Back in the Middle Ages, many Mahkents were Goth men; East Goths, even. Some of them had the misfortune of getting stuck in Poland after the other East Goths became extinct. But at least the better-hearted Vikings thought they were snake-like enough. One even got mistaken for Jormungand, once... Another got mistaken for Fenris... A lot of them would've made great black metal singers...or performers, rather...if only that music genre were ever bigger than Bach at the time.
Napoleon's armies butchered a lot of Mahkents during the many wars of the early 19th century... As Holy Roman Germans, most of them would've fought for the First and Second Coalitions (i.e. Napoleon's enemies) during the first and second wars. One Mahkent, even, was slaughtered in the royal chambers of the last Holy Roman Fuhrer...uh, Emperor. One would've thought that he thought he was that Fuhrer...uh, Emperor... At least that black wolf sporran sure looked good, hanging over his privates... It had a little lock on it, and everything... Most would hate to wonder where he kept the key...if that key wasn't fashioned from an old wolfsangel... As Prussians, a few of them would've fought for the First and Fourth Coalitions during the first and fourth wars...and hence, were slaughtered with the German words for "I hate Napoleon" on their lips. Some were Swedes and got slaughtered by France as members of the Third and Fourth Coalitions. Some were Austrian Catholics and got slaughtered by France as members of the Third and Fifth Coalitions. Some were Gottscheer, Tyrolean, and Black Brunswicker rebels and were slaughtered by France as allies of the Fifth Coalition.
Some Mahkents were Dutch-Norwegians or Rhine Confederation Germans, who got slaughtered in Russia, and later Leipzig, during the War of the Sixth Coalition. A lot of their buddies did the smart thing and defected to the Sixth Coalition in Leipzig both before and during the war's final battle...alas, the Mahkents didn't. Either way, those Mahkents stood beside Napoleon, for once, as he fell. Alas, Napoleon was a sight better than them; he was still alive by the time the battle ended...albeit in chains, and in a wagon bound for Elba.
Decades after Waterloo, some Mahkents sided with a bunch of nationalist rebels, as they attacked the German Confederation in a glorious attempt to unify Germany. A few Reiters did, too. They all died, and the rebellion ended shortly after that. Germany's time to rise, it seems, had not yet come...and wouldn't for another quarter-century.
During the time of the German Confederation, a Mahkent was elected to the Confederal Convention, the then-legislature of the virtually stateless Germany. That poor lawmaker later lost his job when the North German Confederation took over in the late 1860s. After that, that same Mahkent's son became MoF (minister of finance) for the new North German Confederation. By the end of the Franco-Prussian War, though, that career got destroyed when Germany was finally unified, and traded the last confederation for a federal monarchy. It was a Prussian noble who fired that last Mahkent.
Many more Mahkents were butchered on the Western Front during WWI. Some were German; others were Austro-Hungarian. Most of the Austro-Hungarian ones were noblemen and were murdered by their subjects long before the war ended. One of them was friends with a Kapelput (the Gotham scion of this family has since changed their name to Cobblepot) nobleman; he got killed by his subjects, too. On the Western Front, at least six of the German Mahkents got pancaked by British tanks. Sir Justin was driving one of them; one of Richard Swift's relatives was driving another; one of Jim Craddock's descendants was driving another. (The Craddock might or might not have been a thanagarian.)
A few Mahkents became officials of the Weimar Republic later on. Alas, once Adolf Hitler proved that his own Schwarz was bigger than Weimar's, despite being a dwarf in contrast to most of his race, it was only a matter of time before Weimar's Mahkents lost their jobs.
Almost six times as many Mahkents were slaughtered on the Eastern Front during WWII; smaller numbers were also slaughtered in North Africa and the Bulge. Many joined Shadowspire, and served under Baron Blitzkrieg. Such a Shadowspire agent, alas, later participated in the 20 July Plot; the Nazis later had his head for it...and then they stuck it in a freezer, once they learned its late owner was a cryo-metahuman. One of the Mahkents who was killed on the Eastern Front was killed by a Sokov; one of Red Lantern's ancestors. Mahkents in North Africa were killed by distant relatives of Jakeem Williams, Michael Holt, Jenn Pierce, Khalid Nassour, Al Rothstein, Cyrus Gold, Jake Jordan, Beth Chapel, Jill Carlyle, and a nameless thanagarian.
Throughout the Cold War, most of the Mahkents lived in East Germany. One became a spy and was later slaughtered in some Third World country by a First World rival. He, like Jordan, had cryo-powers. Alas, his rival, who was a Checkmate agent (a Black Knight, specifically), didn't learn of this until after he'd already killed him.