Most powerful form of Germany?

[Lechasseur]

The German Empire was probably the 2nd or 3rd strongest country in the world, after the UK and maybe the US. It was clearly more powerful than France, and had just defeated them.

I would say the Germans were about equal with Britain by 1914. Their economy was larger, but Britain had a larger navy and overseas empire.

The German Empire had its biggest weakness in the field of diplomacy post Bismarck. And its diplomatic blunders is what destroyed them more than anything else, because it determined the nature of the war, the ability for the war to even start frankly. Germany let Russia settle into an alliance with France, scared Britain into mending fences and then getting into bed with the Russians, who were the enemy of their Pacific ally Japan and who they are nearly gone to war with several times over Central Asia and over navy altercations.

At the same time, there was a substantial German population in the US and the US had long had good relations going back to the Prussian days. And Britain had frequently allied with Prussia, and other German states against France.

We take for granted that US+Britain+France+Russia v. Germany because we had two world wars that played out that way. Which as an aside is why you get sensational conspiratorial videos about the British royals being "OMG GERMANS!!!". It seems outrageous to us since we associate Hitler with Germany and Germany with the enemy, but for hundreds of years, the Germans were Britain's natural allies.

Germany made a lot of mistakes to turn all these people into enemies. Some of them were blatantly a matter of choice, like with Russia.

Agreed

[Lechasseur]

And to answer the question, the German Empire of course