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DanaThomas posted an update 7 years, 6 months ago
Short historical overview of German ethnic communities in Eastern Europe
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DanaThomas posted an update 7 years, 6 months ago
Short historical overview of German ethnic communities in Eastern Europe
Interesting, although I do wonder how even such a brief history of Germany cannot mention Bismarck, without whom there would probably never have been a country called ‘Germany’. Even today, there remain significant linguistic and cultural differences between peoples from the various principalities, kingdoms and electorates that united during the 1860s and ’70s to form what we know of during only the last two centuries as Germany. In this sense, England also has a Germanic heritage that stretches back to long before the accession of the Elector of Hannover to the (by then, British) throne. The Saxons, who settled predominantly in the South of England, came from Germany – hence the modern German state called Saxony. On the other hand, the Angles, who settled in the North of England, came from the northern-most province of the present-day Netherlands, Frisia and Schleswig-Holstein in modern Germany. Both the Angles and Saxons were Germanic tribes, but it would be totally mistaken to equate either with the modern state of Germany, or its recent predecessors.
A diagram is probably worth a thousand words, so for those interested here is a family tree of Germanic languages. Depending on how far back in time you may wish to go, all may be considered as Teutonic, or Germanic: https://www.britannica.com/media/full/topic/176619/61366