German-speaking Community of Belgium

The German-speaking Community , also known as East Belgium (German: Ostbelgien [ˈɔstˌbɛlɡi̯ən] ⓘ), is one of the three <a href="/facts/Communities%2c_regions_and_language_areas_of_Belgium/euL6UtzH">federal communities</a> of <a href="/facts/Belgium/YKuMXP5j">Belgium</a>. The community is composed of nine municipalities in <a href="/facts/Li%25C3%25A8ge_Province/D6IbEg8S">Liège Province</a>, <a href="/facts/Wallonia/rXg1nkTV">Wallonia</a>, within the <a href="/facts/Eupen-Malmedy/UGsL7r8c">Eupen-Malmedy</a> region in Eastern Belgium. The primary language of the community is German, making this one of the three official languages in Belgium. Traditionally the community and the wider area around it forms an intersection of various local languages and/or dialects, namely <a href="/facts/Limburgish_language/5mS23Txg">Limburgish</a>, <a href="/facts/Ripuarian_language/NF1L8cm4">Ripuarian</a> and <a href="/facts/Moselle_Franconian_dialects/Ud4AMmeG">Moselle Franconian</a> varieties. The community has an area of 854 km2 (330 sq mi), and has a population of around 79,000 (as of January 2024) – about 7.0% of Liège Province and about 0.7% of the national total.
Bordering the <a href="/facts/Netherlands/y8xn5stT">Netherlands</a>, <a href="/facts/Germany/paluuWBX">Germany</a> and <a href="/facts/Luxembourg/vRN04l7f">Luxembourg</a>, the area has its own parliament and government at <a href="/facts/Eupen/gvyYxKFu">Eupen</a>. The German-speaking Community of Belgium was <a href="/facts/Treaty_of_Versailles/BsNmjaqV">annexed in 1920</a> from Germany. There are also some other areas where German is spoken that belonged to Belgium before 1920, but these are not part of the German-speaking Community. This category includes the <a href="/facts/Bleiberg/dwGkmnmR">Bleiberg</a>-<a href="/facts/Welkenraedt/GoTzU6CR">Welkenraedt</a>-<a href="/facts/Baelen/91Db4cK2">Baelen</a> area in the northeastern part of the <a href="/facts/Li%25C3%25A8ge_(province)/D6IbEg8S">province of Liège</a>, as well as <a href="/facts/Arelerland/4sxXDVIV">Arelerland</a> (the city of <a href="/facts/Arlon/bdKC1JW2">Arlon</a> and some nearby villages in the southeastern portion of the <a href="/facts/Luxembourg_(Belgium)/6kmEkPB8">province of Belgian Luxembourg</a>). However, German is declining in these areas outside of the core German-speaking Community due to the expansion of <a href="/facts/French_language/qe1DnaQh">French</a>.

German-speaking Community of Belgium open-in-new

German-speaking Community of Belgium