GERMANY
- Mar 25
- 7 min read
Germany: "Deutschland – mein Herz in Flammen; Will dich lieben und verdammen; Deutschland – dein Atem kalt; So jung, und doch so alt."
Rammstain "Deutschland" (2019)
GERMANY: ICONIC LANDMARKS
«Kilometers are shorter than miles. Save fuel, take your next trip in kilometers»
George Carlin, stand-up comedian
Germany is a rare country without a capital complex. There's no single "main" city to which the others must submit and envy. Bustling Berlin, cozy Munich, maritime Hamburg, musical Leipzig, financial Frankfurt. Germany isn't organized vertically, but distributedly, like a network.
Hence its special attitude toward travel. If there's no single center, it's not just where you are, but how you got there that matters. Germany is a country on the move. A country of routes, transfers, detours, and well-thought-out solutions. Here, the road isn't a pause between points, but an independent living space.
This is how autobahns are born — not as a cult of speed, but as a philosophy of trust. A minimum of unnecessary things, a maximum of responsibility. If you're driving, you know how. If you're unsure, there's the right lane. The German autobahn isn't so much "no restrictions" as "no fuss."
And where there are roads, there are cars. Not as a luxury item, but as a tool for thinking. A German car doesn't promise happiness; it promises that everything will work. And there's a strange consolation in this: in a world full of uncertainty, at least the car and the road beneath your wheels will be honest.
An iconic landmark in Germany isn't a square, a palace, or a cathedral. It's a stretch of road between cities, which always have squares, palaces, and cathedrals. Where you suddenly realize: not only a worthy destination is important, but also a well-chosen route.
GERMANY: COAT OF ARMS' HISTORY
The German eagle invites you to fly over its thousand-year history.
Since ancient times, the eagle in Europe has been more than just a beautiful bird, but a direct channel of communication with the gods. Among the Greeks, it served Zeus, among the Romans, Jupiter, and among the Germans, Odin. Associated with eternity, courage, and military prowess, the eagle was early used to adorn banners and shields. But there was also a darker side to this divine symbolism. Prometheus felt it, literally in his bones: it was the eagle that daily reminded him that arguing with the gods was not a good idea.
The eagle on the German coat of arms dates back to the times of Ancient Rome. Coats of arms in the classical sense did not yet exist, so it is more likely to be an "aquila" (stress on the first syllable) – the symbol of the legions in the ancient Roman army, a silver or gold eagle mounted on a pole. The legions were the main driving force of Rome, so the eagle was naturally perceived as a symbol of imperial power. It didn't denote a state in the usual sense, but rather embodied the very principle of domination: order, discipline, and the right to command.
The subsequent succession is usually associated with the Frankish king Charlemagne, who became "Emperor of the West" in 800. During his reign, the eagle signified not the Frankish state as such, but a revival of the Roman idea of a universal empire. It was a symbol not of territory, but of a concept: a single secular order over peoples, languages, and borders. Ambitious and, as time has shown, extremely fragile. After his death, the empire almost instantly disintegrated into the future France, Italy, and Germany.
German history is sometimes measured in "reichs." In fact, "Das Reich" is German for "empire."
The First Reich was the "Holy Roman Empire of the German Nation," from the moment the Pope crowned the German King Otto I until its formal abolition 800 years later by Napoleon Bonaparte, who was building his "dream empire." The empire united dozens of peoples and lands — from Germany and the Czech Republic to Italy and the Netherlands. The eagle was more a symbol of an idea than of actual governance: a symbol of unity where it was constantly lacking.
The Second Reich, the "Kaiser's Empire," was already a nation-state. After defeating France in 1871, Germany was united under the rule of the Kaiser. The eagle became a symbol of centralized power and order. It was the confident, heavy symbol of an industrial power. The history of the Kaiser-eagle ended in 1918 — with defeat in World War I and the collapse of the monarchy.
The Weimar Republic, which broke the chain of Reichs, did not radically abandon the past. Various projects were discussed, even the return of the double-headed eagle, but the idea of "purifying" the symbol prevailed. The eagle was retained, but the crowns and monarchical decorations were removed. In 1919, a black single-headed eagle on a gold background was adopted — stern, graphic, and politically neutral. History remained, but the pathos vanished.
The idea of revenge for defeat led to the Third Reich. The tragic consequences of its short existence are widely remembered. It is best not to repeat them, although many try. The eagle survived, but was once again burdened with yet another semantic load. A curious detail: traditionally, the eagle faces heraldically to the right — "to the west." However, on military symbols (in the Wehrmacht), its head was turned left, toward eastern expansion. A small detail, but telling. History reminds us: symbols don't protect against catastrophic decisions.
After World War II, the northeastern part of Germany became a separate state — the German Democratic Republic. The new country decided to start from scratch and removed the eagle altogether. The first coat of arms looked almost ascetic: a hammer surrounded by two ears of wheat. But after a couple of years of social management, it became clear that harvests were low, and if you hit the hammer at random, the result would be similar. It became clear that bare ideology was not enough — they added more harvests in the form of sheaves and clever engineering planning in the form of a compass. The final touch came after a "consultation of elder comrades": a red background. Thus, the coat of arms finally became a political poster.
Modern Germany has returned to the eagle of the Weimar Republic, only slightly simplifying its contours. Without crowns or imperial ambitions. As a tribute to Germany's first true democracy. Having emerged after military defeat, national humiliation, and revolution, the Weimar Republic created the ground for economic development and political and cultural diversity.
The Federal Eagle is a symbol of the state, but not a cult. It is not strictly enshrined in law and can vary in style: on coins, on official vehicle license plates, on the sports emblems of national teams, and in the unofficial logos of the Federal Republic of Germany's constitutional bodies. Among the latter, that of the Bundestag (the German parliament) has the calmest and most confident eagle in German history, and perhaps the most mature and distinctively German.
GERMANY: FUN FACTS
Of the heraldic connection of times.
Today, Germany is administratively divided into 13 federal states and three cities with state status: Berlin, Bremen, and Hamburg. Each state has its own coat of arms, which is mandatory on license plates registered in that region. An attentive reader of "Autoheraldry" can not only determine the origin of a car but also surprise others with unexpected insights into the meanings and destinies of these symbols.
Most state coats of arms were officially adopted in the 1950s, some as early as the 1990s, after German reunification. But don't be fooled by the dates: almost every one of these coats of arms has roots in the Middle Ages, and sometimes even further back.
To understand this, one needs to become familiar with one of Europe's most enduring political institutions — the Electorate. For over 600 years, it was the electors (literally "Kurfurst" in German) who chose the Emperor of the Holy Roman Empire. Seven men — and no more — decided on the fate of the "Roman" throne, which was actually located in Germany.
One of the first visual depictions of this process survives in the 14th-century Illustrated Chronicle of Emperor Henry VII (Codex Balduineus). In the miniature, seven electors actually elect the hero of the story as emperor. They are easily recognizable by their coats of arms: from left to right — the Archbishops of Cologne, Mainz, and Trier, the Count Palatine of the Rhine, the Duke of Saxony, the Margrave of Brandenburg, and the King of Bohemia.
And here's where things get interesting. If you look closely at the coats of arms of the modern federal states, you'll see that the electors haven't disappeared. The Brandenburg eagle still spreads its wings, the Saxon black and gold stripes are still recognizable, the symbols of Mainz and Trier add a touch of spirituality, and the Palatine Lion lives on in the coats of arms of four federal states in southwest Germany.
But two remained "off-screen." The King of Bohemia passed away with history — today it is the Czech Republic, a separate state with a distinct heraldic destiny. With the Archbishop of Cologne, things are more subtle: his symbolism has faded slightly between the Rhine and Westphalia, remaining on the coats of arms of a few cities and towns. In 1692, Hanover was admitted to the ranks of the Electors — and the circle was complete. The old Saxon lands, horses, eagles, and crowns definitively linked the Middle Ages with the future Germany. And today, looking at a car license plate, we see not just a region, but an echo of those very elections that decided the fate of the empire.
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