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There are many widely varying names ofGermany in different languages, more so than for any other European nation. For example:
Often language lags behind the changing society and names tend to retain references to first encounters: the Finnish first and foremost met the Saxons while the French faced the Alamanni. Comparable tendencies appear elsewhere, e.g. in names for Russia.[1]
Each of the names for Germany has been adapted into other languages all over the world. After an overview of variants this article presentsetymological andgeographic context for the forms and their worldwide usage as well as names used inbureaucracy.
In general, the names for Germany can be arranged in six main groups according to their origin:
The nameDeutschland and the other similar-sounding names above are derived from theOld High Germandiutisc, or similar variants fromProto-Germanic*Þeudiskaz (Old Englishþeod), which originally meant "of the people". This in turn comes from aGermanic word meaning "folk" (leading toOld High Germandiot,Middle High Germandiet), and was used to differentiate between the speakers of Germanic languages and those who spokeCeltic orRomance languages. These words come from *teuta, theProto-Indo-European word for "people" (Lithuanian andLatviantauta,Old Irishtuath).
Also the Italian for "German",tedesco (local or archaic variants:todesco,tudesco,todisco), comes from the sameOld High German root, although not the name for "Germany" (Germania). Also in the standardisedRomansh languageGermania is the normal name for Germany but inSursilvan,Sutsilvan andSurmiran it is commonly referred to asTiaratudestga,Tearatudestga andTera tudestga respectively, withtiara/teara/tera meaningland. French wordsthiois,tudesque,théotisque andThiogne and Spanishtudesco[10] share this etymology.
The Germanic language whichdiutisc most likely comes from isWest Frankish, a language whichdied out long ago and has hardly left anywritten evidence today. This was the Germanic dialect used in the earlyMiddle Ages, spoken by theFranks inWestern Francia, i.e. in the region which is now northern France. The word is only known from the Latin formtheodiscus. Until the 8th century the Franks called their languagefrengisk; however, when the Franks moved their political and cultural centre to the area where France now is, the termfrengisk became ambiguous, as in the West Francian territory some Franks spoke Latin, somevulgar Latin and sometheodisc. For this reason a new word was needed to help differentiate between them. Thus the wordtheodisc evolved from the Germanic wordtheoda (the people) with the Latinsuffix-iscus, to mean "belonging to the people", i.e. the people's language.
InEastern 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 wordfrengisk was used for a lot longer, as there was no need for people to distinguish themselves from the distant Franks. The worddiutsch 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 theSachsenspiegel, a legal code, written in Middle Low German in about 1220: Iewelk düdeschlant hevet sinen palenzgreven: sassen, beieren, vranken unde svaven (Every German land has itsGraf: Saxony, Bavaria, Franken and Swabia). In theCarion's Chronicle, the German reformatorPhilip Melanchthon argued the Germans were descendants of the biblicalAshkenaz, the son ofJapheth.[11] They shall have called themselves theAscenos, which with time derived into Tuiscones.[11]
TheTeutoni, a tribe with a name which probably came from the same root, did, throughLatin, ultimately give birth to the English words "Teuton" (first found in 1530) for the adjective German, (as in theTeutonic Knights, a military religious order, and the Teutonic Cross) and "Teuton" (noun), attested from 1833. "Teuton" was also used forTeutonisch Land (land of theTeutons), its abbreviationTeutschland used in some areas until the 19th century and its currently used official variationDeutschland.
In the northern French language area (northern France,Belgium), the neighboring Germanic dialects, areas and inhabitants of Flanders to Alsace are sometimes referred to asThiois, most likely still for the area betweenMaastricht andAachen and for the traditional German speaking part ofLorraine (Lorraine Thioise), The term is obsolete and derives from theodisc (see above).[12]
The nameGermany and the other similar-sounding names above are all derived from theLatinGermania, of the 3rd century BC, a word simply describing fertile land behind thelimes (frontier). It was likely theGauls who first called the people who crossed east of the RhineGermani (which the Romans adopted) as the original Germanic tribes did not refer to themselves asGermanus (singular) orGermani (plural).[13]
Julius Caesar was the first to useGermanus in writing when describing tribes in north-easternGaul in hisCommentarii de Bello Gallico: he records that four northernBelgic tribes, namely theCondrusi,Eburones,Caeraesi andPaemani, were collectively known asGermani. In AD 98,Tacitus wroteGermania (the Latin title was actually:De Origine et situ Germanorum), an ethnographic work on the diverse set ofGermanic tribes outside theRoman Empire. Unlike Caesar, Tacitus claims that the nameGermani was first applied to theTungri tribe. The nameTungri is thought to be theendonym corresponding to theexonymEburones.
19th-century and early 20th-century historians speculated on whether the northern Belgae wereCelts orGermanic 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 identifiablyCeltic. 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 theirethnography of northernbarbarians: by "German(ic)" Caesar meant "originating east of the Rhine". Tacitus wrote in his bookGermania: "TheTreveri andNervii take pride in their German origin, stating that this noble blood separates them from all comparison (with the Gauls) and the Gaulish laziness".[14]
TheOED2 records theories about the Celtic roots of the Latin wordGermania: one isgair, neighbour (a theory ofJohann Zeuss, a German historian and Celtic philologist) – inOld Irishgair is "neighbour". Another theory isgairm, battle-cry (put forward by Johann Wachter andJacob Grimm, who was a philologist as well as collector and editor offairy tales). Yet another theory is that the word comes fromger, "spear"; however,Eric Partridge suggests*gar /gavin, to shout (as Old Irishgarim), describing the Germanic tribesmen as noisy. He describes theger theory as "obsolete".
In English, the word "German" is first attested in 1520, replacing earlier uses ofAlmain,Alman andDutch. In German, the wordGermanen today refers toGermanic tribes, just like the Italian noun "Germani" (adjective: "germanici"), and the French adjective "germanique". The English noun "german" (as in "cousin-german") and the adjective "germane" are not connected to the name for the country, but come from the Latingermanus, "siblings with the same parents or father", which has cognates in Catalan,germà, and Spanish,hermano, meaning "brother".
The nameAllemagne and the other similar-sounding names above are derived from the southernGermanicAlemanni, aSuebic tribe or confederation in today'sAlsace, parts ofBaden-Württemberg andSwitzerland.
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. InOthello ii,3, (about 1603), for example,Shakespeare uses both "German" and "Almain" whenIago describes the drinking prowess of the English:
I learned it in England, where, indeed, they are most potent in potting: your Dane, yourGerman, and your swag-bellied Hollander—Drink, ho!—are nothing to your English. ... Why, he drinks you, with facility, your Dane dead drunk; he sweats not to overthrow yourAlmain; he gives your Hollander a vomit, ere the next pottle can be filled.
Andrew Boorde also mentions Germany in his Introduction to Knowledge, c. 1547:
The people of HighAlmain, they be rude and rusticall, and very boisterous in their speech, and humbly in their apparel ... they do feed grossly, and they will eat maggots as fast as we will eat comfits.
Through this name, the English language has also been given theAllemande (a dance), theAlmain rivet and probably thealmond furnace, which is probably not really connected to the word "almond" (of Greek origin) but is a corruption of "Almain furnace". In modern German,Alemannisch (Alemannic German) is a group of dialects of theUpper German branch of the Germanic language family, spoken by approximately ten million people in six countries.
Among the indigenous peoples of North America of former French and British colonial areas, the word for "Germany" came primarily[citation needed] as a borrowing from either French or English. For example, in theAnishinaabe languages, three terms for "Germany" exist: ᐋᓂᒫ (Aanimaa, originallyAalimaanh, from the FrenchAllemagne),[15][16] ᑌᐦᒋᒪᓐ (Dechiman, from the EnglishDutchman)[16] and ᒣᐦᔭᑴᑦ (Meyagwed, Ojibwe for "foreign speaker"[16] analogous to SlavicNémcy "Mutes" and Arab (ajam)mute), of whichAanimaa is the most common of the terms to describe Germany.[citation needed]
The namesSaksamaa andSaksa are derived from the name of the Germanic tribe of theSaxons. The word "Saxon", Proto-Germanic *sakhsan, is believed (a) to be derived from the wordseax, meaning a variety of single-edgedknives: a Saxon was perhaps literally a swordsman, or (b) to be derived from the word "axe", the region axed between the valleys of theElbe andWeser.
InFinnish andEstonian 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 someCeltic languages the word for the English nationality is derived from Saxon, e.g., the Scottish termSassenach, the Breton termsSaoz, Saozon, the Cornish termsSows, Sowson and theWelsh termsSais, Saeson. "Saxon" also led to the "-sex" ending inWessex, Essex,Sussex,Middlesex, etc., and of course to "Anglo-Saxon".
TheTransylvanian Saxons arrived toTransylvania mainly from theRhineland, notSaxony.
The Slavicexonymnemets,nemtsy derives fromProto-Slavicněmьcь, pl.němьci, 'the mutes, not able (to speak)' (from adjectiveněmъ 'mute' and suffix-ьcь).[17]
Use ofněmьci was narrowed to just Germans. The plural form is used for the Germans instead of any specific country name, e.g.Niemcy in Polish andŃymcy in Silesian dialect. In other languages, the country's name derives from the adjectiveněmьcьska (zemja) meaning 'German (land)' (f.i. CzechNěmecko). BelarusianНямеччына (Niamieččyna), and UkrainianНімеччина (Nimecchyna) are also fromněmьcь but with the addition of the suffix-ina.
According to another theory,[18][19]Nemtsy may derive from the Rhine-based, Germanic tribe ofNemetes mentioned byCaesar[20] andTacitus.[21] This etymology is dubious for phonological reasons, asnemetes could not become Slavicněmьcь.[17]
In Russian, the adjective for "German",nemetskiy (немецкий) comes from the same Slavic root while the name for the country isGermaniya (Германия). Likewise, inBulgarian the adjective isnemski (немски) and the country isGermaniya (Германия).
Over time, the Slavic exonym was borrowed by some non-Slavic languages. The Hungarian name for Germany isNémetország (from the stem Német-, lit. "Német land"). The popular Romanian name for German isneamț, used alongside the official term,german, which was borrowed from Latin.
According to the ChineseHistory of Yuan, theMongol commanderUriyangkhadai took part in theinvasion of Poland andof the Holy Roman Empire, described as the land of theNie-mi-sz'.[22]
The Arabic name forAustria النمساan-Nimsā oran-Namsā appeared during the Crusades era, another possibility is that the term could have been known early by Arabs inAl Andalus, the reason behind calling Austriaan-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 orAllemania, took its origin from the Latin namesGermania orAlemanni respectively.
Ottoman Turkish andPersian word for Austria,Nemçe (نمچه), is borrowed from the anterior Arabic name of Austria known throughout the Islamic world who considered Austria to be home of the Germans. TheAustrian Empire as well was the biggest German-speaking country in the 16th to 17th centuries bordering on the Ottoman Empire.
InLatvian andLithuanian the namesVācija andVokietija contain the root vāca or vākiā. Lithuanian linguistKazimieras Būga associated this with a reference to a Swedish tribe namedVagoths in a 6th-century chronicle (cf. finn.Vuojola and eston.Oju-/Ojamaa, 'Gotland', both thought to be derived from the Baltic word; the ethnonym *vakja, used by theVotes (vadja) and theSami, in older sources (vuowjos), may also be related). So the word forGerman possibly comes from a name originally given by West Baltic tribes to the Vikings.[23] Latvian linguist Konstantīns Karulis proposes that the word may be based on the Indo-European word*wek ("speak"), from which deriveOld Prussian wackis ("war cry") or Latvian vēkšķis. Such names could have been used to describe neighbouring people whose language was incomprehensible to Baltic peoples.
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 (德國,pinyin:Déguó) is a combination of the short form of 德意志 (pinyin:déyìzhì), which approximates the German pronunciation[ˈdɔʏtʃ] ofDeutsch 'German', plus國guó 'country'.
The Vietnamese nameĐức is theSino-Vietnamese pronunciation (đức[ɗɨ́k]) of the character德 that appears in the Chinese name.
Japanese languageドイツ (doitsu) is an approximation of the wordDeutsch meaning 'German'.[24] It was earlier written with theSino-Japanese character compound獨逸 (whose獨 has since beensimplified to独), but has been largely superseded by the aforementionedkatakana spellingドイツ.However, the character独 is still used in compounds, for example独文 (dokubun) meaning 'German literature', or as an abbreviation, such as in独日関係 (Dokunichi kankei, German-Japanese relations).
The (South)Korean nameDogil (독일) 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 pronounceddo+itsu as in Japanese, butdok+il =Dogil. Until the 1980s, South Korean primary textbooks adoptedDoichillanteu (도이칠란트) which approximates the German pronunciation[ˈdɔʏtʃlant] ofDeutschland[citation needed].
The official North Korean nametoich'willandŭ (도이췰란드) approximates the German pronunciation[ˈdɔʏtʃlant] ofDeutschland. TraditionallyDogil (독일) had been used in North Korea until the 1990s[citation needed]. Use of the Chinese name (in its Korean pronunciationDeokguk,덕국) is attested for the early 20th century[citation needed]. It is now uncommon.
The sign name for Germany inGerman Sign Language is a one-handed sign: the hand is placed on the forehead, palm facing sideways, extended index finger facing upwards, with the thumb keeping the other fingers tucked against the palm. The sign may also be used to mean 'German language' or 'German person', as well as 'police' or 'police officer'.[25] This sign is aniconic one, emulating the shape of aPickelhaube. It is one of the two signs for 'Germany' inAmerican Sign Language, alongside another, in which the dominant hand's wrist is placed on that of the non-dominant hand in front of the signer's chest, with both hands' fingers spread and wiggling.[26] Several other languages also use thePickelhaube variation as well, with some modifications; others use unrelated signs.[27]
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 ofGermans andGermany is older, it is only since 1871 that there has been anation-state of Germany. Later political disagreements and thepartition of Germany (1945–1990) have further made it difficult to use proper terminology.
Starting withCharlemagne, the territory of modern Germany was within the realm of theHoly Roman Empire. It was a union of relatively independent rulers who each ruled their own territories. This empire was called in GermanHeiliges Römisches Reich, with the addition from the late Middle Ages ofDeutscher Nation (of (the) German 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 asDeutsches Reich, creating a link to the later nation state of 1871. Besides the officialHeiliges Römisches Reich Deutscher Nation, common expressions areAltes Reich (the old Reich) andRömisch-Deutsches Kaiserreich (Roman-German Imperial Realm).
Roman authors mentioned a number of tribes they calledGermani—the tribes did not themselves use the term. After 1500 these tribes were identified by linguists as belonging to a group ofGermanic language speakers (which include modern languages like German, English and Dutch).Germani (for the people) andGermania (for the area where they lived) became the common Latin words for Germans and Germany.
Germans call themselvesDeutsche (living inDeutschland).Deutsch is an adjective (Proto-Germanic *theudisk-) derived from OldHigh Germanthiota, diota (Proto-Germanic *theudō) meaning "people", "nation", "folk". The word *theudō iscognate with Proto-Celtic *teutā, whence the Celtic tribal nameTeuton, 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 theLate Medieval andEarly Modern period, Germany and Germans were known asAlmany andAlmains in English, viaOld Frenchalemaigne,alemans derived from the name of theAlamanni andAlemannia. These English terms were obsolete by the 19th century. At the time, the territory of modern Germany belonged to the realm of theHoly Roman Empire (the Roman Empire restored by the Christian king ofFrancony,Charlemagne). This feudal state became a union of relatively independent rulers who developed their own territories. Modernisation took place on the territorial level (such as Austria, Prussia, Saxony orBremen), not on the level of the Empire.
The French emperor,Napoleon, forced theEmperor of Austria to step down asHoly Roman Emperor in 1806. Some of the German countries were then collected into theConfederation 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 aGerman Confederation. Some member states, such as Prussia and Austria, had only a part of their territories included within the confederation, while other member states brought territories to the alliance that included people, like 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 1841Hoffmann von Fallersleben wrote the songDas Lied der Deutschen,[28] giving voice to the dreams of a unified Germany (Deutschland über Alles) 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. After Austria was defeated in the German War of summer 1866, it acknowledged the dissolution of the confederation. Prussia was free to create a new alliance, called theNorth 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.[29]
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The first nation state named "Germany" began in 1871; before thatGermany 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 expressionsReich (reign, realm, empire) andBund (federation, confederation) are somewhat interchangeable. Sometimes they even co-existed in the same constitution: for example in the German Empire (1871–1918) the parliament had the nameReichstag, the council of the representatives of the German statesBundesrat. When in 1870–71 theNorth German Confederation was transformed into the German Empire, the preamble said that the participating monarchs are creatingeinen ewigen Bund (an eternal confederation) which will have the nameDeutsches Reich.
Due to the history of Germany, the principle of federalism is strong. Only the state of Hitler (1933–1945) and the state of the communists (East Germany, 1949–1990) were centralist states. As a result, the wordsReich andBund were used more frequently than in other countries, to distinguish between imperial or federal institutions and those at a subnational level. For example, a modern federal German minister is calledBundesminister, in contrast to aLandesminister 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 wordReich.[citation needed]
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 aBundesebene (federal/national level) and aLandesebene (level of the regional states), in a similar way to the political bodies. An example is theGerman Football AssociationDeutscher Fußballbund. (The wordBundestrainer, referring to the national football coach, does not refer to the Federal Republic, but to the Fußballbund itself.)
In other German speaking countries, the wordsReich (Austria before 1918) andBund (Austria since 1918, Switzerland) are used too. An organ namedBundesrat exists in all three of them: in Switzerland it is the government and in Germany and Austria the house of regional representatives.
In the 19th century before 1871, Germans, for example in theFrankfurt Parliament of 1848–49, argued about what should become of Austria. Including Austria (at least the German-speaking parts) in a future German state was referred to as theGreater German Solution, while a German state without Austria was theSmaller German Solution.
In 1919, the Weimar Constitution postulated the inclusion ofDeutsch-Österreich (the German-speaking parts of Austria), but theWestern Allies objected to this. It was realised only in 1938 when Germany annexed Austria(Anschluss). National Socialist propaganda proclaimed the realisation ofGroßdeutschland and, in 1943, the German Reich was officially renamedGroßdeutsches Reich. However, these expressions became neither common nor popular.
In National Socialist propaganda, Austria was also calledOstmark. After theAnschluss, the previous territory of Germany was calledAltreich (old Reich).
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The official name of the German state in 1871 becameDeutsches Reich, linking itself to the formerReich before 1806 and the rudimentaryReich of 1848/1849. This expression was commonly used in official papers and also on maps, while in other contextsDeutschland was more frequently used.
Those Germans living within its boundaries were calledReichsdeutsche, those outside were calledVolksdeutsche (ethnic Germans). The latter expression referred mainly to the German minorities in Eastern Europe. Germans living abroad (for example in America) were and are calledAuslandsdeutsche.
After the Emperor was forced to abdicate in 1918 and the republic was declared, Germany was informally called theDeutsche Republik. The official name of the state remained the same. The termWeimar 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 (Imperial Germany) or(Deutsches) Kaiserreich.
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 expressionDrittes Reich (Third 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 wasTausendjähriges Reich (Thousand years Reich). Later, Hitler renounced the termDrittes Reich (officially in June 1939), but it already had become popular among supporters and opponents and is still used in historiography (sometimes in quotation marks).[30] It later led to the nameZweites Reich (Second Empire) being used to refer to Germany between the years 1871 and 1919. Germany under Hitler's rule is most commonly called in EnglishNazi Germany,Nazi being a colloquial abbreviation ofNationalsozialist.
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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 GDRWestberlin was the preferred spelling to de-emphasize the relationship toBerlin, Hauptstadt der DDR (the GDR capital).
After 1945,Deutsches Reich was still used for a couple of years (in 1947, for instance, when the Social Democrats gathered in Nuremberg they called their rallyReichsparteitag). In many contexts, the German people still called their countryGermany, even after two German states were created in 1949.
The Federal Republic of Germany,Bundesrepublik Deutschland, established in 1949, saw itself as the same state founded in 1867/71 butReich gave place toBund. For example, theReichskanzler became theBundeskanzler,reichsdeutsch becamebundesdeutsch,Reichsbürger (citizen of theReich) becameBundesbürger.
Germany as a whole was calledDeutschland als Ganzes orGesamtdeutschland, referring to Germany in the international borders of 1937 (before Hitler started to annex other countries). This resulted inall German (orpan germanique—a chauvinist concept) 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 (the communist German Democratic Republic). It was calledSowjetische Besatzungszone (SBZ, Soviet Zone of Occupation),Sowjetzone,Ostzone,Mitteldeutschland orPankow (many GDR politicians lived or worked in Berlin-Pankow).
In 1949, the communists, protected by the Soviet Union, established theDeutsche Demokratische Republik (DDR,German Democratic Republic, GDR). This state was not considered to be a successor of the Reich, but, nevertheless, to represent allgood Germans. Rulers and inhabitants of GDR called their state simply DDR orunsere Republik (our republic). The GDR still supported the idea of a German nation and the need for reunification. The Federal Republic was often calledWestdeutschland or the BRD. After 1970 the GDR called itself a "socialist state of German nation". Westerners called the GDRSowjetische Besatzungszone (SBZ, Soviet Zone of Occupation),Sowjetzone,Ostzone,Mitteldeutschland orPankow (the GDR government was in the Pankow district of Berlin).
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In 1990 theGerman Democratic Republic ceased to exist. Five new federal states ("Bundesländer") were established and joined the "Bundesrepublik Deutschland" (Federal Republic of Germany).East Berlin joined through merger withWest Berlin; technically this was the sixth new federal state sinceWest Berlin, although considered a de facto federal state, had the legal status of amilitary occupation zone.
The official name of the country is Federal Republic of Germany (Bundesrepublik Deutschland). The termsWestdeutschland andOstdeutschland are still used for the western and the eastern parts of the German territory, respectively.
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The dictionary definition ofGermany at Wiktionary