# "Reich"

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/reich/394227>\
**Category:** Cecil's Columns/Staff Reports\
**Created:** [March 1, 2007, 10:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/reich/394227 "2007-03-01T22:45:36Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 5\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![John\_W.Kennedy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_w.kennedy/32/1031_2.png) [@John\_W.Kennedy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_W.Kennedy)\
**Post date:** [March 1, 2007, 10:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/reich/394227/1 "2007-03-01T22:45:36Z")

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In [Hitler was building the Third Reich. What were Reichs One and Two?](http://www.straightdope.com/classics/a3_320.html), Cecil does not include the important fact that _Reich_ is a perfectly ordinary German word meaning “Empire”, “Kingdom”, “Nation”, _etc._. It is related to English _rich_ and (more distantly) Latin _rex_ (“king”) and Hindu _rajah_.

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**Author:** ![Northern\_Piper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/northern_piper/32/5304_2.png) [@Northern\_Piper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Northern_Piper)\
**Post date:** [March 2, 2007, 1:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/reich/394227/2 "2007-03-02T01:11:38Z")

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seen, for example, in the name of “Austria”, which is the Anglicized version of “Oesterreich” - the “Eastern Kingdom.”

Now known officially as the “Republik Oesterreich”, which translates to the contradictory phrase, the “Republic of the Eastern Kingdom.”

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**Author:** ![Polycarp](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/82dd89/32.png) [@Polycarp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Polycarp)\
**Post date:** [March 2, 2007, 1:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/reich/394227/3 "2007-03-02T01:43:15Z")

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To be more accurate, it translates a concept for which there is no single clear English word: the nation state conceived of as an authority over its people, both functionally and philosophically. Matthew’s “The Kingdom of Heaven is within you” is partially translated by “Das Reich von Himmel…” It’s not strictly “empire” or “kingdom” in any sense non-Biblical English normally uses the words, but that idea of a structured, properly-constituted authority, that “Reich” connotes. (Which is not to say I subscribe to that political philosophy – far from it – but to attempt to make its conceptualization a bit more accessible.)

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**Author:** ![John\_W.Kennedy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_w.kennedy/32/1031_2.png) [@John\_W.Kennedy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_W.Kennedy)\
**Post date:** [March 2, 2007, 2:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/reich/394227/4 "2007-03-02T02:54:05Z")

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_“Und spür’ ich nicht linde, sanft säuselnde Luft,  
und ist nicht mein Grab mir erhellet?  
Ich seh, wie ein Engel im rosigen Duft  
sich tröstend zur Seite mir stellet,  
ein Engel, Leonoren, der Gattin so gleich,  
der führt mich zur Freiheit ins himmlische Reich.”_  
– _Fidelio_

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**Author:** ![Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7cd45c/32.png) [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)\
**Post date:** [March 3, 2007, 5:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/reich/394227/5 "2007-03-03T05:07:37Z")

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Ooooo, I love it when you talk German to me.