Quote Originally Posted by jon1959 View Post
Such a shame that Feedback could not explain to The King's German Legion (fought for the British against Napoleonic France 1803-15) that they didn't exist. They were disbanded in 1816 - a year after the formation of the German Confederation of German speaking states and 3 years before Marx was born.

But of course Feedback is right - national identity can only be defined against membership of a sovereign state. Which will also come as a big disappointment to many citizens of western Britain who believe (falsely according to Feedback) that they are Welsh!
Why can't I explain the Kings German legion? Hardly surprising the king raised a legion considering he was elector of Hannover.

You seem to be of the opinion that because the English language uses the roman cognomen for an inhabitant of Germania, that the inhabitants referred to this themselves.

Prior to confederation and even unification, the patchwork of states were fiercely independent and referred to themselves as saxon, prussian, bavarian and so on. They most certainly did not refer to themselves as German.

Even today bavarians do not necessarily see themselves as german.