German is the origin of the word. The German nation or the Germans are such Germans: what they don't talk about
The Germans - the most numerous people in foreign Europe - populate mainly its central part. The total number of Germans in Europe is over 75 million people, of which 54 million 766 thousand people live in Germany, 17 million 79 thousand people - in the GDR and 2 million 180 thousand people - in West Berlin (according to mid-December 1962).
The population density in the GDR is 159 people per sq. km. More high density in the districts of Karl-Marxstadt (former Chemnitz) -362 people, Leipzig (315 people), Dresden (285 people), Halle (231 people). In the north, the density is lower (up to 60-70 people per sq. Km). 72% of the population lives in cities with over 2 thousand inhabitants.
The average population density of the Federal Republic of Germany is 220 people per 1 sq. km. The most densely populated areas are the Rhine regions, especially the Ruhr. The density is lower in the north of Germany and in Bavaria. 76% of the population lives in cities.
The area of the GDR is 107,834 sq. km, 247 960 sq. km are the area of the Federal Republic of Germany and 481 sq. km - the area of West Berlin.
The borders of the GDR run in the north along the Baltic Sea, in the east - along the Oder and Neisse (with the Polish People's Republic), then with the Czechoslovak Socialist Republic, in the south and west - with the FRG. Germany borders in the south with Austria and Switzerland, in the west - with France, Luxembourg, Belgium and the Netherlands, in the north the border runs along the North Sea, on the Jutland Peninsula, Germany borders with Denmark and in a small section the border runs along the Baltic Sea. Germany owns the North and East Frisian islands, Heligoland and others in the North Sea, the GDR - islands located in the Baltic Sea; the largest of them are Rügen (926 sq. km) and Usedom (445 sq. km), a small part of which belongs to Poland. West Berlin is located in the territory of the GDR.
Germany's central position in Europe favors cultural and economic exchange with neighboring countries.
The country's relief is characterized by a gradual rise to the south. In the north, most of the area is occupied by the North German Lowland, which arose during the Ice Age. A narrow strip of the North Sea coastline is in places below sea level. Such areas are protected by dams and dams. These are marches with very fertile soils. To the south of the lowland lies the belt of the Central German ruined fold-fault mountains, separated by hollows and river valleys. In the south of the country, a narrow strip of the Northern Limestone Alps borders the Bavarian Plateau. The highest point of the country is located in the Alps - the Zug-Spitze peak (2968 m). The relief of the country had a noticeable impact on the variety of types of settlements, buildings and economy.
The lowering of the surface from south to north corresponds to the direction of the flow of most rivers in Germany. All major rivers of the country - Rhine, Ems,
Weser, Elbe, Oder - flow into the North or Baltic Seas. Only the Danube flows in a southeast direction and flows into the Black Sea. The navigable parts of the rivers are interconnected by a wide network of canals. River transport plays a significant role in the transport of goods. Rivers flowing from the Alps are widely used for the construction of hydroelectric power plants. On the territory of Germany, especially in its northeastern part and in the Alps, there are thousands of lakes, mainly of glacial origin. The largest lake - Constance - is located on the border of Germany with Austria and Switzerland.
Germany is located in a temperate zone: the humid maritime climate in the west gradually turns into a moderate continental in the east and especially in the southeast. The average annual temperature fluctuates between + 10 ° in the southwest of Germany and + 7.7 ° in the southeast of the Dresden region (GDR). The average annual precipitation is 600-700 mm, but they fall unevenly both over the territory and over the seasons. The amount of precipitation decreases in the direction from northwest to southeast. The soils of most of the area of Germany are poorly fertile (podzolic and brown forest, swampy). The exceptions are the already mentioned marshes, loess soils of the Middle German Mountains region, and soils of valleys and depressions in the south.
Arable land has a variety of soils and climatic conditions allows you to cultivate various crops - from rye and potatoes to sugar beets and grapes.
Forests cover about 28% of the entire surface of the country. They are distributed extremely unevenly, but mainly in the mountains. On the plain, these are usually planted or highly cultivated forests. Coniferous trees predominate (in the north there are more pine trees, in the south and in the middle part of Germany - spruce and fir). Deciduous forests (beech, oak, hornbeam, birch) are located mainly in the west. In the north (especially in the northwest), as well as in the Alps and their foothills, there are many meadows and pastures, which contributes to the development of animal husbandry in these areas (mainly cattle are raised here).
Germany is quite rich in minerals. First of all, these are bituminous coal (the main deposits are in the Ruhr and the Saar region of the Federal Republic of Germany, in the GDR - in the Zwickau region) and brown coal (Luzhitsa and the area between Leipzig and Halle in the German Democratic Republic). In addition, copper, potash and rock salt are mined in the country; there are small and medium deposits of iron ore, oil (Germany and the German Democratic Republic), raw materials for the glass, ceramic and construction industries, ores of some non-ferrous metals, and uranium deposits.
Ethnic history
The ethnic basis of the German people was the ancient Germanic tribes that inhabited at the beginning of our era the space between the Rhine and the Oder, in particular the Hermino, Istevonian (Iskevonian) and Ingveoiskie (Ingevonian) tribal groups. The first group (the tribes of the Suevi, Germundurs, Hutts, Alemanni, etc. belonged to it) is historically associated with the later peoples of southern Germany - the Bavarians, Swabians, Thuringians, Hessians; their descendants are also the modern German-speaking Swiss and Austrians. The second group - the Istevonian - included the tribes of the Franks inhabiting the Rhine, which were destined to play a particularly important role in the political and ethnic history of both Germany and other countries in the early Middle Ages. Finally, the third tribal group - Ingevon - included the tribes of the Frisians, Hawks, Saxons, Angles, Jutes. This group also included those tribes with which the ancient world met earlier than others: the Cimbri and Teutons, who threatened Rome at the end of the 2nd century. BC NS. Subsequently (V century) some Ingevon tribes - Angles, part of the Saxons - moved to the islands of Britain, the Frisians partly dissolved in neighboring peoples, partly retained their isolation to the present day, but most of this "Lower German" group of tribes formed the basis of the modern population of Northern Germany ...
Among the Germanic tribes were those whose names have survived to this day in the designation of entire peoples. So, the name of the Franks passed to the one conquered by them in the 5th-6th centuries. country - "France" - and its population - "French", although the Franks themselves disappeared among the Roman population. According to the Aleman tribe, the French still call all Germans « Allemands». The name "Germans", which is included in all Slavic languages, comes, according to some researchers, from the tribal name of the Nemets. Finally, the name of the Teutonic tribe later became the self-name of the entire German people: Teutsche, Deutsche and countries - Deutschland.
In the era of migration of peoples, repeated and complex movements and mixing of tribes and tribal unions took place. At the same time, there was a disintegration of ancient tribal ties and stratification into classes. In the place of the tribes, peoples took shape. Some of the Germanic tribes and tribal unions, once strong and numerous, disappeared without a trace, joining other peoples. So, the East German Goths and Vandals, who conquered in the 5th century. the countries of southern and southwestern Europe (Italy, Spain, part of France), as well as North Africa, later disappeared among the local population. The same fate befell the Germanic tribes of the Marcomannians, Burgundians, Lombards, but some of them have remained names in foreign-speaking countries (Burgundy, Lombardy). The Franks played a much more important role in the formation of the German people.
The Frankish union of tribes was formed relatively late: neither Tacitus, nor Pliny, nor other classical authors even mention the name of the Franks; it is first found in Ammianus Marcellinus (second half of the 3rd century). By this time, the Franks were a powerful and warlike tribal union that embraced a number of tribes along the middle and lower reaches of the Rhine (Hutts, Bruckters, Usipets, Tenkters, etc.). The Frankish tribes then split into two main groups - the Salic Franks in the lower reaches
Rhine and Ripuarsque francs in the middle course of the Rhine. They rallied together so much that they had a common dialect: F. Engels proved that the Frankish dialect occupied an independent place as a transitional link between High German and Low German dialects (see below).
Until the V century. some tribes of the Franks retained independence within the general union: each tribe had its own leader, sometimes even with the title of king. Relations with the Romans and long wars led to the disintegration of tribal forms of life; the hereditary tribal nobility grew stronger. The leaders of the Salic Franks from the Merovingian dynasty managed to subjugate all the Frankish tribes, and then a number of other Germanic tribes, creating an early feudal state where the military nobility ruled. The aggressive activity of the Frankish king Clovis (482-511) is especially famous. Under him, the Alemans, part of the Saxons and other Germanic tribes entered the state of the Franks, and most of Gaul (present-day France) was captured. Clovis converted to Christianity according to the Roman Catholic rite and enlisted the support of the powerful Roman Church. Clovis' successors further expanded the boundaries of the Frankish state with their conquests, subjugating the Turingians (531), the Bavars (by treaty, 540s), capturing Burgundy and other lands in the southeast of modern France. Under King Charlemagne (from the Carolingian dynasty), extensive conquests continued and the state of the Franks turned into a huge early feudal empire (800), covering the western part of Germany, all of France and the northern part of Italy. Charles fought long bloody wars against the Saxons and forcibly imposed Christianity on them in order to weaken their stubborn resistance. Karl also fought a lot with the Slavic tribes. His name entered all Slavic languages with the common noun meaning "king". Charles zealously promoted the strengthening of the influence of the Christian Church and Roman culture among the population under his control.
As you know, Engels paid special attention to the process of the formation of the Frankish state during the conquest of the Western Roman Empire by the Franks, considering it as one of the classic examples of the transformation of a tribal system into a class feudal state. He devoted a special chapter to this issue ("The Formation of the State of the Germans") in the book "The Origin of the Family, Private Property and the State." The military leader turned into a king, his squad turned into a noble service nobility, free communes into a dependent peasantry.
The conquering Franks gradually mingled with the population of the countries they conquered. But their fate in different parts of the empire was different. In Western, Roman-speaking countries (France, Italy), they simply disappeared among the local population, more cultured and numerous; The Frankish (Germanic) language soon disappeared here, and the Romance dialects remained dominant. In the German-speaking, especially in the Rijsk areas, the Frankish element retained its dominance. The dialect of Salic Franks formed the basis of the Dutch and Flemish languages; The Ripoire dialect has merged into the goopes of the modern Rhine regions - the Middle Frankish and Upper Frankish dialects of the regions of Cologne, Eiffel, Palatinate, etc.
The empire of Charlemagne, multilingual and not fastened by any economic ties, for the economy was natural, disintegrated very quickly. According to the Treaty of Verdun in 843, Charles's grandchildren divided it among themselves: the German-speaking lands on the right bank of the Rhine went to Ludwig the German, but the left bank to Lothar (Lorraine, Alsace), who also received Northern Italy. The Roman-speaking countries in the west (in the place of modern France) were given to Karl the Bald.
By this time, in most regions of Germany, the population no longer lived in a tribal way, but feudal relations had not yet developed; a significant part of the peasantry remained uncropped. Former tribal unions gave way to "tribal duchies" that gradually turned into kingdoms or other purely feudal formations. In each of the "tribal duchies" one or another tribal group prevailed, but already mixed with foreign tribes. The upper reaches of the Danube and Rhine were Swabia (the former Suevi tribe). Down the Danube - Bavaria; its population was formed from the former tribes of the Quads and, apparently, the Marcomanians, to which the remnants of other tribes, including the Celtic ones, were added. On the right bank of the middle reaches of the Rhine and along the Main, Franconia was located - the region of the primordial domination of the Franks. Along the upper reaches of the Weser and along the Saale - Thuringia (the Turingians are the descendants of the Germundurs). Between the lower reaches of the Rhine and the Elbe was Saxony - the land of the ancient Saxons, which greatly strengthened by the end of the 1st millennium and spread far to the east. They absorbed other Germanic tribes and drove the Slavs.
The erasure of old tribal boundaries and the mixing of dialects was facilitated by the fact that in the 7th-11th centuries. in the Germanic languages there was a peculiar process of the so-called movement of consonants (this was the second, "Upper German", movement of consonants; the first, common Germanic, took place in the most ancient era, when the Germanic languages were separated from other Indo-European languages); this phenomenon consisted in the transition of voiceless stop p, t, k to affricatespf, ts, kh, and voiced stop b, d, g in deaf p, t, To. The "second movement" of consonants captured the High German dialects: Alemannic, Bavarian, Swabian, Thuringian, as well as East, West, and Middle Frankish, but did not affect the Lower Frankish and Lower Saxon dialects. This largely predetermined the division of the later High German and Low German dialects and further undermined the former unity of the Franks as a nationality.
The East Frankish kingdom, which united all these German-speaking regions, was a very fragile whole. The Frankish element in him was greatly weakened. But the Saxons have strengthened: 919-1024 - the reign of the kings of the Saxon dynasty. The state itself at the beginning of the 10th century. called Teutonic (Regnum Teutonicum) - by name ancient tribe Teutons. Apparently, this name of the state reflected a vague consciousness of the ethnic community of its population. Here you can see the first glimpses of the nationwide, nationwide self-designation of the Germans. The word "Teutonic" first appears in the monuments in 786 in the Latin form "theo-discus", meaning "folk", as opposed to "Latin". At the beginning of the IX century. the language of the Germanic population of the East Franco state was called "teudisca lingua", and the German-speaking population itself was called "nationes theotiscae" (Teutonic nations), although the word "frengisk" (Frankish) was also used as a synonym. Since the end of the 9th century. the Latin form is increasingly becoming the word "teutonicus", "teutoni". In the proper Germanic form "diulisse" this word has been known since the middle of the 10th century.
Glimpses of national self-awareness were reflected in art, in architectural monuments of the times of Charlemagne and his successors. Although it was almost exclusively church architecture, expressing Christian ideology and Roman traditions, art historians find already in the monuments of the 9th century. some features that distinguish them from the monuments of the western, Romanesque part of the empire.
In those years, German writing and literature were born, but national aspects are very weakly expressed in it. At first, it was only religious literature (for example, "Heliand" - a poem about the Savior, written around 830 on evangelical themes in the Old Saxon dialect; or "Book of the Gospels" by the Frankish monk Otfried, written in his native language around 868). This was followed by poems of chivalry, also devoid of the spirit of the people; but it was reflected in the heroic poems "Song of the Nibelungs" and "Song of Gudrun", compiled at the end of the 12th and the beginning of the 13th century. based on ancient Germanic characters and legends. In the works of some poets of that time, one can already trace the manifestations of general German self-awareness. The largest of the minnesingers (singers of love), Walter von der Voglweide (1160-1228), who spoke out against feudal strife and against selfish clergy, enthusiastically praised his homeland:
“Life in Germany is superior to any other. From the Elbe to the Rhine and east to Hungary, the best that I have ever known in the world lives ... I would swear that German women are the best in the world. "
But only a few had a nationwide self-awareness. The feudal fragmentation of the country, the predominance of a subsistence economy narrowed the horizons of the inhabitants of Germany, and the differences in dialects intensified interregional strife. The story of the Bavarian writer Werner Sadovnik (circa 1250) tells about the return of a young knight, who came from a peasant family, to his home: forgetting his native dialect, he tries to speak with his family in French, Czech, Latin and Lower Saxon adverbs, but they do not understand him and are mistaken for a Czech, a Saxon, or a French. The father asks him: "Do respect for me and your mother, tell us at least a word in German." The son, however, again answers him in Saxon, and the father again does not understand him. Apparently, for the Bavarian peasant, and even for the Bavarian writer of that time, the concepts of "Bavarian" and "German" were identical, and "Saxon", that is, a resident of North Germany, was the same foreigner as a Frenchman or a Czech.
General German unity was also weakened by the fact that already in the middle of the 10th century. The Teutonic state turned into the Roman Empire, for the German kings captured the whole of Northern and Central Italy, together with Rome (and later also Southern). And although this state became from the XII century. to be called the "Holy Roman Empire of the German Nation", but there was very little national German in it. Feudal fragmentation grew in the country, the emperors pursued a policy of conquest, alien to the interests of the people, fought with the popes, participated in predatory crusades... Engels wrote in this regard that "the Roman imperial title and the associated claims to world domination" led to the fact that the "constitution of the nation state" became impossible, and in the Italian campaigns of conquest "all-German national interests were treacherously violated all the time."
The linguistic commonality existed within narrow areas: there were dialects Alemannic, Bavarian, South Frankish, East Frankish, Rhine-Frankish, Middle Frankish, Thuringian, Lower Saxon, Lower Frankish and Frisian. Poets most often used High German dialects, but tried to avoid the harsh features of local dialects. Even the poets of Northern Germany wrote their works in the High German dialect, and only a few of them in the Low German dialects.
In the XII-XIII centuries. the actual Germanic lands in the empire were Upper Lorraine, Alsace, Swabia, Bavaria, Franconia, Thuringia, Saxony (coinciding with the present Lower Saxony, between the lower Elbe and the Rhine), Friesland; they were duchies that were split into smaller fiefdoms.
During these centuries, there was a significant expansion of the German ethnic territory to the East. The Bavarian and Saxon dukes, relying on the forces of the empire, began to attack the lands of the Polabian and Pomor Slavs. Despite the fierce resistance of the latter, this Drang nach Osten continued unswervingly; at the same time, the German feudal lords skillfully used intertribal discord among the Slavs, setting some tribes against others. On the lands taken from the Slavs, "marks" were created led by margraves (Meissen mark, later the elector of Saxony; North and Middle marks, later Brandenburg; Eastern, or Luzhitskaya, mark on the land of the Lusatian Serbs, etc.). The princes resettled their subjects there - the peasants of the German lands. This German colonization of the former Slavic regions led to the mixing of the German population itself: mixed dialects and a mixed culture developed in the eastern lands. Whole groups of Germanized Slavs also poured into the same East German population, who gradually lost their language, but often retained to one degree or another the old customs and features of material culture. In the toponymy of the whole of East Germany, a lot is still left of the languages of the former Slavic population (Schwerin - Animal Lake; Wismar - Above-World; Rostock - Rostock; Brandenburg - Branibor; the name of the Spree River contains the name of the Slavic tribe of Sprevians; the Havel River - the tribe gavolian, etc.). The formation of the population of East Germany largely contributed to the rallying of the German people, since there, in these eastern lands, a mixed, common German culture developed.
This cohesion was facilitated by the economic growth of the 13th-15th centuries. The productivity of agriculture increased, crafts and trade developed in the growing cities, and ore resources began to be exploited. South German cities established trade ties with Italy, and the North German coastal cities united in the Hanseatic League (Hansa), freed from feudal dependence. The city merchants supported the kings who fought against feudal strife. The union of North German cities was in the XIV-XV centuries. as it were, the embryo of a general German national unification; the dialect of one of the largest Hanseatic cities - Lübeck - became during this period common language cities of northern Germany. However, the Hanseatic cities had trade and economic ties with the cities of Flanders, England, Scandinavia, Russia, but not with southern Germany, which, in turn, gravitated more towards Italy than towards Northern Germany. The Hanseatic cities were not destined to become the nucleus of national unification. Decline of Hanseatic trade from the beginning of the 16th century. (in connection with the opening of ocean trade routes) nullified the planned unification.
The economic rise of Germany in the 15th century. and the expansion of its ties with Northern Italy and other countries of high culture caused the growth of culture in Germany itself. In many German cities from the end of the XIV and during the XV century. universities were created: in Heidelberg, Cologne, Erfurt, Leipzig, Rostock, Freiburg, Greifswald, etc. This was influenced, among other things, by the cultural emancipation of Germany from France and Italy; a certain role was played by the coming in the XIII century. confusion in the Catholic Church and the “great ecclesiastical schism” of 1378-1417, when Germany and France recognized different popes: most of the German lands were Roman, and the French were Avignon.
The cities in which the intelligentsia took shape and grew became hotbeds of the antifeudal and anti-church movement of humanism, which conquered many European countries at that time. The main sphere of humanists was predominantly literature, and their activities received an all the broader resonance, since it was at this time, in the middle of the 15th century, that book printing was born in Germany.
The most famous are the satirical works of German humanist writers: The Ship of Fools by the Alsatian Sebastian Brant (1494), The Curse of Fools by Thomas Murner (1512), also an Alsatian, and especially the Letters of Dark Men (1515-1517) .), compiled by a group of humanists led by the famous Franconian Ulrich von Hutten. These works ridiculed medieval prejudices, priestly obscurantism and pseudo-scholarship. The scientific merits of the humanist Johann Reuchlin (1455-1522), a researcher of ancient Greek and Hebrew literature, one of the founders of classical education in Europe, are enormous.
The era of humanism gave birth to great figures of the visual arts in Germany, such as Albrecht Durer (1471-1528), Lucas Cranach (1472-1553), Hans Holbein the Younger (1497-1543).
But humanists, writers and scientists, although they opposed medieval inertia and clerical obscurantism, did not contribute to the national unity of the Germans. They were cosmopolitan, wrote, as a rule, Latin and had little interest in the culture of their people. However, there were also folk poets at that time, folk literary works; the most famous of them is the satirical song about the Cunning Fox - "Reinaerl" (a translation into Low German of a Dutch work that appeared at the end of the 15th century and became widely popular). In this work, the feudal nobility and the Catholic clergy were ridiculed (Goethe subsequently processed this poem: "Reinecke the fox"). The work of the greatest poet-meistersinger and composer of that time, the Nuremberg resident Hans Sachs (1494-1576), was also popular.
The beginning of the XVI century. was marked in the history of Germany by major events that were a consequence of the economic development of the previous period. The estates of feudal society disintegrated, sharp class contradictions were increasingly exposed. Engels gave a vivid description of the motley class structure of the German population of that time in The Peasant War in Germany. The feudal estate stratified into a powerful princely elite and an impoverished, discontented chivalry (the middle nobility almost disappeared). The same happened with the clergy: its aristocracy was no different from the secular feudal lords, and the lower clergy, deprived of privileges, approached the urban and rural poor in their interests. The cities were dominated by the patrician, the majority of the population were middle burghers and the poor: apprentices, day laborers, and the lumpen proletariat. The peasantry, the most oppressed and oppressed class, stood below everyone else on the estate ladder. Therefore, it was the most revolutionary class of that time, but due to its disunity, it could not rally into a real revolutionary force.
General dissatisfaction with feudal and ecclesiastical extortions, despotism of princes and bishops, anarchy and lawlessness, which covered almost all segments of the population, resulted in 1517-1525. into the broad movement of the Reformation and into a powerful peasant war. The movement began with an opposition to the Catholic Church. This is understandable, for it was the church that sanctified and legalized all types of class oppression at that time. The Church pursued attempts at social protest on a par with church heresy, since criticism of secular order, according to Catholic doctrine, was a criticism of the divine order. Freethinkers were condemned and burned at the stake as heretics. The opposition clothed its social and political demands in the form of a protest against the orthodox interpretation of the texts of the Bible, the Gospel, etc., against Catholic rituals, priests and monks. Engels could rightfully call the Lutheran chant "Eine fesle Burg ist unser Gott" ("Our God is an unshakable stronghold") the "Marseillaise" of the 16th century.
But the reformation movement, which began in 1517 and was led by the Augustinian monk Martin Luther, very soon outgrew the scope of the demand for church reform. It stirred up all classes and estates. According to Engels, “The lightning thrown by Luther hit the target. The entire German people were set in motion ”1. However, this movement was not united. It immediately split into two streams: the moderate burgher-noble, and the revolutionary - peasant-plebeian. Peasant War 1524-1525 took the broadest scope, spreading almost throughout Germany, from Swabia to Saxony. But it ended in a cruel defeat for the peasants, since during the period of feudalism, due to their social and economic status, they could not unite. They could not win over to their side other opposition classes, including the townspeople. The efforts of the best leaders of the people, such as Thomas Münzer, were unsuccessful. Of the other classes of the German population, only the lower nobility ((chivalry), "at that time the most national class", according to Engels 2, tried to achieve the unification of the country by breaking the separatism of the large feudal lords (Franz von Sickingen's movement). After the defeat of both the peasantry and chivalry, the feudal fragmentation of Germany intensified even more.
But the Reformation had one, albeit indirect, but important and positive consequence for the national reunification of Germany. Luther, opposing Roman papism, for the creation of a national German church, translated the Bible into German and introduced worship in his native language. This translation of the Bible was very successful from a linguistic point of view. It was based on Luther's dialect, which had developed by that time in the Saxon Elector (formerly Meissen Mark) - in Leipzig, Dresden, Meissen - and was used in the princely chancellery. This mixed dialect was more or less intelligible to the inhabitants of different parts of Germany. Luther himself wrote about it this way: “I do not have my own special German language, I use general German so that I can be equally understood by southerners and northerners. I speak the language of the Saxon Chancellery, which is followed by all the princes and kings of Germany ... That is why this is the most common German language ”1. But Luther enriched the "language of the Saxon chancellery" with popular speech. He did it deliberately. “You shouldn't ask the letters of the Latin language,” wrote Luther, “how to speak German. You should ask the mother in the house, the children in the street, the common man in the market and look into their mouths as they speak, and translate accordingly, then they will understand and notice that they are being spoken to in German ”2. Indeed, even those who did not accept his church reform, the Catholics, began to use the language of the Lutherian Bible. Engels noted this enormous national merit of Martin Luther: "Luther cleaned out the Augean stables not only of the church, but also of the German language, and created modern German prose."
However, the Reformation itself not only did not accelerate, but for a long time postponed the national unification of Germany. In addition to the previous feudal fragmentation, Germany has now split into two more hostile religious camps - Protestant Evangelicals and Catholics. The discord between them took the form of real wars, in which the class, civil struggle was intertwined with the confessional: the wars of 1521-1555, the Thirty Years' War (1618-1648). These grueling, bloody wars undermined the economic well-being of Germany, devastated its population, devastated cities, and even more villages. The feudal fragmentation of the country was consolidated and deepened, the princes and nobility were strengthened at the expense of the cities and the peasantry. Among the German states, economically backward, but aggressive, predatory Prussia (formerly Brandenburg, which seized the Prussian lands of the Teutonic Order in the 17th century, and Polish Silesia in the 18th century) advanced in the east. In Prussia, a rough barracks-soldier spirit prevailed, which met the interests of the ruling class of large landowners, the Junkers. Prussian cane-serfdom instilled horror in those years. According to F. Mehring, a well-known Marxist historian, “The Prussian state grew due to constant betrayal in relation to the emperor and the empire, and it grew no less due to the robbing and stripping of its working classes ... to reform itself — about the same thing so that it could pave the way for the national reform of Germany — and there is nothing to say. First, it was necessary to tear him to shreds - only then could the German nation breathe, freed from this painful nightmare ”4.
While Prussia grew stronger, multinational Austria, the former core of the medieval German Empire, gradually weakened, despite territorial growth, and lost its influence over the German states.
The very situation of political fragmentation, economic stagnation, and cultural decline was not conducive to the national development of the German people. The policy of the rulers of the small German states consisted of petty intrigues, dynastic squabbles and was anti-national. The cultural forces of the country were placed at the service of princes, dukes, kings, at whose courts poets, musicians, and artists were located.
In the next century, the trade relations of the German states with England and France, which had already embarked on the path of capitalist development, and with other countries were strengthened, and the economic and then cultural rise of the German lands began, which created conditions for national unification. The Rhineland, Saxony, Silesia and some other lands became centers of industrial development. Trade relations between the regions of the country resumed and grew. Cultural life has revived. The influence of the liberation ideas of French educational philosophy began to show itself. Many German kings and princes during this period of "enlightened absolutism", flaunting their education, patronized writers and philosophers; especially known as representatives of this policy of "enlightened absolutism" Prussian king Frederick II, Saxon electors Augusta I, II and III, Duke of Saxe-Weimar Karl-August.
But, of course, not the patronage of crowned art lovers, but the growth of educational ideas in European countries, associated with the rise of the young bourgeois class, which opposed the medieval order, was the soil on which the new German culture, which subsequently made a huge contribution to the world treasury of culture. In the music that developed from church chants, this upsurge was revealed earlier - even from the 17th century, when church chorales, organ fugues, masses, etc., began to be created; Art of the church guardianship, music freed itself (although it retained in many ways a religious shell) and reached an unattainable height in the work of the great Johann Sebastian Bach (1685-1750), as well as Georg Friedrich Handel (1685-1759), however, most of his life lived and who worked in England.
By the 18th century. includes the creation of large architectural monuments in many cities of Germany, especially in the capitals of states. Each king, duke, prince, trying to keep up with others, decorated his residence with buildings in the Baroque style, later - Rococo and Classicism.
The exponents of the idealistic worldview were such philosophers as Leibniz (1646-1716), Wolff (1679-1754) and the creator of critical philosophy, author of the Critique of Pure Reason, Immanuel Kant 1 (1724-1804). ).
The most direct expression of the growing social and national thought was fiction and journalistic literature, which entered its heyday in the second half of the 18th century. Its largest representatives entered the history of world literature: Klopstock (1724-1803) with his religious poem "Messiada"; Lessing (1729-1781) with his highly humane dramas and pamphlets (Hamburg Drama, Emilia Galotti, Nathan the Wise, etc.); Herder (1744-1803) is the author of Ideas for the Philosophy of the History of Mankind (1784-1791), a book imbued with the thought of the power of the human mind and the need for enlightenment. Herder's works "Flying Leaves about German Character and Art", "Folk Songs" and others showed the author's deep interest in the nationality, folk art, to the national spirit, moreover, without any national arrogance, chauvinistic exaltation of their nationality. On the contrary, Herder ardently defended the idea of the equal value of the culture of all peoples. He, in particular, had deep sympathy for the Slavic peoples. The peak of German literary development at that time, called the period of "storm and onslaught", is the work of two of the greatest poets - Johannes Wolfgang Goethe (1749-1832) and Johann Friedrich Schiller (1759-1805). They enriched world literature with brilliant examples of drama, poetry and prose ("The Suffering of Young Werther", "Egmont", "Torquato Tasso", the famous "Faust" and many other works of Goethe; "Robbers", "Cunning and Love", "Don- Carlos "," Wallenstein "," Mary Stuart "," The Maid of Orleans "," William Tell "and others - Schiller).
The Great French Revolution awakened the national consciousness of the peoples of Europe; It made the Germans even more acutely feel the pain of national fragmentation, which was especially felt during the years of the Napoleonic wars, when some German states became allies of Napoleon, others tried to fight him, but alone, and due to their backwardness (Prussia) failed. One of the spokesmen for the awakened national consciousness of the Germans was the idealist philosopher Fichte (1762-1814) - a supporter of the French Revolution, who in his treatise "Closed Trading State" (1800) and in the famous "Speeches to the German Nation" (1807- 1808) called for national unification, for the subordination of personal interests to the interests of the state. For Prussia, where Fichte lived, 1806-1812 was a time of humiliation (enslavement, foreign occupation. Fichte urged the German people to find the inner strength for rebirth: “The main principle of the old upbringing was individualism. Its fruits were revealed in our loss of political independence and even in the disappearance of the very name of Germany. If we do not want to disappear completely, if we want to become a nation again, we must create a completely new social mood, we must educate our youth in a spirit of unchanging and unconditional devotion to the state. " to the people of Germany, other leaders in those years of disasters. The theologian and philosopher Schleiermacher wrote: "Germany still exists; her spiritual strength has not diminished and, in order to fulfill her mission, she will rise with unexpected power, worthy of her ancient heroes and her innate strength." In these pathetic addresses, there was already a note of arrogant chauvinism, which later brought poisonous fruits to the great razhavny pan-Germanism and Nazism. The delusional chauvinistic idea of the superiority of the German nation was brought to the point of absurdity by the greatest thinker Hegel (1770-1831), who combined a revolutionary dialectical method with an extremely reactionary philosophy. In his "Philosophy of Law" (1821), he argued that the Prussian estate monarchy is the completion of the self-development of the world spirit.
The War of 1813 freed Germany from French rule, but national unity was not achieved. According to Franz Mehring, “instead of a free and independent Germany, we got the German Confederation - a real mockery of German unity. Germany was still only a general designation for 30 large and small despotisms. The Sejm in Frankfurt am Main, to which the sovereigns sent their representatives and which silenced the German nation, performed only one task: he was an executioner in relation to the people ... "3.
The economic prerequisites for the national unification of Germany developed in the first half of the 19th century. Industry has grown, the size of the working class has increased. Trade also developed, but it experienced extreme constraints due to the multitude of customs borders that cut across the whole of Germany. The abolition of these borders and the creation of the German Customs Union (1834), which was the first step towards the political unification of Germany, improved the situation, but this was not enough.
Engels in his work "The Revolution and Counter-Revolution in Germany" gave a very clear description of the class forces that had developed in that country by the 1840s. The class structure in Germany was more complex than in other European countries. The feudal nobility retained their lands and medieval privileges, their will was expressed by the governments of all German states. The bourgeoisie was weak and fragmented. The class of small artisans and merchants constituted the vast majority of the urban population, but it was weak, disorganized, economically dependent on its wealthy aristocratic customers, and therefore could not oppose them. "The working class of Germany in its social and political development lagged behind the working class of England and France as much as the German bourgeoisie lagged behind the bourgeoisie of these countries." Most of the workers worked as apprentices for small artisans. The peasantry was more numerous than the working class, but it was even weaker organized and was itself fragmented into class groups: large owners ( Grofibauern), small free peasants (mainly in the Rhineland, where they were liberated by the French Revolution), serfs and agricultural workers.
Almost all of these classes suffered from the semi-feudal regime that dominated the country and from political fragmentation, but none of them could act as a powerful revolutionary and unifying force.
However, the idea of unification was in the air. The democratic masses, the petty bourgeoisie, and the students advocated the creation of a single democratic German republic. For this purpose, secret societies, student "burshenschafts" were created. The democratic intelligentsia and writers fought for democratic reunification. The ideological leaders of this movement were the radical democratic writers Ludwig Berne and Heinrich Heine. Inspired by their ideas, several young writers (K. Gutskov, L. Vinberg and others) created the Young Germany circle, which operated in 1830-1848.
The young workers' movement, led by the Union of Communists under the leadership of Marx and Engels, supported these aspirations of the democratic petty bourgeoisie. But the working class was still weak, and the petty bourgeoisie at the critical moment of the revolution of 1848 showed indecision and gave the reaction to crush the movement. The Frankfurt National Assembly of 1848-1849 could have become the nucleus of Germany's unification, but it revealed complete impotence. The deputies made endless speeches and worked out abstract principles of the future all-German constitution, until the reactionary government dispersed it.
In the 19th century, German art and German science made great strides forward. Folk romantic ballads by Ludwig Uhland, fantastic tales Ernst Hoffmann, passionate lyrical and publicistic revolutionary works of Heinrich Heine, realistic novels by Friedrich Spielhagen - this is an incomplete list of the achievements of German literature of the last century. In the same century, the German people made a major contribution to the world treasury of musical culture, enriching it with the brilliant works of Ludwig Beethoven, the lyrical works of Felix Mendelssohn-Bartholdy, the romantic creations of Robert Schumann, and the deeply tragic operas of Richard Wagner.
The merits of German science in all fields of knowledge are great - it was in the 19th century that it reached its peak. It is impossible to enumerate all the great German naturalists of this time; just remember the most famous names. In the field of physics and chemistry, Heinrich Rumkorf, Justus Liebig, Robert Bunsen, Julius Mayer, Hermann Helmholtz, Gustav Kirchhoff, Wilhelm Roentgen became famous. Their contemporary was the great geographer and traveler Alexander Humboldt, the founder of modern geography, who created the doctrine of the interconnection of the elements of the earth's surface, inanimate and living nature. Gustav Fechner, Rudolf Virchow, Ernst Haeckel, Robert Koch, Paul Ehrlich and many other prominent scientists worked in the field of anatomy, physiology, microbiology.
Astronomy, geology, psychology, anthropology, linguistics also count many brilliant names of German scientists who have enriched these sciences with valuable discoveries.
The most prominent German bourgeois historians of the 19th century are the researchers of antiquity Barthold Niebuhr, Theodor Mommsen, Eduard Meyer, and others; medievalists and historians of modern times - Georg Maurer (who discovered the ancient land community - mark), Friedrich Schlosser, Leopold Ranke, Jacob Burckgardt, Karl Lamprecht and others; historians, economists and sociologists Karl Bucher, Werner Sombart, Max Weber. In the field of ethnography in the XIX century. well-known collectors of Russian folklore, beliefs, etc., brothers Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm, Ludwig Uland, Wilhelm Manngardt, outstanding researchers of ethnography of non-European countries, representatives of the evolutionist school Adolf Bastian, Theodor Weitz, Georg Gerland, Oskar Antroposchel - purpose, etc. It should be noted that many historians and ethnographers (especially of late times) belonged to reactionary schools, which greatly devalues their works.
In Germany in the middle of the XIX century. the activities of the greatest thinkers, founders of scientific communism and leaders of the working people of the whole world - Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels developed. This contribution of the German people to the social and cultural history of mankind cannot be overestimated.
After the defeat of the 1848 revolution, the petty-bourgeois democratic movement in Germany began to decline, and a democratic solution to the problem of reunification became impossible. It was not possible to unite Germany "from below" - the social forces were too fragmented for this. But the need for reunification was felt by everyone, and it was carried out "from above" by uniting the German monarchies. After the Napoleonic Wars, the most powerful of the German states were Austria and Prussia, which began to struggle for hegemony. The Austrian monarchy acted as the heir to the medieval German Empire, but it was a weak state, torn apart by national contradictions; the German element constituted a minority of the population here. Prussia was much stronger. She managed to inflict a military defeat on Austria (1866), push her back from participation in the affairs of the German states and take first place among them. The South German states hesitated between both rivals, still being afraid of the Prussian kings, but Prussia with a skillful maneuver drew them to its side in the war against France (1870-1871), and after the victorious end of this war, the allied sovereigns of the German lands presented the Prussian king with the crown of the German Empire ... This is how the unification of Germany was completed with "iron and blood," as the chief figure of the union, the "iron chancellor" of Prussia, Prince Bismarck, put it.
After the creation of the German Empire, the country began a rapid development of capitalism - "grundership". A period of colonial conquests began (from the 1880s), and a firm course was taken on an aggressively chauvinistic militarist policy: the creation of military alliances, preparation for a European war.
The national reunification of Germany was carried out by the ruling classes, primarily the Prussian Junkers in alliance with the big bourgeoisie, who established their dictatorship in the newly created state. Gone are the days when the freedom-loving ideas of Herder and Schiller prevailed among the German people, when the Germans were called a nation of thinkers and poets. Now the state and national ideology has become chauvinism, Prussianism, pan-Germanism and militarism. The petty bourgeoisie and a significant part of the peasantry were infected with these ideas. They also penetrated into the environment of the labor aristocracy. The advanced German workers rallied in the Social Democratic Party (since 1869). The revolutionary Social Democrats of Germany, led by the successors of the cause of Marx and Engels - August Bebel, Wilhelm and Karl Liebknecht, and others - fought for the rights of the proletariat, for the genuine national interests of the German people, for peace and fraternal cooperation with the working class of other countries. German Social Democracy was the strongest party in the Second International. Under the leadership of F. Engels, the Second International did a lot to spread Marxism and establish ties between the workers' parties. After the death of F. Engels (1895), during the period of imperialism, the right wing of the social democratic leadership of the Second International, infected with nationalism and opportunism, grew stronger. By the beginning of the First World War, the opportunist leadership of the German Social Democratic Party openly took the position of social chauvinism, betrayed the interests of the proletariat and supported its imperialist government in the war of conquest it had begun.
In November 1918, a revolution took place in Germany, which led to the collapse of the monarchy. However, the November Revolution was suppressed. Germany became the bourgeois Weimar Republic. The victorious powers took away from the defeated Germany the lands it had seized (Polish in the east, French in the west), and imposed on her the difficult and shameful conditions of the Versailles Peace. The country's economy has reached a catastrophic state. All this fueled nationalist sentiments in Germany, which engulfed broad strata of the population. Revanchist circles - militarists (senior officers and generals) and the big bourgeoisie - skillfully exploited these sentiments and called to power the Nazi party organized with their support. The efforts of the Communist Party (created back in 1918 from the revolutionary left wing of Social Democracy) to counter the threat of Nazism with the unity of the working class did not lead to success due to opposition from the right-wing Social Democratic and trade union leaders. With the support of the Social Democrats, the old militarist Field Marshal Hindenburg was elected to the presidency of the republic. He used his rights to hand over power to the head of the reactionary chauvinist and obscurantist party "National Socialists" Adolf Hitler.
Hitler, suppressing the resistance of the democratic forces with the help of terror, took a sharp course towards the remilitarization of Germany and began insolent military seizures.
The military adventure, into which Nazism involved Germany, not only brought innumerable calamities to the peoples of Europe, but ended in disaster for the German people themselves. The military defeat of Nazi Germany was followed by its occupation by the allied armies. At the Potsdam Conference on July 17 - August 2, 1945, the rights and tasks of the victorious powers were clearly defined. By the decision of the conference, Germany was divided into occupation zones between the USSR, the USA, England and France.
The fate of the eastern and western parts of Germany was different. In West Germany, the occupation regime established by the United States, Britain and France did not eliminate the remnants of fascism, but actually strengthened them. The Potsdam agreements, which provided for the denazification, demilitarization and democratization of the country, were violated. In September 1949, a separatist state was created in West Germany - the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG). The Soviet Union, which occupied the eastern regions of Germany with its troops and liberated the country from fascism, provided the German people with the opportunity to freely restore their economy, create democratic forms of social and political life, and develop national culture; The USSR also provided the German people with direct material assistance. The occupation regime gradually softened and in 1949 was canceled.
In response to the aggressive, reactionary policy of the Western powers, the German imperialists and the revanchists concentrated in West Germany, on October 7, 1949, by the will of the German people in the Soviet zone of occupation, the German Democratic Republic (GDR) was proclaimed, which began building the foundations of socialism and led a peaceful policy. The GDR became the first state of workers and peasants in the history of Germany, a sovereign and equal member of the socialist camp. On the contrary, in the Federal Republic of Germany, former Nazis rule in the government, parliament, court and many other state and public organizations, Hitler's generals occupy the main posts in the army, the country is militarized and engulfed in revanchist frenzy, peace supporters and democratic organizations are persecuted, the Communist Party is banned, many of its leaders are in prison.
The split of Germany into two states, artificially created by the Western powers, has a heavy impact on the fate of the German people. Nevertheless, the Germans are a single people and consider themselves to be one; however, one part of him lives in the German Democratic Republic, the other in the Federal Republic of Germany.
The GDR is a people's democratic republic building socialism. Its supreme legislative body is the People's Chamber, elected by the population of the country for four years. The House of the People elects the State Council and approves the composition of the government. The guiding and guiding force in the GDR is the Socialist Unity Party of Germany, created in April 1946 by uniting the Communist and Social Democratic parties. The other democratic parties of the GDR are closely cooperating with the SED.
Administratively, the GDR is divided into 14 regions ( Bezirke). It included the former states of Mecklenburg, Brandenburg, Saxe-Anhalt, Thuringia and Saxony.
Germany is a bourgeois federal republic. The legislature is parliament, which consists of two chambers: the Bundestag, which is elected for four years, and the Bundesrat, which includes representatives of the state governments. The head of state is the president, who is elected at a joint meeting of the Bundestag and representatives of the Landtags for a term of five years. The head of government, the Federal Chancellor, is elected by the Bundestag. Usually the chancellor is the representative of the party that received the most votes in the election. The ruling party is the Christian Democratic Union, whose leadership is closely associated with the monopolies of the Federal Republic of Germany.
Administratively, Germany is divided into ten lands (Lander), having some local self-government rights (Schleswig-Holstein, Lower Saxony, North Rhine - Westphalia, Hesse, Rhineland-Palatinate, Bavaria, Baden-Württemberg, Saarland and two cities administratively equated to the lands - Hamburg and Bremen). The capital of Germany is a small town on the Rhine Bonn (140 thousand inhabitants).
The largest city in Germany and its capital until 1945 was Berlin. By the decision of the Potsdam conference, Berlin was divided into four sectors. The democratic sector, which became the capital of the GDR, is home to 1 million 100 thousand people, in the western sectors - 2 million 200 thousand inhabitants. East Berlin is a large industrial and cultural center of the GDR with a developed electrical, mechanical engineering and clothing industry; here is the German Academy of Sciences and the German Academy of Arts, numerous theaters and museums, the Humboldt University and other higher educational institutions.
The normal economic life of the western part of the city is disrupted due to its isolation from the hinterland. For propaganda purposes, the ruling circles of the FRG are artificially trying to create a higher standard of living in West Berlin by levying the population of the FRG with a tax "to help" the population of West Berlin. With the connivance, and often with the direct patronage of the occupation authorities, West Berlin became the center of subversive activities directed against the GDR, the USSR and other socialist countries of Europe.
Until August 13, 1961, the border inside the city was open. Part of the population, living in West Berlin, worked in East and vice versa. This position was used by speculators, buying up food, furniture and other goods that are cheaper in the GDR, in democratic Berlin and transporting them to the western part of the city. At the same time, on the black market in West Berlin, in order to undermine the finances of the GDR, the West German mark was changed to the East German mark at an artificially high rate. West Berlin has become a dangerous hotbed of tension in Europe. The world community led by the USSR and the GDR, as well as progressive segments of the population
in West Germany and West Berlin demanded an end to this abnormal situation and the granting of West Berlin the status of a demilitarized free city. Due to the fact that the Western powers were delaying the settlement of this problem, the government of the GDR was forced to take measures to suppress hostile activities from West Berlin. On August 13, 1961, the sectoral boundaries in Berlin were closed. This has created a calmer and healthier environment in East Berlin. Nevertheless, the incessant provocations at the borders by the West Berlin authorities convincingly testify to the need for a speedy resolution of the West Berlin issue.
German patriots are fighting for the national unification of Germany, but the revanchist-chauvinist policy of the FRG government and the US imperialists supporting it hinder its implementation.
The picture on the right was probably recognized by everyone. This portrait of Emelyan Pugachev is considered the only reliable image. Whether this is so is not so important today.
You also heard about the person shown in the photo on the left, but you hardly knew right away.
The fact is that it is customary to portray it like this:
Almost everyone will say that this is Bismarck, and half will remember his name - Otto von Bismrack. Only a specialist can name his full name, and he won't lie if he says that his grandfather's name was Otto Edward Leopold von Bismarck-Schönhausen.
But almost no one knows that Bismarck had the title of ... Prince !!! Doesn't it seem strange? The German seems to be! He is German, then he is German, of course, but not the same as we are used to. The human age is not long. Several generations have changed, and everything, no one remembers that Germany was born quite recently, and it was Prince Eduard Leopoldovich Schenchhausen who became the first head of Germany. He's Bismarck. And you thought that Germany has always existed ...
No. Such a country appeared only in 1871, ten years after the opening of the London Underground. And what happened before the advent of Germany? Yes, just land. Counties and principalities. They paid tribute to the Holy Roman Empire, with the capital in St. Petersburg, sent noble children to serve in the Russian army and navy, well, everything is exactly like in the history of the so-called. "Mongol-Tatar yoke", when the Russians paid tribute, and gave their guys to serve in the horde.
Where did the Germans come from then? I think that Anton Blagin is right. Since modern German is Hebrew dialect Yiddish, which means that the Germans were made by the Jews from the banks of the Rhine, who are called the Ashkenazi ( Note: the term comes from the word "Ashkenaz" - the Semitic name of the medieval western Germanic lands, perceived as a place of settlement for the descendants of Askenaz, the grandson of Japheth).
And the real Germans spoke a completely different language. More precisely - in tongues, because in the north, where there was Pomerania and Holstein ( Note: this is Prussia, or rather Porussia-Border Rus), everyone spoke the local variety of Russian. These are the descendants of the Polabian Slavs, the Pomors of the southern Baltic, and therefore Pomerania, because the Pomors lived here.
Therefore, the Pomeranians did not need assimilation in Russia, everyone understood them. Pomors were also Baron Munchausen, who spoke Russian better than our current Prime Minister, and Catherine II. Eduard Leopoldovich Bismarck was also a Pomor, Prince, by the way, and not a baron. As a Russian, how could he oppose Russia? That is why he warned everyone that fighting the Russians was a real suicide.
Yes, and looking at the photo, without a helmet, you see not a great politician, and a zemstvo doctor, or a merchant from somewhere in the Penza province. Now look at an excerpt from Prince Schoenchhausen's letter:
Nu-oo-oo-oo ??? German, you say? Don't talk nonsense! The founder of the state of Germany was a Russian prince. Remind "German" place names?
Pushy. You can look larger to make it easier to admire the Russian provinces in the center of Europe.
In general ... Ekaterina No. 2 is not German, and Munchausen and Schönchhausen were not Germans either. They were PRUSSIANS. Then the question arises as to what tribe the "Germans" of the Russian Academy of Sciences Miller, Bauer and Schloetzer really belonged to! They spoke German and did not know Russian at all! And since in German, it means they were Ashkenazi - aschkeNAZI ...
Is it clear where the dog rummaged? That's who Natsii came up with. And they are the first Nazis. Of course, they were not Russians, so they invented the Germanic nation, endowed it with their own language, and began to push the “Romanesque” theory of the origin of the Russians. Friends ... Well, isn't the same thing happening now in Ukraine !? One-to-one, like a carbon copy. Only the “German” language is already occupied, so I had to write a new, ridiculous and funny one, where “skin” is “skinny”, and “each” is, on the contrary, “skin”.
Well, what about Pugachev? German? No, also Russian, but not from Prussia, but from Tartary, and if so, then most likely, he spoke two languages at once, in the Great Russian dialect, and in Tartar, read Arabic. And if Juismarck is a Prince, then Pugachev could actually be a Khan, and not a Cossack-robber, as the Ashkenazi Romanovs made him appear. The police are dealing with the robbers, not the elite troops, with the invincible Suvorov at the head.
Voluntarily or involuntarily, I come to the conclusion that the assumption was entrusted that Suvorov was treated kindly for the fact that, in fact, he presented to St. Petersburg the entire Great Tartary on a silver platter. Not for nothing, the documents that Pushkin was admitted to when he wrote his "Captain's Daughter" were not shown to anyone. And if not for Alexander Sergeevich, who (he was a cunning little devil!) Risked leaving us a hint, in the form of a copied signature of Emelyan Pugachev, I would not have any questions now. But the question arose! Bravo, Alexander Sergeevich! This is an act! Enjoy:
These are the last lines of the Decree, and the signature of allegedly Emelka is an impostor. Of course, Pushkin did not have a copier, he copied it by hand, but this was enough to understand: - Emelyan Pugachev had a completely different title and name. What language is the decree written in? How do you read the letters with which it is written? Some questions.I would be grateful if I could find a specialist in ancient types of writing and clarify the situation.
Each nation is characterized by specific features of character, behavior and worldview. This is where the concept of "mentality" comes in. What it is?
Germans are a special people
Mentality is a fairly new concept. If, when characterizing an individual person, we are talking about his character, then when characterizing an entire people, it is appropriate to use the word "mentality". So, mentality is a set of generalized and widespread ideas about the psychological properties of a nationality. The mentality of the Germans is a manifestation of national identity and distinctive features of the people.
Who are called Germans?
The Germans call themselves Deutsche. They represent the titular nation; the people belong to the West Germanic subgroup of the Germanic peoples of the Indo-European language family.
Germans speak German... It distinguishes two subgroups of dialects, the names of which originated from the distribution among the inhabitants along the course of the rivers. The population of the south of Germany belongs to the High German dialect, the inhabitants of the northern part of the country speak the Low German dialect. In addition to these basic varieties, there are 10 additional dialects and 53 local dialects.
There are 148 million German speakers in Europe. Of these, 134 million people call themselves Germans. The rest of the German-speaking population was distributed as follows: 7.4 million are Austrians (90% of all inhabitants of Austria); 4.6 million are Swiss (63.6% of the Swiss population); 285 thousand - Luxembourgers; 70 thousand - Belgians and 23.3 thousand - Liechtenstein.
Most of the Germans live in Germany, approximately 75 million. They constitute the national majority in all lands of the country. Traditional religious beliefs are Catholicism (mainly in the north of the country) and Lutheranism (common in the southern German lands).
Features of the German mentality
The main feature of the German mentality is pedantry. Their desire for order and order is mesmerizing. Precisely pedantry is the source of many of the national merits of the Germans. The first thing that catches the eye of a guest from another country is the thoroughness of roads, everyday life and service. Rationality is combined with practicality and convenience. The thought involuntarily arises: this is how a civilized person should live.
Finding a rational explanation for each event is the goal of every self-respecting German. Any, even an absurd situation, always has a step-by-step description of what is happening. The mentality of the Germans does not allow to ignore the slightest nuances of the expediency of each activity. To do it "by eye" is beneath the dignity of a true German. Hence the high appraisal of the products, which is manifested in the famous expression "German quality".
Honesty and a sense of honor are the traits that characterize the mentality of the German people. Young children are taught to achieve everything by themselves, no one gets anything for free. Therefore, cheating is not common in schools, and it is customary in stores to pay for all purchases (even if the cashier makes a mistake in the calculations or does not notice the goods). The Germans feel guilty about Hitler's activities, so in the post-war decades not a single boy was named after him, Adolf.
Frugality is another manifestation of the German character and mentality. Before making a purchase, a true German will compare the prices of goods in different stores and find the lowest one. Business dinners or lunches with German partners can confuse representatives of other nations, since they will have to pay for the dishes themselves. Germans do not like excessive extravagance. They are very frugal.
The peculiarity of the mentality of the Germans is the amazing cleanliness. Cleanliness in everything, from personal hygiene to the place of residence. An unpleasant smell from an employee or wet, sweaty palms can be a good reason for leaving your job. Throwing garbage out of a car window or throwing a garbage bag next to a garbage can is nonsense for a German.
German punctuality is a purely national trait. Germans are very sensitive to their time, so they don't like it when they have to waste it. They are angry with those who are late for the meeting, but they also treat those who arrive earlier badly. All the time of a German person is scheduled by the minute. Even to meet with a friend, they need to look at the schedule and find a window.
The Germans are a very specific people. If they invited you for tea, know that there will be nothing but tea. In general, Germans rarely invite guests to their home. If you have received such an invitation, it is a sign of great respect. When he comes to a guest, he presents flowers to the hostess, and sweets to the children.
Germans and folk traditions
The mentality of the Germans is manifested in the observance of folk traditions and strict adherence to them. There are a great many such norms passing from century to century. True, they are fundamentally not of a national nature, but spread over a certain area. Thus, urbanized Germany has retained traces of rural planning even in large cities. In the center of the settlement there is a market square with a church, public buildings and a school. Residential quarters radiate from the square.
Folk clothes on the Germans appear in each area, their colors and decoration of the costume, but the cut is the same. Men wear tight pants, stockings and buckled shoes. Light-colored shirt, vest and long-length caftan with huge pockets complete the look. Women dress in a white blouse with sleeves, a dark corset with lacing and a plunging neckline and a wide gathered skirt, on top of which is a bright apron.
The national one is pork dishes (sausages and sausages) and beer. Festive dish- pork head with stewed cabbage, baked goose or carp. Drinks include tea and coffee with cream. Dessert consists of gingerbread and jelly cookies.
How Germans greet each other
The rule that came from time immemorial to greet each other with a strong handshake has been preserved by the Germans to this day. The gender difference does not matter: German women do the same as they do. When they say goodbye, the Germans again shake hands.
At the workplace, employees are “you” and strictly by their last name. And besides the business sphere, the reference to "you" is widespread among the Germans. Age or social status does not matter. Therefore, if you are working with a German partner, be prepared to address "Mr. Ivanov". If your German friend is 20 years younger than you, he will still refer to you as “you”.
Passion for travel
The desire to travel and discover new lands is another manifestation of the mentality of the Germans. They love to visit exotic corners of distant countries. But visiting the developed USA or Great Britain does not attract Germans. Besides the fact that it is impossible to get an unprecedented experience here, a trip to these countries is expensive for the family wallet.
Pursuit of education
The Germans are very sensitive to the national culture. That is why it is customary to demonstrate your education in communication. A well-read person can shine with knowledge of the history of Germany, show awareness in other areas of life. Germans take pride in their culture and feel a sense of belonging to it.
Germans and humor
Humor is an extremely serious matter from the point of view of the average German. German style in humor is crude satire or caustic witticisms. When translating German jokes, it is not possible to convey all their flavor, since humor depends on a specific situation.
It is not accepted to joke at the workplace, especially in relation to the authorities. Jokes about foreigners are condemned. Jokes spread over East Germans after German reunification. The most common witticisms ridicule the carelessness of the Bavarians and the cunning of the Saxons, the lack of intelligence in the East Frisians and the quickness of the Berliners. The Swabians take offense at jokes about their frugality, because they do not see anything reprehensible in it.
Reflection of mentality in everyday life
German culture and German mentality are reflected in daily processes. For a foreigner it seems unusual, for Germans it is the norm. There are no shops operating around the clock in Germany. On weekdays they close at 20:00, on Saturday at 16:00, and do not open on Sunday.
The Germans are not in the habit of going shopping, they save their time and money. Spending money on clothes is the most unwanted item of expenditure. German women are forced to limit the cost of cosmetics and outfits. But very few people care about this. In Germany, they do not strive to meet any accepted standards, so everyone dresses the way they want. The main thing is comfort. No one pays attention to unusual clothes and does not judge anyone.
Children from early childhood receive pocket money and learn to satisfy their desires on it. From the age of fourteen, the child enters into adulthood. This manifests itself in attempts to find their place in the world and rely only on themselves. Elderly Germans do not seek to replace parents with children, becoming nannies for their grandchildren, but live their own lives. They spend a lot of time traveling. In old age, everyone relies on themselves, trying not to burden children with self-care. Many old people end up in nursing homes.
Russians and Germans
It is generally accepted that the mentality of the Germans and the Russians is the complete opposite. The proverb "What is good for a Russian is like death for a German" confirms this. But there are common features of the national character of these two peoples: humility before fate and obedience.
Germany is famous not only for its sights, but also for its original, extraordinary people, which has its own distinctive ethnographic characteristics. The following narration will help to better understand the very essence of German life and the revolving life events of the inhabitants of Germany.
Honestly about the Germans
Anyone who has ever been to Germany could not fail to notice the characteristic features of the Germans, who for the most part are distinguished by their high temperament, excessive pedantry and punctuality. At the same time, this people has its own ethnic characteristics, among which the most prominent are the oblong face of the Germans, light hair, pale skin, light eyes, a straight narrow nose and a high bridge of the nose. That is, all the signs of the Atlanto-Baltic small race predominate, where you can add the average height of the Germans and the characteristic pigmentation of the skin that has appeared over time. Most of the names of Germans have the same ending - Klaus, Strauss ...
The historical formation of the German land, which has seen many sorrowful events in its lifetime, served the German regularity and orderliness of character. Its geographic location, as well as constant uncertainty about its borders, had a large impact. But, nevertheless, the German way of life took shape at times of meticulous accuracy, decency, amazing punctuality, pedantry, where firmness of character and inexhaustible optimism are visible in everything.
In addition, about the Germans, we can also say that their bureaucratic machine has not yet undergone significant changes, which is especially clearly seen when addressing the local authorities. And according to the endless number of different plates hanging here and there, wherever possible, this country comes out on top in the world.
The other side of the German people is hospitality and the ability to have good fun, which is evidenced by the numerous exhibitions and fairs that this country is so rich in.
Small weaknesses of the Germans
The eyes of the Germans are literally rounded at the sight of a new car model, and this is no accident. After all, the car for them is a lover, friend and standard of high status. The ordinary German is also characterized by an irresistible passion for travel, for which many of them save up almost their entire lives. When you retire, buying a small van equipped with everything you need for permanent residence and embarking on a long cruise is the dream of many people in Germany.
It is worth noting an amazing thirst for knowledge of the cultural life of other peoples and the study of their language, which explains the free spoken language in French, English, Russian and Italian. For a long time, the German people have been an admirer of cycling, which explains their commitment to a healthy lifestyle and the preservation of pristine nature.
Every German attaches great importance to his family, where close relations between all family members, mutual understanding, equality in rights and independence are especially valued. Children who have not yet reached the age of majority often try to find a job and live apart from their parents. Therefore, by the end of school, many of them already have their own work and are able to feed themselves and clothe themselves. Moreover, all relatives gather on family holidays, and the festivities sometimes drag on until the morning.
The strong half of the German people is distinguished by a special responsibility towards family, children, wife - they are law-abiding citizens. Such openness is also manifested in appearance - the eyes of German men radiate warmth and care, despite some severity of the stereotype itself. In appearance, these are smart, interesting, tall, athletic men, less often - fat ones with protruding bellies. Neatness and restraint are the main character traits of German men.
They are distinguished by special discipline, reliability and predictability.
German women
German women Unlike others, German women can be immediately discerned by their everyday simplicity, and at the same time, by their special charm and sophistication at a festive dinner or somewhere in a restaurant. Many people consider the faces of German women to be a little unsightly, but this conclusion is erroneous. In its own way, each of the fair sex is unusual, attractive and has a special attractive gloss.
To a greater extent, these are self-sufficient individuals who do not understand themselves without work. Their main advantages can be called - hard work, employment, the ability to dictate conditions without violating the rights of people living with her. Their innate independence, independence and the ability to make their own way in life cause many admiration for their irresistible strength to inner freedom. A woman in Germany chooses her own path in life and relies only on her own strength.
However, simple female weaknesses are not alien to them, and their excessive self-confidence and independence does not prevent them from being loved at all.
Famous Germans
In addition, the German nation boasts of its world-renowned learned minds and artists. One cannot but recall the famous composer Ludwig van Beethoven, the great artist Albrecht Durer, Max Born, Johannes Kepler, Albert Einstein and other bright minds who glorified Germany throughout the world.
The story will focus on the naming of the people - the Germans. This article is a continuation of another one - about Berlin.
German is an Old Slavic word, from "dumb". That is, it has nothing to do with Germany. Except for Russians, now no one calls the inhabitants of Germany Germans. Moreover, in Russia in the past this word was also used in relation to representatives of other peoples.
"German" - "dumb", meaning one who cannot say a word in Russian. Well, judge for yourself, a foreigner who does not know Russian is all the same that he is dumb. That is why they were called that. For example, in his works, Gogol calls all people from the West, from Europe, Germans (French and Swedes are no exception).
Gogol writes that “we call anyone who comes from another country a German,” and the countries themselves, where foreigners came from, call them “German land” or “non-hamlet” (this is more of a Ukrainian version). So, a French engineer came to Taras Bulba with Gogol from Nemetchina. And in "The Inspector General" a German doctor, who does not understand a word in Russian, remains silent all the time, as if he were really dumb.
Since in the 19th century, among those who came to Russia were mainly messengers of the German land, the name Germans was fixed in the Russian language for the people of Germany. And the Sloboda Kukai in Moscow became the German Sloboda, because it was on this territory that foreigners lived. Although there were both British and Dutch, well, there were also Germans - in the majority.
Russians are not the only ones who have used the word "German" to refer to the inhabitants of Germany. It was found among the Hungarians, and among the Ukrainians, and among the Poles, and among the Czechs, and among the Serbs, and among the Croats.
What the Germans call themselves
The word "Germans", "Germany" was also not invented by the Germans themselves. The Romans called Germany the country located north of the Roman Empire itself. The Romans were the first to come up with a name for this country, but over the years it took root, apparently due to the extensive spread of Latin, and now the country is called Germany.
And the Germans themselves, as I think everyone knows, call themselves quite differently - Deutsch. This word is derived from the ancient German word "people, people", which was pronounced as diot. It turns out that initially the Germans did not bother and called themselves simply - "the people"... And at the same time, they also called all other peoples in the same way, for example, the British, Danes and others. Information about this can be found in Latin historical manuscripts.
Neighboring peoples, however, turned out to be more inventive. And until now, in some countries, the inhabitants of Germany are called not Deutsch (and not Germans). In France and Spain they are called Alemanni, and in Italy they are called "Tedeschi".
Thus, the Germans are called by a name unrelated to them, not only in.
On the origin of the words "Germans" and "Germany"
According to the assumption of linguists, in the Russian language the word "German" appeared in the 12th century or earlier. Rather earlier, just in the documentary sources of Ancient Russia, this name is found at this time.
At that time, the word Germania already existed in Latin. It was from him that Russian name"Germany". In Roman works written in Latin, it can be found already in the 1st century AD. So the Romans called the territory on the other side of the Rhine River, and the tribes that lived there, Julius Caesar called Germanus. The chronicler Tacitus also mentioned them.
In Russian, the word "Germany" was fixed only in the 19th century, when several separate principalities on the territory of modern Germany were united into one country. As for the word "German", by that time it had already managed to firmly gain a foothold in the Russian language.
So later in our country it began to refer only to the inhabitants of Germany.