German Empire

The German Empire is the name used in English to describe the first 47 years of the German Reich when it was a semi-constitutional monarchy: beginning with the unification of Germany and proclamation of Wilhelm I of Prussia as German Emperor (January 18, 1871), effectively ending with the proclamation of the German republic by Philipp Scheidemann (November 9, 1918) and formally ending with the abdication of Wilhelm II (November 28, 1918). The most important bordering states were the Russian Empire in the east, the French Third Republic in the west, and Austria-Hungary in the south.
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