Did Britain really own part of Germany before Germany was a country?

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t_maia2000

Could you be talking about Helgoland? Britain gave up the islands to Germany in 1890 by virtue of the Heligoland-Zanzibar Treaty. This treaty is a fascinating piece of history IMO.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Helgoland

@Alwin E: Helgoland might be just a small island right now, but up to the late 1960's is was strategically important. There is a reason why the Brits shelled the island so heavily during WW II. Who ever controlled Helgoland controlled the North Sea. And without it being part of Germany the German share of the oil in the North Sea would be much smaller

dutchboy_80

Not that I know of. Britain owned parts of France and vice versa, throughout history. Maybe what you're asking has something to do with the Hanovers, a German royal family that reigned over Britain, and probably over the part of Germany they were originally from, so maybe Britain did own that part of Germany.

pinata

No, but the King of Hannover also was King of UK. Remember the Battenbergs are the dynasty in UK up to today! They changed their names for political reasons to Mountbatten, wich is a wordly translation of their name from German to English, during WWI.
Vice versa did Germany (the King of Hannover) own Great Britain? :-).
One of my anchestors should have come from Englang to the Kingdom of Hannover in 17XX. But that is a fairytale.
Greetings from Hamburg, Germany
Heinz

finestrat1

No. The house of Hannover was at the same time king of overseas and Hannover in personal union.
Besides, German was allways a country and a state, but with a different structure than England or France.

Alwin E

t_maia is right as to the Helgoland treaty: That's really a fascinating piece of history. But then again, Helgoland is just a small island (getting smaller every year through erosion), so the British would not have been very happy with it. (Neither are the Germans; some even say we should blow up that rock and sink it, but it's a tourist attraction, so we'll just leave it to nature.)

Besides of that, it depends of what time in history we're talking about. I know very little about ancient history, but as to my knowledge, the British Isles were colonized by immigrants from Central Europe (before the ocean levels rose and the British Channel came into existance), so strictly speaking, the Brits are Continental Europeans.

During the feudal times, there have been many ties between English and Scottish noble families and their German relatives and allies; it MAY be, therefore, that some prince "owned" a part of Germany for some time then. But if you look at a historical map from these times, I wouldn't say that you could call that agglomeration of little princedoms, duchies, and other kinds of principalities (there were several hundred of them) a country.

After that, I can't remember any time where Britain would have owned a part of Germany, until after WWII, where they practically "owned" parts of West Germany and a quarter of Berlin. But does an occupation force count as "ownership"? In the practical sense, may be, in the judicial sense, probably not. However, as after the war, Germany was not yet reconstituted as a country, one may rightfully say that Britain indeed "owned" part of Germany during these years.

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edit:
thanks again, t_maia, I didn't know that Helgoland was really so important for Germany's share of North Sea Oil. I really had thought we'd always had bought our Brent from Norway, but obviously, I was wrong.
That's cool about Yahoo!Answers: You even learn by answering a question! :o)

insert_ nickname_ here!

No, Britain has never owned part of Germany. England has owned up to half of France for a few centuries. Is that maybe it.
The 'Angles' (from which we get the name 'England') were a people that came from the German region and settled in England in the 5-6th centuary.

tacomadc

Britain is now ruled by Germans - the Royal Family!

curios

Nine You Britsh never own noting at all we will control the world ha ha ha

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