Lithuanian U-Boat Captain of Kriegsmarine

[Kongo Otto]

Originally Posted by Freiwillige

Knowing the sytem in place I would have to say that they would both qualify as ethnic Germans.

Volksdeutsche (ethic Germans) is a historical term which arose in the early 20th century to describe ethnic Germans living outside of Germany. This is in contrast to Reichsdeutsche(Imperial Germans), German citizens living within Germany. The term also contrasts with the modern term Auslandsdeutsche(Germans abroad) which generally denotes German citizens residing in other countries.
This is the loosest meaning of the term.
In a stricter sense, Volksdeutsch came to mean ethnic Germans living abroad but without German citizenship, i.e., the juxtaposition with Reichsdeutsch was sharpened to denote difference in citizenship as well as residence.

In those Terms for example, every US-Citizen which has at least one German Ancestor would qualify as Volksdeutscher.