Throughout the interwar period, the total number of ethnic Germans in this country amounted to as much as c. 800,000 (according to some sources and estimates dating to 1939, just on the verge of World War II),[3][4][5] a figure which has subsequently drastically fallen to c. 36,000 (according to the 2011 census) and dropped even more to c. 22,900 (as per the 2021 Romanian census, postponed one year because of the COVID-19 pandemic and conducted in 2022).

Following the decreasing trend of the overall population of Romania, the German community of the country is expected to continue shrinking in numbers as well, as it has already been officially reported by the partial results of the 2021 census.

Therefore, given their rather complex geographic background and the fact that major border changes took place in the region throughout history (after World War I, Romania expanded its territory from the pre-war 137,000 km2 (53,000 sq mi) to 295,049 km2 (113,919 sq mi)), the Germans of Romania are generally divided into the following independent sub-groups in an attempt to better understand their language, culture, customs, and history: While an ancient Germanic presence on the territory of present-day Romania can be traced back to late antiquity and is represented by such migratory peoples as the Buri, Vandals, Goths (more specifically Visigoths), or the Gepids, the first waves of ethnic Germans on the territory of modern Romania came during the High Middle Ages, firstly to Transylvania (then part of the Kingdom of Hungary) and then to the neighbouring and emerging medieval principalities of Moldavia and Wallachia.

The main tasks of these settlers was to develop the areas of Transylvania where they settled as well as to defend them, and, implicitly, the rest of the Kingdom of Hungary, from the invading incursions of the migratory Asian peoples such as the Cumans, the Pechenegs, or, ultimately, the Mongols and then the Tatars.

These Transylvanian Saxons are very tied with their initial origin which stems from Western Europe, more specifically from Luxembourg and the Rhine-Moselle river valley.

Subsequently, as the Teutonic Knights left Transylvania (forced by the Hungarian rulership), the Transylvanian Saxon colonists remained and were given more rights through local autonomies, according to Diploma Andreanum (German: Der Goldener Freibrief der Siebenbürger Sachsen, Romanian: Bula de aur a sașilor transilvani) issued by Andrew II of Hungary in the early 13th century.

They even briefly served as Schultheiß (Romanian: Șoltuz), or the equivalent of the administrative title of medieval mayor in these communities.

Now their number is close to half, but among these there are many very well preserved ones which are both UNESCO-recognized (as World Heritage Sites) and important tourist destinations in Romania.

These settlers were requested by the then imperial Russian authorities in order to develop the agriculture of the land and boost the region's economy as well as to instill urbanisation.

[21] Before and during World War II, their organization Deutsche Voksgruppe in Rumänien actively supported Nazi Germany.

[22] Subsequently, huge numbers of both Transylvanian Saxons and Banat Swabians (ranging between c. 67,000 to 89,000 in total) were deported to the Soviet Union for forced labour after World War II, as a war compensation to the Soviets, despite the diplomatic efforts of Transylvanian Saxon politician Hans Otto Roth.

[29] Furthermore, the bilateral political and cultural relationships between post–1989 Romania and the unified Federal Republic of Germany have seen a continuous positive evolution since the signing of a friendship treaty between the two countries in 1992.

After the end of World War II, all of the political parties representing the German minority in Romania were either disbanded or ceased to exist.

[48] In Timișoara (German: Temeschburg or Temeswar), the Nikolaus Lenau High School was founded during the late 19th century.

[49] In Sibiu/Hermannstadt, the Samuel von Brukenthal National College is the oldest German-language school from Romania (recorded as early as the 14th century), being also classified as a historical monument.

The Allgemeine Deutsche Zeitung für Rumänien (ADZ) is the daily German-language newspaper in contemporary Romania.

On the Romanian public TV channel TVR, the show of the German minority in Romania is called Akzente and airs quite regularly.