German people refer to their country as Deutschland. Throughout history, however, it has had many names depending on which part of modern Germany was being discussed. One of Germany's old names was Almany. Another was Prussia, named for a dominant kingdom in the 1800s.
Until 1871, Germany had been divided into dozens of small states. This was the old Holy Roman Empire of the German nation, which had existed for 900 years when it finally collapsed under Napoleonic pressure. This was also known as the old Reich, or the First Reich (Reich is the German term for empire).
German Empire, also called Second Reich, historical empire founded on January 18, 1871, in the wake of three short, successful wars by the North German state of Prussia.
The History of Germany or Deutschland
To name just a few of the many names or endonyms for Germany: in the Scandinavian languages, Germany is known as Tyskland, in Polish as Niemcy, in Portuguese as Alemanha, in Italian as Germania, in French as Allemagne, in Dutch as Duitsland, and in Spanish as Alemania.
In 1474 the term "Holy Roman Empire of the German Nation" appeared, becoming more common after 1512. However, even after 1560, only 1 in 9 official documents mention "Germany", and most omitted the rest as well and simply called it "the Empire".
Before it was called Germany, it was called Germania. In the years B.C. 2023, 2024 Germany was part of the Holy Roman Empire. From 1949 to 1990, Germany was made up of two countries called the Federal Republic of Germany (West Germany) and the German Democratic Republic (East Germany).
The German Empire, 1871–1914
The German Empire was founded on January 18, 1871, in the aftermath of three successful wars by the North German state of Prussia. Within a seven-year period Denmark, the Habsburg monarchy, and France were vanquished in short, decisive conflicts.
Deutschland, Allemagne, Tyskland, Saksa, Németország: All over the world, the federal republic that is Germany is known by different names. This is largely down to the tribal history of Germany, as other civilisations and people came to associate certain words with the people who resided in the area.
Germany, or more exactly the old Holy Roman Empire, in the 18th century entered a period of decline that would finally lead to the dissolution of the Empire during the Napoleonic Wars. Since the Peace of Westphalia in 1648, the Empire had been fragmented into numerous independent states (Kleinstaaterei).
In 1776, there was no unified Germany. The region was divided into principalities and remnants of the Holy Roman Empire.
The third and final act of German unification was the Franco-Prussian War of 1870-71, orchestrated by Bismarck to draw the western German states into alliance with the North German Confederation. With the French defeat, the German Empire was proclaimed in January 1871 in the Palace at Versailles, France.
Prussia (/ˈprʌʃə/; German: Preußen, pronounced [ˈpʁɔʏsn̩] ( listen), Old Prussian: Prūsa or Prūsija) was a German state located on most of the North European Plain, also occupying southern regions. It formed the German Empire when it united the German states in 1871.
Prussia is no longer an active political entity in modern times, but rather a historical region comprised of parts of the modern-day nations of Germany, Poland, and Russia, as well as some other nearby nations.
German ethnicity emerged in medieval times among the descendants of the Romanized Germanic peoples in the area of modern western Germany, between the Rhine and Elbe rivers, particularly the Franks, Frisians, Saxons, Thuringii, Alemanni and Baiuvarii.
The origins of the Germanic peoples are obscure. During the late Bronze Age, they are believed to have inhabited southern Sweden, the Danish peninsula, and northern Germany between the Ems River on the west, the Oder River on the east, and the Harz Mountains on the south.
Boche (pejorative)
It is a shortened form of the French slang portmanteau alboche, itself derived from Allemand ("German") and caboche ("head" or "cabbage"). The alternative spellings "Bosch" or "Bosche" are sometimes found.
When the country came about, different languages chose names that were associated with one of the original tribes, and just happened to pick differently. So, "Germany" came from the Latin "Germania", "Allemagne" from the Alemanni tribe, and "Deutschland" from the old High German word "diutisc" meaning "of the people".
The most common surnames include MÜLLER, SCHMIDT, SCHMITZ, SCHNEIDER, FISCHER, WEBER, MEYER, MAYER, MEIER and WAGNER.
Not exactly. At its peak Prussia included half of modern Poland and all but southern Germany.
However, the Treaty of Versailles following World War I granted West Prussia to Poland and made East Prussia an exclave of Weimar Germany (the new Polish Corridor separated East Prussia from the rest of Germany), while the Memel Territory was detached and annexed by Lithuania in 1923.
The Old Prussian (in German Altpreußisch) is a Baltic language spoken in ancient Prussia (East Prussia), originally the Königsberg area (today Kaliningrad), a Russian enclave between Poland and Lithuania. The language has not been spoken since the 17th century. Prussia gradually became German.
In late April 1945, the Allied Powers entered Austria and removed the country from the Third German Reich. A provisional Austrian government, led by Karl Renner, declared the country's regained independence in the context of after the fall of Third Reich.
The rationale was that by doing away with the state that had been at the center of German militarism and reaction, it would be easier to preserve the peace and for Germany to develop democratically.
The similar names are just coincidence. They only sound very similar in some languages, while in others, there isn't a whole lot of similarity. For example, in German, Russia is Russland, while Prussia is Preuβen. In French, Russia is Russie(pronounced as you might think), while Prussia is Prusse(pronounced "Proos").