@BillRM,
BillRM wrote:
What does the above have to do with whether Germany existed as a nation state under the common meaning of that term until very late in world history?
Now, you use a new term, namely "nation state".
Germany is no 'nation state' and has never been one.
But we are of German nationality and a German nation since at least 800.
In the European history and Europe besides Germany the classic non-national states are all the multi-ethnic countries(and in history especially: the Austrian Empire, the Kingdom of France, the Kingdom of Spain, the Kingdom of Hungary, the Russian Empire, the Ottoman Empire, the British Empire)