Linguistically, the difference between Vienna and Kiel, or between Freiburg and Königsberg, was so great in the Middle Ages that speech was not mutually intelligible and the residents of these regions communicated with other regions by means of Latin rather than contrasting regional forms of German.
Beyond linguistic variations, there were political variations: some regions were monarchies - kingdoms, duchies, principalities, etc. - while others were self-governing free imperial cities.
Likewise, religion varied from area to area: Lutheran, Roman Catholic, Calvinist ‘Reformed,’ and Prussian ‘Union.’ In addition to those variants, many areas tolerated multiple religious viewpoints in a side-by-side peaceful coexistence, and Jewish regions and neighborhoods dotted the map as well.
It would be a grave error to view, e.g., J.S. Bach and Wolfgang Mozart as sharing some category called ‘German composers.’ Their societies and cultures were quite different. Mozart was a Roman Catholic from Austria; Bach was a Lutheran from Saxony.
Although Mozart was born six years after Bach died, time was the smallest difference between them.
Likewise, it would be a mistake to look for some unifying substance between German philosophers. They vary from Leibniz to Marx, from Kant to Heidegger, Fichte to Wittgenstein, and from Frege to Husserl.
There is also no common essence among German psychologists or politicians. The only common factor, as historian Jan von Flocken notes, is that many of them were the opposite of each other:
Wenn überhaupt etwas sich wie ein roter Faden durch die antiken Überlieferungen zum Thema Germanen zieht, dann zahlreiche Berichte von der ständigen Zwietracht zwischen den einzelnen Stämmen sowie über ihre Unfähigkeit, sich dauerhaft miteinander zu liieren. Daraus ein Leitmotiv deutscher Geschichte zu konstruieren, wäre freilich genauso verfehlt, wie die Behauptung, zwischen Martin Luther und Adolf Hitler hätte eine geistige Kontinuität bestanden. Dass Letzteres von manchen Historikern versucht wurde, sagt nichts über den Wahrheitsgehalt dieser These aus.
The student should look, then, for the contrasts among the Germans. Bach’s music is the opposite of Richard Wagner’s. Eugen Richter’s political economics are the opposite of Marx’s.
So there is no unifying theme, but much rather a conflict of opposites, between, e.g., freedom-loving thought of Ludwig Erhard and the regulating interventionism of Jürgen Habermas. The contrast could not be greater between Hitler’s destructiveness and Martin Luther’s spiritual nurturing of the human spirit.
The earliest history of the ‘Germans’ has sometimes been misunderstood in way that makes it seem like they were a unified group. But it was not the ‘Germans,’ but rather the ‘Germanic tribes’ who defeated the Roman army at the Battle of Teutoberger Forest in the year 9 A.D.
It was a temporary coalition of very diverse tribes, working together under leadership of Hermann, known as Armenius. These same tribes, before and after this landmark event, were just as likely to fight against each other as to be allies.
