A list of all the incarnations of Germany?

[Samtemdo8_v1legacy]

What I mean is what were the "nations?" that Germany was or a part of in its history?

It was the Holy Roman Empire, part of Greater Prussia?, German Empire of WW1 era, etc.

Anything I am missing?

I am askiing this just out of curiosity because Spain was still Spain, France was still France, but Germany was not always Germany in its history?

 

[Thaluikhain]

Er...you can't really say "etc" and then ask if you are missing any, you have to list all the ones you have.

 

[DefunctTheory]

This is a question that's readily answered in the first 3 or 4 paragraphs of Germany's Wikipedia page.

 

[Zontar]

Something to remember is that the concept of nations is a fairly new thing, born about 400 years ago. Before that one was only part of whichever kingdom or empire controlled their land. Spain and France had the commonality of their language and culture have a high level of overlap between the wider use of the language and the area the kingdoms controlled, but Germany had no such overlap, instead being divided into kingdoms and principalities that where nominally part of the Holy Roman Empire, that was not Holy, wasn't Roman and was not an Empire.

That's where the German Question was born, out of wondering what it meant to be German. Exploiting this is what caused Bismark to be able to form Germany under Prussian rule, though in hindsight his not taking German speaking Austria along with him was a mistake.

 

[Terminal Blue]

To indulge the exercise in the loosest possible terms (all titles in English as they would be used by English-language historians).

Germania - Roman term for the region ruled by Germanic people as they understood them, in truth divided between many tribes such as the Cherusks, the Suebi and, most importantly for history, the Franks
Francia/Frankia - The kingdom formed by the dominant German tribal group, the Franks, after the fall of the roman empire

The following existed at the same time as the Holy Roman Empire, and were generally ruled by the same person
Carolingian Empire - Sometimes used by historians to differentiate Francia under the Karlings from previous Frankish dynasties, during this time French and German language and culture started to become more distinct.
East Francia - Political entity analogous to modern Germany which followed the division of the Carolingian Empire.
Kingdom of Germany - Later evolution of East Francia (in actuality, there's no real distinction between the two, but historians tend to use East Francia to describe early Germany after the split with France).

The title King of Germany fell out of favour after a while, so for a while the Holy Roman Empire is the only pan-German political entity.
Confederation of the Rhine - Napoleonic client state consisting of several German states
German Confederation - Loose alliance of German states which replaced the HRE
North German Confederation - Prussian dominated union which seceded from the German Confederation
German Empire
Allied-occupied Germany
Federal Republic of Germany - West Germany, continuing into modern Germany
German Democratic Republic - East Germany

I've probably still missed some here. There are a lot.

As for Spain being Spain and France being France, not true. As you can see here, if you go far enough back Germany and France originate from the same political entity, Francia. France has been comparatively stable because, from very early on, it was ruled by descendents of the same family. Spain, on the other hand, has been all over the place. Until five centuries ago Spain was several independent kingdoms (the largest of which are represented on the current coat of arms) and before that it was mostly part of the Umayyad caliphate. Germany isn't particularly weird in this regard.

 

[Samtemdo8_v1legacy]

To indulge the exercise in the loosest possible terms (all titles in English as they would be used by English-language historians).

Germania - Roman term for the region ruled by Germanic people as they understood them, in truth divided between many tribes such as the Cherusks, the Suebi and, most importantly for history, the Franks
Francia/Frankia - The kingdom formed by the dominant German tribal group, the Franks, after the fall of the roman empire

The following existed at the same time as the Holy Roman Empire, and were generally ruled by the same person
Carolingian Empire - Sometimes used by historians to differentiate Francia under the Karlings from previous Frankish dynasties, during this time French and German language and culture started to become more distinct.
East Francia - Political entity analogous to modern Germany which followed the division of the Carolingian Empire.
Kingdom of Germany - Later evolution of East Francia (in actuality, there's no real distinction between the two, but historians tend to use East Francia to describe early Germany after the split with France).

The title King of Germany fell out of favour after a while, so for a while the Holy Roman Empire is the only pan-German political entity.
Confederation of the Rhine - Napoleonic client state consisting of several German states
German Confederation - Loose alliance of German states which replaced the HRE
North German Confederation - Prussian dominated union which seceded from the German Confederation
German Empire
Allied-occupied Germany
Federal Republic of Germany - West Germany, continuing into modern Germany
German Democratic Republic - East Germany

I've probably still missed some here. There are a lot.

As for Spain being Spain and France being France, not true. As you can see here, if you go far enough back Germany and France originate from the same political entity, Francia. France has been comparatively stable because, from very early on, it was ruled by descendents of the same family. Spain, on the other hand, has been all over the place. Until five centuries ago Spain was several independent kingdoms (the largest of which are represented on the current coat of arms) and before that it was mostly part of the Umayyad caliphate. Germany isn't particularly weird in this regard.

Forgive me for bumping this thread but this is a question I really want to ask now and its regarding the history of the old empire of Prussia.

Was the Prussian Empire like the Holy Roman Empire was a Pan-German run state as in it was Germany that founded and lead the Empire?

 

[Terminal Blue]

Was the Prussian Empire like the Holy Roman Empire was a Pan-German run state as in it was Germany that founded and lead the Empire?

Prussia was a kingdom and not an empire. Until the Napoleonic era, "Empire" had a very specific meaning so there was only allowed to be one Emperor in Latin Christendom (the Holy Roman Emperor). In fact, Prussia was in a weird position already when it came to titles because technically there was only one quasi-independent state in the Holy Roman Empire permitted to call itself a kingdom (the kingdom of Bohemia). Prussia itself was technically outside of the Empire, but it was ruled by the house of Hohenzollern who were also the electors of Brandenburg. Because of this, the Hohenzollerns for a long time bore the title "king in Prussia" rather than "king of Prussia."

The Holy Roman Empire wasn't really a pan German state. It became so towards the end of its history, but initially at least it also covered most of Northern Italy, and the Emperor bore the title "King of Italy". The Holy Roman Empire was kind of a successor state to the western Roman Empire. It was German dominated, but not really "German" at all, it was just a collection of lands ruled by a German Emperor.

Prussia became dominant in the German Empire because it was a huge military power and had annexed much of Germany already. Much of the political class of the new German state came from the Junkers, or Prussian aristocracy. Even Wilhelm I refused to be called "Emperor of Germany", because he saw himself first and foremost as the king of Prussia (the HRE no longer existed by that point), so no, it wasn't really a pan-German state in the sense that all states harmoniously came together and shared political power so much as half of them had already been conquered by Prussians and the other half saw which way the wind was blowing and just went with it.