Branding Germany examines the origins of Germany's nationalism movement and how aspects of it re-emerged as nation branding for a new nation at the end of the 19th century. The Prussian ruling class crafted a variety of German brands: Germany as a land of primordial forests, a land of romantic poets and thinkers endowed with a unique understanding of the soul because of the German language, and a land of proud and fierce warriors as exemplified by resolute Prussian Kaisers. At their essence, these and other brands portrayed Germany as a land of purity, distinguishing it from the racial, linguistic, and cultural intermingling of France and England.

The book explores both how these brands were packaged and sold within Germany itself and abroad. The Prussian ruling class placed a special emphasis on branding in the United States, because they hoped to convince the large German-American diaspora to pledge fealty to their country of origin, and persuade the Protestant ruling class in America that it had a special cultural debt to Germany, as opposed to other European nations.

The idea of using modern nation branding concepts to cultivate a German-American alliance was sound, particularly as a wedge against Britain and France. But the German branding efforts ultimately failed. German-Americans did not want to be pure and austere Germans. They enjoyed their newfound freedoms and wealth, and they sought to assimilate. American elites were proud of America's rise to a world power, and resented Germany's attempts to cast the United States as a cultural backwater that owed Germany a cultural debt. Finally, as Germany increasingly flexed its military muscle, Americans began to regard Germany as a land of barbaric warriors, a brand that Germany itself had promulgated.