The Black Sea Germans (German: Schwarzmeerdeutsche; Russian: черноморские немцы; Ukrainian: чорноморські німці) are ethnic Germans who left their homelands (starting in the late-18th century, but mainly in the early-19th century at the behest of Emperor Alexander I of Russia - r. 1801–1825), and settled in territories off the north coast of the Black Sea, mostly in the territories of the southern Russian Empire (including modern-day Ukraine).