:To paraphrase what I say on my user page, WP is both the worst and best encyclopaedia. It's written by people who know their stuff and know how to use sources, and it's also written by people who do not think things through and who wouldn't know a reliable, credible sources if it bit them in the rear. To apply the term ethnic to a group as large and culturally and genetically diverse as Germans is poppycock. There are ethnic groups of German origin (e.g., the Pennsylvania Dutch and Transylvania Saxons) who are traceable by dint of their traditions, including close relatedness due to very limited intermarriage with other groups. This, however, is not the case for Germany as a whole, which is a mosaic of different ethnicities. Berlin's population was up to 20% French thanks to an influx of Huguenots, and prior to WWII it also had a large Jewish population. The cultural and genetic legacy of all of these groups have shaped the language and genetic makeup of the region. Günter Grass is as German as bread, beer, and bratwurst, yet his mother was Polish, and Thomas Mann, yet another quintessential German had a Brazilian mother. I could go on, but suffice it to say, you would be hard pressed to find any country in Europe that consists of a single ethnic group. If people believe they are ethnically French, English, or German, they're very probably kidding themselves.