Deutsches Reich#
Deutsches Reich: official name of the German state 1871-1945 (English: 1871-1933 German Empire, 1933-1945 (Third) German Reich), founded in 1871 with the incorporation of the member states of the Deutscher Bund. In 1879 it formed the Dual Alliance with Austria and fought in World War II together with the Austro-Hungarian monarchy. In 1918 the German Empire was made a republic (Weimar Republic), but in 1933 it was turned into the National-Socialist Fuehrer State, and called "Grossdeutsches Reich" (Great German Reich) after the annexation of Austria in 1938. The Federal Republic of Germany, created out of the three zones occupied by the Western Forces on May 24, 1949, partly continued the tradition of the German Empire, while the German Democratic Republic (October 7, 1949 to 1990), successor state to the zone occupied by the Soviets, considered itself a state that had broken with all German traditions, although it increasingly adopted Prussian characteristics.