Why did the Germans codename their invasion of Russia “Operation Barbarossa”?
The odd thing about the Emperor Frederick I is that this German folk hero has become known (even to the Nazis) by his Italian nickname, “Red Beard.” Friedrich Waibhlinger of Hohenstaufen (1123-1190) elected in 1143 to the throne of the revived Western Roman Empire, which in 1183 he had renamed the Heiliges Roemische Reiche (Holy Rroman Empire), just after he had secured the canonisation of the empire’s (re)founder Charlemagne. Although France had broken away from the Empire soon after Charlemagne’s death, it still included the Low Countries, Germany, the Czech lands and Italy, and Friedrich faced the same problem as his predecessors and immediate successors, that of enforcing his authority on both sides of the Alps. He succeeded in this task in Germany, where he became a folk hero and its best remembered medieval ruler after Charlemagne himself, but eventually failed (after long years of fighting) in Italy where he became a sort of national villain. He ended his reign by going on a cru
