having the balls to talk about this stuff and enough courtesy to present it as neutrally as he does even if its not perfect.
@Wade Stoss While I don't have formal sources in hand, I'll search for them and share them with you.
Germanic, Celtic and Romance are closer due to geographical proximity as well as historical contact between the three during different periods. The first proto-IE speakers that arrived to Central Europe were the direct ancestors of the three of them. Whereas Balto-Slavic was far from that Urheimat, they remained in the Pontic-Caspian steppe.
The proto-IE speakers that went north are theorized to have assimilated an unknown substrate language of a pre Indo-European population that was endemic of the Baltic Sea coast and the Scandinavian peninsula, after that proto-Germanic came to be. Thus Germanic languages have features and vocabulary that are not found in other Indo-European languages.
Balto-Slavic on the other hand was heavily conservative up until it was diversified thousands of years after the Germanic languages and families were already developed. There's almost a thousand year development gap between Germanic and Slavic languages, not to mention the geographical distance and lack of contact both populations had prior to the Middle Ages.
The first contact between the Balto-Slavic populations and Germanic speakers was long after the Barbarian invasions. The Germanic vocabulary found in those languages was from that later contact. The Slavic expansion was westward to the lands vacated by the East Germanic tribes.
The words that have a prior affinity are certainly from Proto-IE and not from any contact prior to the Middle Ages.
Other thing to consider is that Germanic and Romance languages are centum languages, while Balto-Slavic are satem languages. This is a clear evidence of their historical and geographical distance.
If you analyze the vocabulary of Romance, Celtic, Germanic and Balto-Slavic, chances are the first three are more similar than the latter. Balto-Slavic have almost all the original IE cases, whereas the other families have simplified their grammar over the centuries due to an earlier development and differentiation.
Personally, I think it's easier for a Germanic speaker to learn a Romance language than a Slavic one. Romance speakers also have an easier time learning a Germanic language than Slavic. Slavic speakers could learn both easier because they have a much complex grammar and their languages are closer to what proto-IE was like.
There's a lot of Germans who settled in the Americas but here in the United States perhaps among the most infamous are the Hessians who were hired as mercenaries on behalf of the British. After the war concluded, roughly half of those who survived chose to stay and became American citizens. And several sons and grandsons of these German soldiers went on to fight the British in the War of 1812 with unconfirmed stories about these descendants using the same muskets given to their fathers & grandfathers by the British during the Revolution.
The subgroup I would love to learn more about are the so-called Chauci (probably derived from a Proto-Germanic word for “Hawk”). However, apart from the assumption they were absorbed into the Franks, Saxons and Frisians, very little is known about them.
I'm Persian and I have respect for Germans, the great Germans such as Hegel, Goethe, Nietzsche, Walther Hinz, Heidemarie Koch, Walter Bruno Henning, Friedrich von Spiegel, Paul Schwarz, Heinz Luschey, etc, were interested in Persia. Love Germany from Persia (Iran).
Indeed, Goethe deeply admired Hafez as "having no peer". I greatly respect Persia and hope to come visit some day. Greetings from Germany
@Haberer Thank you, you are every time welcome in Iran.
Greetings from Germany. I love ancient Persia and the Persian language, culture and civilization. You are a beautiful and lovely Persian girl, your Persian name is very beautiful, Stateira !
@Friedrich Müller Thank you, it's kind of you! I wish you all the best.
Noah The Celt Thank you! maybe we've seen each other in a video about Iran :)
AMAZING! Absolutely love these independent history channels. I'v always wondered about this particular topic and you put it together beautifully. Thanx again.
Thank you! I find your treatment of German ethnicity interesting. According to notes with my Y-dna report I'm R1B - U106 which was part of the Indo-European migration with a focus in Frisia. I noticed your charts broke out Frisia and you referenced it as the source for Old English. It seems to be part of the Netherlands now.
Frisia is actually less defined by borders, but rather by the Frisian people. "Friesland" is in fact in the Netherlands, however in North & Northwest Germany there are also the provinces Ost (East)-Friesland and Nord (North)-Friesland, so its basically spread out over the North sea coastline from amsterdam to the danish border.
Clip-Share:'die Zuversicht' mit "Die grösste Verschwörung der Geschichte"/// Vielleicht interessiert es sie ja.
German-Russians is an interesting 'subgroup' that I've recently been trying to find research on. Due in part growing up being told I was Hungarian/Polish, yet everyone spoke Russian and German [too]. So when I did the crazed dna testing and found out I was more German with many coming from Russia it all made sense.. yet still doesn't since now I have more questions & no one to answer them lol.
So that would be a great topic to touch on.. for me, or any other Rus/Germans out there.
Thank you for your videos & all the research and details you put into them! :)
If you are interested in German-Russians, check out the channel "Jonathan Pohl". He knows all kinds of stuff, and more.
I'm of partial German ancestry myself and the community in Canada my German ancestors helped build under the auspices of the Benedictines attracted a fair amount of Germans from the Russian Empire. The most famous German group in Russia are the Volga Germans. Germans settled all over Russia though. There were German communities in the Caucasus and even Anatolia! Many Germans also settled in Kazakhstan.
@Mothman - "Jonathan Pohl" is a historian and has an channel here on YT. He knows more than a little bit on these things.
Many who identify as Russians in Germany are actually Russian-Germans and therefore true Germans. Some are mixed but not all since in Russia the Germans used to life among themselves in basically purely German villages. Atleast at the beginning. This is how much I know since I am a Russian-German myself and my mother and grandmother have told me this. Pretty much all of my cousins are mixed now only my parents happened to be both Russian-Germans making me in fact pure German. But even though being ethnic German many Russian-Germans including my family have strongly been influenced by the Russian culture and still speak Russian at home.
@elbuggo I will check him out. Thanks for the heads up. Being predominantly Anglo-Saxon I'm some what disconnected from my German roots.
You forgot the Celts in Brittany. BTW, I grew up in that little black area (over 50%) of northern Kansas. The three most common surnames in my home town were Schwarz, Schmidt, and Wassenberg. And I'd like to learn more about the Jutes, since my Mum came from an area of South England originally settled by them.
The Celts in Britanny were refugees that fled the British islands because of the Anglo-Saxon invasions.
There is another branch that fled to Galicia/Asturia.
Very interesting video. German migration to the Americas is major story in itself. I have found very little information on Austrian migration. I am of partly Austrian catholic descent and it's interesting how little there is about that group
It's actually quiet funny for me (German) to read and hear old english amd dutch bc by nature I can understand quiet a bit, sometimes even entire sentences and stuff
Also, because I grew up in the sorbian diaspora, I can quiet relate to them. But they're getting heavily assimilated. 120+ years ago german was a minority language in the area. Nowadays a lot is being done to preserve their culture and language but I myself haven't learned sorbian, like my girlfriend did
I'm part German so I found this pretty interesting. We got a lot of Mennonites and Amish around here in the Missouri Ozarks. I've got a lot of respect for the Amish. They are pretty fair in their business dealings and take care of the environment instead of destroying it. I've sold them a lot of logs and they always pay better than anyone else around here. They still speak the old language amongst themselves. On the other hand I have no respect for a lot of the Mennonites.
They don't practice what they preach, treat their women badly and many are scandalous in business.
*Thank you for your history lesson Masaman! very interesting and very true.*
I would love to know more about the modern Dutch branch of the Germanic peoples! Thank you so much for your videos.
I think the Allemannic tribe and the Netherlands could be a very interesting topic.
Or the Saxons and their relationship to the English.
I am of mostly Swiss descent, but I do have sizable portion of ancestry throughout much of modern day Germany...and parts of Poland(West Pomeranian Voivodeship) and Russia(Kaliningrad Oblast) that were once part of Prussia.
I love history ad geography and genetics.
I'm Argentinian but the grand parents of my grand parents came from the Hunrück region in Rhine Province (Germany). They havent any Frankish roots, originaly they were of Saxon ancestry from Westphalia accourding to official documents of a local church in Cologne.
I hope someday I can visit those places where my ancestors came from.
it is Hunsrück.
I would really like to know more about the area of which is technically in the middle of the northern sea called Doggerland. I hopped on the 23 and me train when it first came out when it was a lot more information to be had from it and learned that even though I know especially on my dad side that is exclusively German I didn't realize how German I was. It was actually less so German but kind of a mix primarily German but also heavily British Isles. But I was interested to hear just how much concentration of my haplo group on the paternal side was specifically from the dog island area which as I understand it does not exist today and it's more or less the Atlantis of the northern sea. I don't know if you know anything about that but I know it's awesome and their flag as a potential pre-modern nation being more a Scandinavian type design is really awesome with the blue and orange and white colorings, Looking like a Scandinavian cross flag :-) I would really like to know if you do you know more about dog land and if you have any good resources to learn more about it but if you could do a video on DoggerlandI think that would be the coolest thing in the entire planet!!!! Thank you very much for the consideration and stay cool!😎🐸
I don't speak German (only understand a little) but I remember my dad once having a conversation with a man who spoke Dutch. He said there were quite a few differences but they were both able to get the idea of what the other was saying.
Well done, this is a concise yet detailed historical review. As a physician with 49 years of clinical experience I can tell you that many people, far younger than I, find the background music makes hearing the commentary an irritating/aggravating experience. Certainly this practice is not new with you. Actually it's pandemic, often causing sufficient irritation that we frequently abandon the project prematurely. Which regretfully, I just have. Thomas F. Fredrick
I have a complicated German family origin situation. My paternal line goes back to a village in the Odenwald, while my maternal line goes back to Pomerania and East Prussia. So the dominant haplotypes connected with these 3 areas would definitely be some help in deciphering my DNA profile.
That's typical everywhere in Germany. The Thirty Years War and the loss of Eastern Germany after WWII were very effective mixing machines. Perhaps it's even more complicated, since Helms a surname that is most common in Northwestern Germany.
@ottosaxo It was Helm until the early to mid 19th century. An ancestor added the S to avoid anti-German prejudice.
My country Brazil has around 5 million German descendants, originally from Pomerania, Hunsrück and other places
Alovio Anidio cool to see a fellow Brazilian here
I'm one of them, my grandmother ancestors were from Westphalia and migrated to the then-province of Minas Gerais during the Empire years. I have been out of Brazil for more than 2 decades by now though and I'm currently living in Japan.
Really?? Cool
Mais um brasileiro aqui.
Just wondering...are red head Germans common in Brazil? I'm a red head, but nobody believes I'm of German descent
I'm interested in Bavaria, Bayern and would like to know more about them as their dialect is quite different; fitting that you have a picture of the castle of "mad" king Ludwig II as end title.
Bavaria in Sanskrit means dweller around a small lake
Very informative. As shown on the map St. Louis had a large German immigration. My mom's family was all German and came to St. Louis a little before 1900. Immigration to St. Louis I believe started here in the 1850s.
At that time, 25 million Germans emigrated from Germany to the USA. The Germans were the third largest population in America
@Undercover Records Thanks for the info.
It would be interesting if you did a video on the effects and influence of the vikings and Norsemen in Europe.
I enjoyed your video. It's been many decades since I took the Culture and History class as a German Major at university. Thank you for the memories.
Plattdeutsch(flat German) is the local dialect of east-frisia(the part of Frisia in Germany, Not the Netherlands) and but is very similar to dutch, which means if you're from there you're easily understood by the dutch and vice versa. It's not just spoken by the Amish.
The Swiss and Austrian branches would be nice to know more about
Interesting that the name Rodriguez in Spain is Germanic. That is one of the family names on my father's side. My name is Nunez with a tilde. Supposedly this family has a castle in Spain and coat of arms. My mother is Yoder from Ohio, Slavic German and Mennonite. Thank you for this video. I was born with brown hair and brown eyes. Now my eyes are grey blue. I developed strong red and blonde highlights in my hair and beard. In America our knowledge of our ancestry is suppressed for political reasons obviously.
It derived from the Germanic name "Roderic, Roderik or Roderich" which did later evolve to "Rodrigo" in Spanish. And "Roderic-son" did turn into "Rodriguez"
Great video, you go deep into your info
My grandfather was born in Russia 1904 and moved to North Dakota USA 1906
Can you do a history of the German Russians?
My family doesn’t even know our history
Thanks
So fascinating since my mothers mother was from Germany, and her father was Czechoslovakia (before the country split), my fathers side I know (based on a family member who did the genealogy) his mothers side is directly from Scotland (the person found the direct area the Forbes clan is from, visited, and found the colors)... which from what little research I've done plus your analysis, is mostly German. The only line I'm unsure of is the Russell line...which when doing a quick search could be English, Scottish, or of German roots. So I guess this is why, even as a child I identified as a German , (that or my mother telling me often how much I was like her mothers-side, lol)!
Hi Michelle! How are you doing? I hope you are fine and staying safe?
I'm German, French, Irish, English, and Swedish, but after tracing each of these roots as far back as I could, they all turned out to be Germanic. The German, Swedish, and English are somewhat obvious, but the French and Irish being Germanic (as far as I can tell) surprised me. Turns out my French roots are Norman and my Irish ancestors were English who had been in Ireland for a short time. Some Roman or Gallic mixture is possible in the English roots though.
I'd love to learn more about Visigoths (it seems I can thank them for my last name) who reigned over 250 years on the Iberian peninsula (w/o leaving much of a DNA imprint-hmm, there were not many of them). More generally I'd be interested to learn more about the migration of Germanic tribes into the Western Roman Empire. There seems to be no scholarly consensus about whether this was a violent takeover (though there were not many battles) that went hand-in-hand with a fast collapse of the Western Roman Empire, or a gradual process where Germanic tribe leaders slowly consolidated authority in regions where its inhabitants perceived Rome only as a distant, abstract ruler.
It seems to me that the second scenario is more accurate. Although it’s probably more complex. I would also love a video on this.
a correction: pennsylvania dutch is not influenced by swiss german, it's a variant of the palatine dialect, which is franconian, as opposed to the alemannic swiss german dialect.
This is where it can be a little confusing, there are Anabaptists(amish, mennonites) who lived in the palatinate region of Germany. The Swiss German Anabaptists would occasionally flee to this region in small numbers. It's not clear to me whether they are of Swiss German stock wholly or not from my research.
The Pennsylvania Dutch, are indeed a entirely separate people group and are not Anabaptists at all. They are Lutheran and immigrated from the palatinate.
@I Am Not A Number I Am A Free Man from what i know, following the expulsion from switzerland many anabaptists first found refuge in alsace, then in the palatinate in the early 18th century and then along with many other protestants from the palatinate went on to emigrate to north america.
@I Am Not A Number I Am A Free Man..... AND its actually worse than that as since the end of WWII those amish who have immigrated into the US from Eastern Europe had been part of the Volga Deutsch community who also speak Palatinate-Deutsch from the early 1700s, still understandable by those in the Palatinate and (Northern) Bavaria.
Very confusing since most 'Germans' of today have a very poor understanding of exactly what is Germany. Germans are focused on their STATE, not their country.
FWIW .... during the 1970s the German Shoe Company ADIDAS conducted manufacturing in Kutztown, Pennsylvania (west of the city of Allentown) because the dialect spoken there since the late 1600s was completely understandable by those in the German headquarters of Adidas in Herzogenaurach (Northern Bavaria).
@Bearberry McBearington In my own ancestral case, this is true. I've traced back relatives and records of all of my known relatives that immigrated to Pennsylvania in the 18th century. Most of them came from the Pfalz region. Most of their ancestors came to the Pfalz from Alsace or Baden-Wurttemberg, and most of their ancestors from the Bern, Zurich, and St. Gallen Cantons of Switzerland before that. After the French-Indian War, most of my direct ancestors then left Pennsylvania and pioneered the Catawba river country of West-Central North Carolina.
You forgot to mention the Bernese dialect of Swiss German still spoken among the Swiss Amish of Berne Indiana (anabaptist history can be a little confusing if you are reading the same sources I do).
The picture of an open buggy being pulled by the horse in the video, that's them.
Great Video!
I live by there!
I'm from Bern (Switzerland) and I speak the Bernese dialect, might be interesting if I'd be able to understand the Swiss Amish of Berne Indiana.
@gurtner9 you should google berne indiana. You will find the clock tower interesting.
I've recently learned about the Hutterites of Alberta and Montana. They are a Mennonite-like community who commute between Canada and Mexico, and have a very distinct dialect.
In Manitoba they own much land; are arrogant, controlling & are drinkers of alcohol. 10-20 kids per family to take over the land of 🇨🇦.
Very informative. I think i influenced this video. Lol. The names Ostrogoths and Visigoths are actually modernish ways of decribing the goths. Ost in germanic is east and Visi is West. So it translates as Eastern Goths and Western Goths dependent on where in the Roman Empire they settled. Iberian settlers were visigoths and Italian settlers were Ostrogoths. side note Austria i think is a Latinization of the Germanic Osterreich meaning Eastern Realm or Kingdom. The migrations from Swedish homeland of the Goths in Gotaland and Vastergotland regions to Eastern Europe to the Roman provinces they moved alot. Lol
What you said about Germans dominating Europe is quite interesting and true, people often forget that almost all of Europe was German at some point, especially during the 5th and 6th centuries
German roots run from Alsace/Lorraine and from around Oranienburg. Would love to hear more about these regions!
Wow really!
More about the Franks would be nice, as I am a descendant of them. Also the Dutch. I love them.
Both my Spanish last names have Germanic roots, as well as my second name. And I've been fascinated by German history well before I knew about my names.
Guten tag. As a youngster, I lived in Franconia which, I found to be fascinating as their history, culture & traditions are, in some cases, quite ancient. Most of us Americans cannot begin to understand what it's like to enter in to a 1300 year old church or castle; to walk across a 2000 year old bridge; to drink water from a 1500 water fountain. We did these and far more in Schweinfurt upon Main. Thanks for your contribution.
I know my family is a big part of this ethnic soup from out of that area. As near as can find my family group was part of the Hebrew migration that came across the caucus mountains after the fall of Babylon. Due to the influence of the area the spelling of our name was changed from Yett Hebrew spelling to Jett a French/German spelling. Both spellings held the same meaning in the languages. Gate keepers or keepers of the gate.
Being myself the Slavic of the Polish origin, I have to honestly say, that I admire very much Polish-German neighbour mutual influence, despite of our military conflicts and mutual border crossing and expansions, across the centuries !!!!
The relations werent always bad and it should have turned out different. Sad how it went. West slavs are still very much a part of germany even tho the space got smaller since hre times.
I am tri racial, my grandmother comes from an Indian temple built by a Shiva avatar in Thailand, originally known as Vimana Pura(Sanskrit), modern day Phi Mai, Thailand. Also I'm Irish, black Irish and Sicilian. This is what led me to watch your videos and learn my roots.
Keep up the good work, Masaman. You're doing Gods work and telling his story, thank you for inspiring me to learn about my ancestry and history. You have always been my favorite Clip-Share channel.
Dear Masaman, could you please make a video about Silesia? My parents and grandparents are from upper Silesia and came back to Germany in the 70's. Why where fewer Germans expelled after WW2 in upper Silesia (40% of the total population) compared to lower Silesia (>90%), Pomerania, Prussia? Many Germans in today's Germany have ancestors from the former eastern regions. But unfortunately almost nothing is taught at school about the history of the former eastern regions. As far as I know the first inhabitants of Silesia were germanic tribes (vandals)... After them came west Slavic people... In the middle ages there was a German colonization. One of the settlers' motivations was the inheritance law (Realerbteilungsrecht): a farmer had to divide his land between all sons, consequently each generation had less land. Since Silesia was not as densly populated they moved there (Part of my ancestors came from Austria and Hessia to upper Silesia)....
Since when was Silesia first inhabited, how many immigration waves were there, where came each wave of immigration from, what ethnic/linguistic/cultural group were they, what were their motives, how strong did each group influence the Silesian people and culture (the inhabitants before WW2). Why is Silesia the german region, that produced the most nobelprize winners? Could the brain drain effect be an explanation? Was is legal that Germany had give its territoties to Poland, and that Poland had to give territory to Russia? About 300.000 Germans still live in upper Silesia, how is their situation?
Some very interesting German subgroups include the Eastern European Germans (kind of similar to Eastern European Ashkenazi Jews, who had also migrated from German-speaking lands more or less around the same time), the Amish/Mennonites (kind of like Orthodox Jews), and the German colonies in the Americas, Australia, etc.
I am from Vorarlberg the westernmost province on Austria. We consider ourselves Alemannic. So even though we are in Austria, our language and culture is closer related to Switzerland and Southwestern Germany. I would love to learn more about the Alemans.
same I’m from graz ,styria and can’t identify with germany or switzerland
Proud of my Germanic ancestors I knew I was German however I didnt know I was half German until I took a DNA test My father is from the phillipines and he has German blood and my mother is from Guatemala with German and Italian blood.
Germanic not German
I'm half german and half spanish and I suppose my german routes go probably back to the celtic culture, I have no clue where hispanics have their ancestry. The other day I researched a bit and only could find something about the iberics, but not very much. Would be very cool, if you could find something of the spanish origins :)
As an Italian American I wish to one day visit Germany!
I THINK YOU GET FLASHBACKS DONT VISIT TEUTOBURG
I’m Chilean and what you said is very true, the town my father’s from is called “villa alemana” if you translate that into English it’s “German Town”
I love this channel, it also amazes me how many commenters are incredibly competent on the matter.
@Pomo Dorino ... If u dig masaman, I highly suggest you check out Robert Sepehr's videos.
@Fortune Kookimon I believe Robert Sepehr was sent to guide the seeking to the next stage.. his HUNDREDS of videos literally fill in nearly all holes and connect nearly all the dots.. he may be WOTAN traveling among us. amazing.. and he finds the BEST most unheard of evidence to back his claims..
@Seth Grim You ever listen to Jonathan bowden? If not I highly suggest starting with " the Nietzschean credo" or "julius Evola - the world's most right wing thinker". Bowden was a titan of the mind.
@Fortune Kookimon ill look into him. believe I have seen some clips in other vids,, asha logos has good vids on yewtube as does vertigopolitix re uploads only as his channel was wacked..
You could make a video about the Silesian people. They are an interesting mixture between Germans, Poles and Czechs :)
That's not right anymore! After 1945 nearly a complete population echange did take place in Silesia, especially in Lower Silesa which was completely populated by ethno-cultural Germans before ww2 (many of them with Slavic forebears of course) and all of them were expelled by force from their ancient homelands.
these emptied lands were then filled with people from the former eastern Poland (e.g. Lviv region)
Well, in Upper Silesia (around Oppeln/Oppole) there's still a small German minority ... in most cases - afaik - there forebears were allowed to stay in their homelands because they were intermingled/intermarried with Poles.
NW Houston suburbs has lots of old roads with German names. The area west of Houston was pretty much small German communities, and freedmen's settlements. Freedmen settlement during Reconstruction was even more dense a bit out from Houston in Waller County. Prairie View A&M was founded as a land grant school In Waller County with the cooperation of the Reconstruction Board, the state government, and the owner of the land in question.
I would appreciate an in-depth discussion of the culture and language of Baden.
The most interessting Subgroups i would like to know more about are the Chauken and Cheruscan since my fathers linage can be backtraced to their regions.
On my mothers side i'm half Frank, with a well preserved family tree and half Ashkenasim, same. Groups, i already learned alot about, partly from your work.
Another interessting historical part would be the redistribution of differnet ethnicities after WW 2. Since there was alot of movement, that changed the genetical makeup of entire regions greatly.
Nice vid, like always. Keep em coming.
I wonder how you know that you are half frank and cheruscan? I guess it's speculation because all the church documents were destroyed in the thirty years war. If you are lucky you can track back your German ancestors to the 13th century but not further.
It was always my understanding that the song, _Deutschland über alles,_ wasn’t about total German hegemony but telling Germans that their solidarity for the German federation should take precedent over their solidarity towards any of the various German local provinces.
Thats not only your understanding. Thats the purpose of the song.
To unite all german states into one Germany above all.
R G If you take the song as a whole, you cant read it two ways.
The song defines the borders of Germany as the rivers Etsch (border between Italy and Germany), Maas(border between France and Germany), Memel (border between Lithuania and Germany) and the Belt (border between Denmark and Germany.
Those were also roughly the actual borders of german speaking areas at the time of the songs creation.
So expanding is clearly not the purpose of the song.
It also mentiones unity, rights and freedom in the third stanza.
You can only read it two ways, if you take the first line completely out of context.
But you can read most things in multiple ways, if you take them out of context.
And only the nazis (deliberately) misinterpreted the song, or the first line rather. And often left out the (second) and third stanza, as it clarifies the peaceful nature of the song.
R G The Allied took it out of context.
R G So you say. But we’ve just told you the lyrics meant something different from what you’ve been told.
R G Yes, the Nazis deliberatly misinterpreted the songs meaning to support their ideology. But thats not the songs fault in my opinion.
Thank you, my great grandfather came from Germany, I’m not sure the exact location in 1880. Have always found information about Germany interesting.
I think right around that time many ppl from pfalz have immigrated into other countrys. Think its rhineland palatine in english
Mason, you are on fire with your recent vids. The Germans in South America is another video of yours which was fascinating. Have you got more German stories for South America?
Interesting video. Thank you for posting. My maiden name is Beyer, which is obviously German but according to DNA, I am only 21% German and 64% British/Irish. I just find that very interesting. Thanks again for posting ☺️
All british and irish people are german ethnic
@Cristiano Zubco Not true.
This is great! So much information here I'll be coming back at least one more watch there's such a lot of detail here. For me, your best video yet. Cheers, Rafe
Perhaps rare to hear from an Englishman, but I love the German people.
Would have liked to know more about the powerful tribes of the Alemanni and Suebi who fought the Roman ferociously. Their descendants are Schwabian and also found in Bayern
Germans are the largest white ethnic group in the US. People often think the largest white ethnicity in the US is English because the de facto language of the US is English and many cities are named after English towns and people.
German 46,403,053 14.7%
However, Irish, Scottish and English are counted separately, so
Irish 33,526,444 10.6%
English 24,787,018 7.8%
Scottish 5,409,343 1.7%
English speaking immigrants to USA are 20.1%
It's worth saying, these numbers are for period of 2010-2015.
Lets not forget that many Irish and English were enslaved first and then sent to colonize new lands.
Yes, We are the largest group of Americans.
You're not Germans. You may have German heritage but the majority can't speak the language nor knows enough, if anything, about the culture.
@El Ha true. My last name is Conrad (German - Konradt). I always thought I was 25 to 40%. Had DNA test, minimal German like 3%, minimal Irish, but 90% English. You are correct most American know little, there are some Lutheran churches whose liturgy is still in German in our area.
@El Ha
Thank you!
I've been saying that for years. White-Americans are their own ethnic group, formed from a potpourri. There is no meaningful connection for them with their ancestral ethno-linguistic cultures. Though the Catholics tend to hold on to some traditions; and with the qualified exception of the children of immigrants, who almost always fully assimilate.
HOWEVER, the defining characteristics of White-American culture are an extreme individualism, ahistorical progressivism, and a culturless-consumerist lifestyle. Because of this, White-Americans are an ethnicity that EXPLICITLY rejects the idea of being an ethnicity, or a People. American Conservatism is firmly rooted in this milieu.
It is ironically the anti-ethnic ethnicity.
I grew up in Würtenberg where the Swabian language locally dominates. Can you do a segment on the origins of the Swabian people?
I've always theought the name Herman(n) is related to the ethnic name German. Though it's an exonym given by the Romans, it seems Romans formed it from the tribal name Hermandum, which we can see on the map at 2:06 (written over the Ruhr area and eastwards)
Characteristically interesting and informative, my friend - thanks!
Due to family history, I have an interest in German Australians and the associated migration, family name and all. Last year, I was lucky to visit where my great, great, great grandfather was from before he moved his family from Prussia to Australia.
It's good to know that most human need to absorb knowledge being presented by narration as by chunks of a series of sentences to deliver one point of understanding.
You can't just read all the reading as if you were in a hurry, then read them without any stop. People need to think of what they hear or listen to.
I consider that the content of this video is valuable enough.
Unfortunately it is delivered in such way to be ended up as noises.
What a pity!
Frankish is also the ancestor of Dutch. Frankish died out in France/Gaul, but not in The Netherlands/Holland and northern Belgium (where it originated - it originated in those areas).
There are Frankish dialects in Germany too.
skellagyook Luxemburgisch is probably successor Language of Frankish. I am from Germany and i can understand them.
@SanyarKurdBiker Luxemburgisch is from Frankish, but so is Dutch. Dutch is descended from Old Franconian (a.k.a. Frankish) and Frankish evolved into Old Dutch.
en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frankish_language
(Also see the "Franconian languages" section at link above.)
@SanyarKurdBiker So, as explained in the article linked in my last comment above (in the "Franconian languages" section), Frankish split into three branches. One evolved into Dutch, another evolved into Limburgish and Luxemburgisch, and another likely evolved into the Ripuarian dialects (spoken in a region of Germany).
@SanyarKurdBiker Yes, it might be the closest modern descendant of the original language of the Franks.
Do a video on Poland 🇵🇱 or Polish language! 🙂👍 Until 996 and Mieszko I there is not much known about origin of Poland and Polish people besides they descend from Slavic group. Polish language was heavily influenced by its border neighbors. Some of it German - decision to use W as V is used in other language for spelling and writing.
Good stuff. Subgroup would have to be the Saxons. How they evolved from Saxony to dominate the population mix of England is a story I haven’t heard
I mean "dominate" is a bit of a over statement
They didn't even really fight the local Celts and SMALL Latin population there once they conquered the land and when I say small I mean MICROSCOPIC small these 3 groups and later Normans from Normandy all assimilated with each other to create what we now consider to be "english"
Saxony was a colony of Lower saxony
The Romano-"Britons" were mostly displaced Gauls that the Romans had moved to the isles to govern the Germanic population which existed there prior, so yes those people were probably a bit soft from Rome's cocoon but in addition to that, the pre-existing Germanic population likely put up very little resistance to their Germanic relatives as it was mostly just a change of overlords for them despite the few hundred years spent under Roman/Gaelic rule.
newb mann I mean dominate in that we don’t call folk with English backgrounds “Anglo-Norman” or “Anglo-Briton”, or “Anglo-Dane”.
Charlie Read The prominence of the Frisian gene and other “Germanic” genes in isolated rural communities is evidence enough that at least some of the previous inhabitants were Germanic. There were also reclamation laws from anglo-saxon rulers which took property from the people that the romans had brought in from Gaul and “returned” it their germanic cousins that lived there before the Roman conquest. The isles used to be connected to the rest of europe by an area called Doggerland. This area connected the isles to the Germanic areas of Europe, but this marshland sank at some point (can’t remember when exactly). So, the original inhabitants almost definitely were not celtic, but because they were somewhat removed from other germanic populations, it might be better to just call them Brythonic (as a sort of subgroup of Germanic) or something. Just not Celtic... i think the term celtic really shouldn’t be used at all. It’s been a shitty term since it’s invention in the 1600’s and has mostly been used for propaganda and fantasy since then. It is somewhat useful in linguistics but could be replaced rather easily.
Have you heard of the South Australian BarrosaDeutch. Mostly from Prussia especially from Silesia, East Prussia & Pomerania. A German dialect lasted a long time, some still can speak it.
Thanks for this great video! You got one thing wrong though: At 4:04ff you switched Visigoths and Ostrogoths. It was the Ostrogoths in Italy and the Balkans, and the Visigoths in Iberia and France. The map is correct.
Just want to point out most linguists I’ve seen include Northern Germany in the “Germanic homeland,” not just Southern Scandinavia! :)
You forgot to mention Arminius (Hermann), the legendary forefather of Germany who was able to keep the Roman Empire from expanding east of the Rhine and north of the Danube.
Hes a hero of the germans
@Kingslayer_AoC but bro we dont need to call him herman when his real name was ari just martin luther called him herman
Hi Masaman, I have seen about 30 videos from you and I like your work.
One complaint: please stop using the map about Empire of Attila (on 3:22), it's historically inaccurate and simply wrong in northern parts.
This is a "power-packed" trove of information. It will take me several viewings to absorb all the information. Well done!
Hello laureen! How are you doing? I hope you are fine and staying safe?
The word 'German' is not German. It comes from the Latin and Greek - essentially meaning coming from the same kind, parent. This is how the Latins from Rome saw them, as looking alike. Ergo, German. It's an ectonym.
The etymology of "German"/"Germanic" is hypothesised to come from any number of Celtic cognates meaning, varyingly, "neighbour", "battle-cry" or "noisy", or alternatively from native Germanic meaning "spear-man". The Latin 'germanus' meaning siblings is cognate to Spanish 'hermano', and likely has no relation to the name of the country or the peoples, but that is where the English word 'germane' comes from.
English speakers call the nation "Germany" and the people are known has "Germans". The other nations in Northern and Central Europe also use Germany but translated into there language. In Spain, Germany is called "Alemania" and the Germans are known has "Alemanes". In France, Germany is called Ällemange" and Germans are known has "Allemands". Allemania and Ällemange derives from the word "Alemanni". The following explains it - en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alemanni
Sure. But that's not what Germans call themselves so it doesn't really matter.
@Siegbert85 Yeah, the word "Deutsch" derives from teuto meaning people as in "we the people" (modern german: Volk).
Latin and Greek themselves come from Northern proto-European cultures.
Proud of My German Heritage, My Moms family still lives there in Berlin 😊, Been talking to them alot recently hopefully i can go visit them soon ,but tickets are damn expensive
Regards from a Chilean from German (Schleswig-Holstein) descent. Proud to hold true germanic values, fire and spirit at the end of the world.
Same, but Austrian/Hamburg and born in USA
this makes you a member of the definetely most interesting germanic subgroups and people should learn more about us…..seriously ! we had this amber and flint-based golden early bronze age, climate chaos based migration movevements like the cimbrian teutonic-ambronian invasions of gaul and the northern roman provinces, this is the heart of the old suebian realm, we are the original anglos as well and saxons, lombardian culture originated also here and 20 metric km away from me you find the largest native norse city, Hedeby
just two days ago I searched the Rungholtsand for mussels and clams….its named after the town of Rungholt which drowned there in 1362 together with many other settlements and basically that whole landscape which we now know as the northfrisian waddensea…
in which part of Chile are you residing ? I imagine Chile as a somehow predominantly rocky and quite un-schleswig-holsteinian country ....but with plenty of coastline which is definetely very nice !
Salzburg/Hamburg. Half prussian, half Austrian.
I believe that a larger number of germans will join you in the near future. Just wait..
I visited Chile a few years ago. Definitely a place to be.
Loved that they said "Kuchen" at least in the south..
@gladstane gonder I'm in Santiago but have lived all around the country. It is very much like the west coast of the US geographically. We have a desert in the north, mediterranean weather in the center, and fiords with glaciers in the south. We come originally from the Förh Island near Denmark. The first one of my family arriving here came trading in a ship, and since then most members of the family have been Navy Officers, so the need for the see is in our blood. Some 40.000 Germans settled here in the mid-late 19th Century invited by the local government. Since then a small but constant influx of Germans have been going on. Germans founded many towns and cities in the south of the country (Patagonia lake regions) which is very much like parts of Germany. The influence of Germans in Chile is disproportionate to our numbers, being one of the most influential communities in Chilean History, and certainly the best, hehe. All Chileans have much respect and admiration for Germans and German values.
I think Germanic influence in the world has mostly not been through conquer nor empires, but through constant migration and settlements, demonstrating all over the world the success of high German values for everyone to admire.
I'd be interested in learning more about the Alamanni -- my ancestors came from that area.
Whereabouts did your ancestors come from? What Do you want to know? I am not too familiar with ancient Alamanni history, but maybe I can help a bit.
@Labbe Duddl My great-grandfather came from Haslach, Oberkirch, Baden. SW Germany close to France and Switzerland.
Ah, Oberkirch is quite close to me. My aunt lives there.
@Labbe Duddl My brother went there several times to trace family. I've found we're related to Graf family members who still live in that area.
Dutch language is the direct descendant of Lower Frankish, the language spoken by the Salian Franks (Clovis). Especially the Flemish tongue, because it is more archaic. There are lots of placenames ending in -zele in Flanders, these were established by the Salian Franks, who were really a confederation of tribes living in Belgium, Netherlands and the bordering parts of Germany.
I am ethnic German with some Dutch and very low German roots. One likely Germanic subgroup I am most curious about are the Lombards and natives of the Lombardy region of Northern Italy. I have read (correct me, if I am inaccurate) that the Lombards originally drifted from modern Denmark and wondered their way through present Germany and entered, conquered and settled Lombardy (North Central Italy) after 450 CE. Many northern Italians are lighter featured than my own relatives, therefore could the modern natives of Lombardy and adjacent regions be Danish by extension?
I come from South Germany. The neares small river to my village is called Rems. Its a celtic name.
It would be cool to see how much Celtic and Slavic admixture is in each region, especially in Westphalia and Bavaria where my 1/4 german comes from
Celt of Canaan Esurix hard Tomas’s. Westphalia has changed extremely, since your family left Germany. Today, we have so many people from Turkey, Syria and other Arabian countries.
lieberfreialsgleich yes I know that, especially considering my Westphalian great grandfather left in the 1900s before ww1, and my German ancestors from Bavaria and Baden-wutemburg left in the 17-1800s
@hemi2001 naund ich komm aus Syrien und hör alle 2 Tage Das Palästinalied hahahhaah
@G R wir werden euch schon noch los
@Dionysus du wirst garnix los. Den ich bin deutscher aufm Papier. Was willst du machen? Aria test 2.0 😂😂😂 selbst den würd ich bestehen, weil die dummen Nazis net gecheckt haben das Aria Iraner, Kurden und Armenier sind
I'm half German, my mother is from Coburg which is the province of Ober-Franken/ Bavaria. This is probably the best break down video I've seen.
yeah he did really well greets from north germany :))
I'd love to hear more about the Amish and "Pennsylvania Dutch". Please clear up all of this confusion.
Basically, Amish and Mennonites, originally from Pennsylvania, are Pennsylvania Dutch. As are many from the old German Reformed Church, Protestants, who came from 'Germany' in the 1700's. It is a quite bit more than this, but it is what I learned growing up on a farm in South Central PA to German and Scot ancestors. As well as French by way of the Religion Wars in France, fleeing to Germany, then making way to America.
So Amish are/were Pennsylvania Dutch, but not all Pennsylvania Dutch are/were Amish.
u.s old glory Bethlehem is nowhere near Lancaster. 80 miles or so is not so close when your talking about a densely populated area like Southeastern PA.
Basically, the Pennsylvania Dutch came from the Rhineland region of Germany in the late 1600s and early 1700s. They settled in east Germany and during the American Revolution, Pennsylvania had one of the highest German populations in the colonies. “Dutch” is an anglicized form of “Deutsch.” They aren’t actually Dutch. Their language actually comes from the Palatine German dialect.
@Skeleton Mason said the Amish were as actually Swiss and Mennonites were Prussian. However, both of those groups are subsets of PA Dutch. I don't think they simply came from the Rhineland.
@Jonathan Wapner Of course, they didn't all come from the Rhineland but most did. Mennonites weren't from Prussia, most came from the Rhineland and the Southwest.
They are so influential in history. I really wanna learn more about ancient german ppl.
watch around you, everything you see is german made ;)
I’d like to hear more about the Prussian menonites in South America
Especially in Paraguay, Argentina and Chile
@Lionel Hutz Also a lot of Menonites in Mexico and Canada
Prussians are originally Baltic people
alexnickolaev those Baltic people are gone. They perished long ago in the crusade m8. I’m obviously referring to the Germanic Christian farmers.
My grandparents were German. We discovered that our very German family name was derived from Latin.
Love History.
- My family is choctaw and black american.
I recently learned that we also have the germanic bloodline and surename ingram. Life events can lead anywhere!
I like it how you bring up the German migration into modern day eastern Germany and north western Poland but not the Czechia which at the highest extent in the 1868_1910 Austro-Hungarian population census it made up approximately 33% of the regions population which yes it was MAINLY centered around the Sudetenland but also had roughly 10% of the population outside of the Sudetenland.
this made it so in interwar Czechoslovakia there were more Germans in Czechoslovakia than Slovaks Im not joking. that is something you probably should bring up in a video at some point.
@Haberer yeah but I mean calling them "sudeten germans" is a bit disingenuous since well they were not just relegated to the Sudetenland and made up about 20% of the bohemian population and about 12% of the Moravian population. so yeah for example Prague in 1917 was almost 15% German so yeah sure the Sudetenland was the only part with a German majority but also the rest of Czechia and hell even Bratislava had a fairly large German minority.
I mean the Danube Swabians or the Transylvanian Saxons are more or less in the same camp when it comes to being ignored.
@Haberer yes I am aware of this the reason why I brought up I dont think the name works is the connotation it brings up you know appeasement mustache man ETC.
Just has a bad reputation
I would love more information on the German speaking communities in west-central Kansas, where a portion of my German heritage is from in more recent times. Russell County, to be precise.
All nations have contributed something to the Americas. Northern Germanic languages such as Icelandic, Norwegian, Swedish & Danish is very different from the south Germanic languages. I speak Dutch & Swedish & they cannot understand each other unless they speak English to each other. The word for lemon & umbrella in Swedish & French is the same, citron, fork in Swedish & Portuguese is similar & potato is the exact same in Portuguese & Arabic! Although it makes sense that they being Indo-European languages, except for Arabic which is Semite like Hebrew.
Glad to see so many views on this video! Everyone needs to learn about their ancestry. I've come here out of a sudden love for the band Heilung.
Heilung is great! Their music is out of this world beautiful, unique and visceral 🖤
Britain was most likely inhabited by Germanic peoples before the Romans showed up as well. There MIGHT have been some "Celtic" or Gaelic peoples there, but it seems more likely that after the Romans moved in, they displaced populations and moved Gauls (the term Celtic is pretty modern and can be very confusing/misleading so I'm using Gaelic and Celtic as interchangeable terms here) from continental Europe into the isles and that is how the language was displaced in some parts. The Iceni and the Nervii are two good examples of Germanic tribes which were present in the isles although the Iceni are sometimes assumed to be Celtic and the Nervii are sometimes said to be a mixture of Germanic and Celtic which seems plausible considering continental branch of the Nervii's location on the border of Germania and Gaul. It's thought that the early germanic peoples who lived on the Isles traveled there through Doggerland, an area that connected continental Europe to the what are now the British Isles before they were the isles.
Also a decent bit of the ruling class in Rome around the time of Atilla was Germanic or mixed with Germanic due to the Roman's practice of taking Germanic noble's sons as insurance when they made deals with the tribes.