Reich (/ˈraɪk/;German: [ˈʁaɪç]) is a German word literally meaning "realm". The terms Kaiserreich (literally "realm of an emperor") and Königreich (literally "realm of a king") are used in German to refer to empires and kingdoms respectively.
As such, the term Deutsches Reich (often translated to "German Empire") continued to be used even after the collapse of the German Empire and abolition of the monarchy in 1918, without any imperial connotations.
The term derives from the Germanic word meaning "realm" in general, but is typically used in German to designate a kingdom or an empire, especially the Roman Empire. The terms Kaisertum (roughly "Emperordom") and Kaiserreich are used in German to more specifically define an empire ruled by an emperor.
Reich is comparable in meaning and development (as well as descending from the same Proto-Indo-European root) to the English word realm (via French reaume "kingdom" from Latin regalis "royal"). It is used for historical empires in general, such as the Roman Empire (Römisches Reich), Persian Empire (Perserreich), and both the Tsardom of Russia and the Russian Empire (Zarenreich, literally "Tsar realm").
Reich is an Ortsgemeinde – a municipality belonging to a Verbandsgemeinde, a kind of collective municipality – in the Rhein-Hunsrück-Kreis (district) in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany. It belongs to the Verbandsgemeinde of Simmern, whose seat is in the like-named town.
The municipality lies in the Hunsrück, in a hollow in the Biebertal (Bieberbach valley). The rural residential community lies roughly 6 km north-northeast of Kirchberg and 7 km west-northwest of Simmern.
In the mid 16th century, Reich had its first documentary mention in a Weistum from the Ravengiersburg Monastery (a Weistum – cognate with English wisdom – was a legal pronouncement issued by men learned in law in the Middle Ages and early modern times). With the monastery’s dissolution and the introduction of the Reformation, the village passed to the Duchy of Palatinate-Simmern, and then in 1673 to Electoral Palatinate. Beginning in 1794, Reich lay under French rule. In 1814 it was assigned to the Kingdom of Prussia at the Congress of Vienna. Since 1946, it has been part of the then newly founded state of Rhineland-Palatinate.
Reich is the German word for "realm" or "empire" and may refer to:
Reich is also a surname:
Pack up all those phantoms
Shoulder that invisible load
Keep on riding North and West
Haunting that wilderness road
Like a ghost rider
Carry all those phantoms
Through bitter wind and stormy skies
From the desert to the mountain
From the lowest low to the highest high
Like a ghost rider
Keep on riding North and West
Then circle South and East
Show me beauty but there is no peace
For the ghost rider
Shadows on the road behind
Shadows on the road ahead
Nothing can stop you now
There's a shadow on the road behind
There's a shadow on the road ahead
Nothing can stop you now
Sunrise in the mirror
Lightens that invisible load
Riding on a nameless quest
Haunting that wilderness road
Like a ghost rider
Just an escape artist
Racing against the night
A wandering hermit
Racing toward the light
From the white sands
To the canyon lands
To the redwood stands
To the barren lands
Sunrise on the road behind
Sunset on the road ahead
There's nothing to stop you now