Немецкоязычное сообщество Бельгии: История и современность

One of three federal communities of Belgium

The German speaking Community (Deutschsprachige Gemeinschaft), also known as East Belgium (links=no), is one of the three federal communities of Belgium, with an area of in the Liège Province of Wallonia, including nine of the eleven municipalities of Eupen Malmedy. The primary language of the community is German, making this the third official language in Belgium. Traditionally the community and the wider area around it forms an intersection of various local languages and/or dialects, namely Limburgish, Ripuarian and Moselle Franconian varieties. The community population numbers around 77,949 (1st January 2020)about 7.0% of Liège Province and about 0.7% of the national total.

The area known today as the East Cantons consists of the German speaking Community and the municipalities of Malmedy and Waimes (links=no), which belong to the French Community of Belgium. The East Cantons were part of the Rhine Province of Prussia in the German Empire until 1920 (as the counties (links=no) of Eupen and Malmedy), but were annexed by Belgium following Germany's defeat in World War I and the subsequent Treaty of Versailles. Thus they also became known as the cantons rédimés, "redeemed cantons". The peace treaty of Versailles demanded the "questioning" of the local population. People who were unwilling to become Belgians and wanted the region to remain a part of Germany were required to register themselves along with their full name and address with the Belgian military administration, headed by Herman Baltia, and many feared reprisals or even expulsion for doing so. In the mid 1920s, there were secret negotiations between Germany and the kingdom of Belgium that seemed to be inclined to sell the region back to Germany as a way to improve Belgium's finances. A price of 200 million gold marks has been mentioned. In the early 1960s, Belgium was divided into four linguistic areas, the Dutch speaking Flemish area, the French speaking area, the bilingual capital of Brussels, and the German speaking area of the east cantons. In 1973, three communities and three regions were established and granted internal autonomy. The legislative Parliament of the German speaking Community, Rat der Deutschsprachigen Gemeinschaft, was set up. Today the German speaking Community has a fair degree of autonomy, especially in language and cultural matters, but it still remains part of the region of predominantly French speaking Wallonia. There has been much argument in the past few years that the German speaking Community should also become its own region, which is an ongoing process with the permanent transfer with the previous accord of some competences concerning social policy, conservation of sites and monuments, environment protection policy, transport, the financing of municipalities, among other things from the Walloon Region. One of the proponents of full regional autonomy for the German speaking Community is Karl Heinz Lambertz, the minister president from 1999 to 2014. Especially regional autonomy for spatial planning, city building and housing should be considered, according to the government of the German speaking Community.

The territory of the German speaking Community is bounded on the north by the Belgium Germany Netherlands border tripoint, on the east by Germany and on the south by Luxembourg, and on the west by the territory of the French speaking Community of Belgium. Within Belgium, the German speaking Community exercises its political powers on the German speaking territory, which comprises nine municipalities. Eupen is the seat of the government, the parliament and the administrative centre. The municipalities of Malmedy and Weismes belong to the territorial community of the French Community of Belgium. The German minority has its own rights there. Occasionally, the nine German speaking communities, together with the communities of Malmedy and Weismes, are historically called East Belgium or East Cantons because of their common political past, formerly also as Eupen Malmedy St. Vith. In March 2017, the government of the German speaking community decided to market the area as East Belgium. Analogous to South Tyrol (officially: Autonomous Region of Bolzano – South Tyrol), the name of the German speaking Community of Belgium will continue to be used on official documents, on the external presentation, on the Internet and on the official posters of the ministry, the government and the parliament.

The German speaking Community consists of nine municipalities, listed in the table below. Numbers on the map to the right correspond to the "Map #" column in the table below. Map # Municipality Canton Population(2020) Area(km2) Area(sq mi) 5 Amel Sankt Vith 5,486 6 Büllingen Sankt Vith 5,456 7 Burg Reuland Sankt Vith 3,974 8 Bütgenbach Sankt Vith 5,629 1 Eupen Eupen 19,762 2 Kelmis Eupen 11,212 3 Lontzen Eupen 5,833 4 Raeren Eupen 10,818 9 St. Vith Sankt Vith 9,779 Total 77,949

( = comparable to previous year). The population figures are those on 1 January 2020 (compare to a total of 73,675 on 1 January 2007). The municipalities are grouped into two cantons, namely the Canton of Eupen in the north and the Canton of Sankt Vith in the south. The wider region is included in the Arrondissement of Verviers.