Among the most interesting stamps that exist in our hobby are the stamps of the German States. What we call Germany today is a very recent political invention. The area of Germany was never part of the Roman Empire, and so the various Germanic tribes that occupied and conquered that area were never unified. As the Middle Ages progressed the area was unified under Charlemagne and then under the political hodge-podge that was the Holy Roman Empire. But by the early Nineteenth Century the political climate of Germany was very diffuse with many principalities calming jurisdiction over the area.
The early postage stamps of the German area reflect this. There were many different entities that had separate political power, and stamps were issued from at least ten separate countries. Two, Bavaria and Prussia, dominated the political landscape, but even so, in a short day.