Germania is an operatic dramma lirico consisting of a prologue, two acts, an intermezzo and an epilogue by Alberto Franchetti to an Italian libretto by Luigi Illica.

The plot of the libretto, which was written in grand opera style, was set during Napoleonic times and involves a love triangle among students who are working secretly underground for the liberation of a Germany then under occupation by France.

[1] Germania premiered under the baton of Arturo Toscanini and featured famed tenor Enrico Caruso, who sang the aria "Studenti udite" on his first recording, in the role of the student Federico.

[1] A group of students are hiding the bookseller and publisher Giovanni Filippo Palm, who is wanted by the police for disseminating the anonymous book 'Germania'.

Philosophers, poets and students appeal to the inhabitants of the German territories to rise up against their exploitation and to unite their divided country.

Their leader Carlo Worms, an idealist, invokes the words of the philosopher Johann Gottlieb Fichte and is in favour of demanding human rights and freedom of speech and thought in the spirit of Friedrich Schiller.

Loewe, Ricke, her sister Jane, their elderly mother and the student Crisogono, adjutant of Worms, have fled to the Black Forest.

Many League members call for his execution, but one of their most respected underground figures, Luigi Adolfo Guglielmo Lützow, takes Jebbel's side and enlists him for the impending battle against Napoleon's forces.