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German Peculiarities: Difference between revisions
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'''Der deutsche Michel'''
[[Nations
'''Das Reinheitsgebot'''
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Arminius, son of Segimer, was a Germanic man from the tribe of the Cherusci. At the time he lived (around the beginning of our chronology), most of today's Germany (everything west of the Elbe river, to be precise) was part of [[The Roman Empire]]. Originally, he served as a ''ductor popularium'', a leader of Germanic auxiliaries, in [[The Glory That Was Rome|the Roman army]]. During this time, he acquired useful military skills, learned Latin, became a Roman citizen and even member of the knight class. For unknown reasons though, one day [[Defector From Decadence|he had enough of civilization]], it seems. Around 8 AD, Arminius had become one of the tribal leaders. At the same time, a Publius Quinctilius Varus was the Roman legate in the area where the Cherusci lived. If Arminius feared for his power, or whatever his reason was, he didn't show it, but instead kept the contact with Varus - hence knowing exactly what Varus was up to, while the Roman didn't suspect a thing. In 9 AD, a Germanic uprising happened, and Varus took the legions XVII, XVIII and XIX to quell it. He got some warnings (by Arminius' father-in-law Segestes!), [[What an Idiot!|but decided not to care about them.]] At the area of Teutoburg forest [[Where the Hell Is Springfield?|(it still isn't completely clear where that was)]], the three legions were [[Curb Stomp Battle|defeated and utterly annihilated]] by the Germanics lead by Arminius. [[Redemption Equals Death|Varus took his own life after losing the battle.]] Emperor Augustus would shout his famous "Varus, Varus, redde legiones!" (Varus, Varus, give me back my legions) when the message came to Rome. The German uprising spread, and the Romans had to give up the whole area between Rhine and Elbe.
Roman historian Tacitus called Arminius "the liberator of Germania". And indeed, the Romans would never conquer Germania again, and some centuries after, the Germanics even went on to destroy the empire, founding their own states instead. Ironically, Arminius was almost completely forgotten at that time. Only in the 15th century, with the growing German nationalism, opposition to Roman Primacy and the Reformation he was rediscovered, and many texts written about "Hermann", who even got a honourable metioning by Martin Luther (as he was called now, although this wasn't his Germanic name, which is in fact unknown) and Thusnelda (his wife, who'd later inspire the term "Tussi", meaning roughly "broad" in German). Some people even speculated that Arminius was identical to the better-known [[Nibelungenlied
'''Nation without identity?'''
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'''Made in Germany'''
In 1887, the [[United Kingdom]] passed the ''Merchandise Marks Act 1887'', which states that imported products must be labeled with their country of origin. The purpose was of course for British costumers to be able to distinguish British-made products from the "inferior" stuff produced on the continent, and buy accordingly patriotic, for the benefit of Britain's own economy. [[Hoist
Today, the worldwide export of its products is one of the most important pillars of the German economy. The stigma turned cachet ''Made in Germany'' can arguably seen as significant factor which contributed to this development.
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