Swabians

Swabians ( , singular Schwabe) are a German ethnographic group native to the region of Swabia, which is mostly divided between the modern states of Baden-Württemberg and Bavaria, in southwestern Germany.

The name is ultimately derived from the medieval Duchy of Swabia, one of the German stem duchies, representing the territory of Alemannia, whose Germanic inhabitants were interchangeably called Alemanni or Suebi. This territory would include all of the Alemannic German area, but the modern concept of Swabia is more restricted, due to the collapse of the duchy of Swabia in the 13th century. Swabia as understood in modern ethnography roughly coincides with the Swabian Circle of the Holy Roman Empire as it stood during the Early Modern period.