Before 1871, there was no Germany as we know it today but several German states such as Prussia, Bavaria and many smaller ones. Centuries back, the land which is now the Czech Republic was once part of the German Empire, then the Austro-Hungarian Empire. It is a long and complicated history. Bohemia was multilingual for centuries and most of them were German speakers such as our Berger and Reif ancestors. The next bigger group were Czechs in the 19th century.