The term was coined by the historian Raimund Friederich Kaindl (1866–1930), originally generally referring to the German-speaking population of the area around the Carpathian Mountains: the Cisleithanian (Austrian) crown lands of Galicia and Bukovina, as well as the Hungarian half of the Austro-Hungarian monarchy (including Szepes County), and the northwestern (Maramuresch) region of Romania.

Until approximately the 15th century, the ruling classes of most cities in present-day Slovakia were almost exclusively composed of Germans.

The evacuation was mostly the initiative of Adalbert Wanhoff and prepared the diocese of the German Evangelical Church between mid-November 1944 and 21 January 1945.

The Germans from Bratislava were evacuated in January and February 1945 after long delays, and those of the Hauerland fled at the end of March 1945.

After being taken out of the train by Czechoslovak soldiers, they were marched outside the city to a hill "Švédské šance", where they were forced to dig their own graves and then were shot.

[12] There are two German-language media that are assisted financially by the Slovak government: Karpatenblatt (monthly) and IKEJA news (Internet).

A community of speakers remains in Hopgarten and speaks a distinctive dialect, Outzäpsersch (German: Altzipserisch, literally "Old Zipserish").

The German schools were closed after World War II in all former German-speaking towns, and children were forced to learn Slovak.

[citation needed] The German minority in Slovakia has more or less always constantly been decreasing since the late 19th century onwards, according to the official Slovak national censuses.

After 1947, their numbers gradually shrank even more in the wake of the expulsion of ethnic Germans from Czechoslovakia after World War II.

Carpathian/Zipser Germans are mostly to be found in Maramuresch (across the Rodna Mountains and within Maramureș County more specifically), Bukovina, and elsewhere sparsely throughout Transylvania.