GermaniaIV

Germania IV

Germanic History

PART THREE

The king and ideology

Egyptian society consisted of a descending hierarchy of the gods, the king, the
dead, and humanity (by which was understood chiefly the Egyptians). Of these
groups, only the king was single, and hence he was individually more prominent
than any of the others. A text that summarizes the king's role states that he "is on
earth for ever and ever, judging mankind and propitiating the gods, and setting
order [ma'at, a central concept] in place of disorder. He gives offerings to the gods
and mortuary offerings to the spirits [the blessed dead]." The king was a god, but
not in any simple or unqualified sense. His divinity accrued to him from his office
and was reaffirmed through rituals, but it was vastly inferior to that of major gods;
he was god rather than man by virtue of his potential, which was immeasurably
greater than that of any human being. To humanity, he manifested the gods on
earth, a conception that was elaborated in a complex web of metaphor and doctrine;
less directly, he represented humanity to the gods. The text quoted above also
gives great prominence to the dead, for whom the living performed a cult and who
could intervene in human affairs; in many periods the chief visible expenditure and
focus of display of nonroyal individuals, as of the king, was on provision for the
tomb and the next world. Egyptian kings are commonly called pharaohs, following
the usage of the Old Testament. The term pharaoh, however, is derived from the
Egyptian per 'aa ("great estate") and goes back to the designation of the royal
palace as an institution. This term for palace was used increasingly from about 1400
BC as a way of referring to the living king; in earlier times it was rare.

Rules of succession to the kingship are poorly understood. The common
conception that the heir to the throne had to marry his predecessor's oldest
daughter has been disproved; kingship did not pass through the female line. The
choice of queen seems to have been free: often the queen was a close relative of
the king, but she also might be unrelated to him. In the New Kingdom, for which
evidence is abundant, each king had a queen with distinctive titles, as well as a
number of minor wives.

Sons of the queen seem to have been the preferred successors to the throne, but
other sons could also become king. In many cases the successor was the eldest
(surviving) son, and such a pattern of inheritance agrees with more general
Egyptian values, but often he was some other relative, or was completely unrelated.
New Kingdom texts depict, after the event, how kings were appointed heirs either
by their predecessors or by divine oracles, and such may have been the pattern
when there was no clear successor. From the middle of the 5th dynasty (c. 2450 BC)
to the 19th (1292-1190 BC) there is no certain attestation of a prince in the reign of
his brother; rival claimants, therefore, must have been eliminated or silenced after
one of them had succeeded. Dissent and conflict are suppressed from public
sources. From the Late Period (664-332 BC), when sources are more diverse and
patterns less rigid, numerous usurpations and interruptions to the succession are
known; they probably had many forerunners.

The king's position changed gradually from that of an absolute monarch at the
centre of a small ruling group who were mostly his kin to that of the head of a
bureaucratic state--in which his rule was still absolute--based on officeholding and,
in theory, on free competition and merit. By the 5th dynasty, fixed institutions were
added to the force of tradition and the regulation of personal contact as brakes on
autocracy, but the charismatic and superhuman power of the king remained vital.

The elite of administrative officeholders received their positions and commissions
from the king, whose general role as judge over humanity they put into effect. They
commemorated their own justice and concern for others, especially their inferiors,
and recorded their own exploits and ideal conduct of life in inscriptions for others
to see. Thus the position of the elite was affirmed by reference to the king, to their
prestige among their peers, and to their conduct toward their subordinates,
justifying to some extent the fact that they--and still more the king--appropriated
much of the country's surplus production for their own benefit.

Medieval History of Germany
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Ancient times
Germanic peoples
Migration Period
Frankish Empire
Medieval times
East Francia
Kingdom of Germany
Holy Roman Empire
East Colonisation
Sectionalism
Building a nation
Confederation of the Rhine
German Confederation
German Revolutions of 1848
North German Confederation
Unification of Germany
The German Reich
German Empire
World War I
Weimar Republic
Nazi Germany
World War II
Post-war Germany since 1945
Occupation + Ostgebiete
Expulsion of Germans
FR Germany + GDR
German reunification
Present day Germany
Federal Republic of Germany
Topical
Military history of Germany
Territorial changes of Germany
Timeline of German history
History of the German language
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The History of Germany begins with the establishment of the nation from Ancient
Roman times to the 8th century[citation needed], and then continues into the Holy
Roman Empire dating from the 9th century until 1806 . At its largest extent, the
territory of this empire included what today is Germany, Austria, Slovenia, the Czech
Republic, western Poland, the Low Countries, eastern France, Switzerland and most
of northern Italy. After the mid 16th century, when it had lost many former
territories, it was known as the "Holy Roman Empire of the German Nation".

This was followed by the German Confederation of 1815–1866, the German Empire
of 1871–1918, and the Weimar Republic of 1919–1933. Then came Adolf Hitler's
German Reich also known as Nazi Germany or Third Reich of 1933–1945 and the
devastations of World War II. The article concludes with the history of the post-war
Federal Republic of Germany (West Germany) and the history of the German
Democratic Republic (East Germany) from 1945 to 1990.

Contents:

1 Germanic tribes (100 BC to AD 300)
2 The Franks
2.1 Frankish Empire
3 Middle Ages
4 Early modern Germany
4.1 Reformation and Thirty Years War
4.2 End of the Holy Roman Empire
5 German Confederation
5.1 Restoration and Revolution
6 North German Federation
7 German Empire
7.1 Age of Bismarck
7.2 Wilhelminian Era
8 Weimar Republic
9 German Reich
9.1 Nazi revolution or 'Seizure of Power'
9.2 Expansion and defeat
10 Germany since 1945
10.1 Reunification
10.2 Role in the European Union
11 Historiography
12 See also
13 Maps
14 References
15 External links

Germanic peoples and Germania

Germania, in the early 2nd century (Harper and Brothers, 1849)The ethnogenesis of
the Germanic tribes is assumed to have occurred during the Nordic Bronze Age, or
at the latest, during the Pre-Roman Iron Age. From southern Scandinavia and
northern Germany, the tribes began expanding south, east and west in the 1st
century BC, coming into contact with the Celtic tribes of Gaul as well as Iranian,
Baltic, and Slavic tribes in Eastern Europe. Little is known about early Germanic
history, except through their recorded interactions with the Roman Empire,
etymological research, and archaeological finds.[1]

Under Augustus, the Roman General Publius Quinctilius Varus began to invade
Germania (a term used by the Romans running roughly from the Rhine to the Urals),
and it was in this period that the Germanic tribes became familiar with Roman
tactics of warfare while maintaining their tribal identity. In AD 9, three Roman
legions led by Varus were defeated by the Cheruscan leader Arminius in the Battle
of the Teutoburg Forest. Modern Germany, as far as the Rhine and the Danube,
thus remained outside the Roman Empire. By AD 100, the time of Tacitus' Germania,
Germanic tribes settled along the Rhine and the Danube (the Limes Germanicus),
occupying most of the area of modern Germany. The 3rd century saw the
emergence of a number of large West Germanic tribes: Alamanni, Franks, Chatti,
Saxons, Frisians, Sicambri, and Thuringii. Around 260, the Germanic peoples broke
through the Limes and the Danube frontier into Roman-controlled lands.[2]

The Franks

The Merovingian kings of the Germanic Franks conquered northern Gaul in 486 CE.
In the fifth and sixth century the Merovingian kings conquered several other
Germanic tribes and kingdoms and placed them under the control of autonomous
dukes of mixed Frankish and native blood. Frankish Colonists were encouraged to
move to the newly conquered territories. While the local Germanic tribes were
allowed to preserve their laws, they were pressured into changing their religion.

Frankish Empire

After the fall of the Western Roman empire the Franks created an empire under the
Merovingian kings and subjugated the other Germanic tribes. Swabia became a
duchy under the Frankish Empire in 496, following the Battle of Tolbiac. Already king
Chlothar I ruled the greater part of what is now Germany and made expeditions into
Saxony while the Southeast of modern Germany was still under influence of the
Ostrogoths. In 531 Saxons and Franks destroyed the Kingdom of Thuringia. Saxons
inhabit the area down to the Unstrut river. During the partition of the Frankish
empire their German territories were a part of Austrasia. In 718 the Franconian
Mayor of the Palace Charles Martel marked war against Saxony, because of its help
for the Neustrians. The Franconian Carloman started in 743 a new war against
Saxony, because the Saxons gave aid to Duke Odilo of Bavaria. In 751 Pippin III,
mayor of the palace under the Merovingian king, himself assumed the title of king
and was anointed by the Church. The Frankish kings now set up as protectors of
the Pope, Charlemagne launched a decades-long military campaign against their
heathen rivals, the Saxons and the Avars. The Saxons (by the Saxon Wars (772-804))
and Avars were eventually overwhelmed and forcibly converted, and their lands
were annexed by the Carolingian Empire.

Middle Ages

Holy Roman Empire

The prince-electors of the Holy Roman Empire. (left to right: Archbishop of Cologne,
Archbishop of Mainz, Archbishop of Trier, Count Palatine, Duke of Saxony, Margrave
of Brandenburg and King of Bohemia)From 772 to 814 king Charlemagne extended
the Carolingian empire into northern Italy and the territories of all west Germanic
peoples, including the Saxons and the Bajuwari (Bavarians). In 800 Charlemagne's
authority in Western Europe was confirmed by his coronation as emperor in Rome.
The Frankish empire was divided into counties, and its frontiers were protected by
border Marches. Imperial strongholds (Kaiserpfalzen) became economic and
cultural centres (Aachen being the most famous[citation needed]).

Between 843 and 880, after fighting between Charlemagne's grandchildren, the
Carolingian empire was partitioned into several parts in the Treaty of Verdun, the
Treaty of Meerssen and the Treaty of Ribemont. The German empire developed out
of the East Frankish kingdom, East Francia. From 919 to 936 the Germanic peoples
(Franks, Saxons, Swabians and Bavarians) were united under Duke Henry of
Saxony, who took the title of king. For the first time, the term Kingdom (Empire) of
the Germans ("Regnum Teutonicorum") was applied to a Frankish kingdom, even
though Teutonicorum at its founding originally meant something closer to "Realm of
the Germanic peoples" or "Germanic Realm" than realm of the Germans.

In 936 Otto I the Great was crowned at Aachen. He strengthened the royal authority
by appointing bishops and abbots as princes of the Empire (Reichsfürsten), thereby
establishing a national church. In 951 Otto the Great married the widowed Queen
Adelheid, thereby winning the Lombard crown. Outside threats to the kingdom were
contained with the decisive defeat of the Magyars of Hungary near Augsburg at the
Battle of Lechfeld in 955 and the subjugation of Slavs between the Elbe and the
Oder rivers. In 962 Otto I was crowned emperor in Rome, taking the succession of
Charlemagne and establishing a strong Frankish influence over the Papacy.

In 1033 the Kingdom of Burgundy was incorporated into the Holy Roman Empire
during the reign of Conrad II, the first emperor of the Salian dynasty. And the
Germans tried to stay up against the Roman run over.

During the reign of his son Henry III the Holy Roman Empire supported the Cluniac
reform of the Church - the Peace of God, the prohibition of simony (the purchase of
clerical offices) and the celibacy of priests. Imperial authority over the Pope
reached its peak. An imperial stronghold (Pfalz) was built at Goslar, as the Empire
continued its expansion to the East.

In the Investiture Dispute which began between Henry IV and Pope Gregory VII over
appointments to ecclesiastical offices, the emperor was compelled to submit to the
Pope at Canossa in 1077, after having been excommunicated. In 1122 a temporary
reconciliation was reached between Henry V and the Pope with the Concordat of
Worms. The consequences of the investiture dispute were a weakening of the
Ottonian National Church Reichskirche, and a strengthening of the Imperial secular
princes.

Castle of the Teutonic Order in Malbork (German: Marienburg)The time between
1096 and 1291 was the age of the crusades. Knightly religious orders were
established, including the Templars, the Knights of St John and the Teutonic Order.

From 1100, new towns were founded around imperial strongholds, castles, bishops'
palaces and monasteries. The towns began to establish municipal rights and
liberties (see German town law), while the rural population remained in a state of
serfdom. In particular, several cities became Imperial Free Cities, which did not
depend on princes or bishops, but were immediately subject to the Emperor. The
towns were ruled by patricians (merchants carrying on long-distance trade). The
craftsmen formed guilds, governed by strict rules, which sought to obtain control of
the towns. Trade with the East and North intensified, as the major trading towns
came together in the Hanseatic League, under the leadership of Lübeck.

The German colonization and the chartering of new towns and villages began into
largely Slav-inhabited territories east of the Elbe, such as Bohemia, Silesia,
Pomerania, Poland, and Livonia (see also Ostsiedlung).

Between 1152 and 1190, during the reign of Frederick I (Barbarossa), of the
Hohenstaufen dynasty, an accommodation was reached with the rival Guelph party
by the grant of the duchy of Bavaria to Henry the Lion, duke of Saxony. Austria
became a separate duchy by virtue of the Privilegium Minus in 1156. Barbarossa
tried to reassert his control over Italy. In 1177 a final reconciliation was reached
between the emperor and the Pope in Venice.

In 1180 Henry the Lion was outlawed and Bavaria was given to Otto of Wittelsbach
(founder of the Wittelsbach dynasty which was to rule Bavaria until 1918), while
Saxony was divided.

From 1184 to 1186 the Hohenstaufen empire under Barbarossa reached its peak in
the Reichsfest (imperial celebrations) held at Mainz and the marriage of his son
Henry in Milan to the Norman princess Constance of Sicily. The power of the feudal
lords was undermined by the appointment of "ministerials" (unfree servants of the
Emperor) as officials. Chivalry and the court life flowered, leading to a development
of German culture and literature (see Wolfram von Eschenbach).

Between 1212 and 1250 Frederick II established a modern, professionally
administered state in Sicily. He resumed the conquest of Italy, leading to further
conflict with the Papacy. In the Empire, extensive sovereign powers were granted
to ecclesiastical and secular princes, leading to the rise of independent territorial
states. The struggle with the Pope sapped the Empire's strength, as Frederick II
was excommunicated three times. After his death, the Hohenstaufen dynasty fell,
followed by an interregnum during which there was no Emperor.

Beginning in 1226 under the auspices of Emperor Frederick II, the Teutonic Knights
began their conquest of Prussia after being invited to Chełmno Land by the Polish
Duke Konrad I of Masovia. The native Baltic Prussians were conquered and
Christianized by the Knights with much warfare, and numerous German towns were
established along the eastern shore of the Baltic Sea. From 1300, however, the
Empire started to lose territory on all its frontiers.

The failure of negotiations between Emperor Louis IV with the papacy led in 1338 to
the declaration at Rhense by six electors to the effect that election by all or the
majority of the electors automatically conferred the royal title and rule over the
empire, without papal confirmation.

Between 1346 and 1378 Emperor Charles IV of Luxembourg, king of Bohemia,
sought to restore the imperial authority.

Around the middle of the 14th century, the Black Death ravaged Germany and
Europe. From the Dance of Death by Hans Holbein (1491)Around 1350 Germany and
almost the whole of Europe were ravaged by the Black Death. Jews were
persecuted on religious and economic grounds; many fled to Poland.

The Golden Bull of 1356 stipulated that in future the emperor was to be chosen by
four secular electors (the King of Bohemia, the Count Palatine of the Rhine, the
Duke of Saxony, and the Margrave of Brandenburg) and three spiritual electors (the
Archbishops of Mainz, Trier, and Cologne).

After the disasters of the 14th century, early-modern European society gradually
came into being as a result of economic, religious and political changes. A money
economy arose which provoked social discontent among knights and peasants.
Gradually, a proto-capitalistic system evolved out of feudalism. The Fugger family
gained prominence through commercial and financial activities and became
financiers to both ecclesiastical and secular rulers.

The knightly classes found their monopoly on arms and military skill undermined by
the introduction of mercenary armies and foot soldiers. Predatory activity by
"robber knights" became common. From 1438 the Habsburgs, who controlled most
of the southeast of the Empire (more or less modern-day Austria and Slovenia, and
Bohemia and Moravia after the death of King Louis II in 1526), maintained a constant
grip on the position of the Holy Roman Emperor until 1806 (with the exception of the
years between 1742 and 1745). This situation, however, gave rise to increased
disunity among the Holy Roman Empires territorial rulers and prevented sections of
the country from coming together and forming nations in the manner of France and
England.

During his reign from 1493 to 1519, Maximilian I tried to reform the Empire: an
Imperial Supreme Court (Reichskammergericht) was established, imperial taxes
were levied, the power of the Imperial Diet (Reichstag) was increased. The reforms
were, however, frustrated by the continued territorial fragmentation of the Empire.

Early modern Germany

Reformation and Thirty Years War

"The Holy Roman Empire, 1512"

Martin Luther, German reformer, 1529

Around the beginning of the 16th century there was much discontent in the Holy
Roman Empire with abuses in the Catholic Church and a desire for reform.

In 1517 the Reformation began: Luther nailed his 95 theses against the abuse of
indulgences to the church door in Wittenberg.

In 1520 Luther was outlawed at the Diet of Worms. But the Reformation spread
rapidly, helped by the Emperor Charles V's wars with France and the Turks. Hiding
in the Wartburg Castle, Luther translated the Bible, establishing the basis of
modern German.

In 1524 the Peasants' War broke out in Swabia, Franconia and Thuringia against
ruling princes and lords, following the preachings of Reformist priests. But the
revolts, which were assisted by war-experienced noblemen like Götz von
Berlichingen and Florian Geyer (in Franconia), and by the theologian Thomas
Münzer (in Thuringia), were soon repressed by the territorial princes.

From 1545 the Counter-Reformation began in Germany. The main force was
provided by the Jesuit order, founded by the Spaniard Ignatius of Loyola. Central
and north-eastern Germany were by this time almost wholly Protestant, whereas
western and southern Germany remained predominantly Catholic. In 1546, Holy
Roman Emperor Charles V defeated the Schmalkaldic League, an alliance of
Protestant rulers.

The Peace of Augsburg in 1555 brought recognition of the Lutheran faith. But the
treaty also stipulated that the religion of a state was to be that of its ruler (Cuius
regio, eius religio).

In 1556 Charles V abdicated. The Habsburg Empire was divided, as Spain was
separated from the Imperial possessions.

In 1608/1609 the Protestant Union and the Catholic League were formed.

From 1618 to 1648 the Thirty Years' War ravaged in the Holy Roman Empire. The
causes were the conflicts between Catholics and Protestants, the efforts by the
various states within the Empire to increase their power and the Emperor's attempt
to achieve the religious and political unity of the Empire. The immediate occasion
for the war was the uprising of the Protestant nobility of Bohemia against the
emperor (Defenestration of Prague), but the conflict was widened into a European
War by the intervention of King Christian IV of Denmark (1625-29), Gustavus
Adolphus of Sweden (1630-48) and France under Cardinal Richelieu, the regent of
the young Louis XIV (1635-48). Germany became the main theatre of war and the
scene of the final conflict between France and the Habsburgs for predominance in
Europe. The war resulted in large areas of Germany being laid waste, a loss of
approximately a third of its population, and in a general impoverishment.

The war ended in 1648 with the Peace of Westphalia, signed in Münster and
Osnabrück: Imperial territory was lost to France and Sweden and the Netherlands
left the Holy Roman Empire after being de facto seceded for 80 years already. The
imperial power declined further as the states' rights were increased.

End of the Holy Roman Empire

The German Empire in 1705, map "L’Empire d’Allemagne" from Nicolas de Fer
After the Peace of Hubertsburg in 1763, Prussia became a European great power.
The rivalry between Prussia and Austria for the leadership of Germany beganFrom
1640, Brandenburg-Prussia had started to rise under the Great Elector, Frederick
William. The Peace of Westphalia in 1648 strengthened it even further, through the
acquisition of East Pomerania. A system of rule based on absolutism was
established.

In 1701 Elector Frederick of Brandenburg was crowned "King in Prussia". From 1713
to 1740, King Frederick William I, also known as the "Soldier King", established a
highly centralized state.

Meanwhile Louis XIV of France had conquered parts of Alsace and Lorraine (1678-
1681), and had invaded and devastated the Palatinate (1688-1697). Louis XIV
benefited from the Empire's problems with the Turks, which were menacing Austria.
He ultimately had to relinquish the Palatinate, though.

In 1683 the Turks were defeated outside Vienna by a Polish relief army led by King
Jan Sobieski of Poland while the city itself was defended by Imperial and Austrian
troops under the command of Charles IV, Duke of Lorraine. Hungary was
reconquered, and later became a new destination for German settlers. Austria,
under the Habsburgs, developed into a great power.

In the War of Austrian Succession (1740-1748) Maria Theresa fought successfully for
recognition of her succession to the throne. But in the Silesian Wars and in the
Seven Years' War she had to cede Silesia to Frederick II, the Great, of Prussia. After
the Peace of Hubertsburg in 1763 between Austria, Prussia and Saxony, Prussia
became a European great power. This gave the start to the rivalry between Prussia
and Austria for the leadership of Germany.

From 1763, against resistance from the nobility and citizenry, an "enlightened
absolutism" was established in Prussia and Austria, according to which the ruler
was to be "the first servant of the state". The economy developed and legal
reforms were undertaken, including the abolition of torture and the improvement in
the status of Jews; the emancipation of the peasants began. Education was
promoted.

In 1772-1795 Prussia took part in the partitions of Poland, occupying western
territories of Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, which led to centuries of Polish
resistance against German rule and persecution.

The French Revolution sparked a new war between France and several of its
Eastern neighbors, including Prussia and Austria. Following the Peace of Basel in
1795 with Prussia, the west bank of the Rhine was ceded to France.

Napoleon I of France relaunched the war against the Empire. In 1803, under the
"Reichsdeputationshauptschluss" (a resolution of a committee of the Imperial Diet
meeting in Regensburg), he abolished almost all the ecclesiastical and the smaller
secular states and most of the imperial free cities. New medium-sized states were
established in south-western Germany. In turn, Prussia gained territory in north-
western Germany.

The Holy Roman Empire was formally dissolved on 6 August 1806 when the last Holy
Roman Emperor Francis II (from 1804, Emperor Francis I of Austria) resigned.
Francis II's family continued to be called Austrian emperors until 1918. In 1806 the
Confederation of the Rhine was established under Napoleon's protection.

After the Prussian army was defeated by the French revolutionary forces at Jena
and Auerstedt, the Peace of Tilsit was signed in 1807: Prussia ceded all its
possessions west of the Elbe to France and the kingdom of Westphalia was
established under Napoleon's brother Jérome. Some of the territories Prussia
conquered from Poland were regained by Duchy of Warsaw.

From 1808 to 1812 Prussia was reconstructed, and a series of reforms were enacted
by Freiherr vom Stein and Freiherr von Hardenberg, including the regulation of
municipal government, the liberation of the peasants and the emancipation of the
Jews. A reform of the army was undertaken by the Prussian generals Gerhard von
Scharnhorst and August von Gneisenau.

In 1813 the Wars of Liberation began, following the destruction of Napoleon's army
in Russia (1812). After the Battle of the Nations at Leipzig, Germany was liberated
from French rule. The Confederation of the Rhine was dissolved.

In 1815 Napoleon was finally defeated at Waterloo by the Britain's Duke of
Wellington and by Prussia's Gebhard Leberecht von Blücher.

German Confederation

Restoration and Revolution

Liberal and nationalist pressure led to the Revolution of 1848 in the German
statesAfter the fall of Napoleon, European monarchs and statesmen convened in
Vienna in 1814 for the reorganization of European affairs, under the leadership of
the Austrian Prince Metternich. The political principles agreed upon at this
Congress of Vienna included the restoration, legitimacy and solidarity of rulers for
the repression of revolutionary and nationalist ideas.

On the territory of the former "Holy Roman Empire of the German Nation", the
German Confederation (Deutscher Bund) was founded, a loose union of 39 states
(35 ruling princes and 4 free cities) under Austrian leadership, with a Federal Diet
(Bundestag) meeting in Frankfurt am Main.

In 1817, inspired by liberal and patriotic ideas of a united Germany, student
organisations gathered for the "Wartburg festival" at Wartburg Castle, at Eisenach
in Thuringia, on the occasion of which reactionary books were burnt.

In 1819 the student Karl Ludwig Sand murdered the writer August von Kotzebue,
who had scoffed at liberal student organizations. Prince Metternich used the killing
as an occasion to call a conference in Karlsbad, which Prussia, Austria and eight
other states attended, and which issued the Karlsbad Decrees: censorship was
introduced, and universities were put under supervision. The decrees also gave
the start to the so-called "persecution of the demagogues", which was directed
against individuals who were accused of spreading revolutionary and nationalist
ideas. Among the persecuted were the poet Ernst Moritz Arndt, the publisher
Johann Joseph Görres and the "Father of Gymnastics" Ludwig Jahn.

In 1834 the Zollverein was established, a customs union between Prussia and most
other German states, but excluding Austria.

Growing discontent with the political and social order imposed by the Congress of
Vienna led to the outbreak, in 1848, of the March Revolution in the German states.
In May the German National Assembly (the Frankfurt Parliament) met in St. Paul's
Church in Frankfurt am Main to draw up a national German constitution.

But the 1848 revolution turned out to be unsuccessful: King Frederick William IV of
Prussia refused the imperial crown, the Frankfurt parliament was dissolved, the
ruling princes repressed the risings by military force and the German
Confederation was re-established by 1850.

In 1862 Prince Bismarck was nominated chief minister of Prussia - against the
opposition of liberals, who saw him as a reactionary.

In 1863-64, disputes between Prussia and Denmark grew over Schleswig, which -
unlike Holstein - was not part of the German Confederation, and which Danish
nationalists wanted to incorporate into the Danish kingdom. The dispute led to the
Second War of Schleswig, in the course of which Prussia, joined by Austria,
defeated Denmark. Denmark was forced to cede both the duchy of Schleswig and
the duchy of Holstein to Austria and Prussia. In the aftermath, the management of
the two duchies caused growing tensions between Austria and Prussia, which
ultimately led to the Austro-Prussian War (1866). The Prussians were victorious in
this war, carrying a decisive victory at the Battle of Königgratz under the command
of Helmuth von Moltke.

North German Federation

At the Battle of Königgrätz, the Austro-Prussian rivalry for the leadership of
Germany was ultimately decided in favour of Prussia.

In 1866 the German Confederation was dissolved. In its place the North German
Federation (German Norddeutscher Bund) was established, under the leadership of
Prussia. Austria was excluded, and would remain outside German affairs for most of
the remaining 19th and the 20th centuries.

The North German Federation was a transitory group that existed from 1867 to 1871,
between the dissolution of the German Confederation and the founding of the
German Empire, led by Otto Von Bismarck who was declared chancellor. With it,
Prussia established control over the 22 states of northern Germany and, via the
Zollverein, southern Germany.

German Empire

Age of Bismarck

On 18 January 1871, the German Empire is proclaimed in the Hall of Mirrors of the
Palace of Versailles.

The German Empire of 1871. By excluding Austria, Bismarck chose a "little German"
solution.Differences between France and Prussia over the possible accession to
the Spanish throne of a German candidate — whom France opposed — was the
French pretext to declare the Franco-Prussian War (1870–71). Due to their
defensive treaties, joint southern-German and Prussian troops, under the command
of Moltke, repelled French troops which had occupied Saarbrücken and proceeded
to invade France in August 1870. After a few weeks, the French army was finally
forced to capitulate in the fortress of Sedan. French Emperor Napoleon III was
taken prisoner and the Second French Empire collapsed, yet the new republic
decided to prolong the war for several months. Months after the Siege of Paris was
lifted, the Peace Treaty of Frankfurt was signed: France was obliged to cede what
became known as Alsace-Lorraine to Germany. The ceded area consisted of Alsace
and parts of Lorraine. The fact that many small, French-speaking areas were
included was used by France to denounce the new border as hypocrisy, since
Germany had justified it by the native Germanic dialects and culture of the areas
inhabitants.

During the Siege of Paris, the German princes assembled in the Hall of Mirrors of
the Palace of Versailles and proclaimed the Prussian King Wilhelm I as the "German
Emperor" on 18 January 1871. The German Empire was thus founded, with 25 states,
three of which were Hanseatic free cities, and Bismarck, again, served as
Chancellor. It was dubbed the "Little German" solution, since Austria was not
included.

Bismarck's domestic policies as Chancellor of Germany were characterized by his
fight against perceived enemies of the Protestant Prussian state. In the so-called
Kulturkampf (1872–1878), he tried to limit the influence of the Roman Catholic
Church and of its political arm, the Catholic Centre Party, through various measures
— like the introduction of civil marriage — but without much success. Milions of
non-Germans subjects in the German Empire, like the Polish, Danish and French
minorities, were discriminated against [1][2] and a policy of Germanization was
implemented.

The other perceived threat was the rise of the Socialist Workers' Party (later known
as the Social Democratic Party of Germany), whose declared aim was the
establishment of a new socialist order through the transformation of existing
political and social conditions. From 1878, Bismarck tried to repress the social
democratic movement by outlawing the party's organization, its assemblies and
most of its newspapers. Through the introduction of a social insurance system, on
the other hand, he hoped to win the support of the working classes for the Empire.

Bismarck's priority was to protect Germany's expanding power through a system of
alliances and an attempt to contain crises until Germany was fully prepared to
initiate them. Of particular importance, in this context, was the containment and
isolation of France, because Bismarck feared that France would form an alliance
with Russia and take revenge for its loss of Alsace and Lorraine to Germany.

The Three Emperor's League was signed in 1872 by Russia, Austria and Germany. It
stated that republicanism and socialism were common enemies and that the three
powers would discuss any matters concerning foreign policy. Bismarck needed
good relations with Russia in order to keep France isolated.

In 1879, Bismarck formed a Dual Alliance of Germany and Austria-Hungary, with the
aim of mutual military assistance in the case of an attack from Russia, which was not
satisfied with the agreement reached at the Congress of Berlin.

The establishment of the Dual Alliance led Russia to take a more conciliatory stance,
and in 1887, the so-called Reinsurance Treaty was signed between Germany and
Russia: in it, the two powers agreed on mutual military support in the case that
France attacked Germany, or in case of an Austrian attack on Russia.

In 1882, Italy joined the Dual Alliance to form a Triple Alliance. Italy wanted to defend
its interests in North Africa against France's colonial policy. In return for German
and Austrian support, Italy committed itself to assisting Germany in the case of a
French military attack.

For a long time, Bismarck had refused to give in to Crown Prince Wilhelm II's
aspirations of making Germany a world power through the acquisition of German
colonies ("a place in the sun", originally a statement of Bernhard von Bülow).
Bismarck wanted to avoid tensions between the European great powers that would
threaten the security of Germany at all cost. But when, between 1880 and 1885, the
foreign situation proved auspicious, Bismarck gave way, and a number of colonies
were established overseas: in Africa, these were Togo, the Cameroons, German
South-West Africa and German East Africa; in Oceania, they were German New
Guinea, the Bismarck Archipelago and the Marshall Islands.

In 1888 Kaiser Wilhelm I died at age 91, and his terminally ill son Friedrich III ruled
for only 99 days before his death. The 29 year old and ambitious Wilhelm II,
Friedrich's son, acceded to the throne. Political and personal differences between
Bismarck and the new monarch, who wanted to be "his own chancellor", eventually
caused Bismarck to resign in 1890.

Wilhelminian Era

A postage stamp from the Carolines, dating back to the time when the islands were
ruled by the German Empire. The new Weltpolitik of Kaiser Wilhelm II led to frictions
with other imperialist powers.When Bismarck resigned, Wilhelm II had declared that
he would continue the foreign policy of the old chancellor. But soon, a new course
was taken, with the aim of increasing Germany's influence in the world (Weltpolitik).
The Reinsurance Treaty with Russia was not renewed. Instead, France formed an
alliance with Russia, against the Triple Alliance of Germany, Austria-Hungary and
Italy. The Triple Alliance itself was undermined by differences between Austria and
Italy.

From 1898, German colonial expansion in East Asia (Jiaozhou Bay, the Marianas, the
Caroline Islands, Samoa) led to frictions with the United Kingdom, Russia, Japan and
the United States. The construction of the Baghdad Railway, financed by German
banks and heavy industry, and aimed at connecting the North Sea with the Persian
Gulf via the Bosporus, also collided with British and Russian geopolitical and
economic interests.

To protect Germany's overseas trade and colonies, Admiral von Tirpitz started a
programme of warship construction in 1898. This posed a direct threat to British
hegemony on the seas, with the result that negotiations for an alliance between
Germany and Britain broke down. Germany was increasingly isolated.

History of Germany during World War I

Imperialist power politics and the determined pursuit of national interests ultimately
led to the outbreak in 1914 of the First World War, sparked by the assassination, on
June 28, 1914, of the Austrian heir-apparent Franz Ferdinand and his wife at
Sarajevo, the capital of Bosnia-Herzegovina by a Serbian nationalist. The theorized
underlying causes have included the opposing policies of the European states, the
armaments race, German-British rivalry, the difficulties of the Austro-Hungarian
multinational state, Russia's Balkan policy and overhasty mobilisations and
ultimatums (the underlying belief being that the war would be short). Germany
fought on the side of Austria-Hungary, Bulgaria and the Ottoman Empire against
Russia, France, Great Britain, Italy, Japan and several other smaller states. Fighting
also spread to the Near East and the German colonies.

In the west, Germany fought a war of attrition with bloody battles. After a quick
march through Belgium, German troops were halted on the Marne, north of Paris.
The frontlines in France changed little until the end of the war. In the east, despite
there being initially no decisive victories against the Russian army, the trapping
and defeat of large parts of the Russian contingent at the Battle of Tannenberg,
followed by smaller Austrian and German successes led to a breakdown of Russian
forces and an imposed peace. The British naval blockade in the North Sea had
crippling effects on Germany's supplies of raw materials and foodstuffs. The entry
of the United States into the war in 1917 following Germany's declaration of
unrestricted submarine warfare marked a decisive turning-point against Germany.

At the end of October, units of the German Navy in Kiel, in northern Germany,
refused to set sail for a last, large-scale operation in a war which they saw as good
as lost. On November 3, the uprising spread to other cities. So-called workers' and
soldiers' councils were established.

Kaiser Wilhelm II and all German ruling princes abdicated. On November 9, the
Social Democrat Philipp Scheidemann proclaimed a Republic. On November 11, an
armistice ending the war was signed at Compiègne.

Weimar Republic

On 28 June 1919 the Treaty of Versailles was signed. Germany was to cede Alsace-
Lorraine, Eupen-Malmédy, North Schleswig, and the Memel area. Poland was
restored and most of the provinces of Posen and West Prussia, and some areas of
Upper Silesia were reincorporated into the reformed country after plebiscites and
independence uprisings. All German colonies were to be handed over to the Allies.
The left and right banks of the Rhine were to be permanently demilitarised. The
industrially important Saarland was to be governed by the League of Nations for 15
years and its coalfields administered by France. At the end of that time a plebiscite
was to determine the Saar's future status. To ensure execution of the treaty's terms,
Allied troops would occupy the left (German) bank of the Rhine for a period of 5–15
years. The German army was to be limited to 100,000 officers and men; the general
staff was to be dissolved; vast quantities of war material were to be handed over
and the manufacture of munitions rigidly curtailed. The navy was to be similarly
reduced, and no military aircraft were allowed. Germany and its allies were to
accept the sole responsibility of the war, and were to pay financial reparations for
all loss and damage suffered by the Allies.

The humiliating peace terms provoked bitter indignation throughout Germany, and
seriously weakened the new democratic regime.

On 11 August 1919 the Weimar constitution came into effect, with Friedrich Ebert as
first President.

The two biggest enemies of the new democratic order, however, had already been
constituted. In December 1918, the German Communist Party (KPD) was founded,
followed in January 1919 by the establishment of the German Workers' Party, later
known as the National Socialist German Workers' Party (NSDAP). Both parties would
make reckless use of the freedoms guaranteed by the new constitution in their
fight against the Weimar Republic.

In the first months of 1920, the Reichswehr was to be reduced to 100,000 men, in
accordance with the Treaty of Versailles. This included the dissolution of many
Freikorps - units made up of volunteers. Some of them made difficulties. The
discontent was exploited by the extreme right-wing politician Wolfgang Kapp. He let
the rebelling Freikorps march on Berlin and proclaimed himself Reich Chancellor
(Kapp Putsch). After only four days the coup d'état collapsed, due to lack of support
by the civil servants and the officers. Other cities were shaken by strikes and
rebellions, which were bloodily suppressed.

Faced with animosity from Britain and France and the retreat of American power
from Europe, in 1922 Germany was the first state to establish diplomatic relations
with the new Soviet Union. Under the Treaty of Rapallo, Germany accorded the
Soviet Union de jure recognition, and the two signatories mutually cancelled all pre-
war debts and renounced war claims.

When Germany defaulted on its reparation payments, French and Belgian troops
occupied the heavily industrialised Ruhr district (January 1923). The German
government encouraged the population of the Ruhr to passive resistance: shops
would not sell goods to the foreign soldiers, coal-mines would not dig for the
foreign troops, trams in which members of the occupation army had taken seat
would be left abandoned in the middle of the street. The passive resistance proved
effective, insofar as the occupation became a loss-making deal for the French
government. But the Ruhr fight also led to hyperinflation, and many who lost all
their fortune would become bitter enemies of the Weimar Republic, and voters of
the anti-democratic right.

The Rentenmark, introduced by Chancellor Stresemann's government in November
1923 to stop hyperinflation, ushered in a period of relative economic prosperity
(until 1929)In September 1923, the deteriorating economic conditions led
Chancellor Gustav Stresemann to call an end to the passive resistance in the Ruhr.
In November, his government introduced a new currency, the Rentenmark (later:
Reichsmark), together with other measures to stop the hyperinflation. In the
following six years the economic situation improved. In 1928, Germany's industrial
production even regained the pre-war levels of 1913.

On the evening of November 8, six hundred armed SA men surrounded a beer hall
in Munich, where the heads of the Bavarian state and the local Reichswehr had
gathered for a rally. The storm troopers were led by Adolf Hitler. Born in 1889 in
Austria, a former volunteer in the German army during WWI, now a member of a new
party called NSDAP, he was largely unknown until then. Hitler tried to force those
present to join him and to march on to Berlin to seize power (Beer Hall Putsch).
Hitler was later arrested and condemned to five years in prison, but was released at
the end of 1924 after less than one year of detention.

The national elections of 1924 led to a swing to the right (Ruck nach rechts). Field
Marshal Hindenburg, a supporter of the monarchy, was elected President in 1925.

In October 1925 the Treaty of Locarno was signed between Germany, France,
Belgium, the United Kingdom and Italy, which recognized Germany's borders with
France and Belgium. Moreover, Britain, Italy and Belgium undertook to assist
France in the case that German troops marched into the demilitarised Rheinland.
The Treaty of Locarno paved the way for Germany's admission to the League of
Nations in 1926.

The stock market crash of 1929 on Wall Street marked the beginning of the Great
Depression. The effects of the ensuing world economic crisis were also felt in
Germany, where the economic situation rapidly deteriorated. In July 1931, the
Darmstätter und Nationalbank - one of the biggest German banks - failed, and, in
early 1932, the number of unemployed rose to more than 6,000,000.

In addition to the flagging economy came political problems, due to the inability by
the political parties represented in the Reichstag to build a governing majority. In
March 1930, President Hindenburg appointed Heinrich Brüning Chancellor. To push
through his package of austerity measures against a majority of Social Democrats,
Communists and the NSDAP, Brüning made use of emergency decrees, and even
dissolved Parliament. In March and April of 1932, Hindenburg was re-elected in the
German presidential election of 1932.

The NSDAP was the big winner in the national elections of July 1932. It gained 38% of
the vote, making it the biggest party in the Reichstag. The Communist KPD came
third, with 15%. Together, the anti-democratic parties of right and left were now able
to hold the majority of seats in Parliament. The NSDAP was particularly successful
among young voters, who were unable to find a place in vocational training, with
little hope for a future job; among the petite bourgeoisie (lower middle class) which
had lost its assets in the hyperinflation of 1923; among the rural population; and
among the army of unemployed. In new elections in November 1932, the NSDAP's
share of the vote declined slightly, but it remained the biggest party in the
Parliament.

On January 30, 1933, pressured by former Chancellor Franz von Papen and other
conservatives, President Hindenburg finally appointed Hitler Chancellor.

German Reich

Nazi Germany, The Holocaust,
and Military history of Germany during World War II

'Seizure of Power'

In order to secure a majority for his NSDAP in the Reichstag, Hitler called for new
elections. On the evening of 27 February 1933, a fire was set in the Reichstag
building. Hitler was swift to paint an alleged Communist uprising on the wall, and
convinced President Hindenburg to sign the Reichstag Fire Decree. This decree,
which would remain in force until 1945, repealed important political and human
rights of the Weimar constitution. Communist agitation was banned, but at this time
not the Communist Party itself.

Eleven thousand Communists and Socialists were arrested and brought into
concentration camps, where they were at the mercy of the Gestapo, the newly
established secret police force (9,000 were found guilty and very many executed).
Communist Reichstag deputies were taken into protective custody (despite their
constitutional privileges).

Despite the terror and unprecedented propaganda, the last free General Elections
of March 5 failed to bring the majority for the NSDAP that Hitler had hoped for.
Together with the German National People's Party (DNVP), however, he was able to
form a slim majority government. With accommodations to the Catholic Centre Party
Germany, Hitler succeeded in convincing a required two-thirds of a rigged
Parliament to pass the Enabling act of 1933 which gave his government full
legislative power. Only the Social Democrats voted against the Act. The Enabling
Act formed the basis for the Dictatorship, dissolution of the Länder; the trade
unions and all political parties other than the National Socialist (Nazi) Party were
suppressed. A centralised totalitarian state was established, no longer based on
the liberal Weimar constitution. Germany left the League of Nations. The coalition
Parliament was rigged on this fateful 23 March 1933 by defining the absence of
arrested and murdered deputies as voluntary and therefore cause for their
exclusion as wilful absentees. Subsequently in July the Centre Party was voluntarily
dissolved in a quid pro quo with the Holy See under the anti-communist Pope Pius
XI for the Reichskonkordat; and by these maneuvers Hitler achieved movement of
these Catholic voters into the Nazi party, and a long-awaited international
diplomatic acceptance of his regime. The Communist Party was proscribed in April
1933 .

However, many leaders of the Nazi SA were disappointed. The Chief of Staff of the
SA, Ernst Röhm, was pressing for the SA to be incorporated into the Wehrmacht
under his supreme command. Hitler felt threatened by these plans. On the weekend
of June 30, 1934, he gave order to the SS to seize Röhm and his lieutenants, and to
execute them without trial (known as the Night of the Long Knives).

The SS became an independent organisation under the command of the
Reichsführer SS Heinrich Himmler. He would become the supervisor of the Gestapo
and of the concentration camps, soon also of the ordinary police. Hitler also
established the Waffen-SS as a separate troop.

The regime showed particular hostility towards the Jews. In September 1935, the
Reichstag passed the so-called Nuremberg race laws directed against Jewish
citizens. Jews lost their German citizenship, and were banned from marrying
Germans. About 500,000 individuals were affected by the new rules.

Hitler re-established the German air force and reintroduced universal military
service. The open rearmament was in flagrant breach of the Treaty of Versailles, but
neither the United Kingdom, France or Italy went beyond issuing notes of protest.

In 1936 German troops marched into the demilitarised Rhineland. In this case, the
Treaty of Locarno would have obliged the United Kingdom to intervene in favour of
France. But despite protests by the French government, Britain chose to do
nothing about it. The coup strengthened Hitler's standing in Germany. His
reputation was going to increase further with the 1936 Summer Olympics, which
were held in the same year in Berlin and in Garmisch-Partenkirchen, and which
proved another great propaganda success for the regime.

Expansion and defeat

After establishing the "Rome-Berlin axis" with Mussolini, and signing the Anti-
Comintern Pact with Japan - which was joined by Italy a year later in 1937 - Hitler felt
able to take the offensive in foreign policy. On 12 March 1938, German troops
marched into Austria, where an attempted Nazi coup had been unsuccessful in
1934. When Hitler entered Vienna, he was greeted by loud cheers. Four weeks later,
99% of Austrians voted in favour of the annexation (Anschluss) of their country to
the German Reich. Hitler thereby fulfilled the old idea of an all encompassing
German Reich with the inclusion of Austria - the "greater Germany" solution that
Bismarck had shunned when, in 1871, he united the German-speaking lands under
Prussian leadership. Although the annexation denounced the Treaty of Saint-
Germain, which expressedly forbade the unification of Austria with Germany, the
western powers once again merely protested.

After Austria, Hitler turned to Czechoslovakia, where the 3.5 million-strong Sudeten
German minority was demanding equal rights and self-government. At the Munich
Conference of September 1938, Hitler, the Italian leader Benito Mussolini, British
Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain and French Prime Minister Édouard Daladier
agreed upon the cession of Sudeten territory to the German Reich by
Czechoslovakia. Hitler thereupon declared that all of German Reich's territorial
claims had been fulfilled. However, hardly six months after the Munich Agreement,
in March 1939, Hitler used the smoldering quarrel between Slovaks and Czechs as a
pretext for taking over the rest of Czechoslovakia as the Protectorate of Bohemia
and Moravia. In the same month, he secured the return of Memel from Lithuania to
Germany. British Prime Minister Chamberlain was forced to acknowledge that his
policy of appeasement towards Hitler had failed.

In six years, the Nazi regime prepared the country for World War II. The Nazi
leadership attempted to remove or subjugate the Jewish population of Nazi
Germany and later in the occupied countries through forced deportation and,
ultimately, genocide now known as the Holocaust. A similar policy applied to the
various ethnic and national groups considered subhuman such as Poles , Roma or
Russians. These groups were seen as threats to the purity of Germany's Aryan race.
There were also many groups, such as the mentally handicapped and those who
were physically challenged from birth, which were singled out as being detrimental
to Aryan purity. After annexing the Sudetenland border country of Czechoslovakia
(October 1938), and taking over the rest of the Czech lands as a protectorate
(March 1939), the German Reich and the Soviet Union invaded Poland on first
September 1939 predominantly as part of the Wehrmacht operation codenamed Fall
Weiss.

Territorial losses of modern Germany 1919-1945.By 1945, the German Reich and its
Axis partners (Italy and Japan) had been defeated, chiefly by the forces of the
Soviet Union, the USA, Britain, France and Canada. Much of Europe lay in ruins,
over sixty million people had been killed (most of them civilians), including
approximately six million Jews and five million non-Jews in what became known as
the Holocaust. World War II resulted in the destruction of Germany's political and
economic infrastructure and led directly to its partition, considerable loss of
territory (especially in the east), and historical legacy of guilt and shame.

History of Germany since 1945

Germans frequently refer to 1945 as the Stunde Null (zero hour) to describe the
near-total collapse of their country. At the Potsdam Conference, Germany was
divided into four military occupation zones. The three western zones would form
the Federal Republic of Germany (commonly known as West Germany), while part of
the Soviet zone became the German Democratic Republic (commonly known as East
Germany), both founded in 1949. West Germany was established as a liberal
democratic republic while East Germany became a Communist State under the
influence of the Soviet Union. Also in Potsdam, the allies agreed that the provinces
east of the Oder and Neisse rivers (the Oder-Neisse line) were transferred to
Poland and Russia (Kaliningrad). The agreement also set forth the abolition of
Prussia and the repatriation of Germans living in those territories, and formalized
the German exodus from Eastern Europe. In the process of the expulsion millions
of these German expellees from the lost pre-1945 German east provinces died, and
many suffered from exhaustion and dehydration.

In the immediate post-war years the German population lived on near starvation
levels,[3] and the Allied economic policy was one of de-industrialisation[4]
(Morgenthau Plan) in order to preclude any future German war-making capability. U.
S. policy began to change at the end of 1946[5] (Restatement of Policy on Germany),
and by mid 1947, after lobbying by the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and Generals Clay and
Marshall, the Truman administration finally realized that economic recovery in
Europe could not go forward without the reconstruction of the German industrial
base on which it had previously had been dependent.[6] In July, Truman rescinded
on "national security grounds"[7] the punitive JCS 1067, which had directed the U.S.
forces of occupation in Germany to "take no steps looking toward the economic
rehabilitation of Germany." It was replaced by JCS 1779, which instead stressed that
"[a]n orderly, prosperous Europe requires the economic contributions of a stable
and productive Germany."[8]

West Germany eventually came to enjoy prolonged economic growth beginning in
the early 1950s (Wirtschaftswunder). The recovery occurred largely because of the
previously forbidden currency reform of June 1948 and to a minor degree by U.S.
assistance through Marshall Plan loans.[9][10] West Germany joined NATO in 1955
and was a founding member of the European Economic Community in 1958 . Across
the border, East Germany soon became the richest, most advanced country in the
Warsaw Pact, but many of its citizens looked to the West for political freedoms and
economic prosperity.

Reunification

Relations between the two post-war German states remained icy until the West
German Chancellor Willy Brandt launched a highly controversial rapprochement
with the East European communist states (Ostpolitik) in the 1970s, culminating in
the Warschauer Kniefall on 7 December 1970. Although anxious to relieve serious
hardships for divided families and to reduce friction, West Germany under Brandt's
Ostpolitik was intent on holding to its concept of "two German states in one German
nation." Relations improved, however, and in September 1973, East Germany and
West Germany were admitted to the United Nations.

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 Hungary's reformist government
opened its borders. 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 in several cities continued to grow.

Faced with civil unrest, East German leader Erich Honecker was forced to resign in
October, 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
that came into force on 3 October 1990.

Role in the European Union

Together with France and other EU states, the new Germany has played the leading
role in the European Union. Germany (especially under Chancellor Helmut Kohl) was
one of the main supporters of the wish of many East European countries to join the
EU. Germany is at the forefront of European states seeking to exploit the
momentum of monetary union to advance the creation of a more unified and
capable European political, defence and security apparatus. The German chancellor
expressed an interest in a permanent seat for Germany in the UN Security Council,
identifying France, Russia and Japan as countries that explicitly backed Germany's
bid.

Historiography

Sonderweg

A major historiographical debate about the German history concerns the
Sonderweg, the alleged “special path” that separated German history from the
“normal” course of historical development, and whatever or not Nazi Germany was
the inevitable result of the Sonderweg. Proponents of the Sonderweg theory such
as Fritz Fischer point to such events of the Revolution of 1848, the authoritarian of
the Second Empire and the continuation of the Imperial elite into the Weimar and
Nazi periods. Opponents such as Gerhard Ritter of the Sonderweg theory argue
that proponents of the theory are guilty of seeking selective examples, and there
was much contingency and chance in German history. In addition, there was much
debate within the supporters of the Sonderweg concept as for the reasons for the
Sonderweg, and whatever or not the Sonderweg ended in 1945.

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Modern Germany

[To Be Continued - Germania V]