How Did Each German State Get Its Name?

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▶ In this video, I explore the fascinating etymology (name origin and meaning) of Germany's 16 states, diving into the origins of their names and the historical and linguistic influences behind them. From Berlin’s Slavic roots to Bavaria’s connection to the Celtic tribe Boii, and from the medieval mystery of Württemberg to the Roman-influenced Rhineland-Palatinate - among many more!
▶ TIMESTAMPS:
00:00 Germany's States & Their Differences
00:55 Berlin
01:31 Bayern / Bavaria
02:05 Niedersachsen / Lower Saxony
02:36 Baden-Württemberg
03:24 Rheinland-Pfalz / Rhineland-Palatinate
04:00 Sachsen / Saxony
05:45 Thüringen / Thuringia
06:26 Hessen
06:48 Nordrhein-Westfalen / North Rhine-Westphalia
07:36 Sachsen-Anhalt / Saxony-Anhalt
08:19 Brandenburg
08:54 Mecklenburg-Vorpommern
10:07 Hamburg
10:47 Schleswig-Holstein
11:30 Saarland
12:03 Bremen
12:28 Summary
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[@General.Knowledge]

*Guys, so sorry about the wrong thumbnail and description at first! There was a mix up because I uploaded a few videos at once for scheduling. Fixed it now!*

[@pera1]

How is bavar not from avar ( the turkic tribes who settled in bavaria)? Cow or warrior or whatever? Come onnnn

[@eliplayz22]

It’s alright

[@jdsStopMotionStudio3533]

I thought I was having a stroke when I saw the thumbnail and the title

[@stayfaded69]

We r here to help u correct it lol first 10 mins lol keep up the good work. I was confused by the title and thumbnail lol

[@accdiabolus]

And I always thought that Brandenburg goes back to the Margraviate of Brandenburg and thus to the city of Brandenburg.

[@Markothedreamer]

The thumbnail is wrong i think

[@L17_8]

Jesus loves you ❤️ Please repent and turn to Him and receive Salvation before it is too late. The end times written about in the Bible are already happening in the world. Jesus is the son of God and He died for our sins on the cross and God raised Him from the dead on the third day. Jesus is waiting for you with open arms but time is running out. Please repent and turn to Him before it is too late. Accept Jesus into your heart and invite Him to be Lord and Saviour of your life and confess and believe that Jesus is Lord, that He died for your sins on the cross and that God raised Him from the dead. Confess that you are a sinner in need of God's Grace and ask God to forgive you for all your sins through Jesus. Jesus loves you. Nothing can compare to how He loves you. When He hung on that cross, He thought of you. As they tore open His back, He thought of your prayer time with Him. As the thorns dug into His head, He thought of you spending time reading the Bible. As the spears went into His side, He imagined embracing you in heaven. Please repent and turn to Jesus now before it's too late. He longs to be with you but time is running out.

[@berryquest7683]

It’s right 😂

[@stayfaded69]

It's not.

[@Donald_Trump_2024]

most probably

[@Jehan-David_de_Saint_Mars]

The timestamps also

[@justtheilluminativ282]

Tell me more about the great German state of West Virginia

[@Donald_Trump_2024]

lol

[@CTJM_Middleton]

Lol.

[@General.Knowledge]

Westen Virginia

[@JLAvey]

I missed a chance to reference the Richmond Wall.

[@RacerA8]

West virginien

[@davidmorris8319]

"With Nord VPN you can browse the internet as if you were in germany". Me, german: "interesting"

[@thelvadam2884]

das ist aber interessant !

[@maximkretsch7134]

If they only knew about internet speed in Germany...

[@thelvadam2884]

@@maximkretsch7134 i love in the lands and have 1Gbits/s ezzz

[@wookie2222]

@@maximkretsch7134 That was also my first thought - and it's somehow fitting, how we both post our comments days after the upload.

[@Hans-Redlef]

9:44 Vorpommern doesn't mean close to Pomerania. It instead is an abbrevation for Vorderpommern which means "the Pomerania in the front". The other part east of the Oder river, in Poland, is referred to as Hinterpommern meaning "the Pomerania in the back". This refers to the fact that germans moved into the region in the middle ages from the west and Vorpommern was the part of Pomerania which was just in front of them and Hinterpommern was further away in the back.

[@General.Knowledge]

Thanks for the correction!

[@Argacyan]

In literature it's usually translated as Hither- & Farther Pomerania into English. Some authors suggests it has nothing to do with eastwards migration, but with the political division of Pomerania into & by multiple political entities (before the Cold War annexation of much of Pomerania into Poland).

[@Vracka]

Stettin (today Szczecin) and the river Oder divided pomerania in Vorder- and Hinterpommern. This division was made just for geographical/tactical reasons as the Oder mouth and Stettin were strategically important, with the city controlling trade in the region and acting as garnison to enforce the territorial claims. And since that part, with all it's worth, was given to Poland in 1945 the name "Vorderpommern" as a description of the german part of pomerania would have been (historically) wrong, hence the new word "Vorpommern".

[@Vracka]

And I just noticed that Vorderpommern lost the letters "der" as well as the river O"der" so it actually fits pretty well.^^

[@wolfgangpagel6989]

@@Vracka Just that Poland 1945 got also a major chunk of Vorpommern including the capital.

[@myrinsk]

looks like someone made an oopsie with the thumbnail

[@L17_8]

Jesus loves you ❤️ Please repent and turn to Him and receive Salvation before it is too late. The end times written about in the Bible are already happening in the world. Jesus is the son of God and He died for our sins on the cross and God raised Him from the dead on the third day. Jesus is waiting for you with open arms but time is running out. Please repent and turn to Him before it is too late. Accept Jesus into your heart and invite Him to be Lord and Saviour of your life and confess and believe that Jesus is Lord, that He died for your sins on the cross and that God raised Him from the dead. Confess that you are a sinner in need of God's Grace and ask God to forgive you for all your sins through Jesus. Jesus loves you. Nothing can compare to how He loves you. When He hung on that cross, He thought of you. As they tore open His back, He thought of your prayer time with Him. As the thorns dug into His head, He thought of you spending time reading the Bible. As the spears went into His side, He imagined embracing you in heaven. Please repent and turn to Jesus now before it's too late. He longs to be with you but time is running out.

[@General.Knowledge]

it was me, I was the someone

[@needfoolthings]

It engages discussion, thus traffic, thus clout, thus revenue. Guess it worked.

[@Kuzul_]

Have you evolved a proper digestive system yet?

[@myrinsk]

@@Kuzul_ mayhaps

[@katofffel4387]

7:00 north rhine doesnt refer to the region north of the rhine river, but the region around the northern part of the rhine river

[@eizzah8323]

Ye in French it's called Rhénanie du Nord - Westphalie which would be called Northern Rheinland - Westphalia

[@aphextwin5712]

To add more detail, after Napoleon got kicked out, roughly speaking the areas west of the Rhine were given to Prussia, which created a “Rhine province” out of them. After WW II, the Northern part of that province fell into the British zone and the Southern half into the French zone. The British then combined their Northern half with the “province” of Westphalia into North Rhine-Westphalia.

[@mohemida]

Everybody's talking wrong thumbnail but nobody's talking about timestamps

[@lazergaming5652]

And the description.

[@General.Knowledge]

Fixed both now! Really sorry for the mistake.

[@mohemida]

@@General.Knowledge Just joking man it was an honest mistake and a great video nevertheless ❤️

[@Donald_Trump_2024]

@@General.Knowledge ey man it happens

[@Marvlouso]

Here before the thumbnail changes

[@General.Knowledge]

Fixed now! So sorry.

[@TainakaRicchan]

"Vor" doesnt mean "near" but "in front of", but can also mean "the front part" (vorderteil), from wich it actuall takes its name. The whoel region was/is known as "pommern" with the part west of the Oder(Which today is the border between germany and polan) known as "vorpommern" and the part east of the Oder knwon as "hinterpommern"

[@Ernexor]

According to the history of Hamburg, the name originates from the Hammaburg which was a small village since the early 9th century. Ham or Hamme means "marsh area by the river" in old saxon and a Burg is a fortified area as mentioned correctly in die video.

[@christ2381]

This is an older theory. Most historians prefer the one mentioned in the video.

[@mauser6034]

9:15 a random appearance of Mieszko I in German episode xD

[@KangurPL]

Yeah idk what happened there xd

[@nochalnosowski]

I think it's because Ibrahim ibn Jakub described Poland during reign of Mieszko I

[@afjo972]

0:17 the dots on top of the Ä are not decoration. Ä is not pronounced like the English A in apple

[@jestemqiqi7647]

Absolutely. His pronunciation is terrible. „Badem-Wudimbörk“ oder „Asargrod“ (Harzgerode)😅

[@afjo972]

@@jestemqiqi7647It was painful

[@NeverEverClever]

While Berlin - Bär connection is indeed folk etymology, the crest with the bear might stem from Albert of the House of Askanier, the first margrave of brandenburg. His nickname was "the bear". I think, the most likely explanation is that the place was called "Berlin" as "swamp" by the slavic people and the new german settlers took it to mean "little bear" and built the city there and named it that way to also honor Albert. The crest could thus stem from a "fortunate" translation error.

[@General.Knowledge]

Hadn't found that explanation! It makes a lot of sense, thanks.

[@jan150]

Some more lore on the name Württemberg: The name derieves from the noble house "Württemberg". Their original castle used to be on the "Württemberg/Rotenberg" today in Stuttgart. Over the time they came to rule over most of Swabia and the region and Duchy/Kingdom came to be named after them.

[@periodm]

THE THUMBNAIL I'M CRYING TELL ME MORE ABOUT GERMAN DAKOTA

[@Stant123]

Das Kota

[@Halocon720]

Now we know why North Dakota’s capital is called Bismarck

[@wawrzynieckorzen78]

Why you used as an illustration of Ibrahim ibn Jakub - an Arabic merchant painting of prince of the Polans, Mieszko considered as first historical Polish leader? I know that Ibrahim was one of the first to describe Mieszko's realm, but they were quite different people.

[@karolpalion2883]

I suppose it was the first image to come up in Google search for Ibrahim ibn Yakub.

[@yus62]

Bavaria almost correct. The Boii or Boier who lived in the region actually lived or shared the land with local Germanic tribes, making them the Bajuwaren. (Baio for the boii and warioz being a old germanic word for man). And these bajuwaren are basiclly the ancestors of Austria , Bavaria and small parts of Czechia or Böhmen in German.

[@RichelieuUnlimited]

You‘ve forgotten South Tyrol.

[@weisthor0815]

the english "warrior" also derives from warioz

[@mahuhude]

Nordrhein means „the northern parts of the Rhine land“, so land on both sides of the northern German part of the river, not specifically the area north of it.

[@riazortho]

Oops wrong thumbnail

[@L17_8]

Jesus loves you ❤️ Please repent and turn to Him and receive Salvation before it is too late. The end times written about in the Bible are already happening in the world. Jesus is the son of God and He died for our sins on the cross and God raised Him from the dead on the third day. Jesus is waiting for you with open arms but time is running out. Please repent and turn to Him before it is too late. Accept Jesus into your heart and invite Him to be Lord and Saviour of your life and confess and believe that Jesus is Lord, that He died for your sins on the cross and that God raised Him from the dead. Confess that you are a sinner in need of God's Grace and ask God to forgive you for all your sins through Jesus. Jesus loves you. Nothing can compare to how He loves you. When He hung on that cross, He thought of you. As they tore open His back, He thought of your prayer time with Him. As the thorns dug into His head, He thought of you spending time reading the Bible. As the spears went into His side, He imagined embracing you in heaven. Please repent and turn to Jesus now before it's too late. He longs to be with you but time is running out.

[@Roll_dude]

​@@L17_8 shut

[@monik911hsm]

Hi, the thumbnail is about U.S. states, not Germany ^^

[@arabfromramla]

The timestamps too

[@Fomlefantastic]

and the description

[@weremus8639]

As Berliner, Berlin is still a swamp...

[@randomguy5404]

Ich bin ein Berliner

[@General.Knowledge]

Really? How so?

[@bigdaddyeddy1252]

@@General.Knowledge he used swamp as a figure of speech. German Nazis think Berlin is a (political) left green Sodom and Gomorrah.

[@weremus8639]

@General.Knowledge It's a common saying there, that Berlin is a green for a reason, it never really lost its swamp status. Simple German logic.

[@sizanogreen9900]

As someone from south germany a "Berliner" will always be a pastry to me.

[@Idkpleasejustletmechangeit]

2:33 fun fact: Lower Saxony is actually the original Saxony. The Old Saxons were from that area.

[@itsmebatman]

Nah, the old Saxony has vanished after the emporer took the title of duke away from their leader. The "new" Saxony is only named like that, because some other emporer handed out the title again to another nobleman, who lived somewhere near Anhalt I would say. His domain extended over both Saxony and Saxony Anhalt and later split, because the dynasty had some line of succession issues. The lower Saxony of today has nothing to do with any of that. The area was mostly ruled by Prussia until WW2, and since Prussia was destroyed as a consequence of the war they decided to create a new state and had no better idea than to name it Niedersachsen.

[@Idkpleasejustletmechangeit]

@@itsmebatman I meant it purely in the way of "this is roughly the area that the word "Saxony" originally got used for".

[@fuckinantipope5511]

No, the Saxons came here during the great migration during which the anglo-saxons also migrated over to Britain, forming what would become England, the land of the anglo-saxons. The region of lower Saxony on the north sea coast is also frisia and has been frisian since before christian times. We frisians (I am an east frisian) have nothing to do with the saxons

[@matthiasbauer5163]

The tribe of the Saxons originated from the area south of present-day Hamburg and then spread out into present-day Lower Saxony and along the Elbe River into present-day Saxony-Anhalt. Therefore, both Saxony-Anhalt and Lower Saxony can rightfully claim to be the home of the originally Saxons. The first German king (Henry I.) and then the first emperor of the Holy Roman Empire (Otto I.) both hailed from the area just north-east of the Harz mountains, i.e. from what is now Saxony-Anhalt. Both of them would have referred to themselves as Saxons. The present-day Free State of Saxony, however, has nothing to do with the Saxons and was originally a Slavic territory. Later it emerged under the name of Meissen (Misnia) and then as Kur-Sachsen. Just to add to the confusion, the royal family of Saxony, the House Wettin, originated from the small town of Wettin, which is actually located in present-day Saxony-Anhalt.

[@nox5555]

@@matthiasbauer5163 the Saxon Tribes originated around the lower Weser and the center of their culture never moved. thats why the saxon nobility died in southern lower saxony while the last free Saxons died in north-western northrhine westphalia

[@escmadeira]

Great video

[@Sekire1]

great video, thanks :)

[@vincentschult1725]

Nice video! I actually researched this as well a while back in order to create state flags based on the etymology of the states.

[@klausroxin4437]

I would love to see a video of these flags.

[@TheOhioNews]

Solid video! I am from the US but have very heavy German ancestry, especially from Bavaria. So I really found this interesting 😊

[@bjornd9375]

you should check if your ancestors are really from bavaria or palatine, because they were connected in one state from 1777-1945, interrupted by a french period. old papers might be about ancient bavaria

[@jurgen6902]

Hello there from Germany. I can tell you at least in modern german that the "Vor" in "Vorpommern" does not mean "near" as refered in your video. It means "in front" as the other part of pommerania is nowadays a part of Poland and this is called "Hinterpommern", where "hinter" means "in behind". So there is a frontal and a rear Pommerania, which leads then to land in front of the sea and land behind the sea. I also would suggest that for Saxony-Anhalt the suggestion with the "stopping point" could fit. As the Saxons were once coming from what is nowadays lower saxony and taking over the lands to the east via migration/conquest and assimlation of the former sparsely populated (by slaws) areas, this happened in 2 waves. The first was going up to the river Elbe, which would more or less fits it nowadays border. And later on across the Elbe. It is also to mention that the word "Anhalt" literally means in modern high german to stopp.

[@MrWolfgangtube]

You are wrong about lots of things here. For example: Bayern comes from the Tribe of the Bajuwaren, who moved there after the roman collaps

[@klausroxin4437]

You are wrong - at least partly. While the name Bayern indeed comes from the tribe of the Bajuwaren, they got their name from the celtic Boier. The video took a shortcut immediately to the Celts and left the Bajuwaren. Proof (in German, didn't find a reliable English source right now): "Dabei trägt das Hinterglied germ. *warjoz/lat. -varii 'Verteidiger, Bewohner' die Hauptbedeutung, die durch das Vorderglied näher bestimmt wird. Dieses dürfte den geographischen Bezug zu einem ehemals mit den keltischen Boiern verbundenen Gebiet anzeigen." - Historisches Lexikon Bayerns, Eintrag: Bayern (Name)

[@jensschroder8214]

Westphalia was already a province under the Prussians. North Rhine is an invention of the Allies (UK & FR), who divided the Rhineland.

[@JesusOrDestruction]

Thumbnail: how these states split up Video: how each German state got its name

[@davidmende3409]

The "Ham" in Hamburg actually derives from the type of """"castle"""" that was build there as well. It was called a "Hammer Burg" which is basically just an earthen wall / earth covered wall of logs upon logs that provided safety for the people there. Depending on how your german is kzbin.info/www/bejne/h162p3Zsq7hjjLM This a video of the archeology museum of Hamburg that shows what remains have been found and how we can be so sure that is what happpend. SUUUPer fascinating! Can recommend

[@kimmohuovilainen9311]

I thought first Hamburg would be related to Swedish hamn, harbor. Nordic countries are full of harbor forts. In Finland we have a coastal city Hamina. Etymology is complicated and certainly interested!

[@chrisk5651]

There is a statement that you have posted typed out in the video that is about “Free States“ in Germany, it says: from the 19th century, when Imperial Germany became a republic. - well Germany never became a republic till the 20th century after World War I and then again after WWII.

[@roerd]

It also misses the explanation why most states abandoned the term: it's because the term used in the German constitution to describe the states changed. The Weimar constitution used the term "Staaten", where the current Grundgesetz uses the term "Länder".

[@Vracka]

To be fair germany just became germany within the 19th century. Before that time the holy roman empire wasn't much more than a ton of kingdoms, duchys, citystates and what ever with no collective identification as germans, several languages, everyone had his own system and they probably foght more wars with each other than with the rest of europe. And if you consider that even the german reich in 1850 had a Bundestag and some sort of elections and electoral rights for men above 25, but was indeed neither democratic nor a republic it gets even more confusing. How could a foreign content creator possibly see through this when even most germans couldn't explain what happend in the time after charlemange/Karl dem Großen 800 AD and Bismark in 1870 AD. That's 1000 years of historical bullshit bingo in which you may actually find the hanseatic city-states some if which have been republics.

[@dabbasw31]

@@Vracka Stop shit-talking the poor HRE. 🙂It was a weird construct. But during most of its centuries before the modern era it was a working entity keeping its territories more or less together. And it lasted for around 1000 years - which is not something you can say about every German reich...

[@chrisk5651]

@@Vracka I am not German myself, in regards to your statement about how is a foreign content creator supposed to know, so I don’t know your nationality. I know that it’s very complex and complicated but I was correcting something that he typed out and posted in the video not just something that a non-native speaker said off the cuff. I feel that it would be better to be too vague than to be incorrect. I don’t think that anyone should expect him to know all the minutiae surrounding everything but maybe he shouldn’t dive too deeply into the minutiae.

[@maxdepasquale2351]

Thanks. I've learnt something new today.

[@_MKM_7721]

Cool video as always! You can do Poland next, also has 16 provinces.

[@egeiaerdeklian9368]

Thanks! 🎉

[@Donderu]

4:25 fun fact, in modern Swedish, sax means “scissors”

[@lucone2937]

A Finnish word for scissors are "sakset" and it is always in a plural form. An ancient Germanic tribe Saxons are "saksit" in Finnish, and a German is "saksalainen". Collectively all ancient Germanic tribes are called in Finnish as "germaanit" including "visigootit", "ostrogootit", "vandaalit", "frankit", "alemannit", "langobardit", "anglit", "juutit", etc. Even the Roman Empire couldn't stop them in the end.

[@afjo972]

9:45 the V is pronounced like an F, the word is stressed on the first syllable and the R comes from the throat

[@stevefranklin9176]

Good background work.

[@kczechowicz]

You have shown us Mieszko I instead of Ibn Jakub lol

[@General.Knowledge]

When you thought I couldn't make another mistake after uploading this with the wrong thumbnail, there it is! It's because when you search for Ibn Jakub, it shows a lot of illustrations of Mieszko due to the first's travels to Poland at the time.

[@kczechowicz]

Indeed, he was important for Mieszko and his sons while they tried to build some reputation for the new statehood. Funny to see him here anyway :)

[@TheLink91]

@@General.Knowledge Since we're already in the topic of Poland, I proposed you circa 7 months ago an idea about a video explaining in details how each of interwar Poland's borders was made. So... any chance for that?

[@No.Good.Nickname]

I'm not entirely shure where it derives from, but there also is a 'Brandenburg', which is/was a wooden castle/fortification built by the celts, but I don't know the origin of that name.

[@ItsSeated]

Modern German: *Unites the States* Holy Roman Empire: *Divides into hundreds of countries*

[@rodi8266]

It was better then nowadays half of the states are artificial, administrative constructs, often removed from their old origin.

[@markusd.3426]

As a German I have no larger complaints with the explanations but the order You presented them in, feels kinda wild to me. North to South, big to small, the other way round, but at least "regular" Saxony before the other Saxonies! "Ordnung muss sein!" as we Germans say: "There must be order!" If You are open to a bigger Challenge, take an older version of the German map and try again. Not only are the borders larger, the inbetween is far more subdovided. No double names with dashes but a very interesting patchwork of separate entities.

[@KarlKarpfen]

The Berlin bear is much younger than the name of the city. The official version taught in school in Berlin is "swamp-settlement".

[@fusseluflecki]

Cool, but why did Virginia, Dakota and Carolina split up?

[@Maxi_94]

Don't know but at least two of them have a "Mecklenburg County", so now you at least know where that name comes from. 😅

[@General.Knowledge]

It's a secret.

[@tomkerruish2982]

Irreconcilable differences.

[@fusseluflecki]

@@General.Knowledge ok ):

[@terranceaddison4599]

Dude... Dakotas is in North central U.S

[@tp6335]

There is a city called "Brandenburg an der Havel". In the year 1157 the country Brandenburg was founded by Albrecht the Bear after repossesing the Castle Brandenburg and making it his administrative center. Before that it hat already changed hands a few times between Slavic tribes and German conquerors. The founders of the castle city, then called Brendanburg or Brennaburg, were the Heveller tribe a Slavic tribe that migrated to the banks of the river Havel during the great period of migration centurys before the holy roman empire. The name means Gate(Bren) Castle(Brug), gate-castle or castle of or at the gate

[@tastefullynerdy1161]

I think it's funny how you used the Radetzky March, one of the quintessential pieces of Austrian classic music for Rhineland-Palatine 😂

[@chrisrudolf9839]

An interesting fact to add to the Palatinate part of Rhineland Palatinate would be that the Germans once used the term Pfalz (Palatinate) for any castle that was dedicated to host the ever travelling court of the Emperor of the HRE. Those castles and the land around them were given to counts, who governed the region as their fiefdom and had to maintain the Pfalz (Pfalzgrafen / Palatinate counts) and be prepared to host the imperial court whenever the emperor decided to drop by. Although there once were dozends of them, significant differences in power developed, depending on how important the location was and how some Palatinate counts could expand their lands. The most influential and rich of those Palatinate counts, the Pfalzgraf bei Rhein (palatinate count at the Rhine) became one of the seven heriditary members of the the electorate council that elected the emperor (a position made permanet by the Golden Bill of 1356). From that time, the holdings of that one Palatinate count were know as the "Kurpfalz" (= the Electorate Palatinate), which over time colloquially got shortened to just the "Pfalz". So that's how even though their were palatinates all over the HRE, that one region at the river Rhine (in the southern part of today's Rhineland-Palatinate) became associated with the term Palatinate.

[@martinmeinname]

The Württemberg is a Hill outside of Stuttgart, our Länd has its name from it, how exactly I don't know

[@fabovondestory]

🖤Furchtlos und Treu💛

[@bjoernschneider7762]

There was a castle Wirtemberg at 1080, built by a family which probable was close to the Salian dynasty and they got eventually from Graf (Count/Earl), to Kurfürst (prince elector) to König (King).

[@afjo972]

The state of Sachsen has never been part of the Saxons‘ territory. It’s a bit confusing but in brief: Sachsen (and Sachsen-Anhalt) have nothing to do with the Saxons

[@dorderre]

As a german myself, thank you :) A lot of new info in this video, mostly the etymology of certain names. I know that term X comes from germanic origins, term Y from slavic ones, but what exactly they mean always eluded me. So again, thank you.

[@Nebelkrieger15]

really informative video. as a german i can tell you really tried to get the pronunciation right.

[@Cre9]

The thumbnail, timestamps and description are wrong 😭🙏

[@commluke6007]

I see the thumbnail, grab my popcorn and watch the comments

[@General.Knowledge]

Wrong thumbnail and description, plus debatable claims about origin, PLUS wrong german pronunciation. Angry comments incoming 😍

[@benlee6158]

@@General.Knowledge Your pronounciation is actually quite decent.😉

[@Momie_et_Masque]

the music starting at 3:29 is an austrian march, right ?

[@tastefullynerdy1161]

Yeah, the Radetzky March, the traditional end piece of the famous Neujahrskonzert

[@ottovonbismarck5067]

Regarding Niedersachsen, the video makes it seem as if the "Lesser" is referring to it as the "lesser" Saxony compared to the much more important Electorate. "Lesser" or better translated as "Lower" refers to geography however. The South of Germany is geographically higher, culminating in the Alps, and is thus the "Ober" ("Upper") to North Germany's "Nieder" ("Lower"). The dialect family of Northern German is called Niederdeutsch ("Low German"), or also Plattdeutsch (literally "Flat German").

[@fuckinantipope5511]

And the regular German, Hochdeutsch (high German), comes from the fact that it comes from the geographically higher parts of germany. Pretty funny imo that the explanations for why it's called Hochdeutsch und Plattdeutsch are so simple

[@kalanou8513]

Nice video. I live in Bremen now and can flex with it's name origin.

[@zakazskretuwlewo145]

why there is Mieszko I when u are talkimg about ibrachim ibn jakub?

[@solce809]

when you search his name on Google and go to images youll find mieszko instead because of his travels to polish lands

[@General.Knowledge]

@@solce809 This!

[@metanoian965]

@@solce809 No. There are images of Iby, also. Lazy search is cheap outcome.

[@jacksonhiatt4174]

Could you do a follow up video about the adjustment/creation of these and other nation's states? I know there were some changes after WW2. Maybe include some as US territories were partitioned, or the change of counties across England and rest of the UL.

[@koyiisawa2388]

Im from Mecklenburg and I’m quit amazed by what I could learn here I know all the German federal states and their capitol (it’s mandatory for geography) but this is way interesting I just know the meaning of some state names like the one I live in and some others but having this overview is really nice That’s for the video

[@afjo972]

0:12 the S before the T is pronounced like SH

[@georgb710]

Fun Fact: "saxony" is the only state with saxony in its name that was never inhabited by actual saxons. They got it cause on of their rulers became duke of saxony (without actually owning any saxon land). Since all real saxonys have a secondary discriptor i am herefor proposing "Sachsen-Falschheit" (saxony-falsehood)

[@lucdubras]

Obersachsen (Upper Saxony) would be acceptable

[@TheMichaelK]

Exactly, Saxony is called after the Saxons, but the people there are a mix of the local Slavic population with the Franks, Thuringians, and Bavarians that moved there during the German eastwards expansion. It’s basically name robbery and cultural appropriation.

[@Caligulashorse1453]

Been studying the Holy Roman Empire this was somewhat helpful. It would be great to see a video on every single holy Roman empire State.

[@bjoernschneider7762]

So about 800+ videos, starting with Aach and ending with Zwiefalten.

[@Snagprophet]

Regions of England next please?

[@General.Knowledge]

Okay!

[@ericschockemohle5642]

I need to make this very clear: The people from "Saxony" have NOTHING to do with the Saxon tribe. Their descendents are the people from LOWER Saxony. People from saxony have slavic roots.

[@embreis2257]

consider the Saxon tribes moved around a lot and any Slavic influence in the area came in later centuries. besides, the current name for the federal state takes it cue from the kingdom of Saxony and its predecessors.

[@P._Nisbroch]

@@embreis2257 Greetings from Lower Saxony, the Saxon tribe has not moved, but has spread out towards England and Mecklenburg. But not to the southeast. The descendants of Thuringians, Franks and Slavs live there. Only the name "saxony" has moved. In the Middle Ages, there was a dispute between the Emperor and the Duke of Saxony Henry the Lion (House of Welf). He went into exile and his title "Duke of Saxony" was taken away from him. The duchy was divided into several principalities. The emperor gave the title "Duke of Saxony" another noble family. The house of Anhalt. Then House Askania, Wettiner etc Anhalt had counties in Eastfalia. And then, years later, inheritance, marriage, etc., the title went to the Margraviate of Meissen. Slavic people with german migrants. The margraviate thus became the new duchy, later the Kingdom of Saxony.

[@norielgames4765]

5:52 you said Thurungii but the screen displays Thuringii. Which one is correct?

[@geraldmeehan8942]

West Baden, Indiana.

[@wuzzle22]

To quote Gordon Ramsey: "IT'S RAW"

[@maximkretsch7134]

The term "Freistaat" in German means nothing else but "Republic" and was, together with "Volksstaat" (people's state, i.e. "Democracy") widely used in the inter-war period to designate the republican constitutions of the individual member states. Before the revolution of 1918 most German states were monarchies, so they were called principalities, duchies, grandduchies, kingdoms and the like, and only a few were republics, mainly the city states with their hanseatic tradition.

[@hrs6480]

Yes and Bavaria was annexed into it. Everyone after Second World War knew that bavarian hate german and want nothing to do with them but they rather placed them inside Germany so there are different folks inside the republic that both hate each other and nothing goes forward. Some wanted to do the right thing and reinstall Bavaria-Austria but it would’ve been too powerful for some! When Bavaria leaves bankrupt Germany now it will surpass the rest of Germany in 10-20 years.

[@yarion4774]

Fun Fact. In Holstein we have Ostholstein, East Holstein, coastal area near the Mecklenburgian border. It is also coloquially referred to as Holsteinische Schweiz, Holsteinian Switzerland, as it has the highest elevations in all of Northern Germany. The highest elevation being the Bungsberg with ca. 170 meters above sea level. Compared to the area close to the Northern Sea which are flatlands. So yeah, Holstein meaning Hill dwellers is kinds funny in that sense in comparison to so much land around it.

[@realskorpio6949]

Why there is a photo of Mieszko I when talking about Germany?

[@ryandebruijn5761]

Maybe do this concept for the low lands combined (the netherlands, belgium and Luxemburg), because it would be to short otherwise. But I think it could make for an interesting video. (Please include the wadden islands)

[@roarthunder8583]

The Timestamps are killing me 😂😂😂

[@zypherx1891]

The thumbnail and the timestamps is both wrong lmao

[@Fomlefantastic]

"The medieval Vikings, who had contacts with the Byzantine Empire through their expansion through eastern Europe (Varangians), used the Old Norse name Mikligarðr (from mikill 'big' and garðr 'wall' or 'stronghold') as seen in the Icelandic sagas" ...this is about Istanbul, but checks out in terms of Mecklenburg. (the meaning slightly differs depending on who you ask)

[@ccvcharger]

That makes sense, because the Vikings did have colonies in that region.

[@viktorsersik1997]

Hamburg also has the prefix "Frei" still in front of its name. While for the Flächenländer it is Freistaat, for Hamburg it is Freistadt, but it is basically the same.

[@chimefloon-w-4146]

explanations for Saxony, Saxony-Anhalt and North Rhine were wrong

[@rpgbb]

I would like a video why Germany and Germans are called in so many ways in different languages

[@Nazdreg1]

That is pretty easy. There are four different concepts: 1.We call ourselves "Deutsch" ("belonging to the people"). The Scandinavian "Tyskland" (Germany) is the same. Also the Italian "tedeschi" (Germans) 2. "Germany" ("area of Germanic tribes") is the name given to roughly the same region by the Romans. Some Romance speaking languages use this name too, "Germania". 3. The French call our country "allemagne". It refers to the specific tribe of the Allemanni who seemed to be meaningful enough to be featured in French and Portuguese. In Finnish, we are call Saksa ("Saxons"), so that would be another Germanic tribe. 4. The Slavic neighbouring countries use the concept of (correct me if I am wrong) Niemczy (the mute ones, I believe). It refers to a language barrier between Slavic and Germanic languages (q.e.d....). I think, the Czech last name Nemec also means "German"? I think that's it. Not sure about African, American or East Asian languages though. Arabic, Turkish and Persian call us Alman (probably a French connection)

[@thkempe]

​@@Nazdreg1 5. The Finnish people refer to the Germans as Saxons, calling our country "Saksa".

[@sebe2255]

Because different languages shockingly use different words for different concepts

[@anunluckyguy7586]

​@@thkempei think you need glasses my friend

[@Hendricus56]

Apart from the thumbnail a good job GK

[@wolfgangpagel6989]

Brandenburg is the name of the province Mark Brandenburg, Mark meaning a border province. Every German recognises that the word refers to a burned castle and there is 2 cities carrying the name, Brandenburg and Neubrandenburg. The settlers did not use forests to rule the land but fortifications, so -burg is a major part of city names.

[@mi-lo4ec]

Ah yes I remember when my parents visit Europe and went to the most famous German State of them all South Carolina

[@Wolf-rk6jq]

LOL

[@jrgptr935]

Wo ist Mallorca abgeblieben?

[@AironSmieciowy-di3qy]

Great video!

[@FuzePunch]

Chapters seem to be a little off... 🤨

[@conorflynn6666]

What song is playing in the background

[@thesilentelitemember2611]

Do you have a video explaining how each state of austria got its name.

[@bugglybuzzaway]

I think you used the wrong thumbnail

[@Zinedgrimm]

love your videos but pleasseee, try to correctly pronounce the Umlauts Ä Ö and Ü, a quick Google translate pronunciation check would suffice! But anyways great video!

[@afjo972]

10:50 the E is long. SchlEEHswig And the H is NEVER silent. The S before the T is pronounced like SH

[@lanamack1558]

Incorrect, the "h" can indeed be silent, cf. sehen, gehen, fehlen, etc.

[@k3v1n73]

to explain 'freistaat'; there was a german nativism/purity movement which opposed the use of foreign, often latin or french, loanwords, which was quite popular in the 19th and early 20th century. so instead of 'Republik' (eng. republic) they used 'Freistaat', and instead of 'Demokratie' (eng. democracy) they used 'Volksstaat' i mean thats quite a simplified explanation, but its close enough

[@henner645]

Fun fact: No Saxon ever lived in the state of Saxony.

[@b4ttlemast0r]

"vor" just means "before", "in front of", or "pre-"

[@Lexeterr]

Mixing Germany with US is one thing, but bro even got wrong description for sponsorship

[@wookie2222]

About Hessen: We are not 'descended from the Frankish tribe of the Chatti'. You got something wrong, there. The Chatti moved into the area around 50 BC, as - probably in connection with the Gaulish War of a certain soon to be stabbed to death pontifex maximus - the Celts who previously had lived in that area came under military and economic pressure and dissapeared. Some of them traversed the Rhine and founded Cologne. Their vanishing formed a power vacuum, which was exploited by the Romans in the south and some Germanic speaking wildlings in the north who migrated into the area (at least the part north of the Limes) and took over power and germanized the locals. In this context, its totally understandable that these people were given a maybe celtic, maybe germanic exonym as "Chatti". (The Ch was presumably the romanization of the germanic ch-sound, thats a bit similar to the sound the City of Kharkiv starts with). Still today, we have the verb "hetzen" in German, that can either mean to rush or to hurry or that can have an older, more warlike and probably connected to hunting meaning like in the German word for a Persistence hunting - 'Hetzjagd' or a certain tank hunter from WW2, that was named 'Hetzer'. So, the Chatti were either seen as Hunters (maybe in contrast to farmers and herders) or they were seen as warlike people who hunted their enemies on the battlefield. As they had settled in, they wasted no time and tried the obvious - attacking the Romans, which went not as expected and ended in a Roman punitive expedition, hundreds of burned down villages and a falling into oblivion for a couple of hundred years. Only then they would appear again - this time as a part of the larger Franks, which had formed in an area of modern day Hessen, Nordrhein-Westphalen and Rheinland-Pfalz, mostly around the river Rhine. As the Franks had formed their Empires, they somehow had to administer them - and formed Gaue, districts or counties, if you want. One of them was situated in the area where the Chatti had lived and thus was named Chattengau. And after the Frankish Empire(s) split up into more smaler and smaler dominions, the landgrave of that Hessengau somehow managed to not only keep his power but also somehow expand it further south and over time into what is today Hessen. And as in this time (We are speaking about around 2000 years!) German language changed, also the pronounciation changed. Chatti - hatti - hassi - hessi...

[@wolfgangpagel6989]

"Pfalz" comes from a place owned by the Emperor to support him before there was a capital and he had to move constantly through his empire. Then the person in charge, a count, became important through the ages and was electoral figure to elect the emperor. So the word transferred to the whole state he ruled, but there are several other "Pfalz" in the former Frankish empire.

[@jojogh10]

05:45 in a Thuringian museum in Weimar I visited some time ago the name was actually explained as the following: when the Romans marched North into Germanic territories they found a collection of tribes in this region that worshipped the god Thor the most, so they gave them the name Thoringer (-inger as the suffix to describe someone with a word before that). And this evolved into Thüringer and therefore Thüringen.

[@kamilpawlik5636]

The next one should be an episode about the names of voivodeships in Poland.

[@DAlienzombie]

Bavaria is the latinised speaking. Viradonum too. Comes from a profession of freemasonry. Middle High English is basically modern German, from Gàul. Antilatinisation always is a theme in Europa. Comes from Antike where only tribesmen could go. In the path of pre-human sorcerers. Thuri compiles to tara. Mesopotamian greek era again. From Egypt, lesser old sorcerers. Hebrews inclusions, too - keep the middle in balance. Hosnici and Husars make a Point to Hessen, with them being legendary riding warriors compared with the more old saxons. A rebuild grabbing history back before the polish king Arian II. How does 'war woods' match 'burn castle'? We always sainted the plantings and wilds. About the 'Ham' of Hamburg, Hamdullah. The Vikings met the arabs a lot. Bremen is a special. That area produced legendary blacksmithed fake Viking steel (Brom, Aluminium, chromatum) while the Emporium Romagnum conquest and won over. Hat is Hat. Butter bei de Fisch.

[@norielgames4765]

9:58 that's crazy cause in Romanian pă mare means on the sea or at the sea. See that little symbol on too of the a? It means that's not an a but a different vowel with a pronounciation somewhere between a and o, so really, it's pronounced almost the same. Thing is, Romanian is a Romance language, not a slavic one, so these words being the same is awesome. The romanian word mare comes from Latin mare and is pronounced the same as in Latin, so the fact that in Slavic more means sea is fascinating. Also, the O in slavic is often pronounced almost like an A for reasons i don't know, so chances are the native term could have sounded way more similar to pă mare.

[@baronbrummbar8691]

ther are 3 main theorys for brandenburg 1. Brani boru (like you mentioned) 2. Brennabor (wich also has its orgins in swamp) 3. gebrante burg ...... = brick made fortress as the first fortress was made out of bricks

[@m3an]

The interpretation of Brandenburg originating in Brani boru has never been verified and everywhere that it's mentioned, there are no sources and Wikipedia notes it as "Citation required". Aka, bullshit.