They belong to the eastern branch of the Frisian people and are thus a recognised minority within Germany.

There they superimposed themselves on the indigenous, but thinly spread Westphalian-Saxons and assimilated them.

[1] The fact that they are clearly counted as Frisians is evinced by a document dated May 1400: together with the other East Frisian estates and rural communities, they signed an agreement with representatives of the Hanseatic League that they would no longer afford any more assistance to the Victual Brothers, a band of pirates active in the North Sea.

During the Reformation, they switched to Protestantism, but were re-Catholicized after the Peace of Westphalia because they belonged to the diocese of Münster.

Research by the University of Göttingen put the number at 2,250 persons.