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158-453: Reichsbürgerbewegung ( German pronunciation: [ˈʁaɪ̯çsbʏʁɡɐbəˌveːɡʊŋ] ; ' Reich Citizens' Movement ' ) or Reichsbürger ( German pronunciation: [ˈʁaɪ̯çsˌbʏʁɡɐ] ; ' Reich Citizen[s] ' ) are several anticonstitutional revisionist groups and individuals in Germany and elsewhere who reject the legitimacy of the modern German state ,

316-748: A general armistice ended the fighting. In the German Revolution (November 1918), Wilhelm II and the ruling princes abdicated their positions, and Germany was declared a federal republic . Germany's new leadership signed the Treaty of Versailles in 1919, accepting defeat by the Allies . Germans perceived the treaty as humiliating, which was seen by historians as influential in the rise of Adolf Hitler . Germany lost around 13% of its European territory and ceded all of its colonial possessions in Africa and

474-567: A great power with a strong economy ; it has the largest economy in Europe by nominal GDP . As a global power in industrial, scientific and technological sectors, it is both the world's third-largest exporter and importer . As a developed country , it offers social security , a universal health care system , and tuition-free university education . Germany is a member of the United Nations , Council of Europe , NATO and OECD , and

632-558: A special response unit of the Bavarian Police when they attempted to confiscate his 31 firearms. Three police officers were injured. One of them later died from his injuries. The weapons confiscation followed the revocation of the murderer's firearms permit and his repeated refusal to co-operate with local authorities. German authorities expressed concern at the escalation in violence. The event attracted international attention. Bavarian ministers called for increased surveillance of

790-460: A sustainable energy supply, the debt brake for balanced budgets, measures to increase the fertility rate ( pronatalism ), and high-tech strategies for the transition of the German economy, summarised as Industry 4.0 . During the 2015 European migrant crisis , the country took in over a million refugees and migrants. Germany is the seventh-largest country in Europe . It borders Denmark to

948-567: A temperate climate, ranging from oceanic in the north and west to continental in the east and southeast. Winters range from the cold in the Southern Alps to cool and are generally overcast with limited precipitation, while summers can vary from hot and dry to cool and rainy. The northern regions have prevailing westerly winds that bring in moist air from the North Sea, moderating the temperature and increasing precipitation. Conversely,

1106-759: A 'restored' or new German state but call themselves simply Selbstverwalter ( lit.   ' someone who governs himself ' ). They reject the Federal Republic and claim that their house is a sovereign entity. According to the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution, some of the Reichsbürger groups and individuals hold antisemitic views. One example is the organization Geeinte deutsche Völker und Stämme , which

1264-680: A German "ethnical state", especially after the Napoleonic wars . Ideal for this state was the Holy Roman Empire; the legend arose that Germany were "un-defeated when unified", especially after the Franco-Prussian War ( Deutsch-Französischer Krieg , lit. "German-French war"). Before that, the German question ruptured this "German unity" after the 1848 Revolution before it was achieved, however; Austria-Hungary as

1422-460: A NATO effort to provide security in that country after the ousting of the Taliban . In the 2005 elections , Angela Merkel became the first female chancellor. In 2009, the German government approved a €50 billion stimulus plan. Among the major German political projects of the early 21st century are the advancement of European integration , the energy transition ( Energiewende ) for

1580-658: A centralised totalitarian state , withdrew from the League of Nations , and dramatically increased the country's rearmament . A government-sponsored programme for economic renewal focused on public works, the most famous of which was the Autobahn . In 1935, the regime withdrew from the Treaty of Versailles and introduced the Nuremberg Laws which targeted Jews and other minorities. Germany also reacquired control of

1738-582: A founding member of the European Union, G7 and G20 . It has the third-highest number of UNESCO World Heritage Sites , 54 , of which 51 are cultural. The English word Germany derives from the Latin Germania , which came into use after Julius Caesar adopted it for the peoples east of the Rhine . The German term Deutschland , originally diutisciu land ('the German lands'),

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1896-615: A framework laid out in the 1949 constitution known as the Grundgesetz (Basic Law). Amendments generally require a two-thirds majority of both the Bundestag and the Bundesrat ; the fundamental principles of the constitution, as expressed in the articles guaranteeing human dignity, the separation of powers, the federal structure, and the rule of law , are valid in perpetuity. The president , currently Frank-Walter Steinmeier ,

2054-529: A historical aberration, contemptuously referring to it as " the System ". In the summer of 1939, the Nazis themselves actually banned the continued use of the term in the press, ordering it to use expressions such as Nationalsozialistisches Deutschland ("National Socialist Germany"), Großdeutsches Reich (" Greater German Reich "), or simply Deutsches Reich ( German Reich ) to refer to the German state instead. It

2212-680: A joint responsibility of the international community. It was the world's second-biggest aid donor in 2019 after the United States. Germany's military, the Bundeswehr (Federal Defence), is organised into the Heer (Army and special forces KSK ), Marine (Navy), Luftwaffe (Air Force) and Cyber- und Informationsraum (Cyber and Information Domain Service) branches. In absolute terms, German military spending in 2023

2370-544: A kingdom), but in a modern sense, the term is used in a much more figurative sense (e.g. Die Hemelse Ryk (the heavenly kingdom, China)), as the sphere under one's control or influencas: As in German, the adjective rijk / ryk also means "rich". Federal Republic of Germany – in Europe  (light green & dark grey) – in the European Union  (light green) Germany , officially

2528-595: A multinational state could not become part of the new "German empire", and nationality conflicts in Prussia with the Prussian Poles arose ("We can never be Germans – Prussians, every time!"). The advent of national feeling and the movement to create an ethnically German Empire did lead directly to nationalism in 1871. Ethnic minorities declined since the beginning of the modern age; the Polabs , Sorbs and even

2686-429: A nationwide power outage to create "civil war-like" conditions. Two members are also alleged to have been plotting to kidnap the German health minister Karl Lauterbach . Lauterbach was said to have been aware of the plans. Patriotic Union ( Patriotische Union ) or The Council ( Der Rat ) is the name of a German right-wing extremist Reichsbürger group. It aims is to establish a new government in Germany in

2844-547: A provisional capital, to emphasise its stance that the two-state solution was temporary. West Germany was established as a federal parliamentary republic with a " social market economy ". Starting in 1948 West Germany became a major recipient of reconstruction aid under the American Marshall Plan . Konrad Adenauer was elected the first federal chancellor of Germany in 1949. The country enjoyed prolonged economic growth ( Wirtschaftswunder ) beginning in

3002-536: A self-proclaimed Reichsbürger and the 1998 winner of the Mister Germany beauty contest, violently resisted his eviction from his house in Reuden . When the German police arrived on scene they encountered a group of around 120 people, who were staying on Ursache's and his in-law's property. Ursache deemed his property as part of the self-proclaimed State of Ur and flew the flag of the old German Reich above

3160-638: A state, the East German authorities eased border restrictions, but this actually led to an acceleration of the Wende reform process culminating in the Two Plus Four Treaty under which Germany regained full sovereignty. This permitted German reunification on 3 October 1990, with the accession of the five re-established states of the former GDR. The fall of the Wall in 1989 became a symbol of

3318-712: A symbol of the Cold War . Tensions between East and West Germany were reduced in the late 1960s by Chancellor Willy Brandt 's Ostpolitik . In 1989, Hungary decided to dismantle the Iron Curtain and open its border with Austria , causing the emigration of thousands of East Germans to West Germany via Hungary and Austria. This had devastating effects on the GDR, where regular mass demonstrations received increasing support. In an effort to help retain East Germany as

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3476-591: A term for this period of German history. The common contemporary Latin legal term used in documents of the Holy Roman Empire was for a long time regnum ("rule, domain, empire", such as in Regnum Francorum for the Frankish Kingdom ) before imperium was in fact adopted, the latter first attested in 1157, whereas the parallel use of regnum never fell out of use during the Middle Ages. At

3634-410: A terrorist organization which was founded by the end of November 2021 at the latest and which has set itself the goal of overthrowing the existing state order in Germany and replacing it with its own form of state, the outlines of which have already been worked out." Those arrested included aristocrat Heinrich Reuss (who styles himself Heinrich XIII, Prince Reuss of Greiz ) a 71-year-old descendant of

3792-745: A thesis of international law doctrine and constitutional law doctrine! – assumes that the German Reich survived the collapse in 1945 and did not perish either with the capitulation or through the exercise of foreign state power in Germany by the Allied occupying powers or later ... This also corresponds to the established jurisdiction of the Federal Constitutional Court, to which the Senate adheres. The German Reich continues to exist ..., still possesses legal capacity, but

3950-521: A uniform constitutive territory "Germany" (German Reich), to which its own territory belongs as a likewise inseparable part. In terms of constitutional law, it restricts its sovereign power to the "area of application of the Basic Law" ..., but also feels responsible for the whole of Germany (cf. Preamble of the Basic Law). The Reichsbürger usually only cite the part that the German Reich survived

4108-698: Is indenrigs / inrikes / innenriks , meaning domestic. The adjective form of the word, rig in Danish and rik in Swedish/Norwegian, means "rich" like in other Germanic languages. Rijk is the Dutch and ryk the Afrikaans and Frisian equivalent of the German word Reich . In a political sense in the Netherlands and Belgium, the word rijk often connotes a connection with

4266-559: Is derived from deutsch ( cf. Dutch ), descended from Old High German diutisc 'of the people' (from diot or diota 'people'), originally used to distinguish the language of the common people from Latin and its Romance descendants . This in turn descends from Proto-Germanic * þiudiskaz 'of the people' (see also the Latinised form Theodiscus ), derived from * þeudō , descended from Proto-Indo-European * tewtéh₂- 'people', from which

4424-648: Is devoted to agriculture, while 30% is forested and 14% is covered by settlements or infrastructure. Plants and animals include those generally common to Central Europe. According to the National Forest Inventory, beeches , oaks , and other deciduous trees constitute just over 40% of the forests; roughly 60% are conifers , particularly spruce and pine . There are many species of ferns , flowers , fungi , and mosses . Wild animals include roe deer , wild boar , mouflon (a subspecies of wild sheep), fox , badger , hare , and small numbers of

4582-608: Is largely autonomous in regard to its internal organisation. As of 2017 , Germany is divided into 401 districts ( Kreise ) at a municipal level; these consist of 294 rural districts and 107 urban districts . Germany has a civil law system based on Roman law with some references to Germanic law . The Bundesverfassungsgericht (Federal Constitutional Court) is the German Supreme Court responsible for constitutional matters, with power of judicial review . Germany's specialized supreme court system includes

4740-410: Is not itself capable of acting as an entire state for lack of organisation, in particular for lack of institutionalised organs. ... With the establishment of the Federal Republic of Germany, not a new West German state was founded, but a part of Germany was reorganised. ... The Federal Republic of Germany is therefore not the "legal successor" of the German Reich, but as a state identical with the state of

4898-601: Is the head of state and invested primarily with representative responsibilities and powers. He is elected by the Bundesversammlung (federal convention), an institution consisting of the members of the Bundestag and an equal number of state delegates. The second-highest official in the German order of precedence is the Bundestagspräsident ( President of the Bundestag ), who is elected by

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5056-469: Is the German name given to the Frankish Kingdom of Charlemagne . Frankenreich came to be used of Western Francia and medieval France after the development of Eastern Francia into the Holy Roman Empire . The German name of France , Frankreich , is a contraction of Frankenreich used in reference to the kingdom of France from the late medieval period. The term Reich was part of

5214-542: Is to be put into force after their accession. During the first twenty years, the Federal Republic tried to isolate the GDR. After this goal seemed to be no longer feasible, the Federal Republic of Germany entered into the Basic Treaty with the German Democratic Republic to establish diplomatic relations and limited cooperation between the two German states. The Christian Democratic opposition in

5372-474: Is typically used to designate a kingdom or an empire, especially the Roman Empire . The terms Kaisertum ( German: [ˈkaɪzɐˌtuːm] , "Imperium") and Kaiserreich ("Imperial realm") are used in German to more specifically define an empire ruled by an emperor. Reich is comparable in meaning and development (as well as descending from the same Proto-Indo-European root) to

5530-642: Is used to describe a political or governmental entity. Reich has thus not been used in official terminology since 1945, though it is still found in the name of the Reichstag building , which since 1999 has housed the German federal parliament , the Bundestag . The decision not to rename the Reichstag building was taken only after long debate in the Bundestag; even then, it is described officially as Reichstag – Sitz des Bundestages (Reichstag, seat of

5688-488: Is vested in the parliament consisting of the Bundestag (Federal Diet) and Bundesrat (Federal Council), which together form the legislative body. The Bundestag is elected through direct elections using the mixed-member proportional representation system. The members of the Bundesrat represent and are appointed by the governments of the sixteen federated states. The German political system operates under

5846-463: The Gründerzeit period following the unification of Germany, Bismarck's foreign policy as chancellor of Germany secured Germany's position as a great nation by forging alliances and avoiding war. However, under Wilhelm II , Germany took an imperialistic course, leading to friction with neighbouring countries. A dual alliance was created with the multinational realm of Austria-Hungary ;

6004-491: The Bundestag and responsible for overseeing the daily sessions of the body. The third-highest official and the head of government is the chancellor, who is appointed by the Bundespräsident after being elected by the party or coalition with the most seats in the Bundestag . The chancellor, currently Olaf Scholz , is the head of government and exercises executive power through his Cabinet . Since 1949,

6162-534: The Reichsbürger movement are also monarchists who support a restoration of the German Empire or Holy Roman Empire . The German Federal Ministry of the Interior concludes that only a small part of the movement is part of the organized neo-Nazi milieu proper (for about 5%). Nonetheless, as the movement rejects the existence of the Federal Republic, it is very likely that members of the movement violate

6320-646: The Reichsbürger movement is an amalgamation of right-wing extremists, esoterics, and sovereign citizens , and that the movement attracts conspiracy theorists, the economically troubled, and "people who are a little mentally disordered". As of 2009, there was no reliable count of the number of KRRs then existing, but the KRR FAQ , an online registry maintained by a German jurist, lists some 60 persons or organizations associated with operating competing KRRs. Several (though by no means all) KRRs have links to far-right extremist or neo-Nazi groups. The Federal Office for

6478-668: The House of Reuß , who owns an estate in Thuringia where the group met, several of his followers, and a 69-year-old former Bundeswehr parachutist commander identified as Rüdiger von P . Also arrested was Birgit Malsack-Winkemann , a former Alternative for Germany (AfD) member of the Bundestag and a current judge. There were renewed calls for more serious measures against the movement in 2016, including revocation of firearms permits and seizure of their weapons, following disciplinary action against police officers allegedly connected to

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6636-955: The Allies de jure abolished the German state and partitioned Berlin and Germany's remaining territory into four occupation zones. The western sectors, controlled by France, the United Kingdom , and the United States , were merged on 23 May 1949 to form the Federal Republic of Germany ( German : Bundesrepublik Deutschland ); on 7 October 1949, the Soviet Zone became the German Democratic Republic (GDR) ( German : Deutsche Demokratische Republik ; DDR). They were informally known as West Germany and East Germany. East Germany selected East Berlin as its capital, while West Germany chose Bonn as

6794-572: The Battle of Britain in the same year. In 1941, German troops invaded Yugoslavia , Greece and the Soviet Union . By 1942, Germany and its allies controlled most of continental Europe and North Africa , but following the Soviet victory at the Battle of Stalingrad , the Allied reconquest of North Africa and invasion of Italy in 1943, German forces suffered repeated military defeats. In 1944,

6952-798: The Battle of the Teutoburg Forest . The outcome of this battle dissuaded the Romans from their ambition of conquering Germania and is thus considered one of the most important events in European history . By 100 AD, when Tacitus wrote Germania , Germanic tribes had settled along the Rhine and the Danube (the Limes Germanicus ), occupying most of modern Germany. However, Baden-Württemberg , southern Bavaria , southern Hesse and

7110-413: The Berchtesgaden National Park . In addition, there are 17 Biosphere Reserves , and 105 nature parks . More than 400 zoos and animal parks operate in Germany. The Berlin Zoo , which opened in 1844, is the oldest in Germany, and claims the most comprehensive collection of species in the world. Germany is a federal , parliamentary , representative democratic republic. Federal legislative power

7268-414: The Black Death of 1348–1350. The Golden Bull issued in 1356 provided the constitutional structure of the Empire and codified the election of the emperor by seven prince-electors . Johannes Gutenberg introduced moveable-type printing to Europe, laying the basis for the democratization of knowledge . In 1517, Martin Luther incited the Protestant Reformation and his translation of the Bible began

7426-401: The Bundestag , as well as public arrests of politicians to cause public unrest. The Patriotic Union assumed that parts of the German security authorities would then have shown solidarity with the terrorist group, which would have led to an overthrow and the group would have taken power. Heinrich Reuss , a German aristocrat, is alleged to have led the group and been the planned head of state of

7584-538: The Carolingian Empire in 800; it was divided in 843 . The eastern successor kingdom of East Francia stretched from the Rhine in the west to the Elbe river in the east and from the North Sea to the Alps. Subsequently, the Holy Roman Empire emerged from it. The Ottonian rulers (919–1024) consolidated several major duchies . In 996, Gregory V became the first German Pope, appointed by his cousin Otto III , whom he shortly after crowned Holy Roman Emperor. The Holy Roman Empire absorbed northern Italy and Burgundy under

7742-471: The Celtic , Iranian , Baltic , and Slavic tribes. Southern Germany was inhabited by Celtic-speaking peoples, who belonged to the wider La Tène culture . They were later assimilated by the Germanic conquerors. Under Augustus , the Roman Empire began to invade lands inhabited by the Germanic tribes, creating a short-lived Roman province of Germania between the Rhine and Elbe rivers. In 9 AD, three Roman legions were defeated by Arminius in

7900-414: The Czech Republic to the east, Austria and Switzerland to the south, and France , Luxembourg , Belgium , and the Netherlands to the west. The nation's capital and most populous city is Berlin and its main financial centre is Frankfurt ; the largest urban area is the Ruhr . Settlement in the territory of modern Germany began in the Lower Paleolithic , with various tribes inhabiting it from

8058-405: The East German railway incongruously continued to use the name Deutsche Reichsbahn (German Reich Railways), which had been the name of the national railway during the Weimar Republic and the Nazi era. Even after German reunification in October 1990, the Reichsbahn continued to exist for over three years as the operator of the railroad in eastern Germany, ending finally on 1 January 1994 when

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8216-430: The Eurasian beaver . The blue cornflower was once a German national symbol . The 16 national parks in Germany include the Jasmund National Park , the Vorpommern Lagoon Area National Park , the Müritz National Park , the Wadden Sea National Parks , the Harz National Park , the Hainich National Park , the Black Forest National Park , the Saxon Switzerland National Park , the Bavarian Forest National Park and

8374-485: The Fall of Communism , the dissolution of the Soviet Union , German reunification and Die Wende ("the turning point"). United Germany was considered the enlarged continuation of West Germany so it retained its memberships in international organisations. Based on the Berlin/Bonn Act (1994), Berlin again became the capital of Germany, while Bonn obtained the unique status of a Bundesstadt (federal city) retaining some federal ministries. The relocation of

8532-404: The Federal Republic of Germany , is a country in Central Europe . It lies between the Baltic and North Sea to the north and the Alps to the south. Its sixteen constituent states have a total population of over 82 million in an area of 357,596 km (138,069 sq mi), making it the most populous member state of the European Union . It borders Denmark to the north, Poland and

8690-467: The Federal Republic of Germany , in favour of the German Reich . One typical claim is that the German Reich continues to exist in its pre-World War II or pre-World War I borders , and that it is now governed by one of the Reichsbürger groups. Several incidents with violent members of the movement and illegal weapons depots earned the movement the attention of the media and the German authorities. The latter estimated that some 21,000 people belong to

8848-450: The GSG 9 unit, searched more than 130 sites (including homes, offices, and storage facilities) throughout Germany, one of the largest anti-extremist raids in the nation's history. Searches of areas in Austria and Italy took place simultaneously. During the raids, coordinated by the Federal Police , 25 people were arrested out of a total of 52 suspected far-right coup plotters associated with the Reichsbürger movement. Those implicated in

9006-507: The German Democratic Republic ("East Germany", GDR) were established. The constitution of the Federal Republic mentioned a Germany and a German people beyond the Federal Republic. An example is article 23 (old version): This Basic Law shall initially apply in the territories of the states Baden, Bavaria, Bremen, Greater Berlin, Hamburg, Hesse, Lower Saxony, North Rhine-Westphalia, Rhineland-Palatinate, Schleswig-Holstein, Württemberg-Baden and Württemberg-Hohenzollern. In other parts of Germany it

9164-414: The Graf Zeppelin Barracks near Calw . Rüdiger von P. was supposed to lead the military arm of the group. The Federal Public Prosecutor describes von P. alongside Heinrich Reuss as a "ringleader". Von P. is said to have tried to recruit police officers and soldiers. A lawyer and judge in the state of Berlin, Birgit Malsack-Winkemann , was designated as the future minister of Justice. Malsack-Winkemann

9322-513: The Imperial Estates . The legal system initiated by a series of Imperial Reforms (approximately 1495–1555) provided for considerable local autonomy and a stronger Imperial Diet . The House of Habsburg held the imperial crown from 1438 until the death of Charles VI in 1740. Following the War of the Austrian Succession and the Treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle , Charles VI's daughter Maria Theresa ruled as empress consort when her husband, Francis I , became emperor. From 1740, dualism between

9480-440: The Kingdom of the Netherlands and the Kingdom of Belgium as opposed to the European part of the Netherlands or the provincial or municipal governments. The ministerraad is the executive body of the Netherlands ' government and the rijksministerraad that of the Kingdom of the Netherlands , a similar distinction is found in wetten (laws) versus rijkswetten (kingdom laws) or the now-abolished rijkswacht (lit. "guard of

9638-467: The Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact that divided Eastern Europe into German and Soviet spheres of influence. On 1 September 1939, Germany invaded Poland , beginning World War II in Europe ; Britain and France declared war on Germany on 3 September. In the spring of 1940, Germany conquered Denmark and Norway , the Netherlands , Belgium , Luxembourg , and France , forcing the French government to sign an armistice . The British repelled German air attacks in

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9796-424: The Neolithic onward, chiefly the Celts . Various Germanic tribes have inhabited the northern parts of modern Germany since classical antiquity . A region named Germania was documented before AD 100. In 962, the Kingdom of Germany formed the bulk of the Holy Roman Empire . During the 16th century, northern German regions became the centre of the Protestant Reformation . Following the Napoleonic Wars and

9954-400: The Principality of Sealand (a micronation ), who then had men dig up a plot of land in the Harz region in search of the Amber Room for two weeks, until the landowner hired a private security service to drive them off. Similarly, in 2002 Ebel's KRR asserted that it had sold the Hakeburg  [ de ] , a manor in Kleinmachnow south of the Berlin city limits that had been owned by

10112-430: The Saarland in 1935, remilitarised the Rhineland in 1936, annexed Austria in 1938, annexed the Sudetenland in 1938 with the Munich Agreement , and in violation of the agreement occupied Czechoslovakia in March 1939. Kristallnacht (Night of Broken Glass) saw the burning of synagogues, the destruction of Jewish businesses, and mass arrests of Jewish people. In August 1939, Hitler's government negotiated

10270-423: The Salian emperors (1024–1125), although the emperors lost power through the Investiture controversy . Under the Hohenstaufen emperors (1138–1254), German princes encouraged German settlement to the south and east ( Ostsiedlung ). Members of the Hanseatic League , mostly north German towns, prospered in the expansion of trade. The population declined starting with the Great Famine in 1315, followed by

10428-543: The Swabian Jura , including 42,000-year-old flutes which are the oldest musical instruments ever found, the 40,000-year-old Lion Man , and the 41,000-year-old Venus of Hohle Fels . The Nebra sky disk , created during the European Bronze Age , has been attributed to a German site. The Germanic peoples are thought to have emerged from the Jastorf culture during the Nordic Bronze Age or early Iron Age . From southern Scandinavia and northern Germany , they expanded south, east, and west, coming into contact with

10586-450: The Triple Alliance of 1882 included Italy. Britain, France and Russia also concluded alliances to protect against Habsburg interference with Russian interests in the Balkans or German interference against France. At the Berlin Conference in 1884, Germany claimed several colonies including German East Africa , German South West Africa , Togoland , and Kamerun . Later, Germany further expanded its colonial empire to include holdings in

10744-417: The inquisitorial Federal Court of Justice for civil and criminal cases, along with the Federal Labour Court , Federal Social Court , Federal Fiscal Court , and Federal Administrative Court for other matters. Criminal and private laws are codified on the national level in the Strafgesetzbuch and the Bürgerliches Gesetzbuch respectively. The German penal system seeks the rehabilitation of

10902-461: The political boundary of either the 1871 or 1932 borders still exist and that the modern Federal Republic of Germany is "an administrative construct still occupied by the Allied powers". The Reichsbürger movement has used some of the concepts and techniques of the One People's Public Trust, an American sovereign citizen movement operated by pseudolaw ideologue Heather Ann Tucci-Jarraf . The self-described Reichsbürger maintain that

11060-432: The political slogan Ein Volk , ein Reich, ein Führer ("One nation, one Reich , one leader"), in order to enforce pan-German sentiment. The term Altes Reich ("old Reich"; cf. French ancien regime for monarchical France) is sometimes used to refer to the Holy Roman Empire . The term Altreich was also used after the Anschluss to denote Germany with its pre-1938 post-World War I borders. Another name that

11218-428: The revolutions of 1848 in the German states , raising the German question. King Frederick William IV of Prussia was offered the title of emperor, but with a loss of power; he rejected the crown and the proposed constitution, a temporary setback for the movement. King William I appointed Otto von Bismarck as the Minister President of Prussia in 1862. Bismarck successfully concluded the war with Denmark in 1864 ;

11376-501: The "German Reich", although "partially identical" with regard to its spatial extent, so that in this respect the identity does not claim exclusivity. The Federal Republic therefore does not encompass the whole of Germany as far as its constitutive people and its constitutive territory are concerned, irrespective of the fact that it recognises a uniform constitutive people of the subject of international law "Germany" (German Reich), to which its own population belongs as an inseparable part, and

11534-592: The "realm of a king" (a kingdom can also be called kongedømme in Danish and Norwegian and kungadöme or konungadöme in Swedish, direct cognates of the English word). Two regions in Norway that were petty kingdoms before the unification of Norway around 900 AD have retained the word in the names (see Ringerike and Romerike ). The word is also used in " Svea rike ", with the current spelling Sverige ,

11692-866: The Austrian Habsburg monarchy and the Kingdom of Prussia dominated German history. In 1772, 1793, and 1795, Prussia and Austria, along with the Russian Empire , agreed to the Partitions of Poland . During the period of the French Revolutionary Wars , the Napoleonic era and the subsequent final meeting of the Imperial Diet , most of the Free Imperial Cities were annexed by dynastic territories;

11850-464: The Bundestag). As seen in this example, the term "Bund" (federation) has replaced "Reich" in the names of various state institutions such as the army (" Bundeswehr "). The term "Reichstag" also remains in use in the German language as the term for the parliaments of some foreign monarchies, such as Sweden 's Riksdag and Japan 's pre-war Imperial Diet . The exception is that during the Cold War ,

12008-658: The Eastern parts of the Holy Roman Empire . In the history of Germany specifically, it is used to refer to: The Nazis adopted the term "Third Reich" to legitimize their government as the rightful successor to the retroactively renamed "First" and "Second" Reichs – the Holy Roman Empire and the German Empire, respectively; the Nazis discounted the legitimacy of the Weimar Republic entirely. The terms "First Reich" and "Second Reich" are not used by historians, and

12166-684: The Empire was replaced by the Weimar Republic . The Nazi rise to power in 1933 led to the establishment of a totalitarian dictatorship , World War II , and the Holocaust . In 1949, after the war and a period of Allied occupation , Germany was organized into two separate polities with limited sovereignty: the Federal Republic of Germany, or West Germany , and the German Democratic Republic, or East Germany . Berlin continued its de jure Four Power status . The Federal Republic of Germany

12324-550: The English word realm (via French reaume "kingdom" from Latin regalis "royal"). It is used for historical empires in general, such as the Roman Empire ( Römisches Reich ), Persian Empire ( Perserreich ), and both the Tsardom of Russia and the Russian Empire ( Zarenreich , literally " Tsars ' realm"). Österreich , the name used for Austria today is composed of "Öster" and "Reich" which, literally translated, means "Eastern Realm". The name once referred to

12482-549: The Federal Republic of Germany is illegitimate and that the Reich's 1919 Weimar Constitution (or an earlier constitution) remains in effect. The Reichsbürger use a variety of arguments. One of them is a selective reading of a 1973 decision of the Federal Constitutional Court concerning the 1972 treaty between West and East Germany . In 1949, the Federal Republic of Germany ("West Germany") and

12640-567: The Federal Republic rejected the treaty. The state of Bavaria even appealed to the Federal Constitutional Court asserting that the Basic Treaty violated the constitutional objective of re-unification. The judgement of the Court on 31 July 1973 ruled that the Basic Treaty does not violate the constitution because it does not make a German re-unification impossible. In its judgement, the Court also declared: The Basic Law – not only

12798-504: The German Bundestag , though they have never been part of the federal government. In the 2017 German federal election , the right-wing populist Alternative for Germany gained enough votes to attain representation in the parliament for the first time. Germany is a federation and comprises sixteen constituent states which are collectively referred to as Länder . Each state ( Land ) has its own constitution, and

12956-468: The German Reichspost (and therefore, according to Ebel, by his KRR) to one of the two competing governments of Sealand, thus creating, in their view, an enclave of Sealand in Germany. KRR adherents have also on occasion refused to pay taxes or fines , arguing that the laws providing for such sanctions have no constitutional basis. In the ensuing judicial proceedings, they refuse to recognize

13114-480: The German magazine Focus reported that Reichsbürger adherents had been attempting to build an armed militia in preparation for Day X—"an imagined day of reckoning or uprising against the German government". In April 2022 four members of a Reichsbürger group called United Patriots ( Vereinte Patrioten ) were detained for plotting to overthrow the government. They planned to destroy electrical substations and power lines through bomb attacks to cause

13272-494: The German names for Germany for much of its history. Reich was used by itself in the common German variant of the Holy Roman Empire , ( Heiliges Römisches Reich (HRR) ). Der rîche was a title for the Emperor. However, Latin, not German, was the formal legal language of the medieval Empire ( Imperium Romanum Sacrum ), so English-speaking historians are more likely to use Latin imperium than German Reich as

13430-400: The German nation rather than directly to the state of Germany. The exact translation of the term "German Empire" would be Deutsches Kaiserreich . This name was sometimes used informally for Germany between 1871 and 1918, but it was disliked by the first German Emperor, Wilhelm I , and never became official. The unified Germany which arose under Chancellor Otto von Bismarck in 1871

13588-536: The Germanic word was not inherited from pre-Proto-Germanic, but rather loaned from Celtic (i.e. Gaulish rīx , Welsh rhi , both meaning 'king') at an early time . The word has many cognates outside of Germanic and Celtic, notably Latin : rex and Sanskrit : राज , romanized :  raj , lit.   'rule'. It is ultimately from Proto-Indo-European * reg- , lit. 'to straighten out or rule'. Frankenreich or Fränkisches Reich

13746-493: The Holocaust , the German government persecuted minorities , including interning them in concentration and death camps across Europe. The regime systematically murdered 6 million Jews, at least 130,000 Romani , 275,000 disabled , thousands of Jehovah's Witnesses , thousands of homosexuals , and hundreds of thousands of political and religious opponents . Nazi policies in German-occupied countries resulted in

13904-642: The KRR. These warrants inform the addressee that, once the Reich Government is in power, they will be tried for high treason , for which the penalty is death. Ebel has also admitted owning a government helicopter painted in the national colours , but has denied using it for intimidating fly-overs. Several attempts to prosecute Ebel for threats, impersonating a public servant and so forth have failed because, according to German prosecutors, all courts have found him to be legally insane . In 2016, Adrian Ursache ,

14062-630: The Pacific and China. The colonial government in South West Africa (present-day Namibia ), from 1904 to 1907, carried out the annihilation of the local Herero and Namaqua peoples as punishment for an uprising; this was the 20th century's first genocide . The assassination of Austria's crown prince on 28 June 1914 provided the pretext for Austria-Hungary to attack Serbia and trigger World War I . After four years of warfare, in which approximately two million German soldiers were killed,

14220-684: The Pacific. On 11 August 1919, President Friedrich Ebert signed the democratic Weimar Constitution . In the subsequent struggle for power, communists seized power in Bavaria , but conservative elements elsewhere attempted to overthrow the Republic in the Kapp Putsch . Street fighting in the major industrial centres, the occupation of the Ruhr by Belgian and French troops, and a period of hyperinflation followed. A debt restructuring plan and

14378-477: The Protection of the Constitution in Lower Saxony published a study and came to the conclusion: "The mixing of corona deniers, Reich citizens and right-wing extremists leads to a dangerous radicalization of corona denier and Querdenken-movement." In December 2022, Germany arrested 25 people accused of planning a coup against the German government . Among the arrests was Heinrich XIII Prinz Reuss , who in

14536-490: The Protection of the Constitution , Germany's federal domestic security agency, has monitored Reichsbürger since November 2016, and the security services of individual states have been monitoring the activities of the group for longer. Some KRRs are ready to issue, for a fee, so-called official documents such as building permits, and driving licences, which their adherents may attempt to use in everyday life. In one instance, Wolfgang Ebel's KRR issued an "excavation permit" to

14694-527: The Reichsbahn and the western Deutsche Bundesbahn were merged to form the privatized Deutsche Bahn AG . The cognate of the word Reich is used in all Scandinavian languages with the identical meaning, i.e. " realm ". It is spelled rige in Danish and older Norwegian (before the 1907 spelling reform ) and rike in Swedish and modern Norwegian. The word is traditionally used for sovereign entities, generally simply means "country" or "nation" (in

14852-486: The Reichstag after a special election in 1932 and Hindenburg appointed Hitler as chancellor of Germany on 30 January 1933. After the Reichstag fire , a decree abrogated basic civil rights and the first Nazi concentration camp opened. On 23 March 1933, the Enabling Act gave Hitler unrestricted legislative power, overriding the constitution, and marked the beginning of Nazi Germany. His government established

15010-577: The Roman Empire; the vision of God's Empire here on earth; the universality of its claim to suzerainty ; and in a more prosaic but no less powerful sense, the concept of a German state that would include all German speakers in central Europe—"one People, one Reich, one Leader", as the Nazi slogan was to put it. The term is derived from the Germanic word which generally means "realm", but in German, it

15168-672: The Soviets pushed into Eastern Europe ; the Western allies landed in France and entered Germany despite a final German counteroffensive . Following Hitler's suicide during the Battle of Berlin , Germany signed the surrender document on 8 May 1945, ending World War II in Europe and Nazi Germany. Following the end of the war, surviving Nazi officials were tried for war crimes at the Nuremberg trials . In what later became known as

15326-458: The Weimar constitution was not legitimate and therefore the older imperial constitution of 1871 is still in effect. These people claim to be Kaiser (emperor), leader of Prussia etc. Still other groups have created, in their point of view, German sovereign states without historical precedent, for example a Kingdom of Germany or a regional entity. Other groups do not operate under the label of

15484-586: The beginning of the modern age , some circles redubbed the HRE into the "Holy Roman Empire of the German Nation" ( Heiliges Römisches Reich Deutscher Nation ), a symptom of the formation of a German nation state as opposed to the multinational state the Empire was throughout its history. Resistance against the French Revolution with its concept of the state brought a new movement to create

15642-411: The collapse of the German Empire and the abolition of the monarchy in 1918. There was no emperor, but many Germans had imperialistic ambitions. According to Richard J. Evans : The continued use of the term "German Empire", Deutsches Reich , by the Weimar Republic ... conjured up an image among educated Germans that resonated far beyond the institutional structures Bismarck created: the successor to

15800-439: The collapse. They remain silent on the Court's statement that the Federal Republic is identical to it. Therefore, many members of the Reichsbürger movement typically conclude that the German Reich still "exists" and that the Federal Republic of Germany is not an actual sovereign state but a corporation created by Allied nations after World War II . Consequently, many Reichsbürger groups claim that they have restored

15958-530: The communist-controlled Socialist Unity Party of Germany , supported by the Stasi , an immense secret service. While East German propaganda was based on the benefits of the GDR's social programmes and the alleged threat of a West German invasion, many of its citizens looked to the West for freedom and prosperity. The Berlin Wall , built in 1961, prevented East German citizens from escaping to West Germany, becoming

16116-523: The compounds bishopric and archbishopric . The German adjective reich , on the other hand, has an exact cognate in English rich . Both the noun ( * rīkijan ) and the adjective ( * rīkijaz ) are derivations based on the Common Germanic * rīks "ruler, king ", reflected in Gothic as reiks , glossing ἄρχων "leader, ruler, chieftain". It is probable that

16274-618: The courts as legitimate. Some also pursue their activities abroad. In 2009, after Swiss authorities refused to recognize the so called Reich Driving Licence of a German KRR adherent, he unsuccessfully appealed the case up to the Federal Supreme Court of Switzerland . Wolfgang Ebel's original organization, in particular, continues to attempt enforcing its asserted authority through attempts at intimidation. According to Ebel, his government has issued more than 1,000 arrest warrants against people who have disregarded documents issued by

16432-469: The creation of a new currency in 1924 ushered in the Golden Twenties , an era of artistic innovation and liberal cultural life. The worldwide Great Depression hit Germany in 1929. Chancellor Heinrich Brüning 's government pursued a policy of fiscal austerity and deflation which caused unemployment of nearly 30% by 1932. The Nazi Party led by Adolf Hitler became the largest party in

16590-472: The creation of a more unified European political, economic and security apparatus. The governments of Germany and the United States are close political allies . Cultural ties and economic interests have crafted a bond between the two countries resulting in Atlanticism . After 1990, Germany and Russia worked together to establish a "strategic partnership" in which energy development became one of

16748-536: The criminal and the protection of the public. With the exceptions of petty crimes, tried by a single professional judge, and of serious political crimes, all charges are adjudicated by mixed tribunals where lay judges ( Schöffen ) and professional judges preside together. As of 2016, Germany's murder rate stood at a low of 1.18 murders per 100,000. In 2018, the overall crime rate fell to its lowest since 1992. Same-sex marriage has been legal in Germany since 2017, and LGBT rights are generally protected in

16906-461: The deaths of an estimated 2.7 million Poles , 1.3 million Ukrainians , 1 million Belarusians and 3.5 million Soviet prisoners of war . German military casualties have been estimated at 5.3 million, and around 900,000 German civilians died. Around 12 million ethnic Germans were expelled from across Eastern Europe, and Germany lost roughly one-quarter of its pre-war territory. After Nazi Germany surrendered,

17064-558: The dissolution of the Holy Roman Empire in 1806, the German Confederation was formed in 1815. Formal unification of Germany into the modern nation-state commenced on 18 August 1866 with the North German Confederation Treaty establishing the Prussia -led North German Confederation , which became the German Empire in 1871. After World War I and the German Revolution of 1918–1919 ,

17222-641: The early 1950s. West Germany joined NATO in 1955 and was a founding member of the European Economic Community . On 1 January 1957, the Saarland joined West Germany. East Germany was an Eastern Bloc state under political and military control by the Soviet Union via occupation forces and the Warsaw Pact . Although East Germany claimed to be a democracy, political power was exercised solely by leading members ( Politbüro ) of

17380-712: The ecclesiastical territories were secularised and annexed. In 1806 the Imperium was dissolved; France, Russia, Prussia, and the Habsburgs (Austria) competed for hegemony in the German states during the Napoleonic Wars . Following the fall of Napoleon , the Congress of Vienna founded the German Confederation, a loose league of 39 sovereign states . The appointment of the emperor of Austria as

17538-487: The event the coup succeeded would have become head of state. A handbook of the state of Brandenburg classifies the Reichsbürger movement as "extremist" according to the framework of the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution ( Verfassungsschutz ). There, "extremist" refers to attitudes and ideologies that are directed against the basic conditions of a modern democracy and open society, such as

17696-617: The government was completed in 1999, and modernisation of the East German economy was scheduled to last until 2019. Since reunification, Germany has taken a more active role in the European Union , signing the Maastricht Treaty in 1992 and the Lisbon Treaty in 2007, and co-founding the eurozone . Germany sent a peacekeeping force to secure stability in the Balkans and sent German troops to Afghanistan as part of

17854-502: The governmental bodies of the German Reich and now act as the official German government (of the German Reich). In practice, a group of Reichsbürger had a meeting that elected the office holders of the Reich (e.g., Reich chancellor, Reich President). As there are several of such groups, there are several people in Germany who claim these offices. Some Reichsbürger groups maintain a different point of view. According to them,

18012-611: The group. The group, which comprised more than a hundred people, was divided into areas of responsibility. The Federal public prosecutor has 52 suspects and arrested 25 of them. The gang also included several former members of the Special Forces Command (KSK), including a former Staff Sergeant of the Paratrooper Battalion of the Bundeswehr , Rüdiger von P. The GSG9 searched a KSK site of

18170-539: The historically Germanic countries and regions of Europe into the Nazi state ( Flanders , the Netherlands , Denmark , Norway , Sweden etc.). A number of previously neutral words which were used by the Nazis later took on negative connotations in German (e.g. Führer or Heil ); while in many contexts Reich is not one of them ( Frankreich , France; Römisches Reich , Roman Empire ), it can imply German imperialism or strong nationalism if it

18328-483: The home. After a first eviction attempt failed, the German police returned with a special response team the day after. When the eviction started, Ursache opened fire and injured two officers. Ursache was shot and rushed to a hospital. In 2019, Ursache was convicted of attempted murder and sentenced to 7 years in prison. Also in 2016, in Georgensgmünd near Nuremberg , a self-described Reichsbürger fired on

18486-537: The legal order of the Federal Republic. During the COVID-19 pandemic , the so-called Querdenker -movement was formed in Germany. The only consensus of the movement was the rejection of government measures against the pandemic. Many Reich citizens were also part of the Querdenker-movement. Reichsbürger and other right-wing extremists strengthened within this movement In 2021 the state office for

18644-471: The legitimacy of the democratically elected representatives or even define themselves in their entirety as being outside the legal system and are therefore prepared to commit violations of the legal system. The Reichsbürger movement is characterized by a rejection of the modern Federal Republic of Germany ; denial of its legality and legitimacy; and denial of the authority of the federal, state, and local governments in Germany. Reichsbürger believe that

18802-477: The most important factors. As a result of the cooperation, Germany imported most of its natural gas and crude oil from Russia. Germany's development policy functions as a distinct sector within its foreign policy framework. It is formulated by the Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development and carried out by the implementing organisations. The German government sees development policy as

18960-927: The movement and its division into many small groups that are often independent of one another make it difficult to estimate the number of active Reichsbürger . Reichsbürger adherents are scattered around Germany, but concentrated in the southern and eastern parts of the country, in the states of Brandenburg , Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania and Bavaria . BfV has estimated that there are 3,500 adherents in Bavaria and around 2,500 in Baden-Württemberg . Adherents tend to be older, with most aged 40–60 years old and an average age of over 50. The majority are male and socially disadvantaged. The Amadeu Antonio Foundation , which monitors far-right activities in Germany, states that Reichsbürger adherents are "often isolated" and "completely cut off from reality". German counter-extremism official Heiko Homburg states that

19118-451: The movement in Germany as of July 2021. The original Kommissarische Reichsregierung ( Commissary Reich Government, KRR) was founded in 1985 by Wolfgang Gerhard Günter Ebel. The movement espouses conspiracy theories , antisemitism , and racism . The movement has been described as neo-Nazi in character, although The Economist reported in 2016 that Reichsbürger adherents "draw ridicule even from neo-Nazis". Many supporters of

19276-476: The movement. On 27 October 2016, a Bavarian Police officer was suspended from duty because of his connections to one of the Reichsbürger movements. There have been allegations of similar kind against other police officers in different states of Germany as well. The following is a non-exhaustive list of KRRs that have received media coverage. Reich The term Deutsches Reich (sometimes translated to " German Empire ") continued to be used even after

19434-411: The name of Sweden in Swedish. Thus in the official name of Sweden, Konunga riket Sve rige , the word rike appears twice. The derived prefix rigs- (Danish and pre-1907 Norwegian) and riks- (Swedish and Norwegian) and implies nationwide or under central jurisdiction. Examples include riksväg and riksvei , names for a national road in Swedish and Norwegian. It is also present in

19592-575: The names of numerous institutions in all the Scandinavian countries, such as Rigsrevisionen (the agency responsible for oversight of the state finances in Denmark) and Sveriges Riksbank (commonly known as just Riksbanken ), the central bank of Sweden. It is also used in words such as udenrigs (Danish), utrikes (Swedish) and utenriks (Norwegian), relating to foreign countries and other things from abroad. The opposite word

19750-660: The nation. Germany has a network of 227 diplomatic missions abroad and maintains relations with more than 190 countries. Germany is a member of NATO , the OECD , the G7 , the G20 , the World Bank and the IMF . It has played an influential role in the European Union since its inception and has maintained a strong alliance with France and all neighbouring countries since 1990. Germany promotes

19908-601: The north, Poland and Czechia to the east, Austria and Switzerland to the south, and France , Luxembourg , Belgium , and the Netherlands to the west. Germany is also bordered by the North Sea and, at the north-northeast, by the Baltic Sea. German territory covers 357,596 km (138,069 sq mi). Elevation ranges from the mountains of the Alps (highest point: the Zugspitze at 2,963 metres or 9,721 feet) in

20066-464: The once important Low Germans had to assimilate themselves. This marked the transition between Antijudaism , where converted Jews were accepted as full citizens (in theory), to Antisemitism , where Jews were thought to be from a different ethnicity that could never become German. Apart from all those ethnic minorities being de facto extinct, even today the era of national feeling is taught in history in German schools as an important stepping-stone on

20224-494: The partial translation "the Third Reich "), first used in a 1923 book entitled Das Dritte Reich by Arthur Moeller van den Bruck , that counted the medieval Holy Roman Empire (which nominally survived until the 19th century) as the first and the 1871–1918 monarchy as the second, which was then to be followed by a "reinvigorated" third one. The Nazis ignored the previous 1918–1933 Weimar period , which they denounced as

20382-613: The party system has been dominated by the Christian Democratic Union and the Social Democratic Party of Germany . So far every chancellor has been a member of one of these parties. However, the smaller liberal Free Democratic Party and the Alliance 90/The Greens have also been junior partners in coalition governments . Since 2007, the democratic socialist party The Left has been a staple in

20540-479: The people in the Reichsbürger movement because they provide a simple explanation of the world by dividing humanity into friends and foes. A group of enemies of the people is made responsible for wars and poverty. In April 2018, Germany's domestic intelligence service, the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution (BfV), estimated that Reichsbürger movement membership had grown by 80% over

20698-477: The permanent president reflected the Congress's rejection of Prussia 's rising influence. Disagreement within restoration politics partly led to the rise of liberal movements, followed by new measures of repression by Austrian statesman Klemens von Metternich . The Zollverein , a tariff union, furthered economic unity. In light of revolutionary movements in Europe , intellectuals and commoners started

20856-422: The previous two years, more than estimated earlier, with a total of 18,000 adherents, of whom 950 were categorized as right-wing extremists. This marked an increase from BfV's 2016 estimate of 10,000 adherents and 2017 estimate of 12,600 adherents. The increase in numbers may be attributable to more adherents becoming known to authorities, rather than an actual increase in the number of adherents. The heterogeneity of

21014-533: The radicalized German Querdenker movement, a heterogeneous group of COVID-19 protesters and deniers. Reuss was the starting point for the investigations, which ended up being carried out by the Federal Criminal Police Office (BKA) under the name Shadow . In addition, several state criminal investigation offices and state offices for the protection of the constitution were involved. Over 3,000 police officers, including officers of

21172-581: The realm") for gendarmerie in Belgium . The word rijk can also be found in institutions like the Rijkswaterstaat , Rijksinstituut voor Volksgezondheid en Milieu and Rijksuniversiteit Groningen . In colloquial speech, rijk usually means working for the central government rather than the provincial or municipal government, much as Americans refer to the "federal" government. In Afrikaans , ryk refers to rulership and area of governance (mostly

21330-435: The right of the people to elect their government democratically. The Verfassungsschutz defines the Reichsbürger movement as: Groups and individuals who, for various motives and with various justifications, including [with reference to] the historical German Reich, conspiracy theory patterns of argumentation or a self-defined natural law, reject the existence of the Federal Republic of Germany and its legal system, deny

21488-467: The right-wing extremist movement. On 23 October 2017, Wolfgang P. was sentenced to imprisonment for life. In Höxter , North Rhine-Westphalia , in 2014, one Reichsbürger group (the Free State of Prussia) attempted to smuggle weapons into Germany in an attempt to create its own militia. Police raids have found large stockpiles of guns and ammunition hoarded by Reichsbürger adherents. In 2018,

21646-437: The road to a German nation. In the case of the Hohenzollern Empire (1871–1918), the official name of the country was Deutsches Reich ("German Realm"), because under the Constitution of the German Empire , it was legally a confederation of German states under the permanent presidency of the King of Prussia . The constitution granted the King of Prussia the title of "German Emperor" ( Deutscher Kaiser ), but this referred to

21804-466: The same way that the terms Bund (federation) and Bundes- (federal) are used in Germany today, and comparable to The Crown in Commonwealth countries and The Union in the United States . The Nazis sought to legitimize their power historiographically by portraying their ascendancy to rule as the direct continuation of an ancient German past. They adopted the term Drittes Reich ("Third Empire" – usually rendered in English in

21962-463: The sense of a sovereign state) and does not have any special or political connotations. It does not imply any particular form of government, but it implies that the entity is both of a certain size and of a certain standing, like the Scandinavian kingdoms themselves; hence the word might be considered exaggerated for very small states like a city-state. Its use as a stand-alone word is more widespread than in contemporary German, but most often, it refers to

22120-549: The south to the shores of the North Sea ( Nordsee ) in the northwest and the Baltic Sea ( Ostsee ) in the northeast. The forested uplands of central Germany and the lowlands of northern Germany (lowest point: in the municipality Neuendorf-Sachsenbande , Wilstermarsch at 3.54 metres or 11.6 feet below sea level ) are traversed by such major rivers as the Rhine, Danube and Elbe. Significant natural resources include iron ore, coal, potash , timber, lignite , uranium , copper, natural gas, salt, and nickel. Most of Germany has

22278-756: The southeast regions have more extreme temperatures. From February 2019 – 2020, average monthly temperatures in Germany ranged from a low of 3.3 °C (37.9 °F) in January 2020 to a high of 19.8 °C (67.6 °F) in June 2019. Average monthly precipitation ranged from 30 litres per square metre in February and April 2019 to 125 litres per square metre in February 2020. Average monthly hours of sunshine ranged from 45 in November 2019 to 300 in June 2019. The territory of Germany can be divided into five terrestrial ecoregions : Atlantic mixed forests , Baltic mixed forests , Central European mixed forests , Western European broadleaf forests , and Alps conifer and mixed forests . As of 2016 , 51% of Germany's land area

22436-449: The standardization of the language; the 1555 Peace of Augsburg tolerated the "Evangelical" faith ( Lutheranism ), but also decreed that the faith of the prince was to be the faith of his subjects ( cuius regio, eius religio ). From the Cologne War through the Thirty Years' Wars (1618–1648), religious conflict devastated German lands and significantly reduced the population. The Peace of Westphalia ended religious warfare among

22594-429: The subsequent decisive Prussian victory in the Austro-Prussian War of 1866 enabled him to create the North German Confederation which excluded Austria . After the defeat of France in the Franco-Prussian War , the German princes proclaimed the founding of the German Empire in 1871. Prussia was the dominant constituent state of the new empire; the King of Prussia ruled as its Kaiser, and Berlin became its capital. In

22752-426: The suspected plot included active military personnel and policemen. Prosecutors stated that those arrested plotted an armed overthrow of the German government and the democratic constitution. The Patriotic Union group had stockpiled Iridium satellite telephones , expensive devices which could operate even if the electricity network was down. The General Federal Prosecutor Office said: "The arrested suspects belong to

22910-407: The term " Fourth Reich " is mainly used in fiction and political humor, although it is also used by those who subscribe to neo-Nazism . The German noun Reich is derived from Old High German : rīhhi , which together with its cognates in Old English : rīce , Old Norse : ríki , and Gothic : reiki is derived from a Common Germanic * rīkijan . The English noun survives only in

23068-441: The three Scandinavian states themselves and certain historical empires, like the Roman Empire . The standard word for a "country" is usually land , and there are many other words used to refer to countries. The word is part of the official names of Denmark, Norway and Sweden in the form of kongerige   ( Danish ) , kongerike   ( Norwegian ) , and konungarike   ( Swedish ) , all meaning kingdom, or literally

23226-431: The tradition of the German Empire of 1871. The gang wanted to provoke chaos and a civil war in Germany and thus take over power in the Federal Republic of Germany. Among other things, the German Bundestag was to be taken by force of arms and taking into account, that there will be killings of people. The group wanted to establish a new government (Council). Since November 2021 the network had been planning an armed attack on

23384-468: The western Rhineland had been incorporated into Roman provinces . Around 260, Germanic peoples broke into Roman-controlled lands. After the invasion of the Huns in 375, and with the decline of Rome from 395, Germanic tribes moved farther southwest: the Franks established the Frankish Kingdom and pushed east to subjugate Saxony and Bavaria . Areas of what is today eastern Germany were inhabited by Western Slavic tribes. Charlemagne founded

23542-439: The word Teutons also originates. Pre-human ancestors, the Danuvius guggenmosi , who were present in Germany over 11 million years ago, are theorized to be among the earliest ones to walk on two legs. Ancient humans were present in Germany at least 600,000 years ago. The first non-modern human fossil (the Neanderthal ) was discovered in the Neander Valley . Similarly dated evidence of modern humans has been found in

23700-410: Was Adolf Hitler's personal desire that Großdeutsches Reich and nationalsozialistischer Staat ("[the] National Socialist State") would be used in place of Drittes Reich . Reichskanzlei Berchtesgaden (" Reich Chancellery Berchtesgaden "), another nickname of the regime (named after the eponymous town located in the vicinity of Hitler's mountain residence where he spent much of his time in office)

23858-408: Was a founding member of the European Economic Community and the European Union , while the German Democratic Republic was a communist Eastern Bloc state and member of the Warsaw Pact . After the fall of the communist led-government in East Germany, German reunification saw the former East German states join the Federal Republic of Germany on 3 October 1990 . Germany has been described as

24016-406: Was a member of the German Bundestag from 2017 to 2021 for the AfD and was arrested on 7 December 2022. The group included at least one other AfD politician, an AfD Stadtrat from Olbernhau in the Saxon Ore Mountains. Other members were doctors and at least one was an entrepreneur. German police authorities have been investigating the group since spring 2022. The group is also made up of parts of

24174-457: Was also banned at the same time, despite the fact that a sub-section of the Chancellery was in fact installed there to serve Hitler's needs. Although the term "Third Reich" is still commonly used in reference to the Nazi dictatorship, historians avoid using the terms "First Reich" and "Second Reich", which are seldom found outside Nazi propaganda . During and following the Anschluss ( annexation ) of Austria in 1938, Nazi propaganda also used

24332-409: Was popular during this period was the term Tausendjähriges Reich ("Thousand-Year Reich"), the millennial connotations of which suggested that Nazi Germany would last a thousand years. The Nazis also spoke of enlarging the then-established Greater German Reich into a " Greater Germanic Reich of the German Nation " ( Großgermanisches Reich Deutscher Nation ) by gradually and directly annexing all of

24490-415: Was prohibited in March 2020. It promotes the idea that Jews and Muslims have no human rights nor a right to property. A handbook of the Amadeu Antonio Stiftung holds that most views of the Reichsideologie have an antisemitic core. Usually the Reichsbürger use antisemitic codes , such as those from the Eastern Coast or the Rothschilds . Antisemitic conspiracy theories are attractive for

24648-444: Was the seventh-highest in the world . In response to the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine , Chancellor Olaf Scholz announced that German military expenditure would be increased past the NATO target of 2%, along with a one-time 2022 infusion of 100 billion euros, representing almost double the 53 billion euro military budget for 2021. In 2023, military spending according to NATO criteria amounted to $ 73.1 billion, or 1.64% of

24806-461: Was the first entity that was officially called in German Deutsches Reich . Deutsches Reich remained the official name of Germany until 1945, although these years saw three very different political systems more commonly referred to in English as: "the German Empire " (1871–1918), the Weimar Republic (1919–1933; this term is a post- World War II coinage not used at the time), and Nazi Germany (1933–1945). After 1918 "Reich"

24964-407: Was usually not translated as "Empire" in English-speaking countries, and the title was instead simply used in its original German. During the Weimar Republic the term Reich and the prefix Reichs- referred not to the idea of empire but rather to the institutions, officials, affairs etc. of the whole country as opposed to those of one of its constituent federal states ( Länder ), in

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