How Geography Made Germany Powerful 

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I would like to inform you about some things you got wrong in your video: On different dialects: In opposite to platt-deutsch in the north there is "oberdeutsch" in the south - not "hochdeutsch" On one of your maps concerning rivers and rivers an waterway networks: the rhine-main-danube canal goes from the nearly most northern peak of danube to the southern peak of the small main-triangle which is about 100 km more eastward. So I am pretty insecure about some interesting facts you provided in your video, whether they are true or just nonsens.

@@sfsplayz4626 Thank you, the link is now updated!

@@user-gr9fq9gt9w Thank you the link is now updated

So do I as a German. Sadly my grandpa´s brother had to die in 1916 in Fleury - near Verdun.

wait untill an austrian painter gets back

Thank's this is exactly what we want you to think. Muahahaha! Give back Alsace Lorraine and maybe we won't take Paris away from you again... Wait a sec, I've seen Paris before, umm, you know what never mind, just give back Alsace Lorraine.

Ya know I just don't see this happening until their are some territorial consecutions returned back to us. For fuck sake, the US still has 21 military bases on our land and refuse to leave. It's funny how the Russians stole land from us, but left and yet we're still under US occupation. The memory of WW2 how can anybody who's German forget about it especially if your country is currently still being held captive by occupation forces.

Thanks, as a German I hate pessimism with our neighbours caused by the German question, wich has been solved with German reunification. We want to be friends with our European neighbours now 👍

Berlin was still legally the capital throughout, though, with Bonn _officially_ just the seat of government -- kinda like how Amsterdam is legally the capital of the Netherlands, but the government is actually in The Hague.

@@AaronOfMpls and i still dont get, why they choose Bonn instead of Frankfurt, which would have been a) more cetrally located in West Germany b) a significant city c) neither north or south german dominated and d) historically linking the first german attempt at democracy with the modern federal republic (Paulskirche).

@@thorstenfinke2751 There were concerns that a move to Frankfurt would be too permanent. Many of the leaders at the time still wanted the government to move _back_ to Berlin once the occupations ended, since they didn't expect the east-west split to last as long as it did.

Many federal agencies continue to be located in Bonn to this day I believe

@@AaronOfMpls how long did it last😡

I disagree. The position in the midst of Europe gave Germany a lot of power during the middle ages and at the start of the modern era (which starts around 1450). But that was gambled away due to internal conflicts and due to noble families competiting against each other for more personal power instead of working together. The Holy Roman Empire, ruled by German kings and emperors, had a lot of coast lines - at the Nordic Sea from Calais to Hamburg, at the Baltic Sea from Kiel to (about) Kolberg (plus the harbours controlled by the Hanse like Gdansk/Danzig, Riga, Reval and others), at the Mediterranean from Marseille to Pisa and (even after the independence of Venice) between Aquleia an Triest. At different times German merchants controlled much of the overseas trade in the Mediterranean and the North and Baltic Sea as well as the overland trade between southwestern and northeastern Europe. It was not geography which made it hard for Germany, it was bad politics and in the end the 30 Years' war which started out as a kind of civil war or rather a conflict between self-assured regional rulers and their sovereign, the Emperor (which was at that time a conservative and inflexible product of Habsburg inbreeding), but was then used by the UK, Sweden and France to bring down the central European power.

@@MichaEl-rh1kv The coastlines you spoke about in the mediterranean were not inhabited by germans so control was only limited same counts for some other portions in the north. Also i think that because we are so in the middle the various tribes, cities, principalities and kingdoms had a lot of different problems because we were "surrounded" and also held control over a considerable amount of ethnically non german regions. So thats why (atleast i think so) we had a hard time unifying. With better policies that still probably would have been possible way faster then it did in our time but one of a few reasons for the "bad" policies was our position, atleast kinda. Also i dont know why being in the middle gave us power? We got limited support because we were on the frontline bewtween christendom and the so called "barbaric" believs of the germanic and slavic tribes next to us. Since Chrisianity spread quickly that advantage was lost tho. Now that im thinking more of it i have to atleast agree partially because many trade routes lead thruogh our lands so some of us profited largely from this trade that started getting bigger and more influential between the rich south(western) parts of europe and the north and east of the continent. So yeah it gave us an advantage in that sense. But on the other side when you have many "rich" leaders its hard to get them to obbey their power in order to unify the country so it has its pros and contras i guess.

@@deinkonig2113All tribes, cities, kingdoms are somewhat "surrounded" - admittedly that on islands only by water. The mediterranean coastlines were controlled mostly by the leading city states of Genua und Venice (the latter becoming independent from the HRE, but Genua and Milano often took sides in the conflicts between Emperor and regionals rulers against the Emperor) - in so far you are right. But the HRE had many ships in the Mediterranean, war ships as well as traders, and many of them controlled by people considering themselves being German speakers (German/Deutsch was at first a (group of) language(s)). Controlling trade and travel routes gives power and wealth, being in the middle gives access to ideas and technologies from all sides, and in the early and high middle ages the Empire was continuously expanding (mostly to the East, absorbing Germanic and non-German tribes). In medieval times ethnical differences played a far smaller role than as they have attributed to nowadays. There was no impetus to "unifying" to the German prinicipalities, cities and other states, because they considered themselves already unifiied in the HRE with its four Kingdoms (the German-Roman Kingdom, the Kingdom of Bohemia, the Kingdom of Burgundy and the Kingdom of Italy), which ruled over some of the wealthiest regions in Europe and dominated most of Europe (except the East) for the most time. But the (German and German-Italian) nobles bickered the whole time about personal power, personal wealth and inheriditary offices. In that sense corruption was the normal condition of politics. In the early modern era then came the reformation, which was not only about religion, but also about reforming the federation - the Protestant princes wanted more power to themselves and less to the Emperor, the wealthy citizens of the Imperial cities wanted more civil rights (but mostly only for the rich), and the Emperor, considering himself ruling by the grace of God and in alliance with the Pope, wanted predominant power by divine right. The leader of the Protestant Union, the Count Palatinate of the Rhine (House Wittelsbach), was supported by his father-in-law, the King of Scotland and England, as well as the King of Sweden, who wanted to win predominance over the Baltic Sea, and the Catholic King of France saw the opportunity to weaken the Emperor by supporting the Protestants and to influence the interior politics of the Empire (and all his successors followed that pattern, trying to secure bridgeheads and claims within the HRE). The HRE was even before on the decline, partly due to Habsburg House politics, but that civil war ended the German predominance in Europe. At the same time however the noble Houses from Germany sat still on the most European thrones (except France and the regions ruled by the Ottomans) and were very content with that. (A branch of Wittelsbach e.g. became Kings of Sweden after the Vasa dynasty went extinct.)

I agree, the video title is misleading and the content is lacking...

@@MichaEl-rh1kv Okay well... : D ive gotta admitt you got a pretty good point there. But i still think that even tho Germanys location had some good things it also had some bad things. I would still say that our geography isnt what made us "powerful". We seem to have failed at growing from the challanges and the help our location provided to us. I would maybe say it was like playing with fire if you can control it its a powerful weapon but if you fail you may burn yourself. Having powerful Neighbours is also a two sided sword, haivng good relations with them means wealth but having bad ones often means the opposite. Also the pros mostly count for medieval times. Not all tho like having the possibilaty of learning from all Neighbours. We can go back and forth about how "good" or "bad" germanys starting point was but i think we can agree that other factors played a far bigger role at building this Nation. I mean when we look at the maybe best example france we can say that the advantage they had (only at Geography) was far greater, right?

8:47 He said "germany and its capital were devided by its NATO and Sovjet Spheres of influence" which is factually correct. *At the time* , after the war was lost, germany as well as Berlin were split. He did not claim, that Berlin would stay to be West Germany's capitol. Instead one could imply and think of it like if he would have said, "germany and its capital, *at the time* , were devided by its NATO and Sovjet Spheres of influence" The time referance comes from the occation of the split and therefor is implied. You know when it happened, you know what lead up to it, by referencing the occation, we know the contextual timeline. An explicit time referance i would suppose would make this point more clear. You are ofcause still right by mentioning that in the process Bonn became West Germany's capitol for all the mentioned reasons, but again what he said there was factually correct, even though that tidbit of Bonn was left out.

I am a foreigner living in Germany and as far as I know, Bonn was not the supposed to be the capital. Frankfurt was at the top of the list, but because Frankfurt (and Cologne, another potential capital) was still on the process of rebuilding from WWII, Bonn was selected to be the capital; a contingency.

Bis 1945 oder vielleicht sogar noch etwas länger war Berlin deutsche Hauptstadt. Als es dann zwei geteilte deutsche Staaten waren, wurde Bonn die Hauptstadt von Westdeutschland bzw. der Bundesrepublik Deutschland und Ostberlin die Hauptstadt der Deutschen Demokratischen Republik.

And IIRC actually Bonn was never the capital, it was the seat of the government (akin to Den Hague (Seat) and Amsterdam (de-jure capital). There was always the intention to move the capital back to Berlin and only in the 1980s people accepted that it might not happen (oh boy ;D). That's also why Bonn was chosen over Frankfurt. Frankfurt had a legit claim to be made the capital (a very central city where the first attempts of German Unification (the OG one) started (Paulskirche), but since the German government wasn't in search for a new capital it was denied. Just fact checked myself: Bonn was indeed the German capital. From 1973 to the fall of the Berlin wall. But up until that point Berlin was De-Jure our capital, sorry for the mistake.

The structures of the HRE still exist to this day, the federal states are the successor of the responsibilities of imperial circles and the cities/districts are the successor of the responsibilities of independent duchies/counties/free cities.

Yeah

the HRE is distinguished from "regular" feudal realm by being far more decentralised to the point that subjects of the (elected) emperor didnt really submit themselves too much to anything the emperor tried to make them do, unless of course they wanted to/were coerced/had marriage or familial obligations And there was an actual kingdom inside the HRE for most of its existance, that being Bohemia

@@rodi8266 You are more or less correct, but HRE-level fragmentation was due to feudal strcutures running there longer than they did in, say, France, not so much due to inherent weakness. Of course, the imperial subjects were less bound to the emperor directly you're very right there, but them straight up not doing anything of what he says is an exception that only became the rule over a hundreds of years long process.

Nee! Wikipedia sagt: "Beide Bezeichnungen, Niederdeutsch und Hochdeutsch, wurden aus dem Niederländischen entlehnt. Als hoghen duutsche und neder duutsche tauchten sie in einem mittelniederländischen Text von 1457 erstmals auf. Zunächst hatten die Bezeichnungen eine rein geografische Bedeutung. Mit Niederdeutsch waren die Sprachen am Niederrhein und Westfalens gemeint, wohingegen Hochdeutsch (oft synonym mit dem anfangs häufiger verwendeten Oberländisch) für die Sprachformen des Hügel- und Berglandes am Rhein verwendet wurde. Der Gebrauch des Wortes Niederdeutsch blieb jedoch bis ins 17. Jahrhundert selten. Erst später entwickelte sich aus der Bezeichnung Niederdeutsch die in der Dialektologie übliche Dreiteilung des deutschen Sprachraumes in Nieder-, Mittel- und Oberdeutsch, die durch die Grammatiken von Justus Georg Schottelius, Johann Bödiker und Martin Opitz popularisiert wurde."

I think he meant Niederdeutsch (north) vs. Oberdeutsch (south)

He literally clarified that at 3:30. Calling the standard language Hochdeutsch is a misnomer that originated because it is closer related to the southern dialects than to the northern dialects. The northern dialects, "Low German" were closer to pre-Norman English than to standard German, but have been largely replaced.

@@raritania7581 even then Plattdeutsch isn't and wasn't spoken in 99% of the area he Highlighted its just a very small almost non existent dialect only spoken in the north west, to say Hochdeutsch is spoken in Sothern Germany is just wrong because the dialects there are named oberseutsch like the dude over you already explained.

@@raritania7581 Hochdeutsch is Standard German. In its purest form it is spoken in the region of Hanover, which is in the north of Germany.

@@frachtrick A- that's a misnomer B- that's a modern construct, the "purest form" happens to have occured in Hanover, but before the creation of Standard German, Hanover would have spoken Low German.

Yeah, that was just painful to watch.

That's because he tried to make it just painting with as many of the modern borders as posible, that's why they also don't hace carpathia rhutenia

Do you mean 7:59 ?

@@Antonio_Gamer21 No, it just happens twice.

It was actually much more land, in Ukraine, Poland and near Belgrade

Glad to hear this!

He crowned his son king of the Romans which was in that case referred to Italy not Germany as he probably misunderstood. So Napoleon was French emperor and Italian king while his son also had another versione of it “ King of the Romans” which was what Charlemagne got for Italy.

Napoleon was in 1804 declared hereditary Emperor of the French, putting himself in the succession of Emperor Charles the Great (Charlemagne), to whom also the Emperors of the HRE referred as original founder of the Empire. In reaction to this Francis II declared himself hereditary Emperor Franz I of Austria-Hungary (which was a violation of the law of the HRE). In 1805 Napoleon was also crowned King of Italy; in 1806 Napoleon demanded by ultimatum the dissolution of the HRE. Francis abdicated as Holy Roman Emperor and dissolved the Empire, and the princes of newly founded Federation of the Rhine (which included most of southern Germany except Austria) paid homage to Emperor Napoleon.

"Emperor" is the same title still. In the true meaning of the word, it's identical.

With england too

That's why we had WWI.

@@karlhintonwilson5111 And WW2....and the 30 years war, and the Napoleonic Wars, and the Azstrian Succession war, and the Spanish Succession war, and the Franco-German war....say what you want about us but our history is anything but boring 🤣🤣🤣

Then you should lower your standards regarding the word "friendly". In geostrategic terms, both countries heavily rely on one another and closely cooperate in countless affairs. The PiS party is a bunch of snooty populists, who enjoy playing the victim card to receive reparations. (Even though they know this will never happen.) In reality, the EU is less devided than ever before.

He did booth

@@Damzum no he did not. Emperor Francis II abolished empire and title, so that Napoleon couldn't crown himself as emperor of the hre

@@oskararndt8818 He crowned hoimself as the empire of the German tho

@@Damzum he crowned himself Emperor of the French and made himself Protector of the Confederation of the Rhine. He never claimed to be Emperor of the Germans, nor would it have been particularly beneficial for him to have done so; he already got what he needed (primarily military support for his campaigns) as Protector of the Confederation, so to declare himself directly in charge would have only complicated the matter for him by further ruffling the feathers of the German states.

@@charlesTCMS oh Sorry i thought He was declared the emperor which I misunderstand.Thanks for the reply tho

wdym?

@@kurwanko if your browser history is empty it implies you cleared it, meaning you possibly have something to hide *porn*

@@brandonjade2146 no, no, i understand, i mean what does it mean in this context?

@@kurwanko nothing, this is probably a bot

Not a bot *makes angry bot noises*

*Turkey

Turkey isnt European so his point stands.

So Basically Hold until you are Dead that's Gross 😅 I actually Passed by Fulda on my way to Frankfurt but really never knew this ...Maybe I should visit this place rather than Passing

Befehl ist Befehl 🥾🥾 🥾🥾 🥾🥾 🥾🥾

That's sad

Fr*nce 🤢🤮

Der Bayrische und Östreicher Dialekt sind aber auch Hochdeutsche Dialekte ;) ... die bezichnung Hochdeutsch richtet sich nach der höhe der Region über dem Meeresspiegel.

It is technically correct. Our current standard German is based on high German dialects, like Saxonian and Bavarian (a big reason being Luther's translation of the bible). Because it was so different from lower German dialects, people from regions where those were spoken had to basically learn nearly a new language, which is why dialects like Plattdeutsch are nearly extinct now. On the other hand high German dialects were similar enough, that they are still very much alive nowadays. This all has lead to this strange dichotomy, where the lower German regions speak better "high German" than the places it originated from. Personally I'd prefer if ppl called it "Standarddeutsch" instead of "Hochdeutsch", to avoid confusions like this...

You are wrong. Many people call standard German "Hochdeutsch" but that is not correct. The standard dialect in Germany is called, as already mentioned, "Standard German" or "Standard-Deutsch" "Hochdeutsch" are all the upper German dialects, spoken in Southern Germany, Liechtenstein, Switzerland and Austria.

@@Dr.Leymen I wish more people would realize that

Germany had/has not the amplest resources. But had a bit of nearly everything: gold, silver, copper, lead, salt, iron, coal, oil, uranium, lithium, ... It has a strong mining tradition and the resources were enough to fuel technological progress.

and Hochdeutsch is standard german

Correct. Even today germany is a federation of 16 Bundesländer which translates to union countries. Even though most of the world just sees germany as one country, within germany there is an emphasize on the states being semi autonomous small countries, like england and scotland in the UK.

Russia gets credit for number 1 since if one eliminates the population on the Asian side, it still has more population than any country fully in Europe. Unlike Turkey, whose population largely lies in the Asian part, even with the high population density of its European territory..

No

Data?

Turkey isnt European lol

Ukraine is actually the largest, followed by France, then Germany. Russia has land in Asia, so it is illegible to be a European not Asian country. However, after the Quadruple Anschluss, France became the largest European nation, followed by Ukraine. If Germany still had Pomerania and Eastern Brandenburg, it would be the second largest European nation.

So Danube run from Black to Black Sorry Forest to Sea

Why am I surprised someone with the German Empire flag immediately comment the moment they see the word "Germany" lmao.

@@hariscountrys6911 lmao

Plattdetsch isnt even a dialect, its a language on its own, like Frisian, or Dutch.

Lmao dachte das gibt es fast überall hab an der holländischen Grenze in NRW gewohnt und jetzt bald Ostfriesland und es gab an beiden Orten Plattdeutsch bzw saterfriesisch

@@KennyNGA Ostfriesland ist Kerngebiet was Platt angeht.

@@FantasKanal Lügenpresse wir hatten es zuerst

@@KennyNGA Der Unterscheid zwischen Nieder-/Hochdeutsch ist, dass die Niederdeutschen Sprachen (Niederländisch+Platt) keine Konsonantenverschiebung wie beim Hochdeutschen gemacht haben, was daran liegt, dass Hochdeutsch durch einem Akzent der keltisch-romanischer Bevölkerung mit-entstanden ist. So ähnlich ist aus Angel-Sächsisch Englisch geworden, durch einen britonischen und später normannischen Akzent.

I know it is very unlikely to happen though I thought the border will be natural which is good in the future. German bought back some land from Netherlands but Poland does not want to sell any land.

It is getting better, but in most regions in the East wages are still lower than in the West (while much of the infrastructure is newer), and many younger people left. There are however also some "booming" regions e.g. around Berlin and Leipzig.

Kralovec is Czech!

The 3rd one should be in Polish.