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a short history of Germany

Brief History of Germany

Today's territories of Germany were first inhabited by tribes during the Nordic Bronze Age and the Iron Age. The German tribes that were located in Scandinavia and northern Germany expanded to the south, east and west, and during the 1st Century BC they came into contact with the Celtic tribes. Soon after that, this territory was invaded by the Romans. By 100 AD, the German tribes settled along the Rhine and Danube Rivers. Two centuries later, several other large West Germanic tribes emerged, like the Alamanni, Franks, Saxons, Frisians, Sicambri and Thuringii. The Holy Roman Empire was formed in the year 962 and founded by Charlemagne as a division of the Carolingian Empire. It occupied the area from the Eider River to the Mediterranean coast. In the period 919 - 1024, several duchies of Saxony, Lorraine, Franconia, Bavaria, Swabia and Thurgundia, were consolidated and a Holy Roman Emperor was crowned.

In the years to follow, the Holy Roman Empire absorbed the northern part of Italy and Burgundy and went south towards the territories occupied by the Slavs. In 1517, the monk Martin Luther wrote a book questioning the Roman Catholic Church and thus started the Protestant Reformation and the formation of the Lutheran Church in 1530. A religious conflict provoked by that led to the Thirty Years War between 1618 - 1648, which totally devastated the German lands. Even after the Peace of Westphalia, which ended the war, the country was from then on divided between the Austrian Habsburg Monarchy and the Kingdom of Prussia. However, it was in the year 1806 that the Empire was dissolved after the Napoleonic Wars. After the fall of Napoleon Bonapart and the Congress of Vienna that followed in 1814, a German Confederation was formed and comprised of thirty-nine sovereign states.

There were several revolutionary movements in Europe and Germany in particular, which led to the rejection of the crown from King Frederick William IV of Prussia and the appointment of Otto von Bismarck as the new Prime Minister in 1862. Two years later, Bismarck waged war against Denmark. Prussia won in the Austro - Prussian War in 1866, and thus Bismarck was able to create the North German Federation, excluding Austria. It was in 1871 that Germany was unified and Berlin was chosen as its capital. In the years that followed the unification of Germany, the country took an imperialistic course that led to friction with the neighboring countries and soon Germany became quite isolated. In 1914, the Austrian prince was assassinated and this led to the start of the First World War, in which Germany took part on the side of the Central Powers and was defeated. In November 1918, Emperor William II abdicated and the country was forced to sign the Treaty of Versailles, which was quite unfavorable for Germany.

When the German Revolution succeeded, the Weimar Republic was formed, named after the Weimar Constitution. It was then that the German Communist Party and the German Workers Party, or the Nazi Party, were formed. When the Great Depression came and Germany was suffering the harsh peace conditions it accepted by signing the Treaty of Versailles, were formed radical left-wing communists and right-wing military directed polititians. After several very unsucessful cabinets, in 1933 the president of Germany appointed a right-wing Chancellor of Germany, named Adolf Hilter.

In the following twelve years, which are known as the rule of the Third Reich, this man changed the pace of history. Under Hilter's rule, a centralized totalitarian state was formed, making Germany a one-party state and the industry was focused on war production. From 1936, Hitler started a policy of expansion in order to establish a Greater Germany. Hitler went against Poland in 1939, and two days after received two declarations of war by France and Germany, which marked the start of the Second World War. Germany was then a very powerful military force and thus quickly gained control over most of the countries in Europe. In the summer of 1941, Hilter broke the pact he had with the Soviet Union, and this was his major mistake. When the Japanese troops attacked the American base at Pearl Harbour, Germany declared war on the United States as well. Hitler was fighting on many battlefields, and at first he was successful in the Soviet Union, but the Battle of Stalingrad became a major turning point. The Allied forces landed in Normandy and rapidly advanced into the German territory, which led to the defeat of Germany. The German forces surrenedered on the 8th of May, 1945, when the Soviet Red Army occupied Berlin.

In the years that followed, Germany faced large territorial losses and the destruction of many major cities. Berlin was partitioned into four military zones controlled by France, the United States, the United Kingdom and the Soviet Union. Soon, the zones that were controlled by the first three countries merged to form the Federal Republic of Germany, while the Soviet Zone formed the German Democratic Republic, which were informally known as West and East Berlin. At that point, Bonn was announced as the capital of West Germany. West Germany became a liberal parliamentary republic with a social market economy, enjoying high economic growth. The country joined NATO and later became a founding member of the European Economic Community that turned into the European Union as we know it now. East Germany was not doing that well. It had Soviet-style economy and not such a good economic situation. In 1961, the Berlin Wall was built, separating East from West Germany and thus becoming the symbol of the Cold War. After years of growing migration and large mass demonstrations, the unification of the two German Republics became a reality in 1990, and the Berlin Wall came down. After a parliamentary act from 2004, Berlin was announced as the capital of the unified state. After the unification of Germany, the country took a leading role in the European Union and NATO.