1. German as an entity does not really exist. In fact, it never did.
2. The history of Germany is really a history of the Franks, Swabians, Bavarians etc.
These are possibly polemic(al) - designed to be argued about = different sides
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Examples
Ötzi the Iceman
South Tirol
Still people in N.Italy (Alps) that speak Alemannic dialects (S.Germany)
Andreas Gryphius
from Silesia (cultural German population)
part of modern day Poland
Immanuel Kant
philosopher
from Prussia in Königsberg (at the time culturally German)
Not just enough to think of these people as connected to German(y) but it is better to think of them as being from their area e.g. Prussia
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Germanic Tribes
Proto-Indo-European
Germanic - German, English, Dutch
Balto-Slavic - Polish, Czech etc. -- Baltic - Latvian, Lithuanian
Examples of Germanic tribes: Alemanni (Ötzi), Saxons, Goths
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Charlemagne
Charlemagne (Karl)
speaker of a Germanic language
established a political entity around year 800
a Frank
through either fighting or marriage he gained more people under his umbrella and therefore more land
when he died everything fell apart
This period - a type of unification but not particularly successful in the longterm
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HRE and Prussia's Rise
The Habsburgs and the Holy Roman Empire
1273-1806
enormously influential
Prussia's Rise
Germany largely fragmented throughout period
politically fragmented/diverse
linguistically fragmented/diverse
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Federal Republic (of Germany)
made up of Bundesländer
each Bunderländer is able to implement certain rules -> diff. states and diff. rules
Bundesländer - constructed entities - might not make a lot of sense to the people who live there
A certain degree of decentralisation
diffuses power - never be vested in one place
aim - no one party could never be in control again
e.g. Baden - Wüttemberg - two different dialect areas
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German(y)?
Identity: sense of belonging, environment
subjective to oneself
something that we construct
based on importance to oneself, likes/dislikes etc.
Framework for being German is subjective and idea of Germany is changing - e.g. 2006 World Cup - Germans unsure whether it was ok to fly the German flag
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