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Reich

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This article refers to the German word Reich, and in particular to its historical and political implications; for other uses, see Reich (disambiguation)
[Reich] ([Media helphelp]·[info]) (IPA: [ˈraɪk]; German: IPA: [ˈraɪç]), is the German word for "realm" or "empire", cognate with Scandinavian rike/rige, Dutch rijk and English ric as found in bishopric. It is the word traditionally used for a variety of sovereign entities, including Germany in many periods of its history. It is also found in the compound Königreich, "kingdom", and in the country names Frankreich (France, literally the "Realm of the Franks") and Österreich (Austria, the "Eastern Realm"). The German version of the Lord's Prayer uses the words Dein Reich komme for "ἐλθέτω ἡ βασιλεία σου" (usually translated as "thy kingdom come" in English). "Reich" can be translated in at least ten different ways: State, empire, nation, land, region, country, realm, commonwealth, domain, and res publica. [link] Used adjectivally, reich is the German word for "rich", so there is also an overlap in meaning with "commonwealth". Like its Latin counterpart, imperium, Reich does not necessarily connote a monarchy. The Weimar Republic continued to use the name Deutsches Reich.

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Reich, German

The term Reich was part of the German names for Germany for much of its history. The German name for the "Holy Roman Empire" (9th century–1806) is Heiliges Römisches Reich. In Middle High German, der rîche was a title for the Emperor. However, it should be noted that Latin, not German, was the formal legal language of the medieval Empire, so English-speaking historians are more likely to use Latin imperium than German Reich as a term for this period of German history.

The unified Germany which arose under Chancellor Otto von Bismarck in 1871 was called in German the Deutsches Reich. This remained the official name of Germany until 1945, although these years saw three very different political systems more commonly referred to in English as the German Empire (1871–1918, as this term is a direct translation of Deutsches Reich it can be ambiguous), the Weimar Republic (1919–1933; the term is a postwar coinage not used at the time), and Nazi Germany (the Third Reich) (1933–1945).

The Nazis sought to legitimise their power historiographically by portraying their rule as a continuation of a Germanic past. They coined the term Das Dritte Reich ("The Third Empire" – usually rendered in English in the half-translation "The Third Reich"), counting the Holy Roman Empire as the first and the 1871-1918 monarchy as the second. They also used the political slogan Ein Volk, ein Reich, ein Führer ("One people, one Reich, one leader"). Although the term "Third Reich" is in common use, the terms "First Reich" and "Second Reich" for the earlier periods are seldom found outside Nazi propaganda. To adopt them as some commentators did in the post-war years is generally frowned upon as accepting Nazi historiography.

A number of previously neutral words used by the Nazis have later taken on negative connotations in German (e.g. Führer or Heil); while in many contexts Reich is not one of them (reich, rich; Frankreich, France), it can imply German imperialism or strong nationalism if it is used to describe a political or govermental entity. Reich has thus not been used in official terminology since 1945, though it is still found in the name of the Reichstag building, which since 1999 has housed the German federal parliament, the Bundestag. The decision not to rename the Reichstag building was taken only after long debate in the Bundestag; even then, it is described officially as Reichstag - Sitz des Bundestages (Reichstag, seat of the Bundestag).

The exception is that during the Cold War, the East German railway incongruously continued to use the name Deutsche Reichsbahn (German Imperial Railways), which had been the name of the national railway during the era of the Weimar Republic and Third Reich. This is because the Reichsbahn was specifically mentioned in several postwar treaties and directives regarding the right to operate the railways of West Berlin; had the East German government changed the Reichsbahn name, it would likely have lost this right.

Etymology and cognates

Reich has an interesting etymology: it comes from a Germanic word for "king", which was borrowed from Celtic. (See Calvert Watkins, American Heritage dictionary of Indo-European Roots, p.70.) It has cognates in many other languages, all ultimately descended from the Proto-Indo-European root *reg-, meaning "to straighten out" or "rule", also the source of English right. The cognates can be grouped linguistically as follows:

Celtic group

Proto-Celtic *rīg-, "king", from the lengthened e-grade (see: Indo-European ablaut). Borrowed into Germanic as *rīks-. Hence:

Original Germanic group

Although the line of descent of Reich and its closest cognates came into Germanic sideways from Celtic, Germanic also inherited the same Indo-European root directly in a suffixed form of the e-grade, *reg-to-, hence:

Latin

The basic e-grade form of the root came into Latin as: regere (supine stem rectus), "to rule"; rex, regis, "king"; regalis, "kingly". A suffixed, lengthened e-grade form, *rēg-ola- gives us Latin regula, "rod". Hence:

Sanskrit

The Sanskrit word, from a lengthened-grade suffixed form *rēg-en-, is rājā, "king", hence the words for rulers in various Indian language. Of interest to English speakers: Raj, used of the British rule in India; and Maharaja, literally "the great king" (exactly parallel to Latin magnus rex).

Others

References

 

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