Ostdeutsche (TNO:ANM)
Ostdeutsche | |
|---|---|
| Total population | |
| c. 4.31 million | |
| Languages | |
| German |
The Ostdeutsche, in English known as East Germans, refers to ethnic Germans and their descendants who migrated from the Greater Germanic Reich into the country's eastern colonial holdings, now known as the Reichslands, as part of the Lebensraum program.. The term has also been used to describe Germans who resided in the territory of the former Soviet Union before the Russo-German war, including the Volga Germans or the Black Sea Germans. The Ostdeutsche population, currently sitting at 4.3 million, does not form a majority in any of the Reichslands they inhabit, with the exception of the the Reichsland Baltikum, which has a majority German population but a sizable Latvian and Estonian population as well.
The Ostdeutsche hold a privileged status above the natives which they live with- enjoying legal, economic, and political favoritism over the native populations of the regions they inhabit. The system which the German government has imposed, known as Getrenntheit (separateness), has been often compared to Segregation in the United States and has been subsequently been criticized and denounced by many countries around the world. The property of most Ostdeutsche have been 'repossessed' properties from the native population. In addition to this, ethnic cleansing, forced cultural assimilation, and linguistic and cultural genocide has resulted in a significant portion of the native populations of these regions being replaced with ethnic Germans. While outright genocide has ceased, cultural and linguistic genocide continues in these regions to this day. Foreign reports suggest, however, that the Ostdeutsch population growth rate is unlikely to exceed and thus replace the growth rates of the native peoples.
In rare circumstances, the term has been used- mostly by internal propaganda departments, to refer to any Germanic person residing in the Reichslands. This usage is rare however, and is often replaced with "Ostgermanisch" or with "ost-" followed by the region which they came from, such as "Ost-Westländer" in the case of the Dutch.