Deutschland über alles?

[J]

Considering that Germany only existed 43 years as one state at the start of the war, how big was the rivalry between the soldiers of the different kingdoms (now called 'Länder'), particularly in the air force?

[The Observer]

Prussia ruled the kingdom with an iron fist. von's were in charge of everything important. Ever hear of Baron von Raschke?

[J]

Don't you mean empire?

[Mac]

Barbarian has

[Gustav]

German nationalism was already strongly felt and widespread among all classes in the last years of the Napoleonic era and was growing fastly. A battle as Jena, were Bavarians fought with the French against Prussians , was already unconceivable in 1815.The German felt themselfes as a people much before they became a Nation.
Gustav

[Mosen]

The German empire is more than 1000 years old and began with king Heinrich I. in 919.

mosen

[Stephanie]

Der Heilige Römische Reich Deutscher Nation began, it is generally believed, as did German history, in 911 with the reign of Konrad I, from Eastern Franconia, who ruled over a united German speaking people. This ended the empire of Franconia and the dynasty of Carolingians, which began in 482 under Chlodwig I, a Merovingian king christianised in 496, as well as the empire unified under Charlemagne, whose grandsons' inheritance, according to Frankish custom, be dividends of the empire which included modern-day France as well as Italy, Germany, Holland and parts of Spain. Heinrich I succeeded Konrad in 918, beginning the rule of the Saxon dynasty. Many more were to follow.

Throughout its history, the HRE was composed of over 300 autonomous principalities, free city-states and Hanseatic League cities, all able to raise armies, mint coins and levy taxes among other things. Because of the electoral privilege bestowed upon certain principalities and its short-comings, an Interregnum was unavoidable in 1254 when the election of a new Emperor failed and the Empire ceased to exist, in all practicality, except only in name, and no longer at all when, in 1815, Napoleon Bonaparte crowned himself Emperor of the Holy Roman Empire.

The German nation has had many unifying forces politically (Charlemagne, Barbarossa, Bismarck, etc.) but it is to cultural history where one must look, if one wishes to find a source for the unifying force of German nationalism. The German language and its reform throughout the centuries tell a long and detailed story of how literature alone could unify a people beyond land-holding princes.

By the time the First World War came about, German nationalism had already reached its peak more than seventy years past and there is no doubt that the German pilots as well as the soldiers and sailors felt a kinship with their compatriots.

[rammjaeger]

My teachers told me Heinrich I. was the founder of the Empire in 919 and I am convinced that Heinrich´s practical contribution in this process was much more important than Konrad´s (a weak ruler) but that is maybe not so important. An Empire is seldom founded within one year by a single person. ;)