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Names of Germany

There are many widely varying names of Germany in different languages, more so than for any other European nation. For example, in the German language, the country is known as Deutschland from the Old High German diutisc, in French as Allemagne from the name of the Alamanni tribe, in Italian as Germania from the Latin Germania (although the German people are called tedeschi), in Polish as Niemcy from the Proto-Slavic nemets, and in Finnish as Saksa from the name of the Saxon tribe. Each of these names has further been adapted into other languages all over the world.

European languages – name derived from:
  Proto-Germanic *Þeudiskaz
  Latin Germania
  the name of the Alamanni tribe
  the name of the Saxon tribe
  Proto-Slavic *němьcь
  Unclear origin

List of area names edit

In general, the names for Germany can be arranged in six main groups according to their origin:

1. From Old High German diutisc or similar[a]

  • Afrikaans: Duitsland
  • Chinese: 德意志 (pinyin: Déyìzhì), commonly 德國 (trad.) or 德国 (simp.) (Déguó; "Dé" from 德意志, and "guó" means "country")
  • Danish: Tyskland
  • Dutch: Duitsland
  • Faroese: Týskland
  • German: Deutschland
  • Icelandic: Þýskaland
  • Japanese: ドイツ (独逸) (Doitsu)
  • Kinyarwanda: Ubudage[1]
  • Korean: 독일(獨逸) (Dogil) or 도이췰란드 (DoichwillandeuNorth Korea)
  • Lojban: dotygu'e
  • Low German/Low Saxon: Düütschland/Duutslaand
  • Luxembourgish: Däitschland
  • Medieval Latin: Teutonia, regnum Teutonicum
  • Nahuatl: Teutōtitlan
  • Norwegian: Tyskland
  • Northern Sami: Duiska
  • Northern Sotho: Tôitšhi
  • Swedish: Tyskland
  • Tamil: இடாய்ச்சுலாந்து (idaichulandu)
  • Vietnamese: Đức ()
  • West Frisian: Dútslân
  • Yiddish: דײַטשלאַנד (daytshland)

2. From the Latin Germania

3. From the name of the Alamanni tribe

4. From the name of the Saxon tribe

5. From the Protoslavic němьcь[f]

6. From the name of Prussia*: Teutonisch Land, Teutschland used in many areas until the 19th century (see Walhalla opening song)

7. Unclear origin[g]

Other forms:

  • Medieval Greek: Frángoi, frangikós (for Germans, German) – after the Franks.
  • Medieval Hebrew: אַשְׁכְּנַז‎ (Ashkenaz), from biblical Ashkenaz, son of Japheth and grandson of Noah, thought to be the ancestor of the Germans.
  • Lower Sorbian: bawory or bawery (in older or dialectal use) – from the name of Bavaria.
  • Silesian: szwaby from Swabia, bambry used for German colonists from the area around Bamberg, krzyżacy (a derogative form of krzyżowcycrusaders) referring to Teutonic Order, Rajch or Rajś resembling German pronunciation of Reich.[3]
  • Old Norse: Suðrvegr – literally south way (cf. Norway),[4] describing Germanic tribes which invaded continental Europe.
  • Kinyarwanda: Ubudage, Kirundi: Ubudagi – thought to derive from the greeting guten Tag used by Germans during the colonial times,[5] or from deutsch.[6]
  • Navajo: Béésh Bich’ahii Bikéyah ("Metal Cap-wearer Land"), in reference to Stahlhelm-wearing German soldiers.
  • Lakota: Iyášiča Makȟóčhe[7] ("Bad Speaker Land").
  • Plains Cree: pîwâpiskwastotininâhk ("Among the Steel Helmets") or mâyakwêsinâhk ("Among the Speakers of a Foreign/Strange Language")[8]
  • Sudovian: miksiskai, Old Prussian miksiskāi (both for "German") – from miksît "to stammer".
  • Polish (slang of the communist period): Erefen from R.F.N. = F.R.G. (Federal Republic of Germany)[3]
  • Polish (pre-Second World War slang): Rajch from German Reich[3]

Names from Diutisc edit

 
Official German-language plaque of a German embassy

The name Deutschland and the other similar-sounding names above are derived from the Old High German diutisc, or similar variants from Proto-Germanic *Þeudiskaz (Old English þeod), which originally meant "of the people". This in turn comes from a Germanic word meaning "folk" (leading to Old High German diot, Middle High German diet), and was used to differentiate between the speakers of Germanic languages and those who spoke Celtic or Romance languages. These words come from *teuta, the Proto-Indo-European word for "people" (Lithuanian and Latvian tauta, Old Irish tuath).

Also the Italian for "German", tedesco (local or archaic variants: todesco, tudesco, todisco), comes from the same Old High German root, although not the name for "Germany" (Germania). Also in the standardised Romansh language Germania is the normal name for Germany but in Sursilvan, Sutsilvan and Surmiran it is commonly referred to as Tiaratudestga, Tearatudestga and Tera tudestga respectively, with tiara/teara/tera meaning land. French words thiois, tudesque, théotisque and Thiogne and Spanish tudesco[9] share this etymology.

The Germanic language which diutisc most likely comes from is West Frankish, a language which died out a long time ago and which there is hardly any written evidence for today. This was the Germanic dialect used in the early Middle Ages, spoken by the Franks in Western Francia, i.e. in the region which is now northern France. The word is only known from the Latin form theodiscus. Until the 8th century the Franks called their language frengisk; however, when the Franks moved their political and cultural centre to the area where France now is, the term frengisk became ambiguous, as in the West Francian territory some Franks spoke Latin, some vulgar Latin and some theodisc. For this reason a new word was needed to help differentiate between them. Thus the word theodisc evolved from the Germanic word theoda (the people) with the Latin suffix -iscus, to mean "belonging to the people", i.e. the people's language.

 
The German princes choose their king (illustration in the Sachsenspiegel).

In Eastern Francia, roughly the area where Germany now is, it seems that the new word was taken on by the people only slowly, over the centuries: in central Eastern Francia the word frengisk was used for a lot longer, as there was no need for people to distinguish themselves from the distant Franks. The word diutsch and other variants were only used by people to describe themselves, at first as an alternative term, from about the 10th century. It was used, for example, in the Sachsenspiegel, a legal code, written in Middle Low German in about 1220: Iewelk düdesch lant hevet sinen palenzgreven: sassen, beieren, vranken unde svaven (Every German land has its Graf: Saxony, Bavaria, Franken and Swabia). In the Carion's Chronicle, the German reformator Philip Melanchthon argued the Germans were descendants of the biblical Ashkenaz, the son of Japheth.[10] They shall have called themselves the Ascenos, which with time derived into Tuiscones.[10]

The Teutoni, a tribe with a name which probably came from the same root, did, through Latin, ultimately give birth to the English words "Teuton" (first found in 1530) for the adjective German, (as in the Teutonic Knights, a military religious order, and the Teutonic Cross) and "Teuton" (noun), attested from 1833. "Teuton" was also used for Teutonisch Land (land of the Teutons), its abbreviation Teutschland used in some areas until the 19th century and its currently used official variation Deutschland.

In the northern French language area (northern France, Belgium), the neighboring Germanic dialects, areas and inhabitants of Flanders to Alsace are sometimes referred to as Thiois, most likely still for the area between Maastricht and Aachen and for the traditional German speaking part of Lorraine (Lorraine Thioise), The term is obsolete and derives from theodisc (see above).[11]

Names from Germania edit

 
Gaius Cornelius Tacitus

The name Germany and the other similar-sounding names above are all derived from the Latin Germania, of the 3rd century BC, a word simply describing fertile land behind the limes (frontier). It was likely the Gauls who first called the people who crossed east of the Rhine Germani (which the Romans adopted) as the original Germanic tribes did not refer to themselves as Germanus (singular) or Germani (plural).[12]

Julius Caesar was the first to use Germanus in writing when describing tribes in north-eastern Gaul in his Commentarii de Bello Gallico: he records that four northern Belgic tribes, namely the Condrusi, Eburones, Caeraesi and Paemani, were collectively known as Germani. In AD 98, Tacitus wrote Germania (the Latin title was actually: De Origine et situ Germanorum), an ethnographic work on the diverse set of Germanic tribes outside the Roman Empire. Unlike Caesar, Tacitus claims that the name Germani was first applied to the Tungri tribe. The name Tungri is thought to be the endonym corresponding to the exonym Eburones.

19th-century and early 20th-century historians speculated on whether the northern Belgae were Celts or Germanic tribes. Caesar claims that most of the northern Belgae were descended from tribes who had long ago crossed the Rhine from Germania. However many tribal names and personal names or titles recorded are identifiably Celtic. It seems likely that the northern Belgae, due to their intense contact with the Gaulish south, were largely influenced by this southern culture. Tribal names were 'qualifications' and could have been translated or given by the Gauls and picked up by Caesar. Perhaps they were Germanic people who had adopted Gaulish titles or names. The Belgians were a political alliance of southern Celtic and northern Germanic tribes. In any case, the Romans were not precise in their ethnography of northern barbarians: by "German(ic)" Caesar meant "originating east of the Rhine". Tacitus wrote in his book Germania: "The Treveri and Nervii take pride in their German origin, stating that this noble blood separates them from all comparison (with the Gauls) and the Gaulish laziness".[13]

The OED2 records theories about the Celtic roots of the Latin word Germania: one is gair, neighbour (a theory of Johann Zeuss, a German historian and Celtic philologist) – in Old Irish gair is "neighbour". Another theory is gairm, battle-cry (put forward by Johann Wachter and Jacob Grimm, who was a philologist as well as collector and editor of fairy tales). Yet another theory is that the word comes from ger, "spear"; however, Eric Partridge suggests *gar / gavin, to shout (as Old Irish garim), describing the Germanic tribesmen as noisy. He describes the ger theory as "obsolete".

In English, the word "German" is first attested in 1520, replacing earlier uses of Almain, Alman and Dutch. In German, the word Germanen today refers to Germanic tribes, just like the Italian noun "Germani" (adjective: "germanici"), and the French adjective "germanique". The English noun "german" (as in "cousin-german") and the adjective "germane" are not connected to the name for the country, but come from the Latin germanus, "siblings with the same parents or father", which has cognates in Catalan, germà, and Spanish, hermano, meaning "brother".

Names from Alemanni edit

The name Allemagne and the other similar-sounding names above are derived from the southern Germanic Alemanni, a Suebic tribe or confederation in today's Alsace, parts of Baden-Württemberg and Switzerland.

 
The areas where Alemannic German is spoken

In English, the name "Almain" or "Alman" was used for Germany and for the adjective German until the 16th century, with "German" first attested in 1520, used at first as an alternative then becoming a replacement, maybe inspired mainly by the need to differ them from the more and more independently acting Dutch. In Othello ii,3, (about 1603), for example, Shakespeare uses both "German" and "Almain" when Iago describes the drinking prowess of the English:

I learned it in England, where, indeed, they are most potent in potting: your Dane, your German, and your swag-bellied Hollander—Drink, ho!—are nothing to your English. [...] Why, he drinks you, with facility, your Dane dead drunk; he sweats not to overthrow your Almain; he gives your Hollander a vomit, ere the next pottle can be filled.

Andrew Boorde also mentions Germany in his Introduction to Knowledge, c. 1547:

The people of High Almain, they be rude and rusticall, and very boisterous in their speech, and humbly in their apparel .... they do feed grossly, and they will eat maggots as fast as we will eat comfits.

Through this name, the English language has also been given the Allemande (a dance), the Almain rivet and probably the almond furnace, which is probably not really connected to the word "almond" (of Greek origin) but is a corruption of "Almain furnace". In modern German, Alemannisch (Alemannic German) is a group of dialects of the Upper German branch of the Germanic language family, spoken by approximately ten million people in six countries.

Among the indigenous peoples of North America of former French and British colonial areas, the word for "Germany" came primarily[citation needed] as a borrowing from either French or English. For example, in the Anishinaabe languages, three terms for "Germany" exist: ᐋᓂᒫ (Aanimaa, originally Aalimaanh, from the French Allemagne),[14][15] ᑌᐦᒋᒪᓐ (Dechiman, from the English Dutchman)[15] and ᒣᐦᔭᑴᑦ (Meyagwed, Ojibwe for "foreign speaker"[15] analogous to Slavic Némcy "Mutes" and Arab (ajam) mute), of which Aanimaa is the most common of the terms to describe Germany.[citation needed]

Names from Saxon edit

The names Saksamaa and Saksa are derived from the name of the Germanic tribe of the Saxons. The word "Saxon", Proto-Germanic *sakhsan, is believed (a) to be derived from the word seax, meaning a variety of single-edged knives: a Saxon was perhaps literally a swordsman, or (b) to be derived from the word "axe", the region axed between the valleys of the Elbe and Weser.

In Finnish and Estonian the words that historically applied to ancient Saxons changed their meaning over the centuries to denote the whole country of Germany and the Germans. In some Celtic languages the word for the English nationality is derived from Saxon, e.g., the Scottish term Sassenach, the Breton terms Saoz, Saozon, the Cornish terms Sows, Sowson and the Welsh terms Sais, Saeson. "Saxon" also led to the "-sex" ending in Wessex, Essex, Sussex, Middlesex, etc., and of course to "Anglo-Saxon".

The Transylvanian Saxons arrived to Transylvania mainly from the Rhineland, not Saxony.

Names from Nemets edit

The Slavic exonym nemets, nemtsy derives from Proto-Slavic němьcь, pl. němьci, 'the mutes, not able (to speak)' (from adjective němъ 'mute' and suffix -ьcь).[16]

Use of němьci was narrowed to just Germans. The plural form is used for the Germans instead of any specific country name, e.g. Niemcy in Polish and Ńymcy in Silesian dialect. In other languages, the country's name derives from the adjective němьcьska (zemja) meaning 'German (land)' (f.i. Czech Německo). Belarusian Нямеччына (Niamieččyna), and Ukrainian Німеччина (Nimecchyna) are also from němьcь but with the addition of the suffix -ina.

According to another theory,[17][18] Nemtsy may derive from the Rhine-based, Germanic tribe of Nemetes mentioned by Caesar[19] and Tacitus.[20] This etymology is dubious for phonological reasons, as nemetes could not become Slavic němьcь.[16]

In Russian, the adjective for "German", nemetskiy (немецкий) comes from the same Slavic root while the name for the country is Germaniya (Германия). Likewise, in Bulgarian the adjective is nemski (немски) and the country is Germaniya (Германия).

Over time, the Slavic exonym was borrowed by some non-Slavic languages. The Hungarian name for Germany is Németország (from the stem Német-, lit. "Német land"). The popular Romanian name for German is neamț, used alongside the official term, german, which was borrowed from Latin.

According to the Chinese History of Yuan, the Mongol commander Uriyangkhadai took part in the invasion of Poland and of the Holy Roman Empire, described as the land of the Nie-mi-sz'.[21]

The Arabic name for Austria النمسا an-Nimsā or an-Namsā appeared during the Crusades era, another possibility is that the term could have been known early by Arabs in Al Andalus, the reason behind calling Austria an-Nimsā, which should designate Germans is that Arabs considered Austria to be the nation of German people for a long time in the middle ages, on the other hand the Arabic name of "Germany", Germania or Allemania, took its origin from the Latin names Germania or Alemanni respectively.

Ottoman Turkish and Persian word for Austria, Nemçe (نمچه), is borrowed from the anterior Arabic name of Austria known throughout the Islamic world who considered Austria to be home of the Germans. The Austrian Empire as well was the biggest German-speaking country in the 16th to 17th centuries bordering on the Ottoman Empire.

Names from Baltic regions edit

In Latvian and Lithuanian the names Vācija and Vokietija contain the root vāca or vākiā. Lithuanian linguist Kazimieras Būga associated this with a reference to a Swedish tribe named Vagoths in a 6th-century chronicle (cf. finn. Vuojola and eston. Oju-/Ojamaa, 'Gotland', both thought to be derived from the Baltic word; the ethnonym *vakja, used by the Votes (vadja) and the Sami, in older sources (vuowjos), may also be related). So the word for German possibly comes from a name originally given by West Baltic tribes to the Vikings.[22] Latvian linguist Konstantīns Karulis proposes that the word may be based on the Indo-European word *wek ("speak"), from which derive Old Prussian wackis ("war cry") or Latvian vēkšķis. Such names could have been used to describe neighbouring people whose language was incomprehensible to Baltic peoples.

Names in East Asia edit

In East Asia, the names have generally been imported directly from German "deutsch" or Dutch "duits" in various ways.

The Chinese name is a phonetic approximation of the German proper adjective. The Vietnamese name is based on the Chinese name. The Japanese name is a phonetic approximation of the Dutch proper adjective. The Korean name is based on the Japanese name. This is explained in detail below:

The common Chinese name 德国 (德國, pinyin: Déguó) is a combination of the short form of 德意志 (pinyin: déyìzhì), which approximates the German pronunciation [ˈdɔʏtʃ] of Deutsch ‘German’, plus guó ‘country’.

The Vietnamese name Đức is the Sino-Vietnamese pronunciation (đức [ɗɨ́k]) of the character that appears in the Chinese name.

Japanese language ドイツ (doitsu) is an approximation of the word Deutsch meaning ‘German’.[23] It was earlier written with the Sino-Japanese character compound 獨逸 (whose has since been simplified to ), but has been largely superseded by the aforementioned katakana spelling ドイツ. However, the character is still used in compounds, for example 独文 (dokubun) meaning ‘German literature’, or as an abbreviation, such as in 独日関係 (Dokunichi kankei, German-Japanese relations).

The (South) Korean name Dogil (독일) is the Korean pronunciation of the former Japanese name. The compound coined by the Japanese was adapted into Korean, so its characters 獨逸 are not pronounced do+itsu as in Japanese, but dok+il = Dogil. Until the 1980s, South Korean primary textbooks adopted Doichillanteu (도이칠란트) which approximates the German pronunciation [ˈdɔʏtʃlant] of Deutschland[citation needed].

The official North Korean name toich'willandŭ (도이췰란드) approximates the German pronunciation [ˈdɔʏtʃlant] of Deutschland. Traditionally Dogil (독일) had been used in North Korea until the 1990s[citation needed]. Use of the Chinese name (in its Korean pronunciation Deokguk, 덕국) is attested for the early 20th century[citation needed]. It is now uncommon.

Sign languages edit

The sign name for Germany in German Sign Language is a one-handed sign: the hand is placed on the forehead, palm facing sideways, extended index finger facing upwards, with the thumb keeping the other fingers tucked against the palm. The sign may also be used to mean ‘German language’ or ‘German person’, as well as ‘police’ or ‘police officer’.[24] This sign is an iconic one, emulating the shape of a Pickelhaube. It is one of the two signs for ‘Germany’ in American Sign Language, alongside another, in which the dominant hand’s wrist is placed on that of the non-dominant hand in front of the signer’s chest, with both hands’ fingers spread and wiggling.[25] Several other languages also use the Pickelhaube variation as well, with some modifications; others use unrelated signs.[26]

Etymological history edit

The terminology for "Germany", the "German states" and "Germans" is complicated by the unusual history of Germany over the last 2000 years. This can cause confusion in German and English, as well in other languages. While the notion of Germans and Germany is older, it is only since 1871 that there has been a nation-state of Germany. Later political disagreements and the partition of Germany (1945–1990) have further made it difficult to use proper terminology.

Starting with Charlemagne, the territory of modern Germany was within the realm of the Holy Roman Empire. It was a union of relatively independent rulers who each ruled their own territories. This empire was called in German Heiliges Römisches Reich, with the addition from the late Middle Ages of Deutscher Nation (of (the) German nation), showing that the former idea of a universal realm had given way to a concentration on the German territories.

In 19th- and 20th-century historiography, the Holy Roman Empire was often referred to as Deutsches Reich, creating a link to the later nation state of 1871. Besides the official Heiliges Römisches Reich Deutscher Nation, common expressions are Altes Reich (the old Reich) and Römisch-Deutsches Kaiserreich (Roman-German Imperial Realm).

Pre-modern Germany (pre-1800) edit

Roman authors mentioned a number of tribes they called Germani—the tribes did not themselves use the term. After 1500 these tribes were identified by linguists as belonging to a group of Germanic language speakers (which include modern languages like German, English and Dutch). Germani (for the people) and Germania (for the area where they lived) became the common Latin words for Germans and Germany.

Germans call themselves Deutsche (living in Deutschland). Deutsch is an adjective (Proto-Germanic *theudisk-) derived from Old High German thiota, diota (Proto-Germanic *theudō) meaning "people", "nation", "folk". The word *theudō is cognate with Proto-Celtic *teutā, whence the Celtic tribal name Teuton, later anachronistically applied to the Germans. The term was first used to designate the popular language as opposed to the language used by the religious and secular rulers who used Latin.

In the Late Medieval and Early Modern period, Germany and Germans were known as Almany and Almains in English, via Old French alemaigne, alemans derived from the name of the Alamanni and Alemannia. These English terms were obsolete by the 19th century. At the time, the territory of modern Germany belonged to the realm of the Holy Roman Empire (the Roman Empire restored by the Christian king of Francony, Charlemagne). This feudal state became a union of relatively independent rulers who developed their own territories. Modernisation took place on the territorial level (such as Austria, Prussia, Saxony or Bremen), not on the level of the Empire.

1800–1871 edit

The French emperor, Napoleon, forced the Emperor of Austria to step down as Holy Roman Emperor in 1806. Some of the German countries were then collected into the Confederation of the Rhine, which remained a military alliance under the "protection" of Napoleon, rather than consolidating into an actual confederation. After the fall of Napoleon in 1815, these states created a German Confederation. Some member states, such as Prussia and Austria, had only a part of their territories included within the confederation, while other member states brought territories to the alliance that included people, like Poles and the Czechs, who did not speak German as their native tongue. In addition, there were also substantial German speaking populations that remained outside the confederation.

In 1841 Hoffmann von Fallersleben wrote the song Das Lied der Deutschen,[27] giving voice to the dreams of a unified Germany (Deutschland über Alles) to replace the alliance of independent states. In this era of emerging national movements, "Germany" was used only as a reference to a particular geographical area.

In 1866/1867 Prussia and her allies left the German Confederation. After Austria was defeated in the German War of summer 1866, it acknowledged the dissolution of the confederation. Prussia was free to create a new alliance, called the North German Confederation. It became a federal state with its constitution of 1 July 1867. The remaining South German countries, with the exception of Austria and Liechtenstein, joined the country in 1870.[28]

German Federation edit

The first nation state named "Germany" began in 1871; before that Germany referred to a geographical entity comprising many states, much as "the Balkans" is used today, or the term "America" was used by the founders of "the United States of America". In German constitutional history, the expressions Reich (reign, realm, empire) and Bund (federation, confederation) are somewhat interchangeable. Sometimes they even co-existed in the same constitution: for example in the German Empire (1871–1918) the parliament had the name Reichstag, the council of the representatives of the German states Bundesrat. When in 1870–71 the North German Confederation was transformed into the German Empire, the preamble said that the participating monarchs are creating einen ewigen Bund (an eternal confederation) which will have the name Deutsches Reich.

Due to the history of Germany, the principle of federalism is strong. Only the state of Hitler (1933–1945) and the state of the communists (East Germany, 1949–1990) were centralist states. As a result, the words Reich and Bund were used more frequently than in other countries, to distinguish between imperial or federal institutions and those at a subnational level. For example, a modern federal German minister is called Bundesminister, in contrast to a Landesminister who holds office in a state such as Rhineland-Palatinate or Lower Saxony.

As a result of the Hitler regime, and maybe also of Imperial Germany up to 1919, many Germans – especially those on the political left – have negative feelings about the word Reich.[citation needed]

Bund is another word also used in contexts other than politics. Many associations in Germany are federations or have a federalised structure and differentiate between a Bundesebene (federal/national level) and a Landesebene (level of the regional states), in a similar way to the political bodies. An example is the German Football Association Deutscher Fußballbund. (The word Bundestrainer, referring to the national football coach, does not refer to the Federal Republic, but to the Fußballbund itself.)

In other German speaking countries, the words Reich (Austria before 1918) and Bund (Austria since 1918, Switzerland) are used too. An organ named Bundesrat exists in all three of them: in Switzerland it is the government and in Germany and Austria the house of regional representatives.

Greater Germany and "Großdeutsches Reich" edit

In the 19th century before 1871, Germans, for example in the Frankfurt Parliament of 1848–49, argued about what should become of Austria. Including Austria (at least the German-speaking parts) in a future German state was referred to as the Greater German Solution, while a German state without Austria was the Smaller German Solution.

In 1919, the Weimar Constitution postulated the inclusion of Deutsch-Österreich (the German-speaking parts of Austria), but the Western Allies objected to this. It was realised only in 1938 when Germany annexed Austria (Anschluss). National Socialist propaganda proclaimed the realisation of Großdeutschland and, in 1943, the German Reich was officially renamed Großdeutsches Reich. However, these expressions became neither common nor popular.

In National Socialist propaganda, Austria was also called Ostmark. After the Anschluss, the previous territory of Germany was called Altreich (old Reich).

German Empire and Weimar Republic of Germany, 1871–1945 edit

The official name of the German state in 1871 became Deutsches Reich, linking itself to the former Reich before 1806 and the rudimentary Reich of 1848/1849. This expression was commonly used in official papers and also on maps, while in other contexts Deutschland was more frequently used.

Those Germans living within its boundaries were called Reichsdeutsche, those outside were called Volksdeutsche (ethnic Germans). The latter expression referred mainly to the German minorities in Eastern Europe. Germans living abroad (for example in America) were and are called Auslandsdeutsche.

After the forced abdication of the Emperor in 1918, and the republic was declared, Germany was informally called the Deutsche Republik. The official name of the state remained the same. The term Weimar Republic, after the city where the National Assembly gathered, came up in the 1920s, but was not commonly used until the 1950s. It became necessary to find an appropriate term for the Germany between 1871 and 1919: Kaiserliches Deutschland (Imperial Germany) or (Deutsches) Kaiserreich.

Nazi Germany edit

After Adolf Hitler took power in 1933, the official name of the state was still the same. For a couple of years, Hitler used the expression Drittes Reich (Third Reich), which was introduced by writers in the last years of the republic. In fact, this was only a propaganda term and did not constitute a new state. Another propaganda term was Tausendjähriges Reich (Thousand years Reich). Later, Hitler renounced the term Drittes Reich (officially in June 1939), but it already had become popular among supporters and opponents and is still used in historiography (sometimes in quotation marks).[29] It later led to the name Zweites Reich (Second Empire) being used to refer to Germany between the years 1871 and 1919. Germany under Hitler's rule is most commonly called in English Nazi Germany, Nazi being a colloquial abbreviation of Nationalsozialist.

Germany divided 1945–1990 edit

 
Occupied Germany in 1947, with western (green, blue and yellow) and eastern (red) occupation zones
 
Stamp in occupied Germany, 1946: the neutral expression Deutsche Post instead of Deutsche Reichspost, but still the old currency RM (Reichsmark)

After the defeat in World War II, Germany was occupied by the troops of Britain, France, the United States and Soviet Union. Berlin was a case of its own, as it was situated on the territory of the Soviet zone but divided into four sectors. The western sectors were later called West Berlin, the other one East Berlin. The communists tended to consider the Soviet sector of Berlin as a part of GDR; West Berlin was, according to them, an independent political unit. In the GDR Westberlin was the preferred spelling to de-emphasize the relationship to Berlin, Hauptstadt der DDR (the GDR capital).

After 1945, Deutsches Reich was still used for a couple of years (in 1947, for instance, when the Social Democrats gathered in Nuremberg they called their rally Reichsparteitag). In many contexts, the German people still called their country Germany, even after two German states were created in 1949.

Federal Republic of Germany edit

 
The Federal Republic in blue, GDR in red and West Berlin in yellow, 1949–1990

The Federal Republic of Germany, Bundesrepublik Deutschland, established in 1949, saw itself as the same state founded in 1867/71 but Reich gave place to Bund. For example, the Reichskanzler became the Bundeskanzler, reichsdeutsch became bundesdeutsch, Reichsbürger (citizen of the Reich) became Bundesbürger.

Germany as a whole was called Deutschland als Ganzes or Gesamtdeutschland, referring to Germany in the international borders of 1937 (before Hitler started to annex other countries). This resulted in all German (or pan germanique—a chauvinist concept) aspirations. In 1969 the Federal Ministry for All German Affairs was renamed the Federal Ministry for Intra-German Relations.

Until 1970, a number of expressions competed in the Federal Republic to designate the other German state (the communist German Democratic Republic). It was called Sowjetische Besatzungszone (SBZ, Soviet Zone of Occupation), Sowjetzone, Ostzone, Mitteldeutschland or Pankow (many GDR politicians lived or worked in Berlin-Pankow).

German Democratic Republic edit

 
International vehicle registration oval including the letters DDR

In 1949, the communists, protected by the Soviet Union, established the Deutsche Demokratische Republik (DDR, German Democratic Republic, GDR). This state was not considered to be a successor of the Reich, but, nevertheless, to represent all good Germans. Rulers and inhabitants of GDR called their state simply DDR or unsere Republik (our republic). The GDR still supported the idea of a German nation and the need for reunification. The Federal Republic was often called Westdeutschland or the BRD. After 1970 the GDR called itself a "socialist state of German nation". Westerners called the GDR Sowjetische Besatzungszone (SBZ, Soviet Zone of Occupation), Sowjetzone, Ostzone, Mitteldeutschland or Pankow (the GDR government was in the Pankow district of Berlin).

Federal Republic of Germany 1990–present edit

In 1990 the German Democratic Republic ceased to exist. Five new federal states ("Bundesländer") were established and joined the "Bundesrepublik Deutschland" (Federal Republic of Germany). East Berlin joined through merger with West Berlin; technically this was the sixth new federal state since West Berlin, although considered a de facto federal state, had the legal status of a military occupation zone.

The official name of the country is Federal Republic of Germany (Bundesrepublik Deutschland). The terms "Westdeutschland" and "Ostdeutschland" are still used for the western and the eastern parts of the German territory, respectively.

See also edit

Notes edit

  1. ^ Diutisc or similar, from Proto-Germanic *Þeudiskaz, meaning "of the people", "of the folk"
  2. ^ While the Bulgarian name of the country belongs to the second category, the demonym is "немски" (nemski), belonging to the fifth category
  3. ^ While the Italian name of the country belongs to the second category, the demonym is tedesco, belonging to the first category
  4. ^ The common demonym in Romanian is german, but the popular term neamț can be heard too
  5. ^ While the Russian name of the country belongs to the second category, the demonym is "немецкий" (nemetskiy), belonging to the fifth category
  6. ^ Němьcь 'a foreigner, lit. a mute, e.g. who doesn't speak Slavonic' or unlikely from the name of the ancient Nemetes tribe. See below.
  7. ^ Possibly from the name of the Scandinavian Vagoth tribe or a Baltic word meaning "speak" or "war cry"

References edit

  1. ^ "Amtliche Übersetzungen für "Bundesrepublik Deutschland"" (PDF). auswaertiges-amt.de. p. 5. Retrieved 10 June 2021.
  2. ^ R.V.Sowa, Wörterbuch des Dialekts der deutschen Zigeuner. Westliche Mundart (Abhandlungen für die Kunde des Morgenlandes 11) Leipzig 1898 ("Dictionary of the dialect of the German Gypsies"; digitized by archive.org; (older use?); accessed .
  3. ^ a b c Kamusella, Tom. "Crocodile Skin, or the Fraternal Curtain (pp 742–759). 2012. The Antioch Review. Vol 70, No 4, Fall" – via www.academia.edu. {{cite journal}}: Cite journal requires |journal= (help)
  4. ^ "Norway". Etymonline. Retrieved 21 August 2007.
  5. ^ Jutta Limbach, Ausgewanderte Wörter. Eine Auswahl der interessantesten Beiträge zur internationalen Ausschreibung „Ausgewanderte Wörter". Rowohlt Taschenbuch Verl, Reinbek bei Hamburg 2007, p. 123, ISBN 978-3-19-107891-1.
  6. ^ John Joseph Gumperz and Dell Hathaway Hymes, The ethnography of communication. Holt, Rinehart and Winston, New York, N.Y. [etc.] 1972, p. 96, ISBN 9780030777455.
  7. ^ Ullrich, Jan F. (2008). New Lakota Dictionary. Bloomington, Indiana: Lakota Language Consortium. ISBN 0-9761082-9-1.
  8. ^ "Itwêwina: The online Cree dictionary".
  9. ^ tudesco in the Diccionario de la Real Academia Española. The first sense refers to Lower Saxony.
  10. ^ a b Popper, Nicholas S. (2023), Roos, Anna Marie; Manning, Gideon (eds.), "Planks from a Shipwreck: Belief and Evidence in Sixteenth-Century Histories", Collected Wisdom of the Early Modern Scholar: Essays in Honor of Mordechai Feingold, Cham: Springer International Publishing, pp. 143–144, doi:10.1007/978-3-031-09722-5_7, ISBN 978-3-031-09722-5, retrieved 5 January 2023
  11. ^ see Thiois in the French wikipedia
  12. ^ Wolfram, Herwig (1997). The Roman Empire and its Germanic Peoples. University of California Press. pp. 4–5. ISBN 0-520-08511-6.
  13. ^ Tacitus: "Germania" par 28
  14. ^ Rhodes, Richard A. (1993). Eastern Ojibwa-Chippewa-Ottawa Dictionary. New York: Mouton de Gruyter. p. 11. ISBN 3-11-013749-6.
  15. ^ a b c Kelton, Dwight H. (1889). Indian Names and History of the Sault Ste. Marie Canal. Detroit: Detroit Free Press. p. 21.
  16. ^ a b Vasmer, Max (1986). Etymological dictionary of the Russian language (in Russian). Vol. III. Moscow: Progress. p. 62.
  17. ^ "The Journal of Indo-European Studies". Journal of Indo-European Studies. 3 December 1974 – via Google Books.
  18. ^ . Archived from the original on 2 April 2008. Retrieved 4 February 2009.
  19. ^ C. Iulius Caesar, "Commentariorum Libri VII De Bello Gallico", VI, 25. Latin text
  20. ^ P. CORNELIVS TACITVS ANNALES, 12, 27. Latin text
  21. ^ Emil Bretschneider (1888), Mediaeval Researches from Eastern Asiatic Sources: Fragments Towards the Knowledge of the Geography and History of Central and Western Asia from the 13th to the 17th Century, vol. 1, Trübner & Co., p. 322.
  22. ^ E. Fraenkel, Litauisches etymol. Wörterbuch (Indogerm. Bibliothek II,7) Heidelberg/Göttingen 1965, page 1272
  23. ^ Kōjien, 5th edition
  24. ^ . Digitales Wörterbuch des Deutches Gebärdensprache (in German). Hamburg, Germany: University of Hamburg. Archived from the original on 6 June 2023. Retrieved 6 October 2023.
  25. ^ Vicars, William G. . American Sign Language University. Sacramento, California. Archived from the original on 1 December 2022. Retrieved 6 October 2023.
  26. ^ . Spread the Sign. European Sign Language Center. Archived from the original on 22 June 2022. Retrieved 6 October 2023.
  27. ^ Note: Deutschlandlied has been the national anthem since 1922
  28. ^ Heinrich August Winkler: Der lange Weg nach Westen. Deutsche Geschichte 1806–1933, Bonn 2002, p. 209.
  29. ^ Heinrich August Winkler: Der lange Weg nach Westen. Deutsche Geschichte 1933–1990, Bonn 2004, p. 6/7.

Further reading edit

  • Bithell, Jethro, ed. Germany: A Companion to German Studies (5th edition 1955), 578pp; essays on German literature, music, philosophy, art and, especially, history. online edition 11 October 2008 at the Wayback Machine
  • Buse, Dieter K. ed. Modern Germany: An Encyclopedia of History, People, and Culture 1871–1990 (2 vol 1998)
  • Clark, Christopher. Iron Kingdom: The Rise and Downfall of Prussia, 1600–1947 (2006)
  • Detwiler, Donald S. Germany: A Short History (3rd ed. 1999) 341pp; Germany A Short History 31 December 2011 at the Wayback Machine; by Donald S. Detwiler;
  • Fulbrook, Mary. A Concise History of Germany (2004)
  • Maehl, William Harvey. Germany in Western Civilization (1979), 833pp
  • Ozment, Steven. A Mighty Fortress: A New History of the German People (2005)
  • Reinhardt, Kurt F. Germany: 2000 Years (2 vols., 1961), stress on cultural topics

External links edit

  The dictionary definition of Germany at Wiktionary

  • Why are there so many names for Germany, AKA Deutschland, Allemagne, etc.?

names, germany, also, history, germany, there, many, widely, varying, names, germany, different, languages, more, than, other, european, nation, example, german, language, country, known, deutschland, from, high, german, diutisc, french, allemagne, from, name,. See also History of Germany There are many widely varying names of Germany in different languages more so than for any other European nation For example in the German language the country is known as Deutschland from the Old High German diutisc in French as Allemagne from the name of the Alamanni tribe in Italian as Germania from the Latin Germania although the German people are called tedeschi in Polish as Niemcy from the Proto Slavic nemets and in Finnish as Saksa from the name of the Saxon tribe Each of these names has further been adapted into other languages all over the world European languages name derived from Proto Germanic THeudiskaz Latin Germania the name of the Alamanni tribe the name of the Saxon tribe Proto Slavic nemc Unclear origin Contents 1 List of area names 2 Names from Diutisc 3 Names from Germania 4 Names from Alemanni 5 Names from Saxon 6 Names from Nemets 7 Names from Baltic regions 8 Names in East Asia 9 Sign languages 10 Etymological history 10 1 Pre modern Germany pre 1800 10 2 1800 1871 10 3 German Federation 10 3 1 Greater Germany and Grossdeutsches Reich 10 4 German Empire and Weimar Republic of Germany 1871 1945 10 4 1 Nazi Germany 10 5 Germany divided 1945 1990 10 5 1 Federal Republic of Germany 10 5 2 German Democratic Republic 10 6 Federal Republic of Germany 1990 present 11 See also 12 Notes 13 References 14 Further reading 15 External linksList of area names editIn general the names for Germany can be arranged in six main groups according to their origin 1 From Old High German diutisc or similar a Afrikaans Duitsland Chinese 德意志 pinyin Deyizhi commonly 德國 trad or 德国 simp Deguo De from 德意志 and guo means country Danish Tyskland Dutch Duitsland Faroese Tyskland German Deutschland Icelandic THyskaland Japanese ドイツ 独逸 Doitsu Kinyarwanda Ubudage 1 Korean 독일 獨逸 Dogil or 도이췰란드 Doichwillandeu North Korea Lojban dotygu e Low German Low Saxon Duutschland Duutslaand Luxembourgish Daitschland Medieval Latin Teutonia regnum Teutonicum Nahuatl Teutōtitlan Norwegian Tyskland Northern Sami Duiska Northern Sotho Toitshi Swedish Tyskland Tamil இட ய ச ச ல ந த idaichulandu Vietnamese Đức 德 West Frisian Dutslan Yiddish דײ טשלא נד daytshland 2 From the Latin Germania Acehnese Jeureuman Albanian Gjermania Aramaic ܓܪܡܢ jerman Armenian Գերմանիա Germania Bengali জ র ম ন jarmani Bulgarian Germaniya Germanija b Burmese ဂ မန gyamani Modern English Germany Esperanto Germanio also Germanujo Friulian Gjermanie Georgian გერმანია germania Greek Germania Germania Gujarati જર મન jarmani Hausa Jamus Modern Hebrew גרמניה germanya Hindustani जर मन جرمنی jarmani Ido Germania Pashto جارمنی jarmani Indonesian Jerman Interlingua Germania Irish An Ghearmain Italian Germania c Hawaiian Kelemania Kannada ಜರ ಮನ jarmani Lao ເຢຍລະມ ນ yia la man Latin Germania Macedonian Germaniјa Germanija Malay incl Malaysian and Indonesian Jerman Manx Yn Ghermaan Maltese Ġermanja Maori Tiamana Marathi जर मन jarmani Marshallese Jamne Mongolian German German Nauruan Djermani Nepali जर मन jarmani Panjabi ਜਰਮਨ jarmani Romanian Germania d Rumantsch Germania Russian Germaniya Germanija e Samoan Siamani Sardinian Germania Scottish Gaelic A Ghearmailt Sicilian Girmania Sinhala ජර මන ය jarmaniya Somali Jarmal Sundanese Jerman Swahili Ujerumani Tahitian Heremani Tamil ச ர மன cerumani ஜ ர மன jermani Thai eyxrmni yee ra ma nii eyxrmn yee ra man adjective Tongan Siamane Urdu جرمنی jarmani 3 From the name of the Alamanni tribe Arabic ألمانيا ʾalmanya Asturian Alemana Azerbaijani Almaniya Basque Alemania Breton Alamagn Catalan Alemanya Cornish Almayn Filipino Alemanya Franco Provencal Alemagnes French Allemagne Galician Alemana Guarani Alemana Kazakh Almaniya Almaniya not used anymore or used very rarely now using Russian Germaniya Khmer អ ល ល ម ង ʾaalleɨmɑng Kurdish Elmaniya Latin Alemannia Mirandese Almanha Occitan Alemanha Ojibwe ᐋᓂᒫ aanimaa Persian آلمان alman Piedmontese Almagna Portuguese Alemanha Quechua Alimanya Spanish Alemania Tajik Olmon Olmon Tatar Almaniya Almania Tetum Alemana Turkish Almanya Welsh Yr Almaen with preceding definite article 4 From the name of the Saxon tribe Estonian Saksamaa Finnish Saksa Livonian Saksamō Romani Ssassitko temm 2 Veps Saksanma Voro S aksamaa 5 From the Protoslavic nemc f Belarusian Nyamechchyna Njamjeccyna Bosnian Njemacka Bulgarian Nemsko Nemsko obsolete colloquial Croatian Njemacka Czech Nemecko Hungarian Nemetorszag Kashubian Miemiecko Montenegrin Njemacka Ottoman Turkish نمچه nemce meaning all Austrian Holy Roman Empire countries Polish Niemcy Serbian Nemachka Nemacka Silesian Nymcy Slovak Nemecko Slovene Nemcija Lower Sorbian Nimska Upper Sorbian Nemska Ukrainian Nimechchina Nimeccyna 6 From the name of Prussia Teutonisch Land Teutschland used in many areas until the 19th century see Walhalla opening song Limburgish Pruses mostly in derogatory meaning informal Luxembourgish Preisen informal Twents De Pruus Silesian Prusacy Tahitian Purutia also Heremani see above 7 Unclear origin g Kursenieki Vace Zem Latgalian Vuoceja Latvian Vacija Lithuanian Vokietija Samogitian Vuokiteje Other forms Medieval Greek Frangoi frangikos for Germans German after the Franks Medieval Hebrew א ש כ נ ז Ashkenaz from biblical Ashkenaz son of Japheth and grandson of Noah thought to be the ancestor of the Germans Lower Sorbian bawory or bawery in older or dialectal use from the name of Bavaria Silesian szwaby from Swabia bambry used for German colonists from the area around Bamberg krzyzacy a derogative form of krzyzowcy crusaders referring to Teutonic Order Rajch or Rajs resembling German pronunciation of Reich 3 Old Norse Sudrvegr literally south way cf Norway 4 describing Germanic tribes which invaded continental Europe Kinyarwanda Ubudage Kirundi Ubudagi thought to derive from the greeting guten Tag used by Germans during the colonial times 5 or from deutsch 6 Navajo Beesh Bich ahii Bikeyah Metal Cap wearer Land in reference to Stahlhelm wearing German soldiers Lakota Iyasica Makȟoche 7 Bad Speaker Land Plains Cree piwapiskwastotininahk Among the Steel Helmets or mayakwesinahk Among the Speakers of a Foreign Strange Language 8 Sudovian miksiskai Old Prussian miksiskai both for German from miksit to stammer Polish slang of the communist period Erefen from R F N F R G Federal Republic of Germany 3 Polish pre Second World War slang Rajch from German Reich 3 Names from Diutisc editFurther information Theodiscus nbsp Official German language plaque of a German embassyThe name Deutschland and the other similar sounding names above are derived from the Old High German diutisc or similar variants from Proto Germanic THeudiskaz Old English theod which originally meant of the people This in turn comes from a Germanic word meaning folk leading to Old High German diot Middle High German diet and was used to differentiate between the speakers of Germanic languages and those who spoke Celtic or Romance languages These words come from teuta the Proto Indo European word for people Lithuanian and Latvian tauta Old Irish tuath Also the Italian for German tedesco local or archaic variants todesco tudesco todisco comes from the same Old High German root although not the name for Germany Germania Also in the standardised Romansh language Germania is the normal name for Germany but in Sursilvan Sutsilvan and Surmiran it is commonly referred to as Tiaratudestga Tearatudestga and Tera tudestga respectively with tiara teara tera meaning land French words thiois tudesque theotisque and Thiogne and Spanish tudesco 9 share this etymology The Germanic language which diutisc most likely comes from is West Frankish a language which died out a long time ago and which there is hardly any written evidence for today This was the Germanic dialect used in the early Middle Ages spoken by the Franks in Western Francia i e in the region which is now northern France The word is only known from the Latin form theodiscus Until the 8th century the Franks called their language frengisk however when the Franks moved their political and cultural centre to the area where France now is the term frengisk became ambiguous as in the West Francian territory some Franks spoke Latin some vulgar Latin and some theodisc For this reason a new word was needed to help differentiate between them Thus the word theodisc evolved from the Germanic word theoda the people with the Latin suffix iscus to mean belonging to the people i e the people s language nbsp The German princes choose their king illustration in the Sachsenspiegel In Eastern Francia roughly the area where Germany now is it seems that the new word was taken on by the people only slowly over the centuries in central Eastern Francia the word frengisk was used for a lot longer as there was no need for people to distinguish themselves from the distant Franks The word diutsch and other variants were only used by people to describe themselves at first as an alternative term from about the 10th century It was used for example in the Sachsenspiegel a legal code written in Middle Low German in about 1220 Iewelk dudesch lant hevet sinen palenzgreven sassen beieren vranken unde svaven Every German land has its Graf Saxony Bavaria Franken and Swabia In the Carion s Chronicle the German reformator Philip Melanchthon argued the Germans were descendants of the biblical Ashkenaz the son of Japheth 10 They shall have called themselves the Ascenos which with time derived into Tuiscones 10 The Teutoni a tribe with a name which probably came from the same root did through Latin ultimately give birth to the English words Teuton first found in 1530 for the adjective German as in the Teutonic Knights a military religious order and the Teutonic Cross and Teuton noun attested from 1833 Teuton was also used for Teutonisch Land land of the Teutons its abbreviation Teutschland used in some areas until the 19th century and its currently used official variation Deutschland In the northern French language area northern France Belgium the neighboring Germanic dialects areas and inhabitants of Flanders to Alsace are sometimes referred to as Thiois most likely still for the area between Maastricht and Aachen and for the traditional German speaking part of Lorraine Lorraine Thioise The term is obsolete and derives from theodisc see above 11 Names from Germania editMain article Germania Further information Germani nbsp Gaius Cornelius TacitusThe name Germany and the other similar sounding names above are all derived from the Latin Germania of the 3rd century BC a word simply describing fertile land behind the limes frontier It was likely the Gauls who first called the people who crossed east of the Rhine Germani which the Romans adopted as the original Germanic tribes did not refer to themselves as Germanus singular or Germani plural 12 Julius Caesar was the first to use Germanus in writing when describing tribes in north eastern Gaul in his Commentarii de Bello Gallico he records that four northern Belgic tribes namely the Condrusi Eburones Caeraesi and Paemani were collectively known as Germani In AD 98 Tacitus wrote Germania the Latin title was actually De Origine et situ Germanorum an ethnographic work on the diverse set of Germanic tribes outside the Roman Empire Unlike Caesar Tacitus claims that the name Germani was first applied to the Tungri tribe The name Tungri is thought to be the endonym corresponding to the exonym Eburones 19th century and early 20th century historians speculated on whether the northern Belgae were Celts or Germanic tribes Caesar claims that most of the northern Belgae were descended from tribes who had long ago crossed the Rhine from Germania However many tribal names and personal names or titles recorded are identifiably Celtic It seems likely that the northern Belgae due to their intense contact with the Gaulish south were largely influenced by this southern culture Tribal names were qualifications and could have been translated or given by the Gauls and picked up by Caesar Perhaps they were Germanic people who had adopted Gaulish titles or names The Belgians were a political alliance of southern Celtic and northern Germanic tribes In any case the Romans were not precise in their ethnography of northern barbarians by German ic Caesar meant originating east of the Rhine Tacitus wrote in his book Germania The Treveri and Nervii take pride in their German origin stating that this noble blood separates them from all comparison with the Gauls and the Gaulish laziness 13 The OED2 records theories about the Celtic roots of the Latin word Germania one is gair neighbour a theory of Johann Zeuss a German historian and Celtic philologist in Old Irish gair is neighbour Another theory is gairm battle cry put forward by Johann Wachter and Jacob Grimm who was a philologist as well as collector and editor of fairy tales Yet another theory is that the word comes from ger spear however Eric Partridge suggests gar gavin to shout as Old Irish garim describing the Germanic tribesmen as noisy He describes the ger theory as obsolete In English the word German is first attested in 1520 replacing earlier uses of Almain Alman and Dutch In German the word Germanen today refers to Germanic tribes just like the Italian noun Germani adjective germanici and the French adjective germanique The English noun german as in cousin german and the adjective germane are not connected to the name for the country but come from the Latin germanus siblings with the same parents or father which has cognates in Catalan germa and Spanish hermano meaning brother Names from Alemanni editFurther information Alemanni Name The name Allemagne and the other similar sounding names above are derived from the southern Germanic Alemanni a Suebic tribe or confederation in today s Alsace parts of Baden Wurttemberg and Switzerland nbsp The areas where Alemannic German is spokenIn English the name Almain or Alman was used for Germany and for the adjective German until the 16th century with German first attested in 1520 used at first as an alternative then becoming a replacement maybe inspired mainly by the need to differ them from the more and more independently acting Dutch In Othello ii 3 about 1603 for example Shakespeare uses both German and Almain when Iago describes the drinking prowess of the English I learned it in England where indeed they are most potent in potting your Dane your German and your swag bellied Hollander Drink ho are nothing to your English Why he drinks you with facility your Dane dead drunk he sweats not to overthrow your Almain he gives your Hollander a vomit ere the next pottle can be filled Andrew Boorde also mentions Germany in his Introduction to Knowledge c 1547 The people of High Almain they be rude and rusticall and very boisterous in their speech and humbly in their apparel they do feed grossly and they will eat maggots as fast as we will eat comfits Through this name the English language has also been given the Allemande a dance the Almain rivet and probably the almond furnace which is probably not really connected to the word almond of Greek origin but is a corruption of Almain furnace In modern German Alemannisch Alemannic German is a group of dialects of the Upper German branch of the Germanic language family spoken by approximately ten million people in six countries Among the indigenous peoples of North America of former French and British colonial areas the word for Germany came primarily citation needed as a borrowing from either French or English For example in the Anishinaabe languages three terms for Germany exist ᐋᓂᒫ Aanimaa originally Aalimaanh from the French Allemagne 14 15 ᑌᐦᒋᒪᓐ Dechiman from the English Dutchman 15 and ᒣᐦᔭᑴᑦ Meyagwed Ojibwe for foreign speaker 15 analogous to Slavic Nemcy Mutes and Arab ajam mute of which Aanimaa is the most common of the terms to describe Germany citation needed Names from Saxon editThe names Saksamaa and Saksa are derived from the name of the Germanic tribe of the Saxons The word Saxon Proto Germanic sakhsan is believed a to be derived from the word seax meaning a variety of single edged knives a Saxon was perhaps literally a swordsman or b to be derived from the word axe the region axed between the valleys of the Elbe and Weser In Finnish and Estonian the words that historically applied to ancient Saxons changed their meaning over the centuries to denote the whole country of Germany and the Germans In some Celtic languages the word for the English nationality is derived from Saxon e g the Scottish term Sassenach the Breton terms Saoz Saozon the Cornish terms Sows Sowson and the Welsh terms Sais Saeson Saxon also led to the sex ending in Wessex Essex Sussex Middlesex etc and of course to Anglo Saxon The Transylvanian Saxons arrived to Transylvania mainly from the Rhineland not Saxony Names from Nemets editThe Slavic exonym nemets nemtsy derives from Proto Slavic nemc pl nemci the mutes not able to speak from adjective nem mute and suffix c 16 Use of nemci was narrowed to just Germans The plural form is used for the Germans instead of any specific country name e g Niemcy in Polish and Nymcy in Silesian dialect In other languages the country s name derives from the adjective nemcska zemja meaning German land f i Czech Nemecko Belarusian Nyamechchyna Niamieccyna and Ukrainian Nimechchina Nimecchyna are also from nemc but with the addition of the suffix ina According to another theory 17 18 Nemtsy may derive from the Rhine based Germanic tribe of Nemetes mentioned by Caesar 19 and Tacitus 20 This etymology is dubious for phonological reasons as nemetes could not become Slavic nemc 16 In Russian the adjective for German nemetskiy nemeckij comes from the same Slavic root while the name for the country is Germaniya Germaniya Likewise in Bulgarian the adjective is nemski nemski and the country is Germaniya Germaniya Over time the Slavic exonym was borrowed by some non Slavic languages The Hungarian name for Germany is Nemetorszag from the stem Nemet lit Nemet land The popular Romanian name for German is neamț used alongside the official term german which was borrowed from Latin According to the Chinese History of Yuan the Mongol commander Uriyangkhadai took part in the invasion of Poland and of the Holy Roman Empire described as the land of the Nie mi sz 21 The Arabic name for Austria النمسا an Nimsa or an Namsa appeared during the Crusades era another possibility is that the term could have been known early by Arabs in Al Andalus the reason behind calling Austria an Nimsa which should designate Germans is that Arabs considered Austria to be the nation of German people for a long time in the middle ages on the other hand the Arabic name of Germany Germania or Allemania took its origin from the Latin names Germania or Alemanni respectively Ottoman Turkish and Persian word for Austria Nemce نمچه is borrowed from the anterior Arabic name of Austria known throughout the Islamic world who considered Austria to be home of the Germans The Austrian Empire as well was the biggest German speaking country in the 16th to 17th centuries bordering on the Ottoman Empire Names from Baltic regions editIn Latvian and Lithuanian the names Vacija and Vokietija contain the root vaca or vakia Lithuanian linguist Kazimieras Buga associated this with a reference to a Swedish tribe named Vagoths in a 6th century chronicle cf finn Vuojola and eston Oju Ojamaa Gotland both thought to be derived from the Baltic word the ethnonym vakja used by the Votes vadja and the Sami in older sources vuowjos may also be related So the word for German possibly comes from a name originally given by West Baltic tribes to the Vikings 22 Latvian linguist Konstantins Karulis proposes that the word may be based on the Indo European word wek speak from which derive Old Prussian wackis war cry or Latvian vekskis Such names could have been used to describe neighbouring people whose language was incomprehensible to Baltic peoples Names in East Asia editIn East Asia the names have generally been imported directly from German deutsch or Dutch duits in various ways The Chinese name is a phonetic approximation of the German proper adjective The Vietnamese name is based on the Chinese name The Japanese name is a phonetic approximation of the Dutch proper adjective The Korean name is based on the Japanese name This is explained in detail below The common Chinese name 德国 德國 pinyin Deguo is a combination of the short form of 德意志 pinyin deyizhi which approximates the German pronunciation ˈdɔʏtʃ of Deutsch German plus 國 guo country The Vietnamese name Đức is the Sino Vietnamese pronunciation đức ɗɨ k of the character 德 that appears in the Chinese name Japanese language ドイツ doitsu is an approximation of the word Deutsch meaning German 23 It was earlier written with the Sino Japanese character compound 獨逸 whose 獨 has since been simplified to 独 but has been largely superseded by the aforementioned katakana spelling ドイツ However the character 独 is still used in compounds for example 独文 dokubun meaning German literature or as an abbreviation such as in 独日関係 Dokunichi kankei German Japanese relations The South Korean name Dogil 독일 is the Korean pronunciation of the former Japanese name The compound coined by the Japanese was adapted into Korean so its characters 獨逸 are not pronounced do itsu as in Japanese but dok il Dogil Until the 1980s South Korean primary textbooks adopted Doichillanteu 도이칠란트 which approximates the German pronunciation ˈdɔʏtʃlant of Deutschland citation needed The official North Korean name toich willandŭ 도이췰란드 approximates the German pronunciation ˈdɔʏtʃlant of Deutschland Traditionally Dogil 독일 had been used in North Korea until the 1990s citation needed Use of the Chinese name in its Korean pronunciation Deokguk 덕국 is attested for the early 20th century citation needed It is now uncommon Sign languages editThe sign name for Germany in German Sign Language is a one handed sign the hand is placed on the forehead palm facing sideways extended index finger facing upwards with the thumb keeping the other fingers tucked against the palm The sign may also be used to mean German language or German person as well as police or police officer 24 This sign is an iconic one emulating the shape of a Pickelhaube It is one of the two signs for Germany in American Sign Language alongside another in which the dominant hand s wrist is placed on that of the non dominant hand in front of the signer s chest with both hands fingers spread and wiggling 25 Several other languages also use the Pickelhaube variation as well with some modifications others use unrelated signs 26 Etymological history editThe terminology for Germany the German states and Germans is complicated by the unusual history of Germany over the last 2000 years This can cause confusion in German and English as well in other languages While the notion of Germans and Germany is older it is only since 1871 that there has been a nation state of Germany Later political disagreements and the partition of Germany 1945 1990 have further made it difficult to use proper terminology Starting with Charlemagne the territory of modern Germany was within the realm of the Holy Roman Empire It was a union of relatively independent rulers who each ruled their own territories This empire was called in German Heiliges Romisches Reich with the addition from the late Middle Ages of Deutscher Nation of the German nation showing that the former idea of a universal realm had given way to a concentration on the German territories In 19th and 20th century historiography the Holy Roman Empire was often referred to as Deutsches Reich creating a link to the later nation state of 1871 Besides the official Heiliges Romisches Reich Deutscher Nation common expressions are Altes Reich the old Reich and Romisch Deutsches Kaiserreich Roman German Imperial Realm Pre modern Germany pre 1800 edit Further information Germania and Theodiscus Roman authors mentioned a number of tribes they called Germani the tribes did not themselves use the term After 1500 these tribes were identified by linguists as belonging to a group of Germanic language speakers which include modern languages like German English and Dutch Germani for the people and Germania for the area where they lived became the common Latin words for Germans and Germany Germans call themselves Deutsche living in Deutschland Deutsch is an adjective Proto Germanic theudisk derived from Old High German thiota diota Proto Germanic theudō meaning people nation folk The word theudō is cognate with Proto Celtic teuta whence the Celtic tribal name Teuton later anachronistically applied to the Germans The term was first used to designate the popular language as opposed to the language used by the religious and secular rulers who used Latin In the Late Medieval and Early Modern period Germany and Germans were known as Almany and Almains in English via Old French alemaigne alemans derived from the name of the Alamanni and Alemannia These English terms were obsolete by the 19th century At the time the territory of modern Germany belonged to the realm of the Holy Roman Empire the Roman Empire restored by the Christian king of Francony Charlemagne This feudal state became a union of relatively independent rulers who developed their own territories Modernisation took place on the territorial level such as Austria Prussia Saxony or Bremen not on the level of the Empire 1800 1871 edit The French emperor Napoleon forced the Emperor of Austria to step down as Holy Roman Emperor in 1806 Some of the German countries were then collected into the Confederation of the Rhine which remained a military alliance under the protection of Napoleon rather than consolidating into an actual confederation After the fall of Napoleon in 1815 these states created a German Confederation Some member states such as Prussia and Austria had only a part of their territories included within the confederation while other member states brought territories to the alliance that included people like Poles and the Czechs who did not speak German as their native tongue In addition there were also substantial German speaking populations that remained outside the confederation In 1841 Hoffmann von Fallersleben wrote the song Das Lied der Deutschen 27 giving voice to the dreams of a unified Germany Deutschland uber Alles to replace the alliance of independent states In this era of emerging national movements Germany was used only as a reference to a particular geographical area In 1866 1867 Prussia and her allies left the German Confederation After Austria was defeated in the German War of summer 1866 it acknowledged the dissolution of the confederation Prussia was free to create a new alliance called the North German Confederation It became a federal state with its constitution of 1 July 1867 The remaining South German countries with the exception of Austria and Liechtenstein joined the country in 1870 28 German Federation edit Main articles Unification of Germany and Reich This section does not cite any sources Please help improve this section by adding citations to reliable sources Unsourced material may be challenged and removed December 2020 Learn how and when to remove this template message The first nation state named Germany began in 1871 before that Germany referred to a geographical entity comprising many states much as the Balkans is used today or the term America was used by the founders of the United States of America In German constitutional history the expressions Reich reign realm empire and Bund federation confederation are somewhat interchangeable Sometimes they even co existed in the same constitution for example in the German Empire 1871 1918 the parliament had the name Reichstag the council of the representatives of the German states Bundesrat When in 1870 71 the North German Confederation was transformed into the German Empire the preamble said that the participating monarchs are creating einen ewigen Bund an eternal confederation which will have the name Deutsches Reich Due to the history of Germany the principle of federalism is strong Only the state of Hitler 1933 1945 and the state of the communists East Germany 1949 1990 were centralist states As a result the words Reich and Bund were used more frequently than in other countries to distinguish between imperial or federal institutions and those at a subnational level For example a modern federal German minister is called Bundesminister in contrast to a Landesminister who holds office in a state such as Rhineland Palatinate or Lower Saxony As a result of the Hitler regime and maybe also of Imperial Germany up to 1919 many Germans especially those on the political left have negative feelings about the word Reich citation needed Bund is another word also used in contexts other than politics Many associations in Germany are federations or have a federalised structure and differentiate between a Bundesebene federal national level and a Landesebene level of the regional states in a similar way to the political bodies An example is the German Football Association Deutscher Fussballbund The word Bundestrainer referring to the national football coach does not refer to the Federal Republic but to the Fussballbund itself In other German speaking countries the words Reich Austria before 1918 and Bund Austria since 1918 Switzerland are used too An organ named Bundesrat exists in all three of them in Switzerland it is the government and in Germany and Austria the house of regional representatives Greater Germany and Grossdeutsches Reich edit In the 19th century before 1871 Germans for example in the Frankfurt Parliament of 1848 49 argued about what should become of Austria Including Austria at least the German speaking parts in a future German state was referred to as the Greater German Solution while a German state without Austria was the Smaller German Solution In 1919 the Weimar Constitution postulated the inclusion of Deutsch Osterreich the German speaking parts of Austria but the Western Allies objected to this It was realised only in 1938 when Germany annexed Austria Anschluss National Socialist propaganda proclaimed the realisation of Grossdeutschland and in 1943 the German Reich was officially renamed Grossdeutsches Reich However these expressions became neither common nor popular In National Socialist propaganda Austria was also called Ostmark After the Anschluss the previous territory of Germany was called Altreich old Reich German Empire and Weimar Republic of Germany 1871 1945 edit This section does not cite any sources Please help improve this section by adding citations to reliable sources Unsourced material may be challenged and removed December 2020 Learn how and when to remove this template message The official name of the German state in 1871 became Deutsches Reich linking itself to the former Reich before 1806 and the rudimentary Reich of 1848 1849 This expression was commonly used in official papers and also on maps while in other contexts Deutschland was more frequently used Those Germans living within its boundaries were called Reichsdeutsche those outside were called Volksdeutsche ethnic Germans The latter expression referred mainly to the German minorities in Eastern Europe Germans living abroad for example in America were and are called Auslandsdeutsche After the forced abdication of the Emperor in 1918 and the republic was declared Germany was informally called the Deutsche Republik The official name of the state remained the same The term Weimar Republic after the city where the National Assembly gathered came up in the 1920s but was not commonly used until the 1950s It became necessary to find an appropriate term for the Germany between 1871 and 1919 Kaiserliches Deutschland Imperial Germany or Deutsches Kaiserreich Nazi Germany edit After Adolf Hitler took power in 1933 the official name of the state was still the same For a couple of years Hitler used the expression Drittes Reich Third Reich which was introduced by writers in the last years of the republic In fact this was only a propaganda term and did not constitute a new state Another propaganda term was Tausendjahriges Reich Thousand years Reich Later Hitler renounced the term Drittes Reich officially in June 1939 but it already had become popular among supporters and opponents and is still used in historiography sometimes in quotation marks 29 It later led to the name Zweites Reich Second Empire being used to refer to Germany between the years 1871 and 1919 Germany under Hitler s rule is most commonly called in English Nazi Germany Nazi being a colloquial abbreviation of Nationalsozialist Germany divided 1945 1990 edit This section does not cite any sources Please help improve this section by adding citations to reliable sources Unsourced material may be challenged and removed December 2020 Learn how and when to remove this template message nbsp Occupied Germany in 1947 with western green blue and yellow and eastern red occupation zones nbsp Stamp in occupied Germany 1946 the neutral expression Deutsche Post instead of Deutsche Reichspost but still the old currency RM Reichsmark After the defeat in World War II Germany was occupied by the troops of Britain France the United States and Soviet Union Berlin was a case of its own as it was situated on the territory of the Soviet zone but divided into four sectors The western sectors were later called West Berlin the other one East Berlin The communists tended to consider the Soviet sector of Berlin as a part of GDR West Berlin was according to them an independent political unit In the GDR Westberlin was the preferred spelling to de emphasize the relationship to Berlin Hauptstadt der DDR the GDR capital After 1945 Deutsches Reich was still used for a couple of years in 1947 for instance when the Social Democrats gathered in Nuremberg they called their rally Reichsparteitag In many contexts the German people still called their country Germany even after two German states were created in 1949 Federal Republic of Germany edit nbsp The Federal Republic in blue GDR in red and West Berlin in yellow 1949 1990The Federal Republic of Germany Bundesrepublik Deutschland established in 1949 saw itself as the same state founded in 1867 71 but Reich gave place to Bund For example the Reichskanzler became the Bundeskanzler reichsdeutsch became bundesdeutsch Reichsburger citizen of the Reich became Bundesburger Germany as a whole was called Deutschland als Ganzes or Gesamtdeutschland referring to Germany in the international borders of 1937 before Hitler started to annex other countries This resulted in all German or pan germanique a chauvinist concept aspirations In 1969 the Federal Ministry for All German Affairs was renamed the Federal Ministry for Intra German Relations Until 1970 a number of expressions competed in the Federal Republic to designate the other German state the communist German Democratic Republic It was called Sowjetische Besatzungszone SBZ Soviet Zone of Occupation Sowjetzone Ostzone Mitteldeutschland or Pankow many GDR politicians lived or worked in Berlin Pankow German Democratic Republic edit nbsp International vehicle registration oval including the letters DDRIn 1949 the communists protected by the Soviet Union established the Deutsche Demokratische Republik DDR German Democratic Republic GDR This state was not considered to be a successor of the Reich but nevertheless to represent all good Germans Rulers and inhabitants of GDR called their state simply DDR or unsere Republik our republic The GDR still supported the idea of a German nation and the need for reunification The Federal Republic was often called Westdeutschland or the BRD After 1970 the GDR called itself a socialist state of German nation Westerners called the GDR Sowjetische Besatzungszone SBZ Soviet Zone of Occupation Sowjetzone Ostzone Mitteldeutschland or Pankow the GDR government was in the Pankow district of Berlin Federal Republic of Germany 1990 present edit This section does not cite any sources Please help improve this section by adding citations to reliable sources Unsourced material may be challenged and removed December 2020 Learn how and when to remove this template message In 1990 the German Democratic Republic ceased to exist Five new federal states Bundeslander were established and joined the Bundesrepublik Deutschland Federal Republic of Germany East Berlin joined through merger with West Berlin technically this was the sixth new federal state since West Berlin although considered a de facto federal state had the legal status of a military occupation zone The official name of the country is Federal Republic of Germany Bundesrepublik Deutschland The terms Westdeutschland and Ostdeutschland are still used for the western and the eastern parts of the German territory respectively nbsp The Holy Roman Empire 1789 nbsp German Confederation 1815 1866 nbsp Germany Deutsches Reich 1871 1918 nbsp Germany Deutsches Reich 1919 1937 nbsp Nazi Germany 1944See also edit nbsp Germany portal nbsp European Union portalVarious terms used for Germans German placename etymology List of country name etymologies Territorial evolution of GermanyNotes edit Diutisc or similar from Proto Germanic THeudiskaz meaning of the people of the folk While the Bulgarian name of the country belongs to the second category the demonym is nemski nemski belonging to the fifth category While the Italian name of the country belongs to the second category the demonym is tedesco belonging to the first category The common demonym in Romanian is german but the popular term neamț can be heard too While the Russian name of the country belongs to the second category the demonym is nemeckij nemetskiy belonging to the fifth category Nemc a foreigner lit a mute e g who doesn t speak Slavonic or unlikely from the name of the ancient Nemetes tribe See below Possibly from the name of the Scandinavian Vagoth tribe or a Baltic word meaning speak or war cry References edit Amtliche Ubersetzungen fur Bundesrepublik Deutschland PDF auswaertiges amt de p 5 Retrieved 10 June 2021 R V Sowa Worterbuch des Dialekts der deutschen Zigeuner Westliche Mundart Abhandlungen fur die Kunde des Morgenlandes 11 Leipzig 1898 Dictionary of the dialect of the German Gypsies digitized by archive org older use accessed a b c Kamusella Tom Crocodile Skin or the Fraternal Curtain pp 742 759 2012 The Antioch Review Vol 70 No 4 Fall via www academia edu a href Template Cite journal html title Template Cite journal cite journal a Cite journal requires journal help Norway Etymonline Retrieved 21 August 2007 Jutta Limbach Ausgewanderte Worter Eine Auswahl der interessantesten Beitrage zur internationalen Ausschreibung Ausgewanderte Worter Rowohlt Taschenbuch Verl Reinbek bei Hamburg 2007 p 123 ISBN 978 3 19 107891 1 John Joseph Gumperz and Dell Hathaway Hymes The ethnography of communication Holt Rinehart and Winston New York N Y etc 1972 p 96 ISBN 9780030777455 Ullrich Jan F 2008 New Lakota Dictionary Bloomington Indiana Lakota Language Consortium ISBN 0 9761082 9 1 Itwewina The online Cree dictionary tudesco in the Diccionario de la Real Academia Espanola The first sense refers to Lower Saxony a b Popper Nicholas S 2023 Roos Anna Marie Manning Gideon eds Planks from a Shipwreck Belief and Evidence in Sixteenth Century Histories Collected Wisdom of the Early Modern Scholar Essays in Honor of Mordechai Feingold Cham Springer International Publishing pp 143 144 doi 10 1007 978 3 031 09722 5 7 ISBN 978 3 031 09722 5 retrieved 5 January 2023 see Thiois in the French wikipedia Wolfram Herwig 1997 The Roman Empire and its Germanic Peoples University of California Press pp 4 5 ISBN 0 520 08511 6 Tacitus Germania par 28 Rhodes Richard A 1993 Eastern Ojibwa Chippewa Ottawa Dictionary New York Mouton de Gruyter p 11 ISBN 3 11 013749 6 a b c Kelton Dwight H 1889 Indian Names and History of the Sault Ste Marie Canal Detroit Detroit Free Press p 21 a b Vasmer Max 1986 Etymological dictionary of the Russian language in Russian Vol III Moscow Progress p 62 The Journal of Indo European Studies Journal of Indo European Studies 3 December 1974 via Google Books in Polish Etymology of the Polish language word for Germany Archived from the original on 2 April 2008 Retrieved 4 February 2009 C Iulius Caesar Commentariorum Libri VII De Bello Gallico VI 25 Latin text P CORNELIVS TACITVS ANNALES 12 27 Latin text Emil Bretschneider 1888 Mediaeval Researches from Eastern Asiatic Sources Fragments Towards the Knowledge of the Geography and History of Central and Western Asia from the 13th to the 17th Century vol 1 Trubner amp Co p 322 E Fraenkel Litauisches etymol Worterbuch Indogerm Bibliothek II 7 Heidelberg Gottingen 1965 page 1272 Kōjien 5th edition 83 Digitales Worterbuch des Deutches Gebardensprache in German Hamburg Germany University of Hamburg Archived from the original on 6 June 2023 Retrieved 6 October 2023 Vicars William G Germany American Sign Language University Sacramento California Archived from the original on 1 December 2022 Retrieved 6 October 2023 Germany Spread the Sign European Sign Language Center Archived from the original on 22 June 2022 Retrieved 6 October 2023 Note Deutschlandlied has been the national anthem since 1922 Heinrich August Winkler Der lange Weg nach Westen Deutsche Geschichte 1806 1933 Bonn 2002 p 209 Heinrich August Winkler Der lange Weg nach Westen Deutsche Geschichte 1933 1990 Bonn 2004 p 6 7 Further reading editBithell Jethro ed Germany A Companion to German Studies 5th edition 1955 578pp essays on German literature music philosophy art and especially history online edition Archived 11 October 2008 at the Wayback Machine Buse Dieter K ed Modern Germany An Encyclopedia of History People and Culture 1871 1990 2 vol 1998 Clark Christopher Iron Kingdom The Rise and Downfall of Prussia 1600 1947 2006 Detwiler Donald S Germany A Short History 3rd ed 1999 341pp Germany A Short History Archived 31 December 2011 at the Wayback Machine by Donald S Detwiler Fulbrook Mary A Concise History of Germany 2004 Maehl William Harvey Germany in Western Civilization 1979 833pp Ozment Steven A Mighty Fortress A New History of the German People 2005 Reinhardt Kurt F Germany 2000 Years 2 vols 1961 stress on cultural topicsExternal links edit nbsp The dictionary definition of Germany at Wiktionary Why are there so many names for Germany AKA Deutschland Allemagne etc Retrieved from https en wikipedia org w index php title Names of Germany amp oldid 1200558334, wikipedia, wiki, book, books, library,

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