Green’s Dictionary of Slang

1. a German sausage, a wurst.

1850		‘Epistle from Joe Muggins’s Dog’ in Era (London) 11 Aug. 4/1: I shant see a ‘small German’ in ther ham and beef shops agen without thinkin of Turnus.
1883		J. Greenwood Odd People in Odd Places 219: All of them employed at different manufactories of ‘germans,’ ‘collared head,’ and ‘spiced beef’, chiefly for supply shops.
a.1889		J. Greenwood Veiled Mysteries n.p.: I am glad to be able to state that having spent several half-hours in the company of as many separate witnesses, all of them employed at different manufactories of germans, ‘collared head,’ and ‘spiced beef,’ chiefly for supplying shops situated in the poorest and most densely populated neighbourhoods – as far as I can make out there is at present no danger that our feline pets will go hungry because of the wholesale conversion of their favourite food into sausages [B&L].

2. (US drugs) a Puerto Rican or Dominican cocaine dealer.

1992		T. Williams Crackhouse 148: Germans perjorative term meaning ‘the enemy,’ used by crackheads to refer to Dominican dealers because they are rigid in their conduct.
2005		R. Cea No Lights, No Sirens 111: The homegrown Puerto Ricans proudly referred to themselves as Germans. Don’t know why.

3. (US prison) a member of a gang who included swastikas in their insignia, thus generic for any white gang.

2023

Rayman & Blau Riker’s 59: We just started calling them the Germans. Just ’cause they got a swastika on their jackets, or a patch or a tattoo on their arm [...] We [i.e. Hispanic gang members] went from being ‘spics’ to being Germans because a lot of us were hanging out with whites.

4. (UK Black/gang) a German-manufactured vehicle, e.g. Mercedes, Audi.

2016

67 ‘Milly Rock’ 🎵 4-door German, 4 man glidin / In there there's 2 44s.