Explanation: Germany as a cohesive and united polity is a very recent phenomenon, only dating to the 19th century AD. The Romans during the Early Empire knew the Germanic tribes only as a disunited and disparate bunch who roughly shared a language and never got along with one another - even their greatest victory, Teutoburg, had its architect destroyed by Germanic infighting (Arminius, the commander of the ambush, was killed for trying to proclaim himself king over Germania). Even the Late Empire, which was overrun by Germanic tribes, still knew them only as politically fragmented, if more technologically advanced than they were before - the Empire fell to Germanic tribes, but not as one entity - as a dozen different warring kingdoms carving out Western Rome piece by piece until nothing was left.

One imagines they’d be surprised to see Germany as a united, powerful, and stable country exercising economic and diplomatic influence over all of Europe!