Introduction to the History of Germany

The kingdom of Germany was formed when the Frankish empire of Charlemagne was divided among his grandsons in 843 A.D. The western portion, which became Germany, consisted of a group of tribal states over which the king had very limited power. In 911 the rulers of the various states assumed the privilege of electing their king. Although many of the elected monarchs were strong sovereigns who managed to hold the country in a state of unity, the independent-minded princes sought constantly to throw off all central authority.

From 962 until the mid-17th century the German monarch was also the Holy Roman emperor. By the time of the Thirty Years' War (1618-48), the title of emperor had become hereditary in the family of Hapsburg who ruled Austria, one of the larger German states. The emperor had lost all control over Germany outside his family's domain. By the Peace of Westphalia (1648) sovereignty was granted to the princes of about 300 German states, and the country became known as the Germanies. It remained part of the Holy Roman Empire in name only.

A movement toward unity in the 19th century brought Austria and Prussia, the largest states, into competition for leadership. Austria had extended its domain to include Hungary and other territory east of Germany proper, while Prussia had been strengthening its control over the smaller German states. By 1867 Prussia was the dominant German power. The Austrian empire was separated from the rest of the Germanies, which in 1871 were united under Prussia in the German Empire. From then until after World War II Germany was a single, unified nation.

Early History

The history of the German people can be traced to the time of the Roman Empire, when northern and western Europe was occupied by various Germanic tribes. Julius Caesar in his Gallic (French) campaigns (58-51 B.C.) pushed the boundaries of the Roman Empire east to the Rhine River. A number of cities such as Cologne, Mainz, Strasbourg, Regensburg, and Vienna grew up as Roman communities. The Romans, however, never subdued the region east of the Rhine and north of the Danube—the heart of what is now Germany.

The Frankish Kingdom

At the decline of the Roman Empire the Franks took a leading position among the German tribes. During the Merovingian dynasty, which started with Clovis (466?-511), the Frankish kingdom was expanded to include most of present-day France and the south western half of what is now Germany. Clovis became a Christian.

By the eighth century, Merovingian authority had faded and the kingdom split into a collection of armed factions competing for power. Charles Martel, a gifted military leader, conquered much of the Frankish kingdom. His son, Pepin the Short, deposed the last Merovingian king and started the Carolingian dynasty. Pepin was succeeded by his sons, Charlemagne and Carloman.

Charlemagne took over the entire kingdom after his brother's death in 771 and extended it to include much of western Europe. He protected the papal holdings against the Lombards, and in 800 was crowned emperor by Pope Leo III in Rome.

Charlemagne's empire survived through the lifetime of his son, and was then divided among his three grandsons by the Treaty of Verdun, 843. Charles the Bald received the west portion, which eventually became France. Louis the German took the east portion, which became Germany. A strip between the two larger areas was given to Lothair. Lotharingia (French: Lorraine) was later claimed by both France and Germany and became a source of lasting conflict.

The Era of Saxon Rule

The rulers of the new German kingdom could not control their country. The borders were harassed by Norsemen and Magyars (Hungarians). Tribal chieftains fought the invaders and acted as actual rulers of their feudal states. Germany came to consist of five tribal duchies—Franconia, Saxony, Lorraine, Swabia, and Bavaria.

When the German branch of Charlemagne's line died out in 911 the five dukes elected Conrad, duke of Franconia, as German king. At Conrad's death the crown in 919 went to Henry I, duke of Saxony, founder of the Saxon dynasty. Henry curbed the power of the feudal lords and added Bohemia to the kingdom.

Henry's son, Otto I (reigned 936-73), became known as Otto the Great. He put down uprisings inside the country, and in 955 defeated the Magyars, returning the East March (Austria) to Germany. He married the heiress of Lombardy. At Rome, where the nobles had assumed power, he restored papal authority and was crowned Roman emperor in 962. This was the beginning of the Holy Roman Empire. The German emperor was in theory ruler of northern Italy as well as of Germany. However, only the strongest monarchs could enforce their rule over the Lombards.

The Franconian Emperors

Saint Henry II (reigned 1002-24) was the last Saxon (or Ottonian) monarch. He was succeeded as king and emperor by Conrad II of Franconia, founder of the Franconian (or Salian, after the tribal name) line. Conrad strengthened the monarchy in Germany, and annexed the kingdom of Burgundy. In the reign of his son, Henry III (1039-56), papal power in Italy again became low. Henry established his authority over Rome and appointed a succession of German popes. With cooperation between emperor and pope, needed church reforms were made. The papacy gained such strength, in fact, that the next emperor, Henry IV (reigned 1056-1106), found himself in conflict with Pope Gregory VII over their spheres of authority.

The struggle between emperor and pope continued in the reign of Henry V. In 1122 an agreement, the Concordat of Worms, was reached between Henry and Pope Calixtus II. For a brief time the argument was settled. With the death of Henry V, the Franconian dynasty ended.

The House of Hohenstaufen

In 1125 the electors (the nobles who selected the rulers) chose Lothair, duke of Saxony, as the next monarch. Lothair's heir was his son-in-law, Henry Guelph (German: Welf), duke of Bavaria. After Lothair's death, however, the electors in 1138 chose Conrad III of the house of Hohenstaufen (also called Ghibelline after a family estate).

During Conrad's reign Henry Guelph's son, Henry the Lion, pushed German boundaries east along the Baltic seacoast with his conquest of Mecklenburg. The Saxon noble Albert the Bear Christianized the Wends. He inherited Brandenburg from the Wendish ruler and began colonizing it.

In 1152 Conrad was succeeded by his nephew Frederick I, called Barbarossa. Barbarossa was the outstanding Hohenstaufen ruler, although he failed in one of his lifetime objectives—to establish his authority over northern Italy. He ruled Germany with firmness and wisdom, encouraging learning, trade, the colonizing of eastern Germany, and the founding of towns. He made a duchy of Austria and added western Pomerania to his empire. When Henry the Lion failed to support him in his Italian wars, Barbarossa expelled the Guelphs from the duchies of Saxony and Bavaria.

Henry VI, Barbarossa's son, succeeded in 1190. His wife was heiress of Sicily. At Henry's death in 1197 his son was an infant and the throne was claimed by both Henry's brother Philip and Otto the son of Henry the Lion. Germany had civil war for almost 20 years. In 1212 Frederick II, son of Henry VI, became monarch. He ruled from Sicily and permitted the creation of numerous small principalities in Germany. Major commercial towns became free cities of the Hanseatic League. In the northeast the Teutonic Knights, a German religious order, began their conversion and conquest of the pagan Prussians.

Decline of Imperial Power

The death of Frederick's son Conrad IV (reigned 1250-54) ended Hohenstaufen rule and German efforts to govern Italy, and brought on a struggle for power among the nobles. The Great Interregnum, a period of chaos between reigns, lasted 19 years. In 1273 the electors finally chose Rudolph I of Hapsburg as king and emperor. Rudolph restored royal power in Germany, and made Austria a domain of the Hapsburg family.

After Rudolph's death in 1291 the electors chose as his successor a prince of another house. The next seven reigns marked a period of bitter rivalry and occasional civil war. During these disturbances the Swiss began to establish their independence from Germany.

In 1338 the pope was excluded from any voice in the selection of monarchs. Emperor Charles IV, the most capable German ruler of the period, was a member of the Luxemburg family that had established itself on the throne of Bohemia a generation before. Two of his sons became emperor. The younger, Sigismund (reigned 1411-37), permitted the execution of John Huss, the Bohemian religious reformer. Sigismund was succeeded by Albert II of Hapsburg, the first of a dynasty that held the title of emperor from then until the end of the Holy Roman Empire in 1806.

The Reformation In Germany

The Hapsburg domain grew in size and importance mainly by the process of marriage and inheritance. Albert's grandson, Maximilian I, reigned 1493-1519. He was married to the heiress of Burgundy and the Low Countries. Maximilian's grandson and heir, Charles V (1519-56), ruled a vast empire consisting of Spain, holdings in Italy, the Burgundian lands, and the Hapsburg Austrian possessions. The area was so immense that Charles gave Austria and the administration of Germany to his brother Ferdinand.

The growing independence of the German princes was rarely threatened by the Hapsburgs, who were busy fighting the French to the west and the Turks to the east. The Protestant Reformation in Germany, led by Martin Luther, benefited from their absence, and the revolt against the Roman Catholic Church spread quickly.

The Peasants' War (1524-26) was caused by feudal oppression and heavy taxation by state and church. Hailing Luther as their leader, the peasants took up arms against their lords. Luther, who had been supported by the nobility, condemned the uprising. The revolt was crushed with appalling brutality. More than 100,000 peasants were slain, and serfdom was legally established soon afterwards.

Lutheranism gained increasing strength with the nobility. Emperor Charles and Archduke Ferdinand turned their attention to it when they could, and various meetings, threats, and truces resulted. The Schmalkaldic League, composed of German Protestant states, was defeated by the Hapsburgs in 1547, but some armed resistance to imperial authority continued. In 1555 the Peace of Augsburg gave each prince the power to choose the religion for his domain.

The Roman Catholic Church, in the meantime, had undertaken the Counter Reformation. By 1600 most of southern Germany had been won back to Catholicism.

The Thirty Years' War

In 1618 Protestant nobles in Bohemia revolted against their Catholic Hapsburg ruler, Ferdinand (who became Holy Roman Emperor as Ferdinand II in 1619). The conflict spread throughout Germany and Europe. Fighting took place in many countries, but Germany was the major battleground. The Peace of Westphalia (1648) brought an end to the war and to the emperor's authority over Germany outside the Hapsburg domain. Germany was left in economic ruin, with the land devastated, commerce wrecked, and thousands of people slaughtered.

The Rise of Prussia

In 1415 a member of the Hohenzollern family had been given sovereignty over Brandenburg, of which Berlin was the capital. Prussia, a separate duchy in Poland, was in 1618 joined with Brandenburg by inheritance. At the Peace of Westphalia, Frederick William of Brandenburg called the Great Elector, acquired some of the area between Brandenburg and Prussia. He later gained Prussia's freedom from Poland and confirmed his title to two small states in western Germany. From this patchwork of possessions came the future Germany. The Great Elector left Brandenburg economically and militarily strong.

Meanwhile, in 1686, several German states joined the League of Augsburg, which later became the Grand Alliance. The Alliance opposed the expansionist policies of the French king, Louis XIV, and fought the War of the Grand Alliance (1689-97) to stop him. The war ended in a stalemate, but they did thwart Louis' expansion into Germany.

Frederick, the Great Elector's son, was an ambitious ruler. He assisted the Holy Roman Emperor in wars against France and the Turks. In return, the Hohenzollern domain was made the kingdom of Prussia by the Holy Roman Emperor in 1701. Frederick assumed the crown as Frederick I. His son Frederick William I (ruled 1713-40) defeated the Swedes in the Northern War (1700-20). As a result, Prussia gained more territory on the Baltic.

Frederick the Great

Frederick II succeeded his father, Frederick William I, in 1740. He wanted to make Prussia a major power. Taking advantage of the crisis created when Maria Theresa's succession to the Hapsburg throne was disputed, Frederick seized the Austrian province of Silesia. This action touched off the War of the Austrian Succession (1740-48). In the end, Frederick kept Silesia.

Recognizing Prussia as a dangerous rival, Austria formed an alliance with France, Russia, Sweden, and Saxony. Frederick signed a treaty with Great Britain and in 1756 invaded Saxony, launching the Seven Years' War (1756-63). Prussia was facing defeat when Russia suddenly pulled out of the war, allowing Frederick to negotiate a peace settlement in which he neither gained nor lost any territory. In 1772 he joined Russia and Austria in the first partition of Poland, gaining a strip of territory along the Baltic that geographically united the two parts of Prussia.

While Austria and Prussia had been increasing their dominions, western Germany had been splintering into ever smaller political units. By the late 1700's there were more than 300 states and almost 1,500 princely estates—a total of nearly 1,800 independent sovereign territories.

Napoleonic Era

The French Revolution (1789-99) alarmed Europe's monarchs, including Joseph II of Austria and Frederick William II of Prussia. In 1792, Prussia and Austria formally declared their intention to support the French monarchy. The French revolutionary government took the declaration as a threat, and war began the same year. Prussia made peace with France in 1795. Austria, badly defeated by Napoleon in Italy, signed a peace treaty in 1797. In the meantime, two further partitions of Poland had enlarged both Prussia and Austria.

War against Napoleon broke out in the Germanies three times in the next 10 years, and each time France was victorious. Napoleon reorganized the Germanies completely, consolidating them into about 30 sovereign states known as the Confederation of the Rhine. He abolished the Holy Roman Empire in 1806, and forced humiliating peace treaties on Prussia and Austria.

In 1813 Prussia allied with Russia, Britain, and Sweden to liberate Europe from French domination. Austria and other German states joined the alliance, and Napoleon was finally crushed at Waterloo. At the Congress of Vienna (1815) Prussia received territory in the Rhineland and part of Saxony. Austria gained Lombardy-Venetia and part of Poland.

Moves Toward German Unity

The Congress of Vienna created the German Confederation, consisting of 39 sovereign states. The Federal Diet of the Confederation met at Frankfurt under the permanent presidency of Austria, whose chancellor was Prince von Metternich. The Zollverein, a German customs union, was brought under Prussian control.

Among the German people the desire for national unity and constitutional government was strong. When the Revolution of 1848 broke out in France, it swept rapidly into the Germanies. German princes were forced to grant their subjects political freedom. A parliament was called at Frankfurt to prepare a constitution for the new German nation. The king of Prussia was offered the German crown, which he rejected as an offer “from the gutter.” The revolution collapsed, and the German princes reestablished their sovereignty. Many liberals were driven from the country. The German Confederation was revived.

The German Empire

Prussia had been granted a constitution in 1850, and in 1861 William I took the throne as a constitutional monarch. Meanwhile the army was being modernized. The Prussian Diet, however, interfered with the king's program. William appointed Otto von Bismarck minister president and foreign minister in 1862. Bismarck dissolved the Diet, built up the army, and mapped his plans for unifying Germany under Prussian rule.

The first test for the remodeled Prussian army came in 1864 with the war over Schleswig and Holstein, duchies which had been held by Denmark for centuries. Prussia and Austria seized the duchies as a joint venture. In 1866 Bismarck provoked the Seven Weeks' War with Austria. Victorious Prussia annexed Schleswig-Holstein, and in 1867 formed the North German Confederation, excluding Austria.

Four years later Bismarck brought on the Franco-Prussian War (1870-71), which unified the Germans in a common cause. The German armies won a quick victory over France. On the tide of national pride, the German Empire, consisting of Prussia and the North and South German states, was proclaimed and William was crowned kaiser (emperor). Bismarck, now chancellor of all Germany, guided the new empire into the Triple Alliance with Austria-Hungary and Italy in 1882. Germany launched a colonial program, acquiring much territory in Africa. At home the nation surged into an era of industrial development.

William I died in 1888 and was succeeded by his son Frederick III. Upon Frederick's death three months later, his son William II came to the throne. Conflict between Bismarck and the new kaiser led to the chancellor's resignation two years later. Germany continued its colonial expansion, in Africa and the Southwest Pacific. By 1900 it rivaled Great Britain and the United States in industrial capacity. Kaiser William created a powerful German navy. In 1907 Great Britain joined France and Russia in the Triple Entente to counter the Triple Alliance.

World War I and the Weimar Republic

With the start of World War I in 1914, Italy withdrew from the Triple Alliance. Germany and Austria-Hungary, joined by Turkey and Bulgaria, formed the Central Powers, opposed eventually by 24 Allied Powers. The Allies gained victory in 1918 and the Treaty of Versailles stripped Germany of its colonies, its military might, and much of its industrial power. It lost Alsace-Lorraine, the Polish Corridor, and some border areas, including the Saar Basin. Germany agreed to pay war reparations.

With military defeat the monarchy collapsed, and a German Republic was proclaimed. A new constitution was prepared at Weimar and went into effect in August, 1919. Friedrich Ebert was elected President. After his death in 1925 he was succeeded by Field Marshal Paul von Hindenburg.The German people were bitterly resentful of the Versailles peace terms. Former military officers supported Adolf Hitler in his unsuccessful Munich revolt in 1923, which followed French occupation of the Ruhr.

Nazism and World War II

Adolf Hitler was the head of the Nazi party (National Socialist German Workers' party). He built his following by promising the Germans a return to past glory, and by blaming Germany's troubles on the Jews. In 1933 President von Hindenburg made him chancellor. When Hindenburg died in 1934, Hitler declared himself Führer (leader).

Hitler proclaimed that his regime was the successor to the Holy Roman Empire and the German Empire, and thus called it the Third Reich (empire). He built a one-party state. Many opponents of his regime were imprisoned in concentration camps and laws were passed limiting the rights of Jews and other minorities.

In March, 1935, Hitler denounced the Treaty of Versailles. He ordered compulsory military training and began to expand Germany's military forces. In October, 1936, he formed an alliance with Italy—the Rome-Berlin Axis—later joined by Japan. Meanwhile, the persecution of minority groups had been stepped up, and many Jews, Gypsies, and Jehovah's Witnesses were being sent to concentration camps.

Hitler achieved an Anschluss (union) of Germany and Austria in 1938, making Austria an integral part of Germany. Later that year, British and French leaders attempted to appease Hitler by permitting Germany to annex part of Czechoslovakia.

World War II started in 1939 when German forces invaded Poland. By mid-1942, Germany, at the height of its power, had conquered much of Europe and parts of Africa. However, Allied forces liberated the conquered lands and invaded Germany, which surrendered unconditionally in 1945.

In the final months of the war, Allied armies discovered hundreds of concentration camps established by the Nazis throughout Europe. In the camps Jews, Slavs, and others deemed undesirable by the Nazis had been used as slave labor or murdered. The Allies also uncovered evidence of mass executions elsewhere. Altogether about six million Jews and millions of other people were put to death at the hands of the Nazis.

As a result of the war, Germany was stripped of its conquests and was partitioned into four zones. The eastern zone was occupied by the Soviet Union and the three western zones by the United States, Great Britain, and France. Berlin, surrounded by the Soviet zone, was similarly divided. Thousands of Nazis were tried and sentenced in trials after the war for war crimes and for crimes against humanity.

The Cold War

As postwar tensions between the Soviet Union and the Western powers grew into the cold war, Germany became a focal point of conflict. In 1949 the Soviet zone, called East Germany, became the German Democratic Republic, with Berlin as its capital. Western Germany became the Federal Republic of Germany, with Bonn as its capital. With an area of 96,029 square miles (248,714 km 2 ), West Germany was more than twice the size of East Germany (41,828 square miles [108,334 km 2 ]).

West Germany, assisted by the Western Allies, accomplished rapid economic recovery under Konrad Adenauer, its first chancellor. It became a member of the Western European Union, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, and what is now the European Union. East Germany did not recover as quickly. West Berlin reflected West German prosperity, and became a source of irritation to the Communists. In 1948 the Soviets attempted to force the Western powers out of Berlin by closing the land approaches to the city. However, the Western nations supplied the city by airlift. In 1953 strikes and riots in East Germany were harshly put down by Soviet troops. Thousands of East Germans used Berlin as an escape route to the West.

East Germany became a sovereign republic in 1954, but Soviet troops remained. In 1955 West Germany was granted sovereignty. Also that year residents of the Saar voted in a plebiscite to join West Germany; the union became official in 1957.

Chancellor Adenauer died in 1963. His party, the Christian Democratic Union, remained in power, first under Ludwig Erhard (1963-66) and then under Kurt Kiesinger (1966-69). Erhard and Kiesinger continued Adenauer's policy of nonrecognition of East Germany. Economic prosperity continued, creating an overabundance of jobs. West Germany was forced to augment its own work force with millions of temporary foreign workers.

The East German economy had been stagnant throughout the 1950's, but in the early 1960's there was tremendous economic growth, and the country developed the highest standard of living in the Soviet bloc. It continued to lag behind the West, however.

In 1961 the East German regime built a wall between East Berlin and West Berlin, halting the flow of refugees to West Germany. In 1968 East Germany adopted a new constitution, formally recognizing Germany's division into two separate nations.

Improving Relations

West Germany's Willy Brandt, head of the Social Democratic party and chancellor from 1969 to 1974, initiated a policy of normalizing relations with eastern (Communist) Europe. This policy was known as Ostpolitik. In 1970 West Germany made treaties with Poland and the Soviet Union in which West Germany gave up its claim to former German lands east of the Oder River. Great progress was made in relations between East and West Germany. In 1970, for the first time, leaders from both countries met for formal discussions concerning relations. A treaty between East and West Germany was ratified in 1973, recognizing each as a sovereign state. It made possible the entrance of both nations into the United Nations later that year.

Also during the decade, East Germany achieved international acceptance as nations throughout the world, including the United States, recognized its government and established diplomatic relations with it. Domestically, a new nationalization program virtually ended private enterprise in East Germany.

In 1974 Willy Brandt resigned as chancellor of West Germany over a scandal involving the arrest of his personal aide as a spy for East Germany.

Helmut Schmidt, leader of the Social Democratic party, succeeded Brandt as chancellor. Schmidt's coalition collapsed in 1982 after a dispute about how to deal with inflation and high unemployment. He was replaced by Helmut Kohl, leader of the Christian Democratic Union. During this time, East Germany's relations with the West continued to improve. In 1987 Erich Honecker became the first East German leader to visit West Germany.

Meanwhile, East Germany's economy had become stagnant. A declining standard of living contributed to widespread unrest. Many East Germans began fleeing to Western Europe through Hungary, which had eased its travel restrictions. Mass demonstrations occurred throughout East Germany calling for political and economic reform. Honecker resigned in late 1989, and, shortly after, a non-Communist government came into power. Following Honecker's resignation, East Germany opened the borders around West Berlin and dismantled the Berlin Wall. Honecker and several of his associates were arrested after it was revealed that his regime had embezzled state funds.

Parliamentary elections were held in March, 1990, the first multiparty elections in nearly 60 years. After the election, a coalition of non-Communist parties formed a government and began negotiations with West Germany on the issue of reunification.

Reunited Germany

In September, 1990, the United States, Great Britain, France, and the Soviet Union signed a treaty with the East and West German governments relinquishing all the occupation rights they had acquired under the terms of Germany's surrender at the end of World War II. On October 3, 1990, after more than 40 years of division, Germany was reunited as one nation. In December, Helmut Kohl's coalition government was elected in the first all-German elections since 1932. Following reunification there were numerous economic and social problems, mainly in the eastern states. Among those problems were a high rate of unemployment and increasing incidents of crime, including attacks by right-wing extremists on foreigners. The costs associated with reunification plagued the German economy during the early 1990's.

In national elections in 1994, the Christian Democratic Union and allied parties, who had governed Germany since 1982, were narrowly returned to power and Kohl was reelected by the Bundestag as chancellor. Meanwhile, during 1992-94 German military forces were sent to Somalia and the Adriatic Sea as part of UN missions. Controversy arose within Germany concerning the use of German armed forces in international military missions outside the jurisdiction of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO). In 1994 Germany's highest court ruled that, with Bundestag approval, German forces could be used in missions outside NATO areas.

After elections in 1998, the Social Democratic party (SPD) formed a parliamentary majority in coalition with the Greens, a leftist, environmental party. Gerhard Schröder, a political moderate within the SPD, was chosen as chancellor. The SPD-Green coalition ruled erratically, and state elections held in early 1999 led to the loss of its majority in the Bundesrat, the upper house of parliament. In fall of 1999, the long-planned move of the federal government from Bonn to Berlin was completed. Schröder was reelected in 2002.Germany and a number of other European Union members adopted the euro in 1999. The German currency was phased out by the middle of 2002. Angela Merkel of the Christian Democratic Union became the first woman chancellor in 2005.