Ostsiedlung

Ostsiedlung (German pronunciation: [ˈɔstˌziːdlʊŋ], literally east settling), also called German eastward expansion, was the medieval eastward migration and settlement of German speakers from the Holy Roman Empire (primarily present-day southern and western Germany) into less-populated regions of eastern Central Europe. The affected area roughly stretched from Slovenia to Estonia, and southwards into Transylvania. In part, Ostsiedlung followed the territorial expansion of the Empire and the Teutonic Order.

According to Jedlicki (1950), in many cases the term "German colonization" does not refer to an actual migration of Germans, but rather to the internal migration of native populations (Poles, Hungarians, etc.) from the countryside to the cities, which then adopted laws modeled on those of the German towns of Magdeburg and Lübeck. 19th- and 20th-century German historians have often exaggerated the importance of the adoption of Salic law and settlement in Central and Eastern Europe for political reasons; while the phenomenon did increase the economic wellbeing of destination countries, at least some of them, like medieval Poland, were already quite developed economically and politically^{[under discussion]} and the local Slavic population was already far more strongly established in its towns than previously believed; the whole process took part in territories where Slavic solid organisational structures existed.