No immigration

Nationalities and religions in Germany

Ethnic groups and migrants

(A) German nationalities and ethnic minorities

Today's German nations are collectively referred to as Germanic nations, and they have grown up together by ancient Germanic tribes such as Franks, Saxons, Schwabens and Bavarians in recent years. When I introduced the history of Germany, I thought of the ancient Germans. Here, I might as well explain it further.

The Germans are an ancient nation in Europe. As early as the 5th century BC, they were distributed in the North Sea and Baltic Sea in northern Europe in the form of tribal groups. The ancient Romans called them Germans. As far as its historical development is concerned, it can be divided into two branches: north and south. The Northern Branch developed in Northern Europe and became the ancestor of the present Swedes, Norwegians and Danes. The south branch is divided into east branch and west branch. The eastern branch includes Shinto pastors, Vandals, Burgundy, etc. In the long history since then, this branch itself and its language have been assimilated by various ethnic groups along the Mediterranean coast. Since then, the West Branch has formed three regional groups: First, the North Sea Coastal Group, including Batawi, Frisian, Coken, Angus and Goldshepherd. The first two later became the ancestors of the Dutch, the last three merged into Anglo-Saxons, and later went to the British Isles to develop into English today; The second is the Rhine-Weixi River Group, in which the Kadi people are the ancestors of the Hessians, and other tribes merged into the Franks in the 3rd century. Third, the Elbe Group and Svibi later evolved into Schwaben, and the Habsburg family in Austria and the Hornsoren family in Prussia all originated here. The Makomani and Quadi of this branch eventually became Bavarians. By the 8th century AD, except for the Anglo-Saxons in the British Isles, all the Germanic people in the western branch were unified into the Frankish Kingdom, and later gradually formed today's German nation. From this, we can easily see that the formation of the German nation has gone through a long development process. Today, although the primitive ancient tribes have long since ceased to exist, they have been replaced by a federal state with the same name as the tribes. However, due to the long-divided small states in German history, they all inherited the tribal traditions in their own way, and kept these traditions, dialects and even tribal personality characteristics, which have continued to this day. Therefore, in Germany, people are divided into Bavarians, Schwabens, Rhineland, Hessians, mecklenburg, Saxons, westfalen and others. People also have some fixed views on their own personality characteristics, for example, mecklenburg people are taciturn, Rhineland people are generous and cheerful, westfalen people are self-serious, Schwab people are thrifty, Saxons are diligent and clever, and so on. They not only have differences in personality, but also retain their outstanding characteristics in the style, daily habits, clothing and recipes of buildings and residential areas.

There are also a few Danes, Gypsies and Sorbs living in Germany, and Sorbs are the only minority in Germany. Sobu people mainly live in the Laoqi mountain area, and they are descendants of Slavs. Their ancestors moved to the Elbe River and the Salle River with the great migration of nationalities in the 6th century, and formed their own independent language and culture in the long-term historical development. The University of Leipzig has a Sorbian Institute, which specializes in the history, language and culture of this nation.

A few Danes live in Schleswig-Holstein, especially around flensburg, and they also hold a seat in the Schleswig-Holstein parliament.

(2) Foreigners

We know that 7.2 million of Germany's 8010.8 million residents are foreigners, that is, there is one foreigner in every 12 people on average. Among these 7.2 million foreigners, Turks account for 1.9 1.8 million, making it the largest group of foreigners in Germany. Followed by immigrants from the former Yugoslavia, nearly 6.5438+0.24 million. Followed by Italians (563,000), Greeks (356,543,800+0,000), Poles (260,000), Austrians (654,380 +0.86 million), Romanians, Spaniards, Vietnamese and so on. These foreigners in Germany mainly live in economically developed areas in southern Germany, of which 27% live in North Rhine-westfalen, 65,438+08% in Baden-Wü rttemberg, 65,438+065,438+0% in Hesse and 65,438+05% in Bavaria. And 50% of them have lived in Germany for more than 10 years, and two-thirds of foreign children were born here. However, according to German law, it is difficult for foreigners to become German citizens. But for a long time, foreigners in Germany are not only guests, but most of them have become an indispensable part of the residents of the Federal Republic of Germany. Their cooperation with their German colleagues is also very harmonious.

In recent decades, foreign employees and entrepreneurs have made outstanding contributions to the economic development of Germany. They create more than 654.38+000 billion marks for German gross national product every year. German enterprises have more than 2 million foreign employees who pay 90 billion marks in tax and social insurance every year, but they only get 654.38+06 billion marks in social insurance. It can be said that a large part of Germany's financial expenditure is shared by these foreign employees and entrepreneurs. At present, foreign employees account for a considerable proportion in some of the world's largest enterprises in Germany, such as Siemens AG, where foreign employees account for 40%.

Germany has the lowest birth rate in the world, and its labor force is scarce. Since the 1960s, the influx of foreign employees has increased the labor force that cannot be provided by Germany's booming economy. After the war, Germany's population growth mainly depended on immigrants.

The federal government and Germans thank foreign employees and foreign entrepreneurs for their outstanding contributions to Germany's economic development. However, in recent years, especially after the reunification of Germany, with the deterioration of the economy, the increase of unemployment, the influx of a large number of refugees and the growth of people's dissatisfaction, German neo-Nazis and far-right forces began to sink, and violent xenophobic incidents occurred frequently. Only 1993, there were 8 109 violent xenophobic incidents in Germany, with an average of more than 22 incidents per day. The main targets of neo-Nazis and extreme right forces' violent xenophobia are refugees and immigrants. They set fire to immigrant houses or refugee camps, desecrated Jewish cemeteries, burned synagogues, and openly wronged Hitler. 199211993 10 Two murders targeting foreigners occurred in Morn in October and in solingen in May, and eight Turkish women and children were burned to death. This major vicious violence shocked Germany and the world. This xenophobic activity not only reflects the dissatisfaction of some Germans with the status quo, but also reflects the rise of neo-Nazis and extreme right forces in Germany after reunification, which has caused social unrest in Germany and seriously affected Germany's international reputation. The most worrying thing is that according to the investigation of the perpetrators and suspects of a series of xenophobic incidents, more than 70% are under the age of 20, and more than 30% are young people under 18. Most of them have low education level and high unemployment rate. The survey results show that these people are not all members of neo-Nazi and far-right organizations, nor do they have the same motives or political ideas. They just feel that Germans are threatened by "outsiders", especially asylum seekers, and suffer greatly. Their xenophobia was exploited by neo-Nazis and ultra-right forces, and under their manipulation and incitement, they adopted extremist criminal acts.

German neo-Nazis and ultra-right forces are resurgent, and violent xenophobic incidents are common. The root cause of this phenomenon is its profound historical, political and social reasons.

Fascism has not been completely eliminated in Germany after World War II, but it still remains deeply in the hearts of some people. The Germanic theory of racial superiority still has a considerable market. As long as it meets an environment suitable for development, this idea will rise.

After the reunification of Germany and Germany, Germany entered a new period with a turning point, which had a great impact on Germany's politics, economy, culture, society and other fields, and new problems and contradictions emerged one after another.

After reunification, Germany bears the heavy burden of the East, with the economy declining continuously, the unemployment rate soaring, the refugee tide surging, and the contradiction between the East and the West sharp. Residents in the west think that the price they pay for reunification is too high, with an average of 3,000 marks per person per year. On the other hand, residents in the east generally feel that they have become "second-class citizens" after reunification, receiving different pay for equal work and being discriminated against by westerners, so they have a sense of loss. Young people, in particular, are desperate for the future, lose confidence in the future and become more and more pessimistic. In the rapid social and political turmoil, young people have lost their original values, ideological direction and ethical concepts. Some slogans put forward by neo-Nazis and ultra-right forces under the guise of so-called "nationalism" cater to the psychology of these young people and make them become tools of neo-Nazis, blindly exclusive and exclusive.

The reunification of Germany has changed Germany's position and role in Europe in the past, and some nostalgic far-right elements want to dominate Europe and raise the banner of so-called "nationalism". They incite young people and ordinary people who don't know the truth, advocate Teutonic theory of racial superiority, point the finger at foreigners and put forward the slogan of "Germany for Germans". Historically, strong nationalism has not brought lasting peace to Europe, but has dragged Europe into the abyss of war again and again, which is the greatest danger to maintain peace and stability in Germany and Europe.

The rise of neo-Nazis and ultra-right forces and a series of violent xenophobic incidents have sounded the alarm for the German public. It urges people to take action and take resolute measures to condemn this criminal act and safeguard the social stability of a unified Germany.

At the beginning of neo-Nazi violence, the German government did not pay enough attention to it. They think that the extreme right party is just a flash in the pan and cannot become a big climate, so they have not taken strong measures. As a result, the fierce flames of neo-Nazis gradually escalated, and the momentum became more arrogant and intensified. Under the pressure of public opinion at home and abroad, in recent years, in order to safeguard Germany's prestige and interests, the government of Cole Department Store in the United States publicly acknowledged that the violent xenophobic activities of the extreme right forces were "Germany's shame", explicitly condemned the xenophobic activities, and will investigate and severely punish these violent acts without mercy, and took strong measures against the extreme right violent organizations and banned the extreme right neo-Nazi organizations. A series of mass rallies were held in Germany. Hundreds of thousands of people attended the mass rally held in Munich, which was the largest mass rally since World War II. At the rally, people condemned the xenophobic behavior of the ultra-right forces, and held lighted candles and made bracelets to express Germans' concern for immigrants and protest against violent xenophobic activities.

While severely punishing the ultra-right forces, the federal government has also put forward a series of youth programs to combat xenophobia and launched a large-scale propaganda campaign against extremism and xenophobia to limit the spread of politically motivated violence.

German beyond national boundaries

German belongs to the Germanic language family of Indo-European language family, which is related to Danish, Norwegian, Swedish, Dutch and English. German grammar is difficult to master. The sentence shape is a "frame structure", verbs (predicates) are placed at the beginning or end of the sentence, and other sentence components (such as objects, predications, adverbials and adverbs) are placed in the sentence. German also depends on the difference between person and time. Verbs should change their position and tense, nouns should change their case, and nouns can be divided into gender and genus. Although the grammar of German is difficult, its words are easy to write and remember. Generally speaking, as long as the pronunciation is accurate, you can write correctly.

In Germany, the formation of standard German has gone through a long and complicated process. Long before the formation of standard German, there are many Germanic dialects in Germany today, such as Frankish, Saxon, Bavarian and so on. For a long time, German only existed in local dialects and was only the language used by ordinary people. Scholars, missionaries and dignitaries, who are the upper class of society, communicate in Latin instead of German. The earliest written record of German is a small Latin-German dictionary, which appeared around 770 AD. German has been monopolized by feudal elites since the appearance of writing, and it mainly appears in the form of poetic language, which is beyond the grasp of ordinary people and hinders German from becoming a unified cultural language. This situation lasted until16th century. Before that, German was incomprehensible to Germans today. People must understand these ancient German as if they were learning a foreign language.

In the15-16th century, with the rise of cities, German has been used by the general public, and a unified and popular language has become an urgent need for social development. From 65438 to 0522, Martin Luther, the pioneer of the German Reformation, published the German Bible, which became an important milestone in the formation of standard German. Since then, with the rise of publishing industry and the publication of various books, German prose has replaced the ancient poetic language. /kloc-After the 0/7th century, German linguists, poets and writers sprang up like mushrooms after rain. With its own wisdom, German has reached a high level in terms of expressive ability, rigorous structure and beautiful rhetoric. Generation after generation of literary giants and poets such as Schiller, Goethe, Lessing and Heine also entered the world literary world. They have made outstanding contributions to a unified, perfect and popular Germany.

Since the 20th century, with the progress of society, the rapid development of economy and the emergence of new things, especially the rapid development of high technology, German has also experienced a rapid development process, especially in terms of language vocabulary, which has exceeded 65.438+million, reaching an amazing level. After thousands of years of development, today's German can be compared with French and English in any respect, and it has become a bright pearl in the world language forest.

Earlier, I talked about the differences formed by the development of ancient German tribes so far, among which the biggest difference is their respective dialects. There are many dialects in Germany, and people can tell from their dialects and spoken languages where most Germans come from. Although there has been a large-scale population movement after World War II and radio and television have been widely popularized, dialects still have strong vitality. If a Bavarian and a Lower Saxon speak in their pure dialect, they need an interpreter to understand each other. In Germany, northerners generally speak standard German, such as the German spoken by Hamburg people, which is clear, loud and easy to understand. The most difficult thing to understand is the German spoken by Nande, just like Beijingers don't know what to say when they listen to Cantonese. It is precisely because there are so many German dialects that a foreigner who has studied German for many years will be afraid even if he has just set foot in Germany, Austria, Switzerland and other German-speaking areas.

More than 100 million people in the world speak German as their mother tongue. In addition to Germany, along the German border there are Austria, Liechtenstein, most of Switzerland, South Tyrol, Italy, a small part of Belgium, Alsace, France and Luxembourg. At present, there is no exact figure on how many people in the world use German, but it is generally believed that it has exceeded 1 100 million. Although German, as an international language, plays a less important role in world politics and economy, its position in the cultural field is more important. One out of every ten books published in the world is written in German. As a translated text, German ranks third in the world after English and French. And he is a leader in translating other languages into German.

Religious beliefs and religious groups

(a) Christianity in Germany

Like most western countries, the main religious belief in Germany is Christianity. About 58 million people in China believe in one of the two major Christian sects. Among them, about 29.5 million people believe in evangelical Protestantism, 28 million believe in Roman Catholicism, and a small number belong to other small Christian religious groups, such as Evangelical Methodist Church, Baptist Church, Old Catholicism, Mennonites, Quakers and Salvation Army. These are free churches.

In Germany, Protestants are the majority in the north and Catholics in the south, but in some states, such as Baden-Wü rttemberg and North Rhine-westfalen, the two sects are evenly matched. But on the whole, there are many old believers and few new believers. Nowadays, with the progress and development of society, fewer and fewer people believe in religion, especially young people. A considerable number of young people only go to church for baptism after birth, and rarely go to church when they grow up. For them, religious festivals are holidays. At that time, they usually go on holiday instead of going to church.

At present, there are 24 national Christian churches, 27 parishes and 42,000 clergy in Germany. There are churches in almost every corner of Germany, and there are two priests engaged in church work on every square kilometer of land. It is not difficult to see that religion has a deep foundation in Germany and plays an important role in people's lives.

(b) the relationship between the state and the church

The division of Christian sects in Germany today and its relationship with the country originated from the Reformation. The Religious Peace Treaty of augsburg (1555) recognizes both Protestantism and Catholicism, and stipulates the principle that "whose territory is his religion", and the monarchs of each state have the right to decide the religious beliefs of their subjects. 16 18- 1648, Protestantism and Catholicism fought for 30 years, and finally signed the Peace Treaty of Westphalia. The peace treaty gives people from all walks of life the right to decide their religious beliefs, but the close relationship between the state and the church, that is, the monarch is also the highest bishop of their respective countries, has not changed. It was not until the Constitution of Weimar Republic was promulgated in 19 19 that the separation of church and state was finally completed, but the relationship between church and state was still not completely eliminated.

There is no national church in Germany, that is, the state has no administrative supervision over the church, and the state is neutral about religious beliefs. However, the church is not a private group, but a special form of public law group that maintains partnership with the state. In real life, the church can be said to be another form of political party. The Holy See handles its relations with other countries by signing agreements and peace treaties with them. In order to represent its own interests before the federal government and parliament, the church has its own plenipotentiary in Bonn. The church has the right to ask the state for financial assistance, and all or part of the expenses of kindergartens, hospitals and schools run by the church shall be borne by the state. In Germany, churches are engaged in charity all over the country. There are 24,033 social welfare institutions in Catholicism, mainly hospitals and kindergartens, with beds 1 13683 and 407,000 staff. Christianity has 27,885 social welfare institutions with 965,438+200,000 beds and 326,000 staff. 75% of nursing homes in Germany are controlled by the church, which is the second largest "employer" after state institutions, providing 6.5438+0.2 million jobs. Youth hostels, church nurseries and kindergartens run by the church are very popular because of their relatively low fees. Nowadays, the social welfare and charity activities of the church have become an important part of public life.

In Germany, the church has the right to levy taxes on believers, usually in the form of reimbursement by the state, and the follow-up clergy of the church are also trained in national universities. The church has a say in appointing professors of theology.

In today's Germany, although young people are not as devout as old people, and hundreds of thousands of people quit the church every year, religion is still an important political force. The religious atmosphere in German society is still very strong. There are 13 ethnic and religious festivals, such as three festivals, carnival, Easter, Eucharist and Christmas. During these festivals, the whole country has a holiday, so it is not difficult to see the influence of religion on the country and society.

(3) Religious groups

1. Evangelical Protestant Church

This is an alliance composed of 24 basically independent Lutherans, Unitarians and Reformists. 199 1 became a joint organization in Germany. Its highest leading body is the Council of Evangelical Protestant Churches in Germany, the highest legislative body is the church representative conference, and its central administrative department is the church office in Hanover.

2. Catholic Church

After the reunification of Germany, Catholicism has 27 parishes, including 7 archdioceses. There are more than 70 archbishops, bishops and vice bishops. By attending the plenary session of the German Bishops' Conference held in spring and autumn every year, we can discuss and negotiate some common issues. The conference secretariat is located in Bonn. Today, Pope Johannes Paul II visited the Federal Republic of Germany twice in 1980 and 1987 respectively, which caused great repercussions throughout the country. Paul II's visit has greatly promoted the world Christian church movement and promoted the dialogue between the state and the church.

In Germany, the German Catholic Congress and the German Evangelical Protestant Congress are held alternately every two years to strengthen the influence of the church and attract social attention to the church. It is usually through a lot of charity work to expand the influence of the church. Both Catholicism and Christianity have their own institutions specializing in charity work. Catholicism mainly does charity work through the German Charity Association, while Protestantism does charity work through the Church Relief Bureau. The funds used by the church for charitable relief mainly depend on the voluntary contributions of good men and women. The other is to run hospitals, nursing homes, rehabilitation homes, kindergartens, schools and so on. Although all or part of the money comes from the state. However, these activities have become indispensable and irreplaceable social welfare activities in public life, filling the gap in this respect in the country, so they are welcomed by the public. In turn, these charitable activities have greatly expanded the influence of the church and deepened its influence on the country.

3. Other religious groups

Besides evangelical Protestantism and Catholicism, there are some smaller religious groups in Germany. Among them, there are mainly "free churches", that is, voluntary churches. Joining this church is a matter for parents, not for parents when their children are baptized. Gospel-Methodist Church is the largest free church, and there are Baptist Church, Old Catholic Church, Mennonite Church, Quaker Church and Salvation Army, which are still within the scope of Christianity.

Judaism is not only a religious sect, but also a racial name. Before World War II, there were about 500,000 Jews living in the German Empire. After Hitler's genocidal policy, only about 50,000 Jews live in the German ghetto today. The largest Jewish parish in Berlin has nearly 10000 Christians. Followed by Frankfurt, with 6,000 people and Munich with nearly 5,000 people. There are some Jews in the traditional Jewish parishes in Dresden and Leipzig in eastern Germany. In addition, some Jews live in non-Jewish areas. In Germany, the highest organization of the Jewish diocese is the German Jewish Central Council. Founded in 1979, Heidelberg Jewish University is an institution of higher learning specializing in Jewish studies and teaching. The university has a central archives, which was established by the Central Council of German Jews on 1987. In this archive, there are files related to Jewish history, which provide first-hand information for people to engage in Jewish studies.

We know that there are 7.2 million foreigners among the 865,438+800,000 residents in Germany. When they moved to Germany, they also brought their religion to Germany. Today, there are about 654.38+70 million Muslims in the Federal Republic of Germany, most of whom are Turks, which has become the largest group of foreigners. The arrival of a large number of foreign employees has led to the emergence of some non-existent religious groups in Germany.

(4) Religious architecture

As a country dominated by Christianity, Christianity is not only a universal religious belief, but also objectively left a large number of cultural heritages for Germany in its long history of nearly a thousand years. The magnificent cathedrals with different styles and standing proudly all over the country have become the architectural symbols of many cities. These ancient religious buildings fully embody the architectural genius of ancient Germans and are symbols of German tradition, attracting a large number of foreign tourists. About the ancient church buildings in Germany, we will describe them in detail in another chapter.

Introduce several websites:

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