德意志裔人（德语：Volksdeutsche），指的是在一次大战后居住在德意志（德国、奥地利）国外——母语以德语为主的多数聚居区，或与德国或奥地利有血缘关系的欧洲居民。例如：位于法国的阿尔萨斯、洛林地区，位于比利时的东比利时，以及波兰境内的波森省、东普鲁士、西普鲁士、上西里西亚。另外还有部分位于奥匈帝国（奥地利地区以外）中，讲德语为主的少数民族聚居区，他们大多分布在：南斯拉夫、罗马尼亚、捷克斯洛伐克境内的苏台德和喀尔巴阡德意志喀尔巴阡，意大利波尔扎诺自治省（Südtirol）都称为“德意志裔人”。更广泛的说，奥地利人、卢森堡人、瑞士德语区、列支敦士登人，都全都包括在内。

Volksdeutsche (German pronunciation:[ˈfɔlksˌdɔʏtʃə]) is a term that was used by the Nazis to describe "Germans in terms of people or race", regardless of citizenship. The term usually denotes the people living roughly in the area that the Romans referred to as Magna Germania. The term is the nominalised plural of volksdeutsch, with Volksdeutsche denoting a singular female, and Volksdeutsche(r), a singular male. The words Volk and völkisch conveyed the meanings of "folk" and "race" while adding the sense of superior civilisation and blood. These terms were used by Nazis to define people in terms of their ethnicity rather than citizenship and thus included Germans living beyond the borders of the Reich, as long as they were not of Jewish origin. This is in contrast to Imperial Germans (Reichsdeutsche), German citizens living within Germany. The term also contrasts with the usage of the term Auslandsdeutsche (Germans abroad/German expatriate) since 1936, which generally denotes German citizens residing in other countries. The difference between 'Imperial German' and 'Ethnic German' was that those designated as being ethnic Germans did not have paperwork to prove their legal citizenship to work or vote within the country though some were from either Germany or lost territories of Germany taken during and after the First World War.