To the ancient historians, everything which lay north of the Alps qualified as Germania. The term appears every now and then through the centuries and describes the northern part of the Holy Roman Empire of the German Nation. From the time of the Middle Ages, countries were often depicted as people. However, Germania only gained her political significance at the beginning of the 19th century. The national movement used her as an abstract figure which replaced all the actual conquerors. As in France, where the Bourbon image of the conqueror was replaced by that of Marianne, the French nation, so the picture of Germania was to unite all the German princes under the generic term nation. She appeared, as did Victoria, immediately after the wars of liberation of 1813 and remained a national figure until the end of the Empire. She disappeared as a national symbol with breastplate and sword during the First World War. What remains is her adornment from before 1850: the black-red-gold flag.