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History of Germany

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This map of the German Empire was designed by Julius Reichelt (1637-1717). Reichelt was professor of mathematics at the University of Strassburg. During the 18th century many derivations appeared. Thi
Nicolaes Visscher II · Public domain

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During the High Middle Ages, the Hanseatic League, dominated by German ports, established itself along the Baltic and North Seas. The State of the Teutonic Order was created in what would become Prussia. In the Late Middle Ages, dukes, princes, and bishops gained power at the expense of the emperors. Martin Luther led the Reformation against the Catholic Church after 1517, as northern and eastern states became Protestant, while others remained Catholic. The Thirty Years' War between 1618-48 brought destruction to the Holy Roman Empire, and the Imperial Estates attained autonomy in the Peace of Westphalia, including Austria, Prussia, Bavaria and Saxony. With the Napoleonic Wars, feudalism fell and the Holy Roman Empire dissolved in 1806. Napoleon established the Confederation of the Rhine as a puppet state, and after France's defeat, the German Confederation was established. The German revolutions of 1848–1849 failed but the Industrial Revolution modernized the economy, leading to urban growth and the socialist movement. Prussia, with its capital Berlin, grew in power. German universities became world-class centers for science, while music and art flourished. The first unification of Germany was achieved under Otto von Bismarck with the formation of the German Empire in 1871. Germany joined other powers in colonial expansion.

By 1900, Germany was the dominant power on the European continent, its industry surpassed Britain's while provoking it in a naval arms race. Germany led the Central Powers in World War I, was defeated, forced to pay war reparations, and stripped of territory. The German revolution of 1918–1919 ended the empire and established the democratic Weimar Republic. In 1933, Adolf Hitler, leader of the Nazi Party, used the hardship of the Great Depression, and resentment over the terms imposed after World War I, to establish a totalitarian regime. This Nazi Germany made antisemitism central to its policies, annexed German-speaking neighbors and invaded Poland, triggering World War II. The Nazis committed a genocide, the Holocaust, which killed 11 million people, including 6 million Jews. Germany was defeated in 1945, and occupied by the Allies. German territories were split up and annexed by Poland and the Soviet Union.

Germany spent the Cold War divided into the NATO-aligned West Germany and Warsaw Pact-aligned East Germany. Germans fled from Communist areas into West Germany, which experienced economic expansion, and became the dominant economy in Europe. In 1989, the Berlin Wall was opened, and East and West Germany were reunited. Franco-German friendship became the basis for the political integration of Europe in the European Union. In 1999 Germany was a founding member of the eurozone. In the 21st century, Angela Merkel served as its first female chancellor between 2005-21. The country steered the response to the euro area crisis, transitioned to sustainable energy, and took in a million people during the 2015 European migrant crisis — which fuelled the rise of the far-right Alternative for Germany.

Prehistory

Paleolithic and Neolithic ages

The discovery of the Homo heidelbergensis mandible in 1907 affirms archaic human presence in Germany 600,000 years ago. The first non-modern human fossil, the Neanderthal, was discovered in the Neander Valley in 1856. The oldest complete set of hunting weapons ever found was excavated from a mine in Schöningen: ten 200,000-year-old wooden spears. The oldest traces of modern humans in Germany were found in the Ilsenhöhle cave, where 45,000-year-old remains were discovered. The remains of Paleolithic early modern human occupation uncovered in caves in the Swabian Jura, include sculptures. The 40,000-year-old Löwenmensch figurine and Venus of Hohle Fels represent the oldest uncontested human figurative art found.

Between 13,000 and 11,700 years ago, north-central Germany was part of the Ahrensburg culture. The first farmers, different from the indigenous hunter-gatherers, to migrate into Europe came from Anatolia, in the Neolithic period 10,000-8,000 years ago. Central Germany was a primary area of the Linear Pottery culture (c. 5500 BC – c. 4500 BC), contemporary with the Ertebølle culture (c. 5300 BC – c. 3950 BC) of north Germany. Construction of Neolithic circular enclosures in Central Europe occurred in this period. The oldest traces for use of the wheel and wagon are located at a Funnelbeaker culture site dated to 3400 BC.

Bronze Age

The settlers of the Corded Ware culture (c. 2900 BC – c. 2350 BC), that spread over the fertile plains of Central Europe during the Late Neolithic were of Indo-European ancestry. By the late Bronze Age, the Urnfield culture (c. 1300 BC – c. 750 BC) had replaced other cultures, whilst the Nordic Bronze Age had developed in Scandinavia and Germany. The Urnfield culture was succeeded by the Hallstatt culture.

Iron Age

The Hallstatt culture was the predominant Western and Central European culture from the 12th to 8th centuries BC and during the early Iron Age (8th to 6th centuries BC). It was followed by the La Tène culture (5th to 1st centuries BC). The people who adopted these cultural characteristics in central and southern Germany are regarded as Celts. Celtic cultural centres developed during the late Bronze Age (c. 1200 BC until 700 BC). Some, like the Heuneburg, the oldest city north of the Alps, became important cultural centres, that maintained trade routes to the Mediterranean. Beginning around 700 BC, Germanic peoples from southern Scandinavia and northern Germany expanded south and replaced the Celts.

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