Ostfrieses ( German Ostfriesen ) - in the broad sense of the term - residents of the German region of East Frisia - in the north-west of Lower Saxony. In a narrower version, this is the eastern branch of the Frisians , which, together with the Danes, Luzhans, Sinti and Gypsies, are considered national minorities in Germany.
For more than 1000 years, the inhabitants of this region fought with varying success against the advancing sea, building dams (German Deich) and building canals (German Siel) to drain the land conquered from the sea. The implementation of these works required the participation of almost the entire local population. This contributed to the emergence of a specific philosophy of life and morality.
It is likely that ostfreezes are the majority of the inhabitants of the East Frisia region, it is impossible to provide accurate data, since the choice of ethnicity is free and the official census does not ask for these data. Ostfreezes speak their own dialect of the Frisian language, which is incomprehensible with the West Frisian language