Who were Marianne and Germania? What was the importance of the way in which they were portrayed?

Solution:

Marianne and Germania were respective female allegories for the French and the German nation. They stood as personifications of ideals like 'liberty' and 'the republic'. The importance of the way in which they were portrayed lay in the fact that the public could identify with their symbolic meaning, and this would instil a sense of national unity in them.