The Construction and Contestation of National Identity via Language as a Statistical Category in Germany

This text examines German census statistics as a mechanism through which the state defines national belonging. It explores the interplay between the statistical categories used to assign collective identities and the underlying language ideologies that both shape and are influenced by these taxonomies. Historically and currently, official statistics have employed language not only to identify population affiliation but to actively construct it. Consequently, language serves as a ‘proxy characteristic’ – a statistical category standing in for national identity. The analysis traces how language-related questions have been formulated in German censuses from the foundation of the German Empire in 1871 to the present, with a particular focus on the contestation inherent in state-led categorisation.