156-543: The Rhenish Republic ( German : Rheinische Republik ) was proclaimed at Aachen (Aix-la-Chapelle) in October 1923 during the occupation of the Ruhr by troops from France and Belgium (January 1923 – 1925) and subjected itself to French protectorate . It comprised three territories, named North, South and Ruhr . Their regional capitals were, respectively, Aachen , Koblenz and Essen . The Rhenish Republic
312-465: A de facto official language of Namibia after the end of German colonial rule alongside English and Afrikaans , and had de jure co-official status from 1984 until its independence from South Africa in 1990. However, the Namibian government perceived Afrikaans and German as symbols of apartheid and colonialism, and decided English would be the sole official language upon independence, stating that it
468-402: A second language , and 75–100 million as a foreign language . This would imply the existence of approximately 175–220 million German speakers worldwide. German sociolinguist Ulrich Ammon estimated a number of 289 million German foreign language speakers without clarifying the criteria by which he classified a speaker. As of 2012 , about 90 million people, or 16% of
624-559: A state of the Federal Republic of Germany in 1949. Bavaria has a distinct culture, largely because of its Catholic heritage and conservative traditions, which includes a language , cuisine , architecture, festivals and elements of Alpine symbolism. It also has the second-largest economy among the German states by GDP figures , giving it the status of a wealthy German region. Contemporary Bavaria also includes parts of
780-612: A "commonly used" language and the Pan South African Language Board is obligated to promote and ensure respect for it. Cameroon was also a colony of the German Empire from the same period (1884 to 1916). However, German was replaced by French and English, the languages of the two successor colonial powers, after its loss in World War I . Nevertheless, since the 21st century, German has become
936-610: A West German Republic was to be deferred, however, so that the Prussian state might be divided up. In this way a practical solution could first be agreed with the French occupiers and France's allies regarding the issue of reparations. During the months following Adenauer's meeting, separatist movements with a range of priorities and agendas appeared in many Rhineland towns and villages. Hans Adam Dorten (1880–1963), an army reserve officer and former Düsseldorf public prosecutor , made
1092-624: A balance of power between 610 and 616. At Hugbert's death in 735, the duchy passed to Odilo of Bavaria from the neighboring Alemannia . Odilo issued a Lex Baiuvariorum for Bavaria, completed the process of church organization in partnership with Saint Boniface in 739, and tried to intervene in Frankish succession disputes by fighting for the claims of the Carolingian dynasty . He was defeated near Augsburg in 743 but continued to rule until his death in 748. Saint Boniface completed
1248-536: A century later. The Lex Thuringorum documents an upper class nobility of adalingi . From about 554 to 788, the house of Agilolfing ruled the Duchy of Bavaria , ending with Tassilo III who was deposed by Charlemagne . Tassilo I of Bavaria tried unsuccessfully to hold the eastern frontier against the expansion of Slavic peoples and the Pannonian Avars around 600. Garibald II seems to have achieved
1404-495: A disparity which became impossible to overlook once Dorten launched his coup in Koblenz: at the same time Paris was coming under heavy political pressure internationally over the increasingly costly French occupation of the Ruhr. In Koblenz, cabinet meetings were often combative and confused, the leaders Dorten and Matthes proving unable to contain their personal rivalries. The French power-brokers now quickly distanced themselves from
1560-620: A fifth of the total land area of Germany, and with over 13.08 million inhabitants, it is the second most populous German state , behind only North Rhine-Westphalia ; however, due to its large land area, its population density is below the German average . Major cities include Munich (its capital and largest city , which is also the third largest city in Germany ), Nuremberg , and Augsburg . The history of Bavaria includes its earliest settlement by Iron Age Celtic tribes, followed by
1716-464: A gap in Schneider's defences at a hamlet called Hövel: here they seized five villagers as hostages , tied them up, and placed them in the line of fire between themselves and the now-gathering militiamen. One of the hostages, Theodor Weinz, was shot in the stomach, dying soon afterwards as a result of his injuries. Meanwhile, more local defenders hurried to the fray and set about the invaders. 14 of
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#17327661696321872-559: A greater need for regularity in written conventions. While the major changes of the MHG period were socio-cultural, High German was still undergoing significant linguistic changes in syntax, phonetics, and morphology as well (e.g. diphthongization of certain vowel sounds: hus (OHG & MHG "house") → haus (regionally in later MHG)→ Haus (NHG), and weakening of unstressed short vowels to schwa [ə]: taga (OHG "days")→ tage (MHG)). A great wealth of texts survives from
2028-681: A large celebration took place in the Kurhaus (Health and Recreation Spa center), during which the Kurhaus furnishings went up in flames. The Siebengebirge district consists of a series of low wooded hills wedged between the A3 Autobahn and Königswinter , a resort town on the east bank of the Rhine. Back in 1923, the construction of the A3 lay more than a decade in the future, and Bonn , located across
2184-637: A local force to oppose the attackers, a death squad turned up and engaged in an orgy of plunder reminiscent, according to one commentator, of the Thirty Years' War . A father and son, belonging to the villagers' resistance force, were shot. 10 November saw an outburst of looting at Linz am Rhein : the Rathaus was taken over and the Bürgermeister was forced from office. From here the looters moved on to Unkel , Bruchhausen and Rheinbreitbach, on
2340-458: A native tongue today, mostly descendants of German colonial settlers . The period of German colonialism in Namibia also led to the evolution of a Standard German-based pidgin language called " Namibian Black German ", which became a second language for parts of the indigenous population. Although it is nearly extinct today, some older Namibians still have some knowledge of it. German remained
2496-696: A popular foreign language among pupils and students, with 300,000 people learning or speaking German in Cameroon in 2010 and over 230,000 in 2020. Today Cameroon is one of the African countries outside Namibia with the highest number of people learning German. In the United States, German is the fifth most spoken language in terms of native and second language speakers after English, Spanish , French , and Chinese (with figures for Cantonese and Mandarin combined), with over 1 million total speakers. In
2652-437: A result of the occupation. The government paid for its support of idled workers and businesses primarily by printing paper money. The action contributed significantly to the hyperinflation that brought major hardships to Germans across the country. Writing in the journal Die Weltbühne ( The World Stage ), from the perspective of August 1929, the distinguished political commentator Kurt Tucholsky offered an assessment: "There
2808-483: A result, the surviving texts are written in highly disparate regional dialects and exhibit significant Latin influence, particularly in vocabulary. At this point monasteries, where most written works were produced, were dominated by Latin, and German saw only occasional use in official and ecclesiastical writing. While there is no complete agreement over the dates of the Middle High German (MHG) period, it
2964-682: A speech at Wiesbaden , on 1 June 1919, in which he proclaimed "The Independent Rhenish Republic", which was to incorporate the existing Rhineland Province along with parts of Hesse and Bavaria's Upper Rhineland. A non-violent putsch was also attempted across the Rhine in Mainz . This, along with other poorly coordinated localised actions inspired by Dorten's Wiesbaden Proclamation, failed to attract significant popular support and soon failed. The Supreme Court in Leipzig issued an arrest warrant for Dorten, citing ' high treason ', but by remaining in
3120-492: A total of 2,056 municipalities in Bavaria. In 44 of the 71 rural districts, there are a total of 215 unincorporated areas (as of 1 January 2005, called gemeindefreie Gebiete , singular gemeindefreies Gebiet ), not belonging to any municipality, all uninhabited, mostly forested areas, but also four lakes ( Chiemsee -without islands, Starnberger See -without island Roseninsel , Ammersee , which are
3276-717: Is a West Germanic language in the Indo-European language family , mainly spoken in Western and Central Europe . It is the most spoken native language within the European Union . It is the most widely spoken and official (or co-official) language in Germany , Austria , Switzerland , Liechtenstein , and the Italian autonomous province of South Tyrol . It is also an official language of Luxembourg , Belgium and
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#17327661696323432-601: Is a recognized minority language in the following countries: In France, the High German varieties of Alsatian and Moselle Franconian are identified as " regional languages ", but the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages of 1998 has not yet been ratified by the government. Namibia also was a colony of the German Empire, from 1884 to 1915. About 30,000 people still speak German as
3588-612: Is also notable for its broad spectrum of dialects , with many varieties existing in Europe and other parts of the world. Some of these non-standard varieties have become recognized and protected by regional or national governments. Since 2004, heads of state of the German-speaking countries have met every year, and the Council for German Orthography has been the main international body regulating German orthography . German
3744-558: Is an Indo-European language that belongs to the West Germanic group of the Germanic languages . The Germanic languages are traditionally subdivided into three branches: North Germanic , East Germanic , and West Germanic . The first of these branches survives in modern Danish , Swedish , Norwegian , Faroese , and Icelandic , all of which are descended from Old Norse . The East Germanic languages are now extinct, and Gothic
3900-548: Is best understood as the aspiration of a poorly focused liberation struggle. The name was one applied by the short-lived separatist movement that erupted in the German Rhineland during the politically turbulent years following Germany's defeat in the First World War . The objectives of the many different separatist groups ranged widely, from the foundation of an autonomous republic to some sort of change in
4056-478: Is called the "German Sprachraum ". German is the official language of the following countries: German is a co-official language of the following countries: Although expulsions and (forced) assimilation after the two World wars greatly diminished them, minority communities of mostly bilingual German native speakers exist in areas both adjacent to and detached from the Sprachraum. Within Europe, German
4212-430: Is complicated by the existence of several varieties whose status as separate "languages" or "dialects" is disputed for political and linguistic reasons, including quantitatively strong varieties like certain forms of Alemannic and Low German . With the inclusion or exclusion of certain varieties, it is estimated that approximately 90–95 million people speak German as a first language , 10–25 million speak it as
4368-606: Is divided into seven administrative regions called Regierungsbezirke (singular Regierungsbezirk ). Each of these regions has a state agency called the Bezirksregierung (district government). Bezirke (regional districts) are the third communal layer in Bavaria; the others are the Landkreise and the Gemeinden or Städte . The Bezirke in Bavaria are territorially identical with
4524-475: Is generally seen as ending when the 1346–53 Black Death decimated Europe's population. Modern High German begins with the Early New High German (ENHG) period, which Wilhelm Scherer dates 1350–1650, terminating with the end of the Thirty Years' War . This period saw the further displacement of Latin by German as the primary language of courtly proceedings and, increasingly, of literature in
4680-611: Is generally seen as lasting from 1050 to 1350. This was a period of significant expansion of the geographical territory occupied by Germanic tribes, and consequently of the number of German speakers. Whereas during the Old High German period the Germanic tribes extended only as far east as the Elbe and Saale rivers, the MHG period saw a number of these tribes expanding beyond this eastern boundary into Slavic territory (known as
4836-565: Is less closely related to languages based on Low Franconian dialects (e.g., Dutch and Afrikaans), Low German or Low Saxon dialects (spoken in northern Germany and southern Denmark ), neither of which underwent the High German consonant shift. As has been noted, the former of these dialect types is Istvaeonic and the latter Ingvaeonic, whereas the High German dialects are all Irminonic; the differences between these languages and standard German are therefore considerable. Also related to German are
Rhenish Republic - Misplaced Pages Continue
4992-474: Is not clear what thought was given to the possibility that commanders of France's junior partner in the occupation might take a less benign view of separatist activities just across the border from Belgium's Eupen enclave , west of Aachen , only recently incorporated into Belgium under the terms of the Versailles settlement. Two months later, ten kilometres to the east of Aachen , the tricolour flag of
5148-435: Is one of the major languages of the world . German is the second-most widely spoken Germanic language , after English, both as a first and as a second language . German is also widely taught as a foreign language , especially in continental Europe (where it is the third most taught foreign language after English and French), and in the United States. Overall, German is the fourth most commonly learned second language, and
5304-597: Is one of the three biggest newspapers in Namibia and the only German-language daily in Africa. An estimated 12,000 people speak German or a German variety as a first language in South Africa, mostly originating from different waves of immigration during the 19th and 20th centuries. One of the largest communities consists of the speakers of "Nataler Deutsch", a variety of Low German concentrated in and around Wartburg . The South African constitution identifies German as
5460-401: Is partly derived from Latin and Greek , along with fewer words borrowed from French and Modern English . English, however, is the main source of more recent loanwords . German is a pluricentric language ; the three standardized variants are German , Austrian , and Swiss Standard German . Standard German is sometimes called High German , which refers to its regional origin. German
5616-525: Is the Sachsenspiegel , the first book of laws written in Middle Low German ( c. 1220 ). The abundance and especially the secular character of the literature of the MHG period demonstrate the beginnings of a standardized written form of German, as well as the desire of poets and authors to be understood by individuals on supra-dialectal terms. The Middle High German period
5772-578: Is the only language in this branch which survives in written texts. The West Germanic languages, however, have undergone extensive dialectal subdivision and are now represented in modern languages such as English, German, Dutch , Yiddish , Afrikaans , and others. Within the West Germanic language dialect continuum, the Benrath and Uerdingen lines (running through Düsseldorf - Benrath and Krefeld - Uerdingen , respectively) serve to distinguish
5928-433: Is understood in all areas where German is spoken. Approximate distribution of native German speakers (assuming a rounded total of 95 million) worldwide: As a result of the German diaspora , as well as the popularity of German taught as a foreign language , the geographical distribution of German speakers (or "Germanophones") spans all inhabited continents. However, an exact, global number of native German speakers
6084-689: The Ostsiedlung ). With the increasing wealth and geographic spread of the Germanic groups came greater use of German in the courts of nobles as the standard language of official proceedings and literature. A clear example of this is the mittelhochdeutsche Dichtersprache employed in the Hohenstaufen court in Swabia as a standardized supra-dialectal written language. While these efforts were still regionally bound, German began to be used in place of Latin for certain official purposes, leading to
6240-600: The Regierungsbezirke , but they are self-governing regional corporation, having their own parliaments. In the other larger states of Germany, there are only Regierungsbezirke as administrative divisions and no self-governing entities at the level of the Regierungsbezirke as the Bezirke in Bavaria. The second communal layer is made up of 71 rural districts (called Landkreise , singular Landkreis ) that are comparable to counties, as well as
6396-639: The Alamanni , Bavarian, and Thuringian groups, all belonging to the Elbe Germanic group ( Irminones ), which had settled in what is now southern-central Germany and Austria between the second and sixth centuries, during the great migration. In general, the surviving texts of Old High German (OHG) show a wide range of dialectal diversity with very little written uniformity. The early written tradition of OHG survived mostly through monasteries and scriptoria as local translations of Latin originals; as
Rhenish Republic - Misplaced Pages Continue
6552-692: The Anif declaration , releasing both civil and military officers from their oaths, which the Eisner government interpreted as an abdication. After losing the January 1919 elections , Eisner was assassinated in February 1919, ultimately leading to a Communist revolt and the short-lived Bavarian Soviet Republic being proclaimed 6 April 1919. After violent suppression by elements of the German Army and notably
6708-541: The Congress of Vienna . In return, Bavaria was allowed to annex the modern-day region of Palatinate to the west of the Rhine and Franconia in 1815. Between 1799 and 1817, the leading minister, Count Montgelas , followed a strict policy of modernization copying Napoleonic France; he laid the foundations of centralized administrative structures that survived the monarchy and, in part, have retained core validity through to
6864-695: The Czech Republic ( Karlovy Vary , Plzeň and South Bohemian Regions ), as well as with Switzerland (across Lake Constance to the Canton of St. Gallen ). Neighboring states within Germany are Baden-Württemberg , Hesse , Thuringia , and Saxony . Two major rivers flow through the state: the Danube ( Donau ) and the Main . The Bavarian Forest and the Bohemian Forest form the vast majority of
7020-537: The Early Middle Ages . German is an inflected language , with four cases for nouns, pronouns, and adjectives (nominative, accusative, genitive, dative); three genders (masculine, feminine, neuter) and two numbers (singular, plural). It has strong and weak verbs . The majority of its vocabulary derives from the ancient Germanic branch of the Indo-European language family, while a smaller share
7176-417: The European Union 's population, spoke German as their mother tongue, making it the second most widely spoken language on the continent after Russian and the second biggest language in terms of overall speakers (after English), as well as the most spoken native language. The area in central Europe where the majority of the population speaks German as a first language and has German as a (co-)official language
7332-708: The Freikorps , the Bavarian Soviet Republic fell in May 1919. The Bamberg Constitution ( Bamberger Verfassung ) was enacted on 12 or 14 August 1919 and came into force on 15 September 1919, placing Bavaria inside the Weimar Republic . Extremist activity further increased, notably the 1923 Beer Hall Putsch led by the Nazis , and Munich and Nuremberg became seen as strongholds of Nazism during
7488-522: The German states . While these states were still part of the Holy Roman Empire , and far from any form of unification, the desire for a cohesive written language that would be understandable across the many German-speaking principalities and kingdoms was stronger than ever. As a spoken language German remained highly fractured throughout this period, with a vast number of often mutually incomprehensible regional dialects being spoken throughout
7644-695: The Holy Roman Emperor Maximilian I , and the other being Meißner Deutsch , used in the Electorate of Saxony in the Duchy of Saxe-Wittenberg . Alongside these courtly written standards, the invention of the printing press led to the development of a number of printers' languages ( Druckersprachen ) aimed at making printed material readable and understandable across as many diverse dialects of German as possible. The greater ease of production and increased availability of written texts brought about increased standardisation in
7800-646: The Holy Roman Empire dissolved under Napoleon 's onslaught, Bavaria became a kingdom in 1806 and joined the Confederation of the Rhine . The Duchy of Jülich was ceded to France and the Electoral Palatinate was divided between France and the Grand Duchy of Baden . The Duchy of Berg was given to Joachim Murat . The County of Tyrol and the federal state of Salzburg were temporarily annexed with Bavaria but eventually ceded to Austria at
7956-666: The Old High German language in several Elder Futhark inscriptions from as early as the sixth century AD (such as the Pforzen buckle ), the Old High German period is generally seen as beginning with the Abrogans (written c. 765–775 ), a Latin-German glossary supplying over 3,000 Old High German words with their Latin equivalents. After the Abrogans , the first coherent works written in Old High German appear in
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#17327661696328112-423: The Palatinate region to Bavaria . Nonetheless, Prussia's western territories continued to adhere to the Napoleonic legal system and, in many other respects, the relationship between the citizen and the state had been permanently transformed. In addition, mutual intolerance of religious differences, stretching back centuries, endured between Protestant Prussia and the predominantly Roman Catholic populations of
8268-434: The Schwabing district in Munich, a center of international artistic activity at the time. World War I led to the abolition of monarchy all over Germany in 1918. The Bavarian monarchy was the first to fall when on 8 November 1918 Socialist politician Kurt Eisner proclaimed the Free State (i.e. republic) of Bavaria. Eisner headed a new, republican government as minister-president. On 12 November, King Ludwig III signed
8424-427: The Sprachraum in Europe. German is used in a wide variety of spheres throughout the country, especially in business, tourism, and public signage, as well as in education, churches (most notably the German-speaking Evangelical Lutheran Church in Namibia (GELK) ), other cultural spheres such as music, and media (such as German language radio programs by the Namibian Broadcasting Corporation ). The Allgemeine Zeitung
8580-422: The Standard German language in its written form, and the Duden Handbook was declared its standard definition. Punctuation and compound spelling (joined or isolated compounds) were not standardized in the process. The Deutsche Bühnensprache ( lit. ' German stage language ' ) by Theodor Siebs had established conventions for German pronunciation in theatres , three years earlier; however, this
8736-400: The Upper German dialects spoken in the southern German-speaking countries , such as Swiss German ( Alemannic dialects ) and the various Germanic dialects spoken in the French region of Grand Est , such as Alsatian (mainly Alemannic, but also Central–and Upper Franconian dialects) and Lorraine Franconian (Central Franconian). After these High German dialects, standard German
8892-424: The Upper Palatinate for the Palatinate branch of the Wittelsbach in 1329. That time also Salzburg finally became independent from the Duchy of Bavaria . In the 14th and 15th centuries, upper and lower Bavaria were repeatedly subdivided. Four Duchies existed after the division of 1392: Bavaria-Straubing , Bavaria-Landshut , Bavaria-Ingolstadt and Bavaria-Munich . In 1506 with the Landshut War of Succession ,
9048-451: The Weimar Republic and Nazi dictatorship . However, in the crucial German federal election, March 1933 , the Nazis received less than 50% of the votes cast in Bavaria. As a manufacturing centre, Munich was heavily bombed during World War II and was occupied by United States Armed Forces , becoming a major part of the American Zone of Allied-occupied Germany , which lasted from 1945 to 1947, and then of Bizone . The Rhenish Palatinate
9204-442: The amnesty set out in the London Agreement of August 1924, Matthes and his wife were prevented from returning to Germany, leading Tucholsky to publish in 1929 his essay entitled For Joseph Matthes , from which are drawn his observations on conditions in the Rhineland in 1923, cited above. In the towns, the remaining separatist Burgermeister found themselves voted out of office at the end of 1923 or were, for their activities, before
9360-408: The pagan Germanic tradition. Of particular interest to scholars, however, has been the Hildebrandslied , a secular epic poem telling the tale of an estranged father and son unknowingly meeting each other in battle. Linguistically, this text is highly interesting due to the mixed use of Old Saxon and Old High German dialects in its composition. The written works of this period stem mainly from
9516-467: The "inevitable consequence" ( "notwendige Folge" ) of the Prussian system. Prussia was viewed by opponents as "Europe's evil spirit" and was "ruled over by an unscrupulous caste of war-fixated militaristic aristocrats " ( "von einer kriegslüsternen, gewissenlosen militärischen Kaste und dem Junkertum beherrscht" ). He said that the other German states should, therefore, no longer put up with Prussian supremacy, that Prussia should be divided up, and
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#17327661696329672-465: The 21st century. In May 1808, a first constitution was passed by Maximilian I , being modernized in 1818. This second version established a bicameral Parliament with a House of Lords ( Kammer der Reichsräte ) and a House of Commons ( Kammer der Abgeordneten ). That constitution was followed until the collapse of the monarchy at the end of World War I . After the rise of Prussia in the early 18th century, Bavaria preserved its independence by playing off
9828-496: The 25 independent cities ( Kreisfreie Städte , singular Kreisfreie Stadt ), both of which share the same administrative responsibilities. Rural districts: Independent cities: The 71 rural districts are on the lowest level divided into 2,031 regular municipalities (called Gemeinden , singular Gemeinde ). Together with the 25 independent cities ( kreisfreie Städte , which are in effect municipalities independent of Landkreis administrations), there are
9984-614: The Empire. Its use indicated that the speaker was a merchant or someone from an urban area, regardless of nationality. Prague (German: Prag ) and Budapest ( Buda , German: Ofen ), to name two examples, were gradually Germanized in the years after their incorporation into the Habsburg domain; others, like Pressburg ( Pozsony , now Bratislava), were originally settled during the Habsburg period and were primarily German at that time. Prague, Budapest, Bratislava, and cities like Zagreb (German: Agram ) or Ljubljana (German: Laibach ), contained significant German minorities. In
10140-586: The French militarisation of the Ruhr. The "protection force" was poorly equipped: many members were too young to have received any military training. Their implementation of the new government's orders, in the absence of detailed instructions, was rough and ready at best, and sometimes violent. A night-time curfew was imposed and press freedom was greatly curbed. The separatist government received virtually no support from Rhineland government staff who mostly refused to acknowledge its authority or simply stayed away from their desks. In view of its French military backing,
10296-435: The French occupied territories, Dorten made the execution of arrest warrant impossible. At liberty, Dorten continued his struggle: on 22 January 1922 he founded in Boppard a political party, the "Rhenish Peoples' Union" ( Rheinische Volksvereinigung ), chaired by Bertram Kastert (1868–1935), a senior Cologne pastor . Thanks to the outstanding treason indictment, Dorten and his circle found themselves shunned by members of
10452-445: The French vacated the Ruhr in the summer of 1925. The end of the Rhenish Republic can be dated at December 1924, when its leading instigator, Hans Adam Dorten (1880–1963), was obliged to flee to Nice . By 1930, when French troops also vacated the left bank of the Rhine, the concept of a Rhenish Republic, independent of Berlin, no longer attracted popular support. The Cisrhenian Republic ( 1797 –1802) and subsequent incorporation of
10608-414: The Frisian languages— North Frisian (spoken in Nordfriesland ), Saterland Frisian (spoken in Saterland ), and West Frisian (spoken in Friesland )—as well as the Anglic languages of English and Scots. These Anglo-Frisian dialects did not take part in the High German consonant shift, and the Anglic languages also adopted much vocabulary from both Old Norse and the Norman language . The history of
10764-417: The German language begins with the High German consonant shift during the Migration Period , which separated Old High German dialects from Old Saxon . This sound shift involved a drastic change in the pronunciation of both voiced and voiceless stop consonants ( b , d , g , and p , t , k , respectively). The primary effects of the shift were the following below. While there is written evidence of
10920-399: The German states; the invention of the printing press c. 1440 and the publication of Luther's vernacular translation of the Bible in 1534, however, had an immense effect on standardizing German as a supra-dialectal written language. The ENHG period saw the rise of several important cross-regional forms of chancery German, one being gemeine tiutsch , used in the court of
11076-623: The Germanic dialects that were affected by the High German consonant shift (south of Benrath) from those that were not (north of Uerdingen). The various regional dialects spoken south of these lines are grouped as High German dialects, while those spoken to the north comprise the Low German and Low Franconian dialects. As members of the West Germanic language family, High German, Low German, and Low Franconian have been proposed to be further distinguished historically as Irminonic , Ingvaeonic , and Istvaeonic , respectively. This classification indicates their historical descent from dialects spoken by
11232-493: The Himberg quarter of Aegidienberg: here they were confronted by around 30 armed quarry workers. Peter Staffel, an 18-year-old blacksmith , was shot dead when he forced the trucks to stop and tried to persuade the occupants to turn back. The quarry workers thereupon showered bullets on the separatists who turned and fled along the little Schmelz valley. As they fled down the twisting road, back towards Bad Honnef, they encountered
11388-655: The Irminones (also known as the Elbe group), Ingvaeones (or North Sea Germanic group), and Istvaeones (or Weser–Rhine group). Standard German is based on a combination of Thuringian - Upper Saxon and Upper Franconian dialects, which are Central German and Upper German dialects belonging to the High German dialect group. German is therefore closely related to the other languages based on High German dialects, such as Luxembourgish (based on Central Franconian dialects ) and Yiddish . Also closely related to Standard German are
11544-802: The Italian autonomous region of Friuli-Venezia Giulia , as well as a recognized national language in Namibia . There are also notable German-speaking communities in France ( Alsace ), the Czech Republic ( North Bohemia ), Poland ( Upper Silesia ), Slovakia ( Košice Region , Spiš , and Hauerland ), Denmark ( North Schleswig ), Romania and Hungary ( Sopron ). Overseas, sizeable communities of German-speakers are found in Brazil ( Blumenau and Pomerode ), South Africa ( Kroondal ), Namibia , among others, some communities have decidedly Austrian German or Swiss German characters (e.g. Pozuzo , Peru). German
11700-518: The MHG period. Significantly, these texts include a number of impressive secular works, such as the Nibelungenlied , an epic poem telling the story of the dragon -slayer Siegfried ( c. thirteenth century ), and the Iwein , an Arthurian verse poem by Hartmann von Aue ( c. 1203 ), lyric poems , and courtly romances such as Parzival and Tristan . Also noteworthy
11856-527: The North of suburban Munich. Evidence suggests up to 500 people lived in the village from 450 BC. Local life appears to have centred around what could be a town hall or temple, and continued in different forms up to 1000 AD. In Manching , Upper Bavaria, an unfortified and semi-urban society appears to have prospered between the 3rd century BC until the early 1st Century AD . The settlement featured food ovens, pottery kilns and metallurgical furnaces. By 200 BC
12012-739: The Palatinate by Rhine ( Kurpfalz in German) was also acquired by the House of Wittelsbach in 1214, which they would subsequently hold for six centuries. The first of several divisions of the duchy of Bavaria occurred in 1255. With the extinction of the Hohenstaufen in 1268, Swabian territories were acquired by the Wittelsbach dukes. Emperor Louis the Bavarian acquired Brandenburg , Tyrol , Holland and Hainaut for his House but released
12168-526: The Prussian forces and ultimately joined the Federation, which was renamed Deutsches Reich ( German Empire ) in 1871. Bavaria continued as a monarchy, and retained some special rights within the federation (such as railways and postal services and control of its army in peace times). When Bavaria became part of the newly formed German Empire , this action was considered controversial by Bavarian nationalists who had wanted to retain independence from
12324-597: The Reparations Commission determined that Germany had wilfully held back from making payments due, and two days later troops occupied the rest of the Ruhr area . With the active support of the German government, civilians in the area engaged in passive resistance and civil disobedience which largely shut down the economy of the region. A number of acts of sabotage and retaliation took place as well. An estimated 137 civilians were killed and 600 injured during
12480-666: The Rhenish Independence League took to the streets, proclaiming, disingenuously, that their new republic had come into being without any input from the French: attempts to suppress the Duisburg republic more rapidly were nonetheless blocked by the French occupation forces. Back in Koblenz, the regional capital, separatists had tried to seize power on 21 October 1923. The next day saw hand-to-hand fighting involving
12636-522: The Rhenish Republic appeared outside a house in the small town of Eschweiler . Inside, the movement set up a communications center on 19 October 1923. A week after that, the separatists attempted a putsch against the Rathaus . Surrender was refused however: a truce briefly ensued. The next day, the government urged resistance and eventually, on 2 November 1923, Belgian occupation troops expelled
12792-495: The Rhenish Republic project, drastically cutting back on their financial support. The Matthes government issued Rhenish bank notes and ordered an extensive "Requisitioning" exercise: this was the signal for the Rhineland Protection Force to embark upon a level of arbitrary widespread looting which greatly exceeded anything necessary simply for feeding the hungry "protection troops". In many towns and villages
12948-615: The Rhineland's civic leaders together with locally based Prussian National Assembly Members convened in Cologne at the invitation of the city's mayor, Konrad Adenauer of the Catholic Center Party . There was only one item on the agenda: "The Creation of the Rhenish Republic" ( German : Die Gründung der Rheinischen Republik ). In addressing delegates, Adenauer identified the wreckage of Prussian hegemonistic power as
13104-424: The Rhineland. The incorporation/reincorporation of most of the Rhineland into Prussia did not run smoothly and remained incomplete more than a century later. Many Rhinelanders continued to regard rule by Prussia as a form of foreign occupation. At the same time, these events occurred during the occupation of the Rhineland by American , Belgian , British and French troops . On 1 February 1919, more than sixty of
13260-510: The Technical High School included the exclusion from Aachen of non-resident students. On 2 November, the Rathaus was retaken by the separatists, now reinforced by around 1000 members of the "Rhineland protection force" ( der Rheinland-Schutztruppen ). Belgian High Commissar, Baron Rolin-Jaquemyns, responded by ordering an immediate end to the separatist government and called the troops off the streets. The City Council convened in
13416-586: The Weimar State. The appeal of Rhenish separatism, never a mass movement, was damaged by the violence employed by many of its more desperate supporters. The political temperature cooled after the French occupation of the Ruhr attracted increasingly strident criticism from Britain and the United States. Following the Dawes Plan in September 1924, an agreement to lower Germany's war reparations payments,
13572-566: The annexed positions in Bavaria, leaving its control to Celtic and Germanic tribes. Around the year 500 AD, some elements of that victorious Marcomanni people would help to form the Bavarii confederation, which incorporated Bohemia and Bavaria. In the 530s, the Merovingian dynasty incorporated the kingdom of Thuringia after their defeat by the Franks . The Baiuvarii were Frankicised
13728-531: The capital of the Roman province of Raetia . Another fort was founded in 60 AD, west of modern-day Manching, as evidenced by a legionnaire's sandal found near remains of an ancient fort. By the late 2nd Century AD , Germanic tribes, including Marcomanni people, were pushing back on Roman forces of Marcus Aurelius and later, Commodus in the Marcomannic Wars . By 180 AD, Commodus had decided to abandon
13884-475: The castle in Koblenz split into two camps. Across the province separatist governments were evicted from the Rathausen and in some instances arrested by the French military. Leo Deckers resigned his office on 27 November. On 28 November 1923, Matthes announced that he had dissolved the separatist government. Dorten had already, on 15 November, moved to Bad Ems and there established a provisional government covering
14040-541: The change of régime. However, civic putsches did not prevail everywhere: in Jülich , Mönchengladbach , Bonn and Erkelenz , separatist attempts to take over public buildings were immediately thwarted, sometimes violently: other districts remained entirely untouched by separatist agitation. To the north, in Duisburg , separatists inaugurated, on 22 October 1923 a mini-state that would endure for five weeks. Local members of
14196-503: The community there was active in trade—finds of coins, along with an icon-like golden tree suggest it was trading with distant Italo-Greek communities. In the 1st Century BC, Bavaria was conquered by the Roman Empire . An imperial military camp was built 60 km north-west of where Munich sits today, under orders of Augustus Caesar , between 8 and 5 BC. The camp later became the town of Augusta Vindelicorum , which would become
14352-634: The conquests of the Roman Empire in the 1st century BC, when the territory was incorporated into the provinces of Raetia and Noricum . It became the Duchy of Bavaria (a stem duchy ) in the 6th century AD following the collapse of the Western Roman Empire . It was later incorporated into the Holy Roman Empire , became the independent Kingdom of Bavaria after 1806, joined the Prussian-led German Empire in 1871 while retaining its title of kingdom, and finally became
14508-510: The courts. Konrad Adenauer , who during the period of the "Koblenz Government" had constantly been at odds with Dorten, presented to the French generals another proposal, for the creation of a west German autonomous federal state ( die Bildung eines Autonomen westdeutschen Bundesstaates ). Adenauer's proposal failed to impress either the French or the German government at this time, however. German language German (German: Deutsch , pronounced [dɔʏtʃ] )
14664-482: The development of non-local forms of language and exposed all speakers to forms of German from outside their own area. With Luther's rendering of the Bible in the vernacular, German asserted itself against the dominance of Latin as a legitimate language for courtly, literary, and now ecclesiastical subject-matter. His Bible was ubiquitous in the German states: nearly every household possessed a copy. Nevertheless, even with
14820-456: The dialect so as to make the work as natural and accessible to German speakers as possible. Copies of Luther's Bible featured a long list of glosses for each region, translating words which were unknown in the region into the regional dialect. Luther said the following concerning his translation method: One who would talk German does not ask the Latin how he shall do it; he must ask the mother in
14976-503: The early modern era, these peoples were retrospectively romanticized as the most ancient culture of Bavaria, even though the Indo-European languages were relative newcomers to the region. Evidence of the ancient Straubing culture , Únětice culture and La Tène culture may be found in what is Bavaria today. Archeologists know of a large Celtic Iron Age settlement which was founded in Feldmoching-Hasenbergl , in
15132-519: The eastern provinces of Banat , Bukovina , and Transylvania (German: Banat, Buchenland, Siebenbürgen ), German was the predominant language not only in the larger towns—like Temeschburg ( Timișoara ), Hermannstadt ( Sibiu ), and Kronstadt ( Brașov )—but also in many smaller localities in the surrounding areas. In 1901, the Second Orthographic Conference ended with a (nearly) complete standardization of
15288-660: The empire's laws. During the early and mid-18th century the ambitions of the Bavarian prince electors led to several wars with Austria as well as occupations by Austria ( War of the Spanish Succession , War of the Austrian Succession with the election of a Wittelsbach emperor instead of a Habsburg). To mark the unification of Bavaria and the Electoral Palatinate , both being principal Wittelsbach territories, Elector Maximilian IV Joseph
15444-493: The evening and swore loyalty to the German State ( Treuebekenntnis zum Deutschen Reich ). Parallel coup attempts in many Rhenish towns blew up, most of them following much the same pattern. Local government representatives and officials were expelled from civic buildings which were taken over. The Rhenish tricolour was raised over occupied town halls. Notices were posted and leaflets distributed informing citizens of
15600-527: The frontier with the Czech Republic and Bohemia. The geographic center of the European Union is located in the northwestern corner of Bavaria. At lower elevations the climate is classified according to Köppen's guide as " Cfb " or " Dfb ". At higher altitudes the climate becomes " Dfc " and " ET ". The summer months have been getting hotter in recent years. For example, June 2019 was
15756-675: The historical regions of Franconia and Swabia , in addition to Altbayern . Though Bavaria has been occupied by humans since the Paleolithic era, Celtic tribes of the Bronze Age, such as the Boii were the first documented inhabitants of the Bavarian Alps . In June 2023, Archeologists discovered a bronze sword, dated to the 14th century BC , in a former Celtic village; its workmanship so well-preserved "it almost shines." During
15912-435: The home, the children on the streets, the common man in the market-place and note carefully how they talk, then translate accordingly. They will then understand what is said to them because it is German. When Christ says ' ex abundantia cordis os loquitur ,' I would translate, if I followed the papists, aus dem Überflusz des Herzens redet der Mund . But tell me is this talking German? What German understands such stuff? No,
16068-481: The influence of Luther's Bible as an unofficial written standard, a widely accepted standard for written German did not appear until the middle of the eighteenth century. German was the language of commerce and government in the Habsburg Empire , which encompassed a large area of Central and Eastern Europe . Until the mid-nineteenth century, it was essentially the language of townspeople throughout most of
16224-479: The largest concentrations of German speakers are in the states of Rio Grande do Sul (where Riograndenser Hunsrückisch developed), Santa Catarina , and Espírito Santo . Bavaria Bavaria , officially the Free State of Bavaria , is a state in the southeast of Germany . With an area of 70,550.19 km (27,239.58 sq mi), it is the largest German state by land area , comprising roughly
16380-535: The local militia, well dug in and waiting for them: Schneider's men seized the trucks and then routed the separatist gang. That evening the repulsed separatists met up at the Gasthof Jagdhaus, down the Schmelz valley, and called up reinforcements. They planned a more substantial attack for the next day, in order to make an example of Aegidienberg. Accordingly, on 16 November, some 80 armed separatists found
16536-567: The local police. During the night of 23 October, Koblenz Castle , which had been out of the limelight since 1914 when the Kaiser had briefly established his wartime headquarters there, was captured by separatists with French military support. The occupiers were temporarily evicted by local police the following day, only to renew their occupation that night. On 26 October, the French High Commissioner, Paul Tirard, confirmed that
16692-495: The mainstream political parties . The Rhenish Peoples' Union stayed in the shadows, its weekly publication, German Standpoint ( Deutsche Warte ) and its leaders' other campaigning activities depending on French sponsorship. Dorten moved to France at the end of 1923 and later took French Citizenship. The German government fell into arrears with war reparations payments. In response, on 8 March 1921, French and Belgian troops occupied Duisburg and Düsseldorf . On 26 December 1922
16848-513: The military occupation to which the previously prosperous region was subjected. After 1919, blame for defeat in the First World War was apportioned to (amongst others) the military or simply the French. France, like Germany, had been profoundly traumatised by the First World War and the conduct of its occupation of the left bank of the Rhine was perceived as unsympathetic, even among its Western wartime allies . Increasingly, however, blame
17004-402: The mother in the home and the plain man would say, Wesz das Herz voll ist, des gehet der Mund über . Luther's translation of the Bible into High German was also decisive for the German language and its evolution from Early New High German to modern Standard German. The publication of Luther's Bible was a decisive moment in the spread of literacy in early modern Germany , and promoted
17160-511: The next few weeks, while military police arrived to conduct an on-the-spot investigation. The investigation concluded that in total around 120 people had been killed in connection with the events of those November days. More precise information on the deaths and other events of the Aegidienberg "insurrection" may survive within the archives of the French gendarmes . Theodor Weinz, the separatists' hostage who had been fatally shot at Hövel,
17316-653: The ninth century, chief among them being the Muspilli , Merseburg charms , and Hildebrandslied , and other religious texts (the Georgslied , Ludwigslied , Evangelienbuch , and translated hymns and prayers). The Muspilli is a Christian poem written in a Bavarian dialect offering an account of the soul after the Last Judgment , and the Merseburg charms are transcriptions of spells and charms from
17472-423: The occupation forces. A cabinet was formed and Matthes, as its chairman, designated " Prime Minister of the Rhenish Republic" ( Ministerpräsident der rheinischen Republik ). The new government's power was heavily dependent on finance and support from the French occupation force, as well as on the separatists' own Rhineland Protection Force, which was primarily recruited from men expelled from their homes by
17628-406: The occupation. Even though relatively little violence accompanied the passive resistance, French authorities imposed between 120,000 and 150,000 sentences against resisting Germans. Some involved prison sentences, but the overwhelming majority were deportations from the Ruhr district and the Rhineland to the unoccupied part of Germany. The ongoing economic crisis in Germany worsened considerably as
17784-461: The other Länder ratified it. All of the other states ratified it, so it became law. Thus, during the Cold War , Bavaria was part of West Germany . Bavarians have often emphasized a separate national identity and considered themselves as "Bavarians" first, "Germans" second. In the 19th-century sense, an independent Kingdom of Bavaria existed from only 1806 to 1871. A separate Bavarian identity
17940-557: The other parts of Bavaria were reunited, and Munich became the sole capital. The country became a center of the Jesuit-inspired Counter-Reformation . In 1623, the Bavarian duke replaced his relative of the Palatinate branch, the Electorate of the Palatinate in the early days of the Thirty Years' War and acquired the powerful prince-elector dignity in the Holy Roman Empire , determining its Emperor thence forward, as well as special legal status under
18096-480: The other with white and blue diamond-shaped lozenges . Either may be used by civilians and government offices, who are free to choose between them. Unofficial versions of the flag, especially a lozenge style with coat of arms, are sometimes used by civilians. The modern coat of arms of Bavaria was designed by Eduard Ege in 1946, following heraldic traditions. Bavaria shares international borders with Austria ( Salzburg , Tyrol , Upper Austria and Vorarlberg ) and
18252-480: The past. Extreme weather like the 2013 European floods or the 2019 European heavy snowfalls is occurring more and more often. One effect of the continuing warming is the melting of almost all Bavarian Alpine glaciers : Of the five glaciers of Bavaria only the Höllentalferner is predicted to exist over a longer time perspective. The Südliche Schneeferner has almost vanished since the 1980s. Bavaria
18408-462: The people's conversion to Christianity in the early 8th century. Tassilo III of Bavaria succeeded to rule Bavaria. He initially ruled under Frankish oversight but began to function independently from 763 onward. He was particularly noted for founding new monasteries and for expanding eastwards, oppressing Slavs in the eastern Alps and along the Danube and colonizing these lands. After 781, however, Charlemagne began to exert pressure and Tassilo III
18564-462: The pronunciation of the ending -ig as [ɪk] instead of [ɪç]. In Northern Germany, High German was a foreign language to most inhabitants, whose native dialects were subsets of Low German. It was usually encountered only in writing or formal speech; in fact, most of High German was a written language, not identical to any spoken dialect, throughout the German-speaking area until well into the 19th century. However, wider standardization of pronunciation
18720-668: The region into the French Empire lasted for less than a generation, but introduced to the occupied Rhineland many of the features of the modern state. These were revolutionary and widely welcomed. One objective of the Congress of Vienna in 1815 was to undo Napoléon 's territorial changes, so the German Lower Rhine and Westphalia reverted to the Kingdom of Prussia (joined by the Middle Rhine and Cologne ),
18876-410: The regions forming the historic Bavaria before further acquisitions in 1806–1815, speak a Bavarian dialect of German, Franconia in the north and Bavarian Swabia in the south west, have their unique culture, including different dialects of German, East Franconian and Swabian , respectively. Uniquely among German states, Bavaria has two official flags of equal status, one with a white and blue stripe,
19032-577: The rest of Germany, as had Austria. As Bavaria had a heavily Catholic majority population, many people resented being ruled by the mostly Protestant northerners in Prussia . As a direct result of the Bavarian-Prussian feud, political parties formed to encourage Bavaria to break away and regain its independence. In the early 20th century, Wassily Kandinsky , Paul Klee , Henrik Ibsen , and other artists were drawn to Bavaria, especially to
19188-481: The rivalry of Prussia and Austria . Allied to Austria, it was defeated along with Austria in the 1866 Austro-Prussian War and was not incorporated into the North German Confederation of 1867, but the question of German unity was still alive. When France declared war on Prussia in 1870 , all the south German states (Baden, Württemberg, Hessen-Darmstadt and Bavaria) aside from Austria, joined
19344-430: The river from Königswinter, could still be described without irony as "a small town in Germany". It was the turn of the village called Aegidienberg to claim a place in history. On the evening of 14 November, a large number of the residents from the various small towns and villages surrounding Bad Honnef met together in an Aegidienberg guest house and resolved to resist openly the wave of looting which, they anticipated,
19500-541: The ruler of two duchies. When in 1180, Henry the Lion was deposed as Duke of Saxony and Bavaria by his cousin, Frederick I, Holy Roman Emperor (a.k.a. "Barbarossa" for his red beard), Bavaria was awarded as fief to the Wittelsbach family, counts palatinate of Schyren ("Scheyern" in modern German). They ruled for 738 years, from 1180 to 1918. In 1180, however, Styria was also separated from Bavaria. The Electorate of
19656-409: The second biggest political party in the 2018 Bavarian state elections , and the center-left Social Democrats (SPD), who have dominated the city of Munich until 2020. Hitherto, Wilhelm Hoegner has been the only SPD candidate to ever become Minister-President; notable successors in office include multi-term Federal Minister Franz Josef Strauss , a key figure among West German conservatives during
19812-720: The separatists from Eschweiler . Meanwhile, in Aachen itself, separatists led by Leo Deckers and Dr Guthardt captured the Aachen Rathaus (city hall) where, in the Imperial Chamber, they proclaimed the Free and Independent Rhenish Republic on 21 October 1923. The next day the separatists came up against counter demonstrators who surrounded and wrecked their Sekretariat in Friedrich-Wilhelm-Platz, near
19968-400: The separatists were in possession of effective power ( als Inhaber der tatsächlichen Macht ). Subject to the self-evident superior authority of the occupiers, he stated that they needed to introduce all the necessary measures ( alle notwendigen Maßnahmen einleiten ). Separatist leaders Dorten and Josef Friedrich Matthes interpreted Tirard's intervention as an effective carte blanche from
20124-514: The separatists were killed: these were later buried in a mass grave back in Aegidienberg, without the benefit of any identifying inscription. According to contemporaries, the dead men had come originally from the Kevelaer and Krefeld areas, between the Ruhr and the Dutch border . In order to prevent further fighting, the French installed in Aegidienberg a force of French- Moroccan soldiers for
20280-633: The situation slid towards chaos. The civil population became increasingly hostile, and the French military found themselves attempting, with increasing difficulty, to preserve some level of order. Between 6 and 8 November, a force of Rhineland Protection Force members, calling themselves the Northern Flying Division ( Fliegende Division Nord ), launched an attack on Maria Laach and the surrounding farmsteads. Nearby in Brohl where two residents, Anton Brühl and Hans Feinlinger, had set up
20436-512: The southern part of the Rhineland and the Palatinate and participated actively in the activities of the "Pfälzische Republik" movement, centred on Speyer, which would survived through till 1924. At the end of 1923, Dorten fled to Nice : later he relocated to the US, where he published his memoirs; Dorten was still in exile when he died in 1963. Joseph Matthes also made his way to France where he later met up with fellow journalist Kurt Tucholsky . Despite
20592-534: The southern rim of the Siebengebirge district . All sorts of items of evident value were "requisitioned" in addition to food and vehicles. On 12 November, the separatists gathered together close by in Bad Honnef , there intending to establish a new headquarters. The Rathaus was taken over and, two days later, the Rhenish Republic proclaimed. Food and liquor were seized in numerous hotels and residences and
20748-546: The states of North Dakota and South Dakota , German is the most common language spoken at home after English. As a legacy of significant German immigration to the country , German geographical names can be found throughout the Midwest region , such as New Ulm and Bismarck (North Dakota's state capital), plus many other regions. A number of German varieties have developed in the country and are still spoken today, such as Pennsylvania Dutch and Texas German . In Brazil,
20904-527: The status of the Rhineland within the Weimar Republic . Others advocated full integration of the Rhineland into France. Similar political currents were stirring in the south: June 1919 had seen the proclamation by Eberhard Haaß of the " Pfälzische Republik ", centred on Speyer in the occupied territory of the Bavarian Palatinate . Rhenish separatism in the 1920s should be seen in the context of resentments fostered by economic hardship and
21060-530: The theatre. 23 October opened with shooting in the streets: meanwhile the city fire brigade reclaimed the Rathaus, forcing the separatists to retreat to government buildings. That day Belgian troops imposed martial law . On 25 October, the local police were placed under the command of the Belgian occupation forces after attempting to storm the separatists out of the government buildings, only to find themselves thwarted by occupation troops. Across town, changes at
21216-500: The third most commonly learned second language in the United States in K-12 education. The language has been influential in the fields of philosophy, theology, science, and technology. It is the second most commonly used language in science and the third most widely used language on websites . The German-speaking countries are ranked fifth in terms of annual publication of new books, with one-tenth of all books (including e-books) in
21372-516: The three largest lakes of Bavaria, and Waginger See ). Source: Bayerisches Landesamt für Statistik und Datenverarbeitung Bavaria has a multiparty system dominated by the conservative Christian Social Union (CSU), which has won every election since 1945 with the exception of the 1950 ballot. Other important parties are the Free Voters , which became the second largest party in the 2023 Bavarian state election , The Greens , which became
21528-470: The warmest June in Bavaria since weather observations have been recorded and the winter 2019/2020 was 3 degrees Celsius warmer than the average temperature for many years all over Bavaria. On 20 December 2019 a record temperature of 20.2 °C (68.4 °F) was recorded in Piding . In general winter months are seeing more precipitation which is taking the form of rain more often than that of snow compared to
21684-505: The western provinces separated out to form a "West German Republic". This would make future domination of Germany by Prussia's eastern militaristic ethos impossible. Adenauer was, however, keen that this West German Republic should remain inside the German political union. In the end, the Cologne meeting produced a two-point resolution. The meeting asserted the right of the Rhineland peoples to political self-determination. The proclamation of
21840-526: The wider population offered Dorten's régime little meaningful support. From his occupation headquarters in Mainz, General Mangin would no doubt have had a far more richly calibrated appreciation of the possibilities presented by Rhenish separatism than the ministers in far away Paris: it is possible to infer, between the approach of the French commanders on the ground and priorities of the Poincaré government,
21996-438: The world being published in German. German is most closely related to other West Germanic languages, namely Afrikaans , Dutch , English , the Frisian languages , and Scots . It also contains close similarities in vocabulary to some languages in the North Germanic group , such as Danish , Norwegian , and Swedish . Modern German gradually developed from Old High German , which in turn developed from Proto-Germanic during
22152-415: The written form of German. One of the central events in the development of ENHG was the publication of Luther's translation of the Bible into High German (the New Testament was published in 1522; the Old Testament was published in parts and completed in 1534). Luther based his translation primarily on the Meißner Deutsch of Saxony , spending much time among the population of Saxony researching
22308-424: Was Leo Deckers from Aachen. The unambiguous goal of the United Rhenish Movement was the complete separation of the Rhine Province from Prussia, and the establishment of a Rhenish Republic under French protection. The creation of the republic was to be publicly proclaimed: meetings would be convened across the Rhineland . Endorsement from the French, with their military headquarters in Mainz, was taken for granted: it
22464-429: Was a "neutral" language as there were virtually no English native speakers in Namibia at that time. German, Afrikaans, and several indigenous languages thus became "national languages" by law, identifying them as elements of the cultural heritage of the nation and ensuring that the state acknowledged and supported their presence in the country. Today, Namibia is considered to be the only German-speaking country outside of
22620-407: Was an artificial standard that did not correspond to any traditional spoken dialect. Rather, it was based on the pronunciation of German in Northern Germany, although it was subsequently regarded often as a general prescriptive norm, despite differing pronunciation traditions especially in the Upper-German-speaking regions that still characterise the dialect of the area today – especially
22776-420: Was buried in the Aegidienberg cemetery, near to its main entrance: the primary school has been named after him. Peter Staffel, the young man who had probably been the first fatality of the Siebengebirge insurrection, is buried in the cemetery at the nearby village of Eudenbach (now incorporated within the administrative ambit of Königswinter). Following the events in Aegidienberg, the separatist cabinet based at
22932-419: Was crowned king of Bavaria. King Maximilian Joseph was quick to change the coat of arms. The various heraldic symbols were replaced and a classical Wittelsbach pattern introduced. The white and blue lozenges symbolized the unity of the territories within the Bavarian kingdom. The new state also comprised the Duchy of Jülich and Berg as these on their part were in personal union with the Palatinate. When
23088-411: Was deposed in 788. Dissenters attempted a coup against Charlemagne at Regensburg in 792, led by Pepin the Hunchback . With the revolt of Henry II, Duke of Bavaria in 976, Bavaria lost large territories in the south and southeast. One of the most important dukes of Bavaria was Henry the Lion of the house of Welf , founder of Munich , and de facto the second most powerful man in the empire as
23244-410: Was detached from Bavaria in 1946 and made part of the new state Rhineland-Palatinate . In 1949, Bavaria became part of the Federal Republic of Germany , despite the Bavarian Parliament voting against adopting the Basic Law of Germany , mainly because it was seen as not granting sufficient powers to the individual states ( Länder ), but at the same time declared that it would accept it if two-thirds of
23400-434: Was directed against the German government itself, in far-off Berlin. By 1923, as the German currency collapsed , the French occupation forces headquartered at Mainz (under the command of Generals Mangin and Fayolle ) were having some success in their encouragement of anti-Berlin separatism in the occupied zones. After 1924, economic hardship slowly began to ease and a measure of brittle stability returned to Germany under
23556-400: Was emphasized more strongly when Bavaria joined the Prussia-dominated German Empire in 1871, while the Bavarian nationalists wanted to keep Bavaria as Catholic and an independent state. Aside from the minority Bavaria Party , most Bavarians now accept Bavaria as part of Germany. Another consideration is that Bavaria is not culturally uniform. While inhabitants Altbayern ("Old Bavaria"),
23712-427: Was established on the basis of public speaking in theatres and the media during the 20th century and documented in pronouncing dictionaries. Official revisions of some of the rules from 1901 were not issued until the controversial German orthography reform of 1996 was made the official standard by governments of all German-speaking countries. Media and written works are now almost all produced in Standard German which
23868-488: Was here that, on 15 August 1923, the "United Rhenish Movement" ( die Vereinigte Rheinische Bewegung ) was formed from a merging of several existing separatist groups. Leaders included Dorten of the "Rhenish Peoples' Union" ( die Rheinische Volksvereinigung ) and a journalist named Josef Friedrich Matthes (1886–1943) of the "Rhenish Independence League" ( der Rheinischen Unabhängigkeitsbund ) which had been founded by Josef Smeets from Cologne. Another leading figure present
24024-504: Was moving towards the southern side of the Siebengebirge area. The district was experiencing growing food shortages. Despite the weapons ban in force, the group were able to bring together a substantial arsenal, comprising not merely axes , sticks and pitchforks , but also a number of hunting weapons and handguns and other infantry weapons, presumably left over from the war. A mining engineer and former army officer named Hermann Schneider took on leadership of this ad hoc militia. It
24180-423: Was no appetite in the Rhineland for union with France, but little enthusiasm for continued union with Prussia . All that people wanted, and were entitled to, was an end to the hellish nightmare of hyperinflation and the creation of an autonomous republic with its own currency." Koblenz had been the administrative capital of the Prussian Rhine Province since 1822. Amidst the turmoil of economic collapse , it
24336-439: Was thought that Schneider's Aegidienberg-based force now comprised about 4000 armed men . Using factory sirens and alarm bells, the local troops would be mobilised the minute separatist forces were reported or even merely rumoured to have appeared. Panic was apparent as people rushed around trying to move to safety their cattle and other chattels . During the afternoon of 15 November, a group of separatists drove two trucks into
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