Talk:Germans

My opinion to the actual image of Germans

I think this is a completly wrong choice - especially the second row. You can find the argument "We want less men that is why" above - but who is "we". Wikipedia is not or should not be a political statement for equality or for Emancipation of women - it is a encyclopedia! It is sad and hopefully it will chance very fast in the future, but if you would choose the 100 most important Germans in history by objectiv importance-criterias then you would maybe find 3 of 4 women - not if you only choose 8. Of course I am not a women-hater or something, but I think it is ridiculous (and not only for me, but most likely for also many German womens) to replace Goethe with Schiffer or Ida Noddack. Merkel is a good choice - yes - even if she by objectiv search for importance is not (yet) as important as Adenauer and maybe even Kohl - but she is a actual face and is very important. Schiffer was a very famous model - thats true - but at least in Germany her presence is already very limited (and she is still alive). Ida Noddack is a very fameless women- she may have made important contributions to Chemestry, but nearly nobody knows her - maybe the is a figurehead of the Emanzipation movement?. I didn't knew her (maybe I had once heard of her, but could not remember)- well it is unimportant what I know - but you can immediately see, that there are only 4 language-versions of her in the wikipedia - a big sign, that my personal feeling is true. - Watch "Our Best - there you can find also many undeserved musicans ...even ridiculous people like Kübelbök - but the first 10 there are a much better choice. And I don't know - why some people always exclude German Jews from the Germans-article - you can also find "controversial" figueres in the photos of other people - for example Copernicus - but thats a different point. - But back to the women - in my opionion there are better womens to choose: Clara Schumann or even Leni Riefenstahl - the last one is far better known - even if controversial - but why exclude controversial figures - at least she was a strong women, who made something important and was not only nice looking like Schiffer (who for example has no talent for acting). Or maybe Sophie Scholl - even if in my opionion she is often undeserved pointet out over her brother and other people of the resistance, who have the same contributions. - But again 2 women out of 8 is definitly enough. But you could also enlarge the photo. The Poles and Portuges-articels have over 15 persons on the photos - and I don't think, that the number of important Germans is so much smaller :-). If you don't care about my argumentation - you should at least consider to replace the Ida Noddack-photo with someone else - that she is seen on the picture is strange. Knarf-bz (talk) 05:32, 4 April 2009 (UTC)

Ida Noddack was the first to mention the idea of nuclear fission. Do you realize how important that is? She is one of the most important German scientists, male or female. I didnt put her there just cause shes a woman.

However, we can maybe include more pics, iclude Michael Schumacher and Gauss maybe? Phoenix of9 (talk) 20:29, 4 April 2009 (UTC)

So why ida Noddack is not even mentioned in the article of nuclear fission? Otto Hahn is and Fritz Strassmann is and Lise Meitner is - and that are the persons which are far more famous in this field - not only in Germany - the first two are Germans by the way. As far as I know there was not a single scientist important for this idea. Lise Meitner for example is much better known then Ida Noddack. And again - important or not - maybe it is more important then I realize but maybe you think it is more important then it realy is - Ida Noddack is definitly not well known. I bet over 90% of the Germans would not know who she is and wikipedia shows - she is also not well known abroad. And no - I don't think that Noddakc is one of the most important German scientists - she is important - but Germany had maybe 200 scientists of equal importance or even more. - But well - of course I can live with Noddack and Schiffer on the Germans-page - but nevertheless I think both do not deserve it if compared to people like Goethe, Kant or Marx. (well Noddack may deserve it - but she is far less known - Schiffer doesn't deserve it in my opinion) --- But apart from that, adding more and more pictures of famous Germans is maybe not the best idea. I like the picture in the Dutch people article much more then for example in the Poles article. Knarf-bz (talk) 22:01, 4 April 2009 (UTC)

Thx for the heads up, I added Noddack into nuclear fission article. I didnt add Hahn or Strassmann into this article cause eventho they are also very important, we already have Planck, a male physicist. There are lots of famous German physicists, Merkel is one herself. Lise Meitner is also very important and I have no idea why she isnt in Austrians where they have Marie Antoinette instead, whose most famous contribution to history was Let them eat cake. Maybe we can add Goethe, Kant, Marx, Gauss or few others, I dunno. Phoenix of9 (talk) 22:15, 4 April 2009 (UTC)

Yes - it is not so easy - how to deal best with this topic :-). But maybe it is not realy important and the world will be not worse if the picture stays like it is. For me personally it is a little strange to have Schiffer, Noddack or even Merkel there, when Goethe and Einstein are missing. The argumentation Einstein and Marx can not be in the Germans article, because they have German Jewish background is something I can't and won't follow. If you are that strict you had to delete Copernikus and Kolbe from the Poles article- But again - who cares :-)Knarf-bz (talk) 22:31, 4 April 2009 (UTC)

Actually looking at the dutch and poles, the dutch looks much better. This, look how many famous people we have, seems pretentious. How about this:

File:Kindergartenfrankfurt.jpg

Kindergarten in Hesse

Phoenix of9 (talk) 19:51, 5 April 2009 (UTC)

I already though about this :-) and think it is nice. But maybe because in this article some make a difference between Germans without immigrant background and German citizenship and even deleted people like Marx, because he was not German enough for them, this picture will maybe not be liked by all - because it shows clearly some kids with immigrant background. But I myself would back this picture - it is likable. Knarf-bz (talk) 05:13, 6 April 2009 (UTC)

these ethnicity collages are an abomination all across Wikipedia, and the way to address the problem would be pushing their abolition at Wikipedia talk:WikiProject Ethnic groups. There is simply no way to do this encyclopedically, and we should therefore just drop it. The one we have here is actually good by comparison. People will insist to include pictures of Clovis I or Ashurnasirpal II or Hayk or Alfred the Great or (sigh) Pericles and Alexander the Great. There is no way we can reasonably babysit all ethnicity article against this sort of thing. If there are relevant mugshots pertaining to some ethnic group, let them be included in the article body like any other image. --dab (𒁳) 09:06, 21 April 2009 (UTC)

Absolutely useless picture. First, there is no prove these kids are all German. Second it is common for any people article to show some known characters. Third this pictures gives no information at all. --217.83.57.197 (talk) 21:30, 27 November 2009 (UTC)

Absolutely good picture. If you want to see bad pictures see the Icleanders page - to include more and more unimportant people. I prefer the solution of the Dutch people page. And your second comment - it is common - well maybe on many pages -and you can see the discussions sourrounding this picturs, where often also very contoversial persons are include. 195.243.51.34 (talk) 09:54, 30 November 2009 (UTC)

Error?

THERE IS AN ERROR IN THE PICTURE! the preview shows nietzsche instead of kant, while that changes when you click it. however the picture on the actual page shows nietzsche and is labeled with kant... —Preceding unsigned comment added by Major Glory (talk • contribs) 16:01, 18 January 2010 (UTC)

This is because the old image version with Nietzsche is still stored in the cache. Reload the page (in Firefox: Ctrl-R ), and it will be updated to the new one with Kant. -- Matthead  Discuß   10:02, 19 January 2010 (UTC)

This is not a feminist activist article, nor are encycolpedias supposed to be prejudgemental or politcally correct. Where is Karl Marx and Hitler? This article is a joke...

I'm an AP World History, and the pop idea that Hitler is with out a doubt top 3 most important people to ever live is really actually true, so why isn't he a notable German? Karl Marx and communism, also incredibly influential and important. It's just a list, but it seems to infer the idea that Wikipedia or this article is a place of pointless political correction with no energy of true intellectualism. Angela Merkel (not notable at all in the scheme of history), and Friedrich Nietzsche I think are all easily replaceable by Hitler and Karl Marx.

And to help the politically sensitive people, just think of the Germans as interesting, ecstatic people, with importance of people ranging from a romantic and spiritual composer like Beethoven to a ugly monster like Hitler. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 72.24.157.142 (talk) 16:56, 18 August 2009 (UTC)

Do you mean in the photographs? If so then I disagree. There are only room for eight, and they don't have to be the eight most notable Germans, just eight representative well-known Germans. DJ Clayworth (talk) 17:00, 18 August 2009 (UTC)

Yeah the pictures I mean, but that's where eight representative well-known Germans come from, notables, you wouldn't forget Albert Einstein from a representative collection of pictures of Jewish people or Shakespeare from an English one. I just get tired of this shallow political correctness that is so common in Wikipedia articles. It could be so much better. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 72.24.157.142 (talk) 17:11, 18 August 2009 (UTC)

Hitler was Austrian, so he should be in the Austrian people article I guess. Karl Marx is German at least, so add him. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 72.24.157.142 (talk) 17:20, 18 August 2009 (UTC)

Hitler not only was Austrian, he also was German (he considered himself German for ALL his adult life, and he had German citizenship for part of his life). Nahabedere (talk) 10:32, 6 September 2009 (UTC)

The photo at the top was made, with a great deal of effort, by a dedicated Wikipedia editor. Wikipedia is an encyclopedia anyone can edit. If you wish to create a better image, feel free to do so and suggest it as an alternative. DJ Clayworth (talk) 17:34, 18 August 2009 (UTC)

I object to these "ethnic group infobox" collages on principle. No, the collage wouldn't be improved if it sported Hitler. It is actually not so bad as far as these collages go, but I nevertheless must ask, what encyclopedic information relevant to the topic "Germans" does the collage convey that justifies its position at the top of the article. --dab (𒁳) 15:28, 11 November 2009 (UTC)

I agree, Karl Marx should be on the main picture. He's one of the most important Germans in many ways..xperienc —Preceding unsigned comment added by 88.235.186.118 (talk) 00:21, 6 January 2010 (UTC)

Famous people picture

Shouldn't Hitler be on that picture? He's probably the most famous German in the world, and wikipedia is objective, he should be figured on that picture, dispite what the proud Germans in this thread says —Preceding unsigned comment added by 81.232.69.135 (talk) 19:48, 5 November 2009 (UTC)

Hitler wasn't a German, you fool, he came from AUSTRIA!!! --The Young Wolve (talk) 21:27, 19 March 2010 (UTC)

Shouldn't Anne Frank be in their too? She was born in Frankfurt.

Infobox Images: "Notable" persons vs "everyman" images

I realise that the discussion on who should be in the Germans infobox has gone back and forth over an extended period. What is the community view of whether such an image should be comprised of notable persons (and please, I'm not commenting on WHO those people should be) versus the everyman type of picture (that exists in this revision: [[1]]. I don't want to get into an argument with individuals via my talk page, but my personal view is that of User:217.83.57.197 above. In the meantime, I'll look for WP policy on this. Mark5677 (talk) 10:02, 30 November 2009 (UTC)

Thank you for your reply. I prefer the "everyman" images - which of couse not means that the Kindergarten-picture is the best. It could be also a everyday street scene or even a picture of the football Worldcup 2006. There are many problems with the notable persons-pictures. First, there are all along discussion to which nation belongs a person or about the importance of a person. In the Germany-article there very deletions of Marx and Einstein, because some peopel consider them not German enough (nonsense in my opinion, but well) and some want Hitler included oder Mozart. All difficult questions. On the other hand many pages of other nations include controversial persons, Alexander the Great or Copernikus under Poles - while I not deny that Copernikus was Polish he is definitly also controversily handled like you can find on his Wikipedia page and often seen as an amalgan person of Polish and German. So why delete Marx but let Copernikus - and the discussions go on and on. - The next problem is, that some people seem to think the more peopel they add, the more important there nations seem - because this pictures are mostly added by lets say "patriotic" people. Look the Icelanders page - do they relay need 2 beauty queens, which noone knows. Well and what is "notable" - for me half of this persons are not realy notable. Or look the Norwegians page some days ago, where a user added 5 Norwegians - like Britney spears and other "Norwegian Americans" and than you klick at one of the pages and read, that one stepfather was a Norwegian and no one else. -- An everyday-picture doesn't play in the hands of "chauvinists" - (of course this is not meant for the user, who prefer the Notable persons). What do you think? The creators of the Dutch people-page at least came to a conclusion, which I for my opinion would also prefer for the Germans-page 195.243.51.34 (talk) 10:36, 30 November 2009 (UTC)

I agree with some of what you say. But it's not an issue about which particular group of famous heads is displayed in the infobox - that's a separate issue I'll leave for others, as I know that there are extremely strong views on this. But just because there is dissent about who should be displayed doesn't mean that it becomes too hard and you go on to do something easier and less controversial. And I agree that this kind of page shouldn't display German-Americans or Norwegian Americans or any other variation (for want of a better term). But what is displayed should have some identifiable connection with the subject matter. The image of the school children is so generic it could be anywhere. Mark5677 (talk) 07:35, 1 December 2009 (UTC)

Read the discussion and followed 195.243.51.34's links. The Icelanders page has very bad selection of people.. but they do show many women. I think to show both women and men, children and old people is more important than showing notable people. Of course I prefer the composite "notoripus" german picture before the kindergarten. Why dont post pictures here on the talk and have some kind election with all of them? Dentren | ^Talk 14:01, 1 December 2009 (UTC)

Take a look at the image of Chilean people I thank such kind of images might be the best beacause only a tiny minority of the population have been heads of state or are famous musicians or models. Having a collage of "notable" people will likely overepresent men, nobilty, heads of state, upper class etc. The image of Dutch people belong rather in a Traditional architectere of the Netherlands article, and we dont see any faces. Also not all people live in idyllic Duch villages. Dentren | ^Talk 22:11, 6 December 2009 (UTC)

Good idea in my opinion and closer to the Kindergarten-picture then the notables. 195.243.51.34 (talk) 15:29, 7 December 2009 (UTC)

If you can find an image/images of a group of people that is identifiably German, then that would be a good outcome. How you would do that, I don't know. You may not want to get too stereotypical (Men in lederhosen and women in dirndls) I think that Dentren's idea of posting images and voting is a good one - it could reduce the future number of debates on the matter. I would, however, do an initial change/retain vote at the outset (with a question like 'Should the infobox image be changed from a collage of notable persons to something else?' Mark5677 (talk) 19:50, 7 December 2009 (UTC)

I think your "initial change/retain vote" idea is not the best because there are notable persons collages that might be better than some "normal" german pictures, and vice versa, each picture should be judged independently. Maybe somebody wants even to mix notabes with common people, althought im not a candidate of that, that option should be open in an image election. Dentren | ^Talk 22:58, 13 December 2009 (UTC)

Actually, the change/retain vote would only be the start of the process. If the decision is to change the image, there would have to be a series of later votes so that each step is clear and unambiguous to anyone who chooses to review it in the future. In that way, the issue can hopefully be settled fairly and for good. There would probably have to be a series of voting questions to decide on various matters. There would be subsequent questions like: 2. if the image is to be changed, should it retain the 8 image format? (YES/NO) 3. Should it be a collage of notable vs everyman? etc etc. It will probably be a reasonably long process, but the end benefit would hopefully be something that is built in line with the tenets of WP:CON. To be honest, after having looked at a number of talk page discussions about this kind of thing, the biggest problem is that editors talk to different issues at the same time and discussions are spread out over numerous archived talk pages. Mark5677 (talk) 08:30, 14 December 2009 (UTC)

The process you propose seems to long slow and tedious. I stiull think its better to present images hered independently is better but if you succeded establishing the discussion you propose I will join. Its not nessesary bauraucratize everything, and by putting questions in certain orders it is actually possible to manipulate the outcome. Dentren | ^Talk 00:13, 17 December 2009 (UTC)

I agree that it's slow and tedious. My suggestions were more in line with a theoretical way to stop arguments in the long term. I don't like bureaucracy much either, but you just have to look around on WP to see how bureaucracy has taken hold - as WP has scaled, it's become necessary to a certain extent. I don't propose to establish anything myself, since the outcome will probably only reflect the opinions of you, me and a couple of IP users at best. And really, the effort isn't justified. I was more pondering on how to best stop this kind of argument from occurring in the future. Mark5677 (talk) 07:32, 18 December 2009 (UTC)

Nietzsche in the picture collage?

here's what it says on his own article.

The modern unified nation-state called Germany did not yet exist at the time of his birth, but the German Confederation of states did, and Nietzsche was a citizen of one of these, Prussia—for a time. When he accepted his post at Basel, Nietzsche applied for the annulment of his Prussian citizenship.[36] The official response confirming the revocation of his citizenship came in a document dated April 17, 1869[37], and for the rest of his life he remained officially stateless.

Nietzsche is even more adamant about his Polish Identity. “I am a pure-blooded Polish nobleman, without a single drop of bad blood, certainly not German blood.” On yet another occasion Nietzsche stated: “Germany is a great nation only because its people have so much Polish blood in their veins... I am proud of my Polish descent"

I suggest removing Nietzsche from the picture collage for the above reasons. you guys might want to replace it with another more notable German. Hitler, perhaps? 190.110.155.48 (talk) 01:49, 3 January 2010 (UTC)

There is a long possible list of German philosophers: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:German_philosophers I would go for Immanuel Kant. Hitler was Austrian, so epic fail to you. --93.206.38.170 (talk) 12:30, 7 January 2010 (UTC)

I think you completely missed, that the file is on Commons and that en.wp is only one of hundreds of projects... Please correct the image descriptions on the other wikipedias as well if you do such change. As a german I have btw no idea who Ida Noddack-Tacke was. --Martin H. (talk) 15:00, 9 January 2010 (UTC)

This is nonsense. Nietzsche is a German philospher. Maybe he has also some Slavic heritage but nearly no one in Central Europe is "full Germanic" or "full slavic" - thats also true for Poles - its a question of "ethonogenese". The list of his Grandparents and there names make it very likely that he is an ethnic German - and more important his work is incorporated in the "German" cultural background and unthinkalbe without it. And about his statements: He did also other statments, which could be seen as contrary and the statments you chosed are very selectiv. And next point Nietzsche was also a typical person, who used ironie and liked to provoke or make statements to "show his points". The "I don't want to be German"-point is for example very common under people on the left-wing, which most often use it to point that they don't believe in "ethinic groups" or want to distinguish from nationalists. - Nietsche should stay in the Germans article (not only pure Germans - if there are anyones). Why don't you question Copernicus in the Poles article. He is also not 100% Polish or at least a controversial topic? 195.243.51.34 (talk) 10:33, 13 January 2010 (UTC)

600.000 Germans in Mexico ???

Mexico not have 600.000 germans ethnic. the information is false —Preceding unsigned comment added by 201.239.2.110 (talk) 20:14, 10 February 2010 (UTC)

Karl Marx and Albert Einstein?

Why are Karl Marx and Albert Einstein shown in the infobox? This article is about ethnic Germans. Marx and Einstein were ethnic Jews. --John of Lancaster (talk) 20:55, 22 March 2010 (UTC)

I completely agree --95.88.25.147 (talk) 10:52, 28 April 2010 (UTC)

The article is not primarily about ethnic Germans as a distinct tribe, but about German nationals and their descendants. There is a separate article on "ethnic Germans". Furthermore, many German Jews assimilated completely into the larger German nation. For example, Karl Marx was raised Lutheran and was not culturally Jewish. Marx did not consider himself a Jew in any way, and he would be quite surprised being labeled as such. --Vdjj1960 (talk) 19:37, 2 May 2010 (UTC)

Oh, I see. I wasn't aware that this article was about German nationals and their descendants and that there was a separte article on ethnic Germans because the first line of the article says that the Germans are an ethnic group. If the article isn't about ethnic Germans per se, I think that line should be changed to avoid confusion. --John of Lancaster (talk) 21:43, 3 May 2010 (UTC)

It doesn't make sense to me to have an article about German nationals and their descendants because many German nationals, such as first generation immigrants, are clearly not German and would not consider themselves to be German, thus their descendants would not be German either. The ethnic Germans article is specifically about ethnic Germans outside of Germany. Plus, I highly doubt that Karl Marx "assimilated completely into the larger German nation". His parents may have converted before his birth, but you can't deny that both of them were raised Jewish, so that obviously must have had some impact on his upbringing. His mother wasn't even born in Germany. Marx was a self-hating Jew, so obviously he didn't consider himself a Jew. If I decided that I didn't want to consider myself German anymore, that wouldn't change the fact that I am. --72.82.201.106 (talk) 19:49, 28 June 2010 (UTC)

Of course it would, "An ethnic group (or ethnicity) is a group of people whose members identify with each other,.." so if you don't, you aren't German anymore. 84.167.62.218 (talk) 17:32, 19 July 2010 (UTC)

Einstein is a jew

Einstein was a jaw man. He said in the past that if his theary will be true the germans,and the swiss etc. will say that he is one of them. But the Nazi said that he want with the jews rule the world. SO, you cannot include him at the german people, he should be transforded to jews article.77.126.225.131 (talk) —Preceding undated comment added 21:16, 11 April 2010 (UTC).

introduction

The introduction of the article says:

"There are an additional 80 million people of German ancestry (mainly in Austria (official) , Switzerland (official), Liechtenstein (official) , Luxembourg (official), as well as populations in the USA, France, Russia, Romania, Brazil, Argentina, Chile, Poland, Australia and Canada) who most likely are not native speakers of German.[41]"

I don´t quite get the meaning of this sentence. Can anybody explain it to me? Is this actually suggesting that most inhabitants of Austria and Switzerland "are not native speakers of German"? If so, it is complete nonsense. Plus, I think that Hitler really should and must be added to the collage, since an Austrian clearly was an ethnic German in the unerstanding of those times. --Mike F2 (talk) 01:04, 28 April 2010 (UTC)

Famous Germans

Please note that Karl Marx and Albert Einstein are not of German ethnicity. In fact, they are Ashkenazi Jews! However, the most famous German is missing, namely Adolf Hitler.

-So, they can´t be both, Jews AND Germans? For what reason should a fully assimilated Jew who was born, grown up and ( at least for some years of his life) living in Germany not be considered a German? Nevertheless, I agree that Hitler should be in the collage, for 3 reasons: a) it was completely clear not only to him, but also to his contemporaries that Austrians are (ethnic) Germans as well, and that Bismarck did not include Austria in the German nation state for pragmatic reasons (in fact, it was completely impossible since the Habsburg monarchy was far too powerful), b) he moved to Germany and became a German citizen at a young age, and c) he was the fucking dictator of Germany. But if you really don´t want to include him, there should be at least one Nazi in this collage (Goebbels maybe?). --Mike F2 (talk) 00:51, 29 April 2010 (UTC)

I agree that Hitler should be in it as he is "the" most famous German ever. However, Marx and Einstein are ethnically Jews! They might have been German citizens, but we are not talking about German citizenship, we are talking about ethnicity! Including Einstein (and Marx) in "Germans" is profoundly wrong!!! --95.89.49.90 (talk) 06:34, 29 April 2010 (UTC)

Plus, Marx and Einstein were not "fully assimilated" as you want them to be. I suggest you check their biographies. Even if they had been "fully assimilated" you cannot overlook their distinct racial makeup. DNA evidence clearly shows that Ashkenazi Jews are a distinct racial (i.e. ethnic) group! --95.89.49.90 (talk) 06:48, 29 April 2010 (UTC)

Plus, I think that Konrad Adenauer and/or Helmut Kohl should be taken out. I don´ see why there should be (together with Merkel) 3 chancellors of the BRD in the picture, and especially 3 of the same political party. --Mike F2 (talk) 00:59, 29 April 2010 (UTC)

Ok, following your line I suggest to remove Einstein and Marx and put the british Queen in. The house of Windsor used to be Sachsen-Coburg-Gotha until 1917 when being german wasn't very popular. Or, even better, Prince Charles. His father is a member of the House of Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Glücksburg, his mother Sachsen-Coburg-Gotha. Sounds quite german to me... Oh, and that position is backed by Lady Diana who once said that she married into a german family. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 84.56.65.137 (talk) 19:02, 22 May 2010 (UTC)

Justification for Reuploading Removed Collage

I'm reuploading the collage that was removed for erroneous reasons. My justification is as follows:

1) In principle you don't remove a valid collage and replace it with nothing. Wikipedia is about giving readers more and better information. It is tedious arguing whether certain individuals should or should not be included. If you think the article should have a better collage with a different mix of people, then create it.

2) The article is specifically about German nationals and their descendants not ethnic Germans per se; therefore, the comments complaining that Karl Marx and Albert Einstein aren't ethnic Germans are irrelevant. There is a separate article on ethnic Germans to placate the "Jews can't be Germans" crowd. I should say that it would be a surprise to both Einstein and Marx that they aren't considered German by some. --Vdjj1960 (talk) 20:39, 2 May 2010 (UTC)

Wow- someone didn't read the discussion page or didn't care. Some Wikipedia-users hoped to find a picture of the "everyman"-typ. I personally hoped for something like the picture on the Dutch people site. - But this new picture even toped the criticized pictures and made a 25-people-salmagundi - (which over time of course will produce fighting...). Very ugly picture and in the mentality of more, more, more - we have much more important people. Why don't we make a picture with 100 people - or lets say 200? Well I am sure, we could find 500 important Germans. - How sad. Knarf-bz (talk) 18:24, 13 May 2010 (UTC)

Einstein was a Zionist! Including Einstein in that list is an insult to the Jews. Hitler is a German but Einstein is not! --95.88.25.24 (talk) 10:42, 26 June 2010 (UTC)

Move to German people?

Shouldn't this be listed under German people, in order to be consistent? The pages for other nationalities are listed that way, e.g. English people, Chilean people, French people, Japanese people, Chinese people, etc. Any particular reason this is listed differently? I do see that Russian people redirects to Russians. I don't really have a preference, but shouldn't they all be the same, one way or the other? Torchiest ^talk/_contribs 19:13, 14 May 2010 (UTC)

A nationality article will be at a location without the use of "people" if possible, but in the examples you give (except Chilean people), the term is ambiguous: English, French, Japanese, Chinese, and so on also refer to the language, and there is not language called "Germans" or "Russians" ... or Ukrainians or Estonians. This is the ideal, in case you wonder about examples such as Chilean people and Lithuanian people, there is no explanation beyond lack of consistency. Hope this helps. Deacon of Pndapetzim (Talk) 20:49, 14 May 2010 (UTC)

Ah, that makes sense now. Thanks for the explanation. Torchiest ^talk/_contribs 04:06, 19 May 2010 (UTC)

German customs

A coachman at the Oktoberfest

The citizens of Balve, Nordrhein-Westfalen celebrate a "Schützenfest"

Women wearing traditional German "Dirndl" Dress

I think this article should include something about German customs. I included a picture of an Osterrad, because Easter is a important holiday in Germany (and I have been told by a religious person, that it is even more important than Christmas to many people, because on Christmas Jesus was born and there is nothing speacial about this, but it is believed by German christians that on Easter he was resurrected from the dead and that of course is very special). I would also like to include a short paragraph on famous German fesitivities like the Oktoberfest and may be something about traditional way of dressing, traditional way of dancing etc. in some parts of Germany..-- Greatgreenwhale (talk) 17:48, 30 June 2010 (UTC)

"Right of blood" and "right of soil"

As far as I know it has always been possible for a person, who was not born to German parents to apply for the German citizenship. I do know about several people, who did so successfully. However not having a "right of soil" meant, that it was not possible to become German just by being born on German soil (as it is the case in the US and is also the case in Germany now).-- Greatgreenwhale (talk) 18:11, 30 June 2010 (UTC)

German Peruvians

There have been some clumsy attempts to add the German population of Peru to the infobox, resulting in at least one block. However, the German Peruvian article has a sourced population estimate of 160,000, which is lacking from this article. Is this an acceptable source [2]? JNW (talk) 21:22, 4 July 2010 (UTC)