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In 1800 there were over 3000 princely states in middle Europe that, by 1847 had Consolidated and otherwise aligned themselves into 37 Kingdoms, Principalities, Duchies and other great estates which ultimately in January of 1871 united under Chancellor Bismarck into The German Empire.

The synergies of this massive consolidation brought power imbalances in Europe resulting in the first and second Great War of the first half of the Twentieth Century. At the end of the second world war German and its economy was in disarray and the country was literally carved into three blocks by the occupying militaries, one third ceded to Poland and the other two thirds divided between the east and the west. The western portion of German, (FDR) assisted by aid from the Marshall Plan with populations more than three times and a land area more than two and a half times the size of the East (DDR) was soon enjoying the economic recovery (Wirtschaftsunder) of the 1950s.

As West Germany grew in economic importance, eastern Germany staggered under the burden of communist notions of central planning. In 1961 the DDR built the Protection Wall to defend its population from the exploitative materialistic sickness of capitalism (and to stem its population from falling pray to capitalism’s beguiling materialistic attractions). The wall came down and in October 1990 Eastern German was literally absorbed into FDR under the rubric reunification.

The reunification initially cost West Germany much, economically politely and socially however and again, the synergies of unification by the end of the 1990s became noticeable. The key to development is investment and Germany invested substantially in its eastern half. The population in the west partly absorbed the high costs of reunification investment by paying a 7% solidarity tax levied on all income. The country received high marks for despite the massive relocation of funds the central bank was able to steady the German Mark into stability reflecting in the midst of fiscal expansion. This economic stability provides the fudus for the European Euro which commenced January 1, 2002. The shifting of substantial funding from investment in the west to that of the east was partly at the bottom of the problem of the weak performance of the economy during the global downturn of the beginning of the 2000 however the quality of ongoing investment will soon outs shadow that economic blemish.

In all Germany has substantiated its position as European anchor and starting in 1991 with the first Gulf War and in 2002 with the build up to the second, with its counter pole France, has commenced a more meaningful politically integrated Europe for its citizenry.

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