Otto von Bismarck: Did you mean...?

The Holy Roman Empire officially lasted from 962 to 1806. It was one of Europe’s largest medieval and early modern states, but its power base was unstable and continually shifting. The Holy Roman Empire was not a unitary state, but a confederation...

The corpse of Joachim von Ribbentrop (1893-1946) who was found guitly of war crimes and hanged 16 October 1946 after the Nuremberg Trials (1945-46).

A 1629 portrait of the mercenary General Albrecht von Wallenstein, leader of the Imperial forces during the Thirty Years' War. (Bayerische Staatsgemäldesammlungen, Munich)

An 1885 oil-on-carton portrait by Hermann von Kaulbach of the Austrian composer Anton Bruckner (1824-96). (Oberösterreichische Landesmuseen)

A colourised photograph of the German general Hans von Seeckt (1866-1936). Seeckt was head of the German Army through the 1920s.

A 1906 photograph of Alfred von Schlieffen (1833-1913). The field marshal developed the Schlieffen plan, Germany's plan of attack on France devised in 1905 for execution should war break out between the two states. The plan aimed to move...

A photograph of the German general Erich von Manstein (1887-1973), shown on the left, after the Siege of Sevastopol in 1941-2 during the Second World War (1939-45). The port in the Crimea was captured by Axis forces commanded by Manstein...

A 1938 photograph of Joachim von Ribbentrop (1893-1946), Nazi German foreign minister, who negotiated the Nazi-Soviet Pact of 1939. (German Federal Archives)

Modern statue of Katharina von Bora (Martin Luther's wife) on the compound of the Lutherhaus, Lutherstadt Wittenberg, Saxony-Anhalt, Germany.

Katharina von Bora (1499-1552), wife of Martin Luther, oil on panel painting by Lucas Cranach the Elder, 1526. Wartburg Stiftung, Eisenach.