On Becoming German
Germany as a country is a disparate concept, my father tells me. During the Austro-Hungarian Empire, it was made up of hundreds of principalities, and each of those principalities had different customs, governing bodies, dialects and ethnicities. One of the penalties imposed on Germany after the First World War was the confiscation of much of its land–a bit given, technically given back, to Poland, some to Austria. Some used to create a whole new country. So Germany, as you know it, is a fabricated concept. All nations are. And by extension so is what it means to be German.
By Madeleine Dunnigan.