A Brief History of Germany

Celts and obscure Germanic tribes were the first inhabitants of what is now known as Germany.

9: After years of skirmishing in 'Germania' between the Romans and local tribes, the Romans are defeated by Arminius (Hermann) and accept the rivers Rhine and Danube as the frontiers of their Empire. The Romans built a system of fortifications (The Limes) to secure their territory and frontier cities such as Cologne, Mainz, Trier and Augsburg grew up along with wine production on the Rhine and Moselle.

500-814: After the collapse of the western Roman Empire the powerful Frankish Reich with territories in Germany, France, the Low Countries and northern Italy becomes medieval Europe's most powerful 'state'. Charlemagne (ruled 768-814) rules as a Christian monarch (Kaiser) from his power base in Aachen.

962: The 'First Reich' or Holy Roman Empire under Otto I controls territories in present-day Germany, Switzerland, France, Austria, Poland, Hungary, Italy and the Low Countries.

1200-1500: The rise to power in central Europe of the House of Hapsburg begins with the reign of Rudolf (ruled 1273-91). Teutonic knights establish German territories to the east, stretching from the river Oder to Estonia and encompassing such towns as Königsberg (present day Kaliningrad). The Hanseatic League, a loose union of 'free cities' (including Riga, Danzig [now Gdansk], Hamburg, Bremen and Rostock formed in 1358, and became a major trading and economic power in northern Germany. Heidelberg University founded in 1386. The first printed Bible, in Latin, was produced in 1456 by Johannes Gutenberg.

1500s-1600s: Martin Luther's 'Protestant' Reformation begins in 1517 in the town of Wittenberg and casts Europe into decades of religious and political turmoil. The Thirty Years War, which dragged in both Sweden and France, reduces the power of the German Reich. The Reinheitsgebot, Germany's Beer Law was drawn up in 1516.

1600s-1800s: After the devastation of the Thirty Years War, the following period of 'Enlightenment' includes the work of Bach (1604-1673), H´ndel (1685-1759) and Beethoven (1770-1827) in music; Goethe (1749-1832), Schiller (1759-1805) and the Brothers Jacob (1785-1863) and Wilhelm (1786-1859) Grimm in literature; Immanuel Kant (1724-1804), Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel (1770-1831) and Arthur Schopenhauer (1788-1860) in philosophy. The state of Brandenburg-Prussia increases its power under Frederick the Great (ruled 1740-86) and again after the defeat of Napoleon in 1815. At the Congress of Vienna Germany is reconstituted into a confederation of 35 states with its Reichstag in Frankfurt.

1848-1900: Social unrest sweeps across Europe and much of Germany in 1848 as the growing number of industrial workers and the middle class agitate for social, political and economic change. The Communist Manifesto is first published by Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels. Otto von Bismarck (1815-98) as chancellor of Prussia leads Prussia into conflict with Denmark to annex Schleswig-Holstein in 1864 and fights wars with Austria in 1866 and France in 1870 leading to the incorporation of Hannover, Hesse-Kassel and Alsace and Lorraine into the 'Second Reich' of the Prussian state. By 1871 Berlin is the capital of the first truly unified German state. The Social Democratic Party (SDP) is founded in 1875. In 1876 the four-stroke internal combustion engine was invented by Nikolaus August Otto and in 1887 Karl Benz produces the first automobile. In 1886 Friedrich Nietzsche publishes Beyond Good & Evil. Germany begins a period of rapid industrialization and militarization and acquires overseas colonies in both Africa and Asia.

1900-1919: Europe is divided by the opposing alliances of Germany, Austria and Hungary on the one hand and France and Russia on the other. War in Europe seems inevitable fuelled by a growing arms race on the continent and the rush to grab colonies overseas. World War I (1914-18) is sparked by the assassination of the Austrian Archduke Franz Ferdinand in Sarajevo in 1914. Germany attacks the Franco-Russian alliance bringing Britain into the war when German forces enter Belgium - a British ally. Millions die in the horror of the trenches in France and Belgium before the war ends and the Treaty of Versailles in 1919 imposes harsh war reparations on Germany, the loss of some of its territory and the abdication of Kaiser. The Russian Revolution of 1917 inspires an unsuccessful socialist revolution in Germany in 1918, its leaders Karl Liebknecht and Rosa Luxemberg are killed.

1919-1933: The Weimar Republic (1919-33) - a coalition of left and center parties led by the SPD's Friedlich Ebert until 1925 and then by Field Marshal Paul von Hindenburg governs an increasingly polarized nation against the backdrop of economic hardship and hyperinflation. In 1923 Adolf Hitler (1889-1945) and his National Socialist German Workers' Party (NSDAP) attempt a a putsch in Munich to overthrow the republic. Hitler is imprisoned for two years and writes Mein Kampf while in jail. Upon his release Hitler runs against von Hindenburg in the 1932 presidential election gaining 37% of the popular vote.

1933-45: In 1933 Hitler is appointed chancellor and seizes power as Führer after the Reichstag in Berlin is burnt down in mysterious circumstances the same year. Hitler's National Socialists (Nazis) take control at local levels, outlawing trade unions and other political parties and set in motion the persecution of Jews, homosexuals and other 'non-Aryans'. Volkswagen cars go into production in 1938 as the German economy improves in the pre-war period of rearmament and central planning. Austria is occupied by German forces in the Anschlüss of 1938 followed by the annexation of Sudetenland (from Czechoslovkia) after British PM Neville Chamberlain signs the Munich Agreement supposedly guaranteeing "peace in our time" in 1938. In 1939 Hitler signed a non-aggression treaty with Stalin's Russia and in August that year German forces invade Poland dragging both Britain and France into World War II. The German army quickly occupy Holland, Belgium and France leaving only Britain and its colonies facing the Tripartite Axis of Germany, Italy and Japan. Hitler's decision to invade Russia in 1941 and the Japanese attack on the US at Pearl Harbor is the beginning of the end for Nazi aggression. From 1942 the Nazis embark on the 'Final Solution' - a systematic attempt to exterminate Europe's Jewish population in SS (Schutzstaffel)-run concentration camps. Defeats on the Russian Eastern Front, in North Africa, Italy and finally the Allied invasion of Normandy lead to the collapse of the 'Third Reich', Hitler's suicide in Berlin and the unconditional surrender of Germany to the Allies in 1945.

1945-48: Germany as a whole and the city of Berlin are divided into four zones of Allied occupation (US, Britain, France and Russia) and the leading Nazis, who survived the war, are put on trial at Nuremberg. However, political and ideological tensions between the western allies and the Soviets came to a head over the introduction of a new currency in the western zones and in retaliation Berlin was blockcaded by the Russians. The Berlin Air Lift keeps the western enclave supplied and eventually the blockade was abandoned.

1949: The de facto separation of the country is confirmed as the western zones become the German Federal Republic (West Germany) and the Soviet area of influence becomes the German Democratic Republic (East Germany).

1950-60s: Konrad Adenauer of the Christian Democrats became the first chancellor of the FRG (or BRD by its German initials) and the Allied reconstruction plan for Germany - the Marshall Plan - and the economic policies of Ludwig Erhard help to usher in a policy of rapid economic growth. Thousands of temporary foreign workers from mainly Turkey, Yugoslavia and Italy (Gastarbeiter) were invited to settle in West Germany to ease the labor shortage and Erhard's European Coal and Steel Community was to become the forerunner of the European Economic Community (now the EU).
In the GDR (or DDR by its German initials) the fledging state, without financial support from Moscow, got off to a bad start as thousands of its inhabitants looked to flee west and a workers' strike in 1953 was put down by Russian troops. The economy improved by the latter part of the 1950s but with skilled professionals still attempting to emigrate to the FRG, communist party secretary Walter Ulbricht ordered the construction of the Berlin Wall in August 1961 to seal off the main escape route to the West.

1970-80s: New chancellor Willy Brandt and his successor Helmut Schimdt's policy of Ostpolitik brought better relations between the two Germanys and both nations normalized relations with the signing of the Basic Treaty in 1972 and joined the UN in 1973. The period is also noted for the rise of the Green Party and a brief outbreak of anti-capitalist terrorism by the Red Army Faction in West Germany. In 1982, the SPD lost power to a right-of-center alliance lead by Helmut Kohl and the Christian Democratic Union (CDU). In the East, Walter Ulbricht was replaced by Erich Honecker, as the GDR became the most successful economy in the Soviet bloc. However Soviet President Gorbachev's policies of glasnost and perestroika were to undermine the very existence of the GDR. In May 1989 Hungary began to dismantle its fortified border with Austria and thousands of East German citizens began flocking to Hungary 'on holiday' and were eventually allowed to leave in September that year. Anti-government demonstrations in the GDR were suppressed by the police and in October Honecker was replaced by Egon Krenz. Over one million East Germans gathered in Berlin on November 4 in mass anti-communist demonstrations and by November 9 GDR citizens were given permission to leave the country. The Berlin Wall had been breached.

1990s: Elections were held in both East and West Germany won by the CDU. The new East German government began to dissolve itself and after talks between Chancellor Kohl and President Gorbachev Germany was officially reunited on October 3, 1990. However reunification brought with it the probems of economic decline and unemployment in the old East Germany and economic recession for the whole country beginning in 1992. The far right began to make gains again, especially in the old East Germany and there was an upsurge of racist violence against foreigners. In 1998 Helmut Kohl was defeated by an SDP/Green Party alliance lead by Gerhard Schröder, which brought an environmental party into power for the first time in history. Germany was part of the first wave of countries to adopt the euro in 2002. German's economic miracle of the 1960s, 70s and 80s is now very much over and the problems of high unemployment and a rapidly aging society have placed an impossible burden on the once-generous social security system.

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