The history of Germany goes back to the Roman military campaigns in Germania and the the fall of the Roman Empire when the Germanic tribes poured into Western Europe from the East in the 4th and 5th centuries AD. Germania was the name given by the Romans to the vast territory east of the Rhine inhabited by Germanic and Celtic tribes. However, the prehistoric origins of Germany can be traced back to 300,000 years ago, when these territories were inhabited by Neanderthal humans. Between 3000 and 800 BC, Germany was part of the Corded Ware and the Hallstatt culture respectively.
The origin of Germany, as a political entity, began with the Carolingian Empire and its successor, which was the Holy Roman Empire of the German Nation. The Carolingian Empire was founded by Charlemagne in 800, lasting until 843 as it was split into three kingdoms, one of which would become the Holy Roman Empire in 962. However, it was a religious military order, the Teutonic Knights, who laid the foundation stone for the creation of the kingdom of Prussia in 1701. This kingdom would be the catalyst for the German unification in the 19th century.
The kingdom of Prussia, under William I and Otto von Bismark, would eventually unify the fragmented German states into the powerful German Empire, or Second Reich, in 1871, during the Franco-Prussian War. These German states (duchies, principalities, and estates) had broken away from the Holy Roman Empire in the 16th century as a result of Martin Luther’s Schism.
At the end of World War I, the German Empire collapsed, giving way to the short-lived Weimar Republic. Effectively, Adolf Hitler abolished the Weimar Republic in 1933, when he was named chancellor of Germany, creating the Third Reich. After World War II, Germany was occupied by the Soviet Union and the Allied nations, being divided into two countries, West Germany (Federal Republic) and East Germany (German Democratic Republic). Nevertheless, after the Cold War, the two halves would be unified into one nation again in 1990.
History of Germany (timeline)
– Germanic tribes. During the Roman Empire, they inhabited the vast territory east of the Rhine.
– Battle of Teutoburg Forest ( year 9 AD). A powerful Germanic Army, under Arminius, defeated three Roman legions.
– Carolingian Empire (from 800 to 843 AD): a Frankish empire founded by Charlemagne. The Franks were a confederation of Germanic tribes.
– Treaty of Verdun (843), by which the Carolingian Empire was divided into three kingdoms, one of which would give rise to Germany.
– Holy Roman Empire (created in 962, with the coronation of Otto I)
– Great Interregnum.
– Teutonic Knights. A Germanic military religious order created during the Third Crusade.
– Thirty Years War (from 1618 to 1648), by which Germany was robbed of Alsace and Lorraine.
– Kingdom of Prussia (created in 1701, with the coronation of Frederick I)
– Austro-Prussian War (1866)
– Franco-Prussian War (1870-1871)
– German Unification (1871). It took place during the Franco-Prussian War.
– German Empire (created in 1871. It got dissolved in 1918)
– World War I (1914 – 1918). At the end of this armed conflict, Germany was forced to sign the Treaty of Versailles, by which the Teutonic nation lost vast territories in the east and south.
– Weimar Republic (from 1919 to 1933). It replaced the defunct German Empire.
– Hitler’s Rise to Power. When he became chancellor of Germany, he did away with the Weimar Republic and created the Third Reich.
– Third Reich (1933).
– World War II (1939 -1945).
– Postwar Germany
- Division of Germany into a Western and an Eastern half.
– Berlin Airlift (1948).
– Berlin Wall. It was a long wall built by the Soviet Union in 1961 to prevent East Germans from escaping from East Berlin into the Western part of the city.
– Checkpoint Charlie. The main gate of entrance into East Berlin and site of prisoners (spies) exchange.
– Fall of the Berlin Wall (1989)
- Second Unification of Germany (1990).
Below, a map of Germany after the Treaty of Versailles. You can see that East Prussia was separated from the rest of the country as German territory was given to Poland.
