History question--Hitler and Third Reich
 

I am watching all these WW2 documentaries but none really explain what a Reich is. Much less the Third Reich.

Was there a first and a second Reich?

I could be mistaken, but I understood it to be a measure of time, but not specific as to length. Much like "the golden age" and such.

Reich means "empire."

The Third Reich refers to the Nazis' rule. The Second Reich was the Prussian Empire, and the first was the Holy Roman Empire.

Reich is actually a republic. Hitler was voted in, remember? ;)

Reich is not necessarily a republic. As a comparison, Kingdom of God in German is Reich Gottes.

And in reality it was nothing but propaganda.

Which would be easier to sell: We are going to take over the world, make everyone speak German and move the Olympics to Berlin forever.

Or: We are building the third great empire. You know how well the other two worked out. Lasted a long time, right? So get on the winning side! Or, as Mel Brooks wrote, "Don't be stupid; be a smartie! Come and join the Nazi Party!"

Yes and still today after all that Germany went through .A lot of German people still think and believe that Germany will rule the world.

I never will ever understand the Germans crimes during the second world war. Although it also is nothing unusual down through history.

Man in many ways is seriously flawed. How people could sleep nights while behaving in these manners is beyond me. Ethnic cleaning is still well and active to this day though.

When you look at all the total property damage at the end of the war and all the misery created. It is somewhat amazing it was all built up again.

The massive losses the Russians military and civilian population took is also beyond belief. It is kind of suprising they did no kill every German they saw when they took Berlin.

I think perhaps a partial answer is that both Hitler and Goering eventually became basically druggies. Otherwise Germany might have surrendered earlier. Or perhaps the feared and deserved retribution inhibited it.

Another thing is that German lower ranks where apparently given an early form of speed before battle. Or perhaps had a choice to ingest it.

Too bad as well that what turned into the so called cold war evolved after the end of the war.

Statistically other than some foreplay it was essentially a Russian/German confrontation. Russia claimed twenty five million Russians perished. The accuracy of the claim is questionable. The reality is also that it may be a fairly accurate claim.

A guy I took sailing with me years ago and worked with was a German army conscript. He served on the eastern front later in the war at the age of seventeen. He was probably very lucky to have survived it.

Yes. And if Hitler hadn't made the stupid decision of trying to take Stalingrad instead of going directly for the Caucuses oil fields the outcome could have been quite different.

This is a Mercedes forum, celebrating German engineering . . . ;)

Good call I kind of forgot. My dad did mention to me one time that due to the superiority of some of the German military equipment. You had to be very careful .Plus he thought they were well trained in using it.

I think their 88s may have shook him up as he was in armored with Sherman tanks. Sicily,Italy and later northern Europe. Even today a lot of modern tanks including American ones may have German built cannons.

I still wonder sometimes if I'll wake up to my Mercedes car and Triumph bike trying to re-fight the Battle of Britain in my garage. :eek:

A better translation of reich may be "realm." It does not have any connotations of the type of government, just that it was a piece of land governed by Germans, with the type of government unspecified.

the Catholic Church has murdered more humans,than Hilter,Stalin,and Mao combinded.

David Steinberg had a bit in his routine: "I have a nightmare where all the Volkswagens in the world are driving Jews back to Germany."