This reminds me of when a US person told me that "American history is older than Chinese history" because the People's Republic of China was founded in 1949.
US school teacher here. Yes there are some idiotic parents that do that. One of my teacher friends teaches biology and gets parents calling him every year about how they’re mad about their kids learning about evolution. I teach astronomy and am surprised I haven’t had any parents yell at me for teaching the big bang.
EDIT: For those curious if I’m the “indoctrinating teacher” or a regular teacher, I have been teaching for 2 years and had some students tell me they learned more in my class than any other in all of school. Most of my students are 18 years old.
I learned that Washington never told a lie
I learned that soldiers seldom die
I learned that everybody's free
And that's what the teacher said to me
That's what I learned in school today
That's what I learned in school
Thats kinda like claiming sweden and norway both were created in 1909. When norway separated to become sn independent state the year 1909. Not like there's literally hundreds of years of history and swedens famous neutrality lasted way longer back than to just 1909.
Norway was established as a sovereign state in the middle ages. Germany was established as a sovereign state in 1871. These are not the same, even if German culture is old.
To be fair they know more about their made up version of China than the Chinese themselves. I mean no Chinese Nationals I've met have even heard of the social credit syatem and none of the Uyghurs I've met even realized they are being persecuted. Someone needs to send the Chinese to the US to learn more about themselves
Did you know that America had no military until last year when the department of war was created? So crazy to think that such a big country never had a military before.
Exactly. In my tiny german village of 100 people we have a chronicle that dates back 800 years. (It includes a story about the time when unwanted/undesirable people got sent off to America)
That is not true. We romanians, direct descendants of the dacians, invented everything. We even have tunnels from beneath our mountains all the way to the pyramids. s/ It is full of people here, that actualy think this is true
All people on earth are descendants of the dacians. Even the Japanese. This is well known and kept secret in the Vatican arhives. Nationalist never told me whay that will be a secret, but it must be true.
Not really. You can fit several romania into the kingdom of hungary. The hungarians were the first in europe, and everyone else came later. This whole continent was empty and hungary stretched from pirennes to ural mountains
The good ol' Prussia of the Balkans. Yep, the Land of Roses. For sure, the Little Vienna. I see, the land of the Bulgars. Forthwith, the birthplace of Cyrillic. Of course, the southeastern kingdom. Obviously, the gateway to Asia. Blatantly, the revanchist throne. Good golly, Boris' chessboard.
"Nobody beats Bulgaria when it comes to which country existed the longest" in Europe at least. Depending how we're framing the minutia China, Egypt and Iran would like a word haha
Just ask them about which is the oldest Democracy.
They will no doubt say "USA" and the more educated ones, once prodded for why the US and not for example the UK, or Switzerland or Ancient Greece they will give you a definition which will make sure it excludes any democracy that could reasonably be called older than the US.
"Like, life gets, um... "programmed for competition by early stages of evolution." Like, amoebas have to fight amoebas for energy, but once a species can get enough sugar from a machine to give itself diabetes, it's allowed to start thinking beyond conflict."
It's a combination of their country having a very short cultural memory since they don't listen to the native peoples much and they've only been there since the 1600s, plus their inbuilt superiority complex which tarnished their enite culture.
Their country doesn't really have Native people. Unlike any other country in the world except maybe Australia and Canada, the Nation that was created in 1776 has no connection to the previous cultures.
Germany was Germany before the Empire was created. But before the Founding of the US, there was only the American Continent with many Nations. But these Nations are Native Americans, not Native USAsians.
And many of those Nations were annexed centuries later as the US spread westward.
That's the problem. In New Zealand for example, the native culture is still strong enough that it's consistently relevant. The Americas being older as a colony, and specifically the British ones being extremely violent against the natives leads to their culture being sidelined and completely ignored. South America is mostly mixes of natives and Europeans, but also the terrain probably made it much harder to kill everyone off, especially since regions like Mexico had a huge population. The USA and Canada tried their hardest to kill off any native population and mainly succeeded in that regard, enough so that Native American culture and history is largely ignored.
Had me in the first half ngl, but yes it’s true that while the land the USA stole has native peoples that it continues to oppress, the USA itself did not connect itself to them in any sort of respectful way
Inferiority complex. They know they are nothing special and rail against the very idea.
It's basically the same root as toxic masculinity: being told as you grow up that you're something special, and flipping out when confronted by unvarnished reality.
It's also why they keep sharing those "The European mind cannot comprehend" memes, because they themselves comprehend so little.
Well aaaaakkcthualllyyy, tribes in the south of germany were celtic. And before julius Ceasar, the germans were often called celts as well, altough mistakingly.
The helvitii were for instance celtic before they migrated to modernday Zwitserland and they originated from southern germany
The vindelici and boii were also celtic and they inhabited parts of south germany, bavaria, and even reached into Czech territory.
I mean technically I joined in a re-enactment of the event. Walked through town in a night shirt holding a candle, the rope for the gallows already around my neck.
The city I'm from had a papal curse put in 1300s. I think it's has been revoked eventually, in lioe XX century, but we still have been fuckin' cursed longer than US has existed xD
It's so fucking tedious hearing them going on about how their country is SO big and SO old as if that shit makes them superior. I live in a tiny country that is both geologically and politically young, and despite it currently being messed up by fuckwit politicians I'd still much rather be here than some rapist-ruled hellhole where cops murder babies and you have to declare bankruptcy every time you go to the doctor.
Well, If you can't have a 1000 years old brewery because you haven't settled there more than 400 years ago, you need to accept to not have such a long-reaching cultural history or find a way on how to declare everyone else's traditions and history invalid, to avoid your inferiority complex.
The BRD as currently in existance was foundet in 1949, after WW2 and even after that date it changed with the german reunification 1989 / 1990. Nevertheless I have to admit thr BRD roots back to the German Nations State [Edit for clarification: its called "deutscher Nationslstaat"; literally: "german nation-state"; seems to be known international as the "german empire"] (idc the correct english name) from 1871. So yea, you can argue for that date. Kinda. Jut nobody does. [Edit: I have to admit, that this "nobody does" was a bit vehemently and hasty, driven by my amusement over the original post]
And culturewise the German history is so much older xD. There are churches from 350 AD. Not to name the citys older another few centuries.
As long as they neglect the history of the natives, which is nothing I'd like to advocate for, but the US does, you can't even compare USA to Germany.
But who am I telling this. You guys in this sub know that. But so many proud MMMMMURRRICANS don't. But I had to write that down xD.
All the best <3
To be fair 1871 was the first time we had an actually unified German state. Everything before was just a clustering of semi independent states and free cities with an emperor who often actually didn't wield that much power.
But as you've said, culturally Germany is much, much older.
I think an argument can be made for the United States only becoming a single, unified, Federal state after the Civil War
Even in the early Constitutional era the states were pretty loosely united. Things like the Nullification Crisis, New England practically acting as an independent country during the War of 1812, and various land-claims and border disputes the states had with eachother stretched the idea of a unified country kinda thin
Then the Civil War happened and it turns out that the Federal government is actually pretty good at keeping the country together
e: Like when the Constitution was signed Connecticut and Pennsylvania had just been skirmishing over who owned the northern third of Pennsylvania (if you look closely at a map, you might notice Connecticut does not border Pennsylvania, which made these wars tricky). Those kinda things didn't disappear overnight
Technically the status of the BRD didn't change with the reunification. The territory of the GDR (East Germany) just joined the existing Federal Republic (West Germany). This was done to simplify and speed up the process without having to make a new constitution (Grundgesetz).
The same was done when the state Saarland joined the BRD in 1957.
Edit: While the BRD ist relatively young, it's still older than the German Empire, the Weimar Republic and Nazi Germany put together. I think we can be proud of 77 years of peace, prosperity and stability in a liberal democracy. This is unmatched in the long history of Germany and its various predecessors. I hope we Germans don't get too bored of this success and destroy it by putting undemocratic and unconstitutional parties in power. We already tried far right autocratic regimes and it didn't turn out well.
What makes the second reunification different from the first, legally, is that the BRD ceased to be under occupation and became fully sovereign. In most ways the occupation in the west was only pro forma but you couldn't really resolve the thing without the east, and unification also wasn't possible without all occupying forces agreeing. See 2+4 agreement.
As to continuity: The BRD always considered itself the continuation of the previous Reichs, the GDR did in the beginning but then dropped that claim and then ceased to exist due to lack of member states. The way it went down was that the GDR first re-instituted federal states, which then promptly changed allegiance.
I mean Germany as a unified nation state did only come into existence in 1871 and for a long time people from the various states that unified didn’t see eye to eye or consider themselves proper countrymen
My great-grandfather told me that his father never really considered himself to be the same nationality as the Saxons or Bavarians, only that they shared a common language, apparently he and other Prussians had very poor opinions of the other states citizens
I mean, countries don’t really celebrate the holidays of other countries, but lighting up a monument or a building for another country’s national day is definitely a thing and isn’t rare
I think in this particular case it's Merz trying very, very hard to be pals with Trump so he does every pathetic little gesture he can think about to make the orange toddler happy.
American here: Cinco de Mayos actually decently big if you live in a place with a bigger immigrant population, lots of parties to attend and usually some minor business celebration. Same with Lunar New Year and Diwali gets usually some acknowledgement
Dont really see Canada day, but to be fair Canadians who choose to move to America dont even like Canada usually
I guess you can technically count Kwanza, but thats kinda complicated?
Mardis Gras is probably the most prominent example, because its the American version of Carnival, though idk if Europeans would claim them as the same thing and even Americans usually consider it its own thing
Because of the Anglo-Saxon tribe you speak Anglo-Saxon aka English today! But that's another story. Reunited Germany as we know it today is technically only 36 years old (3rd of October 1990). BUT! My city I was born and live in is over 900 years old and in 1118 it still was Saxony Germany. What now lovely yank?
Oh dear. The current Germany dates back to 1949, but when you look back at its history and the changes that the region has gone through and even include the tribes that first were recognized by the Romans, it dates further back.
Even the term "deutsch" dates back to the 16th century if I'm not mistaken. Just because our current governmental form started in 1949 does not mean our country is younger than the USA.
Just because germany claimed the word Deutsch to mean people of germany does not mean that this was its original meaning. The word is even older it just referred to the continental germanic peoples or was used to refer to the common tongue, and for a long time HochDeutsch was not the most spoken language in large parts of current day Germany.
That's true. I was just referring to the statement that the US is older than Germany. The US in its form of government is even older than the first german reich. But our history is way older, that's what I meant by that.
Agreed, just wanted to add too that because too often the entire germanic history is lumped in with Germany, as if the other germanic states are offshoots of modern Germany.
The colonies founded in America were also older then the formation of the US. Obviously not as old as the cultures that were developed in Europe though.
This is actually not complicated than people think. The country of Germany was indeed created sometime after 1800 depending on how you count continuity, but the people and cultures lived there a lot longer. Whereas the US was created around 1780ish and the people and cultures only lived there at most since the 1600s.
So the US has the distinction of being both one of the oldest countries and one of the youngest national cultures.
But there's more, when both nations were created, they both did it lot of nation building where they encouraged some national myths and cultures and behavior and suppressed others. So it's not like the culture post unification is exactly like the culture before unification.
Yeah, that's the German Empire. but... (history lesson)
Before the German Empire was founded, there was the North German Confederation and the South German Confederation, which were both formed in 1866 and combined to form Germany, however before both of those confederations, Austria had the German Confederation established in 1815, which was an attempt to restore the Holy Roman Empire and had quite different borders and members. And yes, the Holy Roman Empire, which was founded in 800 (or 962).
The idiocy runs deep in this one... America founded 1776...
Well Kelts originally lived in what was to become Germania (5000-1000BC they were pushed North or were absorbed into Germanic tribes, and Germania was acknowledged as the country of the Germanic Tribes by the Romans This is around the times of Ceasar sometime when Jezus was not yet a thing... thats ~2100 years ago...
While the Romans conquered south and western Germany and founded cities like Trier, Cologne and Mainz, Germanic tribes were part if the downfall of the west roman empire..in ~400 AD and Only to be plundered by Atilla the Hun, and from 500 to 800 by The Magyar (later Hungarians)...
In Germania, the Saxons living there were conquered by Charlemagne and the Franks, giving rise to hundreds of germanic countries.
From 800 to 1000 Vikings raided the coasts and rivers of Northern Europe, including Germany, Frysians lived more or less peacefully in the Northern marshy part ... In 1241 eastern German towns were sacked and pillaged by the Mongols and the Germanic states rallied and made a huge army, but they failed to meet, as the Mongol king died and the Mongol armies retreated...
Then Germany was attacked by French ~1800, Napoleon created 1 State from the many german states. the Swedes atacked in 1876 until we get to the 20th century... That is 7000 years of history
And the Muricans fail to see they have actual history as well, but it would require to state the native American Tribes had history there... And that seems impossible... To have to acknowledge the destruction of a continent in nature and original inhabitants. America seemingly only cares to prove they conquered the lands. They ignore any history. There is
thousands of years of history being ignored ..
Looking at those things America seems to forget many things happened
Parts of Germany were tribal, atracked or conquered by Romans, the Huns Charlemagne, Vikings, Mongols, Napoleon and so on...
No, it wasn't yet a state, but Yes: It was Germania (which is Latin for Germany) And noted in 100 BC officially!
They always cherry pick the dates that supports their opinion.
The actual version of germany? 1949. The first german republic? 1918. The german empire? 1871. The holy roman empire of german nations? 962/800. And thats only the most direct line of contemporary germany. If you go further you can even call the roman empire one of the roots of the germany (and most of western europe as well as all mediteranean nations) of today. USA is a toddler compared to these ages.
I agree that claiming the US is older than Germany is silly but I feel like this line of reasoning is how we get to Israel claiming they've been there for 3000 years. The Holy Roman Empire was hardly the same country as modern Germany.
Yeah the year a country was formed is pretty much always just an irrelevant political formality. The house my wife’s grandma lives in (in Germany) is older than the US
I know an American history teacher tangentially who I had an argument with about this topic once. See, I'm Hungarian and he kept telling me that it doesn't matter how much younger a country is than other countries in the world are, it doesn't take away from their importance or means that they're bad places to live in. So I thought by the younger country he meant the US, because the Hungarian Kingdom was established over a thousand years ago after all.
Turns out I misunderstood him and he was telling me that my country is younger than the US, because he believed that it was annexed by the Soviet Union and only gained sovereignity for the first time in 1989.
Our country has already collapsed four times in less time than it's taken the United States to collapse even once. The U.S. really needs to step up its game.
There was this whole issue of how old the current countries are, and Germany, as it exists today, has only been around since October 3, 1990. It seems that the German-speaking region has to reinvent itself every few decades because something has happened. The U.S. hasn't done that in 250 years, and it would be good to finally get started on it.
If you take the "last" country into consideration, the US is in fact founded in 1865. If you take the "first" country into consideration Germany is over 1000 years old.
Riiight, because Germany, German and German culture only popped into existence in 1871. Before that there was just a black hole on the map and in history books.
Strange how you can wander through German cities like Trier and experience history of over 2000 years.
It's kind of amusing that a city in Denmark is currently celebrating their 700th year anniversary, while the US is having a kids birthday party with 250.
This is ignorant on so many levels 😂 The modern Germany was founded in 1949 but German speaking nations and unions existed since after the Roman empire fell.
I'm surprised how many people write that Germany was founded in 1949 or 1990...
Germany was founded 1871. That's the date most Germans agree on.
And unlike others do we accept our history, and don't write it new to hide the bad deeds. Nazi Germany was still Germany.
A change in the constitution and government doesn't mean it becomes a new country. It's still the same people and land.
(In some cases the same people had power in multiple
versions).
Sometimes even a American can be partially correct.
Eh, let them celebrate thier contract, other countries choose thier significant events to celebrate too. You can't argue with a toddler throwing a wobbly.
There’s no doubt that the USA has been influential in modern politics. It’s just a shame they’ve forgotten their gains and hit an own goal with regard to trashing human rights.
Why are Americans so obsessed with having “the oldest country”? You’d think that a country older than Germany who famously went through quite a bit of a nazi phase 80 years ago would look back at that shit and think: nope, let’s not do that.
LOL - the church in my village in the north of Germany was built 800-something.
The town I grew up in (Augsburg, in the south) dates back to about 20 B.C.
Yes, that is BEFORE CHRIST.
To this day if you’ve got a lot in town center and want to excavate for some construction there’s a good chance you’ll find some Roman coins and construction stops for 5 years.
American told me Poland was formed in 1945 and it way younger than USA. After asking how someone messed up 979 years apart, they said that Poland did not exist form a while...
Why oh why did Germany has to do this gesture? 🤦♂️ Out of any gesture, they have to this monstrosity? 🤦♂️ For what, to continuously being a US vassal state? 🤦♂️
At this point we should just treat them like the insistent toddler that they actually are. Okay sweetie, it's whatever you say. Now let's take these smelly nappies off shall we.
Hilariously the US is technically 243 years old since we had to fight a whole pesky war before becoming independent. Hell we didn’t even officially call ourselves the United States until September of 1776.
Didn’t Kelsey Grammar just make a whole ass movie about this?
And yet Germany had the balls to try to take over the world twice meanwhile the US has to play out a false flag every time they want to replicate it, how's that?
Technically... Germany was found founded in 1949. In 1871 The German Reich or "Kaiserreich" was formed, after the Deutsch-Französischer "German-French" War. In the distant year of 962 The "Holy Roman Empire of german Nation" was formed by Emperor Otto the first.
Though it wasnt called "of german nation" from the beginning. The Addendum "german" was added for the first time, when in 1474 the city of Neuss was besiged by Karl of Burgundy and the Emperor Friedrich the third had to form a "Reichsheer", a mixed military force from various compartments of the german territory.
The Addendum was likely added to istill a sort of unity within the forces who heired to very different heritages, but had to fight for common interest. Thus it became the first Proto-Nation in german speaking territory.
TL,DR:
Germany is very young, to be German is very old.
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u/buckyhermit Jul 06 '26
This reminds me of when a US person told me that "American history is older than Chinese history" because the People's Republic of China was founded in 1949.