Germany

History {{main|History of Germany}}

The state now known as Germany was unified as a modern nation-state only in 1871, when the German Empire, dominated by the Kingdom of Prussia, was forged. This was the second German Reich, usually translated as "empire", but also meaning "realm".

Related Topics:
1871 - German Empire - Kingdom of Prussia - ''Reich''

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The Holy Roman Empire of the German Nation (843?1806)

The medieval empire—known for much of its existence as the Holy Roman Empire of the German Nation but also as the "Holy Roman Empire" —stemmed from a division of the Carolingian Empire in 843, which was founded by Charlemagne on 25 December 800, and existed in varying forms until 1806, its territory stretching from the river Eider in the north to the Mediterranean coast in the south. During this period of almost a thousand years, the Germans expanded their influence successfully with the help of the Catholic Church, the Teutonic Order and the Hanseatic League. In 1530, the attempt of the Protestant Reformation of Catholicism turned out to have failed, and a separate Protestant church was acknowledged as new state religion in many states of Germany. This led to inter-German strife, the Thirty Years War (1618) and finally the Peace of Westphalia (1648), that resulted in a drastically enfeebled and politically disunited Germany, unable to resist the stroke of the Napoleonic Wars, during which the Imperium was overrun and dissolved (1806). The lasting effect of the dissolution of the Holy Roman Empire came to be the division between Austria, formerly the leading state of Germany, from the more western and northern parts.

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Restoration and revolution (1814?1871)

Following Napoleon's fall, the Congress of Vienna convened in 1814 in order to restructure Europe. In Germany, the German Confederation was founded, a loose league of 39 sovereign states. Disagreement with the restoration politics partly led to the lifestyle called Biedermeier and to intellectual liberal movements, which demanded unity and freedom during the Vormärz epoch each followed by a measure of Metternich repressing the liberal agitation. The Zollverein, a tariff union, profoundly furthered economic unity in the German states.

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The states also started to be shaped by the Industrial Revolution, which was the initial step of the growing industrialization and contributed to a wave of pennilessness in Europe causing social uprisings. In the light of a series of revolutionary movements in Europe, which in France successfully established a republic, intellectuals and common people started the Revolutions of 1848 in the German states. The monarchs initially yielded to the revolutionaries' liberal demands and an intellectual National Assembly was elected to draw up a constitution for the new Germany, completed in 1849. However, the Prussian king Frederick William IV, who was offered the title of Emperor but with a loss of power, rejected the crown and the constitution. This prompted violent rollbacks by the monarchs, and the demise of the national assembly along with most merits of the revolution.

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In 1862, conflict between the Prussian King Wilhelm I and the increasingly liberal parliament erupted over military reforms. The king appointed Otto von Bismarck the new Prime Minister of Prussia, who used the desire for national unification to further the interests of the Prussian monarchy. He successfully waged war on Denmark, on Austria and, finally, on France.

Related Topics:
1862 - Wilhelm I - Otto von Bismarck - Prime Minister of Prussia - War on Denmark - On Austria - On France

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German Empire (1871?1918)

After the French defeat in the Franco-Prussian War, the German Empire (Kaiserreich) was proclaimed in Versailles on 18 January 1871. Virtually a result of the wars, the Empire was a unification of the scattered parts of Germany but without Austria—Kleindeutschland. Later, colonies were established. After 1888, the Year of Three Emperors, Bismarck was forced to quit by the young new Emperor William II in 1890 due to political and personal differences. The Emperor's foreign policy was opposed to that of Bismarck, who had established a system of alliances in the era called Gründerzeit securing Germany's position as a great nation and avoiding war for decades. Under Wilhelm II Germany took an imperialistic course, not unlike other powers, but it led to friction with neighbouring countries. Most alliances in which Germany had been involved were not renewed and new alliances excluded the Reich. Austria and Germany became increasingly isolated.

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Although not one of the main causes, the assassination of Austria's crown prince triggered World War I on 28 July 1914, which saw Germany as part of the unsuccessful Central Powers in the second-bloodiest conflict of all time against the Allied Powers. In November 1918, the German Revolution broke out, and Emperor William II and all German ruling princes abdicated. An armistice was signed on November 11 putting an end to the war. Germany was forced to sign the Treaty of Versailles in 1919, whose unexpectedly high demands were perceived as humiliating in Germany and as a continuation of the war by other means.

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Weimar Republic (1919?1933)

After the German Revolution in November 1918, a Republic was proclaimed. That year, the German Communist Party was established, and in January 1919 the German Workers Party, later known as the Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiterpartei (National Socialist German Workers Party, NSDAP). On 11 August 1919, the Weimar Constitution came into effect. 1920s Berlin was a vibrant and exciting city that flourished during the Weimar Republic; many considered it to be the cultural capital of Europe during this time.

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The democracy was made unpopular in part because of the economic hardship due to both the world wide Great Depression and the harsh peace conditions dictated by the Treaty of Versailles. The German voters increasingly supported anti-democratic parties, both right- and left-wing. In the two extraordinary elections of 1932, the anti-democratic Nazis got 37.2% and 33.0%.

Related Topics:
Great Depression - Treaty of Versailles - Right- - Left-wing - 1932

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A series of dramatic events marked the end of the Weimar Republic. On 30 January 1933, President von Hindenburg appointed Adolf Hitler Chancellor of Germany. On 27 February, the Reichstag was set on fire. Basic rights were abrogated under an emergency decree. An Enabling Act gave Hitler's government full legislative power. A centralised totalitarian state was established, no longer based on the rule of law.

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Third Reich (1933?1945)

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The new regime made Germany a one-party state by outlawing all oppositional parties and repressing the different-minded parts of the public with the party's own organizations SA and SS, as well as the newly founded state security police Gestapo.

Related Topics:
One-party state - SA - SS - Gestapo

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Industry was closely regulated with quotas and requirements in order to shift the economy towards a war production base. Massive public works projects and extensive deficit spending by the state helped to significantly lower the high unemployment rate. This and large welfare programs are said to be the main factors that kept support of the public even late in the war.

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In 1936, German troops entered the demilitarised Rhineland in an attempt to rebuild national self-esteem. Emboldened, Hitler followed from 1938 onwards a policy of expansionism to establish a "Greater Germany", starting with the forced unification with Austria and the annexation of the Sudetes region in Bohemia from Czechoslovakia. To avoid a two-front war, the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact was concluded with the Soviet Union. In 1939 Germany launched a Blitzkrieg against Poland, which, following British and French war declarations, ultimately led to World War II.

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Germany quickly gained direct or indirect control of large parts of Europe. In 1941, Hitler broke the pact with the Soviet Union by opening the Eastern Front. Later the United States entered the war in support of the United Kingdom and France, and by 1943 the Soviet Union started to push Germany back, too. On 8 May 1945, Germany surrendered after the Red Army occupied Berlin, where Hitler had committed suicide a week earlier.

Related Topics:
Europe - 1941 - Eastern Front - United States - 1943 - 8 May - 1945 - Germany surrendered - Red Army - Berlin - Suicide

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Division and reunification (1945?1990)

The war resulted in the death of several million Germans, large territorial losses and the expulsion of 15 million Germans from Eastern Germany and other parts of Eastern Europe. Germany and Berlin were occupied and partitioned by the Allies into four military occupation zones – French in the southwest, British in the northwest, United States in the south, and Soviet in the east.

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On 23 May 1949, the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG, Bundesrepublik Deutschland) was established on the territory of the Western occupied zones, with Bonn as its capital, and declared "fully sovereign" May 5, 1955. On 7 October 1949 the Soviet Zone was established as the German Democratic Republic (GDR, Deutsche Demokratische Republik), with East Berlin as its capital. In English the two states were known informally as "West Germany" and "East Germany" respectively. The former German capital, Berlin, was a special case, being divided into East Berlin and West Berlin, with West Berlin completely surrounded by East German territory.

Related Topics:
23 May - Bonn - Sovereign - May 5 - 1955 - 7 October - German Democratic Republic - East Berlin - Berlin - West Berlin

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West Germany was allied with the United States, the UK and France. Established as a western capitalist country with a "social market economy" under Chancellor Konrad Adenauer, the country enjoyed prolonged economic growth following the currency reform of June 1948 and U.S. assistance through Marshall Plan aid (1948-1951).

Related Topics:
Social market economy - Konrad Adenauer

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East Germany was at first occupied by and later (May 1955) allied with the USSR. An authoritarian country with a Soviet-style economy, East Germany soon became the richest, most advanced country in the Eastern bloc, but many of its citizens looked to the West for political freedoms and economic prosperity. The flight of growing numbers of East Germans to non-communist countries via West Berlin led on 13 August, 1961, to East Germany erecting the Berlin Wall and a fortified border to West Germany.

Related Topics:
Eastern bloc - 13 August - 1961 - Berlin Wall

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Relations between East Germany and West Germany remained icy until the Western chancellor Willy Brandt launched a highly controversial rapprochement with the East European communist states (Ostpolitik) in the 1970s.

Related Topics:
Willy Brandt - Ostpolitik

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During the summer of 1989, rapid changes took place in East Germany, which ultimately led to German reunification. Growing numbers of East Germans emigrated to West Germany via Hungary after the Hungarians decided not to use force to stop them. Thousands of East Germans also tried to reach the West by staging sit-ins at West German diplomatic facilities in other East European capitals. The exodus generated demands within East Germany for political change, and mass demonstrations with eventually hundreds of thousands of people in several cities – particularly in Leipzig – continued to grow.

Related Topics:
1989 - German reunification - Leipzig

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Faced with civil unrest, East German leader Erich Honecker was forced to resign in October 1989, and on 9 November, East German authorities unexpectedly allowed East German citizens to enter West Berlin and West Germany. Hundreds of thousands of people took advantage of the opportunity; new crossing points were opened in the Berlin Wall and along the border with West Germany. This led to the acceleration of the process of reforms in East Germany that ended with the German reunification of East and West Germany that came into force on 3 October 1990.

Related Topics:
Erich Honecker - October - 9 November - 3 October - 1990

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◄ Germany: Introduction

Germany: Politics ►

~ Table of Content ~

►	Introduction
►	History {{main\|History of Germany}}
►	Politics
►	Geography {{main\|Geography of Germany}}
►	Economy {{main\|Economy of Germany}}
►	Society
►	Miscellaneous topics
►	References
►	External links

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