The Germanic tribes referred to as East Germanic constitute a wave of migrants who may have moved from Scandinavia into the area between the Oder and Vistula rivers between 600 - 300 BC. Later they went to the south.

The east Germanic tribes, related to the North Germanic tribes, had migrated from Scandinavia into the region east of the Elbe (Vandals, Burgundians, Goths, Rugians and others).^[1]

Groups

Groups identified as East Germanic tribes include:

• Bastarnae
• Burgundians
• Goths
  • Thervings
  • Greuthungs
  • Visigoths
  • Ostrogoths
  • Crimean Goths
  • Gepids
• Rugians
• Scirii
• Vandals

• Heruli
• Lombards

Territories inhabited by East Germanic tribes between 100 BC and AD 300.

Language

The East Germanic languages are contrasted with North and West Germanic. However, the East Germanic languages shared many characteristics with North Germanic, perhaps because of the later migration date.

All the East Germanic languages are extinct as living languages. However, there have been recent attempts by Germanic tribal polytheists to reconstruct a form of neo-Gothic as a common community language. This is primarily based on the academic publications of a small number of scholars who have studied what remains of the written records of the Gothic dialects within Italia, the Iberian peninsula, and old Anatolia. Whether their efforts will succeed has yet to be proven conclusively since the reconstruction of elder Germanic tribal belief systems is a rather young research field, dating by most accounts to the last quarter of the 19th century.

Modern descendants in Germanic Europe

Although the Eastern Germanic tribes do not have direct modern descendants in Germanic Europe, unlike North Germanic tribes and West Germanic tribes, they do have influence on various modern Germanic ethnicities.

• Swedes: Modern native Götlanders can be seen as Swedicised Goths.

• Danes: Modern native Bornholmers can be seen as Danicised Burgundians. If Vandals indeed come from Vendsyssel, then people native to Vensyssel can be seen as Danicised.

• Germans: Bavaria south of the Donau is an area once inhabitated by East Germanic tribes that settled along the upper Donau like Ostrogoths, who were assimilated into the Bajuvarians after the fall of the Ostrogothic Kingdom. The city of Worms also was the location of the first Burgundian kingdom. And the area around Mainz was inhabitated by Vandals in the early 5th century, right before they crossed the Rhine. Remaining groups of the 2 tribes (Vandals and Burgundians) were assimilated into other Western Germanic tribes.

• Austrians: Austria has been inhabitated by many Eastern Germanic tribes in the Early Middle Ages : Rugians that created a kingdom in north of the Donau, Gepids that settled in west Austria (in Roman times known as Pannonia), Scirians that wandered with Odocar to southeast Austria, Heruli that incorporated a little bit of northeast Austria into their kingdom in south Slovakia and Ostrogoths that went back after the fall of their kingdom. All these Eastern Germanic tribes got assimilated into the Bajuvarians.

• German Switzers: The Rhone valley has been a major region of Burgundian settlement and the second Burgundian kingdom. People of this region (in German Switzerland) are mainly descended from Allamanii and Burgundians.

See also

• North Germanic tribes
• West Germanic tribes

Notes and references

1. ↑ The Penguin atlas of world history / Hermann Kinder and Werner Hilgemann ; translated by Ernest A. Menze ; with maps designed by Harald and Ruth Bukor. Harmondsworth : Penguin Books. ISBN 0-14-051054-0 1988, Volume 1. p.109.