Reichs

Reichs is a German morpheme used primarily as a prefix in compound terms and, in some grammatical forms, as an inflected or possessive form related to Reich, the word for empire or realm. In modern usage, Reichs- appears in historical or administrative titles rather than as a stand-alone noun. Examples include Reichsbank (the imperial bank), Reichsführer (a title used in the Nazi era), and Reichsparteitag (the Party Rally). The base word Reich itself has a plural, Reiche, but Reichs- is generally encountered as a fixed prefix rather than a plural form.

Historically, Reich has designated major German political configurations. The Holy Roman Empire, known in German as das Heilige Römische Reich, spanned roughly from 962 to 1806 and is often described as a complex, multi-ethnic realm rather than a centralized nation-state. The term Reich was later applied to the German state established after unification under Prussia in 1871, referred to by the official name Deutsches Reich and commonly called the Second Reich. After World War I and the dissolution of monarchies, the Weimar Republic continued within the framework of Deutsches Reich until 1945. The Third Reich denotes the Nazi regime from 1933 to 1945. In historical scholarship, these terms are used to differentiate successive German empires or regimes that used Reich in their official or ideological nomenclature.

Since 1945 there has been no sovereign Reich. In contemporary German, Reichs- forms are largely confined to historical or institutional names or to discussions of the former states. The concept of a Fourth Reich appears in speculative or critical discourse but does not correspond to an actual government.