| In every part of the Federal
Republic of Germany you will come across relics of a history dating back
over 2000 years. Germany was, from the very federalist structure; developement
into a centrally-governed national state - such as occured in the case
of many large neighboring countries - never properly succeeded here.
In the beginning there were only separate Germanic tribes such as the Saxons, Franks, Swabians and Bavarians who even today typify the individual character of the German regions. The came the Romans, who incorporated the western and southern parts of Germany in their empire. Following the collapse of Roman imperial power and the transistional periods of the Carolongian empire well over a thousand years ago there arose what came to be called the "Holy Roman Empire". This was a loose alliance of the German princes united under an ellective monarchy with an emperor at its head. Within this empire, however, the German principalities became more and more fragmented until finally there were some 350 separate states - most of them, admittedly, "pocket-sized". In 1806, as a result of the French Revolution and the Napoleonic wars, this empire came to an end. The readjustments carried out in the 19th century led to eventual unification and in 1871 the German states - now only 25 in number - amalgamated under the leadership of Prussia to form the German Empire. The end of World War One in 1918 also meant the end of the monarchy, and the German Empire became a republic. At the end of the Second World War the country was divided: in the west was the Federal Republic of Germany, a federal state comprised of 11 "Länder", whereas the east saw the establishment of the communist German Democratic Republic under soviet rule. And now the two German states
are reunited; the 5 East German "Länder" have joined the Federal Republic
which now, as a result, consists of 16 "Bundesländer" in total.
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