History of Meck. and Germany is Confusing

mecklenburg-l
1

Larry,
All the German states were independent duchys or kingdom. They never could
agree on a common language. There was always high Dutch and low Dutch. It is
said, that even the famous Grimms brothers could not agree on one national
language.

Beyond that... various countries like Mecklenburg, Poland, and Russia offered
free land to anyone willing to clear it and farm it. Mecklenburgers realized
that they could not defend themselves from the invaders from the east and
formed an alliance with the Germans. As these people moved in they were
better equiped with metal farm tools and the land prospered from their crops.
Later on they were mistreated by the countries that invited them to live
there in the first place.

I wish I could remember where I read the details. But I understand even when
some of the Germans formed an alliance (Prussia) Mecklenburg did not join
them immediately. Usually alliances were formed for the purpose of
protection from invaders. Unlike the United States these alliances were not
always permanent. But think of it as the United States of Germany. German
speaking people who formed a common government with a ruler not elected
officials. Today the German states we call Germany are not all of the
original states. Everything East of the Oder River is now in Poland and
Austria which at one time was considered part of Germany is a separate
country.

The end result, they never could agree to disagree and remain united. Wars
and different rulers were the cause as well. I'm sure that the people living
in Mecklenburg today can tell you the exact time of their alliance but you
also need to ask what was the reason behind it all.

Best Wishes,
Dolly

2

Dolly
That is an over simplification of the state of Germany before unification.
Not only were there Duchies and Grand Duchies there were also Free Cities,
Bishoprics, Counties, Principalities and Kingdoms (did I miss any?). The
unification of Germany in 1871 did not get rid of all of the various
Duchies, etc. That didn't happen until the first world war. Until then, most
of the self governing states minted their own money. Furthermore, the
Germanic languages are all closely related. The sound shift from the south
to the north and from east to west was accompanied by different ways of
writing the same sound (Compare English apple and German Apfel).Thus a
German and a Dutchman can often understand each other even though the words
are written very differently. Also Old English and German were very similar
including the sentence structure. Local dialect in Germany are very much
more prominent than in English speaking countries.
Arnold V. Weirmeir arnoldvw@nexicom.net