[Ger-Poland-Volhynia] Name Origin - Germany
gpvjem
gpvjem at sasktel.net
Tue Mar 30 13:50:06 PST 2004
I have just discovered that Mr Fenske's email address has changed to
e.fenske at sasktel.net . I have passed your answer to his new address G|nther.
John Marsch
------------------------
From: G|nther Bvhm
To: Wolhynien-Liste ; efenske at accesscomm.ca
Sent: Tuesday, March 30, 2004 3:02 PM
gpvjem schrieb:
> I received the following questions today along with SGGEE
membership mail. I am posting them to the Listserv verbatim. The same person
suggested that perhaps a future Journal article on the subject would be in
order.
> Here are the questions;
>
> Where and when did the name "Germany" originate as the name of the
country?
>
> What happened to the term "Deutschland" and why did it not become
the name of the United Kingdoms after 1871?
>
Hello John, hello nameless,
as far as we speak about an official term, it was of course the name of
the German state, i.e. for approximately thousand years "Heiliges
Roemisches Reich Deutscher Nation", from 1871 to 1938 "Deutsches Reich"
and from 1938 (the annexion of Austria and the Bohemian Sudetenland) to
1945 "Grossdeutsches Reich". The term "Deutschland" (i.e. German
country) was traditionally used for the regions inhabited by a German
majority (like England, Scotland, Ireland, Poland) and became a national
slogan after the Napoleonic wars. It was the aim of the founders of the
post-WWII German state to fulfill the legacy of the German revolution of
1848 why they chose the popular term of "Germany" instead of any
traditional administrative name. Note that the German black-red-gold
flag descends from this revolution too and it is said that it means
"from darkness through fire to light" - sounds good, doesn't it?
Guenther Boehm
of Hilden, Germany
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