Encyclopedia
Germany , officially the
Federal Republic of Germany , is a country in central
Europe. It is bordered to the north by the
North Sea,
Denmark, and the
Baltic Sea, to the east by
Poland and the
Czech Republic, to the south by
Austria and
Switzerland, and to the west by
France,
Luxembourg,
Belgium and the
Netherlands. Within its borders are a portion of the
Alps, the famous
Rhine and
Danube rivers, and the
Black Forest. Its
capital is
Berlin.
Germany is a democratic parliamentary
federal republic, made up of 16
states , which in certain spheres act independently of the federation. Historically consisting of several sovereign states with their own history, distinct German tribe dialects, culture and religious beliefs, Germany was
unified as a
nation state during the
Franco-Prussian War in 1870/1871.
The Federal Republic of Germany is a member state of the
United Nations,
NATO, the
G8 and the
G4 nations, and is a founding member of the
European Union. It is the European Union's most populous and most economically powerful member state.
History
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 began the German
Reich, usually translated as
empire, but also meaning
kingdom,
domain or
realm.
Early history of the Germanic tribes
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 in southern
Scandinavia and northern Germany, from the first century BC expanding south, east and west, coming into contact with
Celtic tribes of
Gaul and
Iranian,
Baltic and
Slavic tribes in Eastern Europe. Little is known about early Germanic history, except through their interactions with the Roman Empire and archaeological finds.
Under Augustus, the Roman General
Drusus began to invade Germany, and it was from this period that the German tribes became familiar with Roman tactics of warfare while maintaining their national identity. In 9, three Roman legions led by
Publius Quinctilius Varus were crushed by the Cheruscan leader
Arminius in the
Battle of the Teutoburg Forest. Germany as far as the Rhine and the
Danube therefore remained outside the
Roman Empire. By 100, the time of
Tacitus'
Germania, Germanic tribes settled along the
Rhine and the
Danube , 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, Thuringians. Around 260, the Germanic peoples broke through the Limes and the Danube frontier.
Migration Period and Franks
The
migration included the
Goths,
Vandals and
Franks, among other
Germanic and
Slavic tribes. The migration may have been triggered by the incursions of the
Huns, population pressures or climate changes. Several Germanic peoples, such as the
Franks, Burgundians,
Angles and
Saxons invaded the Roman Empire and formed kingdoms.
The conversion to
Roman Catholicism of the pagan Frankish king Clovis to better appeal to his conquered Roman subjects was a crucial event in the history of Europe. It resulted in more support from Rome, further solidification of power during the slow, often bloody conversion process, the eventual end to the ancient tribalism of Germany and secured domination over the rival Christian conversion attempts by Arianism. Under the Merovingian and Carolingian kings the Franks formed a new Germanic empire, replacing the Roman Empire in Western Europe.
The Holy Roman Empire
The medieval empire stemmed from a division of the
Carolingian Empire in 843, which was founded by
Charlemagne on December 25 800, and existed in varying forms until 1806, its territory stretching from the river
Eider in the north to the Mediterranean coast in the south. Often referred to as the
Holy Roman Empire , it was officially called the
Holy Roman Empire of the German Nation since 1448 to adjust the title to its then reduced territory.
Under the reign of the
Ottonian emperors , the duchies of
Lorraine, Saxony,
Franconia,
Swabia,
Thuringia and
Bavaria were consolidated and in 962 the German king was crowned
Holy Roman Emperor. Under the reign of the
Salian emperors , the Holy Roman Empire absorbed northern
Italy and
Burgundy. Under the
Hohenstaufen emperors the German princes were increasing their influence further south and east.
The edict of the
Golden Bull in 1356 provided the basic constitution of the empire up to its dissolution. For three hundred years starting in 1438, the Emperors were elected nearly exclusively from the Austrian
Habsburg family.
In 1530, a separate Protestant church was acknowledged as the new state religion in many states of Germany. This led to inter-German strife, the
Thirty Years' War . From 1740 onwards the dualism between
Austria and
Prussia dominated the Empire's history. In 1806 the
Imperium was overrun and dissolved as a result of the
Napoleonic Wars.
Restoration and revolution
Following Napoleon's fall and the end of the Confederation of the Rhine, 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's repression of liberal agitation. The
Zollverein, a tariff union, profoundly furthered economic unity in the German states.
The
German people had been stirred by the ideals of the
French revolution. On October 18, 1817, students held a gathering to exchange ideas, the high point of which was the burning of works by authors like August von Kotzebue, who were against a united German state. A second such meeting attracted 30,000 people from all social classes and from all regions to the
Hambacher celebration. There for the first time, the colours of black, red and gold were chosen to represent the movement, which later became the national colours.
The states were also shaped by the
Industrial Revolution, which was the initial step of the growing industrialisation in Europe and contributed to a wave of poverty, causing social uprisings. In 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 the demise of the national assembly along with most of the changes from the revolution.
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. Bismarck solved the conflict with difficulty and used the desire for national unification to further the interests of the Prussian monarchy. In 1864 he successfully waged
war on Denmark. Prussian victory in the
Austro-Prussian War of 1866 enabled him to create the
North German Confederation and divide
Austria, formerly the leading state of Germany, from the more western and northern parts.
German Empire
After the French defeat in the
Franco-Prussian War, the
German Empire was proclaimed in
Versailles on January 18 1871. As a result, the new empire was a unification of all the scattered parts of Germany but without Austria —
Kleindeutschland. Beginning in 1884 Germany established
several colonies. The young 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, isolating France with diplomatic means and avoiding war for decades. Under Wilhelm II, however, Germany took an
imperialistic course,
not unlike other powers, but it led to friction with neighbouring countries. Most alliances in which Germany had been previously involved were not renewed, and new alliances excluded the country. Specifically, France established new relations by signing the
Entente Cordiale with the United Kingdom, and got ties with Russia. Austria-Hungary and Germany became increasingly isolated.
Although not one of
the main causes,
the assassination of
Austria's crown prince triggered
World War I on July 28 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 second
German Revolution broke out, and Emperor Wilhelm 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, as a continuation of the war by other means and a breaking of traditional post-war diplomacy that included negotiations between the victors and vanquished.
Weimar Republic
After the
German Revolution in November 1918, a Republic was proclaimed. That year, the
German Communist Party was established by
Rosa Luxemburg and
Karl Liebknecht, and in January 1919 the German Workers Party, later known as the
Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiterpartei . On August 11 1919, the
Weimar Constitution came into effect, with the sign of the Reichspräsident Friedrich Ebert.
In a cool climate of economic hardship from both the world wide
Depression and the harsh peace conditions dictated by the
Treaty of Versailles, and a long succession of more or less unstable governments, the political masses in Germany increasingly lacked identification with their political system of parliamentary democracy. This was exacerbated by a wide-spread right-wing
Dolchstoßlegende, a political myth which claimed the
German Revolution was the main reason why Germany had lost WWI. On the other hand, radical left-wing communists such as the
Spartacist League had wanted to abolish what they perceived as a
"capitalist rule" in favour of a "Räterepublik" and were thus also in opposition to the existing
form of government. During the years following the Revolution, German voters increasingly supported anti-democratic parties, both right- and left-wing . At the beginning of the 1930s, Germany was not far from a civil war. Paramilitary troops were set up by several parties,there were thousands of politically motivated murders . They intimidated voters and seeded violence and anger among the public, who suffered from high unemployment and poverty. After a succession of unsuccessful cabinets, on January 29 1933,
President von Hindenburg, seeing little alternative and pushed by advisors, appointed
Adolf Hitler Chancellor of Germany.
Third Reich
On 27 February, the
Reichstag was set on fire. Some basic democratic rights were quickly abrogated afterwards under an emergency decree. An Enabling Act gave Hitler's government full legislative power, only the
Sozial Demokratische Partei, SPD voted against it , the communists could not because many had already been inprisoned or murdered. A centralized totalitarian state was established by a series of moves and decrees making Germany a
single-party state. Industry was closely regulated with quotas and requirements in order to shift the economy towards a war production base. In 1936, German troops entered the demilitarised Rhineland as
British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain's
appeasement policies proved inadequate. Emboldened, Hitler followed from 1938 onwards a policy of expansionism to establish
Greater Germany. To avoid a two-front war, Hitler concluded the
Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact with the
Soviet Union , and broke it. During 12 years of Hitlers government killed more than 6 millions
Jews, thousands of gypsies, homosexuals and other "untermenschen" were tortured and murdered.
In 1939 the
growing tensions from nationalism, militarism, and territorial issues led to the Germans launching a
blitzkrieg on September 1st against
Poland, followed two days later by war declarations against Britain and France, marking the beginning of
World War II. Germany quickly gained direct or indirect control of the majority of
Europe. On June 22, 1941, Hitler broke the pact with the Soviet Union by opening the Eastern Front and
invading the Soviet Union. Shortly after Japan
attacked the American base at Pearl Harbor, Germany declared war on the United States. Although initially the German army rapidly advanced into the surprised
Soviet Union, the
Battle of Stalingrad marked a major turning point in the war. Subsequently, the German army commenced retreating on the Eastern front, followed by the eventual defeat of Germany. On 8 May 1945,
Germany surrendered after the
