Before the time of Otto von Bismarck, Germany was not much more than a geographical expressiona sprawling, warring collection of states, duchies and feudal enclaves where the Hessians. Thuringians and Bavarians fought among themselves but mostly against the Prussians. Under Bismarck the Prussians won, and the Iron Chancellor set up the German Reich that lasted until the defeat in World War I. Germany's first real experiment with democracy was the Weimar Republic of the 1920s. But despite the efforts of men of vision like Friedrich Ebert and Gustav Stresemann. German democracy was splintered from the start by regionalism, factionalism,...
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