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This is a line I came across in someone's bio. Apparently the author is not a native speaker of English.

Since 2005 I have extended my research on education to the German society.

I am under the impression that an article should not be used when referring to a country's society collectively. Google search results show that most journalistic writings do not use the definite article before a nation's collective public, i.e. "German society", "Chinese society", "Japanese society". There are some search results on Google Books and Google Scholar that have the definite article before a nation's society, but I am not sure they have been authored by native speakers of English.

Should there be the definite article in this case?

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No

You would use The German Society only to refer to a specific organization (like a school's German language club that called itself this) or a specific period of German society ("The German society of the 1920s").

Otherwise, it would just be "German society."

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No Just as you might say

Since 2005 I have extended my research on education to include German society.

You do not need the definite article unless it is a specific portion

Since 2005 I have extended my research on education to include the German society of the 1940's.

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