When Did Germany Become a Nation?

How many versions of Germany as a nation or country have existed?

Imperial German Flag and Modern German Federal Republic Flag

 

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Unlike some newer or younger nations, with a specific date that they can claim as their origin point, (think of the United States and July 4, 1776, for example), Germany’s history as an independent, and unified nation is complicated and long.

While the German people can trace their origin to what is now northern Germany and southern Scandinavia, these Germanic peoples were not a united nation for literally thousands of years. The name Germany actually comes from Latin, which was the language of the old Roman Empire. When the Romans encountered several tribes of barbarians, the name Germanii was used to describe them by the Romans.

The first documented encounter between Romans and the people that we now call Germans occurred in the year 113 BC, when a group of Germanic tribes (Cimbri, the Teutones, and the Ambrones-along with a Celtic tribe called the Tigurini) invaded Roman territory. This was the first of the great Germanic barbarian migrations that led to invasions of Roman territory. This war is referred to as the Cimbrian War (113-101 BC). These Germanic and Celtic invaders handed Rome several major defeats, but were, in the end, defeated by the Roman Army.

Some fifty years after the Cimbrian War, Julius Caesar’s army clashed with several German tribes in the Rhine valley during the Roman Conquest of Gaul. In fact, it is through Julius Caesar that we first find the term “Germani” used in Latin writing and history, in Caesar’s “Commentary on the Gallic Wars” (written in the 50s BC). While modern Germans refer to themselves in their own language as the Deutsch (and their nation as Deutschland), the English-speaking world refers to these people and their nation as Germans and Germany.

While Germans have been a significant part of European and World history since they first encountered the Romans in that Cimbrian War, they have only been united as a nation for a relatively short span of time, and not always continuously united nor independent. Here is a short history of Germany as a nation.

Prior to 1871, the territory inhabited by German-speaking people in Central Europe was divided into literally dozens of independent kingdoms, states, duchies, free cities, and empires. By the 1700s, the largest of these separate German nations were Prussia and Austria. Many while many Prussian wars and Austrian wars were fought with non-German foes (Prussia expanded into Poland, while Austria expanded into Poland, Italy, and Turkish-ruled southeastern Europe), they also fought amongst each other (The War of Austrian Succession, the Seven Years War, the War of Bavarian Succession), as well as allied together (War of Spanish Succession, most of the wars with France in the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars, and a short war against Denmark), but the concept and reality of true German unity began to take shape and see success in a series of wars in the mid-1800s.

Three wars led to a unified Germany under true German control for the first time in history. These wars were:

The Schleswig War of 1864-Prussia and Austria combined to defeat Denmark and bring the German-speaking Danish provinces of Schleswig and Holstein into German hands.

The Austro-Prussian War of 1866-In a war to see who would be the dominant state among Germans, Prussia handily defeated Austria, and effectively kicked Austria out of Germany.

The Franco-Prussian War of 1970-1871-Prussia led a Germany-wide coalition of German states (minus Austria of course) in defeating their ancient enemy, France. At the conclusion of this war, the Prussian king was crowned as the new Kaiser (Emperor) of the new German Empire. This new German nation is sometimes referred to as the Second Reich (Reich means “realm,” but is often used to refer to German empires).

This German Empire, or Second German Reich, lasted from 1871 to 1918.

Map of Germany in 1914

If you notice, the ending year of this Second Reich is the same as the end of World War One, a conflict that Germany lost, and which led to the German Revolution that toppled the monarchy and ended the German Empire.

Following the fall of the monarchy came the first German attempt at a republican or democratic form of government. This became known as the Weimar Republic, named after the city in which the post-war German National Assembly first met and a constitution was written. The Weimar Republic lasted from 1919 to 1933.

Map of Germany in 1939, right before WW 2 began, after absorbing Austria and part of Czechoslovaia

In 1933, Adolf Hitler became the Chancellor of Germany, and ended constitutional law and democratic processes. He called his regime the Third Reich, and attempted to create a new German empire by absorbing other lands (such as Austria and Czechoslovakia) and invading other nations. Hitler’s greed for other people’s land began the European portion of World War Two, and led to the complete conquest and eventual division of Germany into two separate states (three, if you count Austria, which again became an independent nation).

These two new but separate German states were:

The Federal Republic of Germany, popularly known as West Germany, which began in 1949. This is now referred to as the “Bonn Republic,” as the capital was the city of Bonn. West Germany was a democracy.

 

The German Democratic Republic, also referred to as East Germany, also began as a nation in 1949, was the Soviet-controlled communist dictatorship with its capital in East Berlin. The GDR ended with German unification in October, 1990.

 

East Germany ceased to exist as a state when German unification took place in October, 1990 under the existing Bonn government; the latest and current Germany nation and government began. This current Germany while now referred to as the “Berlin Republic,” is officially the Federal Republic of Germany (i.e. the old West German government) moved from Bonn to a united Berlin.

Wait though...if there was a Second Reich, and a Third Reich, what was the First Reich? Good question, though the answer is a bit murky. Some historians retroactively consider the Frankish Empire (or Realm) of Charlemagne as the first German “realm.” This is also called the Carolingian Empire. Charlemagne’s capital was the city of Aachen, which is currently in Germany. More specifically, when Charlemagne’s empire was split up among his heirs following his death, the part that includes most of modern-day Germany was called East Francia. Some consider this to be the first “German Realm.”

Some also refer to the Holy Roman Empire (which was made up largely, but not entirely) of German lands, as the First Reich. The Holy Roman Empire, which jokingly, but not inaccurately, is described as being neither Holy, nor Roman, nor an empire, was not a real nation-state, and, while the Holy Roman “Emperor” was usually a German-speaking Austrian, it was not really a true version of a German nation.

Other attempts to set up a proto-German state occurred, including the formation by French Emperor Napoleon of the Confederation of the Rhine (1806-1813), which was a new German state that blended multiple smaller German states into one. This did not include Prussia or Austria, and was, in effect, a client state to the French Empire.

The Congress of Vienna, the meeting of the winners of the Napoleonic Wars, redrew the post-war map of Europe, and restored 39 of the old German independent states that were absorbed into Napoleon’s Confederation of the Rhine. These states, plus the ethnic-German portions of Austria and Prussia, were assembled in a loose German Confederation that was more of a self-defense pact and economic union than a real nation. Rivalry between Prussia and Austria ended this confederation.

To sum up the various united “actual” German nations, the list of Germanys is:

The German Empire (1871-1918)-i.e. the Second Reich, formed under Prussian leadership following a successful war against France.

 

The Weimar Republic (1919-1933)-Germany's first attempt at a democratic, republican form of government.

 

The Third Reich (1933-1945)-Hitler's Germany that fell in the Second World War, and led to Germany being divided for over 40 years.

 

The Bonn Republic (1949-1990)-i.e. West Germany/Federal German Republic

East Germany (1949-1990) is considered by the Bonn Republic and by the current German government, to have been an illegal and illegitimate government. NOTE: Hitler’s regime is also considered as illegal and illegitimate.

 

The Berlin Republic (1990-Present)-This state includes the territory of the old West Germany and East Germany. As part of the international agreement (The Two Plus Four Agreement of 1990) that established this united Germany (and which, by the way, officially serves as a peace agreement ending the Second World War), Germany agreed to forever give up any claim to Austria or the formerly German lands that are now part of Poland and Russia.

There you have it: a short history of Germany as a nation. Or, more accurately, as several nations. There is a lot more to Germany history of course, and we invite everyone interested in learning about German history or German military history to continue exploration and self-education.