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The territorial evolution of Germany in this article include all changes in the modern territory of Germany from its unification making it a country on 1 January 1871 to the present although the history of "Germany" as a territorial polity concept and the history of the ethnic Germans are much longer and much more complex.
The treaty defined the territory of a 'united Germany' as being the territory of East Germany, West Germany, and Berlin, prohibiting Germany from making any future territorial claims. Germany also agreed to sign a separate treaty with Poland reaffirming the present common border, binding under international law, effectively relinquishing these ...
German-occupied Europe at the height of the Axis conquests in 1942 Gaue, Reichsgaue and other administrative divisions of Germany proper in January 1944. According to the Treaty of Versailles, the Territory of the Saar Basin was split from Germany for at least 15 years. In 1935, the Saarland rejoined Germany in a lawful way after a plebiscite.
Annexation is a unilateral act where territory is seized and held by one state, [4] as distinct from the complete conquest of another country, [a] [7] [8] and differs from cession, in which territory is given or sold through treaty. Annexation can be legitimized if generally recognized by other states and international bodies. [4] [9] [2]
The Greater Germanic Reich (German: Großgermanisches Reich), fully styled the Greater Germanic Reich of the German Nation (German: Großgermanisches Reich der Deutschen Nation), [4] was the official state name of the political entity that Nazi Germany tried to establish in Europe during World War II. [5]
The map depicts occupied Eastern Europe as a settler-colonial territory of Nazi Germany. [92] Informed by the blood and soil beliefs of ethnic identity—a philosophic basis of Lebensraum —Nazi policy required destroying the USSR for the lands of Russia to become the granary of Germany.
After 1933, when Adolf Hitler rose to power in Germany, desire for unification could be identified with the Nazis, for whom it was an integral part of the Nazi "Heim ins Reich" ("back home to the realm") concept, which sought to incorporate as many Volksdeutsche (ethnic Germans outside Germany) as possible into a "Greater Germany". [7]
Adolf Hitler, dictator of Nazi Germany from 1933–1945, advocated for a Drang nach Osten to acquire territory for German colonists at the expense of central and eastern European nations . The term, by then, had gained enough currency to appear in foreign newspapers without explanation. [19]