2000 years of German separation: From Augustus to Aldi – at some time and by someone, Germany was and is divided again and again.

German separation 1: From the 1st to the 5th century AD, the Limes separated the Roman provinces of Lower Germania, Upper Germania and Raetia in the south from free Germania in the north. In the south there were paved roads, villas with plumbing and underfloor heating, public baths, Roman law, security and order. The Monty Pythons summed it up beautifully in their classic “What Have the Romans Ever Done for Us?” (though not using Germania as an example). In the north there was freedom from Rome, or as some say, the “Ostblock” of antiquity. Or to put it another way: if it hadn’t been for Arminius, Berlin would be in Haltern today. Thinking outside the box.

German separation 2: The German Democratic Republic (GDR) existed from 1949 to 1990 and separated Germany into East and West. Roman lovers and fans of antiquity certainly existed in the Workers’ and Farmers’ State as well. The Alte Museum, for example, did not house a collection of antiquities, however; that was in the West (and some parts quite far in the East); the neoclassical edifice designed in the 19th century by architect Karl Friedrich Schinkel served as a museum for GDR contemporary art. In antiquity, however, free Germania was not entirely free of Romans, as the finds of the Battle of the Harzhorn and the Mühlhausen exhibition Rome’s Lost Province have shown.

German separation 3: In 1961, the supermarket company Aldi split its stores into Aldi Nord and Aldi Süd. The name of the shop stands for Albrecht-Discount. This reunification is still pending. And probably has no relevance at all to antiquity and the ancient Romans.

I have drawn the borders on the three maps by myself and tried to reproduce the border courses as correctly as possible and necessary.

I have updated the posting in August 2021. The photo of the post shows the reconstruction of a Limes watchtower and border line in the forest near Großerlach-Grab in the Rems-Murr district in Baden-Württemberg. In 2022 I translated the post and added some more photos of the Limes. Even more photos in 2023.

For those interested in the heritage of Rome, I would like to recommend my blog here, my Youtube channel and my Instagram account. And I am also on Twitter.