Names of Germany


Because of Germany's long history as a non-united region of distinct tribes and states before 1871, there are many widely varying names of Germany in different languages, more so than for any other European nation. For example, in the German language, the country is known as Deutschland from the Old High German diutisc, in Spanish as Alemania and in French as Allemagne from the name of the Alamanni tribe, in Italian as Germania from the Latin Germania, in Polish as Niemcy from the Protoslavic nemets, and in Finnish and Estonian as Saksa and Saksamaa respectively from the name of the Saxon tribe.

List of area names

In general, the names for Germany can be arranged in six main groups according to their origin:
1. From Old High German diutisc or similar
2. From the Latin Germania or Greek Γερμανία
3. From the name of the Alamanni tribe
4. From the name of the Saxon tribe
5. From the Protoslavic němьcь
6. From the name of Prussia
  • Limburgish: Pruses
  • informal Luxembourgish: Preisen
  • informal Twents: De Pruus
  • Silesian: Prusacy
  • Tahitian: Purutia
7. Unclear origin
  • Kursenieki: Vāce Zėm
  • Latgalian: Vuoceja
  • Latvian: Vācija
  • Lithuanian: Vokietija
  • Samogitian: Vuokītėjė
Other forms:'
The name Deutschland and the other similar-sounding names above are derived from the Old High German diutisc, or similar variants from Proto-Germanic *Þeudiskaz, which originally meant "of the people". This in turn comes from a Germanic word meaning "folk", and was used to differentiate between the speakers of Germanic languages and those who spoke Celtic or Romance languages. These words come from *teuta, the Proto-Indo-European word for "people".
Also the Italian for "German", tedesco, comes from the same Old High German root, although not the name for "Germany". Also in the standardised Romansh language Germania is the normal name for Germany but in Sursilvan, Sutsilvan and Surmiran it is commonly referred to as Tiaratudestga, Tearatudestga and Tera tudestga respectively, with tiara/teara/tera meaning land. French words thiois, tudesque, théotisque and Thiogne and Spanish tudesco share this etymology.
The Germanic language which diutisc most likely comes from is West Frankish, a language which died out a long time ago and which there is hardly any written evidence for today. This was the Germanic dialect used in the early Middle Ages, spoken by the Franks in Western Francia, i.e. in the region which is now northern France. The word is only known from the Latin form theodiscus. Until the 8th century the Franks called their language frengisk; however, when the Franks moved their political and cultural centre to the area where France now is, the term frengisk became ambiguous, as in the West Francian territory some Franks spoke Latin, some vulgar Latin and some theodisc. For this reason a new word was needed to help differentiate between them. Thus the word theodisc evolved from the Germanic word theoda with the Latin suffix -iscus, to mean "belonging to the people", i.e. the people's language.
In Eastern Francia, roughly the area where Germany now is, it seems that the new word was taken on by the people only slowly, over the centuries: in central Eastern Francia the word frengisk was used for a lot longer, as there was no need for people to distinguish themselves from the distant Franks. The word diutsch and other variants were only used by people to describe themselves, at first as an alternative term, from about the 10th century. It was used, for example, in the Sachsenspiegel, a legal code, written in Middle Low German in about 1220: Iewelk düdesch lant hevet sinen palenzgreven: sassen, beieren, vranken unde svaven
.
The Teutoni, a tribe with a name which probably came from the same root, did, through Latin, ultimately give birth to the English words "Teuton" for the adjective German, and "Teuton", attested from 1833. "Teuton" was also used for Teutonisch Land, its abbreviation Teutschland used in some areas until the 19th century and its currently used official variation Deutschland.
In the northern French language area, the neighboring Germanic dialects, areas and inhabitants of Flanders to Alsace are sometimes referred to as Thiois, most likely still for the area between Maastricht and Aachen and for the traditional German speaking part of Lorraine , The term is obsolete and derives from theodisc.

Names from Germania

The name Germany and the other similar-sounding names above are all derived from the Latin Germania, of the 3rd century BC, a word simply describing fertile land behind the limes. It was likely the Gauls who first called the people who crossed east of the Rhine Germani as the original Germanic tribes did not refer to themselves as Germanus or Germani.
Julius Caesar was the first to use Germanus in writing when describing tribes in north-eastern Gaul in his Commentarii de Bello Gallico: he records that four northern Belgic tribes, namely the Condrusi, Eburones, Caeraesi and Paemani, were collectively known as Germani. In AD 98, Tacitus wrote Germania, an ethnographic work on the diverse set of Germanic tribes outside the Roman Empire. Unlike Caesar, Tacitus claims that the name Germani was first applied to the Tungri tribe. The name Tungri is thought to be the endonym corresponding to the exonym Eburones.
19th-century and early 20th-century historians speculated on whether the northern Belgae were Celts or Germanic tribes. Caesar claims that most of the northern Belgae were descended from tribes who had long ago crossed the Rhine from Germania. However many tribal names and personal names or titles recorded are identifiably Celtic. It seems likely that the northern Belgae, due to their intense contact with the Gaulish south, were largely influenced by this southern culture. Tribal names were 'qualifications' and could have been translated or given by the Gauls and picked up by Caesar. Perhaps they were Germanic people who had adopted Gaulish titles or names. The Belgians were a political alliance of southern Celtic and northern Germanic tribes. In any case, the Romans were not precise in their ethnography of northern barbarians: by "German" Caesar meant "originating east of the Rhine". Tacitus wrote in his book Germania: "The Treveri and Nervii take pride in their German origin, stating that this noble blood separates them from all comparison and the Gaulish laziness".
The OED2 records theories about the Celtic roots of the Latin word Germania: one is gair, neighbour – in Old Irish gair is "neighbour". Another theory is gairm, battle-cry. Yet another theory is that the word comes from ger, "spear"; however, Eric Partridge suggests *gar / gavin, to shout, describing the Germanic tribesmen as noisy. He describes the ger theory as "obsolete".
In English, the word "German" is first attested in 1520, replacing earlier uses of Almain, Alman and Dutch. In German, the word Germanen today refers to Germanic tribes, just like the Italian noun "Germani", and the French adjective "germanique", The English words "german" and the adjective "germane" are not connected to the name for the country, but come from the Latin germanus, "siblings with the same parents or father"; just like Spanish "hermano", that is "brother", that is not cognate by any mean to the word "Germania".

Names from Alemanni

The name Allemagne and the other similar-sounding names above are derived from the southern Germanic Alemanni, a Suebic tribe or confederation in today's Alsace, parts of Baden-Württemberg and Switzerland.
is spoken
In English, the name "Almain" or "Alman" was used for Germany and for the adjective German until the 16th century, with "German" first attested in 1520, used at first as an alternative then becoming a replacement, maybe inspired mainly by the need to differ them from the more and more independently acting Dutch. In Othello ii,3,, for example, Shakespeare uses both "German" and "Almain" when Iago describes the drinking prowess of the English:
Andrew Boorde also mentions Germany in his Introduction to Knowledge, c. 1547:
Through this name, the English language has also been given the Allemande, the Almain rivet and probably the almond furnace, which is probably not really connected to the word "almond" but is a corruption of "Almain furnace". In modern German, Alemannisch is a group of dialects of the Upper German branch of the Germanic language family, spoken by approximately ten million people in six different countries.
Among the indigenous peoples of North America of former French and British colonial areas, the word for "Germany" came primarily as a borrowing from either French or English. For example, in the Anishinaabe languages, three terms for "Germany" exist: ᐋᓂᒫ, ᑌᐦᒋᒪᓐ and ᒣᐦᔭᑴᑦ, of which Aanimaa is the most common of the terms to describe Germany.

Names from Saxon

The names Saksamaa and Saksa are derived from the name of the Germanic tribe of the Saxons. The word "Saxon", Proto-Germanic *sakhsan, is believed to be derived from the word seax, meaning a variety of single-edged knives: a Saxon was perhaps literally a swordsman, or to be derived from the word "axe", the region axed between the valleys of the Elbe and Weser.
In Finnish and Estonian the words that historically applied to ancient Saxons changed their meaning over the centuries to denote the whole country of Germany and the Germans. In some Celtic languages the word for the English nationality is derived from Saxon, e.g., the Scottish term Sassenach, the Breton terms Saoz, Saozon and the Welsh terms Sais, Saeson. "Saxon" also led to the "-sex" ending in Wessex, Essex, Sussex, Middlesex, etc., and of course to "Anglo-Saxon".
The Transylvanian Saxons arrived to Transylvania mainly from the Rhineland, not Saxony.

Names from Nemets

The Slavic exonym nemets, nemtsy derives from Proto-Slavic němьcь, pl. němьci, 'the mutes', 'not able '. It literally means a mute and can be also associated with similar sounding not able, without power, but came to signify those who can't speak ; foreigners. The Slavic autonym likely derives from slovo, meaning word. According to a theory, early Slavs would call themselves the speaking people or the keepers of the words, as opposed to their Germanic neighbors, the mutes .
At first, němьci may have been used for any non-Slav foreigners, later narrowed to just Germans. The plural form is used for the Germans instead of any specific country name, e.g. Niemcy in Polish and Ńymcy in Silesian dialect. In other languages, the country's name derives from the adjective němьcьska meaning 'German '. Belarusian Нямеччына, Bulgarian Немция and Ukrainian Німеччина are also from němьcь but with the addition of the suffix -ina.
According to another theory, Nemtsy may derive from the Rhine-based, Germanic tribe of Nemetes mentioned by Caesar and Tacitus. This etymology is dubious for phonological reasons, as nemetes could not become Slavic němьcь.
In Russian, the adjective for "German", немецкий comes from the same Slavic root while the name for the country is Germaniya. Likewise, in Bulgarian the adjective is "немски" and the country is Germaniya.
Over time, the Slavic exonym was borrowed by some non-Slavic languages. The Hungarian name for Germany is Németország. The popular Romanian name for German is neamț, used alongside the official term, german, which was borrowed from Latin.
The Arabic name for Austria النمسا an-Nimsā or an-Namsā appeared during the Crusades era, another possibility is that the term could have been known early by Arabs in Al Andalus, the reason behind calling Austria an-Nimsā, which should designate germans is that Arabs considered Austria to be the nation of german people for a long time in the middle ages, on the other hand the Arabic name of "Germany", Germania or Allemania, toke its origine from Latin name Germania''.
Ottoman Turkish and Persian word for Austria, "نمچه" – "Nemçe", is borrowed from the anterior Arabic name of Austria known throughout the Islamic world who considered Austria to be home of the germans. The Austrian Empire as well was the biggest German-speaking country in the 16–17th centuries bordering on the Ottoman Empire.

Names from Baltic regions

In Latvian and Lithuanian the names Vācija and Vokietija contain the root vāca or vākiā. Lithuanian linguist Kazimieras Būga associated this with a reference to a Swedish tribe named Vagoths in a 6th-century chronicle and the Sami, in older sources. So the word for German possibly comes from a name originally given by West Baltic tribes to the Vikings. Latvian linguist Konstantīnos Karulis proposes that the word may be based on the Indo-European word *wek, from which derive Old Prussian wackis or Latvian vēkšķis. Such names could have been used to describe neighbouring people whose language was incomprehensible to Baltic peoples.

Names in East Asia

In East Asia, the names have generally been imported directly from German "deutsch" or Dutch "duits" in various ways.
The Chinese name is a phonetic approximation of the German proper adjective. The Vietnamese name is based on the Chinese name. The Japanese name is a phonetic approximation of the Dutch proper adjective. The Korean name is based on the Japanese name. This is explained in detail below:
The common Chinese name 德国 is a combination of the short form of 德, which approximates the German pronunciation of Deutsch ‘German’, plus 國 guó ‘country’.
The Vietnamese name is the Sino-Vietnamese pronunciation of the character 德 that appears in the Chinese name.
Japanese language spelling ドイツ.
However, the character 独 is still used in compounds, for example 独’, or as an abbreviation, such as in .
The Korean name Dogil is the Korean pronunciation of the former Japanese name. The compound coined by the Japanese was adapted into Korean, so its characters 獨逸 are not pronounced do+itsu as in Japanese, but dok+il = Dogil. Until the 1980s, South Korean primary textbooks adopted Doichillanteu which approximates the German pronunciation of Deutschland.
The official North Korean name toich'willandŭ approximates the German pronunciation of Deutschland. Traditionally Dogil had been used in North Korea until the 1990s. Use of the Chinese name is attested for the early 20th century. It is now uncommon.

Etymological history

The terminology for "Germany", the "German states" and "Germans" is complicated by the unusual history of Germany over the last 2000 years. This can cause confusion in German and English, as well in other languages. While the notion of Germans and Germany is older, it is only since 1871 that there has been a nation-state of Germany. Later political disagreements and the partition of Germany has further made it difficult to use proper terminology.
Starting with Charlemagne, the territory of modern Germany was within the realm of the Holy Roman Empire. It was a union of relatively independent rulers who each ruled their own territories. This empire was called in German Heiliges Römisches Reich, with the addition from the late Middle Ages of Deutscher Nation, showing that the former idea of a universal realm had given way to a concentration on the German territories.
In 19th and 20th century historiography, the Holy Roman Empire was often referred to as Deutsches Reich, creating a link to the later nation state of 1871. Besides the official Heiliges Römisches Reich Deutscher Nation, common expressions are Altes Reich and Römisch-Deutsches Kaiserreich.

Pre-modern Germany (pre-1800)

Roman authors mentioned a number of tribes they called Germani—the tribes did not themselves use the term. After 1500 these tribes were identified by linguists as belonging to a group of Germanic language speakers. Germani and Germania became the common Latin words for Germans and Germany.
Germans call themselves Deutsche. Deutsch is an adjective derived from Old High German thiota, diota meaning "people", "nation", "folk". The word *theudō is cognate with Proto-Celtic *teutā, whence the Celtic tribal name Teuton, later anachronistically applied to the Germans. The term was first used to designate the popular language as opposed to the language used by the religious and secular rulers who used Latin.
In the Late Medieval and Early Modern period, Germany and Germans were known as Almany and Almains in English, via Old French alemaigne, alemans derived from the name of the Alamanni and Alemannia. These English terms were obsolete by the 19th century. At the time, the territory of modern Germany belonged to the realm of the Holy Roman Empire. This feudal state became a union of relatively independent rulers who developed their own territories. Modernisation took place on the territorial level, not on the level of the Empire.

1800–1871

The French emperor, Napoleon, forced the Emperor of Austria to step down as Holy Roman Emperor in 1806. Some of the German countries were then collected into the Confederation of the Rhine, which remained a military alliance under the "protection" of Napoleon, rather than consolidating into an actual confederation. After the fall of Napoleon in 1815, these states created a German Confederation with the Emperor of Austria as president. Some member states, such as Prussia and Austria, included only a part of their territories within the confederation, while other member states brought territories to the alliance that included people, like the Poles and the Czechs, who did not speak German as their native tongue. In addition, there were also substantial German speaking populations that remained outside the confederation.
In 1841 Hoffmann von Fallersleben wrote the song Das Lied der Deutschen, giving voice to the dreams of a unified Germany to replace the alliance of independent states. In this era of emerging national movements, "Germany" was used only as a reference to a particular geographical area.
In 1866/1867 Prussia and her allies left the German Confederation, which led to the confederation being dissolved and the formation of a new alliance, called the North German Confederation. It became a federal state with its constitution of 1 July 1867. The remaining South German countries, with the exception of Austria and Liechtenstein, joined the country in 1870.

German Federation

The first nation state named "Germany" began in 1871; before that Germany referred to a geographical entity comprising many states, much as "the Balkans" is used today, or the term "America" was used by the founders of "the United States of America."
In German constitutional history, the expressions Reich and Bund are somewhat interchangeable. Sometimes they even co-existed in the same constitution: for example in the German Empire the parliament had the name Reichstag, the council of the representatives of the German states Bundesrat. When in 1870–71 the North German Confederation was transformed into the German Empire, the preamble said that the participating monarchs are creating einen ewigen Bund which will have the name Deutsches Reich.
Due to the history of Germany, the principle of federalism is strong. Only the state of Hitler and the state of the communists were centralist states. As a result, the words Reich and Bund were used more frequently than in other countries, in order to distinguish between imperial or federal institutions and those at a subnational level. For example, a modern federal German minister is called Bundesminister, in contrast to a Landesminister who holds office in a state such as Rhineland-Palatinate or Lower Saxony.
As a result of the Hitler regime, and maybe also of Imperial Germany up to 1919, many Germans – especially those on the political left – have negative feelings about the word Reich.
Bund is another word also used in contexts other than politics. Many associations in Germany are federations or have a federalised structure and differentiate between a Bundesebene and a Landesebene, in a similar way to the political bodies. An example is the German Football Association Deutscher Fußballbund.
In other German speaking countries, the words Reich and Bund are used too. An organ named Bundesrat exists in all three of them: in Switzerland it is the government and in Germany and Austria the house of regional representatives.

Greater Germany and "Großdeutsches Reich"

In the 19th century before 1871, Germans, for example in the Frankfurt Parliament of 1848–49, argued about what should become of Austria. Including Austria in a future German state was referred to as the Greater German Solution; while a German state without Austria was the Smaller German Solution.
In 1919 the Weimar Constitution postulated the inclusion of Deutsch-Österreich, but the Western Allies objected to this. It was realised only in 1938 when Germany annexed Austria . National socialist propaganda proclaimed the realisation of Großdeutschland; and in 1943 the German Reich was officially renamed Großdeutsches Reich. However, these expressions became neither common nor popular.
In National Socialist propaganda Austria was also called Ostmark. After the Anschluss the previous territory of Germany was called Altreich.

German Empire and Weimar Republic of Germany, 1871–1945

The official name of the German state in 1871 became Deutsches Reich, linking itself to the former Reich before 1806 and the rudimentary Reich of 1848/1849. This expression was commonly used in official papers and also on maps, while in other contexts Deutschland was more frequently used.
Those Germans living within its boundaries were called Reichsdeutsche, those outside were called Volksdeutsche. The latter expression referred mainly to the German minorities in Eastern Europe. Germans living abroad were and are called Auslandsdeutsche.
After the forced abdication of the Emperor in 1918, and the republic was declared, Germany was informally called the Deutsche Republik. The official name of the state remained the same. The term Weimar Republic, after the city where the National Assembly gathered, came up in the 1920s, but was not commonly used until the 1950s. It became necessary to find an appropriate term for the Germany between 1871 and 1919: Kaiserliches Deutschland or Kaiserreich.

Nazi Germany

After Adolf Hitler took power in 1933, the official name of the state was still the same. For a couple of years Hitler used the expression Drittes Reich, which was introduced by writers in the last years of the republic. In fact this was only a propaganda term and did not constitute a new state. Another propaganda term was Tausendjähriges Reich. Later Hitler renounced the term Drittes Reich, but it already had become popular among supporters and opponents and is still used in historiography. It led later to the name Zweites Reich for Germany of 1871–1919. The reign of Hitler is most commonly called in English Nazi Germany. Nazi is a colloquial short for Nationalsozialist, a person who supports national socialism.

Germany divided 1945–1990

After the defeat in World War II, Germany was occupied by the troops of Britain, France, the United States and Soviet Union. Berlin was a case of its own, as it was situated on the territory of the Soviet zone but divided into four sectors. The western sectors were later called West Berlin, the other one East Berlin. The communists tended to consider the Soviet sector of Berlin as a part of GDR; West Berlin was, according to them, an independent political unit. In the GDR Westberlin was the preferred spelling in order to de-emphasize the relationship to Berlin, Hauptstadt der DDR.
After 1945, Deutsches Reich was still used for a couple of years. In many contexts, the German people still called their country Germany, even after two German states were created in 1949.

Federal Republic of Germany

The Federal Republic of Germany, Bundesrepublik Deutschland, established in 1949, saw itself as the same state founded in 1867/71 but Reich gave place to Bund. For example, the Reichskanzler became the Bundeskanzler, reichsdeutsch became bundesdeutsch, Reichsbürger became Bundesbürger.
Germany as a whole was called Deutschland als Ganzes or Gesamtdeutschland, referring to Germany in the international borders of 1937. This resulted in all German aspirations. In 1969 the Federal Ministry for All German Affairs was renamed the Federal Ministry for Intra-German Relations.
Until 1970, a number of expressions competed in the Federal Republic to designate the other German state. It was called Sowjetische Besatzungszone, Sowjetzone, Ostzone, Mitteldeutschland or Pankow.

German Democratic Republic

In 1949, the communists, protected by the Soviet Union, established the Deutsche Demokratische Republik. This state was not considered to be a successor of the Reich, but, nevertheless, to represent all good Germans. Rulers and inhabitants of GDR called their state simply DDR or unsere Republik. The GDR still supported the idea of a German nation and the need for reunification. The Federal Republic was often called Westdeutschland or the BRD. After 1970 the GDR called itself a "socialist state of German nation". Westerners called the GDR Sowjetische Besatzungszone, Sowjetzone, Ostzone, Mitteldeutschland or Pankow.

Federal Republic of Germany 1990–present

In 1990 the German Democratic Republic ceased to exist. Five new federal states were established and joined the "Bundesrepublik Deutschland". East Berlin joined through merger with West Berlin; technically this was the sixth new federal state since West Berlin, although considered a de facto federal state, had the legal status of a military occupation zone.
The official name of the country is Federal Republic of Germany. The terms "Westdeutschland" and "Ostdeutschland" are still used for the western and the eastern parts of the German territory, respectively.