We have all heard of the Third Reich, but what of the Second and First Reich??

Question

We have all heard of Hitler and the 3rd Reich, but what is a Reich, or what does the word mean, and why was his the 3RD ONE?

Answer 1

For this, one must ask Cecil:

Dear Cecil:

Adolf Hitler spoke of the empire he was trying to build as the Third Reich. What were Reichs One and Two? --Wilberforce, Blue Mounds, Wisconsin

Cecil replies:

According to a fascinating tome called The Hitler Fact Book by Thomas Fuchs (like I say, I get the most amazing stuff in the mail), "the first Reich was the Holy Roman Empire of the Middle Ages; the second, the one established by Bismarck and ended by Germany's defeat in 1918." The term was a favorite of Hitler's propaganda minister, Joseph Goebbels. Hitler himself wasn't that crazy about it, Fuchs notes; he outlawed the term at the beginning of World War II and referred to his realm merely as the Reich.

Another Nazi term, "Thousand Year Reich," supposedly had its origin in a remark by Hitler following the purge of June 1934, when he had many of his onetime supporters murdered. Hitler said the victims had been plotting a revolt, and promised there would be no more such strife for a thousand years.
http://www.straightdope.com/classics/a3_320.html

Answer 2

The first Reich refers to the Founding of the idea of the Great German Empire, under the Holy Roman Emperor Otto the Great 912-973.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Otto_I%2C_Holy_Roman_Emperor

The second refers to that of Kasier Wilhelm I. 1871-1918. The refromation of the German Empire.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2nd_Reich

Germany had a long history of being sub divided into what are known today and the German states such as Bavaria, Prussia, Saxony, Hessen, etc. These states all had a King, some were independent some were subservent to the Kasier "Emperor". The first Reich refers to the alignment of the Germanic states under Otto the Great, basiclly that alignment would almost reflect that of the present day map of germany. The first Reich lasted until 1806.

In 1871 German Empire use reformed with the proclamation of the Prussian king Wilhelm I as German Emperor in the Hall of Mirrors at the Palace of Versailles.

The 3rd evryone knows about.

Answer 3

Reich is german word for Empire, Nazi Germany or the Third Reich- official call German Reich (Deutsches Reich) and later the Greater German Reich (Großdeutsches Reich)

First is Holy Roman Empire of the German Nation since 800 A.D. to 1809

Second is German Empire(Deutsches Reich) since 1871-1918.

Answer 4

a reich is an empire, or a dominion.

the first reich was the holy roman empire, which was essentially a german empire after the independence of the italian states, centered in Vienna.

the second reich was the german empire of the kaisers, which ended with the end of the first world war. it featured bismark as a leading statesman.

which lead to the 3rd reich

even now the german parliament is called the reichstag...

Answer 5

The terms 'First Reich', 'Second Reich' and 'Third Reich' were all introduced by 'Arthur Moeller van den Bruck', the German cultural historian.

The phrase 'First Reich' refers to the 'Holy Roman Empire Of The German Nation' which was found by 'Charlemagne'.

'Second Reich' means the 'German Empire' that was created due to the efforts of Bismarck and which lasted from 1871 to 1918(end of first world war).

The term 'Third Reich' was adopted by the Nazis to describe
Hitler's regime as a worthy successor of the preceding German powers.

Answer 6

"Reich" is the German word for "Empire".
It's usage here refers to the "Holy Roman Empire" which is how the Empire initiated by Charlemagne was called after he was anointed emperor by the pope on Christmas Day in 800 AD. He was positioned at being the political descendant of the Roman emperors, but with the difference of his and his empire being Christian hence "Holy".

At the time the empire covered what is now both France and Germany.
I. The First Empire began officially with Charlemagne's descendant Otto the Great in 912. It ended when the the last emperor abdicated at the insistence of Napoleon. Napoleon wanted to crown himself emperor and by the thousand year tradition, there could never be more than one emperor within Europe. The last emperor then became simply the ruler of Austria but with no longer any claims to the "Holy Roman Empire", freeing up Napoleon to crown himself "Emperor of France".

The Second Empire was much shorter lived, founded by the Prussian King Wilhelm in 1871 in the Hall of Mirrors of Versailles at the conclusion of the Franco-German war. It lasted through the end of WWI in 1918.

And the 3rd Empire as mentioned, although the Nazis loudly hoped it to be a 1000 year empire like the first, fortunately only existed for a fraction of the time of the First Empire, roughly only 1% of it's duration, for a mere 12 years, ending with the Nazis surrender at the conclusion of WWII.

Answer 7

First Reich was under the Charlemagne "Karl der Grosse" in 800AD.
Second Reich founded by WIlhelm I in 1870.

Answer 8

Reich was named for someone. There was actually a 4th Reich. Read more about this here http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wilhelm_Reich

Answer 9

This is what happens when one starts paying some attention to subjects at hand; questions arise. TJ said it all. I hardly
need say more except to suggest following deductions up with more hands-on research. Even the CIA could figure out correct answers to this question.

Answer 10

lol