The origins of the Länder
Journal: Manchester University Press eBooks
Year: 2010

Questions about identity have been asked for centuries in Germany, and to some extent are still asked today. Following the French Revolution, the concept of the state was modified to include a particular kind of state: the nation-state. This meant that it was now the goal of people who identified with one another – whether because of geography, language, religion, history or culture – to form a state which included this distinct group of people, leading to the rise of nationalism, which generall