History of Germany

In January 1933, Adolf Hitler, leader of the Nazi Party, used the economic hardships of the Great Depression along with popular resentment over the terms imposed on Germany at the end of World War I to establish a totalitarian regime.

[63] The Merovingians placed the various regions of their Frankish Empire under the control of semi-autonomous dukes – either Franks or local rulers,[64] and followed imperial Roman strategic traditions of social and political integration of the newly conquered territories.

[69] The Catholic Franks, who by 750 controlled a vast territory in Gaul, north-western Germany, Swabia, Burgundy and western Switzerland, that included the alpine passes allied with the Curia in Rome against the Lombards, who posed a permanent threat to the Holy See.

During the reign of Conrad II's son, Henry III (1039 to 1056), the empire supported the Cluniac reforms of the Church, the Peace of God, prohibition of simony (the purchase of clerical offices), and required celibacy of priests.

[90] Beginning with an agreement of the cities of Lübeck and Hamburg, guilds cooperated in order to strengthen and combine their economic assets, like securing trading routes and tax privileges, to control prices and better protect and market their local commodities.

[109][110] The failure of negotiations between Emperor Louis IV and the papacy led to the 1338 Declaration at Rhense by six princes of the Imperial Estate to the effect that election by all or the majority of the electors automatically conferred the royal title and rule over the empire, without papal confirmation.

[119] Benedictine abbess Hildegard von Bingen wrote several influential theological, botanical, and medicinal texts, as well as letters, liturgical songs, poems, and arguably the oldest surviving morality play, Ordo Virtutum, while supervising brilliant miniature Illuminations.

[135] From 1438 the Habsburg dynasty, who had acquired control in the south-eastern empire over the Duchy of Austria, Bohemia and Hungary after the death of King Louis II in 1526, managed to permanently occupy the position of the Holy Roman Emperor until 1806 (with the exception of the years between 1742 and 1745).

Although perhaps not Luther's chief concern, he received popular support for his condemnation of the sale of indulgences and clerical offices, the pope's and higher clergy's abuse of power and his doubts of the very idea of the institution of the Church and the papacy.

The ideas of the reformation spread rapidly, as the new technology of the modern printing press ensured cheap mass copies and distribution of the theses and helped by the Emperor Charles V's wars with France and the Turks.

Although occasionally assisted by war-experienced noblemen like Götz von Berlichingen and Florian Geyer (in Franconia) and the theologian Thomas Müntzer (in Thuringia), the peasant forces lacked military structure, skill, logistics and equipment and as many as 100,000 insurgents were eventually defeated and massacred by the territorial princes.

After imperial triumph at the Battle of White Mountain and a short-lived peace, the war grew to become a political European conflict by the intervention of King Christian IV of Denmark from 1625 to 1630, Gustavus Adolphus of Sweden from 1630 to 1648 and France under Cardinal Richelieu from 1635 to 1648.

[219] After the last-minute relief of Vienna from a siege and the imminent seizure by a Turkish force in 1683, the combined troops of the Holy League, that had been founded the following year, embarked on the military containment of the Ottoman Empire and reconquered Hungary in 1687.

A number of legal reforms (e.g. the abolition of torture and the emancipation of the rural population and the Jews), the reorganization of the Prussian Academy of Sciences, the introduction of compulsory education for boys and girls and promotion of religious tolerance, among others, caused rapid social and economic development.

[232] Prussia underwent major social change between the mid-17th and mid-18th centuries as the nobility declined as the traditional aristocracy struggled to compete with the rising merchant class,[233] which developed into a new Bourgeoisie middle class,[234][235][236] while the emancipation of the serfs granted the rural peasantry land purchasing rights and freedom of movement,[237] and a series of agrarian reforms in northwestern Germany abolished feudal obligations and divided up feudal land, giving rise to wealthier peasants and paved the way for a more efficient rural economy.

France took control of the Rhineland, imposed French-style reforms, abolished feudalism, established constitutions, promoted freedom of religion, emancipated Jews, opened the bureaucracy to ordinary citizens of talent, and forced the nobility to share power with the rising middle class.

Domination by France during the French Revolution (1790s to 1815), however, produced important institutional reforms, that included the abolition of feudal restrictions on the sale of large landed estates, the reduction of the power of the guilds in the cities, and the introduction of a new, more efficient commercial law.

[263] The takeoff stage of economic development came with the railroad revolution in the 1840s, which opened up new markets for local products, created a pool of middle managers, increased the demand for engineers, architects and skilled machinists and stimulated investments in coal and iron.

In opera, a new Romantic atmosphere combining supernatural terror and melodramatic plot in a folkloric context was first successfully achieved by Carl Maria von Weber and perfected by Richard Wagner in his Ring Cycle.

But the 1848 revolution turned out to be unsuccessful: King Frederick William IV of Prussia refused the imperial crown, the Frankfurt parliament was dissolved, the ruling princes repressed the risings by military force, and the German Confederation was re-established by 1850.

In sharp contrast, Jonathan Steinberg decided he was basically a traditional Prussian whose highest priorities were to reinforce the monarchy, the Army, and the social and economic dominance of his own Junker class, thereby being responsible for a tragic history after his removal in 1890.

[298][299] Bismarck further won the support of both industry and skilled workers by his high tariff policies, which protected profits and wages from American competition, although they alienated the liberal intellectuals who wanted free trade.

"[371] The Weimar Constitution established a federal semi-presidential republic with a chancellor dependent on the confidence of the Reichstag (parliament), a strong president who had considerable powers to govern by decree,[372] and a substantial set of individual rights.

The tide began to turn in December 1941, when the invasion of the Soviet Union hit determined resistance in the Battle of Moscow and Hitler declared war on the United States in the wake of the Japanese Pearl Harbor attack.

[455] He was the first chancellor (top official) of the FRG and until his death was the founder and leader of the Christian Democratic Union (CDU), a coalition of conservatives, ordoliberals, and adherents of Protestant and Catholic social teaching that dominated West Germany politics for most of its history.

[457] Norbert Walter, a former chief economist at Deutsche Bank, argues that "Germany owes its rapid economic advance after World War II to the system of the Social Market Economy, established by Ludwig Erhard.

[469] Led by Finance Minister Otto Graf Lambsdorff the FDP adopted the market-oriented "Kiel Theses" in 1977; it rejected the Keynesian emphasis on consumer demand, and proposed to reduce social welfare spending, and try to introduce policies to stimulate production and facilitate jobs.

Otto von Habsburg's idea developed the greatest mass exodus since the construction of the Berlin Wall and it was shown that the USSR and the rulers of the Eastern European satellite states were not ready to keep the Iron Curtain effective.

[489] On 8 April 2022 just after the first two years of pandemic, Germany joined France, Italy, Netherlands, Belgium, Luxembourg, Austria, Switzerland, Greece, Turkey, and Cyprus were lifted all COVID-19 restrictions, measures, and state of emergencies up in the future.

[493] Following concerns from the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine, Germany announced a major shift in policy, pledging a €100 billion special fund for the Bundeswehr – to remedy years of underinvestment – along with raising the budget to above 2% GDP.

Expansion of early Germanic tribes into previously mostly Celtic Central Europe : [ 31 ]
Settlements before 750 BC
New settlements by 500 BC
New settlements by 250 BC
New settlements by AD 1
Some sources also give a date of 750 BC for the earliest expansion out of southern Scandinavia and northern Germany along the North Sea coast towards the mouth of the Rhine. [ 32 ]
The Porta Nigra in Trier , capital of the Roman province of Gallia Belgica , constructed in 170 AD
Depiction of the German stem duchies and principal states in East Francia and the early Holy Roman Empire
Expansion of the Frankish Empire :
Blue = realm of Pepin the Short in 758;
Orange = expansion under Charlemagne until 814;
Yellow = Marches and dependencies;
Red = Papal States .
Charlemagne surveying the works of the Palatine Chapel, Aachen , by Jean Fouquet , 1450s
Equestrian monument, probably Otto the Great, Magdeburg , around 1240
Speyer Cathedral , consecrated in 1061
Quedlinburg , a center of influence under the Ottonian dynasty in the 10th and 11th centuries [ 82 ]
Main trading routes of the Hanseatic League
Stages of the German eastern expansion , 700–1400
Detail of Albrecht Dürer 's Arch of Honour , 1515, printed 1517–1518 (The Metropolitan Museum of Art). The scene shows "a new coordinated professional military, which features large-scale infantry, complemented by traditional cavalry, but now supplemented with a newer military weapon resource, portable artillery". [ 126 ]
Georg Gossembrot , who by 1500 was Emperor Maximilian I's most important financier and also personal friend. Having become a target of envy, he died in 1502, likely poisoned. [ 128 ] [ 129 ]
Personification of the Reich as Germania , a figure reinvented by Maximilian and his humanists, [ 146 ] by Jörg Kölderer , 1512. The "German woman", wearing her hair loose and a crown, sitting on the Imperial throne, corresponds both to the self-image of Maximilian I as King of Germany and the formula Holy Roman Empire of the German Nation (omitting other nations). While usually depicted during the Middle Age as subordinate to both imperial power and Italia or Gallia, she now takes central stage in Maximilian's Triumphal Procession , being carried in front of Roma . [ 147 ] [ 148 ] [ 149 ]
The empire in 1512
Population decline in the empire as a consequence of the Thirty Years' War
Modern High German translation of the Christian Bible by the Protestant reformer Martin Luther (1534). [ 181 ] The widespread popularity of the Bible translated into High German by Luther helped establish modern Standard High German. [ 181 ]
The Northern Hemisphere of the Celestial Globe created by Albrecht Dürer
Prussia became a European great power after 1763 and Austria's greatest rival in Germany.
Prince Eugene of Savoy , Austrian commander during the Austro-Turkish wars
Frederick II, the Great, of Prussia reigned from 1740 to 1786.
Ludwigsburg Palace in Württemberg
Karl Friedrich ruled Baden from 1738 to 1811.
Painting of the Weimar courtyard of the muses , depicting an elite fellowship of nobles and commoners, courtiers, civil servants, writers, artists and scientists among Schiller , Wieland , Herder and Goethe – in Classical Weimar , by Theobald von Oer , 1860
The Confederation of the Rhine , a union of client states of the First French Empire (1806 to 1813)
The delegates of the Congress of Vienna
The German Confederation 1815–1866. Prussia (in blue) considerably expanded its territory.
Population of German territories 1800 – 2000
Many companies, such as steam-machine producer J. Kemna , modeled themselves on English industry.
Friedrich List 's concept for a German railway net from 1833
King Frederick William III ruled Prussia 1797 to 1840.
At the Hambach Festival at Hambach Castle in 1832, intellectuals with various political backgrounds were among the first to use the future Flag of Germany and called for a unified German nation .
Cheering the Revolutions of 1848 in Berlin , Berlin Palace in the background. Liberal and nationalist pressure led to the unsuccessful Revolution of 1848 in the German states .
Otto von Bismarck , Albrecht Graf von Roon and Helmut von Moltke , the senior political and military strategists of Prussia during the 1860s
Flag of the North German Confederation (1866–1871) and the German Empire (1871–1918)
Imperial Germany 1871–1918
On 18 January 1871, the German Empire was proclaimed in the Hall of Mirrors of the Palace of Versailles . Bismarck in the center in white.
The 91 m (299 ft) high Monument to the Battle of the Nations under construction, Leipzig , 1912
Berlin Palace , the main residence of the House of Hohenzollern
Between Berlin and Rome , Bismarck (left) confronts Pope Pius IX, 1875.
The Triple Alliance of Germany, Austria and Italy in 1913
" Dropping the Pilot " – British editorial cartoon depicting Bismarck's dismissal by Wilhelm II in 1890
The BASF chemical factories in Ludwigshafen , 1881
Berlin in 1912
A colonial lord in the German colony Togoland
Men waving from the door and window of a rail goods van
German soldiers on the way to the front in 1914. Awaiting a short war, a message on the car spells out "Trip to Paris".
Entrenched German troops fighting off a French attack
Painting depicting the Armistice with Germany in Compiègne, 11 November 1918
Germany 1920–1938
Flag of the Weimar Republic 1919–1933
Paul von Hindenburg , German president 1925–1934
European territory occupied by Nazi Germany and its allies at its greatest extent in 1942, Germany (Reich) is shown in the darkest blue.
National flag of Germany, 1935–1945
Key leaders of the Nazi regime (left to right): Adolf Hitler , Hermann Göring , Joseph Goebbels and Rudolf Hess
U.S. Senator Alben W. Barkley views the bodies of prisoners at a liberated Buchenwald concentration camp in April 1945.
The 1936 Summer Olympics in Berlin – a great propaganda success for the Nazi regime
Flags of Germany , Japan , and Italy draping the facade of the Embassy of Japan on the Tiergartenstraße in Berlin (September 1940)
German-occupied Europe , September 1943
US Air Force photographs of the destruction in central Berlin in July 1945
Territorial losses of modern Germany 1920–1945
Devastation in Berlin after the Second World War , 1945
Occupation zone borders, 1947. Berlin, although within the Soviet zone, was also divided among the four occupied powers. The areas in white to the east were transferred to Poland and the Soviet Union under the terms of the Potsdam Agreement .
Erich Honecker and guests of honor like Mikhail Gorbachev celebrate the 40th (and last) anniversary of the socialist regime of the German Democratic Republic on 7 October 1989.
Flag of West Germany and unified Germany, 1949 – present
The Volkswagen Beetle was an icon of West German reconstruction.
Berliners watching a transport bringing food and coal during the Berlin Blockade of 1948–1949
Adenauer in 1952; he forged close ties with France and the U.S. and opposed the Soviet Union and its satellite of East Germany.
Willy Brandt , German Chancellor and Nobel Peace Prize laureate of 1971
Brandt (left) and Willi Stoph in 1970, the first encounter of a Federal Chancellor with his East German counterpart
Helmut Schmidt , left, with French President Valéry Giscard d'Estaing (1977)
Helmut Kohl became first chancellor of a reunified Germany.
Otto von Habsburg , who played a leading role in opening the Iron Curtain
The fall of the Berlin Wall , November 1989
Germany in its modern borders
The Reichstag in Berlin – the seat of German parliament since 1999.
German chancellor Angela Merkel with José Barroso in 2007 promoting the Treaty of Lisbon to reform the EU