Translating Geographical Regions
In almost all cases, the English form of a German place name is to be used if one exists.
German: = English:
Westfalia = Westphalia
Hannover = Hanover
Braunschweig = Brunswick
Pommern = Pomerania
Lausitz = Lusatia (use English, but put German in brackets)
Liefland = eastern Baltic region
Kurland = Courland (eastern Baltic)
Esthland = Estonia
Rheinland = Rhineland
Niedersachsen = Lower Saxony
Sachsen-Gotha = Saxen-Gotha
Thuringen = Thuringia
Bayern = Bavaria
Franken = Franconia
Nuernberg = Nuremberg
Muenchen = Munich
Wuerttemberg = Wuerttemberg
Pfalz = Palatinate
Oesterreich = Austria
Steiermark = Styria
Kaernten = Carinthia
Tirol = Tyrol
Wien = Vienna
Schlesien = Silesia
Boehmen = Bohemia
Maehren = Moravia
Prag = Prague
Siebenbuergen = Transylvania (use both forms)
Note: for cities in the eastern Baltic, Posen, Pomerania, Silesia, Bohemia, Moravia, Hungary, Transylvania, and the Ukraine, the German form should be given with the Slavic name in brackets. Thus:
Lemberg (L'vov)
Klausenburg (Cluj)
etc.
For the following prominent cities, the German form may stand alone:
Koenigsberg
Danzig
Breslau
Liegnitz
Prague
In Alsace, the French forms should be used, thus: Strasbourg rather than Strassburg.
Political Geography of Germany
When discussing regions of Germany, it is always good to use the correct political description e.i. not just "Brunswick", but rather "the duchy of Brunswick". The following list is organized by political type.
duchies of Saxony:
Saxen-Weimar
Saxen-Gotha
Saxen-Jena
duchy of Silesia
duchies of Mecklenburg:
Mecklenburg-Schwerin
Mecklenburg-Guestrow
duchy of Westphalia
duchy of Berg
duchy of Wuerttemberg
duchy of Brunswick
duchy of Carinthia
duchy of Styria
grand duchy of Posen
archduchy of Austria
duchy of Sulzbach (later became Palatinate-Sulzbach)
duchy of Neuburg (later became Palatinate-Neuburg)
Note:
These terms apply to the pre-18th century. Carinthia and Styria became provinces of the Austrian Empire, while others became provinces of Prussia. Sulzbach and Neuburg formed the Upper-Palatinate, and, along with the Lower Palatinate (west of the Rhine), Franconia, Baden, and Wuerttemberg, were part of the Kindom of Bavaria and the Holy Roman Empire.
county of Oldenburg
county of East Friesland
county of Hohenlohe
county of Schwarzburg
county of Lippe
county of Tyrol
county of Mark (Dortmund)
principality of Anhalt (Merseburg, Halle, Harz Mountains)
duchy of Anhalt-Dessau
duchy of Anhalt-Bernburg
principality of Lauenburg
electorate of Brandenburg
electorate of Saxony (Leipzig, Dresden, Lusatia (Lausitz))
margravate of Moravia (later part of Bohemia and then the
the Austrian Empire)
margravate of Ansbach (in Bavaria)
kingdom of Bavaria
kingdom of Bohemia
Prussian Empire
Austrian Empire
bischopric of Fulda (Hessen)
bishopric of Passau (Bavaria)
bishopric of Muenster (Westphalia)
bishopric of Kammin (Pomerania)
archbishopric of Bremen
archbishopric of Salzburg (Austria)
archbishopric of Magdeburg (Anhalt)
Franconian cantons:
canton of Rhoen-Werra
canton of Altmuehl
canton of Ottenwald
canton of Baunach
Swiss cantons:
the original three, founded in 1291:
Schwyz
Unterwalden
Uri
others:
Luzern (Lucerne) (1332)
Zurich (1351)
Bern (1353)
Zug (1365)
Glarus (1388)
Thurgau
Graubunden
Tessin (Ticino)
(the rest are mainly French populated).
For more information see: The Times Concise Atlas of World History.
This page was last modified on 6 January 2011 at 15:28.
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