Germany: A branch of Israel

By Mikkel Stjernholm Kragh

Biblical and secular history shows that the Germans are descendants of the lost tribes of Israel. Genetics confirm that modern Germans are closely related to Britons, the Dutch, Scandinavians and other peoples of Israelite origin. Several authorities on the tribes of Israel also believe that the Germans are Israelites, and specifically of tribes descended from Jacob’s wife Leah.

Table of contents

• The lost tribes of Israel trek to Germany and Scandinavia
• The Franks of the tribe of Reuben
• Bavarians and Austrians of the tribe of Simeon
• Swabians, Alemannians and Swiss Germans of the tribe of Levi
• The Saxon Germans of the tribe of Judah
• DNA of modern Germans
• German language and religion
• People who have identified the Germans as Israelites
• Bibliography

The lost tribes of Israel trek to Germany and Scandinavia

The Kingdom of Israel, which consisted of the 10 northern tribes of Israel, was conquered by Assyria in several invasions between 745 and 721 BC and deported out of the land of Israel to different regions south of the Caucasus, as it is described in the Bible:

“In the ninth year of Hoshea the king of Assyria took Samaria, and carried Israel away into Assyria, and placed them in Halah and in Habor by the river of Gozan, and in the cities of the Medes.” (2 Kings 17:6)

The reason that God let Israel be deported was that they continued to break YHWH’s covenant and follow other gods. After the deportation of the Kingdom of Israel (i.e. the 10 Israelite northern tribes) only the southern kingdom of Judah was left in the land of Israel:

”Therefore the LORD was very angry with Israel, and removed them out of his sight: there was none left but the tribe of Judah only.” (2 Kings 17:18)

The Kingdom of Judah was invaded by Babylon in 604 BC and partially deported in 587 BC. Many Judahites are believed not to have returned to Judah, but to have joined the other Israelites in exile.

The Middle Eastern origin of the Nordic and Germanic tribes is well documented by the Icelandic historian Snorri Sturlasson (1178-1241 AD) in The Chronicle of the Kings of Norway (c. 1225 AD). Sturlasson wrote that they under the leadership of a priest-chief Odin had trekked from regions south of the Caucasus mountains called “Turkland” via Gardarike (Russia) to northern Europe:

“On the south side of the mountains which lie outside of all inhabited lands runs a river through Swithiod, which is properly called by the name of Tanais, but was formerly called Tanaquisl, or Vanaquisl, and which falls into the Black Sea. The country of the people on the Vanaquisl was called Vanaland, or Vanaheim; and the river separates the three parts of the world, of which the eastermost part is called Asia, and the westermost Europe.”^[i]

Swithiod was the Scandinavian name for Scythia, which covered a vast area including all of southern Russia, most of the Ukraine and most of Central Asia. Tanaïs was the ancient name for the river Don. Sturlasson continues:

“There goes a great mountain barrier from north-east to south-west, which divides the Greater Swithiod from other kingdoms. South of this mountain ridge it is not far to Turkland, where Odin had great possessions. In those times the Roman chiefs went wide around in the world, subduing to themselves all people; and on this account many chiefs fled from their domains.  But Odin having foreknowledge, and magic-sight, knew that his posterity would come to settle and dwell in the northern half of the world. He therefore set his brothers Ve and Vilje over Asgaard; and he himself, with all the gods and a great many other people, wandered out, first westward to Gardarike, and then south to Saxland.  He had many sons; and after having subdued an extensive kingdom in Saxland, he set his sons to rule the country.  He himself went northwards to the sea, and took up his abode in an island which is called Odin’s Island in Fyn.”^[ii]

Saxland is Saxony. The mentioned sea is the Baltic Sea. The largest city on Fyn, the third largest Danish island, is Odense (“Odins Ø”), a name which means “Odin’s Island”.

The Middle Eastern origin of the Nordic and Germanic tribes has been confirmed by other of the greatest Nordic historians. For example, the famous Danish historian Peter Friderich Suhm (1728-1798) wrote, speaking of the Scandinavians, that “the ancestors of ourselves, the Germans and the Celts lived together in Asia Minor”^[iii].

Concerning the last part of the trek to Northern Europe, Suhm wrote, again speaking of the Scandinavians, that it is “reasonable that our fathers have come here via Russia and the eastern part of Poland. When they came to the Baltic Sea and present-day Livonia, they divided themselves into two great multitudes. The one went north, and our fathers descend from them, and the other went west, and became the ancestors of many German peoples”^[iv].

Snorri Sturlasson and Peter Friderich Suhm did trace the ancestors of the Nordic and Germanic tribes back to the Caucasus region and Turkey, but they did not trace them any further than that. They did not trace them all the way back to the lost tribes of Israel. But in 1723 the French Huguenot Dean Jacques Abbedie (1654-1727), who lived in exile in Germany, the Netherlands and Britain, did so in the book La Triomphe de la Providence et de la Religion:

“Unless the Ten Tribes of Israel are flown into the air or sunk into the earth, they must be those ten Gothic tribes that entered Europe in the fifth century, overthrew the Roman Empire, and founded the ten nations of modern Europe.”^[v]

Four of those Germanic tribes, the Eastern Franks, the Bavarians, Swabians and Saxons, evolved into Germany after the division of Charlemagne’s Frankish Empire in the 9th century.

We will now describe these four tribes.

The Franks of the tribe of Reuben

The origins of the modern state of Germany began with the Frankish Empire. The Franks are of Reuben, Jacob’s first-born son.

The Franks were a large Germanic tribe which lived around the lower Rhine, the Meuse and Main rivers, in what today is West Middle Germany, parts of the Netherlands, Belgium, Luxembourg, and northern France. The Franks were united under Clovis in 482 AD. In 486 the Franks defeated the Roman governor Syagrius who ruled northern France. In 507 the Franks defeated the Visigoths and annexed south-west Gaul.

Charlemagne (ruler 768-814) expanded the Kingdom of the Franks. On Christmas 800 AD in Rome, Charlemagne was crowned Emperor of the Frankish Empire by Pope Leo III. Charlemagne’s son Louis the Pious inherited the Empire, but after his death and a brief civil war his three sons divided the Empire into three parts in 843:

The Western Frankish Kingdom (or West Francia) which used the Latin Old French tongue and evolved into France

The Eastern Frankish Kingdom (or East Francia) was given to Louis the German. East Francia retained its Germanic tongues and evolved into Germany, Switzerland, and Austria

Middle Francia which was an artificial creation with no ethnic or historical bonds uniting it. In 873 the northern part was divided between East Francia and West Francia, while the southern part evolved into Burgundy and the medieval Kingdom of Italy.

The preeminence of the Franks among the Germanic tribes and the division of their empire after Charlemagne being crowned Emperor by the pope was a fulfillment of Jacob’s words of his first-born son Reuben:

“Reuben, thou art my firstborn, my might, and the beginning of my strength, the excellency of dignity, and the excellency of power: Unstable as water, thou shalt not excel; because thou wentest up to thy father’s bed; then defiledst thou it: he went up to my couch.” (Genesis 49:3-4)

Early in the 10th century East Francia became known as the Kingdom of Germany (“regnum Teutonicorum” or “regnum Teutonicum”). The Kingdom of Germany was made up of tribal duchies of the larger Germanic tribes. These tribes each represent an Israelite tribe:

• Franconia (Reuben)
• Bavaria (Simeon)
• Swabia (including Alemannia) (Levi)
• Saxony (Judah)

Above: The tribal duchies which made up Germany under Henry I the Fowler 919-936: Franconia (Reuben), Saxony (Judah), Swabia (Levi), Bavaria (Simeon) and Lorraine (not a tribal duchy).

Between the 10th and 13th century the German tribal duchies dissolved into regions ruled by families (nobility). But even today the difference between the German tribes can be seen in both the German dialects and the political division of the German Bundesländer (Federal states).

Bavarians and Austrians of the tribe of Simeon

The Bavarians and Austrians speak a High German group of dialects called Austro-Bavarian. The Austrians are historically a branch of the Bavarians.

In 16-15 BC the Roman Empire annexed areas where the Celtic tribe the Boii lived and turned them into the provinces Rætia (roughly corresponding to Bavaria) and Noricum (roughly corresponding to Austria). The Celtic Boii and several Germanic tribes amalgamated into the Bavarians who, like Bohemia, have their name from the Celtic Boii.

After the collapse of the Roman Empire the Bavarians came under the domination of the Franks. The Franks used the Bavarians as a buffer zone from peoples from the east, such as Slavs and Avars. Around 550 AD the Bavarians were put under a duke who acted as governor under the King of the Franks. Under Theodo Duke of Bavaria (625-716 AD) the Bavarians achieved de facto independence from the Franks, but under the Frankish King Charles Martel (ruler 714-741) the Bavarians were again laid under the King of the Franks.

Already under Theodo the bulk of the Bavarians professed Christianity.

In 843 AD the Frankish Empire was divided and Bavaria was one of the territories given to Louis (Ludwig) the German King of the East Franks. Bavaria continued being a defense against invading peoples from the east, and in 907 AD almost the whole Bavarian tribe is said to have perished in the Battle of Pressburg (today Bratislava, capital of the Slovak Republic) against the attacking Hungarians.

In 745 AD, while Bavaria was under the Franks, Odilo Duke of Bavaria subdued the Slavonic principality of Carinthia (roughly corresponding to modern Austria). In 899 AD Carinthia was turned into a “mark” under the East Francia.

Simeon’s territory at time of the Old Testament and today

In the time of the Old Testament the tribe of Simeon was the Israelite tribe which lived the farthest to the south. Likewise Bavaria and Austria are today the most southern of the Germanic tribes in Europe.

Simeon’s territory in the time of the Old Testament was actually a territory within Judah’s territory:

”Out of the portion of the children of Judah was the inheritance of the children of Simeon: for the part of the children of Judah was too much for them: therefore the children of Simeon had their inheritance within the inheritance of them.” (Joshua 19:9)

That Simeon lived in Judah’s territory is fulfilled in the fact that Bavaria is a part of Germany. Today in the Federal Republic of Germany Bavaria has more independence than the other German Bundesländer. The official name for Bavaria is, for example, the “Freestate of Bavaria”. The ruling Conservative party in Germany is actually divided into two parties: The Christian Democratic Union of Germany (CDU) which represents all of Germany except Bavaria, and the Bavarian branch which is called the Christian Social Union of Bavaria (CSU) which only represents Bavaria.

Swabians, Alemannians and Swiss Germans of the tribe of Levi

Swabian and Alemannic is a group of High German dialects which are spoken in the German-speaking part of Switzerland, most of Baden-Württemberg, in eastern Bavaria, in Vorarlberg in Austria, in Liechtenstein, in parts of Alsace in France, and in some parts of the Aoste Valley in north Piedmont in Italy. The Swabians and Alemannians are of the tribe of Levi.

Origins of the Helvetii, Alemannians, and Swabians

In the 1st century BC the Celtic tribe the Helvetii lived on the Swiss plateau. In 15 BC Tiberius I, who later became the 2nd Roman Emperor, and his brother Drusus conquered the Alps and integrated them into the Roman Empire. The area occupied by the Helvetii first became part of the Roman province Gallia Belgica, and later a part of the province Germania Superior, while the eastern part of Switzerland became a part of the Roman province Rætia.

From the 4th century AD the western part of Switzerland was under the Germanic tribe the Burgundians who app. 300 AD had trekked from the Danish island Bornholm (originally “Burgunderholm”, meaning “The Burgundians’ Island”). Burgundy eventually became French-speaking.

In the 5th century the Germanic tribe the Alemanni settled on the Swiss plateau, and in the 8th century in the valley of the Alps. The Alemanni formed Alemannia which co-existed with Burgundy. The Germanic tribe the Suebi soon settled and became a part of the Alemannic confederacy. The Suebi had trekked from what today is Mecklenburg-Vorpommern by the Baltic Sea, which the Romans originally called Mare Suebicum (“The Swabian Sea”). Alemannia and Swabia retained their Germanic dialects.

The Alemannians and Swabians under the Franks

Around 496 AD the Frankish King Clovis I defeated the Alemannic confederacy in the battle of Tolbiac, and the Alemannians and Swabians came under Frankish rule. Before the battle Clovis had vowed that if he won the battle he would get baptized as a Christian, which he did. In 640 AD the Alemannians revolted against the Frankish rule, and were independent until the middle of the 8th century.

After 718 the Frankish King Charles Martel defeated the Alemannians and annexed their territory, and even made some of the Alemannians wage war against their eastern neighbours the Bavarians. In 730 Charles Martel again had to invade Alemannia to crush an aspiring independence struggle, just two years before he stopped the Muslim armies at the battle of Tours in 732.

The tribal duchy of Swabia (or Alemannia) 911-1268, 1289-1313

When the Frankish Empire was divided in 843 the Alemannians and Swabians were allotted to Louis the German who formed East Francia. The tribal duchy Swabia was called Alemannia interchangeably.

Swabia endured as a tribal duchy until the end of the House of Hohenstaufen in 1268. From 1079 to 1268 the House of Hohenstaufen was, with a few interruptions, dukes of Swabia, and much of this period Holy Roman Emperors as well. In 1289 Swabia came under the Austrian House of Habsburg. In 1313 Swabia disintegrated into numerous smaller states.

Switzerland

In 1291, when Switzerland was a part of the Holy Roman Empire, three cantons formed a federacy which was the beginning of the Confoederatio Helvetia, which today is the Latin official name of the Swiss Confederation which is made up of 26 cantons. By 1460 the Swiss Confederacy controlled most of what today is Switzerland. In the Swabian War of 1499 the Swiss Confederacy defeated Swabia and the House of Habsburg, wherefore the Swiss Confederacy achieved a de facto independence from the Holy Roman Empire.

In 1513 the Swiss Confederacy expanded further south into Italian-speaking areas, but while the Swiss were occupying Milan in 1515 they were defeated by a French-led army. This ended the “heroic period” of Swiss history. It also put an end to the expansion into Italian areas.

In 1656 the Reformed cantons clashed with the Catholics cantons which resulted in a Catholic victory, but in 1712 the Reformed cantons and Catholic cantons again clashed resulting in a Reformed victory which broke the Catholic hegemony.

Swiss separatism and defense

Switzerland is the European country with the longest history of neutrality, since 1815. In 1992 the Swiss rejected EU membership in a referendum. Only in 2002 did Switzerland become a full member of the United Nations. Switzerland is very neutral compared to other Israelite nations because under the Old Covenant Levi was the only tribe which did not have a territory. Since Levi did not have a territory the tribe would have a tendency to neutrality when being among their brethren.

Levi’s inclination to neutrality and fear of God can be seen in Moses’ blessing to Levi:

“And of Levi he said, Let thy Thummim and thy Urim be with thy holy one, whom thou didst prove at Massah, and with whom thou didst strive at the waters of Meribah; Who said unto his father and to his mother, I have not seen him; neither did he acknowledge his brethren, nor knew his own children: for they have observed thy word, and kept thy covenant. They shall teach Jacob thy judgments, and Israel thy law: they shall put incense before thee, and whole burnt sacrifice upon thine altar. Bless, LORD, his substance, and accept the work of his hands: smite through the loins of them that rise against him and of them that hate him, that they rise not again.” (Deuteronomy 33:7-11)

Despite the fact that Switzerland is extremely neutral in politics, the Swiss are very much a people prepared for war. Almost all Swiss men are a part of the Swiss armed forces, and store guns in their homes in case of a foreign invasion. This is also a Levite characteristic because Levi was known for a willingness to take up the sword if it was necessary, as the tribe did after the rest of Israel had danced around the golden calf (Ex. 32), and as Levi the patriarch did in the slaying of the Canaanite city of Shechem (Gen. 34).

Levi, an especially God-fearing tribe

Under the Old Covenant Levi did not have a territorial inheritance because God was their inheritance. The Levite religious zeal is fulfilled especially in the Swiss which have fostered many great Reformers. Some of the Swiss Reformers were:

• Ulrich Zwingli (1484-1531), Reformer in Zürich.
• Heinrich Bullinger (1504-1575), Reformer in Zürich and ancestor of the English theologian Ethelbert W. Bullinger, the author of Numbers in Scripture (1894).
• William Farel (1489-1565), Reformer in Geneva.
• Theodore Beza (1519-1605), Reformer in Geneva.
• Jean Calvin (1509-1564) was born in France but is famous for his time in Geneva.

The Saxon Germans of the tribe of Judah

The Saxons were a large Germanic tribe which settled in Schleswig-Holstein. In the 3rd century AD the Saxons settled in North-West Germany and the north-eastern Netherlands. The original region called Saxony covered what today is Lower Saxony and northern North Rhine Westphalia, but the region was called Lower Saxony when the centre of gravity of the Duchy of Saxony began moving up the Elbe into what today are the federal states of Saxony-Anhalt and Saxony (“Upper Saxony”). The Saxons are of the tribe of Judah.

Judah and money

Making money and profit is one of the tribe of Judah’s trademarks.

When the sons of Israel had decided to kill Joseph, Judah, the natural leader, suggested that they could make a profit by selling him instead:

“And Judah said unto his brethren, What profit is it if we slay our brother, and conceal his blood? Come and let us sell him to the Ishmeelites, and let not our hand be upon him; for he is our brother and our flesh. And his brethren were content. There then passed by Midianites merchantmen; and they drew and lifted up Joseph out of the pit, and sold Joseph to the Ishmeelites for twenty pieces of silver: and they brought Joseph to Egypt.” (Genesis 37:26-28, my underlining)

Judah’s instinct for making money and profit was fulfilled in the Hanseatic League, which in the Middle Ages was a commercial league of app. 200 primarily north German cities, which gained tremendous economical, but also political and military, power in northern Europe through aggressive trade. Lübeck was the central city of the Hanseatic League, which reached its zenith in the 14th and 15th centuries, where it also had “Kontors” in London, Brügge, Bergen and Novgorod. Since the beginning of the 16th century the importance of the Hanseatic League gradually faded. The Kontors closed one after one, until the Hanseatic League officially shut itself down in 1862. At that point of time there were only three cities left in the Hanseatic League (Lübeck, Hamburg, and Bremen).

Today nine German cities and three Dutch cities officially call themselves Hanseatic cities (Hansestadt Lübeck, Hansestadt Rostock, etc.).

Judah’s instinct for making money and profit was also fulfilled in the German Mark which was known as the most stable European currency. It is also fulfilled in the European Central Bank, which administrates the monetary policy of the 16 countries in the Euro-zone, and which is situated in Frankfurt, Germany.

Jacob’s blessing to Judah

Jacob’s blessed Judah with the following words:

“Judah, thou art he whom thy brethren shall praise: thy hand shall be in the neck of thine enemies; thy father’s children shall bow down before thee. Judah is a lion’s whelp: from the prey, my son, thou art gone up: he stooped down, he couched as a lion, and as an old lion; who shall rouse him up? The sceptre shall not depart from Judah, nor a lawgiver from between his feet, until Shiloh come; and unto him shall the gathering of the people be. Binding his foal unto the vine, and his ass’s colt unto the choice vine; he washed his garments in wine, and his clothes in the blood of grapes: His eyes shall be red with wine, and his teeth white with milk.” (Genesis 49:8-12)

That “the scepter shall not deport from Judah, nor a lawgiver from between his feet, until Shiloh come” is fulfilled in Jesus Christ who is now spiritual King of the Israelite and non-Israelite Christian nations. This prophecy, however, is also fulfilled in the fact that a large proportion of European nobility has German roots, which points to a part of Germany being Judah.

Henry the Fowler (Heinrich der Finkler) was Duke of Saxony from 912 and became King of the Germany in 936. He is considered to be the founder and first king of the medieval German state, which until then was known as East Francia. Henry’s family, the Ottonian dynasty, named after Henry’s son Otto I, and also called the Saxon dynasty, ruled Germany until 1024.

Queen Margrethe II of Denmark is of the House of Glücksburg, which originates in Glücksburg, a small town in Anglia, which today is a part of the German part of Schleswig. Until 1863 Denmark’s royal family was of the House of Oldenburg which originated in Schleswig-Holstein.

The British Queen Elizabeth II is of the House of Windsor which originally was called the House of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha and originated in duchies in Thuringia and Bavaria. The House of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha has ruled Britain since 1901, but during WWI they changed their German-sounding name to the House of Windsor. From 1714 to 1901 Britain was ruled by the House of Hanover, which originated in Hanover in Lower Saxony.

In 1902 the Reverend W.M.H. Milner traced the lineage of the British royal house back to king David in The Royal House of Britain: An Enduring Dynasty.

The camp of Judah

When the Israelites wandered in the wilderness, the tribe of Judah lead the camp of Judah, which included the tribes of Issachar and Zebulun, and was on the east side of the Tabernacle (Numbers 2:3-9).

This is fulfilled in the German Saxons (Judah), the Dutch (Zebulun) and the Frisians (Issachar) living in adjacent territories.

Germany is made up of several tribes descending from Leah, Jacob’s wife. The Netherlands’ independence from the Holy German-Roman Empire in 1581 (effectually) and 1648 (internationally recognized) can be compared to the birth of Zebulun, Leah sixth son.

DNA of the modern Germans

Through secular and Biblical history the Germans can therefore be traced back to the lost tribes of Israel. But the science of genetics also proves that modern Germans genetically are more or less of the same stock as the Scandinavians, Dutch, British, French and other nations of Israelite ancestry.

The Germans’ genetic relationship to ancient peoples

The Swiss DNA testing institute iGENEA has made statistics over how modern European nations are genetically related to ancient peoples of the first millennium AD^[vi]. iGENEA got the following results:

iGENEA’s DNA statistics show that the Germans genetically are closely related to especially the British and French. The Germans, British and French are all descended primarily from Celts and secondarily from Germanic tribes and/or Vikings.

German Y DNA Haplogroups

Y DNA Haplogroups are the male DNA Haplogroups which are inherited from father to son. Y DNA Haplogroup I1 is associated with the Nordic and Germanic peoples. Hpg I1 is a branch of Hpg I which is found quite frequently in Europe and in a few places in the Middle East. Hpg I1 is associated with the descendants of the Israelites of the Old Testament. (See Y-DNA Haplogroups links Nordic and Germanic people to Arabs and Jews.)

[iii] Peter Friderich Suhm: Om Odin og den Hedniske Gudelære og Gudstieneste udi Norden, p. 140-141

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