Apparently even Tacitus said it was a made up name. It seems like it might have originally applied to lands west of the Rhine, or some tribe living there in Roman times. So it might have applied to as much of modern Netherlands and Belgium as to modern Deutschland.
Don’t forget the ‘Heiliges Römisches Reich’ though - that always seemed a bit contrived.
Apparently even Tacitus said it was a made up name. It seems like it might have originally applied to lands west of the Rhine, or some tribe living there in Roman times. So it might have applied to as much of modern Netherlands and Belgium as to modern Deutschland.
Don’t forget the ‘Heiliges Römisches Reich’ though - that always seemed a bit contrived.