When Charlemagne's empire was divided among his sons in 847, France and Germany were the western and eastern part, with a smaller, unstable strip in the middle keeping them apart. The ruler of Germany inherited the right to call himself emperor but as time proceeded, this became little more than a formal title, and Germany became a patchwork of local states with little actual political unity. The common German language remained a strong binding factor, especially when Martin Luther and his fellow religious reformers translated the Bible into German and insisted on the use of German in liturgy.

After 1700, Prussia became a dominant state within Germany, due largely to its strong military character; this process was rounded off in 1871 - after military victory over France - when the Prussian king became the new German emperor and Germany became a de facto political unity for the first time in history. Only a few scraps of German speaking lands remained outside the union (Austria, Switzerland).

The new German state was by far the most powerful in Europe and the Prussian military traditions did not disappear overnight; see World War I and World War II.