Until the Prussians created the German Empire, Berlin was a rather small and even sleepy city compared to Hamburg, Frankfort, Munich, Bremen or even Hanover. It seems to have only become the capital of a united German state solely due to it having been Prussia's capital. It has NOT had the timeless identification of being the city embodying its nation as London does for England, Paris re France or Rome re Italy,etc.. So would any of the German cities previously mentioned have made better alternative capitals to Germany or would Germany have simply remained a vague concept while the individual domains only had the language in common without the Prussian drive and pressing Berlin as the capital?