Germanic peoples

Germanic is the name given to a group of former tribes in Central Europe and southern Scandinavia, whose identity in research is traditionally determined by language. Characteristics of the Germanic languages are, among other things, certain sound changes compared to the reconstructed Indo-Germanic original language, which are summarized as the Germanic or first sound shift. The settlement area inhabited by the Germanic peoples was accordingly called Germania magna by the Romans.

From the turn of the ages, contact with the Romans shaped the Germanic world, just as the development of the Roman Empire increasingly connected with the Germanic world. In late antiquity, in the course of the "migration of peoples", there were far-reaching moves of several Germanic tribes (gentes), some of which formed larger associations (see ethnogenesis), eventually and finally their invasion of the Roman Empire. Their goal was above all to share in the prosperity of the empire, whose structures and culture they by no means wanted to destroy. Some of these groups founded empires on the ancient Roman model on the soil of the Western Empire, which fell around the year 476. Elements of Germanic religion and religious customs were transferred, among other things by accommodation, into the adopted Christianity.

This article describes the general history of the Germanic peoples, beginning before the turn of time, until late antiquity or the beginning of the early Middle Ages. In research, the history of Scandinavia until the Middle Ages is also seen in the Germanic context. The history of individual tribes, Germanic mythology and Germanic tribal rights are the subject of further articles.