The Four Germanys

In contemplating the anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall we tend to forget that this was not the first time that the Germans were separated. In Britain the Saxons were divided into Sussex, Essex and Wessex, and on the continent the Carolingian kings divided the Germans into West Franks and East Franks, in modern parlance, France and Germany. Of the better known Germanic Kings, Alfred the Great united the Saxons, threw out the Danes and is now revered by the English, whilst Charlemagne, whose Latin appellation is Carolus Magnus and whom the Germans call Karl, had his court in Aachen and is revered today by the French. France and Germany never did get back together, though it was not from a lack of trying, efforts were made in this direction by both Napoleon, who was a Corsican, and Hitler, who was an Austrian, but they had to wait until the creation of the embryonic European Community for that, notwithstanding the fact they each have sovereign rule. Meanwhile the insular Germans usurped the crown of Britain from the indigenous Welsh and called themselves English, before annexing what was left of Wales, conquering Ireland, uniting with Scotland and creating a World wide Empire; the Franks, after conquering Gaul and re-naming it France, tried for world domination through their so called benevolent Empire, as they see it, after already having failed once under Napoleon, as against what they saw as the English malevolent one, but failed again, only don't tell them! and finally the Germans in the former Holy Roman Empire united under Prussian hegemony in 1871 tried the same thing under Hitler but also failed. So the wall didn't split the Germans in two, it created a fourth Germanic State; now hopefully the Germans, Celts, Latins and Slavs can put aside their respective chauvinistic 'Our heritage is better and stronger than yours, therefore we are better qualified,and didn't God put us here for that purpose' and unite finally in a real communiy of Europeans