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:
“An accent mark, perhaps, instead of a whole western accent—a point of punctuation rather than a uniform twang. That is how it should be worn: as a quiet point of character reference, an apt phrase of sartorial allusion—macho, sotto voce.”
—Phil Patton (b. 1953)
“How does Nature deify us with a few and cheap elements! Give me health and a day, and I will make the pomp of emperors ridiculous. The dawn is my Assyria; the sun-set and moon-rise my Paphos, and unimaginable realms of faerie; broad noon shall be my England of the senses and the understanding; the night shall be my Germany of mystic philosophy and dreams.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)