In 1800, the region of Germany was not a single, unified nation, but a collection of decentralized, independent states, bound together as part of the Holy Roman Empire. This empire was dissolved, however, in 1806, during the Revolutionary and Napoleonic eras in Europe, and the German Confederation was established in 1815. Napoleonic reforms led to the abolition of serfdom, extension of voting rights to property-owners, and an overall increase in living standards. The population grew throughout the remainder of the century, as improvements in sanitation and medicine (namely, mandatory vaccination policies) saw child mortality rates fall in later decades. As Germany industrialized and the economy grew, so too did the argument for nationhood; calls for pan-Germanism (the unification of all German-speaking lands) grew more popular among the lower classes in the mid-1800s, especially following the revolutions of 1948-49. In contrast, industrialization and poor harvests also saw high unemployment in rural regions, which led to waves of mass migration, particularly to the U.S.. In 1886, the Austro-Prussian War united northern Germany under a new Confederation, while the remaining German states (excluding Austria and Switzerland) joined following the Franco-Prussian War in 1871; this established the German Empire, under the Prussian leadership of Emperor Wilhelm I and Chancellor Otto von Bismarck. 1871 to 1945 - Unification to the Second World War The first decades of unification saw Germany rise to become one of Europe's strongest and most advanced nations, and challenge other world powers on an international scale, establishing colonies in Africa and the Pacific. These endeavors were cut short, however, when the Austro-Hungarian heir apparent was assassinated in Sarajevo; Germany promised a "blank check" of support for Austria's retaliation, who subsequently declared war on Serbia and set the First World War in motion. Viewed as the strongest of the Central Powers, Germany mobilized over 11 million men throughout the war, and its army fought in all theaters. As the war progressed, both the military and civilian populations grew increasingly weakened due to malnutrition, as Germany's resources became stretched. By the war's end in 1918, Germany suffered over 2 million civilian and military deaths due to conflict, and several hundred thousand more during the accompanying influenza pandemic. Mass displacement and the restructuring of Europe's borders through the Treaty of Versailles saw the population drop by several million more.

Reparations and economic mismanagement also financially crippled Germany and led to bitter indignation among many Germans in the interwar period; something that was exploited by Adolf Hitler on his rise to power. Reckless printing of money caused hyperinflation in 1923, when the currency became so worthless that basic items were priced at trillions of Marks; the introduction of the Rentenmark then stabilized the economy before the Great Depression of 1929 sent it back into dramatic decline. When Hitler became Chancellor of Germany in 1933, the Nazi government disregarded the Treaty of Versailles' restrictions and Germany rose once more to become an emerging superpower. Hitler's desire for territorial expansion into eastern Europe and the creation of an ethnically-homogenous German empire then led to the invasion of Poland in 1939, which is considered the beginning of the Second World War in Europe. Again, almost every aspect of German life contributed to the war effort, and more than 13 million men were mobilized. After six years of war, and over seven million German deaths, the Axis powers were defeated and Germany was divided into four zones administered by France, the Soviet Union, the UK, and the U.S.. Mass displacement, shifting borders, and the relocation of peoples based on ethnicity also greatly affected the population during this time. 1945 to 2020 - Partition and Reunification In the late 1940s, cold war tensions led to two distinct states emerging in Germany; the Soviet-controlled east became the communist German Democratic Republic (DDR), and the three western zones merged to form the democratic Federal Republic of Germany. Additionally, Berlin was split in a similar fashion, although its location deep inside DDR territory created series of problems and opportunities for the those on either side. Life quickly changed depending on which side of the border one lived. Within a decade, rapid economic recovery saw West Germany become western Europe's strongest economy and a key international player. In the east, living standards were much lower, although unemployment was almost non-existent; internationally, East Germany was the strongest economy in the Eastern Bloc (after the USSR), though it eventually fell behind the West by the 1970s. The restriction of movement between the two states also led to labor shortages in the West, and an influx of migrants from...

In 1938, the year before the outbreak of the Second world War, the countries with the largest populations were China, the Soviet Union, and the United States, although the United Kingdom had the largest overall population when it's colonies, dominions, and metropole are combined. Alongside France, these were the five Allied "Great Powers" that emerged victorious from the Second World War. The Axis Powers in the war were led by Germany and Japan in their respective theaters, and their smaller populations were decisive factors in their defeat. Manpower as a resource In the context of the Second World War, a country or territory's population played a vital role in its ability to wage war on such a large scale. Not only were armies able to call upon their people to fight in the war and replenish their forces, but war economies were also dependent on their workforce being able to meet the agricultural, manufacturing, and logistical demands of the war. For the Axis powers, invasions and the annexation of territories were often motivated by the fact that it granted access to valuable resources that would further their own war effort - millions of people living in occupied territories were then forced to gather these resources, or forcibly transported to work in manufacturing in other Axis territories. Similarly, colonial powers were able to use resources taken from their territories to supply their armies, however this often had devastating consequences for the regions from which food was redirected, contributing to numerous food shortages and famines across Africa, Asia, and Europe. Men from annexed or colonized territories were also used in the armies of the war's Great Powers, and in the Axis armies especially. This meant that soldiers often fought alongside their former-enemies. Aftermath The Second World War was the costliest in human history, resulting in the deaths of between 70 and 85 million people. Due to the turmoil and destruction of the war, accurate records for death tolls generally do not exist, therefore pre-war populations (in combination with other statistics), are used to estimate death tolls. The Soviet Union is believed to have lost the largest amount of people during the war, suffering approximately 24 million fatalities by 1945, followed by China at around 20 million people. The Soviet death toll is equal to approximately 14 percent of its pre-war population - the countries with the highest relative death tolls in the war are found in Eastern Europe, due to the intensity of the conflict and the systematic genocide committed in the region during the war.

Between 1944–1950, almost eight million expellees arrived in West Germany. We introduce a rich county-level database on the expellees’ socio-economic situation in post-war Germany. The database contains regionally disaggregated information on the number, origin, age, gender, religious denomination and labour force status of expellees. It also records corresponding information on the West German population as a whole, on the pre-war economic and religious structure of host and origin regions, and on war destructions in West Germany. The main data sources are the West German censuses of 1939, 1946, 1950 and 1961. Altogether, the database consists of 18 data tables (in xsls format). We have digitized the data as printed in the statistical sources, adding only an English translation of the table head (along with the original table head in German). Each data table has two tabs: The first tab (named “source”) lists the reference(s) of the printed source, the second (“data”) contains the actual data. Please consult the readme file for an overview of each data table’s content and the paper for additional information.

Chart and table of Germany population from 1950 to 2025. United Nations projections are also included through the year 2100.

It is estimated that the Second World War was responsible for the deaths of approximately 3.76 percent of the world's population between 1939 and 1945. In 2022, where the world's population reached eight billion, this would be equal to the death of around 300 million people.

The region that experienced the largest loss of life relative to its population was the South Seas Mandate - these were former-German territories given to the Empire of Japan through the Treaty of Versailles following WWI, and they make up much of the present-day countries of the Marshall Islands, Micronesia, the Northern Mariana Islands (U.S. territory), and Palau. Due to the location and strategic importance of these islands, they were used by the Japanese as launching pads for their attacks on Pearl Harbor and in the South Pacific, while they were also taken as part of the Allies' island-hopping strategy in their counteroffensive against Japan. This came at a heavy cost for the local populations, a large share of whom were Japanese settlers who had moved there in the 1920s and 1930s. Exact figures for both pre-war populations and wartime losses fluctuate by source, however civilian losses in these islands were extremely high as the Japanese defenses resorted to more extreme measures in the war's final phase.

The Holocaust was the systematic extermination of Europe's Jewish population in the Second World War, during which time, up to six million Jews were murdered as part of Nazi Germany's "Final Solution to the Jewish Question". In the context of the Second World War, the term "Holocaust" is traditionally used to reference the genocide of Europe's Jews, although this coincided with the Nazi regime's genocide and ethnic cleansing of an additional eleven million people deemed "undesirable" due to their ethnicity, beliefs, disability or sexuality (among others). During the Holocaust, Poland's Jewish population suffered the largest number of fatalities, with approximately three million deaths. Additionally, at least one million Jews were murdered in the Soviet Union, while Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, the Netherlands and Yugoslavia also lost the majority of their respective pre-war Jewish populations. The Holocaust in Poland In the interwar period, Europe's Jewish population was concentrated in the east, with roughly one third living in Poland; this can be traced back to the Middle Ages, when thousands of Jews flocked to Eastern Europe to escape persecution. At the outbreak of the Second World War, it is estimated that there were 3.4 million Jews living in Poland, which was approximately ten percent of the total population. Following the German invasion of Poland, Nazi authorities then segregated Jews in ghettos across most large towns and cities, and expanded their network of concentration camps throughout the country. In the ghettos, civilians were deprived of food, and hundreds of thousands died due to disease and starvation; while prison labor was implemented under extreme conditions in concentration camps to fuel the German war effort. In Poland, six extermination camps were also operational between December 1941 and January 1945, which saw the mass extermination of approximately 2.7 million people over the next three years (including many non-Poles, imported from other regions of Europe). While concentration camps housed prisoners of all backgrounds, extermination camps were purpose-built for the elimination of the Jewish race, and over 90% of their victims were Jewish. The majority of the victims in these extermination camps were executed by poison gas, although disease, starvation and overworking were also common causes of death. In addition to the camps and ghettos, SS death squads (Einsatzgruppen) and local collaborators also committed widespread atrocities across Eastern Europe. While the majority of these atrocities took place in the Balkan, Baltic and Soviet regions, they were still prevalent in Poland (particularly during the liquidation of the ghettos), and the Einsatzgruppen alone are estimated to have killed up to 1.3 million Jews throughout the Holocaust. By early 1945, Soviet forces had largely expelled the German armies from Poland and liberated the concentration and extermination camps; by this time, Poland had lost roughly ninety percent of its pre-war Jewish population, and suffered approximately three million further civilian and military deaths. By 1991, Poland's Jewish population was estimated to be just 15 thousand people, while there were fewer than two thousand Jews recorded as living in Poland in 2018.

The Second World War did not only cause many deaths but also leaded to broad changes in the population and settlement structure. This data compilation shows selected consequences of population movements in the context of the displacement of persons on the population structure in the Federal Republic of Germany and partly also in the German Democratic Republic. Under the command of the first federal minister for matters concerning displaced persons Hans Lukaschek the term ‘displaced persons’ was defined nationwide in the federal expellee law (find the legislative text attached).
The data compilation is passed on data published by the Federal Statistical Office and on data from selected scientific publications. The study in hand is subdivided in section A which is based on publications from the Federal Statistical Office and section B which is based on different individual scientific publications.

Subsection A1 contains selected data from censuses and extrapolations from censuses from sources of the Federal Statistical Office. Subsection A2 contains selected data from the micro census from sources of the Federal Statistical Office. Subsection B1 contains selected data from a publication by Heinz Günter Steinberg. Subsection B2 contains selected data from a publication by Gerhard Reichling. Subsection B2 contains selected data from a publication by Friedrich Edding and Eugen Lemberg.

Data tables in HISTAT:

A: Federal Statistical Office A1: Results and extrapolations from the censuses
A1.01 Resident population and displaced persons in 1000 by federal states, end-of-year values (1945-1966) A1.02 Displaced persons in 1000 by federal states, half-year values (1946-1956) A1.03 Influx of displaced persons by sex and federal state (1952-1960) A1.04a Displaced persons altogether in the federal territory by age in 1000 (1950-1953) A1.04b Male displaced persons in the federal territory by age in 1000 (1950-1953) A1.04c Female displaced persons in the federal territory by age in 1000 (1950-1953) A1.05 Displaced persons in the federal territory by age groups in 1000 (1950-1966) A1.06 Resettlement of displaced persons (1949-1962) A1.07 Marriages of displaced persons and the rest of the population in the FRG (1950-1960) A1.08 Marriages of displaced persons and the rest of the population in the FRG in absolute numbers in the different federal states (1950-1960)

A2: Results from the micro census A2.01 Displaced persons among the resident population by sex and federal state in 1000 (1958-1973) A2.02a Displaced persons among the resident population by sex and age group in the FRG in 1000 (1958-1973) A2.02b Displaced persons among the resident population by sex and age group in Schleswig-Holstein in 1000 (1958-1973) A2.02c Displaced persons among the resident population by sex and age group in Hamburg in 1000 (1958-1973) A2.02d Displaced persons among the resident population by sex and age group in Niedersachsen in 1000 (1958-1973) A2.02e Displaced persons among the resident population by sex and age group in Bremen in 1000 (1958-1973) A2.02f Displaced persons among the resident population by sex and age group in Nordrhein-Westfalen in 1000 (1958-1973) A2.02g Displaced persons among the resident population by sex and age group in Hessen in 1000 (1958-1973) A2.02h Displaced persons among the resident population by sex and age group in Rheinland-Pfalz in 1000 (1958-1973) A2.02i Displaced persons among the resident population by sex and age group in Baden-Württemberg in 1000 (1958-1973) A2.02j Displaced persons among the resident population by sex and age group in Bayern in 1000 (1958-1973) A2.02k Displaced persons among the resident population by sex and age group in West-Berlin in 1000 (1958-1973) A2.02l Displaced persons among the resident population by sex and age group in Saarland in 1000 (1958-1973) A2.03 Displaced persons among the resident population by federal sate and civil status in 1000 (1958-1973)

B: Scientific publications B1: Steinberg: Population development in Germany in the Second World War B1.01 Changes in population in German states (1939-1946) B1.02 Regional development of the civilian population in Germany (1939-1945) B1.03 Displaced persons in Germany by territory and date of displacement (1944-1955) B1.04 Arrival of displaced persons in Germany by territory of displacement (1944-1955) B1.05 Selected data on socio-economic development in Germany (1946-1987) B1.06 Regional development of population in the Federal Republic of Germany and the German Democratic Republic by states (1939-1990)

B2: Reichling: German displaces persons in numbers, part 2 B2.01a Germans from the eastern territories and from foreign countries in the federal territory in 1000 (1946-1970) B2.01b Germans from the eastern territories and from foreign countries in Schleswig-Holstein in 1000 (1946-1970) B2.01c Germans from the eastern territories and from foreign countries in Hamburg in 1000 (1946-1970) B2.01d Germans from...

In late May 1939, just three months before the Second World War began in Europe, Germany's workforce was made up of almost 25 million men, 15 million women, and a very small number of foreign workers. The share of German men in the workforce decreased each year thereafter, as more were conscripted into the armed forces, and there were approximately 11 million fewer German male citizens in the workforce by September 1944. The number of German women fluctuated, but remained between 14 and 15 million throughout the given period, and it exceeded the number of German men in 1944. Despite the number of German men in the workforce dropping by 45 percent, the total number of workers in German was consistently around 36 million between 1940 and 1944, as this difference was offset by foreign and forced laborers. These workers were mostly drafted from annexed territories in Eastern Europe, and prisoners were transferred from concentration and POW camps to meet the labor demands in various areas of Germany.

The median age of Germans in 2020 was 44.9 years, meaning that half the German population was younger, half older. This number decreased slightly from 1950 to 1970, likely due to the baby boom after World War II, then began increasing. It is expected to slowly increase to 47.4 by 2100. Aging in Germany This shift in the age makeup of Germany is driven by having fewer young people and more old people. While it has increased slightly in the last decade, the German fertility rate remains low. Fewer young people lead to a higher median age. Simultaneously, the life expectancy has increased, having the opposite effect. Regional and global trends The entire European Union, due to higher levels of development, shows an upward shift in its age distribution. While this shift is occurring globally, the level of Germany’s median age is a European phenomenon. In other parts of the world, the proportion of young and old inhabitants is skewed sharply toward the young, pulling the median age lower.

Timeseries of structure and development of the former German Democratic Republic’s population.

The aim of this data-collection is to inform about the population’s structure and development in the former GDR, including East-Berlin, from 1946 to 1989.

Basis of the compilation is the published statistical population overview of the German Federal Statistical Office (Statistisches Bundesamt (hrsg.): Sonderreihe mit Beiträgen für das Gebiet der ehemaligen DDR. Heft 3: Bevölkerungsstatistische Übersichten 1946 bis 1989. Wiesbaden, 1993), completed by census data and scientific publications.

The survey contains details on population and populationstructure (population-size, -growth, density, agegroups, etc.), on natural population movement (birth, decease, marriages, divorces), on spatial population movement (internal migration, migration beyond the borders of the former GDR), and on households.

The datacompilation covers the following topics:

A) population B) natural population movement C) households D) migration

Topics:

Data-Tables in the download-system HISTAT (Thema: Bevölkerung)

A. Bevölkerungsstand:

A01 Bevölkerungsstand und Bevölkerungsentwicklung (1939-1989) A02 Bevölkerung nach Altersgruppen 1946-1989 A03 Männliche Bevölkerung nach Altersgruppen 1946-1989 A04 Weibliche Bevölkerung nach Altersgruppen 1946-1989 A05. Bevölkerungsgröße, Bevölkerungswachstum, Bevölkerungsdichte und Sexualproportion 1950- 1992 A06. Bevölkerung insgesamt, männlich und weiblich nach Ländern 1950-1998 A07. Fläche, Bevölkerung am Ort der Hauptwohnung und Bevölkerungsdichte für 1950, 1964, 1971, 1981 A08. Bevölkerung am Ort der Hauptwohnung nach Altersgruppen und Geschlecht 1950-1981 A09. Bevölkerung am Ort der Hauptwohnung nach Altersgruppen und Geschlecht 1950-1981 A10. Bevölkerung ab 18 Jahre am Ort der Hauptwohnung nach Familienstand und Geschlecht 1950-1981 A11. Fläche und Bevölkerung nach Bezirken 1950-1989 A12. Bevölkerung nach Altersgruppen und Geschlecht für die neuen Länder und Berlin Ost 1950-1990 A13 Bevölkerung nach Gemeindegrößenklassen (in 1000) 1950-1989

B. Natürliche Bevölkerungsbewegung

B01 Natürliche Bevölkerungsbewegung 1946-1995 B02a Eheschließungen, durschnittliches Heiratsalter, Ehescheidungen 1946-1989 B02b Eheschließungen nach Familienstand der Partner vor Eheschließung 1946-1989 B03 Eheschließende, Ersteheschließende und Wiederverheiratete (insgesamt) 1946-1989 B04 Eheschließende nach Ersteheschließenden und Wiederverheirateten (je 100 Eheschließende) 1946-1989 B05 Eheschließende nach Familienstand vor der Eheschließung (insgesamt) 1946-1989 B06 Eheschließende nach Familienstand vor der Eheschließung (je 100 Eheschließende) 1946-1989 B07 Zusammengefasste Geburtenziffer nach Altersgruppen 1952-1989 B08 Das Reproduktionsniveau der Bevölkerung 1946-1989 B09 Durchschnittliche Lebenserwartung Neugeborener in Jahren 1946-1989 B10a Geborene, Lebendgeborene und Totgeborene nach Legitimität 1952-1989 B10b Lebend- und Totgeborene nach Geschlecht 1950-1989 B11 Zusammengefaßte Geburtenziffer nach Gemeindegrößenklassen (1965-1989) B12 Altersgruppenspezifische Sterbeziffern nach Geschlecht ( standardisiert) 1964-1989 B13a Gestorbene insgesamt und gestorbene Säuglinge nach Geschlecht (1946-1989) B13b Gestorbene nach ausgewählten Todesursachen und nach Geschlecht 1947-1989 B13c Gestorbene nach ausgewählten Krankheiten als Todesursachen und nach Geschlecht 1947-1989 B14 Gestorbene infolge Suizid- DDR 1947-1989 B15 Gestorbene infolge Suizid- BRD B16 Gestorbene infolge Mord und Totschlag- DDR 1949-1989 B17 Gestorbene infolge Mord und Totschlag- BRD / Bundesrepublik Deutschland (1961-1989) B18 Die Entwicklung der Fruchtbarkeitsziffern in den beiden Teilen Deutschlands (1946/50-1995)

C. Haushalte

C01 Privathaushalte nach Haushaltsgröße 1950-1981 C02 Personen in Privathaushalten und Gemeinschaftseinrichtungen 1950-1981 C03 Mehrpersonenhaushalte nach im Haushalt lebenden Kindern unter 17 Jahren 1950-1981 C04 Privathaushalte nach Haushaltsgroesse und nach Altersgruppen des Haushaltsvorstandes 1950 bis 1981 C05 Privathaushalte nach Haushaltsgroesse und nach Altersgruppen des maennlichen Haushaltsvorstandes 1950 bis 1981

D. Wanderung

D01 Wanderung über die Grenzen der DDR 1951-1989 D02 Wanderung über die Grenzen der DDR nach Altersgruppen 1965-1989 D03 Binnenwanderungsgewinn bzw.- verlust (-) nach Gemeindegrößenklassen 1970-1989 D04 Saldo aus zu- und Fortzügen (-) über die Grenzen der ehemaligen DDR nach Gemeindegrößeklassen 1965-1989 D05 Binnenwanderung über die Gemeinde- bzw. Kreisgrenzen 1953-1989

Population data at the state level on the basis of the 1961 census.

Topics: Surface area in square kilometers; population as of 1939, 1950 and 1961; marital status and age categories of the population; religious affiliation; number of one-person and multiple-person households; people in institutions; sources of income; influx and outflux; information on employment; status in profession; commuters; number of agricultural companies; surface areas used for farming; areas used to grow grain and harvest size; availability of hospitals.

Die vorliegende Datenkompilation zeigt die Entwicklung der Bevölkerung und Gemeinden nach Gemeindegrößenklassen in Deutschland von 1871 bis 2010. Mit der Entwicklung der Gemeindegrößenklassen ist zugleich ein Prozess angesprochen, der allgemein als ‚Verstädterung‘ bezeichnet wird. Verstädterung meint dabei die Vermehrung, Ausdehnung oder Vergrößerung von Städten nach, Zahl, Fläche oder Einwohnern. Die demografische Verstädterung kennzeichnet den (steigenden) Anteil der in Städten lebenden Bevölkerung eines Landes oder Staates. Die Verstädterung kann sowohl als demografischer Zustand (Verstädterungsgrad oder -quote als Anteil der Stadtbevölkerung an der Gesamtbevölkerung eines Landes oder Staates) als auch als demografischer Prozess (Zuwachsrate der städtischen Bevölkerung bzw. des Verstädterungsgrades) verstanden werden. Um die den Prozess der Verstädterung detaillierter erfassen zu können, wurde die Bevölkerung jeweils nach 7 (bzw. 14) Ortsgrößenklassen eingeteilt. Stadtdefinitionen können auf Einwohnerschwellenwerten oder historischen bzw. verwaltungsrechtlichen (Stadttitel) Gesichtspunkten beruhen. Am häufigsten kommen Stadtdefinitionen vor, bei denen mit Mindesteinwohnerzahlen gearbeitet wird. In Deutschland liegt der Schwellenwert bei 2.000 Einwohnern. In der Terminologie der Statistiker Anfang des 20. Jahrhunderts werden folgende Gemeindegrößenklassen unterschieden (vgl. Müller, J., 1926: Deutsche Bevölkerungsstatistik. Jena: Gustav Fischer, S. 19):- Ländliche Gemeinden: Einwohnerzahl der Gemeinden mit weniger als 2,000 Einwohner;- Städtische Gemeinden: Einwohnerzahl der Gemeinden mit 2.000 und mehr Einwohner;- Landstädte: : Einwohnerzahl der Gemeinden mit 2.000 bis 5.000 Einwohner;- Kleinstädte: Einwohnerzahl der Gemeinden mit 5.000 bis 20.000 Einwohner;- Mittelstädte: Einwohnerzahl der Gemeinden mit 20.000 bis 100.000 Einwohner;- Großstädte: Einwohnerzahl der Gemeinden mit 100.000 und mehr Einwohner. Datentabellen in HISTAT:A. Deutsches ReichA.01 Die deutsche Bevölkerung nach Gemeindegrößenklassen (1871–1939)A.02 Die Gemeinden nach Gemeindegrößenklassen (1910-1939) B. Bundesrepublik DeutschlandB.01 Gemeinden nach Gemeindegrößenklassen (1950-2010)B.02a Wohnbevölkerung nach Gemeindegrößenklassen, in Tausend (1950-2010)B.02a Wohnbevölkerung nach Gemeindegrößenklassen, in Prozent (1950-2010) C. LangzeitreihenC.01 Gemeinden nach Gemeindegrößenklassen (1910-2010)C.02 Bevölkerung nach Gemeindegrößenklassen, in Tausend (1871-2010)C.03 Bevölkerung nach Gemeindegrößenklassen, in Prozent (1871-2009)

Over the course of the Second World War, approximately 44.5 percent of the Soviet population and 8.7 of Soviet territory was occupied by the Axis forces at some point. Despite being allied in the war's early stages, with both countries invading Poland in 1939 via the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact, Germany would launch Operation Barbarossa, the invasion of the USSR, in 1941, which would become the largest military invasion in history. Movement of the Eastern Front The surprise invasion began on June 22, and Axis forces caught the Soviets off-guard, quickly pushing their way eastward along a frontline that stretched from the Baltic to Black seas. The length of the front-line allowed Axis forces to execute pincer movements around cities and strongholds, which cut off large numbers of Soviet soldiers from their supply lines, as well as preventing reinforcements; in this process millions of Soviet troops were taken as prisoner. Within three weeks, the Germans had taken much of present-day Poland, Belarus, and the Baltic states, before taking Moldova and Ukraine in September, and pushing into western Russia between September and December. The front lines had reached the outskirts of Moscow by November, before exhaustion and cold weather helped Soviet forces hold the line and stall the German offensive. The Red Army was then able to regroup and turning the Germans' own tactics against them, using two-pronged attacks to encircle large numbers of troops, although harsh weather made this stage of the conflict much slower.

The lines remained fairly static until mid-1942, when the Germans focused their offensive on the south, concentrating on the Caucasian oil fields and the Volga River. By November 1942, Axis forces had pushed into these regions, establishing what would ultimately be the largest amount of occupied Soviet territory during the war. Once again, winter halted the Axis advance, and allowed the Red Army to regroup. Learning from the previous year, the Axis command strengthened their forces near Moscow in anticipation of the Soviet counter-offensive, but were caught off-guard by a second counter-offensive in the south, most famously at Stalingrad. The Battle of Stalingrad would come to epitomize the extreme loss, destruction, and brutality of war on the eastern front, with conflict continuing in the city months after the rest of the Axis forces had been pushed west. As 1943 progressed, the Red Army gained momentum by targeting inferiorly-trained and equipped non-German regiments. The spring then became something of a balancing act for the Axis powers, as the Soviets consistently attacked weak points, and German regiments were transferred to reinforce these areas. In the summer of 1943, the front line was static once more, however the momentum was with the Soviets, who were able to capitalize on victories such as Kursk and gradually force the Axis powers back. By 1944, the Red Army had re-captured much of Ukraine, and had re-taken the south by the summer. When the Western Allies arrived in France in June, the Soviets were already pushing through Ukraine and Belarus, towards Berlin. In August 1944, the last Axis forces were pushed out of Soviet territory, and Soviet forces continued their push towards the German capital, which fell in May 1945. Soviet death toll In addition to the near-five million Soviet troops who died during Operation Barbarossa, millions of civilians died through starvation, areal bombardment, forced labor, and systematic murder campaigns. Due to the nature and severity of Soviet losses, total figures are difficult to estimate; totals of 15-20 million civilians and 7-9 million military deaths are most common. Further estimates suggest that the disruption to fertility, in addition to the high death toll, meant that the USSR's population in 1946 was 40 million lower than it would have been had there been no war.

In the immediate aftermath of the Second World War, Germany was split into four zones, each administered by France, the United Kingdom, the United States and the Soviet Union respectively. In 1949, the Soviet-controlled zone formed the German Democratic Republic (East Germany), while the rest became the Federal Republic of Germany (West Germany). In this time, Berlin was also split into four zones, and the three non-Soviet zones formed West Berlin, which was a part of West Germany (although the West's administrative capital was moved to Bonn). One population grows, while the other declines Between 1949 and 1961, an estimated 2.7 million people migrated from East to West Germany. East Germany had a communist government with a socialist economy and was a satellite state of the Soviet Union, whereas West Germany was a liberal democracy with a capitalist economy, and western autonomy increased over time. Because of this difference, West Germany was a much freer society with more economic opportunities. During the German partition, the population of the west grew, from 51 million in 1950 to 62.7 million in 1989, whereas the population of East Germany declined from 18.4 million to just 16.4 million during this time. Little change after reunification In 1989, after four decades of separation, the process of German reunification began. The legal and physical barriers that had split the country were removed, and Germans could freely travel within the entire country. Despite this development, population growth patterns did not change. The population of the 'new states' (East Germany) continued to decline, whereas the population of the west grew, particularly in the 1990s, the first decade after reunification. The reasons for this continued imbalance between German population in the east and west, is mostly due to a low birth rate and internal migration within Germany. Despite the fact that levels of income and unemployment in the new states have gotten closer to those reported for the west (a major obstacle after reunification), life and opportunities in the west continue to attract young Germans from rural areas in the east with detrimental effect on the economy and demography of the new states.

During the Second World War, the three Axis powers of Germany, Italy, and Finland mobilized the largest share of their male population. For the Allies, the Soviet Union mobilized the largest share of men, as well as the largest total army of any country, but it was restricted in its ability to mobilize more due to the impact this would have on its economy. Other notable statistics come from the British Empire, where a larger share of men were drafted from Dominions than from the metropole, and there is also a discrepancy between the share of the black and white populations from South Africa.

However, it should be noted that there were many external factors from the war that influenced these figures. For example, gender ratios among the adult populations of many European countries was already skewed due to previous conflicts of the 20th century (namely WWI and the Russian Revolution), whereas the share of the male population eligible to fight in many Asian and African countries was lower than more demographically developed societies, as high child mortality rates meant that the average age of the population was much lower.

Aggregate data from documents from the state bureaus of the census

West German population. Topics: The data come from the censuses of 1939 to 1987. The data set contains two levels of aggregation: information on distribution of religious affiliation for the Federal Republic (West) altogether and information on distribution of religious affiliation in the 11 (old) states. Besides the specific classifications of religious affiliation for every census the data set contains a common classification for all points in time. Der Datensatz enthält Angaben zur Religionszugehörigkeit der westdeutschen Bevölkerung. Die Daten stammen aus den Volkszählungen der Jahre 1939 bis 1987. Im Datensatz sind zwei Ebenen der Aggregation enthalten: Angaben zur Verteilung der Religionszugehörigkeit für die Bundesrepublik (West) insgesamt und Angaben zur Verteilung der Religionszugehörigkeit in den 11 (alten) Bundesländern. Neben den, für jede Volkszählung spezifischen Klassifikationen der Religionszugehörigkeit, enthält der Datensatz eine für alle Zeitpunkte gemeinsame Klassifikation. Verzeichnis der Tabellen in HISTAT: A. Religionszugehörigkeit in Westdeutschland A.1 Religionszugehörigkeit in Westdeutschland, insgesamt (1939-1987) A.2 Religionszugehörigkeit in Schleswig-Holstein (1939-1987) A.3 Religionszugehörigkeit in Hamburg (1939-1987) A.4 Religionszugehörigkeit in Niedersachsen (1939-1987) A.5 Religionszugehörigkeit in Bremen (1939-1987) A.6 Religionszugehörigkeit in Nordrhein-Westfalen (1939-1987) A.7 Religionszugehörigkeit in Hessen (1939-1987) A.8 Religionszugehörigkeit in Rheinland-Pfalz (1939-1987) A.9 Religionszugehörigkeit in Baden-Württemberg (1939-1987) A.10 Religionszugehörigkeit in Bayern (1939-1987) A.11 Religionszugehörigkeit im Saarland (1939-1987) A.12 Religionszugehörigkeit in West-Berlin (1939-1987) B. Religionszugehörigkeit in der Grobklassifikation B.1 Religionsgemeinschaften in Westdeutschland nach Bundesländern, Grobklassifikation (1939-1987) C. Religionszugehörigkeit von 1871 bis 1987 C.1 Religionszugehörigkeit im Deutschen Reich, jeweiliger Gebietsstand (1871-1939) C.2 Religionszugehörigkeit in Westdeutschland, Gebietsstand vom 6.6.1961 (1871-1987) Census Totalerhebung Originally interview, then recording of publicized data. Ursprünglich Interview, dann Erfassung veröffentlichter Daten. Veröffentlichte Daten der amtlichen Statistik: Angaben für die Volkszählungen vom 17. Mai 1939, vom 13. September 1950, vom 6. Juni 1961 und vom 25. Mai 1987. Ergänzend: CI., 1972: Regionale Gliederung der Bevölkerung nach der Religionszugehörigkeit. Ergebnisse der Volkszählung am 27.05.1970.

Most estimates place the total number of deaths during the Second World War at around 70-85 million people. Approximately 17 million of these deaths (20-25 percent of the total) were due to crimes against humanity carried out by the Nazi regime in Europe. In comparison to the millions of deaths that took place through conflict, famine, or disease, these 17 million stand out due to the reasoning behind them, along with the systematic nature and scale in which they were carried out. Nazi ideology claimed that the Aryan race (a non-existent ethnic group referring to northern Europeans) was superior to all other ethnicities; this became the justification for German expansion and the extermination of others. During the war, millions of people deemed to be of lesser races were captured and used as slave laborers, with a large share dying of exhaustion, starvation, or individual execution. Murder campaigns were also used for systematic extermination; the most famous of these were the extermination camps, such as at Auschwitz, where roughly 80 percent of the 1.1 million victims were murdered in gas chambers upon arrival at the camp. German death squads in Eastern Europe carried out widespread mass shootings, and up to two million people were killed in this way. In Germany itself, many disabled, homosexual, and "undesirables" were also killed or euthanized as part of a wider eugenics program, which aimed to "purify" German society.

The Holocaust Of all races, the Nazi's viewed Jews as being the most inferior. Conspiracy theories involving Jews go back for centuries in Europe, and they have been repeatedly marginalized throughout history. German fascists used the Jews as scapegoats for the economic struggles during the interwar period. Following Hitler's ascendency to the Chancellorship in 1933, the German authorities began constructing concentration camps for political opponents and so-called undesirables, but the share of Jews being transported to these camps gradually increased in the following years, particularly after Kristallnacht (the Night of Broken Glass) in 1938. In 1939, Germany then invaded Poland, home to Europe's largest Jewish population. German authorities segregated the Jewish population into ghettos, and constructed thousands more concentration and detention camps across Eastern Europe, to which millions of Jews were transported from other territories. By the end of the war, over two thirds of Europe's Jewish population had been killed, and this share is higher still when one excludes the neutral or non-annexed territories.

Lebensraum Another key aspect of Nazi ideology was that of the Lebensraum (living space). Both the populations of the Soviet Union and United States were heavily concentrated in one side of the country, with vast territories extending to the east and west, respectively. Germany was much smaller and more densely populated, therefore Hitler aspired to extend Germany's territory to the east and create new "living space" for Germany's population and industry to grow. While Hitler may have envied the U.S. in this regard, the USSR was seen as undeserving; Slavs were the largest major group in the east and the Nazis viewed them as inferior, which was again used to justify the annexation of their land and subjugation of their people. As the Germans took Slavic lands in Poland, the USSR, and Yugoslavia, ethnic cleansings (often with the help of local conspirators) became commonplace in the annexed territories. It is also believed that the majority of Soviet prisoners of war (PoWs) died through starvation and disease, and they were not given the same treatment as PoWs on the western front. The Soviet Union lost as many as 27 million people during the war, and 10 million of these were due to Nazi genocide. It is estimated that Poland lost up to six million people, and almost all of these were through genocide.

Throughout the 19th century, what we know today as Poland was not a united, independent country; apart from a brief period during the Napoleonic Wars, Polish land was split between the Austro-Hungarian, Prussian (later German) and Russian empires. During the 1800s, the population of Poland grew steadily, from approximately nine million people in 1800 to almost 25 million in 1900; throughout this time, the Polish people and their culture were oppressed by their respective rulers, and cultural suppression intensified following a number of uprisings in the various territories. Following the outbreak of the First World War, it is estimated that almost 3.4 million men from Poland served in the Austro-Hungarian, German and Russian armies, with a further 300,000 drafted for forced labor by the German authorities. Several hundred thousand were forcibly resettled in the region during the course of the war, as Poland was one of the most active areas of the conflict. For these reasons, among others, it is difficult to assess the extent of Poland's military and civilian fatalities during the war, with most reliable estimates somewhere between 640,000 and 1.1 million deaths. In the context of present-day Poland, it is estimated that the population fell by two million people in the 1910s, although some of this was also due to the Spanish Flu pandemic that followed in the wake of the war.

Poland 1918-1945

After more than a century of foreign rule, an independent Polish state was established by the Allied Powers in 1918, although it's borders were considerably different to today's, and were extended by a number of additional conflicts. The most significant of these border conflicts was the Polish-Soviet War in 1919-1920, which saw well over 100,000 deaths, and victory helped Poland to emerge as the Soviet Union's largest political and military rival in Eastern Europe during the inter-war period. Economically, Poland struggled to compete with Europe's other powers during this time, due to its lack of industrialization and infrastructure, and the global Great Depression of the 1930s exacerbated this further. Political corruption and instability was also rife in these two decades, and Poland's leadership failed to prepare the nation for the Second World War. Poland had prioritized its eastern defenses, and some had assumed that Germany's Nazi regime would see Poland as an ally due to their shared rivalry with the Soviet Union, but this was not the case. Germany invaded Poland on September 1, 1939, in the first act of the War, and the Soviet Union launched a counter invasion on September 17; Germany and the Soviet Union had secretly agreed to do this with the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact in August, and had succeeded in taking the country by September's end. When Germany launched its invasion of the Soviet Union in 1941 it took complete control of Poland, which continued to be the staging ground for much of the fighting between these nations. It has proven difficult to calculate the total number of Polish fatalities during the war, for a variety of reasons, however most historians have come to believe that the figure is around six million fatalities, which equated to almost one fifth of the entire pre-war population; the total population dropped by four million throughout the 1940s. The majority of these deaths took place during the Holocaust, which saw the Nazi regime commit an ethnic genocide of up to three million Polish Jews, and as many as 2.8 million non-Jewish Poles; these figures do not include the large number of victims from other countries who died after being forcefully relocated to concentration camps in Poland.

Post-war Poland

The immediate aftermath of the war was also extremely unorganized and chaotic, as millions were forcefully relocated from or to the region, in an attempt to create an ethnically homogenized state, and thousands were executed during this process. A communist government was quickly established by the Soviet Union, and socialist social and economic policies were gradually implemented over the next decade, as well as the rebuilding, modernization and education of the country. In the next few decades, particularly in the 1980s, the Catholic Church, student groups and trade unions (as part of the Solidarity movement) gradually began to challenge the government, weakening the communist party's control over the nation (although it did impose martial law and imprison political opponent throughout the early-1980s). Increasing civil unrest and the weakening of Soviet influence saw communism in Poland come to an end in the elections of 1989. Throughout the 1990s, Poland's population growth stagnated at around 38.5 million people, before gradually decreasing since the turn of the millennium, to 37.8 million people in 2020. This decline was mostly due to a negative migration rate, as Polish workers could now travel more freely to Western European countries in search of work, facilitated by Pola...

By mid-1941, Axis forces had already taken control of most of mainland Europe, as well as much of Northern Africa and parts of the Middle East*. At the outbreak of Operation Barbarossa, the major European countries not under Axis control were the officially-neutral states of Ireland, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, and Turkey, while the Soviet Union and United Kingdom were actively at war with the Axis Powers. By mid-1941, Germany and its allies controlled an area of approximately 3.28 million square kilometers in Europe; by comparison, modern Germany covers an area of approximately 357 thousand square kilometers. Axis control of Europe From September 1938, when Germany annexed the Czech Sudetenland, until June 1941, when Germany launched its invasion of the Soviet Union, the Axis Powers spent much of their time and resources consolidating power across Europe. Countries such as Bulgaria, Hungary, Romania, and Finland aligned themselves with Germany, as did Italy, who became one of the chief aggressors around the Mediterranean and in Africa. Germany and the Soviet Union both invaded and partitioned Poland in September 1939, through the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact of non-aggression to one-another. Germany then took Denmark and most of Norway in April 1940, before pushing into Benelux and France in May. Italy also annexed Albania in April, which was used as a launching point for its failed invasion of Greece later in the year. As Italy had failed to secure the Balkans, a joint Axis offensive then pushed into Yugoslavia and Greece in April 1941, ultimately overwhelming any resistance. However, German intervention in the south then delayed the Axis invasion of the Soviet Union by over a month; Hitler later claimed that this was the reason for Germany's failure to take Moscow before the winter months, although many historians disagree. Launch of Operation Barbarossa Germany broke their pact of non-aggression with the Soviet Union with a surprise invasion, known as Operation Barbarossa, on June 22, 1941. While Axis forces had already extended control over most of Europe by this point, Operation Barbarossa became the largest military invasion or operation in human history. When compared with German capacities in its pre-1938 borders, within a few months of the invasion, the area of land controlled by Germany had grown by a factor of six, the population by a factor of four, and its access to natural resources and energy had also grown several times larger. These increased capacities were essential in allowing Germany to continue its expansion and aggression for the years to come, before the Soviet Union and the Western Allies eventually defeated the Axis forces four years later.