Völkerwanderung

German historians in the 19th century used the term Völkerwanderung (pronounced: 'fœl ker 'van der ung), or the "wandering of the peoples" to describe the migrations of the Goths, Vandals, Franks and other Germanic peoples associated with the incursions of the Huns. Like Edward Gibbon and other early historians, they recognized these migrations as a contributory factor leading to the break-up of the Roman Empire. Modern historians use the term Migrations and "Migration period" to characterize the 4th through 10th century waves of nomad peoples on the move.

For nationalist-inspired German historians and popularizers of folk history, the Völkverwanderung, the expansion of Germanic peoples into Central Europe, France, Russia, England, Northern Italy and elsewhere, allegedly indicated the energy and dynamism of those so-called "barbarian" peoples. This view of history both the product and the justification of 19th century German nationalism and the Eastern expansion of Germany (Drang nach Osten), later helped form the Nazi ideology of Lebensraum, or "living space", the theory that the Germans had an ethnic right to expand their population beyond the national borders of Germany, and that a "Greater Germany was the protector of German minorities everywhere.

For modern historical views see Human migration.