History of Germany





The history of Germany is, in places, extremely complicated and depends much
on how one defines "Germany".

As a nation state, Germany did not exist until 1871. Before, Germany can
only be looked at as a cultural region where many territories, with greatly
varying independence, each had their own historical events and it was not
entirely clear what area was part of Germany in the first place.

This article briefly outlines each period of German history only; details
are presented in separate articles.

Struggle against Rome

One of the most significant battles of the Roman period was the Battle of
the Teutoburg Forest 9 AD, in which Germanic tribes led by Arminius of the
Cherusci ambushed and wiped out three Roman Legions. After that the Romans
never again seriously tried to expand their empire east of the Rhine.

The Frankish realm

Following a century and a half of growing pressure on the Roman frontier,
the tribes (Vandals, Burgundians, Alans and Suevi) along the Rhine crossed
the river in 407, subsequently establishing various short-lived Germanic
kingdoms in parts of modern-day France and Spain.

The kingdom of the Franks however would endure, in varying shape and form,
over several centuries under the dynasties of the Merovingians and
Carolingians. Under Charlemagne, who subjugated Bavaria in 788 and Lower
Saxony in 804 and was crowned Emperor in 800, the kingdom would span over
most what is today France and Germany, forming the nucleus for both future countries.

Holy Roman Empire

After the death of Frankish king Louis the Pious, the Frankish lands were
divided in the Treaty of Verdun (843) into a western part, the basis of
later France, an eastern part, the future Holy Roman Empire, and a central
region (northern Italy, the Low Countries and Burgundy), which was to form
the focus of subsequent Franco-German rivalry.

With the death of the last eastern ruler of Charlemagne's line 911, kingship
passed first to Conrad of Franconia and then 919 to Henry the Fowler,
founder of the Saxon dynasty, whose son Otto I the Great reclaimed the title
of Emperor in 962. This strange empire, later called the "Holy Roman Empire
of the German Nation" (Heiliges Ršmisches Reich deutscher Nation), was to
survive under its Kaiser (emperor, the German form of "Caesar") until its
dissolution in 1806 after the 1789 French Revolution and the military
successes of Napoleon I of France.

Unification, the rise of Prussia, and the German Confederation (1806-1866)

After the collapse of the Empire in 1806 and Napoleon's final defeat at
Waterloo, the Congress of Vienna in 1815 redrew the map of Europe. A united
German state was not formed; instead, the sovereign German states only
formed a loose confederation, the German Confederation, which which the two
dominant players, Austria and Prussia, competed.

In the following decades, the monarchies in the various states focused on
holding back liberal powers at the fear of the French Revolution spilling
over to Germany. During that time, liberalism (that is, call for political
reform towards democracy) was closely tied with nationalism (the call for a
unified Germany). After a long struggle, in 1848, riots broke out in Berlin,
and King Frederick William IV of Prussia was forced to promise the
protesters a constitutional monarchy. A National Assembly was elected from
all German states, which convened in Frankfurt to conclude on a new
constitution. By the time this was done, however, the movement had swung
back, and King Frederick William refused to take the crown of such a new
state. The revolution had failed.

After this, Germany would only be united under the pressure of military
leadership through Prussia, in a comparably authoritarian state.

German Empire (1871-1918)

Prussia's military successes, especially in the Battle of Kšniggratz in 1866
against Austria and in the Franco-Prussian War (1870-1871), led to the
formation of Germany as a nation-state under its dominant lead, with Austria
left before the door.

Although, with the Reichstag, it had a parliament that was elected
nation-wide, this state was not a democracy since the Chancellor was
appointed by the emperor. Of these, the Empire saw three; Wilhelm I
(formerly king of Prussia and crowned emperor in Versailles in 1871),
Friedrich III (1888, the Year of Three Emperors), followed by Wilhelm II,
who resigned after the loss of World War I in 1918.

The time of the Empire is one of great economic growth through
industrialization, which was somewhat late in Germany, but also rising
nationalism and militarism, that is shown in the idea of Drang nach Osten.
The 1919 Treaty of Versailles that ended World War I held Germany
responsible for its outbreak, and transferred significant acreage of its
territory in the east and west to its neighbors. At this time, revolutionary
riots would prepare Germany for its first attempt to establish a democratic republic.

Weimar Republic (1919-1933)

The postwar Weimar Republic (1919-1933) was an attempt to establish a
peaceful, liberal democratic regime in Germany. However, government was
severely handicapped and eventually doomed by economic problems and the
inherent organizational weakness of the Weimar constitution.

In the early years, successive revolts from both left and right (1919-1923)
and hyperinflation in 1923 had to be defeated. Over the following years
conditions improved with the relaxation of reparation payments and improved
relations with Germany's former enemies. A succession of coalition
governments restored a substantial degree of order and prosperity until the
onset of the Great Depression in 1930.

The new economic decline combined with memories of the 1923 hyperinflation
and nationalist opposition stemming from the draconian conditions of the
Treaty of Versailles undermined the Weimar government from inside and out.
Adolf Hitler and his "National Socialist German Workers' Party" (NSDAP, or
Nazis) capitalized on this and on the growing unemployment. Stressing
nationalist and racial themes and promising to put the unemployed back to
work, the Nazis blamed many of Germany's ills on alleged Jewish
conspiracies, even claiming that the first World War was lost because of
treason from within (the so-called Dolchsto§legende).

Nazism's rise and defeat (1933-1945)

After the NSDAP had gained the relative majority of the popular vote in two
1932 general elections, Hitler was appointed Reichskanzler (Chancellor) by
President Paul von Hindenburg on January 30, 1933, with the help of
monarchists, industrial magnates and conservatives like the Nationalist
Party (DNVP). After Hindenburg's death (August 1934), Hitler combined the
presidency and chancellorship as FŸhrer (leader) of Nazi Germany. Once in
power, Hitler and his party first undermined then abolished democratic
institutions and opposition parties as they established their "Third Reich";
see Gleichschaltung for details.

In six years, the Nazi regime prepared the country for World War II and
enforced discriminatory laws against Jews and others of alleged non-German
origin. The Nazi leadership attempted to remove or subjugate the Jewish
population in Nazi Germany and later in the occupied countries through
forced deportation and, ultimately, genocide known as the Holocaust. A
similar policy applied to the Roma and Sinti.

After annexing first Austria (March 1938) and then the Sudeten border
country of Czechoslovakia (October 1938), and taking over the rest of the
Czech lands as a "Reich protectorate") (March 1939), Nazi Germany in
September 1939 invaded Poland, initiating World War II. The part of occupied
Poland were converted into lab of Nazi population policies called General Government.

By 1945, Nazi Germany and its Axis partners (Italy and Japan) were defeated
– chiefly by the united forces of USA, Britain and the Soviet Union.
Much of Europe lay in ruins, tens of millions of people had been killed,
most of them civilians, as the six million Jews killed in the Holocaust and
many millions of people in the conquered territories. World War II resulted
in the destruction of Germany's political and economic infrastructures, led
to its division, considerable loss of territory in the East and left a
humiliating legacy.

Germany since 1945

For details, see the main History of Germany since 1945 article.

Germans frequently refer to 1945 as the Stunde Null (zero hour) to describe
the near-total collapse of their country. At the Potsdam Conference, Germany
was divided into four military occupation zones by the Allies; the three
western zones would form the Federal Republic of Germany, while the Soviet
zone became the German Democratic Republic, both founded in 1949.

This separation lasted until the end of the Cold War, when in 1989 the
Berlin Wall fell and Germany was reunited on October 3, 1990.