Germans

Germans () are defined as an ethnic group, in the sense of sharing a common German culture, speaking the German language as a mother tongue and being of German descent. Germans are also defined by their national citizenship, which had, in the course of German history, varying relations to the above (German culture), according to the influence of subcultures and society in general (also refer to Imperial Germans, Federal Germans etc. and Demographics of Germany). The Germans are most commonly defined as a Germanic people assimilated with smaller Celtic, Roman and Slavic elements.