The Three Reichs

**Brutus** · 02-09-2006, 00:08

Actually, we usually refer to it as "Nazi-Germany" ("Nazi-Duitsland") or simply "The Nazi's" as well, so I guess in the end it's a non-issue...

**Kraxis** · 02-09-2006, 01:20

Originally Posted by Brutus

Actually, we usually refer to it as "Nazi-Germany" ("Nazi-Duitsland") or simply "The Nazi's" as well, so I guess in the end it's a non-issue...

Ah... But where does that end? Does it include the annexed territories? Only post WWI Germany ect ect. Nazi-Germany is equally flawed as a term as it is hard to determine what is truly Germany and what is not.

In Danish it is Det Tredje Rige (The Third Reich).
It is indeed the lack of a proper English term that has prompted the use of the German word. Realm might be good for atechnical translation, but the cultural use of 'realm' is not the same as 'reich'. A 'realm' is something a territorial entity can also be called, not something it is named firstly. Besides The English Realm don't do, it just is, unlike Reich which both do and is. Thus the sentence The Third Realm would not be fitting.

That is the problem from time to time when we have to translate.
Just try to translate the most popular jokes of your language and you will see. They lose it all, not just to lack of cultural undertanding, but also from the translatory barriers.

**Watchman** · 02-09-2006, 01:48

Originally Posted by Kraxis

Ah... But where does that end? Does it include the annexed territories? Only post WWI Germany ect ect. Nazi-Germany is equally flawed as a term as it is hard to determine what is truly Germany and what is not.

Whatever was within the territorial borders of the German state during whatever arbitrary point of the period of Nazi rule one may now be discussing. Seems simple enough.

**Kraxis** · 02-09-2006, 01:57

Hardly... Germany is Germany. Not a whole range of occupied territories that had no connection to the German state besides being occupied.
What would you then term the internal political structure called Germany?
Germany? But that has already been used.

No in this case I actually believe Nazi Empire is better as it has the Nazi institution (and Germany for that matter) being hegemon over a range of countries, but has not included them into the national structure of the German state.

**Watchman** · 02-09-2006, 02:09

That's splitiing hairs. I fail to see what's wrong with referring to them with terms such as "the German-occupied territories", "occupied [region name]", "Germany proper" and so on as need be besides the detail the terms are somewhat clunky. If you now have to you could for example describe the whole sum as Die Reich, since the Nazi concept of it was supposed to include a whole lot of conquered territory in any case.

You really seem to be making things pointlessly complicated you know.

**Kraxis** · 02-09-2006, 03:31

Perhaps, but it was borne out of the "why keep Reich" line.
I have argued that there simply isn't a another term that fits well enough, given the contraints, as well as the historical connections made by the Nazi leaders (valid or not).

**lars573** · 02-09-2006, 04:44

Actually Kraxis empire is a very apt term to describe the Nazi reich. As the entomology of the word empire is in the latin Imperium. Imperium means something like area of command. It's a term that means military and political domination of the locals.

**Evil_Maniac From Mars** · 02-11-2006, 02:43

1st Reich: Holy Roman Empire.
2nd Reich: Imperial Germany, also known sometimes as the Prussian or Hohenzollern Reich.
3rd Reich: National Socialist Germany.

Somebody else has probably answered this already, but I don't have time to read the whole thread.