Holy Roman Empire, the central European empire dissolved by French Emperor Napoleon I in 1806, that preceded the German Empire of 1871 German Empire (1848–49), a democratic, revolutionary and unified German state with its capital at Frankfurt German Reich, the unified state of Germany over the whole period from 1871 to 1945 German colonial empire, German colonial territories (1884–1918) Weimar Republic, (1918–1933) Nazi Germany, Germany between 1933 and 1945, under Führer Adolf Hitler The planned Greater Germanic Reich (Fourth Reich)