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Deutsches Reich
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Deutsches Reich was the official name for Germany from 1871 to 1945 in the German language. Its literal meaning in English is "German Realm", however it is more usually only part-translated as "German Reich" (for a more detailed translation/explanation of the term 'Reich' read the article Reich).
The history of Germany during this time is conventionally broken into three distinct periods, the names of which are much more commonly used for referring to the state than the official term:
- the German Empire, from 1871 to 1918
- the Weimar Republic, from 1919 to 1933
- the Third Reich or ("Nazi Germany"), from 1933 to 1944 (during the final two years of Nazi rule the state was formally known by the Germans as the Großdeutsches Reich, or "Greater German Reich"[citation needed]).
From the 9 May 1945 the Deutsches Reich was in a state of Debellation (see End of World War II in Europe). The Allies decided not to recognise Karl Dönitz as Reichspräsident or to recognise the legitimacy of his Flensburg government (so-called because it was based at Flensburg and controlled only a small area around the town), and on 5 July 1945 the four powers signed the "Declaration Regarding the Defeat of Germany" in Berlin, creating the Allied Control Council and assumed supreme authority with respect to Germany.[1]
When the peace treaty between Germany and the war time Allies, (known as Treaty on the Final Settlement with Respect to Germany), was signed on September 12, 1990 there was no mention of the Deutsches Reich, or any of the three common English names for it, in the English version of the text. Instead the states of the Federal Republic of Germany (West Germany) and the German Democratic Republic (East Germany) agreed to be bound by certain conditions which they had to ratify, one of which was the creation of a united Germany which to come into existence had to also agree to certain conditions agreed in the treaty. On meeting theses conditions under Article 7.2 "The United Germany [has] accordingly full sovereignty over its internal and external affairs."[2]