Description
The German-speaking Community is the smallest of the three communities in Belgium. On a area of 854 square kilometres around 73,000 inhabitants are living. Most of them are German-speaking Belgians, but they also include Walloon, Flemish and foreign citizens. The area includes the municipalities of Amel, Büllingen, Burg-Reuland, Bütgenbach, Eupen, Kelmis, Lontzen, Raeren and St. Vith.
The history of the German-speaking part of Belgium is a history full of vicissitudes and is mainly influenced by the position on the border that the region has held from time immemorial.
The inhabitants of the German-speaking Community consider themselves as people living in a core area of Europe with easy access to four different countries (B, D, NL and L). They generally use the German language standard in administration, schools, in church and in their social relations. In social relations also dialects continue to play an important role.
The German-speaking Community forms an independent and highly sovereign-acting entity, but as a federal part of the Belgian state it remains integrated into its federal structures. The German-speaking Community is recognised according to Article 2 of the Belgian Constitution. According to Articles 115, 121 and 130 of the constitution it has almost the same legal status as the French and Flemish Communities, i.e. it has been attributed about the same autonomy and the same competences.
Size of the minority
66,000 (Pan) / 150,000 (Ethnologue) / 67,500 (Euromosaic)
More
- Die deutschsprachige Gemeinschaft in Belgien: http://language-diversity.eu/knowledge/regions-of-europe/die-deutschsprachige-gemeinschaft-in-belgien/
- http://www.dglive.be/desktopdefault.aspx
- Geschichte der DG: http://www.grenzgeschichte.eu/, http://www.dglive.be/desktopdefault.aspx/tabid-1053/1532_read-20359/
- Pan, Christoph / Pfeil, Beate S.: Die Volksgruppen in Europa. Ein Handbuch. Wilhelm Braumüller Verlag 2000
- Pan, Christoph / Pfeil, Beate S.: National Minorities in Europe: Handbook. Wilhelm Braumüller Verlag 2003
- Zu Deutsch in Belgien: Mostert, Bics und Beinchen stellen - Alltagssprache in Ostbelgien von Franz- Josef Heinen und Edie Kremer, Eupen, Grenz- Echo Verlag, 2011
- Parlament der Deutschsprachigen Gemeinschaft: http://www.dglive.be/desktopdefault.aspx
Language
German (66.000 Speaker)
Country
