Names of Germany

In general, the names for Germany can be arranged in six main groups according to their origin:

1. From Old High German diutisc or similar[lower-alpha 1]

2. From the Latin Germania or Greek Γερμανία

3. From the name of the Alamanni tribe

4. From the name of the Saxon tribe

5. From the Protoslavic němьcь[lower-alpha 6]

6. From the name of Prussia*: Teutonisch Land, Teutschland used in many areas until the 19th century (see Walhalla opening song)

7. Unclear origin[lower-alpha 7]

Other forms:

• Medieval Greek: Frángoi, frangikós (for Germans, German) – after the Franks.
• Medieval Hebrew: אַשְׁכְּנַז‎ (Ashkenaz) – from biblical Ashkenaz (אַשְׁכְּנַז‎) was the son of Japheth and grandson of Noah. Ashkenaz is thought to be the ancestor of the Germans.
• Lower Sorbian: bawory or bawery (in older or dialectal use) – from the name of Bavaria.
• Silesian: szwaby from Swabia, bambry used for German colonists from the area around Bamberg, krzyżacy (a derogative form of krzyżowcy - crusaders) referring to Teutonic Order, Rajch or Rajś resembling German pronunciation of Reich.[2]
• Old Norse: Suðrvegr – literally south way (cf. Norway),[3] describing Germanic tribes which invaded continental Europe.
• Kinyarwanda: Ubudage, Kirundi: Ubudagi – thought to derive from the greeting guten Tag used by Germans during the colonial times,[4] or from deutsch.[5]
• Navajo: Béésh Bich’ahii Bikéyah ("Metal Cap-wearer Land"), in reference to Stahlhelm-wearing German soldiers.
• Lakota: Iyášiča Makȟóčhe[6] ("Bad Speaker Land").
• Plains Cree: pîwâpiskwastotininâhk ("Among the Steel Helmets") or mâyakwêsinâhk ("Among the Speakers of a Foreign/Strange Language") [7]
• Sudovian: miksiskai, Old Prussian miksiskāi (both for "German") – from miksît "to stammer".
• Polish (slang of the communist period): Erefen from R.F.N. = F.R.G. (Federal Republic of Germany),[2]
• Polish (pre-Second World War slang): Rajch from German Reich[2]

Official German-language plaque of a German embassy

The German princes choose their king (Illustration in the Sachsenspiegel)

The name Deutschland and the other similar-sounding names above are derived from the Old High German diutisc, or similar variants from Proto-Germanic *Þeudiskaz, which originally meant "of the people". This in turn comes from a Germanic word meaning "folk" (leading to Old High German diot, Middle High German diet), and was used to differentiate between the speakers of Germanic languages and those who spoke Celtic or Romance languages. These words come from *teuta, the Proto-Indo-European word for "people" (Lithuanian and Latvian tauta, Old Irish tuath, Old English þeod).

Also the Italian for "German", tedesco (local or archaic variants: todesco, tudesco, todisco), comes from the same Old High German root, although not the name for "Germany" (Germania). Also in the standardised Romansh language Germania is the normal name for Germany but in Sursilvan, Sutsilvan and Surmiran it is commonly referred to as Tiaratudestga, Tearatudestga and Tera tudestga respectively, with tiara/teara/tera meaning land. French words thiois, tudesque, théotisque and Thiogne and Spanish tudesco[8] share this etymology.

The Germanic language which diutisc most likely comes from is West Frankish, a language which died out a long time ago and which there is hardly any written evidence for today. This was the Germanic dialect used in the early Middle Ages, spoken by the Franks in Western Francia, i.e. in the region which is now northern France. The word is only known from the Latin form theodiscus. Until the 8th century the Franks called their language frengisk; however, when the Franks moved their political and cultural centre to the area where France now is, the term frengisk became ambiguous, as in the West Francian territory some Franks spoke Latin, some vulgar Latin and some theodisc. For this reason a new word was needed to help differentiate between them. Thus the word theodisc evolved from the Germanic word theoda (the people) with the Latin suffix -iscus, to mean "belonging to the people", i.e. the people's language.

In Eastern Francia, roughly the area where Germany now is, it seems that the new word was taken on by the people only slowly, over the centuries: in central Eastern Francia the word frengisk was used for a lot longer, as there was no need for people to distinguish themselves from the distant Franks. The word diutsch and other variants were only used by people to describe themselves, at first as an alternative term, from about the 10th century. It was used, for example, in the Sachsenspiegel, a legal code, written in Middle Low German in about 1220: Iewelk düdesch lant hevet sinen palenzgreven: sassen, beieren, vranken unde svaven (Every German land has its Graf: Saxony, Bavaria, Franken and Swabia).

The Teutoni, a tribe with a name which probably came from the same root, did, through Latin, ultimately give birth to the English words "Teuton" (first found in 1530) for the adjective German, (as in the Teutonic Knights, a military religious order, and the Teutonic Cross) and "Teuton" (noun), attested from 1833. "Teuton" was also used for Teutonisch Land (land of the Teutons), its abbreviation Teutschland used in some areas until the 19th century and its currently used official variation Deutschland.

In the northern French language area (northern France, Belgium), the neighboring Germanic dialects, areas and inhabitants of Flanders to Alsace are sometimes referred to as Thiois, most likely still for the area between Maastricht and Aachen and for the traditional German speaking part of Lorraine (Lorraine Thioise), The term is obsolete and derives from theodisc (see above).[9]

Gaius Cornelius Tacitus

The name Germany and the other similar-sounding names above are all derived from the Latin Germania, of the 3rd century BC, a word simply describing fertile land behind the limes. It was likely the Gauls who first called the people who crossed east of the Rhine Germani (which the Romans adopted) as the original Germanic tribes did not refer to themselves as Germanus (singular) or Germani (plural).[10]

Julius Caesar was the first to use Germanus in writing when describing tribes in north-eastern Gaul in his Commentarii de Bello Gallico: he records that four northern Belgic tribes, namely the Condrusi, Eburones, Caeraesi and Paemani, were collectively known as Germani. In AD 98, Tacitus wrote Germania (the Latin title was actually: De Origine et situ Germanorum), an ethnographic work on the diverse set of Germanic tribes outside the Roman Empire. Unlike Caesar, Tacitus claims that the name Germani was first applied to the Tungri tribe. The name Tungri is thought to be the endonym corresponding to the exonym Eburones.

19th-century and early 20th-century historians speculated on whether the northern Belgae were Celts or Germanic tribes. Caesar claims that most of the northern Belgae were descended from tribes who had long ago crossed the Rhine from Germania. However many tribal names and personal names or titles recorded are identifiably Celtic. It seems likely that the northern Belgae, due to their intense contact with the Gaulish south, were largely influenced by this southern culture. Tribal names were 'qualifications' and could have been translated or given by the Gauls and picked up by Caesar. Perhaps they were Germanic people who had adopted Gaulish titles or names. The Belgians were a political alliance of southern Celtic and northern Germanic tribes. In any case, the Romans were not precise in their ethnography of northern barbarians: by "German(ic)" Caesar meant "originating east of the Rhine". Tacitus wrote in his book Germania: "The Treveri and Nervii take pride in their German origin, stating that this noble blood separates them from all comparison (with the Gauls) and the Gaulish laziness".[11]

The OED2 records theories about the Celtic roots of the Latin word Germania: one is gair, neighbour (a theory of Johann Zeuss, a German historian and Celtic philologist) – in Old Irish gair is "neighbour". Another theory is gairm, battle-cry (put forward by Johann Wachter and Jacob Grimm, who was a philologist as well as collector and editor of fairy tales). Yet another theory is that the word comes from ger, "spear"; however, Eric Partridge suggests *gar / gavin, to shout (as Old Irish garim), describing the Germanic tribesmen as noisy. He describes the ger theory as "obsolete".

In English, the word "German" is first attested in 1520, replacing earlier uses of Almain, Alman and Dutch. In German, the word Germanen today refers to Germanic tribes, just like the Italian noun "Germani" (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 Latin germanus, "siblings with the same parents or father", which has cognates in Catalan, germà, and Spanish, hermano, meaning "brother".

The name Allemagne and the other similar-sounding names above are derived from the southern Germanic Alemanni, a Suebic tribe or confederation in today's Alsace, parts of Baden-Württemberg and Switzerland.

The areas where Alemannic German is spoken

In English, the name "Almain" or "Alman" was used for Germany and for the adjective German until the 16th century, with "German" first attested in 1520, used at first as an alternative then becoming a replacement, maybe inspired mainly by the need to differ them from the more and more independently acting Dutch. In Othello ii,3, (about 1603), for example, Shakespeare uses both "German" and "Almain" when Iago describes the drinking prowess of the English:

I learned it in England, where, indeed, they are most potent in potting: your Dane, your German, 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 your Almain; 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 High Almain, 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 the Allemande (a dance), the Almain rivet and probably the almond 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 the Upper 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 as a borrowing from either French or English. For example, in the Anishinaabe languages, three terms for "Germany" exist: ᐋᓂᒫ (Aanimaa, originally Aalimaanh, from the French Allemagne),[12][13] ᑌᐦᒋᒪᓐ (Dechiman, from the English Dutchman)[13] and ᒣᐦᔭᑴᑦ (Meyagwed, Ojibwe for "foreign speaker"[13] analogous to Slavic Némcy "Mutes" and Arab (ajam) mute), of which Aanimaa is the most common of the terms to describe Germany.

The names Saksamaa and Saksa are derived from the name of the Germanic tribe of the Saxons. The word "Saxon", Proto-Germanic *sakhsan, is believed (a) to be derived from the word seax, meaning a variety of single-edged knives: a Saxon was perhaps literally a swordsman, or (b) to be derived from the word "axe", the region axed between the valleys of the Elbe and Weser.

In Finnish and Estonian the words that historically applied to ancient Saxons changed their meaning over the centuries to denote the whole country of Germany and the Germans. In some Celtic languages the word for the English nationality is derived from Saxon, e.g., the Scottish term Sassenach, the Breton terms Saoz, Saozon and the Welsh terms Sais, Saeson. "Saxon" also led to the "-sex" ending in Wessex, Essex, Sussex, Middlesex, etc., and of course to "Anglo-Saxon".

The Transylvanian Saxons arrived to Transylvania mainly from the Rhineland, not Saxony.

The Slavic exonym nemets, nemtsy derives from Proto-Slavic němьcь, pl. němьci, 'the mutes', 'not able (to speak)' (from adjective němъ 'mute' and suffix -ьcь).[14] It literally means a mute and can be also associated with similar sounding not able, without power, but came to signify those who can't speak (like us); foreigners. The Slavic autonym (Proto-Slavic *Slověninъ) likely derives from slovo, meaning word. According to a theory, early Slavs would call themselves the speaking people or the keepers of the words, as opposed to their Germanic neighbors, the mutes (a similar idea lies behind Greek barbaros, barbarian and Arab عجم (ajam), mute).

At first, němьci may have been used for any non-Slav foreigners, later narrowed to just Germans. The plural form is used for the Germans instead of any specific country name, e.g. Niemcy in Polish and Ńymcy in Silesian dialect. In other languages, the country's name derives from the adjective němьcьska (zemja) meaning 'German (land)' (f.i. Czech Německo). Belarusian Нямеччына (Nyamyecchyna), Bulgarian Немция (Nemtsiya) and Ukrainian Німеччина (Nimecchyna) are also from němьcь but with the addition of the suffix -ina.

According to another theory,[15][16] Nemtsy may derive from the Rhine-based, Germanic tribe of Nemetes mentioned by Caesar[17] and Tacitus.[18] This etymology is dubious for phonological reasons, as nemetes could not become Slavic němьcь.[14]

In Russian, the adjective for "German", немецкий (nemetskiy) comes from the same Slavic root while the name for the country is Germaniya (Германия). Likewise, in Bulgarian the adjective is "немски" (nemski) and the country is Germaniya (Германия).

Over time, the Slavic exonym was borrowed by some non-Slavic languages. The Hungarian name for Germany is Németország (from the stem Német-. lit. Német Land). The popular Romanian name for German is neamț, used alongside the official term, german, which was borrowed from Latin.

According to the Chinese History of Yuan, the Mongol commander Uriyangkhadai took part in the invasion of Poland and of the Holy Roman Empire, described as the land of the Nie-mi-sz'.[19]

The Arabic name for Austria النمسا an-Nimsā or an-Namsā appeared during the Crusades era, another possibility is that the term could have been known early by Arabs in Al Andalus, the reason behind calling Austria an-Nimsā, which should designate Germans is that Arabs considered Austria to be the nation of German people for a long time in the middle ages, on the other hand the Arabic name of "Germany", Germania or Allemania, took its origin from Latin name Germania.

Ottoman Turkish and Persian word for Austria, "نمچه" – "Nemçe", is borrowed from the anterior Arabic name of Austria known throughout the Islamic world who considered Austria to be home of the Germans. The Austrian Empire as well was the biggest German-speaking country in the 16–17th centuries bordering on the Ottoman Empire.

In Latvian and Lithuanian the names Vācija and Vokietija contain the root vāca or vākiā. Lithuanian linguist Kazimieras Būga associated this with a reference to a Swedish tribe named Vagoths in a 6th-century chronicle (cf. finn. Vuojola and eston. Oju-/Ojamaa, 'Gotland', both thought to be derived from the Baltic word; the ethnonym *vakja, used by the Votes (vadja) and the Sami, in older sources (vuowjos), may also be related). So the word for German possibly comes from a name originally given by West Baltic tribes to the Vikings.[20] Latvian linguist Konstantīnos Karulis proposes that the word may be based on the Indo-European word *wek ("speak"), from which derive Old 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] of Deutsch ‘German’, plus 國 guó ‘country’.

The Vietnamese name Đức is the Sino-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 word Deutsch meaning ‘German’.[21] It was earlier written with the Sino-Japanese character compound 獨逸 (whose 獨 has since been simplified to 独), but has been largely superseded by the aforementioned katakana 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 name Dogil (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 pronounced do+itsu as in Japanese, but dok+il = Dogil. Until the 1980s, South Korean primary textbooks adopted Doichillanteu (도이칠란트) which approximates the German pronunciation [ˈdɔʏtʃlant] of Deutschland.

The official North Korean name toich'willandŭ (도이췰란드) approximates the German pronunciation [ˈdɔʏtʃlant] of Deutschland. Traditionally Dogil (독일) had been used in North Korea until the 1990s. Use of the Chinese name (in its Korean pronunciation Deokguk, 덕국) is attested for the early 20th century. It is now uncommon.

The terminology for "Germany", the "German states" and "Germans" is complicated by the unusual history of Germany over the last 2000 years. This can cause confusion in German and English, as well in other languages. While the notion of Germans and Germany is older, it is only since 1871 that there has been a nation-state of Germany. Later political disagreements and the partition of Germany (1945–1990) has further made it difficult to use proper terminology.

Starting with Charlemagne, the territory of modern Germany was within the realm of the Holy Roman Empire. It was a union of relatively independent rulers who each ruled their own territories. This empire was called in German Heiliges Römisches Reich, with the addition from the late Middle Ages of Deutscher Nation (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 as Deutsches Reich, creating a link to the later nation state of 1871. Besides the official Heiliges Römisches Reich Deutscher Nation, common expressions are Altes Reich (the old Reich) and Römisch-Deutsches Kaiserreich (Roman-German Imperial Realm).

Germany divided 1945–1990

Occupied Germany in 1947, with western (green, blue and yellow) and eastern (red) occupation zones.

Stamp in occupied Germany, 1946: the neutral expression Deutsche Post instead of Deutsche Reichspost, but still the old currency RM (Reichsmark)

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

Federal Republic of Germany

The Federal Republic in blue, GDR in red and West Berlin in yellow, 1949–1990

The Federal Republic of Germany, Bundesrepublik Deutschland, established in 1949, saw itself as the same state founded in 1867/71 but Reich gave place to Bund. For example, the Reichskanzler became the Bundeskanzler, reichsdeutsch became bundesdeutsch, Reichsbürger (citizen of the Reich) became Bundesbürger.

Germany as a whole was called Deutschland als Ganzes or Gesamtdeutschland, referring to Germany in the international borders of 1937 (before Hitler started to annex other countries). This resulted in all German (or pan 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 called Sowjetische Besatzungszone (SBZ, Soviet Zone of Occupation), Sowjetzone, Ostzone, Mitteldeutschland or Pankow (many GDR politicians lived or worked in Berlin-Pankow).

German Democratic Republic

International vehicle registration oval including the letters DDR

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

• Various terms used for Germans
• German placename etymology
• List of country name etymologies
• Territorial evolution of Germany

• Bithell, Jethro, ed. Germany: A Companion to German Studies (5th edition 1955), 578pp; essays on German literature, music, philosophy, art and, especially, history. online edition; Questia online edition
• Buse, Dieter K. ed. Modern Germany: An Encyclopedia of History, People, and Culture 1871-1990 (2 vol 1998)
• Clark, Christopher. Iron Kingdom: The Rise and Downfall of Prussia, 1600-1947 (2006)
• Detwiler, Donald S. Germany: A Short History (3rd ed. 1999) 341pp; Germany A Short History; by Donald S. Detwiler; Questia online edition
• Fulbrook, Mary. A Concise History of Germany (2004)
• Maehl, William Harvey. Germany in Western Civilization (1979), 833pp
• Ozment, Steven. A Mighty Fortress: A New History of the German People (2005)
• Reinhardt, Kurt F. Germany: 2000 Years (2 vols., 1961), stress on cultural topics

The dictionary definition of Germany at Wiktionary

• Why are there so many names for Germany, AKA Deutschland, Allemagne, etc.?