The geographic term Western Germany (German: Westdeutschland) is used to describe a region in the west of Germany. The exact area defined by the term is not constant, but it usually includes, but does not have the borders of, North Rhine-Westphalia and Hesse. The Saarland and Rhineland-Palatinate are also sometimes included, but usually considered South-Western.
In contrast, from 1949 to 1990, when two German states existed, West Germany was used in English as a common informal name for the Federal Republic of Germany. The states in East Germany, properly called German Democratic Republic (GDR), acceded in 1990. The enlarged Federal Republic is simply called Germany again since.
Today, Western Germany is the Western part of Germany, and the term should not be identified with certain states. That said,
- Northrhine-Westphalia,
- Western Lower Saxony,
- Saar,
- Rhineland-Palatinate,
- Hesse and
- Baden-Wurttemberg are a major part of Western Germany. West of the Harz in Central Germany, or the line Hamburg-Munich, is the Western part, though again these distinctions can only be assigned very loosely, and never in a political sense.
Politically, Germans often still identify the term Westdeutschland with the Bonner Republik, the Cold War West Germany. Therefore, the English-language distinction between "West Germany" and "western Germany", is often not made in German. However, the latter can be specified as der Westen Deutschlands "the West of Germany".
Famous quotes containing the words western and/or germany:
“In everyone’s youthful dreams, philosophy is still vaguely but inseparably, and with singular truth, associated with the East, nor do after years discover its local habitation in the Western world. In comparison with the philosophers of the East, we may say that modern Europe has yet given birth to none.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“It took six weeks of debate in the Senate to get the Arms Embargo Law repealed—and we face other delays during the present session because most of the Members of the Congress are thinking in terms of next Autumn’s election. However, that is one of the prices that we who live in democracies have to pay. It is, however, worth paying, if all of us can avoid the type of government under which the unfortunate population of Germany and Russia must exist.”
—Franklin D. Roosevelt (1882–1945)