Grossdeutschland
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For information on the military unit see Grossdeutschland Division
Grossdeutschland (from the German Großdeutschland, literally Greater Germany) is a term that refers to the concept of one German nation-state.
German Unification
Grossdeutschland was a 19th century political idea postulating the (never realized) idea of a unified Germany, led by Habsburg Austria and with Vienna as its capital, as opposed to the Prussian-led alternative, known as Kleindeutschland (Small Germany). With the foundation of the German Empire in 1871, which did not include Austria, the Kleindeutschland solution was put into practice. One of the main obstacles to the "Grossdeutschland" option was the large Slavic component of the Austrian Empire (Poles, Czechs, Slovaks, Ukrainians, Slovenians, Croatians, and Serbs) that had no desire to be united with the German speaking lands. In particular, the Czechs of Bohemia-Moravia-Silesia had rejected the idea already in 1848.
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In a reference to the earlier concept of Grossdeutschland, after the Anschluss (annexation) of Austria to the Deutsches Reich (German Empire) in 1938, the state was informally renamed to Grossdeutsches Reich.