-
150
der Limes
Before the fall of Rome but after being defeated by the Germaic tribe, a wall was constructed between the two lands in order to mark the boundary. The date of construction is unknown but the wall is referred to as der Limes. -
476
Odacer
Odoacer, a German, deposed the last western Roman emperor, Romulus Augustulus. He then declared himself king in 476 AD. -
Jan 1, 716
Bonifatius
An English monk named Bonifatius became a missionary to a Germanic tribe. Three years later the Pope named him the missionary to the Germanic people. -
Oct 1, 732
Battle between Karl and the Arabs
Karl Martell defeated the Arab advance at Tours/Poitiers. This was the end of the expansion of their Muslim empire. He was considered to have saved Europe and as a result had a lot of power. This was the beginning of the Karolingian line. -
Jan 1, 751
Crowning of Pippin as King
He ruled an area that contained some Germanic and Frankish tribes. He was of the Karolingian line and son of Karl Martell. He is famous for writing a letter to the pope asking who should be king, the man with the title or the man with the power (himself). He used the pope's answer as approval of his reign and claimed divine right. Vernacular literature can also be traced to this period. -
Jan 1, 1170
Walther von der Volgeweide
A poet who wrote over two hundred poems about love, spontateous emotion and court society. -
Jan 1, 1273
Rudolf I. von Hapsburg
He was the first of a long succession of Hapsburgs and expaned the empire of Austria. -
Jan 1, 1348
The Black Death
The plage that struck during the 14th century was blamed on the Jews, and was the beginning of anti-Jewish sentiments in most of Europe and Germany. Between 1348-1350 a third of the population died. Also in 1348 the University of Prague was founded. -
Jan 1, 1356
Der Hanse
The founding of the Hanse was the first trade union. It began in Luebeck with a group a merchants who banded together to protect their goods from pirates. It lasted 200 years. -
Jan 1, 1456
Gutenberg
The first Bible was printed by the Gutenberg press. -
Oct 31, 1517
Martin Luther
In 1517, Luther published his 95 Theses and nailed them to the door of the church in Wittenberg. Instead of starting a debate to bring about change in the Catholic church, which was his origional intent, he started the Protestant Reformation. He later translated the Bible into German, completeing the New Testament in just 10 weeks. -
Jan 1, 1525
Farmer's Revolution
The farmers and peasants beleving Luther's idea that they are men above all other classifications began a revoultion to claim that right. It was brutally put down. Luther wrote that the attempted revolution had gone against the will of God. -
Jan 1, 1555
Peace of Augsburg
This agreement established the equality of Lutheran and Catholic states, and allowed the prince of each to choose the religion of his region. -
Religious Groups
In 1608, the Evangelical Union was founded. In 1609, the Catholic League was founded. -
The 30 years war
From 1618-1648 a war was fought in Germany. The result was that 15-20% of the population died, and all three donominations- Catholic, Protestant, and Calvinist- were offically recognized. It began with the Defenestration of Prague when the emperor's officials were thrown out the windows of Prage Castle. The war was ended by the Peace of Westphalia. -
Bach
Johann Sebastion Bach wrote a wide variety of music for the keyboard, orchestral concertos, vocal music and more. He integrated great emotion and passion through his use of polyphonic tools and counterpoint. -
Friedrich von Preussen/ Friedrich I
Friedrich a prussian Duke declared himself King of Prussia and thus began the reign of the Hohenzollern family. -
Charles VI
Charles VI was emperor of the the Holy Roman Empire from 1711-1740. He established a court treasury and a court war council. -
Maria Theresa
Maria Theresa served as Emperor of the Holy Roman Empire from 1740-1780, and as emperor seperated the judiciary and the politicial, turned serfs into tenants and developed functional administrative offices. -
Mozart
Mozart is the most famous of the German classical composers. He was a young prodigy who tragically died as an almost unknown composer in 1791, but he was to be rediscovered in later years and hailed as a genious. -
Beethoven
A classical composer who created instrumentals, piano sonatas, symphonies, and chamber music. He died in 1827. -
Joseph II
Joseph II served as emperor of the Holy Roman Empire from 1780-1790. He gave peasants citizenship, and made German the only official language. -
The Napoleonic Wars
The war raged throughout Europe and much of the fighting was on German land. -
Classicism
From 1794-1805 was the time period of Goethe and Schiller. They revived the classical Greek and Roman ideals. Both used the term das Volk to describe the German people. All German literary figures are then compared to Goethe. -
Social Structure
In 1800 the German society was feudal in nature. In 1807 land reforms, freed all peasants. Workers earned wages, but had to pay rent, private property, agriculture became a capitalist enterprise. 1810‐1869 unrestricted freedom of trade was allowed -
Congress of Vienna
After the defeat of Napoleon, the congress of Vienna was convened. It redrew the borders of Europe according to pre-Napoleonic times. This ended the Holy Roman Empire, made the Germans became subject to new rulers and created a new political system that abolished feudalism. -
Trains
The first railroad line was laid in 1835. (Nuremberg- Fuerth). -
The Industiral Revolution
The industrial revoultion began in the 1840's and ended in 1914 with World War I. -
Failed Revoultion
In March of 1848 a revoulution similar to those in America, France and Britan rose up. It was however put down and Germany did not change. It was the turning point in German history where Germany refused to turn. The national anthem (Deutschland Deutschland uber alles) was written in this year and continued the idea of das Volk. -
Otto von Bismarck
As the first chancellor of Germany from 1871-1890 he had a large amount of influence on the foundation of the second Reich. Sought to unite the new state through "blood and iron". -
Imperial Germany
The beginning of the modern German state after the Prussian army achieved victory over Denmark in 1864, victory over Austria in 1866, and victory over the French in 1871. -
Socialversicherung
The implimentation of a social security system, to pay for old age pensions and sick pay, paved the way for the welfare state in Germany. -
The First World War
The beginning of the First World War marked the beginning of modern warfare. The assuption was that the war would last only a few months; however, modern technology quicly dissoved into a stalemate of trench warfare. A third of the male population was killed, maimed, or incapacitated. -
Armistice Day
At 11 o'clock on 11/11/1918 the Germans surrendered unconditionally. This followed closely on the heels of the abdication of Wilhelm II. This was the end of the monarchical reign in Germany. -
Bauhaus
The Bauhaus movement began in Weimar, Germany in 1919. It was a style that synthesized form and function to create a mass produced society to unify people. -
Weimar Republic
The new government of the Weimar began by having to accept unconditional defeat and the harsh terms of the Versailles Treaty. The worldwide economic crisis in 1929 created massive unemployment that reached 6 million in Germany by 1933, in addition there was massive inflaiton. This was the first attempt at democracy and it was a failure. -
Hitler's rise
Hitler's rise to power ended the years of the Weimar Republic and marked the beggining of the Third Reich. His appointment to Chancellor was only the beginning. -
Jews in Germany
The first signs of the destruction to come happend in April with the boycott of Jewish businesses organized by the SA. -
Death of Paul von Hindenburg
Hitler had a law created and passed that combined the offices of President and Chancellor. With the death of the president, Paul von Hindenbur, Hitler recieved his official powers and named the new position "Fuhrer". -
Nuremberg
In 1935, The Nuremberg race laws went into effect. They efficiently limited, segregated, and idetified those of Jewish heritage. This made it easier for them to be deported to the concentration and death camps. -
Kristallnacht
The Night of Broken Glass. Riots that broke out and vandalized Jewish stores. 91 Jews were killed and 25,000 were shipped out to concentration camps. -
Anschluss
The annexation of Poland, France and Austria. -
Censorship
The Third Reich (1933-1945) heavily censored literature, music, and art. The things left uncesored were used for propaganda purposes to promote the Third Reich and their "blood and soil" idealogy. Many artists, writers, and musicians emigrated before the war. Even Jazz (American Black) was censored. -
Wannsee Conference
This meeting of a portion of the German High Command implemented the 'Final Solution'. The Auschwitz, Chelmo, Majdanek, Sobibor and Treblinka death camps were established. The Holocaust claimed over eleven million victems, 6 million of whom were Jewish. -
VE day
The surrender of the German High Commaned ended World War Two in Europe, just eight days after Hitler committed suicide. German occupation was divided into four zones, and each zone was occupied by a diffrent Allied power. -
The Basic Law
The Basic Law, the name of the German constitution, was ratified and thus the Federal Republic of Germany was born. It was the unification of three of the four occupation zones. It was known as West Germany while the Soviet sector remianed an occupied East Germany. -
East Germany
The East German state was created under Soviet control. It heavily controled its citizens and censored material coming from and going to the people. This somewhat hindered creativity and the arts. It lasted until the Unification in 1990. -
The wall
The massive loss of the educated from East Germany to West Germany leads to the building of the Berlin Wall. President JFK gives his famous "Ich bin ein Berliner" speech to assure West Berlin that it will not be forgotten. -
Unification
On November 9, 1989 the fall of the Berlin wall signaled the end of the German Democratic Republic and the beginning of the reunification process. The official and legal date of unification is October 3, 1990. -
Eurpean Union
The EU is established and continues to this day with Germany as a key member. -
Period: to
From the first century to the present
-
Death of the Deutschmark
The introduction of the Euro into the EU zone, effectively ended the use of the Deutschmark. -
Coronation of Karl der Grosse (Charlemagne) as Emperor
The beginning of the Holy Roman Empire and the first time any real kind unification was brought to lands considered barbaric. He is considered the Father of Europe and Defender of Christianity. He brought improvment to the empire through reforms in education and agriculture. -
The beginning
Before this point there was very little mention of the Germanic tribes aside from defeating the Roman advance in 9 AD. -
Otto I (the Great)
At this time in the middle ages, German history becomes more distinct from European history. He defended the empire from Hungarian attacks and was the second person to hold the title Kaiser or emperor. It was sometime during the feudal period when the term das Volk was used to describe the peasants and farmers. -
Charlemagne's death
With the death of Charlemagne, there was no clear succession to the throne. The empire was divided into three sections, each ruled by one of his grandsons, Ludwig, Karl, and Lother. After the death of Lother, his kingdom was absorbed by his brothers. The two lands became France and Germany and the middle, Alsace-Loraine, was often disputed.