Was Hitler a Christian?

[abaris]

Yeah, the language is pretty much the same. I was referring more to the culture with that "vaguely" bit. The German Empire was a big place, and with big nations like that you tend to wind up with a bunch of little distinctive groups that usually still have things in common with the whole because of the influence of the ruling group.

The Gerrman empire only existed since 1871. For the longest time, since the middle ages, what's now called Germany, has been ruled by the fammily of Habsburg. Nominally, since their power always was limited and dependent on local nobility. That only changed after 1806, when the "Holy Roamn Empire" no longer existed and ultimately 1866, when Prussia under Bismarck moved to push out Habsburg from the German territories to create an own state. Which has been established in the wake of the Prussian French war of 1870/71. With more or less resistance being offered by the different German kings, dukes and counts ruling over the different territories. The Bavarian king has been virtually bought out by Bismarck, since Ludwig was broke and wanted to continue building his castles. But even after all of them agreed to form the German empire, it still stayed federal, with their local potentats untouched.