Olin Lathrop wrote:

> Gerhard Fiedler wrote:
>> Now something similar goes for most countries (like "Bundesrepublik
>> Deutschland"), but most other countries have a short form that is
>> unique to the country ("Deutschland") and doesn't use the name of a
>> whole continent that it shares with other countries.
> 
> So its a good thing that there was never another country with a name like,
> let's say, "Deutsche Demokratische Republik", that might have made the term
> "Deutschland" ambiguous.

I'm not sure why you say that there was never a country with the name
"Deutsche Demokratische Republik", because there actually was one. Somehow
you hit the nail on the head... At that time, during the existence of the
DDR, the term "Deutschland" (and Germany et al, and all derived words)
actually /was/ ambiguous. And almost everybody -- at least in the two
Deutschlands, but mostly in other places, too -- was aware of that. 

At that time, Germans were not from "Deutschland", they generally were from
West-Deutschland or BRD or from Ost-Deutschland or DDR, unless the context
made it clear which one was meant. 

Not that different from the use of "Amerika" today: the context is
important.

Gerhard

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