Talk:Weimar Republic

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Former good articleWeimar Republic was one of the good articles, but it has been removed from the list. There are suggestions below for improving the article to meet the good article criteria. Once these issues have been addressed, the article can be renominated. Editors may also seek a reassessment of the decision if they believe there was a mistake.
Article milestones
DateProcessResult
June 17, 2006Good article nomineeListed
September 9, 2007Good article reassessmentDelisted
On this day...Facts from this article were featured on Wikipedia's Main Page in the "On this day..." column on August 11, 2004, August 11, 2005, August 11, 2006, November 9, 2006, August 11, 2007, November 9, 2007, August 11, 2008, and November 9, 2008.
Current status: Delisted good article

Name[edit]

I think that from now on, the simple name of "Germany" or "German Reich" should be used when referring to the Weimar Republic, especially in infoboxes concerning treaties or battles or allegiance or government officials ect. I can see the case for using "Weimar Republic" in an instance where some guy served in the military of the empire, the republic and the nazi reich, and listing just "Germany" three times might be confusing to the average reader, but outside of that I think it should be avoided as much as possible.


My reasoning is that "Weimar Republic" is an informal historical term, no one then would have said something like "I live in the Weimar Republic" they would have just said Germany. I think this will improve articles and the average readers understanding of the name as otherwise they might get confused and think the countrys actual name was "The Weimar republic"∼∼∼∼ Friedbyrd (talk) 13:50, 14 April 2023 (UTC)[reply]

While I think that this is better, it's still not a correct translation of the official name as "Reich" translates into "Empire". The use of "Reich" is highly pop-culture oriented & there is historical baggage associated with it that introduces bias into the article. 2A02:1210:1CA7:D700:A446:CC61:D673:C97B (talk) 11:24, 5 June 2023 (UTC)[reply]
Reich very often does not translate as "empire". See the article on Reich. Also, note that Weimar's founders deliberately chose to keep the name Deutsches Reich knowing the connotations of the word and that Germany was no longer an empire. GHStPaulMN (talk) 13:41, 5 June 2023 (UTC)[reply]

German Republic/Reich[edit]

On note of not violating WP:3RR, I've opened a topic to discuss the official name of Germany from 1918-1933, on July 11th an annonymous user unilaterally changed the official name of the Weimar Republic to "German republic" [sic], later changed by a user to "German Republic". I then revert this change to correspond with the constitutional name used diplomatically for the years of this period of German history, this was later reverted back by Acroterion due to note-c, despite the fact that it explicitly says that Germany "unofficially proclaimed itself, as the German Republic". Regardless, "German Reich" apart from being the official name is the name that attracts consensus in the page as evidenced in the archived talks, where the discussions isn't even about using "Republic" but whether "Reich" should be translated or not (note that I am not here to challenge said consensus, only to upheld it). Kind regards, Shrek 5 the divorce (talk) 01:58, 12 July 2023 (UTC)[reply]

It looks like “Reich” is indeed the long-standing content. I defer to others on whether it’s the appropriate heading, or whether a translated heading is needed at all. It looks a bit redundant to me in the info box, but German translation nuance is outside my competence. I retain my long-standing concern about infoboxes in general, which sometimes pack too much nuance into a medium not well suited to nuance. I am satisfied that a return to a status quo ante would be in order. Acroterion (talk) 03:04, 12 July 2023 (UTC)[reply]
Isn’t Reich the German word empire Coldgeep9 (talk) 23:19, 12 January 2024 (UTC)[reply]
It also generally means 'realm' or 'state', e.g. Frankreich 'France', regardless of whether France is formally a kingdom, empire, or republic. Remsense 23:22, 12 January 2024 (UTC)[reply]
In the context of Germany, including the interwar period, the term "Reich" specifically refers to "Empire". At least in my opinion it should absolutely be translated as the use of the German term in Anglophone use is heavily POV and implies differences not covered by the term in its German use, pertaining to the implication of uniqueness of specifically Germany in particular. 2A02:1210:1C27:2900:D034:81E2:D86D:214 (talk) 00:57, 19 March 2024 (UTC)[reply]
What do you mean with "empire" in that context? It doesn't have an emperor not did it even have colonies to be considered a colonial empire, if anything the word "empire" is one that doesn't refer to the Weimar Republic. Moreover, the word "Reich" is absolutely one that is unique in the way that it doesn't translate fluently, "Reich" can mean "empire", but it can also mean "realm" like the user above mentioned, languages typically don't have vocabularies that can be compared in a table where every word has the one and only meaning, to call that POV is just not understanding how other languages interact. Besides, all of this is irrelevant when at the end of the day, "German Reich" was the accepted translation for the official name for Germany at the time as seen in the diplomacy during the Weimar Republic, the argument is not (or should not be) whether we like the term or not, is if it was contemporaneous to the period or not, inventing terms like "German Empire" for the Weimar Republic is pure WP:OR. Shrek 5 the divorce (talk) 01:06, 22 March 2024 (UTC)[reply]