Germany the state - indeed, but German as a culture/language/nationality(in the contemporary definition) was definitely there. Same with Italy, which wasn't a

Germany the state - indeed, but German as a culture/language/nationality(in the contemporary definition) was definitely there. Same with Italy, which wasn't a single state until the mid XIX century. Over to the east states lost independence and remained so for hundreds of years, only to re-emerge in the XX century. My point is that state as an entity doesn't fully define one's identity.