Unification, Division, and Reunification of Germany
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- Опубликовано: 9 фев 2025
- A lot has happened in Germany's recent history. From a collection of independent states, German became a unified country in 1871, was divided by the Allied Powers in the aftermath of WWII, and then finally, after the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989, Germany became the country that it is today.
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Unification: Germany
Division: Gertwo
Unification: Gerone
You, good sir, deserve far more upvotes.
*yes*
Got dam PUNS
Reunification*
i dont mean to be offtopic but does someone know a trick to log back into an Instagram account..?
I was stupid lost my account password. I love any assistance you can offer me
Bismarck had a plan. Bismarck always has a plan.
Gerard DuGalle It was Walpole!
But Bismarck didn't cheat at Donkey Kong.
I hear the extra credits guy
Extra history
IT WAS WALPOLE!
I love how within 20 seconds of uploading there's already 10 comments of appreciation.
WonderWhy, we love you.
so "first!!1" and bots are commenst of appreciation?
As an East German I can confirm that the cultural and economic division is still pretty obivious. (Exept for the Big Citys Like Berlin or Dresden)
Doktor Turtle Der Osten kommt aber!
Doktor Turtle Der Osten ist für mich Preußen und Böhmen.
Doktor Turtle I still can't wrap my head around how Germany used to be divided in two less than 9 years before I was born, which is insane to me.
Âraš Kamândâr und Sachsen
Doktor Turtle Naja, Sachsen nicht wirklich eigentlich. Vor dem Krieg waren es Pommern, Ostpreußen und Schlesien. Immerhin wird der Begriff Ostdeutschland auch eher vermieden, in dem Sachsen, Sachsen-Anhalt und Thüringen als Mitteldeutschland gilt
Talk about a surprisingly relevant video to current events with Korea....
BronzeManul These are CURRENT events. WonderWhy is probably making this video since his last upload which was a month ago.
Of course; hence the 'surprisingly' part of my comment. haha
hopefully man, hopefully.
Actually there will be no Korean unification, as it is neither in the interest of Crazy Kim, nor of South Korea.
In the early 2000s South Korea sent a delegation to Germany to consult about best practices and learn from their experiences how to best handle such a unification. After they heard about the costs and how long it would take, they came to the conclusion, that a unification was financially impossible for Korea. (the situation W-/E-Germany was economically far, far more favorable than the situation in S-/N-Korea is).
A unified Korea seems unlikely the talks are just about getting rid of nuclear weapons on the border.
ive reviewed german history on youtube many times, but this one was the best out of all of them. thank you
hey wonder why i have an idea talk about kra cannel
It might be time for you to start reading some literature then. There are a lot of small errors in this video which are probably made because of oversimplification. Also there is a clear tone against early Germany as well as 'western enemies'. An example would be his argumentation on the unification between Austria and Germany with the Treaty of Versailles in mind. Even though this treaty has been commonly acknowledged as a mistake.
I'd advise you to read about that subject in A History of Western Society by McKay. That book has a clear preference for western European and American ideologies, like this video. And it does still acknowledge a lot of things that should've been, but weren't by this video.
Jared McMillen i
@@ddiirrkkiiee I can't say that I quite follow.
no, we need to look at the real divison of germany
aldi nord and aldi süd
XD
M B I do Love ALDI! They’re overrunning the World! Shhh, don’t let the UN see!
What, the supermarket?
@@Amghannam It's one of the wisdoms teached by the kangaroo
@@Amghannam yes
Watching the footage of people cheering after passing the borders between East and West Berlin brings me a whole amount of joy. I hope Korea may soon share that sentiment.
East Germany was kind of crazy as a country, but North Korea is a whole different league of insanity. And it existed now for almost twice as long as East Germany did. The situations are not very similar and if Korea were to be unified the transition would be much rougher and easily take half a century or more before things get to normal.
Me too, the Koreans do not deserve to be seperate.
@@Myself-yf5doGorbachev wanted a United Germany that was neutral, China would like a Korea with the economic model of the South, but they don’t want unification because that would mean US troops would likely be near their borders, this is the reason why China intervened in the Korean War as the South was very close to victory, and that is largely the reason north Korea still exists, I bet China would be fine with the unification of Korea if Korea expelled US troops from its territory and became neutral
As a German living in Austria with relatives in both East and West Germany, I thank you for your great video. Is it a coincidence that just the day this was uploaded, a new milestone in the process of Korean reunification was reached?
I plan to travel to Austria one day
A big part missing here is the Schlesvig-Holstein War with Prussia and Austria vs Denmark. Prussia needed a reason to declare war of Austria and "mistreatment of Prussians in Holstein" was that reason.
Once used to be the most authoritarian and nationalist country of all human history, and now the leader and head of free and democratic Europe. Lost two world wars, but became even stronger than those who defeated it. Germany is such a great country and German people really deserve an applause for their determination, sedulity and success. Loves and respects from Turkey
Yay wonderwhy uploaded! Today is a good day!
It isn’t anymore, he’s a sellout
DisaRudded how so?
CooLite Have no idea, I'm from the United States
ATeamBrown I’m sorry. I replied to the wrong person. :P
I hope Korea will unify one day, too
Than will be invaded by migrants..
fuckin dog eaters and their pet fat korean dictator wont let that happen tho lol
Hopefully but world powers like the US, UK, France & Russia won’t let that happen.
@@alfredoangel2359 What if Korea (somehow) would declare itsekf neutral leaving NATO and removing all foreing military bases? Neither China nor the US would be pissed off.
@@amanciom.orazow2447 migrants are not a problem, on the contrary, they help aging populations by working...
*When* *you* *revise* *your* *history* *lessons* *with* *this* *video* *because* *you* *went* *to* *school* *in* *Germany*
There’s a lot of stuff that I can revise about the 2 World Wars and the Cold War in this video
Ap Euro for me.
I don't get it
Hallo ^_^ kannst du mir bitte so kurz erklären was euch beigebracht wurde? Ich hatte leider nicht den Privileg (oder vll. Nachteil kA) in meinem Heimatland in die Schule zu gehen und die Geschichte in der Sicht zu lernen/sehen. Eine Antwort wäre äußerst hilfreich. Dankeschön vorwegs :)
Dan Al Germans have been brainwashed into self hate for last 70 years,they have no autonomy and are under the rule of USA.Germans need to learn to love their home and volk again,revive prussian tradition!
7:26 No, no, no and no. So many people believe that but it's wrong. The word "Nazi" comes from the first two syllables of the word "National", which in German is pronounced "na-tsi-o-nal". To conform with German phonological rules, the "t" is changed into a "z" in the word "Nazi" so that it's pronounced "na-tsi" and not "na-ti".
Danke Mann! Are you German or do you just know the language?
maybe neither
@@Luka__1 kosovo je srbija
Nazinal? Is that the word?
@/dev/etresevo
No, the word ,,Nazi" comes from the german word ,,NAtionalsoZIalist", trust me, I'm from Germany
Great timing with what’s going on in Korea!
hey KhAnubis Productions you're videos are great
Tha saddest thing ever is looking at a map of pre ww1 Germany and knowing what will happen to it.
mimimi
janzjenau totally agree.
If anything, the saddest thing ever would be looking at a map of pre ww1 Europe and knowing what will happen to it.
The Dual Monarchy got the worst deal in losing territories, fyi. Anyway, both Versailles and Trianon were mistakes of historical proportions.
John T. DiFool That’s truly sad.
Suck it, Kraut
@12:08, that's one of my earliest memories! I came into the lounge room talking while Dad was watching the news and, as usual, the little lad yacking while the news was on got a hushing. But that night, the way he hushed me was different. Even as just a wee boy I somehow knew that something important must have been going on. I turned to see the television set and there were all these people gathered at a very dirty wall. I didn't know why. But I knew that for that many people to turn up, there must have been something special happening.
The republic had a rough time for a few years, especially 1923, but between 1924 and 1929 things were looking up. Their economy was stable and booming, and if it weren't for the Great Depression, it would probably would have survived to the present day. It had flaws, but nothing that made its fall inevitable.
Night A war between the soviets and west was inevitable though and if it happend a couple decades later, nukes would have been on the table...
Gustav Stressmann is a god
Ben McKean erm Stressmann.....
Ben McKean fair enough I mean Stressmann caused the depression in Germany cause he borrowed from the USA in short-term loans and after the Wall Street crash the USA called them back and then Germany basically collapsed
Ben McKean you're a monarchist in 2018 and you expect people to take your opinions seriously
That timeline graphic @14:27 is so good that I want a high quality copy.
Bismark shouldn't have been dismissed, damn Kaiser!
He died two years later so not much would have changed anyway
@@dododakowski2813 he died in 1898 and he had said like a year ago "If things keep going like this 20 years after I die... You will not be a Kaiser anymore" He was 2 months off
I just wonder what would have happened if Frederick III recovered and went on to have a long reign. Germany might have gone on to be a much more peaceful (or at least more stable) power.
@@thunderbird1921 Surely it would have.
I've never clicked on a notification so fast
Wow I just had a modern history exam today and I wrote an essay about German unification in 1871...
Something something blood and steel?
Spamme Loop Blood & Iron
Blut und Eisen
Your channel is amazing please never stop uploading your channel is irreplaceable
Great! Now I shall return to my 6 month hibernation.
[insert your comment]
- The Astro Gamer • 6 months ago
Quality video as always, and thank you for all your hard work!
Yey! Wonderwhy posted an intresting video!!
Finally a new video of someone that I’ve subscribed to. It’s taking a while for people that I’ve subscribed to to make new videos. But it’s finally happened yay.
Gute Arbeit, WunderWieso! 👍🇩🇪
Germany is imperfect cell looking for 17 and 18 toke you long enough to find 18 aka east Germany 😏😏😏
@@rickyyacine4818 what?
@@mam0lechinookclan607 just a joke dbz eu4 meme
@@rickyyacine4818 ah didn't know that one,
I really have to get into eu4, I heard it's n good game.
What an amazing birthday present to get a WonderWhy video
Happy birthday!
Hi Wonderwhy, could you please make a video on Borneo and why it is divided into three countries? Your fans and subscribers would love it if you made a video on this topic.
Great video man! The waits are definitely worth it for the content you put out.
13:20 someone is waving around the flag of the Kiaserreich
This was really well done. This seems very important and I knew next to nothing about these events.
Of course, I wasn't around to see any of this, but I remember seeing the picture of Berlin at 14:14 (the streetlights, where on the Western side they're more cost- and energy-efficient) almost ten years ago, when I was maybe eight or nine. I couldn't believe the difference and my parents had to explain the entire Cold War/USSR/division of Germany. That was the first time I remember openly crying because I thought the world was a horrible place (then the teenage years happened...) and I specifically remember asking "Why do the same people hate each other so much?" That brought on the racism discussion...
I'm from Italy but despite rivalry I have to admit Germans always been one of the greatest countries ever existed! You lost not one but two World Wars, you've been divided since less than 30 years ago and still today you're the most successful country in Europe and one of the top economies in the world. That's just impressive, a mentality that my country should just learn and apply but unfortunately it doesn't happen.
Greetings and respect to Deutschland from an Italian guy.
"and of course it's pretty amazing football team." Oh boy..
I always see Wonder Why being recommended on my homepage but I wondered why haven't I subscribed. Great content deserves subscriptions. Subbed.
has it been a year already?
How did I miss this one? Been a subscriber for years! Great content, please keep it coming.
So a video every month, that’s cool, at least it is not a video every 4 months
Robert Walpole It was Walpole!
Lol Extra Credits
This is fascinating and straightened my understanding of pre WW1 Germany, thank you so much, we all appreciate the time you put into this videos
I find it kind of hilarious that you wrote down that the Austrian-Prussian War is also referred to as the Brothers’ War.
Bruderkrieg, in German
Reminds me of the trip I did to Germany in September and October 1989. It included a train trip from Cologne to Berlin. That was quite something. There was also a bus tour of East Berlin.
Germany has definitly one of the weirdest historys off all time
Today I had to do history class work regarding World War One and its alliances, although I am a bit of a history nerd I did not have a strong grasp on the subject completely. We had to answer questions regarding the triple alliance and the triple entente and so on. It was a bit difficult with the textbook we had but I finished it...
Hours later I come to my house to find this video explaining all I needed
Vtron Irony
korean reunification when?
venezuelan coffee daddy At the end of 2018, that’s what! (I think)
venezuelan coffee daddy your name caught my attention because I'm Venezuelan
Another decade at least. North Korea needs to do a lot of work normalizing it's relations and reforming it's system of government/economy to integrate into a united Korean state.
One of the issues will be outside nations regardless of what the Korean people and the 2 states want. USA, China, Russia and Japan amongst others all have their personal interests. You have seen in this video not all welcomed the German reunification and first and likewise with Vietnam.
Nigu Si eres venezolano, ¿por qué no lo dijiste en español?
Well done. You did something that years of high school, college, and military experience could not do, and you did it in 15 mins. Now do the following histories: South Africa, Papua New Guinea, Bosina, and the Congo.
I wanna run away, and never say good bye, I wanna know the truth, why there's no WonderWhy
Yes. Runaway is a legendary song, and also yes to the context behind this lol
Gosh your videos are always so good! They are definitely worth the wait.
Great video. You should talk about Prussia.
Great video as always, WonderWhy.
2:30 The thing I am wondering about: How the heck did Prussia get that little piece of land at the bottom of Württemberg?
Btw. 11:51 : He failed when he said that, because the opening should be some time later, but he didn't know, so he said the sentence shown on screen.
AHHHHH I love your videos so much! Saving this one for later.
And your advertisers lost you at 7:26
That was a really good video. Well presented and explained. Thank you for another great video.
Call it West Francia, call it the Holy Roman Empire, the confederation of the Rhine, Austria, Prussia or call it Germany.
There always was a Germanic power filling the vacuum in central Europe.
Thank you for this amazing video from Germany!
7:50 "Germany loses some of their territory"
SOME of their territory? Germany lost more territory after WW2 than they did after WW1. Besides, these territories were populated mostly by Germans (unlike those that had been lost after the Treaty of Versailles, which were inhabited mostly by minorities, especially Poles) and they had been politically and demographically German for centuries; they hadn't just been conquered during Hitler's rule. To deal with this situation, the Allies simply decided to massively expel several million Germans that had been living there for generations and repopulate these territories with Poles (since these areas were mostly given to Poland, with the exception of the Kaliningrad Oblast, which was given to Russia) expelled from former eastern Polish territories annexed by the USSR. So these areas really served as a compensation to Poland for all the Polish regions that the USSR had decided to annex for themselves.
This resulted in one of the largest population transfers in modern history.
You can learn more here:
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flight_and_expulsion_of_Germans_(1944-50)
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flight_and_expulsion_of_Germans_from_Poland_during_and_after_World_War_II
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Former_eastern_territories_of_Germany
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Recovered_Territories
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kresy
Thats a classic soviet thing to do
@tiglath pileser shut up you idiot these nazis were also humans, yes their ideology was dumb but dont forget that not everyone was a nazi
I ended up using this video to back up what i was saying on a position paper, thank you
6 months later, i'm using this video to study
"All german states except austria"
Liechenstein says otherwise
Liechtenstein is a tiny territory of half a dozen villiages and one town.
More important : Germany isnt "reunited" since 1990.
At least not from the classic point of view what is Germany which included Austria, South Tyrol and Luxemburg.
There is a united Kleindeutschland (Core Germany - of the 4 occupation areas of WW2 allies) but n o t a reunited Nation!
To believe in reunification , there was and still is a constant brainwash after World War 2 by the media and political parties.
@@rudolfkraffzick642 Austria is certifiably not Germany, as Germany didn't exist as a concept until the Prussians created the German Empire.
@@daemonspudguy Watch the video
@@ОниТиту I did. A united Germany was non-existent until the 1870s
@@daemonspudguy have you ever heard of something called the third reich or the Holy Roman Empire of the German nation?
Finally a video from this guy!!
Time keeping is amazing with the German's. Projects completed on time or before hand.
Baldeep Birak the Berlin wall proves that, if that was somewhere else it would've taken years not one night
Please post more videos !!!! They are the best !!!
If You compare a pre ww1 map with a map of today, you will see that Germany never 'reunified'.
Du weißt schon, dass in den ehemaligen Ostgebieten kaum Deutsche mehr wohnen, genausowenig im Elsaß, und die Österreicher sich wohl kaum als Deutsch identifizieren?
Jaeckex In Elsaß-Lothringen, Schlesien, Schleswig und Eupen-Malmedy wird immer noch deutsch gesprochen
Armin Beintze
Im Elsass wird kaum mehr Deutsch gesprochen. Die ältere Generation und ein kleiner Teil der jungen Generation am Land redet noch Elsässisch, aber kein Standard-Deutsch. Ich würde nicht sagen, dass "Elsässisch reden" mit "Deutsch reden" gleichzusetzen ist.
What's Their Name Again? Was ist denn die Amtssprache in Elsaß-Lothringen?
Armin Beintze Es gibt im Elsass keine Amtssprache, da es in Frankreich gar kein Verwaltungsobjekt namens "Alsace" mehr gibt. Als die Region noch existiert hat war Französisch die Amtssprache und Elsässer Dialekt eine "anerkannte Minderheitensprache".
Hey I missed you man, glad to see you back
6:14 lmao italy
I like that he shows the sponsor at the end of the video, not the beginning.
I hope Korea's unification if it were to happen one day be as peaceful and successful as Germany's
Blue Winter We can only hope
How so? It's almost imposible at this point. We know that East Germany was much poorer than West Germany, but they still were germans, and germans are smart people. So the differences were there, but the communists germans at least had some sort of a productive economy, and that lasted roughly 30 years.
But korean problem is so much worse. South Korea is a globalist first world country with one of the best economies in the world while North Korea is the most oppresive dictatorship of the modern world. They're not even industrialize at an acceptable level, and most of the population don't even know or can't use some of the western world commodities like smartphones, internet, etc. Not only that, but they were separated for more than one generation (30 y.), almost two. And while the South is in 2019, the North is still in the 1960's.
I think South Koreans don't like the idea of a reunification because it would be catastrophic to their economy. Imagine that, from one day to another you have more than ten million refugees in your country. That's the situation were NK reunites with SK.
Another great vd, congrats from brazil my chap
the end gave me goosebumps #proudtobegerman
Zounatic But your future is fucked with your people sadly becoming a minority in their own country but long live deutchland
It's nice to see videos having this kind of impact on someone. :)
Btw, I read #ProudToBegerman
Dat History lad Our future will be much brighter than yours, because we are accepting the reality of Globalization and go with it instead of trying to roll back the world and the ideological landscape to 1900. Ethnic Germans are far from being a minority, even less so with Cultural Germans.
Many Immigrants embrace German Culture and Society, and proudly call themselves Germans, rightfully so. Just because they have a different Skin Color or Religion doesn't mean that they cant be german.
In 50 years we will have profited from this, and a the nations trying to fight globalization will hurtfully see that these efforts are not only futile, but also unethical. Not to say "Racist".
Jaeckex Right on brother! As an English lad whose grandad was a Lübecker, he came to Britain during the Weimar years and was accepted and even praised for his bravery, never demonised. Obviously I fully see myself as a British citizen, but can always be proud that my heritage is from a country that accepts a past that is no fault of their current government or citizens, and paves the way in Europe in lots of industries. Einigkeit und recht under Freiheit truly stands!
Jaeckex Thank you 🙏🏻 fully agree
Best video yet! I love it!
But Austria is still independent! Germany is not unified today!
By the way, guys, if you like dogs and music don't miss my dog themed musical parodies! They're available in my channel! Cheers!
MusiCanines - The Musical Dogs You noob, if Germany ever repeats the Anchlüss, NATO will be really mad
Close enough.
Germany will only be reunified when it gets Prussia, silesia and Alsace ;)
And the fact its missing Pomerania, Silesia and Prussia
MusiCanines - The Musical Dogs Facepalm...
This would make a great movie tho.
"The Unification, Division, and Reunification" a romantic story about friendships, hardships, and rejoice.
Kept refreshing until you uploaded... Its been months... My wife left me
Thinking and hearing about the fall of the Berlin wall always gives me chills because of the happiness it brought
"and a pretty amazing football team" that did not age well!
That was the shortest summary of the 2nd WW i've ever seen. My respects.
If it was fully reunified, it would take: Germany, Austria, South Tyrol, North Eastern Netherlands, Western France, Western Switzerland and Luxembourg....
And half Poland
North eastern Netherlands?
A very fair and consise regolection of events, well done!.
2nd Reich > Every other Germany (excluding Prussia, Prussia be lit)
İ think 2nd Reich had a better military than 3rd Reich compare their time.İn 1914 Germany had no competent rivals in quality and quantity of the heavy artillery and machine guns and they had huge stockpiles of artillery rounds for the war and world’s second largest naval force but in 1939 even French Army had more artillery pieces and tanks than Wehrmacht and they lacking on stockpiles of rounds.
This video is fantastic, I'm revising for a history exam atm and it's a great help, however I find the music in the background really distracting !
The differences between East and West Germany aren't that visible. An East German earns less than a West German, but don't have to pay that much.
Please make more videos on countries.
I love your videos
Have you ever wondered why
fantastic, very comprehensive overview!
Germany is my city
Squipy Austria is my unincorporated township.
I'm from Sri Lanka🇱🇰. Good explanation. Thank you...!
Do a video on the American voting system.
Domizo Dando In general or at a specific level?
I was thinking more presidential elections lol.
I am from Germany. Thank you for this video. very good!
(one minor correction though: 7:54 - Germany does not pay war reparrations for World War 2)
It did for a while right after the war, though, esp. to the Soviets, much of it in raw materials, machinery, and dismantled factories.
Legend has it that if you're early, WonderWhy will reply to your comment!
Lies
Thanks for the inspiration! got an A+ on history presentation
EU isn't exactly Fourth Reich but German economy benefits from EU more than other EU countries. When did economical crisis of 2008 end in Finland? Not yet.
Thanks for the great video
I want *REAL* reunification!
❌Austria
❌Pomerania
❌Silesia
❌Östpreußen
and of course
❌ *Liechtenstein*
How is silesia german?
Leonard Marc Ramos What the fuck is an "Östpreußen"?
East Prussia.
It had 3 million Germans before the Russians did some ethnic cleansing to it.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/East_Prussia
Mottflyer It's Ostpreußen , not "Östpreußen". That was what I was talking about.
Ah. I'd assume it was just a typing error.
No need to be a grammar Nazi ;)
A lot of wondering why, today. (worth the wait mate!)
13:43 The Fourth Reich actually does exist. But we call it the EU.
All you EU-Antagonizers are going to need another Propaganda-Lie against the EU: With Merkel turned into a lame duck through internal struggles the French have taken over again last year... A French wouldn't be leading a Fourth Reich - and a Fourth Reich wouldn't have any issues with a new Fascist Italy anyway...
Watching this video not far from the Berlin Wall. You did a great job, thank you
If Germany was a person
1806-1871 - Infant Germany to Young Germany, just a cute little child (German Confederation)
1871-1914 - Teenager Germany, passing through emo phase, eventually going a full transformation (German Empire)
1914-1918 - Germany goes through a hard time, drinking and smoking. He fights with his fellow friends a few times. (WW1)
1918 - Germany gets into a car accident, changing his personality forcing him to undergo rehabilitation (German Revolution)
1918-1933 - Germany returns to his old state, but it gets worse (Weimar period)
1933 - Germany gains a mental illness of schizophrenia, and double personality disorder (1 side is evil/Nazis, 1 side is good/Attempts to restore old Germany)
1933-1939 - Germany kills Austria and cannibalizes him, doing the same with Czechoslovakia
1939 - Germany kills Poland, Britain and France try to find a way to rehabilitate him (WW2 start)
1940 - Germany hunts down and kills Denmark and Norway, and France is killed in a fight with Germany (Fall of France)
1940-1945 - Germany turns Italy into his servant, but he begins getting knocked down as his good personality begins taking over
1945 - Somewhere in Berlin, Germany is nearly killed by the USSR, suffering fatal wounds. Germany has a Near Death Experience, as his bad personality slowly disappears (WW2 end)
1945-1948 - Germany has trouble coping with the split between him and his friends, he still has multi personality disorder (4 personalities)
1948 - Germany is rehabilitated but not properly, Germany now has 2 personalities (German division)
1948-1989 - Germany is troubled by the split between the US and Russia (Cold War)
1989 - US catches Germany in Berlin, bringing him to New York to be rehabilitated properly
1990 - With his disorders gone, Germany is now cured of all illness and now a loyal ally to Britain, France, and US
1990-present - Germany is now an aspiring person, who frequently remembers his past.
This is the most accurate description I've ever seen.
1940- kills france
1990- ally to france
My son was an exchange student in Berlin during the reunification. He bought a shirt that said on the front "Ich will die Mauer wieder" (I want the Wall back) and on the reverse "Und noch zwei Meter hoeher" (and two meters higher) (of course with the Umlaut)