The nation of Germany did not come into existence until much more modern times than countries such as France and England. However, the foundations of the German state can be found in the Holy Roman Empire (HRE). The HRE reached farther North, West, South and East than modern day Germany but it still encompassed the same principalities that came together to form a unified nation. Due to the size of the HRE, it would have been hard for the people we call Germans to identify with their emperor and their nation. Many dialects were spoken and different cultural aspects were practiced, yet, these people all lived under one ruler. While the HRE governed nations that would not make up modern day Germany, it started to organize all of the smaller principalities in the German region that would one day form one larger nation. The idea of Germany was born with the HRE.
When Holy Roman Emperor Ferdinand I created the principle of cuius regio, eius religio, he allowed for the legal spread of Protestantism. Martin Luther’s became more widely accepted and, consequently, a German language was formed. When Luther translated the Bible from Latin to German, he created a basic German dialect that soon became the most widely spoken form of German because people wanted to speak the language of the Bible. Due to the growth of Protestantism in the HRE, the empire was able to develop its culture away from the influence of Catholicism and its Pope. While the southern regions of the HRE remained mainly Catholic, the northern parts identified with Protestantism. This separation gave the future Germans a language of their own and an identity separate from the Catholic realm.
- A picture of Ferdinand I, Holy Roman Emperor.
Although the boundaries of the HRE are largely different than those of modern day Germany, the empire played a huge role laying the foundations for a German state.
-A map of the Holy Roman Empire in 1530.
-This is what modern day Germany looks like. Compared to the HRE, it is smaller.
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