Talk:Fourth Reich

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[edit] Citation needed

+ I have edited the remark about democracy in a way that less likely needs a citation. However, a citation would still be nice....

~Anonymous

[edit] Volksdeutsch

"The Soviet Union and Poland had essentially removed - to put it politely - their Volksdeutsch elements after the war."

I don't understand what this sentence is saying, and why it supports the notion of a unified Germany as a 4th Reich. I've left it in for now because it sounds interesting, but I shall remove it soon if no more explanation is added.

Rdr0 16:08, 19 June 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Technical Fourth Reich

The current Federal Republic of Germany isn't technically a Fourth Reich, because it is separate from Austria. If the 2 states would merge, than it would technically be a Fourth Reich. It corrected this.

>>Rdr0: After WW2, the USSR, Poland, and Czechoslovakia have exiled all the germans living on their new territory (those were a few million). This supports the notion of Fourth Reich because there are no german minorites outside the Federal Republic.

80.170.39.111 20:48, 7 July 2006 (UTC)

This is nonsense. "If" Germany and Austria would merge - there are no provisions whatsoever concerning this in both countries' constitutions -, a new hypothetical state would not be a "Fourth Reich". Indeed, the term "Third Reich" was a Nazi propaganda term to establish a succession to the Holy Roman Empire and the German Empire. It was also technically wrong because Nazi Germany evolved from the Weimar Republic and, while it was an oppressive totalitarian system - as opposed to the democratic Weimar Republic -, the was no king, emperor or royal family or any form of monarchy that would "allow" the term "Reich". The term itself is simply an abbreviation for "Königreich" (Kingdom) or "Kaiserreich" (Empire). As both the Federal Republic of Germany and the Federal Republic of Austria are republics - as denoted in their names -, there is no way a hypothetical Austrian-German country could be a "Reich" whatsoever. Cheers, Something Wicked 22:52, 6 August 2006 (UTC)

I object to the use of the term "German states" for Austria and Germany. If you must, please write "the two german speaking states". The whole sentence as it stands now gives somehow the impression that Germany and Austria were united after the fall of the Berlin Wall, which is NOT the case It was of course Germany and the People's Republic of East Germany).

Concerning the last part, there are still a lot of traditionally German speaking people (if you want "Volksdeutsche", but it is such a fascist term, that it leaves me a bit queasy) living in Russia, Ukraine, Belarus, Kasakhstan, Uzbeskistan, Hungary, Italy, Rumania, that it really doesn't make sense to give that as a reason that recent Germany could be called a "Fourth Reich". So, editing this article is clearly necessary.