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33-702: Osterwalde is a medieval shire ( Gau ) in the Eastphalia region of the Duchy of Saxony . In present-day terms, it is located in northern Saxony-Anhalt . It was bordered by the River Ohre to the west and by the River Dumme to the north; its eastern borders are unclear; it possibly reached all the way to the River Elbe . The most important town was Salzwedel , other towns were Seebenau , Tylsen , and Osterwohle , after which it

66-587: A gau is analogous with a pays of the Kingdom of France , or of Lotharingia . Old English , by contrast, has only traces of the word, which was replaced by scire (modern English shire ) from an early time, in names such as Noxga gā, Ohtga gā and perhaps in gōman, ġēman " yeoman ", which would then correspond to the Old High German gaumann . However, the Oxford English Dictionary connects

99-419: A 2012 study that Germania played a major role in the formation of the core concepts of Nazi ideology. The mainstream German reception is much less sensationalist and sees Tacitus's description as more patronizing than laudatory, a predecessor of the classical noble savage concept which started in the 17th and 18th centuries in western European literature. The Codex Aesinas is believed to be portions of

132-656: A climate as horrid as that of Germania. They are divided into three large branches, the Ingaevones , the Irminones , and the Istaevones , deriving their ancestry from three sons of Mannus , son of Tuisto , their common forefather. In chapter 4, he mentions that they all have common physical characteristics, blue eyes ( truces et caerulei oculi = "sky-coloured, azure, dark blue, dark green"), reddish hair ( rutilae comae = "red, golden-red, reddish yellow"), and large bodies, vigorous at

165-632: A description of the lands, laws, and customs of the Germanic people (chapters 1–27); it then describes individual peoples, beginning with those dwelling closest to Roman lands and ending on the uttermost shores of the Baltic, among the amber-gathering Aesti , the Fenni , and the unknown peoples beyond them. Tacitus says (chapter 2) that physically, the Germanic peoples appear to be a distinct nation, not an admixture of their neighbors, since nobody would desire to migrate to

198-489: A form of folk assembly rather similar to the public things recorded in later Germanic sources: in these public deliberations, the final decision rests with the men of the group as a whole. Tacitus further discusses the role of women in chapters 7 and 8, mentioning that they often accompany the men to battle and offer encouragement. He says that the men are often motivated to fight for the women because of an extreme fear of losing them to captivity. Tacitus says (chapter 18) that

231-558: A similar—albeit shorter—essay on the lands and peoples of Britannia in his Agricola (chapters 10–13). Tacitus himself is thought to have never travelled to Germania , thus his information is second-hand at best. Ronald Syme supposed that Tacitus closely copied the lost Bella Germaniae of Pliny the Elder , since the Germania is in some places outdated: in its description of Danubian groups, says Syme, "they are loyal clients of

264-460: A single manuscript that was found in Hersfeld Abbey ( Codex Hersfeldensis ) in 1425. This was brought to Italy, where Enea Silvio Piccolomini, later Pope Pius II , first examined and analyzed the book. This sparked interest among German humanists , including Conrad Celtes , Johannes Aventinus , and Ulrich von Hutten and beyond. The peoples of medieval Germany (the Kingdom of Germany in

297-507: A term for an administrative unit or jurisdiction, independent of the figure hundred. The Frankish usage contrasts with Tacitus' Germania , where a pagus was a subdivision of a tribal territory or civitas , corresponding to the Hundred, i.e. areas liable to provide a hundred men under arms, or containing roughly a hundred homesteads each, further divided into vici (villages or farmsteads). Charlemagne , by his capitulary legislation, adopted

330-514: Is a Germanic term for a region within a country, often a former or current province . It was used in the Middle Ages , when it can be seen as roughly corresponding to an English shire . The administrative use of the term was revived as a subdivision during the period of Nazi Germany in 1933–1945. It still appears today in regional names, such as the Rheingau or Allgäu . The Germanic word

363-765: Is probably named. Neighboring shires include Drevani , Chojna , Balsamgau , Nordthüringgau , Derlingau , and Bardengau . By the 12th century, the Gau Osterwalde had become a part of the Margraviate of Brandenburg . Together with the Balsamgau, it formed the westernmost part of Brandenburg, which later came to be known as the Altmark . Gau (country subdivision) Gau ( German : [ɡaʊ] ; Dutch : gouw [ɣʌu] ; West Frisian : gea [ɡɪə] or goa [ɡoə] )

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396-545: Is reflected in Gothic gawi (neuter; genitive gaujis ) and early Old High German gewi, gowi (neuter) and in some compound names -gawi as in Gothic (e.g. Durgawi " Canton of Thurgau ", Alpagawi " Allgäu "), later gâi, gôi , and after loss of the stem suffix gaw, gao , and with motion to the feminine as gawa besides gowo (from gowio ). Old Saxon shows further truncation to gâ, gô . As an equivalent of Latin pagus ,

429-568: The Holy Roman Empire ) were heterogenous, separated in distinct kingdoms , such as the Bavarians , Franconians , and Swabians , distinctions which remain evident in the German language and culture after the unification of Germany in 1871 (aside from Austria) and the establishment of modern Austria and Germany . During the medieval period, a self-designation of "Germani" was virtually never used;

462-594: The Rhine and Danube borders, and Germanic mercenaries in Rome. One of the minor works of Tacitus, Germania was not widely cited or used before the Renaissance . In antiquity, Lucian appears to imitate a sentence from it. It was largely forgotten during the Middle Ages . In the West, it was cited by Cassiodorus in the sixth century and used more extensively by Rudolf of Fulda in

495-567: The Sitones , "resemble [the Suevi Scandinavians] in all respects but one - woman is the ruling sex." "This," Tacitus comments, "is the measure of their decline, I will not say below freedom, but even below decent slavery." Ethnography had a long and distinguished heritage in classical literature , and the Germania fits squarely within the tradition established by authors from Herodotus to Julius Caesar . Tacitus himself had already written

528-483: The annexation of neighbouring territories by Nazi Germany in the late 1930s, a new unit of civil administration, the Reichsgau , was established. German-speaking territories annexed to Germany from 1938 were generally organised into Reichsgaue . Unlike the pre-existing Gaue , the new Reichsgaue formally combined the spheres of both party and state administration. Following the annexation of Austria in 1938,

561-638: The comitatus subdivision and appointed local rulers as deputies of the central Imperial authority. In the German-speaking lands of East Francia , the Gau formed the unit of administration of the realm during the 9th and 10th centuries and ruled by a gaugrave ( Gaugraf i.e. "gau count"). Similar to many shires in England, during the Middle Ages, many such Gaue came to be known as counties or Grafschaften ,

594-557: The provinces of Prussia . Following the suppression of the political institutions of the Länder in the course of the Nazi Gleichschaltung process and the appointment of Reichsstatthalter (Reich Governors) in 1933, the Gaue became the de facto administrative regions of the government and each individual Gauleiter had considerable power within his territory. With the beginning of

627-489: The Codex Hersfeldensis – the lost Germania manuscript brought to Rome from Hersfeld Abbey. It was rediscovered in 1902 by priest-philologist Cesare Annibaldi in the possession of Count Aurelio Balleani of Iesi . Temporarily transferred to Florence for the controls at the state body of the fine arts, the manuscript was severely damaged during the 1966 flood . It was later restored and brought back to Iesi, and in 1994,

660-573: The Empire ... Which is peculiar. The defection of these peoples in the year 89 during Domitian's war against the Dacians modified the whole frontier policy of the Empire." While Pliny may have been the primary source, scholars have identified others; among them are Caesar 's Gallic Wars , Strabo , Diodorus Siculus , Posidonius , Aufidius Bassus , and numerous nonliterary sources, presumably based on interviews with traders and soldiers who had ventured beyond

693-412: The Germanic peoples are mainly content with one wife, except for a few political marriages, and specifically and explicitly compares this practice favorably to other cultures. He also records (chapter 19) that adultery is very rare, and that an adulterous woman is shunned afterward by the community regardless of her beauty. In chapter 45, Tacitus mentions that the people to the north of the Germanic peoples,

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726-585: The case of Zichenau ) and Upper Silesia (as in the case of the Silesian voivodeship with the counties of Oświęcim and Biała ). After the successful invasion of France in 1940, Germany re-annexed Alsace-Lorraine . The former département of Moselle was incorporated into the Gau of Saar-Palatinate, while Bas-Rhin and Haut-Rhin became part of the Gau Baden . Similarly, the formerly independent state of Luxembourg

759-492: The country, briefly renamed " Ostmark " between 1938 and 1942, was sub-divided into seven Reichsgaue . These had boundaries broadly the same as the former Austrian Länder (states), with the Tyrol and Vorarlberg being merged as "Tyrol-Vorarlberg", Burgenland being divided between Styria and "Lower Danube" ( Niederdonau , the renamed Lower Austria ). Upper Austria was also renamed "Upper Danube" ( Oberdonau ), thus eliminating

792-667: The etymology of yeoman to young instead. In the Carolingian Empire , a Gau was a subdivision of the realm, further divided into Hundreds . The Frankish gowe thus appear to correspond roughly to the civitas in other barbarian kingdoms ( Visigoths , Burgundians , or the Italian Kingdom of the Lombards ). After the end of the Migration Period , the Hundred ( centena or hunaria , Old High German huntari ) had become

825-419: The first onset but not tolerant of exhausting labour, tolerant of hunger and cold, but not of heat or thirst. In chapter 7, Tacitus describes their government and leadership as somewhat merit-based and egalitarian, with leadership by example rather than authority, and punishments are carried out by the priests. He mentions (chapter 8) that the opinions of women are given respect. In chapter 11, Tacitus describes

858-454: The name of "Austria" ( Österreich in German) from the official map. A small number of boundary changes also took place, the most significant of which was the massive expansion of Vienna 's official territory, at the expense of "Lower Danube". Northern and eastern territory annexed from the dismembered Czechoslovakia were mainly organised as the Reichsgau of Sudetenland , with territory to

891-645: The name was only revived in 1471, inspired by the rediscovered text of Germania , to invoke the warlike qualities of the ancient Germans in a crusade against the Turks . Ever since its discovery, treatment of the text regarding the culture of the early Germanic peoples in ancient Germany remains strong, especially in German history, philology, and ethnology studies, and to a lesser degree in Scandinavian countries, as well. Beginning in 16th-century German humanism, German interest in Germanic antiquity remained acute throughout

924-757: The ninth. In the East, it was used by the anonymous author of the Frankish Table of Nations in the early sixth century and possibly by the Emperor Maurice in his Strategikon later that century. In the ninth century, the Frankish Table was incorporated into the Historia Brittonum , which ensured a wide diffusion to at least some of the Germania 's information. Guibert of Nogent , writing his autobiography around 1115, quotes Germania . Germania survives in

957-480: The period of Romanticism and nationalism . A scientific angle was introduced with the development of Germanic philology by Jacob Grimm . Because of its influence on the ideologies of Pan-Germanism and Nordicism , Jewish-Italian historian Arnaldo Momigliano in 1956 described Germania and the Iliad as "among the most dangerous books ever written". Christopher Krebs , a professor at Stanford University, claims in

990-638: The south annexed to the Reichsgaue of Lower and Upper Danube. Following the Axis invasion of Poland in 1939, territories of the Pomeranian and Poznań voivodeships as well as the western half of Łódź voivodeship were reannexed to Germany as the Reichsgaue of Danzig-Westpreussen (which also incorporated the former Free City of Danzig ) and Wartheland . Other parts of Nazi-occupied Poland were incorporated to pre-existing bordering gaus of East Prussia (as in

1023-430: The territory of a Graf ( count ) within the Holy Roman Empire . Such a count or Graf would originally have been an appointed governor , but the position generally became an hereditary vassal princedom, or fief in most of continental Europe. The term Gau was revived in German historical research in the 18th and 19th centuries, and was considered an ancient administration structure of Germanic peoples . It

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1056-560: Was adopted in the 1920s as the name given to the regional associations of the Nazi Party (NSDAP). Each Gau denoted an administrative region, created by a party statute dated 22 May 1926. Each Gau was headed by a Gauleiter . The original 33 Gaue were generally coterminous with the Reichstag election districts of the Weimar Republic , based on the constituent states ( Länder ) and

1089-684: Was annexed to Koblenz-Trier, and the Belgian territories of Eupen and Malmedy were incorporated into Cologne-Aachen. The medieval term Gau (sometimes Gäu ; gouw in Dutch ) has survived as (second, more generic) component of the names of certain regions – some named after a river – in Germany, Austria, Alsace , Switzerland , Belgium, South Tyrol , and the Netherlands . Notes Bibliography Germania (book) The Germania begins with

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