AW: [SEELANGS] Russian Germans / Rossians and Russians

[Maryna Vinarska]

FIEGUTH Rolf <rolf.fieguth at UNIFR.CH> wrote:    Dear Maryna Vinarska,

if I did not overread something, nobody mentioned as far the most traditional German term for Germans born and brought up in Russia - it is "Russlanddeutscher/Russlanddeutsche", literally "Russia Germans". This is how a (somewhat distant) part of my family was and is speaking of themselves, when asked about their identity.
Bet,

...............................Dear Rolf, 
  
I would NOT say that this "most traditional German term" is really widely used. I see it only in articles on the topic, probably just because it is too risky for authours to call this particular group simply "Russen" in writing, like they, no doubt, call them when talking to each other.
   
  As to the huge ammount of Germans from the former USSR I myself came accross, I would say that they preffer the term "Spaetaussiedler" nowadays if they are asked who they are. And there are enough reasons for exactly this choice. One of them is probably the fact that they don't associate Kazakhstan or Uzbekistan with exactly Russia in their minds to call themselves "Russlanddeutsche", especially if it is the generation which is the result of cross-cultural marriages. Besides, they know that, unfortunately, not everybody in Germany knows what and where Uzbekistan, for example, is. So there is no sense to say smth like "Uzbekdeutsche"... 
   
  It's actually very complicated. And I don't know what the starting point was. And I didn't get it, what your statement actually is.
   
  Mit freundlichen Grüßen,
  Maryna Vinarska

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