The Zipser Germans, Zipser Saxons, or, simply, just Zipsers are a German-speaking sub-ethnic group in Central-Eastern Europe and national minority in both Slovakia and Romania. Along with the Sudeten Germans, the Zipser Germans were one of the two most important ethnic German groups in the former Czechoslovakia. An occasional variation of their name as 'Tzipsers' can also be found in academic articles. Former Slovak President Rudolf Schuster is partly Zipser German and grew up in Medzev.
Levoča (German: Leutschau), one of the former historical centres of the Zipser Germans in Slovakia
Spišská Kapitula (German: Zipser Kapitel) and Spiš Castle (German: Zipser Burg), as seen in winter time.
The iconic Spišský hrad (German: Zipser Burg), one of the most well preserved medieval castles in Central Europe and a historical landmark of the Spiš region.
The historical town centre of Levoča (German: Leutschau)
Germans in Czechoslovakia (1918–1938)
The German-speaking population in the interwar Czechoslovak Republic, 23.6% of the population at the 1921 census, usually refers to the Sudeten Germans, although there were other German ethno-linguistic enclaves elsewhere in Czechoslovakia inhabited by Carpathian Germans, and among the German-speaking urban dwellers there were ethnic Germans and/or Austrians as well as German-speaking Jews. 14% of the Czechoslovak Jews considered themselves Germans in the 1921 census, but a much higher percentage declared German as their colloquial tongue during the last censuses under the Austro-Hungarian Empire.
Westungarischer Grenzbote, 1891
Franz Kafka's grave in Prague-Žižkov
Plaque commemorating Max Brod, next to Franz Kafka's grave