How is Dirk German but His Last Name is Polish?

[TaLvsCuaL]

Europe has been mixing for thousands of years, lots of conquest and migration flows. Nothing new and nothing strange.

[Teanett]

Who cares what happened in 1700's, I simply showed an example of Poland being taken over by German and Russian forces, which is the most recent thing in history, which could have played a role with Dirk's father and mother....if its because his great, great, great grandfather crossed the border and married a german lady then so be it.....I never said this was "the reason"

it shows that you associate germany with "hitler invading poland".

[KevinNYC]

[QUOTE=novocaine]Nowitzkis ancestors are from Danzig/Koenigsberg. Former East-Prussia and part of the German Reich during the Nazi reign. Today it belongs to Poland (K

[PrimeJohnnyDepp]

[QUOTE=moaz]actually not.
My last complete "song" was Enrico Caruso's Una Furtiva Lagrima (the 1904 record) and now while writing I'm listening to Jussi Bj

[Calabis]

it shows that you associate germany with "hitler invading poland".

No it shows that Germans went into Poland and took over part of Poland, it shows

With Germany's defeat, as the reestablished Polish state was shifted west to the area between the Oder-Neisse and Curzon lines, the Germans who had not fled were expelled. Of those who remained, many chose to emigrate to post-war Germany. According to a recently quoted estimate, of the 200-250 thousand Jews who escaped the Nazis, 40-60 thousand had survived in Poland.[44] Of the surviving Jews, many chose or felt compelled to emigrate.

Emigrate: to leave one's place of residence or country to live elsewhere

[LMFAO]

I demand to see his birth certificate!

dude Thank You for making me laugh.

[Teanett]

No it shows that Germans went into Poland and took over part of Poland, it shows

With Germany's defeat, as the reestablished Polish state was shifted west to the area between the Oder-Neisse and Curzon lines, the Germans who had not fled were expelled. Of those who remained, many chose to emigrate to post-war Germany. According to a recently quoted estimate, of the 200-250 thousand Jews who escaped the Nazis, 40-60 thousand had survived in Poland.[44] Of the surviving Jews, many chose or felt compelled to emigrate.

Emigrate: to leave one's place of residence or country to live elsewhere

further proof that whenyou think "germany", "nazi" is the next thing that pops up in your brain. ignorant lil *****.

[tomtucker]

Lets look at German football (soccer team) from WC 2010:
1 Manuel NEUER
2 Marcell JANSEN
3 Arne FRIEDRICH
4 Dennis AOGO
5 Serdar TASCI
6 Sami KHEDIRA
7 Bastian SCHWEINSTEIGER
8 Mesut OEZIL
9 Stefan KIESSLING
10 Lukas PODOLSKI
11 Miroslav KLOSE
12 Tim WIESE
13 Thomas MUELLER
14 Holger BADSTUBER
15 Piotr TROCHOWSKI
16 Philipp LAHM
17 Per MERTESACKER
18 Toni KROOS
19 CACAU
20 Jerome BOATENG
21 Marko MARIN
22 Hans JOERG
23 Mario GOMEZ

We are not in 1945. Germany is mixed with ethnicities. I guess Hitler is turning in his grawe.

I think he is spinning around like a basketball

[(e)]

Dirk's real name is Dirk Miller - he changed his name so he could get drafted higher and get away with being 7ft and shooting jumpers.

If this was true, it would actually be M

[bullettooth]

Personally I think he's German because he was born in Germany.

And if he was born on the Moon?

[JohnMax]

EthniCelebs:

His surname, Nowitzki, is a Germanized form of the Polish surname Nowicki. Dirk seemed to have indicated that he has only a small amount of Polish ancestry.

Rzeczpospolitej:

Interviewer: It's a pity, because you have Polish roots ...

Dirk Nowitzki: Yes, I even did a private investigation into this and it turned out that my father's ancestors came from Poland. This, however, is a distant past, dating back to the 18th century. After my Polish great-grandparents, only the surname is left to me. Heard it means "new man."

[jstern]

And if he was born on the Moon?

Then he wouldn't be German. He would be a Moonman.

[ralph_i_el]

There are parts of current day Poland that used to be German or Prussian in the past, and parts of Germany that were once part of Poland in the past. Plus, German people had colonized parts of Eastern Europe for centuries before the World Wars, and German communities could be found as far as the Volga river in Russia. None of this national-ethnic stuff is cut and dry like some would want you to believe.

[WhiteKyrie]

People don’t understand nationality and ethnic background. Ginobili is like one of those Italian type Argentinians. That would be like most of team USA playing for Africa. It was egregious when Joakim Noah and Chris Kaman played for other countries when they were clearly American.

[kawhileonard2]

Dirk's last name is not German at all, I'm pretty confident that it is of Slavic/Polish origin.

Does anyone know anything about this? Is he only half German? Or did his family just live in Germany without having any German heritage?

Always have wondered about this

It's German.