What do we know about the state of the First Reich?

Everyone has heard of the Third Reich, which was headed by Hitler. There is no person who does not know about the strongest state, whose power was based on the idea that citizens so selflessly and faithfully believed. But how much do we know about the state that the Reich was calling?

Formation and existence of states

In all the years of its existence, the First Reich occupied a different territory because of the unification of completely different peoples. It is customary to call this state, formed in 962, the Holy Roman Empire. It lasted a lot of time, until 1806. It was formed as an analog of the ancient Roman Empire. At first the state united the Germanic peoples, but throughout its existence the territory was repeatedly changed. In different years, the Roman Empire included Italy, Germany, Switzerland, the Czech Republic, Alsace and Lorraine, the Burgundian Kingdom, the Netherlands, Belgium. East Frank King Otto I can rightly be called the father of the First Reich state, since it was he who was able to unite these states into a single whole. It was quite difficult to keep such a large number of people under one single start, so the territory of the empire repeatedly changed its borders. As a result of the encroachments of the papal throne on the Roman authorities, the Thirty Years' War, the Reformation period, the state could not stand it and began to disintegrate. The final disintegration came as a result of the invasion of the Napoleonic army, and in 1806 the last King Franz II was forced to abdicate. After the collapse of the Holy Roman Empire, only in 1871 Bismarck united Germany and Prussia into one state, which is usually called the Second Reich.

The destiny of this state is known to us much better: it has not been able to survive even centuries. First, the royal power became a relic of the past, new progressive parties were increasingly being strengthened in society. Secondly, the failure in the First World War was the last straw in the existence of the state, which we call the 2 Reich. Then began the era of the Third Reich in the chapter with Adolf Hitler.

Form of government in the First Reich

Since the First Reich united many states, it was difficult to legitimize centralized power. At the head of the Roman Empire stood the emperor, whose authority was not boundless and absolute. The power of the emperor was not inherited, he was elected princes-electors. Since the empire was a feudal state, at the head of each princedom was a prince who had the right to vote in the election of the emperor. The emperor's power was limited to the aristocracy, and most of the state issues were decided by her by vote. Since the XV century, this authority was renamed the Reichstag, which included representatives of the highest aristocratic families in Germany. Gradually, under the influence of neighboring states, the papal throne, under the threat of creating a union of independent republics, the imperial power weakened. In 1806 the state ceased to exist under the name of the First Reich, or, as we used to call it, the Holy Roman Empire.