Talk:German Empire (1848–1849)

Nation-state, or just an attempt at one?
The first sentence of the lead says that it "was a short-lived nation state" that "existed" during a certain period. The German article, however, does not say that; rather, it says that it was an "attempt" (Versuch) to "establish" (bilden) such a state.

I don't want to get too deep into the niceties about international recognition and the long view of history about whether something intangible like a "state" existed or not. Maybe deep into the body of the article, such a topic could be entered into, with sources of course and opinions on both sides. However, as part of the WP:LEAD, and the very first sentence to boot, it should summarize the body of the article and reflect the consensus of well-sourced statements on the topic. Leading off like this with something that is debatable, is not the right way to go.

If there isn't a clear consensus by historians about this, the first sentence should either be recast or just hedge its bets based on the lack of agreement. Imho, if there wasn't recognition by at least some foreign states, then it wasn't a state, regardless of their wishes and the documents attempting to establish one.

Likewise, in the second sentence, you don't "create" a nation in a day. You can "declare" one, and then it's up to the march of events and history to see whether it becomes a nation, remains a footnote, or is forgotten entirely. For how this is handled in other contexts, see for example the Free Republic of Vercors or Dubrovnik Republic (1991). Mathglot (talk) 02:26, 18 April 2017 (UTC)


 * While the government in Frankfurt did have certain powers, it did not have control over the German states. The best category to put it under is a proto-state. Its status is much more similar to that of the Second Continental Congress of the United States and the Dubrovnik Republic (as mentioned before). It’s this basic situation: an assembly of representatives declaring and forming a state, with legitimacy and official recognition, but never got to execute the complete implementation of the declared sovereignty and lacked any real power. I am going to designate it as such. --AustinC2002 (talk) 21:13, 21 October 2020 (UTC)
 * Hello, I am fine with the category. In German it is "historical countries not universially recognized". Ziko (talk) 19:14, 7 January 2022 (UTC)

Answer to the state-attempt problem
I propose, since it existed for more than a year, that it was, in fact, a state. German Gamer  77  21:32, 11 December 2017 (UTC)