Index 2

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History of Germany
CountryGermany CapitalBerlin LocationCentral Europe, bordering the Baltic Sea and the North Sea, between the
Netherlands and Poland, south of Denmark Size357,021 sq km Terrainlowlands in north, uplands in center, Bavarian Alps
in south Climatetemperate and marine; cool, cloudy, wet winters and summers; occasional warm foehn
wind LanguagesGerman Nationalitynoun: German(s)
adjective: German ReligionProtestant 34%, Roman Catholic 34%, Muslim 3.7%, unaffiliated or other 28.3% Currencyeuro
(EUR) Exportsmachinery, vehicles, chemicals, metals and manufactures, foodstuffs, textiles
Germanic peoples
The Germanic (also, Teutonic) peoples are the nations speaking Germanic languages, idioms descended from Proto-
Germanic (spoken during the final centuries BC, the Pre-Roman Iron Age of Northern Europe).
Etymology of Germani
Latin Germani is first used by Julius Caesar, and is thought to be a loan from the Celtic name for the Germanic tribes: the
word is an exonym. There is also a Latin adjective germanus (from germen, "seed" or "offshoot"), which has the sense of
"related" or "kindred" and whence derives the Portuguese irmao and the Spanish hermano, "brother". If the proper name
Germani derives from this word, it may refer to the Roman experience of the Germanic tribes as allies of the Celts.
Another possible derivation is the one proffered by the Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology (1966), which relates the
name to Old Irish gair, "neighbor", which actually means "near". The Welsh is ger.
McBain's An Etymological Dictionary of the Gaelic Language relates the word to Irish gearr, "cut, short" (a short distance)
and states the Proto-Celtic root to be *gerso-s, further related to ancient Greek chereion, "inferior" and English gash.
Here the etymological trail becomes more obscured. English gash leads to the Greek word character, which is an
engraving for an identity sign of some sort. There is no clear root for this word. It could be an Indo-European root, *khar-,
*kher-, *ghar-, *gher-, "cut", from which also Hittite kar-, "cut". Or, it could be a pre-Indo-European root, related perhaps
to Egyptian kha-, "cut", or the Indo-European root could derive from the pre-Indo-European root.
Apparently, the Germanic tribes did not have a self name that included all Germanic-speaking people but excluded all
non-Germanic people, except for generic ?iuda- "people", while non-Germanic peoples (primarily Celtic and Roman)
were called *walha- (This word lives forth in names such as Wales, Welsh, Cornwall, Walloons, Vlachs etc.). The
adjective *?iudiskaz, referring to the language, continued in German Deutsch, English Dutch, Dutch Dietsch, was not
introduced until the 9th century, originally designating the language of the people in contrast to the Latin language. From
ca. 875, Latin writers refer to the German language as teutonicus.
In English, German is first attested in 1520, replacing earlier use of Almain or Dutch.
Classification
The concept of "Germanic" as a distinct ethnic identity was hinted at by the early Greek geographer Strabo [1], who
distinguished a barbarian group in northern Europe similar to, but not part of, the Celts. Posidonius, to our knowledge, is
the first to have used the name, around 80 BC, in his lost 30th book. Our knowledge of this is based on the 4th book of
Athenaeus, who in ca. AD 190 quotes Posidonius as saying that "The Germani at noon serve roast meat with milk, and
drink their wine undiluted".
By the 1st century A.D., the writings of Caesar, Tacitus and other Roman era writers indicate a division of Germanic-
speaking peoples into tribal groupings centred on:
* the rivers Oder and Vistula (Poland) (East Germanic tribes),

* the lower Rhine river (Istvaeones),
* the river Elbe (Irminones),
* Jutland and the Danish islands (Ingvaeones).
The Sons of Mannus Istvaeones, Irminones, and Ingvaeones are collectively called West Germanic tribes. In addition to
this those Germanic people who remained in Scandinavia are referred to as North Germanic. These groups all
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developed separate dialects, and literature styles with little regard for conventional punctuation, the basis for the
differences among Germanic languages down to the present day.
The division of peoples into West Germanic, East Germanic, and North Germanic is a modern linguistic classification.
Many Greek scholars only classified Celts and Scyths in the Northwest and Northeast of the Mediterranean and this
classification was widely maintained in Greek literature until Late Antiquity. Latin-Greek ethnographers (Tacitus, Pliny the
Elder, Ptolemy, and Strabo) mentioned in the first two centuries AD the names of peoples they classified as Germanic
along the Elbe, the Rhine, and the Danube, the Vistula and on the Baltic Sea. Tacitus mentioned 40, Ptolemy 69
peoples. Classical ethnography applied the name Suebi to many tribes in the first century. It appeared that this native
name had all but replaced the foreign name Germanic. After the Marcomannic wars the Gothic name steadily gained
importance. Some of the ethnic names mentioned by the ethnographers of the first two centuries AD on the shores of the
Oder and the Vistula (Gutones, Vandali) reappear from the 3rd century on in the area of the lower Danube and north of
the Carpathian Mountains. For the end of the 5th century the Gothic name can be used - according to the historical
sources - for such different peoples like the Goths in Gaul, Iberia and Italy, the Vandals in Africa, the Gepids along the
Tisza and the Danube, the Rugians, Sciri and Burgundians, even the Iranian Alans. These peoples were classified as
Scyths and often deducted from the ancient Getae (most important: Cassiodor/Jordanes, Getica approx. 550 AD).
The concept of Volk
In the 1990s and the 2000s there has been debate about exactly what "tribe" or "people" meant to these groups, whose
fluidity and willingness to sometimes blend is seen while at the same time forced mergers as a result of war were taking
place and the tribe as it had been known vanished. The late classical sources are especially clear in the matter of the
blended nature of the Alamanni.
The idea of a unified German people, or Volk, was expressed openly in print by 19th century Ethnic Nationalist writers
and thinkers after the Napoleonic Wars. Such an identity, however, had existed more implicitly since the Middle Ages,
helping to fuel the Protestant Reformation, when many Germanic lands pulled away religiously and politically from the
Roman Catholic Church.
Culture
The Germanic tribes were each politically independent, under a hereditary king (see Germanic king). The kings appear to
have claimed descendancy from mythical founders of the tribes, the name of some of which is preserved:
* Angul — Angles (the Kings of Mercia, according to the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, other Anglo-Saxon dynasties are derived
from other descendents of Woden)
* Aurvandil — Vandals (uncertain)
* Burgundus — Burgundians
* Cibidus — Cibidi
* Dan — Danes
* Gothus — Goths
* Ingve — Ynglings
* Irmin — Irminones
* Longobardus — Lombards
* Saxneat — Saxons
* Valagothus — Valagoths
History
Origin
Regarding the question of ethnic origins, evidence developed by both archaeologists and linguists suggests that a people
or group of peoples sharing a common material culture dwelt in northern Germany and southern Scandinavia during the
late European Bronze Age (1000 BC-500 BC). This culture group is called the Nordic Bronze Age and spread from
southern Scandinavia into northern Germany. The long presence of Germanic tribes in southern Scandinavia (an Indo-
European language had probably arrived by 2000 BC) is also evidenced by the fact that no pre-Germanic place names
have been found in this area.
Linguists, working backwards from historically-known Germanic languages, suggest that this group spoke proto-
Germanic, a distinct branch of the Indo-European language family. Cultural features at that time included small,
independent settlements, and an economy strongly based on the keeping of livestock.
The southward movement was probably influenced by a deteriorating climate in Scandinavia ca 600 BC - ca 300 BC. The
warm and dry climate of southern Scandinavia (2-3 degrees warmer than today) deteriorated considerably, which not
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only dramatically changed the flora, but forced people to change their way of living and to leave settlements.
At around this time, this culture discovered how to extract bog iron from the ore in peat bogs. Their technology for gaining
iron ore from local sources may have helped them expand into new territories.
The Germanic culture grew to the southwest and southeast, without sudden breaks, and it can be distinguished from the
culture of the Celts inhabiting the more southerly Danube and Alpine regions during the same period.
The details of the expansion are known only generally, but it is clear that the forebears of the Goths were settled on the
southern Baltic shore by 100 AD. According to some scholars, along the lower and middle Rhine, previous local
inhabitants seem to have come under the leadership of Germanic figures from outside.
The early Germanic tribes spoke mutually intelligible dialects, and shared a common culture and mythology (see
Germanic mythology), as is indicated by Beowulf and the Volsunga saga. One example of their shared identity is their
common Germanic name for non-Germanic peoples, *walhaz (plural of *walhoz), from which the local names Welsh,
Wallis, etc. were derived. A second example of a recognized ethnic unity is the fact that the Romans knew them as one
and gave them a common name, Germani, the source of our German and Germanic (see Etymology below).
In the absence of large-scale political unification, such as that imposed forcibly by the Romans upon the peoples of Italy,
the various tribes remained free, led by their own hereditary or chosen leaders.
Collision with Rome
By the late 2nd century, B.C., Roman authors recount Gaul (modern France), Italy, and Iberia and Lusitania (modern
Spain and Portugal) were invaded by migrating Germanic tribes, culminating in military conflict with the armies of the
Roman Empire. Six decades later, Julius Caesar invoked the threat of such attacks as one justification for his annexation
of Gaul to Rome.
Map showing the distribution of the Germanic tribes in Proto-Germanic times, and stages of their expansion up to 50 BC,
AD 100 and AD 300. The extent of the Roman Empire in 68 BC and AD 117 is also shown.
Enlarge
Map showing the distribution of the Germanic tribes in Proto-Germanic times, and stages of their expansion up to 50 BC,
AD 100 and AD 300. The extent of the Roman Empire in 68 BC and AD 117 is also shown.
As Rome expanded to the Rhine and Danube rivers, it incorporated many Celtic societies into the Empire. The tribal
homelands to the north and east emerged collectively in the records as Germania. The peoples of this area were
sometimes at war with Rome, but also engaged in complex and long-term trade relations, military alliances, and cultural
exchanges with Rome as well.
The Cimbri and Teutoni incursions into Roman Italy were thrust back in 101 BC. These invasions were written up by
Caesar and others as presaging of a Northern danger for the Empire, a danger that should be controlled. In the
Augustean period there was — as a result of Roman activity as far as the Elbe River — a first definition of the "Germania
magna": from Rhine and Danube in the West and South to the Vistula and the Baltic Sea in the East and North.
Caesar's wars helped establish the term Germania. The initial purpose of the Roman campaigns was to protect
Transalpine Gaul by controlling the area between the Rhine and the Elbe. In 9 AD a revolt of their subject Germanics
headed by Arminius (along with a decisive defeat of Quintilius Varus in the Teutoburg Forest) ended in the withdrawal of
the Roman frontier to the Rhine. At the end of the 1st century two provinces west of the Rhine called Germania inferior
and Germania superior were established. Important medieval cities like Aachen, Cologne, Trier, Mainz, Worms and
Speyer were part of these Roman provinces.
The Germania by Gaius Cornelius Tacitus, an ethnographic work on the diverse group of Germanic tribes outside of the
Roman Empire, is our most important source on the Germanic peoples of the 1st century.
Migration Period
During the 5th century, as the Roman Empire drew toward its end, numerous Germanic tribes, under pressure from
invading Asian peoples and/or population growth and climate change, began migrating en masse in far and diverse
directions, taking them to England and as far south through present day Continental Europe to the Mediterranean and
northern Africa. Over time, this wandering meant intrusions into other tribal territories, and the ensuing wars for land
escalated with the dwindling amount of unoccupied territory. Wandering tribes then began staking out permanent homes
as a means of protection. Much of this resulted in fixed settlements from which many, under a powerful leader, expanded
outwards. A defeat meant either scattering or merging with the dominant tribe, and this continued to be how nations were
formed. In Denmark the Jutes merged with the Danes, in Sweden the Geats merged with the Swedes. In England, for
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example, we now most often refer to the Anglo-Saxons rather than the two separate tribes.
Role in the Fall of Rome
Some of the Germanic tribes are frequently blamed in popular depictions of the fall of the Roman Empire in the late 5th
century. Professional historians and archaeologists have since the 1950s shifted their interpretations in such a way that
the Germanic peoples are no longer seen as invading a decaying empire but as being co-opted into helping defend
territory the central government could no longer adequately administer. Individuals and small groups from Germanic
tribes had long been recruited from the territories beyond the limes (i.e., the regions just outside the Roman Empire), and
some of them had risen high in the command structure of the army. Then the Empire recruited entire tribal groups under
their native leaders as officers. Assisting with defense eventually shifted into administration and then outright rule, as
Roman of government passed into the hands of Germanic leaders. Odoacer, who deposed Romulus Augustulus, is the
ultimate example.
The presence of successor states controlled by a nobility from one of the Germanic tribes is evident in the 6th century -
even in Italy, the former heart of the Empire, where Odoacer was followed by Theodoric the Great, king of the
Ostrogoths, who was regarded by Roman citizens and Gothic settlers alike as legitimate successor to the rule of Rome
and Italy.
Conversion to Christianity
The Ostrogoths, Visigoths, and Vandals were Christianized while they were still outside the bounds of the Empire;
however, they converted to Arianism rather than to orthodox Catholicism, and were soon regarded as heretics. The one
great written remnant of the Gothic language is a translation of portions of the Bible made by Ulfilas, the missionary who
converted them. The Lombards were not converted until after their entrance into the Empire, but received Christianity
from Arian Germanic groups.
The Franks were converted directly from paganism to Catholicism without an intervening time as Arians. Several
centuries later, Anglo-Saxon and Frankish missionaries and warriors undertook the conversion of their Saxon
neighbours. A key event was the felling of Thor's Oak near Fritzlar by Boniface, apostle of the Germans, in 723.
Eventually, the conversion was forced by armed force, successfully completed by Charlemagne, in a series of campaigns
(the Saxon Wars), that also brought Saxon lands into the Frankish empire.
Assimilation
"Germanic" as understood today is a linguistic term. For this reason, not all peoples that largely descend from the ancient
Germanic peoples, genetically, are Germanic speakers today. Germanic peoples were often quick to assimilate into
foreign cultures. Established examples include the Romanized Norsemen in Normandy, and the societal elite in medieval
Russia among whom many were the descendants of Slavified Norsemen (a theory, however, contested by some Slavic
scholars in the former Soviet Union, who name it the Normanist theory).
Great Britain is similarly considered an example of assimilation, where elements of the Germanic tribes called the
Angles, Saxons, and Jutes merged with Celts and French-speaking Norsemen.
Scotland is historically a country of mixed Germanic and Celtic culture and settlement; while the Scottish Highlands and
Galloway were until recently more Celtic and akin to Celtic Ireland in its culture and Scottish Gaelic language, the
Scottish Lowlands share their culture and language closely with its neighbour to the south and other Germanic peoples,
speaking the Scots language. The Orkney Islands and Shetland Islands, though a part of Scotland, were historically
Scandinavian in culture, though they no longer speak their native language Norn as an influx of Lallans speaking lowland
Scots resulted in its displacement.
Ireland is also a country of mixed Germanic and Celtic culture, but for different reasons than Scotland. As with Scotland,
Ireland had much Scandinavian settlement, both in Viking and Anglo-Norman colonies. Through centuries of British
dominance, many parts of Ireland gradually developed a character that was more British than native Celtic, particularly in
Ulster and Leinster.
France saw a great deal of Germanic settlement, and even its namesake the Franks were a Germanic people. Entire
regions of France (such as Alsace, Burgundy and Normandy) were settled heavily by Germanic peoples, contributing to
their unique regional cultures and dialects. But most of the languages spoken in France today are Romance languages,
while the people have a heavy Gallic substratum that predates Latin and Germanic settlement.
Portugal and Spain also had a great measure of Germanic settlement, due to the Visigoths and the Suevi (Quadi and
Marcomanni), who settled permanently. The Vandals (Silingi and Hasdingi) were also present, before moving on to North
Africa, where they were absorbed into the local population. Many words in Spanish come from their genetically decents
and other Germanic tribes also.
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Italy, especially the area north of the city of Rome, has also had a history of heavy Germanic settlement. Germanic tribes
such as the Visigoths, Vandals, and Ostrogoths had successfully invaded and sparsely settled Italy in the 5th century
AD. Most notably, in the 6th century AD, the Germanic tribe known as the Lombards entered and settled primarily in the
area known today as Lombardy. The Normans, a partially Germanic people, also conquered and ruled Sicily and parts of
southern Italy for a time.
Migration Period
The Migration Period is a name given by historians to a human migration which occurred within the period AD 300–900 in
the area which comprises Central Europe.
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.
The modern account
Modern historians divide the migration movement into two phases. The first phase, between AD 300 and 500, largely
seen from the Mediterranean perspective, saw the movement of Germanic and other tribes and resulted in putting
Germanic peoples in control of most areas of the former Western Roman Empire. (See also: Ostrogoths, Visigoths,
Burgundians, Alans, Langobards, Angles, Saxons, Jutes, Suebi, Alamanni). The first to formally enter Roman territory
were the Visigoths who are considered nowadays to have put an end to the last outliving form of Roman Empire. They
were first called by the Roman Empire to defend its boundaries in exchange of fees, but they later occupied it. They were
soon followed by the Ostrogoths led by Thiudareiks.
The second phase, between AD 500 and 900, saw Slavic, Turkish and other tribes on the move, re-settling in Eastern
Europe and gradually making it predominantly Slavic, and affecting Anatolia and the Caucasus as the first Turkic peoples
arrived. See also: Avars, Huns, Arabs, Varangians. The last phase of the migrations saw the coming of the Magyars to
Pannonia and the expansion of the Vikings out of Scandinavia.
While other migrations have happened later in the history of Europe, generally they did not give rise to new states to the
same extent, comprising mainly temporary invasions — with the notable exception of the Turkish invasion which started the
Ottoman Empire.
Volkerwanderung
The German term Volkerwanderung ("the migration of peoples"), is also used in English-language historiography as an
alternate label for the Migration Period.
However, the term Volkerwanderung is also strongly associated with a certain romantic historical style which has strong
roots in the German-speaking world of the 19th century, perhaps associated with the same cultural process which
included the music of Wagner and the writings of Nietzsche and Goethe.
In Latin descendant countries these migrations are rather called "invasions" (e.g. Italian term "Invasioni Barbariche"
meaning "barbarian invasions"). This is due to a widespread view of Northern people of that period as uncivillan and
primitive, and often they are blamed for destroying the Roman Empire. This is an old way of thinking remnant from the
Renaissance, common until Romanticism and still alive in France and Italy.
In this sense, the forced expansion of the Germanic tribes into France, England, Northern Italy and Iberia indicates the
energy and dynamism of those so-called "barbarian" peoples. This analysis became associated with 19th century
German Romantic nationalism and the Eastern expansion of Germany (Drang nach Osten, the urge to move East).
It is argued that this kind of analysis contributed to the Nazi folk ideology of Lebensraum, or "living space", the theory that
the Germans had a mission to expand their population beyond the national borders of Germany.
Migration Period
In reaction to the above, 20th-century English-language historiography largely abandoned the German term, replacing it
with "Migration Period", as in the series Studies in Historical Archaeoethnology or Gyula Laslo's The Art of the Migration
Period.
The "invasions" of Romantic-generation historians have given way, too: scholars today hold that a great deal of the
migration did not represent hostile invasion, but rather tribes taking the opportunity to enter and settle lands already thinly
populated and weakly held by a divided Roman state whose economy was shrinking.

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Frankish Empire
The Frankish Empire was the territory of the Franks, from the 5th to the 10th centuries, from 481 ruled by Clovis I of the
Merovingian Dynasty, the first king of all the Franks. From 751, under the Carolingian Dynasty, it is known as the
Carolingian Empire. After the Treaty of Verdun of 843 it was split into East, West and Middle Francia. East Francia gave
rise to the Holy Roman Empire with Otto I the Great in 962.
Since the term "Empire" properly applies only to times after the coronation of Charlemagne in 800, and since the unified
kingdom was repeatedly split and re-united, most historians prefer to use the term Frankish Kingdoms or Frankish Realm
to refer to the entirety of Frankish rule from the 5th to the 9th century.
Origins
The Merovingian dynasty owes its name to Merovech (sometimes Latinized as Meroveus or Merovius), leader of the
Salian Franks from about 447 to 457, and emerges into wider history with the victories of Childeric I (reigned about 457 -
481) against the Visigoths, Saxons and Alamanni.
Merovingians (481-751)
The reigns of earlier Frankish chieftains – Pharamond (about 419 until about 427) and Clodio (Chlodio) (about 427 until
about 447) – seem to owe more to myth than fact, and their relationship to the Merovingian line remains uncertain.
Gregory mentions Chlodio as the first king who started the conquest of Gaul by taking Camaracum (Cambrai) and
expanding the border of frankish territory south to the Somme. This probably took some time; Sidonius relates that Aetius
surprised the Franks and drove them back (probably around 431). This period marks the beginning of a situation that
would endure for many centuries: the Germanic Franks became rulers over an increasing number of Gallo-Roman
subjects.
In 451, Aetius called upon his Germanic allies on Roman soil to help fight off an invasion by the Huns. The Salian Franks
answered the call, the Ripuarians fought on both sides as some of them lived outside the Empire. Gregory's sources
tentatively identify Meroveus (Merovech) as king of the Franks and possibly a son of Chlodio. Meroveus was succeeded
by Childeric I, whose grave, rediscovered in 1653, contained a ring that identified him as king of the Franks.
Childeric's son Clovis engaged in a campaign of consolidating the various Frankish kingdoms in Gaul and the Rhineland,
which included defeating Syagrius at the Battle of Tolbiac in 486, and decisively defeating the Visigothic kingdom of
Toulouse in the Battle of Vouille in 507. This victory ended Roman control in the Paris region. In the Battle of Vouille
(507), Clovis, with the help of the Burgundians, defeated the Visigoths, expanding his realm eastwards down to the
Pyrenees mountains.
The conversion of Clovis to Trinitarian Roman Christianity, after his marriage to the Catholic Burgundian princess
Clothilde in 493, may have helped to increase his standing in the eyes of the Pope and the other orthodox Christian
rulers. Clovis' conversion signalled the conversion of the rest of the Franks. Because they were able to worship with their
Catholic neighbours, the newly-Christianized Franks found much easier acceptance from the local Gallo-Roman
population than did the Arian Visigoths, Vandals or Burgundians. The Merovingians thus built what eventually proved the
most stable of the successor-kingdoms in the west.
On his death, Clovis partitioned his kingdom among his four sons, according to Frankish custom. Over the next two
centuries, this tradition would continue. Even when multiple Merovingian kings ruled, the kingdom - not unlike the late
Roman Empire - was conceived of as a single realm ruled collectively by several kings and the turn of events could result
in the reunification of the whole realm under a single king.
Stability, however, did not feature day-to-day in the Merovingian era. While casual violence existed to a degree in late
Roman times, the introduction of the Germanic practice of the blood-feud to obtain personal justice led to a perception of
increased lawlessness. Disruptions to trade occurred, and civic life became increasingly difficult, which led to an
increasingly localized and fragmented society based on self-sufficient villas. Literacy practically disappeared outside of
churches and monasteries.
The Merovingian chieftains adhered to the Germanic practice of dividing their lands among their sons, and the frequent
division, reunification and redivision of territories often resulted in murder and warfare within the leading families. So
though Clovis drove the Visigoths out of Gaul, at his death in 511, his four sons divided his realm between themselves,
and over the next two centuries his descendants shared the kingship.
The Frankish area expanded further under Clovis' sons, eventually covering most of present-day France, but including
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areas east of the Rhine river as well, such as Alamannia (today's southwestern Germany) and Thuringia (from 531).
Saxony, however, remained outside the Frankish realm until conquered by Charlemagne centuries later.
After a temporary reunification of the separate kingdoms under Clotaire I, the Frankish lands split once again in 561 into
Neustria, Austrasia, and Burgundy, which had been absorbed into the Frankish realms through a combination of political
marriage and force of arms.
In each Frankish kingdom the Mayor of the Palace served as the chief officer of state. A series of premature deaths
beginning with that of Dagobert I in 639 led to a series of under age kings. By the turn of the 8th century, this had allowed
the Austrasian Mayors to consolidate power in their own hereditary regency, laying the foundation for a new dynasty:
their descendants the Carolingians.
* Clotaire I 558-561
* Clotaire II 613-629
* Dagobert I 629-639
Clotaire II defeated Brunhilda and her offspring and reunified the kingdom. However, in 623 he created the sub-kingdom
of Austrasia, in order to appease particularistic forces and also to secure the borders. His son and successor Dagobert I
emulated this move by appointing sub-kings for Aquitaine in 629 and Austrasia in 634.
* Childeric II 673-675
* Clotaire III 661-662
* Theuderic III 679-691
* Clovis IV 691-695
* Childebert III 695-711
* Dagobert III 711-715
* Chilperic II 715-720
* Theuderic IV 721-737
* Childeric III 743-751
However, it must be noted that from the days of Pepin the Elder the King was effectively powerless, and the Mayor the
Palace, one of the Carolingians, effectively ruled the Realm. This finally resulted in Pepin the Short asking the Pope,
"who should be King, he who has the power, or he who has the name?" Shortly thereafter, the Pope, who depended on
Frankish armies to assure his own power, crowned Pepin as the first Carolingian King of the Franks, and his son,
Charlamagne, went on to become the first Holy Roman Emperor, though it was actually a Frankish Empire, and it's
tributories and allies.
Carolingian Empire (751-843)
The term "Carolingian Empire" may be used to refer to the realm of the Franks under the dynasty of the Carolingians, but
the term "Empire" applies particularly to the times after thee coronation of Charlemagne as Emperor in 800 by Pope Leo
III.
The "Carolingian Empire" ended with the death of the Holy Roman Emperor Charles III the Fat in 888, although some
Carolingians managed to gain the Imperial crown in later times.
The Carolingian kingship traditionally begins with the deposition of the last Merovingian king, with papal assent, and the
accession in 751 of Pippin the Short, father of Charlemagne. Pippin had succeeded his own father, Charles Martel, as
Mayor of the Palace of a reunited and re-erected Frankish kingdom comprised of the formerly independent parts.
Pippin reigned as an elected king. Although such elections happened infrequently, a general rule in Germanic law stated
that the king relied on the support of his leading men. These men reserved the right to choose a new "kingworthy" leader
out of the ruling clan if they felt that the old one could not lead them in profitable battle. While in later France the kingdom
became hereditary, the kings of the later Holy Roman Empire proved unable to abolish the elective tradition and
continued as elected rulers until the Empire's formal end in 1806.
Pippin solidified his position in 754 by entering into an alliance with Pope Stephen III, who presented the king of the
Franks a copy of the forged "Donation of Constantine" at Paris and in a magnificent ceremony at Saint-Denis anointed
the king and his family and declared him patricius Romanorum ("protector of the Romans"). The following year Pippin
fulfilled his promise to the pope and retrieved the Exarchate of Ravenna, recently fallen to the Lombards, and returned it,
not to the Byzantine emperor again, but to the Papacy. Pippin donated the re-conquered areas around Rome to the
Pope, laying the foundation for the Papal States in the "Donation of Pippin" which he laid on the tomb of St Peter. The
papacy had good cause to expect that the remade Frankish monarchy would provide a deferential power base (potestas)
in the creation of a new world order, centred on the Pope.
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* Pippin the Younger (751-768)
Upon Pippin's death in 768, his sons, Charles and Carloman, once again divided the kingdom between themselves.
However, Carloman withdrew to a monastery and died shortly thereafter, leaving sole rule to his brother, who would later
become known as Charlemagne or Charles the Great, a powerful, intelligent, and modestly literate figure who became a
legend for the later history of both France and Germany. Charlemagne restored an equal balance between emperor and
pope.
From 772 onwards, Charles conquered and eventually defeated the Saxons to incorporate their realm into the Frankish
kingdom. This campaign expanded the practice of non-Roman Christian rulers undertaking the conversion of their
neighbours by armed force; Frankish Catholic missionaries, along with others from Ireland and Anglo-Saxon England,
had entered Saxon lands since the mid-8th century, resulting in increasing conflict with the Saxons, who resisted the
missionary efforts and parallel military incursions. Charles' main Saxon opponent, Widukind, accepted baptism in 785 as
part of a peace agreement, but other Saxon leaders continued to fight. Upon his victory in 787 at Verdun, Charles
ordered the wholesale killing of thousands of pagan Saxon prisoners. After several more uprisings, the Saxons suffered
definitive defeat in 804. This expanded the Frankish kingdom eastwards as far as the Elbe river, something the Roman
empire had only attempted once, and at which it failed in the Battle of the Teutoburg Forest (9 AD). In order to more
effectively Christianize the Saxons, Charles founded several bishoprics, among them Bremen, Munster, Paderborn, and
Osnabruck.
At the same time (773–774), Charles conquered the Lombards and thus could include northern Italy in his sphere of
influence. He renewed the Vatican donation and the promise to the papacy of continued Frankish protection.
In 788, Tassilo, dux (duke) of Bavaria rebelled against Charles. Quashing the rebellion incorporated Bavaria into Charles'
kingdom. This not only added to the royal fisc, but also drastically reduced the power and influence of the Agilolfings
(Tassilo's family), another leading family among the Franks and potential rivals. Until 796, Charles continued to expand
the kingdom even farther southeast, into today's Austria and parts of Croatia.
Charlemagne's kingdom survived its founder and covered much of Western Europe from 795 until 843 when a treaty split
it amongst his grandsons: Central Franks ruled by Lothair I (green), East Franks ruled by Louis the German (yellow), and
Charles the Bald led West Franks (purple).
Charlemagne's kingdom survived its founder and covered much of Western Europe from 795 until 843 when a treaty split
it amongst his grandsons: Central Franks ruled by Lothair I (green), East Franks ruled by Louis the German (yellow), and
Charles the Bald led West Franks (purple).
Charles thus created a realm that reached from the Pyrenees in the southwest (actually, including an area in Northern
Spain (Marca Hispanica) after 795) over almost all of today's France (except Brittany, which the Franks never
conquered) eastwards to most of today's Germany, including northern Italy and today's Austria. In the hierarchy of the
church, bishops and abbots looked to the patronage of the king's palace, where the sources of patronage and security
lay. Charles had fully emerged as the leader of Western Christendom, and his patronage of monastic centres of learning
gave rise to the "Carolingian Renaissance" of literate culture.
On Christmas Day, 800, Pope Leo III crowned Charles as "Emperor of the Romans" in Rome in a ceremony presented
as if a surprise (Charlemagne did not wish to be indebted to the bishop of Rome), a further papal move in the series of
symbolic gestures that had been defining the mutual roles of papal auctoritas and imperial potestas. Though
Charlemagne, in deference to Byzantine outrage, preferred the title "Emperor, king of the Franks and Lombards", the
ceremony formally acknowledged the Frankish Empire as the successor of the (Western) Roman one (although only the
forged "Donation" gave the pope political authority to do this), thus triggering a series of disputes with the Byzantines
around the Roman name. After an initial protest at the usurpation, in 812, the Byzantine Emperor Michael I Rhangabes
acknowledged Charlemagne as co-Emperor. The coronation gave permanent legitimacy to Carolingian primacy among
the Franks. The Ottonians later resurrected this connection in 962.
Upon Charlemagne's death on January 28, 814 in Aachen, he was buried in his own Palace Chapel at Aachen.
Later Carolingians
Charlemagne had several sons, but only one survived him. This son, Louis the Pious, followed his father as the ruler of a
united Empire. But sole inheritance remained a matter of chance, rather than intent. When Louis died in 840, the
Carolingians adhered to the custom of partible inheritance, and the Treaty of Verdun in 843 divided the Empire in three:
1. Louis' eldest surviving son Lothair I became Emperor and ruler of the Central Franks. His three sons in turn divided
this kingdom between them into Lotharingia, Burgundy and (Northern) Italy. These areas would later vanish as separate
kingdoms.
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2. Louis' second son, Louis the German, became King of the East Franks. This area formed the kernel of the later Holy
Roman Empire, which eventually evolved into modern Germany. For a list of successors, see the List of German Kings
and Emperors.
3. His third son Charles the Bald became King of the West Franks; this area became the foundation for the later France.
For his successors, see the List of French monarchs.
Subsequently, at the Treaty of Mersen (870) the partitions were recast, to the detriment of Lotharingia.
On December 12, 884, Charles the Fat reunited most of the Carolingian Empire, aside from Burgundy.
In late 887, his nephew, Arnulf of Carinthia revolted and assumed the title as King of the East Franks ('Germany').
Charles retired and soon died on January 13, 888. Odo, Count of Paris was chosen to rule in the west ('France'), and
was crowned the next month.
The Carolingians were 10 years later restored in France, and ruled until 987, when the last Frankish King, Louis V, died
* Louis the Pious (814-840)
The three surviving sons of Louis the Pious divided the empire at the Treaty of Verdun in 843.
West Francia (843-987)
Main article: West Francia
West Francia was the land under the control of Charles the Bald. It is the precursor of modern France. It was divided into
the following great fiefs: Aquitaine, Brittany, Burgundy, Catalonia, Flanders, Gascony, Gothia (Septimania), the Ile-de-
France, and Toulouse. After 987, the kingdom came to be known as France, because the new ruling dynasty (the
Capetians) were originally dukes of the Ile-de-France.
Middle Francia (843-869)
Middle Francia was the territory ruled by Lothair I, wedged between East and West Francia. The kingdom, which
included the Kingdom of Italy, Burgundy, the Provence, and the west of Austrasia, was an unnatural creation of the
Treaty of Verdun, with no historical or ethnic identity. The kingdom was split on the death of Lothair II in 869 into those of
Lotharingia, Provence (with Burgundy divided between it and Lotharingia), and Italy.
East Francia (843-962)
East Francia was the land of Louis the German. It was divided into four duchies: Swabia (Alamannia), Franconia, Saxony
and Bavaria (including Moravia and Carinthia); to which after the death of Lothair II were added the eastern parts of
Lotharingia. This division persisted until 1268, the end of the Hohenstaufen dynasty. Otto I, Holy Roman Emperor was
crowned on 2 February 962, marking the beginning of the Holy Roman Empire ([translatio imperii). From the 10th
century, East Francia became also known as regnum Teutonicum ("Teutonic kingdom" or "Kingdom of Germany"), a
term that became prevalent in Salian times. The title of Holy Roman Emperor was used from that time, beginning with
Conrad II.
Holy Roman Empire
The Holy Roman Empire of the German Nation (German: Heiliges Romisches Reich Deutscher Nation listen (help·info),
(Dutch Het Heilige Roomse Rijk der Duitse Volkeren): Latin Sacrum Romanum Imperium Nationis Germanicae, see
names and designations of the empire) was a political conglomeration of lands in Central Europe in the Middle Ages and
the early modern period. Emerging from the eastern part of the Frankish Empire after its division in the Treaty of Verdun
(843), it lasted almost a millennium until its dissolution in 1806. By the 18th century, it still consisted of the larger part of
modern Germany, Bohemia (now Czech Republic), Austria, Liechtenstein, Slovenia, Belgium, and Luxembourg, as well
as large parts of modern Poland and small parts of the Netherlands and Croatia. Previously, it had included all of the
Netherlands and Switzerland, and parts of modern France and Italy (see: Maps below). In the 18th century, when the
Empire was already in decline, Voltaire ridiculed its nomenclature by saying that the Holy Roman Empire was "neither
Holy, nor Roman, nor an Empire".
Character of the empire

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The Holy Roman Empire was an institution unique in world history and therefore difficult to grasp. To understand what it
was, it might be helpful to assess first what it was not.
* It was never a nation state. Despite the German ethnicity of most of its rulers and subjects, from the very beginning
many ethnicities constituted the Holy Roman Empire. Many of its most important noble families and appointed officials
came from outside the German-speaking communities. At the height of the empire it contained most of the territory of
today's Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Liechtenstein, Belgium, the Netherlands, Luxembourg, Czech Republic and
Slovenia, as well as eastern France, northern and part of central Italy, western Poland and western Croatia. Its
languages thus comprised not only German and its many dialects and derivatives, but many Slavic languages and the
languages which became modern French, Dutch and Italian. Furthermore, its division into territories ruled by numerous
secular and ecclesiastical princes, prelates, counts, imperial knights, and free cities made it, in the early modern period at
least, far less cohesive than the emerging modern states around it.
* However, during most of its time it was more than a mere confederation. The concept of the Reich not only included
the government of a specific territory, but had strong Christian religious connotations (hence the holy prefix). Until 1508,
German Kings were not considered Emperors of the Reich until the Pope had formally crowned them as such.
The Reich contained a number of Prince-Bishoprics and can thus best be described as a cross between a state and a
religious confederation.
Names and designations of the empire
The Holy Roman Empire was an attempt to resurrect the Western Roman Empire in western Europe, which was
established in 800 when Pope Leo III crowned Charlemagne as Roman Emperor on Christmas Day, though the empire
and the imperial office did not become formalized for some decades. Charlemagne went on to adopt the title 'Augustus'
from earlier Roman times.
The name of the Empire, in various languages spoken within its confines:
* German: Heiliges Romisches Reich listen (help·info) (later: Heiliges Romisches Reich deutscher Nation)
* Italian: Sacro Romano Impero
* Latin: Sacrum Romanum Imperium
* Croatian: Sveto rimsko carstvo njemackoga naroda
* Czech: Svata rise rimska (later: Svata rise rimska naroda nemeckeho)
* French: Saint Empire Romain Germanique
* Polish: Swiete Cesarstwo Rzymskie Narodu Niemieckiego
* Dutch: Heilige Roomse Rijk (Also: Heilige Roomse Rijk der Duitse Volkeren)
* Slovene: Sveto rimsko cesarstvo (or full name Sveto rimsko cesarstvo nemske narodnosti)
* Serbian: Sveto rimsko carstvo nemacke narodnosti
* Hungarian: Nemet-Romai Csaszarsag
* Icelandic: Heilaga romverska keisaraveldi?
Contemporary terminology for the Empire varied greatly over the centuries. The term Roman Empire was used in 1034 to
denote the lands under Conrad II, and Holy Empire in 1157. The use of the term Roman Emperor to refer to Northern
European rulers started earlier with Otto II (Emperor 973–983). Emperors from Charlemagne (c. 742 or 747 – 814) to Otto I
the Great (Emperor 962–973) had simply used the phrase Imperator Augustus ("August Emperor"). The precise term Holy
Roman Empire dates from 1254; the final version Holy Roman Empire of the German Nation (German Heiliges
Romisches Reich Deutscher Nation) appears in 1512, after several variations in the late 15th century.
Contemporaries did not quite know how to describe this entity either. In his famous 1667 description De statu imperii
Germanici, published under the alias Severinus de Monzambano, Samuel Pufendorf wrote: "Nihil ergo aliud restat, quam
ut dicamus Germaniam esse irregulare aliquod corpus et monstro simile ..." ("We are therefore left with calling Germany
a body that conforms to no rule and resembles a monster"). Voltaire later described it as "neither Holy, nor Roman, nor
an Empire".
In Faust I, in a scene written in 1775, the German author Goethe has one of the drinkers in Auerbach's Cellar in Leipzig
ask "Our Holy Roman Empire, lads, what still holds it together?" Goethe also has a longer, not very favourable essay
about his personal experiences as a trainee at the Reichskammergericht in his autobiographical work Dichtung und
Wahrheit.
Structure and institutions
From the High Middle Ages onwards, the Reich was stamped by a most peculiar coexistence of the Empire with the
struggle of the dukes of the local territories to take power away from it. As opposed to the rulers of the West Frankish
lands, which later became France, the Emperor never managed to gain much control over the lands that he formally
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owned. Instead, the Emperor was forced to grant more and more powers to the individual dukes in their respective
territories. This process began in the 12th century and was more or less concluded with the 1648 Peace of Westphalia.
Several attempts were made to reverse this degradation of the Reich's former glory, but failed.
Formally, the Reich comprised the King, to be crowned Emperor by the pope (until 1508), on one side, and the
Reichsstande (imperial estates) on the other.
King of the Romans (German king)
The pope's crowning of Charlemagne as Augustus in 800 formed the example that later kings would follow: it was the
result of Charlemagne having defended the pope against the rebellious inhabitants of Rome, which initiated the notion of
the Reich being the protector of the western church.
Becoming Emperor required becoming King of the Romans (Rex romanorum/romischer Konig) first. German kings had
been elected since time immemorial: in the 9th century by the leaders of the five most important tribes: the Salic Franks
of Lorraine, the Riparian Franks of Franconia, and the Saxons, Bavarians, and Swabians, later by the main lay and
clerical dukes of the kingdom, finally only by the so-called Kurfursten (electing dukes, electors). This college was formally
established by a 1356 decree known as the Golden Bull. Initially, there were seven electors: the Count Palatine of the
Rhine, the King of Bohemia, the Duke of Saxony, the Margrave of Brandenburg, and the Archbishops of Koln, Mainz,
and Trier. During the Thirty Years War, the Duke of Bavaria was given the right to vote as the eighth elector. In order to
be elected king, a candidate had to first win over the electors, usually with bribes or promises of land.
Until 1508, the newly-elected king then travelled to Rome to be crowned Emperor by the Pope. In many cases, this took
several years while the King was held up by other tasks: frequently he first had to resolve conflicts in rebellious northern
Italy or was in quarrel with the Pope himself.
At no time could the Emperor simply issue decrees and govern autonomously over the Empire. His power was severely
restricted by the various local leaders: after the late 15th century, the Reichstag established itself as the legislative body
of the Empire, a complicated assembly that convened irregularly at the request of the Emperor at varying locations. Only
after 1663 would the Reichstag become a permanent assembly.
Imperial estates
An entity was considered Reichsstand (imperial estate) if, according to feudal law, it had no authority above it except the
Holy Roman Emperor himself. They included:
* Territories governed by a prince or duke, and in some cases kings. (Rulers of the Holy Roman Empire, with the
exception of the King of Bohemia (an elector), were not allowed to become King within the Empire, but some had
kingdoms outside the Empire, as was, for instance, the case in the Kingdom of Great Britain, where the ruler was also
the Prince-elector of Hanover.)
* feudal territories led by a clerical dignitary, who was then considered a prince of the church. In the common case of a
Prince-Bishop, this temporal territory (called prince-bishopric) frequently overlapped his -often larger- ecclesiastical
diocese (bishopric), giving the Bishop both worldly and clerical powers. An example, among many others, was the
Bishopric of Osnabruck. The most prominent Prince-Bishop (Furstbischof) within the Holy Roman Empire were the three
Archbishops who were generally styled after the worldy rank of Prince-elector, and their prince-archbishoprics rather
electorates: Cologne (his large temporal estates did not include his cathedral city, so Bonn became his princely
residence), Trier and the Archbishop of Mainz with his see at Mainz Cathedral.
* Imperial Free Cities
The number of territories was amazingly large, rising to several hundred at the time of the Peace of Westphalia. Many of
these comprised no more than a few square miles, so the Empire is aptly described as a "patchwork carpet"
(Flickenteppich) by many- see Kleinstaaterei. For a list as in 1792, see List of Reichstag participants (1792).
Reichstag
The Reichstag was the legislative body of the Holy Roman Empire. It was divided into three distinct classes:
* The Council of Electors, which included the Electors of the Holy Roman Empire.
* The Council of Princes, which included both laypersons and clerics.
o The Secular Bench: Princes (those with the title of Prince, Grand Duke, Duke, Count Palatine, Margrave, or
Landgrave) held individual votes; some held more than one vote on the basis of ruling several territories. Also, the
Council included Counts or Grafs, who were grouped into four Colleges: Wetterau, Swabia, Franconia, and Westphalia.
Each College could cast one vote as a whole.
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o The Ecclesiastical Bench: Bishops, certain Abbots, and the two Grand Masters of the Teutonic Order and the Order of
St John had individual votes. Certain other Abbots were grouped into two Colleges: Swabia and the Rhine. Each College
held one collective vote.
* The Council of Imperial Cities, which included representatives from Imperial Cities grouped into two Colleges: Swabia
and the Rhine. Each College had one collective vote. The Council of Imperial Cities was not fully equal to the others; it
could not vote on several matters such as the admission of new territories.
Imperial courts
The Reich also had two courts: the Reichshofrat (also known in English as the Aulic Council) at the court of the
King/Emperor (that is, later in Vienna), and the Reichskammergericht (Imperial Chamber Court), established with the
Imperial Reform of 1495.
Imperial circles
As part of the Reichsreform, ten Imperial Circles were established in 1512. These were regional groupings of most
(though not all) of the various states of the Empire for the purposes of defence and imperial taxation. Each circle had its
own Kreisrat ("Circle Diet").
Chronology
From the East Franks to the Investiture Controversy
The Holy Roman Empire is usually considered to have been founded at the latest in 962 by Otto I the Great.
Although some date the beginning of the Holy Roman Empire from the coronation of Charlemagne as Emperor of the
Romans in 800, Charlemagne himself more typically used the title king of the Franks. This title also makes clearer that
the Frankish Kingdom covered an area that included modern-day France and Germany and was thus the kernel of both
countries.
Most historians therefore consider the establishment of the Empire to be a process that started with the split of the
Frankish realm in the Treaty of Verdun in 843, continuing the Carolingian dynasty independently in all three sections. The
eastern part fell to Louis the German, who was followed by several leaders until the death of Louis the Child, the last
Carolingian in the eastern part.
The leaders of Alamannia, Bavaria, Frankia and Saxonia elected Conrad I of the Franks, not a Carolingian, as their
leader in 911. His successor, Henry (Heinrich) I the Fowler (r. 919–936), a Saxon elected at the Reichstag of Fritzlar in
919, achieved the acceptance of a separate Eastern Empire by the West Frankish (still ruled by the Carolingians) in 921,
calling himself rex Francorum orientalum (King of the East Franks). He founded the Ottonian dynasty.
Heinrich designated his son Otto to be his successor, who was elected King in Aachen in 936. His later crowning as
Emperor Otto I (later called "the Great") in 962 would mark an important step, since from then on the Empire – and not the
West-Frankish kingdom that was the other remainder of the Frankish kingdoms – would have the blessing of the Pope.
Otto had gained much of his power earlier, when, in 955, the Magyars were defeated in the Battle of Lechfeld.
In contemporary and later writings, the crowning would be referred to as translatio imperii, the transfer of the Empire from
the Romans to a new Empire. The German Emperors thus thought of themselves as being in direct succession of those
of the Roman Empire; this is why they initially called themselves Augustus. Still, they did not call themselves "Roman"
Emperors at first, probably in order not to provoke conflict with the Roman Emperor who still existed in Constantinople.
The term imperator Romanorum only became common under Conrad II later.
At this time, the eastern kingdom was not so much "German" as rather a "confederation" of the old Germanic tribes of the
Bavarians, Alamanns, Franks and Saxons. The Empire as a political union probably only survived because of the strong
personal influence of King Henry the Saxon and his son, Otto. Although formally elected by the leaders of the Germanic
tribes, they were actually able to designate their successors.
This changed after Henry II died in 1024 without any children. Conrad II, first of the Salian Dynasty, was then elected
king in 1024 only after some debate. How exactly the king was chosen thus seems to be a complicated conglomeration
of personal influence, tribal quarrels, inheritance, and acclamation by those leaders that would eventually become the
collegiate of Electors.
Already at this time the dualism between the "territories", then those of the old tribes rooted in the Frankish lands, and
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the King/Emperor, became apparent. Each king preferred to spend most time in his own homelands; the Saxons, for
example, spent much time in palatinates around the Harz mountains, among them Goslar. This practice had only
changed under Otto III (king 983, Emperor 996–1002), who began to utilize bishopries all over the Empire as temporary
seats of government. Also, his successors, Henry II, Conrad II, and Henry III, apparently managed to appoint the dukes
of the territories. It is thus no coincidence that at this time, the terminology changes and the first occurrences of a regnum
Teutonicum are found.
The glory of the Empire almost collapsed in the Investiture Controversy, in which Pope Gregory VII declared a ban on
King Henry IV (king 1056, Emperor 1084–1106). Although this was taken back after the 1077 Walk to Canossa, the ban
had wide-reaching consequences. Meanwhile, the German dukes had elected a second king, Rudolf of Swabia, whom
Henry IV could only defeat after a three-year war in 1080. The mythical roots of the Empire were permanently damaged;
the German king was humiliated. Most importantly though, the church became an independent player in the political
system of the Empire.
The Empire under the Hohenstaufen
Conrad III came to the throne in 1138, being the first of the Hohenstaufen dynasty, which was about to restore the glory
of the Empire even under the new conditions of the 1122 Concordat of Worms. It was Frederick I "Barbarossa" (king
1152, Emperor 1155–1190) who first called the Empire "holy", with which he intended to address mainly law and
legislation.
Also, under Barbarossa, the idea of the "Romanness" of the Empire culminated again, which seemed to be an attempt to
justify the Emperor's power independently of the (now strengthened) Pope. An imperial assembly at the fields of
Roncaglia in 1158 explicitly reclaimed imperial rights at the advice of quattuor doctores of the emerging judicial facility of
the University of Bologna, citing phrases such as princeps legibus solutus ("the leader is not bound by law") from the
Digestae of the Corpus Juris Civilis. That the Roman laws were created for an entirely different system and didn't fit the
structure of the Empire was obviously secondary; the point here was that the court of the Emperor made an attempt to
establish a legal constitution.
Imperial rights had been referred to as regalia since the Investiture Controversy, but were enumerated for the first time at
Roncaglia as well. This comprehensive list included public roads, tariffs, coining, collecting punitive fees, and the
investiture, the seating and unseating of office holders. These rights were now explicitly rooted in Roman Law, a far-
reaching constitutional act; north of the Alps, the system was also now connected to feudal law, a change most visible in
the withdrawal of the feuds of Henry the Lion in 1180 which led to his public banning. Barbarossa thus managed for a
time to more closely bind the stubborn Germanic dukes to the Empire as a whole.
Another important constitutional move at Roncaglia was the establishment of a new peace (Landfrieden) for all of the
Empire, an attempt to (on the one hand) abolish private vendettas not only between the many local dukes, but on the
other hand a means to tie the Emperor's subordinates to a legal system of jurisdiction and public prosecution of criminal
acts – a predecessor concept of "rule of law", in modern terms, that was, at this time, not yet universally accepted.
In order to solve the problem that the emperor was (after the Investiture Controversy) no longer as able to use the church
as a mechanism to maintain power, the Staufer increasingly lent land to ministerialia, formerly unfree service men, which
Frederick hoped would be more reliable than local dukes. Initially used mainly for war services, this new class of people
would form the basis for the later knights, another basis of imperial power.
Another new concept of the time was the systematic foundation of new cities, both by the emperor and the local dukes.
These were partly due to the explosion in population, but also to concentrate economic power at strategic locations,
while formerly cities only existed in the shape of either old Roman foundations or older bishoprics. Cities that were
founded in the 12th century include Freiburg, possibly the economic model for many later cities, and Munich.
The later reign of the last Staufer Emperor, Frederick II, was in many ways different from that of earlier Emperors. Still a
child, he first reigned in Sicily, while in Germany, Barbarossa's second son Philip of Swabia and Henry the Lion's son
Otto IV competed with him for the title of King of the Germans. After finally having been crowned emperor in 1220, he
risked conflict with the pope when he claimed power over Rome; astonishingly to many, he managed to claim Jerusalem
in a Crusade in 1228 while still under the pope's ban.
While Frederick brought the mythical idea of the Empire to a last highpoint, he was also the one to initiate the major steps
that led to its disintegration. On the one hand, he concentrated on establishing a – for the times – extraordinarily modern
state in Sicily, with public services, finances, and jurisdiction. On the other hand, Frederick was the emperor who granted
major powers to the German dukes in two far-reaching privileges that would never be reclaimed by the central power. In
the 1220 Confoederatio cum principibus ecclesiasticis, Frederick basically gave up a number of regalia in favour of the
bishops, among them tariffs, coining, jurisdiction and fortification. The 1232 Statutum in favorem principum mostly
extended these privileges to the other (non-clerical) territories (Frederick II was forced to give those privileges by a
rebellion of his son, Henry). Although many of these privileges had existed earlier, they were now granted globally, and
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once and for all, to allow the German dukes to maintain order north of the Alps while Frederick wanted to concentrate on
his homelands in Italy. The 1232 document marked the first time that the German dukes were called domini terrae,
owners of their lands, a remarkable change in terminology as well.
The Teutonic Knights were invited to Poland by the duke of Masovia Konrad of Masovia to Christianize the Prussians in
1226.
The rise of the territories after the Staufen
After the death of Frederick II in 1250, none of the dynasties worthy of producing the king proved able to do so, and the
leading dukes elected several competing kings. The time from 1246 (beginning with the election of Heinrich Raspe and
William of Holland) to 1273, when Rudolph I of Habsburg was elected king, is commonly referred to as the Interregnum.
During the Interregnum, much of what was left of imperial authority was lost, as the princes were given time to
consolidate their holdings and become even more independent rulers.
The difficulties in electing the king eventually led to the emergence of a fixed college of electors, the Kurfursten, whose
composition and procedures were set forth in the Golden Bull of 1356. This development probably best symbolizes the
emerging duality between Kaiser und Reich, emperor and realm, who were no longer considered identical. This is also
revealed in the way the post-Staufen kings attempted to sustain their power. Earlier, the Empire's strength (and finances)
greatly relied on the Empire's own lands, the so-called Reichsgut, which always belonged to the respective king (and
included many Imperial Cities). After the 13th century, its relevance faded (even though some fractions of it did remain
until the Empire's end in 1806). Instead, the Reichsgut was increasingly pawned to local dukes sometimes to raise
money for the Empire but, more frequently, to reward faithful duty or as an attempt to civilize stubborn dukes. The direct
governance of the Reichsgut no longer matched the needs of either the king or the dukes.
Instead, the kings, beginning with Rudolph I of Habsburg, increasingly relied on the lands of their respective dynasties to
support their power. In contrast with the Reichsgut, which was mostly scattered and difficult to administer, the territories
were comparably compact and thus easier to control. In 1282, Rudolph I thus lent his own Austria and Styria to his own
sons.
With Henry VII, the House of Luxembourg entered the stage. In 1312, he was crowned as the first Holy Roman Emperor
since Frederick II. After him all kings and emperors relied on the lands of their own family (Hausmacht): Louis IV of
Wittelsbach (king 1314, emperor 1328–1347) relied on his lands in Bavaria; Charles IV of Luxembourg, the grandson of
Henry VII, drew strength from his own lands in Bohemia. Interestingly, it was thus increasingly in the king's own interest
to strengthen the power of the territories, since the king profited from such a benefit in his own lands as well.
The 13th century also saw a general structural change in how land was administered. Instead of personal duties, money
increasingly became the common means to represent economic value in agriculture. Peasants were increasingly
required to pay tribute for their lands. The concept of "property" more and more replaced more ancient forms of
jurisdiction, although they were still very much tied together. In the territories (not at the level of the Empire), power
became increasingly bundled: Whoever owned the land had jurisdiction, from which other powers derived. It is important
to note, however, that jurisdiction at this time did not include legislation, which virtually did not exist until well into the 15th
century. Court practice heavily relied on traditional customs or rules described as customary.
It is during this time that the territories began to transform themselves into predecessors of modern states. The process
varied greatly among the various lands and was most advanced in those territories that were most identical to the lands
of the old Germanic tribes, e.g. Bavaria. It was slower in those scattered territories that were founded through imperial
privileges.
The "constitution" of the Empire was still largely unsettled at the beginning of the 15th century. Although some
procedures and institutions had been fixed, for example by the Golden Bull of 1356, the rules of how the king, the
electors, and the other dukes should cooperate in the Empire much depended on the personality of the respective king. It
therefore proved somewhat fatal that Sigismund of Luxemburg (king 1410, emperor 1433–1437) and Frederick III of
Habsburg (king 1440, emperor 1452–1493) neglected the old core lands of the empire and mostly resided in their own
lands. Without the presence of the king, the old institution of the Hoftag, the assembly of the realm's leading men,
deteriorated. The Reichstag as a legislative organ of the Empire did not exist yet. Even worse, dukes often went into
feuds against each other that, more often than not, escalated into local wars.
At the same time, the church was in crisis too. The conflict between several competing popes was only resolved at the
Council of Constance (1414–1418); after 1419, much energy was spent on fighting the heresy of the Hussites. The
medieval idea of a unified Corpus christianum, of which the papacy and the Empire were the leading institutions, began
to decline.
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With these drastic changes, much discussion emerged in the 15th century about the Empire itself. Rules from the past no
longer adequately described the structure of the time, and a reinforcement of earlier Landfrieden was urgently called for.
During this time, the concept of "reform" emerges, in the original sense of the Latin verb re-formare, to regain an earlier
shape that had been lost.
When Frederick III needed the dukes to finance war against Hungary in 1486 and at the same time had his son, later
Maximilian I elected king, he was presented with the dukes' united demand to participate in an Imperial Court. For the
first time, the assembly of the electors and other dukes was now called Reichstag (to be joined by the Imperial Free
Cities later). While Frederick refused, his more conciliant son finally convoked the Reichstag at Worms in 1495, after his
father's death in 1493. Here, the king and the dukes agreed on four bills, commonly referred to as the Reichsreform
(Imperial Reform): a set of legal acts to give the disintegrating Empire back some structure. Among others, this act
produced the Imperial Circle Estates and the Reichskammergericht, (Imperial Chamber Court); structures that would – to a
degree – persist until the end of the Empire in 1806.
However, it should take a few more decades until the new regulation was universally accepted and the new court began
to actually function; only in 1512 would the Imperial Circles be finalized. The King also made sure that his own court, the
Reichshofrat, continued to function in parallel to the Reichskammergericht. It is interesting to note that in this year, the
Empire also receives its new title, the Heiliges Romisches Reich Deutscher Nation ("Holy Roman Empire of the German
Nation").
Crisis after Reformation
When Martin Luther in 1517 initiated what would later be known as the Reformation, many local dukes saw the chance to
oppose the Emperor Charles V. The empire became fatally divided along religious lines, with the North and East and
many of the major cities, such as Strassburg, Frankfurt and Nuremberg, becoming Protestant, and the southern and
western regions largely remaining Catholic. Religious conflicts were waged in various parts of Europe for a century,
though in German regions there was relative quiet from the Peace of Augsburg in 1555 until the Defenestration of
Prague in 1618. When Bohemians rebelled against the emperor, the immediate result was the series of conflicts known
as the Thirty Years' War (1618–1648), which devastated the Empire. Foreign powers, including France and Sweden
intervened in the conflict, strengthening those fighting Imperial power, and seizing considerable chunks of territory for
themselves. The long conflict bled the empire which would never recover its former strength.
The long decline
The actual end of the empire came in several steps. After the Peace of Westphalia in 1648, which gave the territories
almost complete sovereignty, even allowing them to form independent alliances with other states, the Empire was only a
mere conglomeration of largely independent states. By the rise of Louis XIV of France, the Holy Roman Empire as such
had lost all power and clout in major European politics. The Habsburg emperors relied more on their role as Austrian
archdukes than as emperors when challenged by Prussia, portions of which were part of the Empire. Throughout the
18th century, the Habsburgs were embroiled in various European conflicts. From 1792 onwards, revolutionary France
was at war with various parts of the Empire intermittently. The Empire was formally dissolved on August 6, 1806 when
the last Holy Roman Emperor Francis II (from 1804, Emperor Francis I of Austria) abdicated, following a military defeat
by the French Army under Napoleon (see Treaty of Pressburg). Napoleon reorganized much of the empire into the
Confederation of the Rhine. This ended the so-called First Reich. Francis II's family continued to be called Austrian
emperors until 1918. Germany itself would not become one unified state until 1871 after the Franco-Prussian War.
Analysis
It has been said that modern history of Germany was primarily predetermined by three factors: the Reich, the
Reformation, and the later dualism between Austria and Prussia.[1] Many attempts have been made to explain why the
Reich never managed to gain a strong centralized power over the territories, as opposed to neighboring France. Some
reasons include:
* The Reich had been a very federal body from the beginning: again, as opposed to France, which had mostly been part
of the Roman Empire, in the eastern parts of the Frankish kingdom, the Germanic tribes were much more independent
and reluctant to cede power to a central authority. All attempts to make the kingdom hereditary failed; instead, the king
was always elected. Later, every candidate for the king had to make promises to his electorate, the so-called
Wahlkapitulationen (election capitulations), thus granting the territories more and more power over the centuries.
* Due to its religious connotations, the Reich as an institution was severely damaged by the contest between the Pope
and the German Kings over their respective coronations as Emperor. It was never entirely clear under which conditions
the pope would crown the emperor and especially not whether the worldly power of the emperor was dependent on the
clerical of the pope. Much debate occurred over this, especially during the 11th century, eventually leading to the
Investiture Controversy and the Concordat of Worms in 1122.
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* Whether the feudal system of the Reich, where the King formally was the top of the so-called "feudal pyramid", was a
cause for or a symptom of the Empire's weakness is unclear. In any case, military obedience, which – according to
Germanic tradition – was closely tied to the giving of land to tributaries, was always a problem: when the Reich had to go
to war, decisions were slow and brittle.
* Until the sixteenth century, the economic interests of the south and west diverged from those of the north where the
Hanseatic League operated. This was far more closely allied to Scandinavia and the Baltic than the rest of Germany.
* German historiography nowadays often views the Holy Roman Empire as a well balanced system of organizing a
multitude of (effectively independent) states under a complex system of legal regulations. Smaller estates like the
Lordships or the Imperial Free cities survived for centuries as independent embodies, although they had no effective
military strength. The supreme courts, the Reichshofrat and the Reichskammergericht helped to settle conflicts or at least
turning them in a war by notes instead of a war by guns.
* The multitude of different territories with different religious denominations and different forms of government lead to a
great variety of cultural diversification, which can be felt even in present day Germany with regional cultures, patterns of
behavior and dialects changing sometimes within the range of kilometers.
Successive German Reichs
After the unification of Germany as a nation state in 1871 (see German Empire), the Holy Roman Empire was sometimes
known as the First Reich while the new empire was known as the Second Reich. After the end of World War I, the
creation of the Weimar Republic, and Nazi Germany's rise, the Nazis referred to Germany as the Third Reich, counting
the 1871 Empire as the second, to connect itself with an idealized past and present itself as being in continuity with
ancient traditions. The German usage is that the first reich is called "Altes Reich" (old empire) and the second reich as
"Kaiserreich" or "Wilhelminisches Reich".
Confederation of the Rhine
The Confederation of the Rhine or Rhine Confederation (Rheinbund in German; in French officially Etats confederes du
Rhin but in practice Confederation du Rhin) lasted from 1806 to 1813 and was formed from sixteen German states by
Napoleon after he defeated Habsburg's Francis II and Russia's Alexander I in the Battle of Austerlitz.
The members of the confederation were German princes (Fursten) from the Holy Roman Empire, technically not their
states as such. They were later joined by 19 others, a total of over 15 million subjects providing a significant strategic
advantage to France on its eastern front.
Formation
On 12 July 1806, on signing the Rheinbundakte' — the Treaty of the Confederation of the Rhine — sixteen states in present
Germany formally left the Holy Roman Empire and joined together in a confederation (the treaty called it the etats
confederes du Rhin). Napoleon was its "protector". On 6 August, following an ultimatum by Napoleon, Francis II gave up
his title of Emperor and declared the Holy Roman Empire dissolved. In the years that followed, twenty-three more
German states joined the Confederation; his Habsburg dynasty would rule the remainder of the empire as Austria. Only
Austria, Prussia, Danish Holstein and Swedish Pomerania stayed outside, not counting the left bank of the Rhine which
was annexed by the French empire.
According to the treaty (only official version in French; Rheinbundsakte in German), the confederation was to be run by
common constitutional bodies, but the individual states (in particular the larger ones) wanted unlimited sovereignty.
* in stead of a (feudal, rather nominal) Head of state, as the Holy Roman Emperor had been, its highest office was
* Karl Theodor von Dalberg, the Grand Duke of Frankfurt am Main and Napoleon's close ally, was president of the
College of Kings, styled Prince-Primate of the confederation, sort of a Head of government.
* The 'Diet of the confederation' (closest thing to a parliament) which Von Dalberg should have called together in
Frankfurt am Main never met.
The Confederation was above all a military alliance; the members had to supply France with large numbers of military
personnel.
In return the state rulers were given higher statuses: Baden, Hessen, Cleves and Berg were made into grand duchies
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and Wurttemberg and Bavaria became kingdoms. For their cooperation states could also be made larger by
incorporating smaller imperial estates.
After Prussia lost to France in 1806, many medium-sized and small states joined the Rheinbund. It was at its largest in
1808, including four kingdoms, five grand duchies, thirteen duchies, seventeen principalities and the Hansa towns of
Hamburg, Lubeck and Bremen.
In 1810 large parts of northwest Germany were quickly incorporated into the Napoleonic Empire in order to better monitor
the embargo on trade with Britain, the Continental System.
In 1813, when Napoleon's campaign in Russia failed and some of its members changed sides, the Confederation of the
Rhine collapsed.
Member monarchies (alphabetically)
* Duchy of Anhalt-Bernburg joined 15 December 1806

* Duchy of Anhalt-Dessau joined 15 December 1806
* Duchy of Anhalt-Kothen joined 15 December 1806
* Duchy of Arenberg co-founder 25 July 1806
* Grand Duchy of Baden co-founder 25 July 1806
* Kingdom of Bavaria co-founder 25 July 1806
* Grand Duchy of Berg co-founder 25 July 1806 (absorbs Cleves, both formerly duchies)
* Grand Duchy of Hesse-Darmstadt co-founder 25 July 1806, formerly a Landgraviate
* Principality of Hohenzollern-Hechingen co-founder 25 July 1806
* Principality of Hohenzollern-Sigmaringen co-founder 25 July 1806
* Principality of Isenburg-Birstein co-founder 25 July 1806
* Principality of Leyen co-founder 25 July 1806 (formerly countship)
* Principality of Liechtenstein co-founder 25 July 1806
* Principality of Lippe-Detmold joined 15 December 1806
* Archbishopric of Mainz(Mayence) co-founder 25 July 1806, formerly Prince-Archbishopric and Electorate, after 1810
Grand Duchy of Frankfurt
* Duchy of Mecklenburg-Schwerin joined 15 December 1806
* Duchy of Mecklenburg-Strelitz joined 15 December 1806
* Duchy of Nassau (Usingen and Weilburg) resulting from the union* of the Principalities of Nassau-Usingen and Nassau-
Weilburg, co-founders (25 July 1806) **
* Duchy of Oldenburg joined 15 December 1806
* Principality of Reuss-Ebersdorf joined 15 December 1806
* Principality of Reuss-Greiz joined 15 December 1806
* Principality of Reuss-Lobenstein joined 15 December 1806
* Principality of Reuss-Schleiz joined 15 December 1806
* Principality of Salm (Salm-Salm and Salm-Kyrburg) co-founders 25 July 1806 **
* Duchy of Saxe-Coburg joined 15 December 1806
* Duchy of Saxe-Gotha joined 15 December 1806
* Duchy of Saxe-Hildburghausen joined 15 December 1806
* Duchy of Saxe-Meiningen joined 15 December 1806
* Duchy of Saxe-Weimar joined 15 December 1806
* Kingdom of Saxony joined 11 December 1806
* Principality of Schaumburg-Lippe joined 15 December 1806
* Principality of Schwarzburg-Rudolstadt joined 15 December 1806
* Principality of Schwarzburg-Sondershausen joined 15 December 1806
* Principality of Waldeck joined 15 December 1806
* Kingdom of Westphalia last to join, 15 November 1807
* Kingdom of Wurttemberg co-founder 25 July 1806
* Grand Duchy of Wurzburg joined 15 September 1806
Aftermath
After the dissolution of the Rhine Confederation, the only attempt at coordination (no actual central authority) in Germany
until the creation on 21 October 1813 of the German Confederation was headed by a body called Central Administration
Council (Zentralverwaltungsrat); its President was Heinrich Friedrich Karl Freiherr vom und zum Stein (b. 1757 - d. 1831);
it was dissolved on 20 June 1815.
On 30 May 1814 the Treaty of Paris declared the German states independent.
In 1815 the Congress of Vienna redrew the continent's political map. In fact, only minor changes were made to inner-
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German borders, and the resulting German Confederation consisted more or less of the same members as the
Confederation of the Rhine.
German Confederation
The German Confederation (German: Deutscher Bund) was a loose association of Central European states created by
the Congress of Vienna in 1815 to organize the surviving states of the Holy Roman Empire, which had been abolished in
1806.
Situation in space and time
Between 1806 and 1815, Napoleon had organised the German states into the Confederation of the Rhine, but this
collapsed when Napoleon's Invasion of Russia failed in 1813.The German Confederation had roughly the same
boundaries as the Empire at the time of the French Revolution (less what is now Belgium). The member states,
drastically reduced to about three dozen from more than 200 (see Kleinstaaterei) under the Holy Roman Empire, were
recognized as fully sovereign. The members pledged themselves to mutual defence, and jointly maintained the fortresses
at Mainz, the city of Luxembourg, Rastatt, Ulm, and Landau. A federal diet under Austrian presidency (in fact the
Habsburg Emperor was represented by an Austrian 'presidential envoy') met at Frankfurt.
The Confederation was dissolved in 1866 after the Austro-Prussian War, and was 'succeeded' in 1866 by the Prussian-
dominated North German Confederation, with a significantly altered territory, e.g. none of the south, but plus Prussia's
eastern expansion and Danish Schleswig), which on 1 January 1871 was transformed into a true state, the German
Empire, under Prussia's Hohenzollern dynasty.
All the constituent states of the German Confederation became part of the Kaiserreich in 1871, except the Dutch
province of Limburg and the presently independent countries remaining in the Austrian Empire (|Austria, Czech republic,
as well as parts of Italy, Poland, Slovenia), Luxembourg (except the part lost to Belgium in 1839, and Liechtenstein. After
both World wars, more of Germany would later be lost, mainly in the east to Poland and Russia.
Impact of the French Revolution and the Napoleonic invasions
The late 18th century was a period of political, economic, intellectual, and cultural reform, the Enlightenment
(represented by figures such as Locke, Rousseau, Voltaire, and Adam Smith), but also involving early Romanticism,
climaxed in the French Revolution, where freedom of the individual and nation was asserted against privilege and
custom. Representing a great variety of types and theories, they largely respond to the disintegration of previous cultural
patterns, coupled with new patterns of production, specifically the rise of industrial capitalism.
However, the defeat of Napoleon enabled conservative and reactionary regimes such as those of the Kingdom of
Prussia, the Austrian Empire and Tsarist Russia to survive, laying the groundwork for the Congress of Vienna and the
alliance that strove to oppose radical demands for change ushered in by the French Revolution. The Great Powers at the
Congress of Vienna in 1815 aimed to restore Europe (as far as possible) to its pre-war conditions by combating both
liberalism and nationalism and by creating barriers around France. With Austria's position on the continent now intact and
ostensibly secure under its reactionary premier Klemens von Metternich, the Habsburg empire would serve as a barrier
to contain the emergence of Italian and German nation-states as well, in addition to containing France. But this
reactionary balance of power aimed at blocking German and Italian nationalism on the continent was precarious.
After Napoleon's final defeat at Waterloo in 1815, the surviving member states of defunct Holy Roman Empire joined to
form the German Confederation (Deutscher Bund) — a rather loose organisation, especially because the two great rivals,
the Austrian Empire and the Prussian kingdom, each feared domination by the other.
To contemporary observers, a post-Napoleon revolutionary upheaval in Prussia, however, would seem unlikely. Later to
emerge as the dominant German state, the political base of a united Germany, and a power that would vie for continental
preeminence toward the end of the nineteenth century, Prussia was at that time seemingly backward. In eastern Prussia,
manorial reaction dated back to the fall of the Teutonic Knights. Although agricultural structures has been very
decentralized in form under the Teutonic Order, the Prussian nobility would later expand their holdings at the expense of
the peasantry in the territories once held by the Teutonic Order, reducing them to quiescent serfdom. The rise of urban
burgers was also greatly impeded. The Junkers sought to reduce the curb the influence of the towns by short-circuiting
them with their exports, leaving little revolutionary potential for labor — urban or rural — free from feudal obligation. In Britain
and France, which proved far more hospitable to Western democracy from the Enlightenment to Germany's defeat in
World War II, the decline of feudal obligations had been connected with the development of the urban citizens. In
Prussia, conversely, the Hohenzollern rulers instead forged a centralized state, explaining the weak development of
parliamentary government. By the time of the Napoleonic Wars, Prussia was thus a socially and institutionally backward
state, grounded in the virtues of its established military-aristocracy stratified by rigid hierarchical lines.
Apart from Prussia, in Germany as a whole — or more precisely in the many German states —, political disunity, conflicts of
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interests between noblility and merchants, and the guild system, which discouraged competition and innovation, retarded
the progress of industrialism. While this kept the middle class small, affording the old order a measure of stability not
seen in France, Prussia's vulnerability to Napoleon's military proved to many perceptive minds among the old order that
a weak, divided, and backward Germany could very well have been prey to its united and industrializing neighbor.
After 1815, Prussia's defeats by Napoleonic France highlighted the need for administrative, economic, and social reforms
to improve the efficiency of the bureaucracy and encourage practical merit-based education. Inspired by the Napoleonic
organization of German and Italian principalities, the reforms of Karl August von Hardenberg and Count Stein were
conservative, enacted to preserve aristocratic privilege while modernizing institutions.
The reforms laid the foundation for Prussia's future military might by professionalizing the military, decreeing universal
military conscription. To industrialize within the framework of Prussian aristocratic institutions, land reforms ended the
monopoly of the Junkers on landownership, thereby abolishing serfdom and many other feudal practices.
Romanticism, nationalism, and Liberalism in the Vormarz era
Although the forces unleashed by the French Revolution were seemingly under control after the Vienna Congress, the
conflict between conservative forces and liberal nationalists was only deferred at best. The era until the failed 1848
revolution, in which these tensions built up, is commonly referred to as Vormarz, "pre-March," in reference to the
outbreak of riots in March 1848.
This competition entailed the forces of the old order competing with those inspired by the French Revolution and the
Rights of Man. The sociological breakdown of the competition was roughly one side engaged mostly in commerce, trade
and industry and the other associated with landowning aristocracy or military aristocracy (the Junker) in Prussia, the
forces behind the Habsburg empire in Austria, and the conservative backers of the particularist, small princely states and
city-states in Germany.
Meanwhile, demands for change from below had been fermenting since the influence of the French Revolution.
Throughout the German Confederation, Austrian influence was paramount, drawing the ire of the nationalist movements.
Metternich considered nationalism, especially the nationalist youth movement, the most pressing danger, which might not
only repudiate Austrian preponderance of the Confederation, but also stimulate nationalist sentiment within the Austrian
Empire itself. As a multi-national polyglot in which Slavs and Magyars outnumbered the Germans, the prospects of
Czech, Slovak, Hungarian, Polish, Serb, or Croatian sentiment along with middle class liberalism was certainly horrifying.
The Vormarz era saw figures like Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe, Johann Gottlieb Fichte, and Johann Gottfried von
Herder promulgate Romantic nationalism. Others promulgated these ideas among the youth. Father Friedrich Jahn's
gymnastic associations exposed middle class German youth to nationalist ideas, which were took the form of the
nationalistic college fraternities known as the Burschenschaften. The Wartburg Festival in 1817 celebrated Martin Luther
as a proto-German nationalist, linking Lutheranism to German nationalism, helping to arouse religious sentiments for the
cause of German nationhood. The festival culminated in the burning of several books and other things that were to
symbolize reactionary attitude, one of them being a book by the German writer August von Kotzebue. In 1819, after he
was accused of being a spy for imperial Russia, another multi-national empire desperately trying to hang on to the old
order as it existed before the French Revolution, he was murdered by the theological student Karl Ludwig Sand — who was
executed for the crime. Metternich swiftly and harshly reacted, using this pretext to persuade the Confederation Diet to
issue the Carlsbad Decrees of 1819, which dissolved the Burschenschaften, cracked down against the liberal press, and
seriously restricted academic freedom.
Economic Integration
German steel baron and arms manufacturer Alfred Krupp (1812-87), above, founded the first Bessemer steel production
plan for the mass-production of steel from molten pig iron. Alfred Krupp diversified the Krupp family business into arms
manufacture, contributing to Prussian victory in the Franco-Prussian War (1870-71). Under Alfred's son-in-law, Gustav
Krupp von Bohlen and Halbach (1870-1950), the company developed Big Bertha, the World War I artillery piece named
for Gustav's wife Bertha Krupp (1886-1957). Their son Alfried Krupp (1907-67) developed Gustav's ties with the Nazis,
using concentration-camp internees in his factories.
German steel baron and arms manufacturer Alfred Krupp (1812-87), above, founded the first Bessemer steel production
plan for the mass-production of steel from molten pig iron. Alfred Krupp diversified the Krupp family business into arms
manufacture, contributing to Prussian victory in the Franco-Prussian War (1870-71). Under Alfred's son-in-law, Gustav
Krupp von Bohlen and Halbach (1870-1950), the company developed Big Bertha, the World War I artillery piece named
for Gustav's wife Bertha Krupp (1886-1957). Their son Alfried Krupp (1907-67) developed Gustav's ties with the Nazis,
using concentration-camp internees in his factories.
Meanwhile, Prussia would continue to repress liberalism and continue with reform from above. Further efforts to improve
the confederation began in 1834 with the establishment of a customs union, the Zollverein. In 1834 Prussia's regime
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would stimulate wider trade advantages and industrialism by decree — a logical continuation of the program embarked
upon by Stein and Hardenberg less than two decades earlier. Inadvertently, these reforms would spark the unification
movement and augment a middle class demanding further political rights, but at the time backwardness and Prussia's
fears of its stronger neighbors was the larger threat. The customs union opened up a common market and ended local
tariffs between states and standardized weights, measures, and currencies within member states (excluding Austria),
forming the basis of a proto-national economy.
By 1842 the Zollverein included most German states. Within the next twenty years the output of German furnaces
increased fourfold. Coal production grew rapidly as well. In turn, German industrialists, especially the Krupp works
established by the Krupp family, would introduce the invention of the steel gun, cast-steel axles, and a breech loading
rifle, exemplifying Germany's successful application of technology to weaponry. Germany's security was greatly
enhanced, leaving the Prussian state and the landowning aristocracy secure from outside threat. German manufactures
also produced heavily for the non-defense sector. No longer would Britain be able to supply half Germany's needs in
manufactured goods, as it did beforehand.
However, by developing a strong industrial base, the Prussian state strengthened the middle class and thus the
nationalist movement. Economic integration, especially increased national consciousness among the German states,
made political unity a far likelier scenario. Germany finally began exhibiting all the features of a proto-nation.
The crucial factor enabling Prussia's conservative regime to survive the Vormarz era was a rough coalition between
leading sectors of the landed upper class and the emerging commercial and manufacturing interests. Marx and Engels,
in their analysis of the abortive 1848 Revolutions, came to terms with such a coalition: "a commercial and industrial class
which is too weak and dependent to take power and rule in its own right and which therefore throws itself into the arms of
the landed aristocracy and the royal bureaucracy, exchanging the right to rule for the right to make money." 1 It is
necessary to add that, even if the commercial and industrial element is weak, it must be strong enough (or soon become
strong enough) to become worthy of co-optation, and the French Revolution terrified enough perceptive elements of
Prussia's Junkers for the state to be sufficiently accommodating.
While relative stability was maintained until 1848, with enough bourgeois elements still content to exchange the "right to
rule for the right to make money," the landed upper class found its economic base sinking. While the Zollverein brought
economic progress and helped to keep the bourgeoisie at bay for a while, it would only increase the ranks of the middle
class swiftly - the very social base for the nationalism and liberalism that the Prussian state sought to stem.
The Zollverein represented a move toward economic integration and modern industrial capitalism and the victory of
centralism over localism, quickly bringing the era of guilds in the small German princely states to an end. This would take
the form of the revolt of the Silesian Weavers in 1844, who witnessed their livelihood destroyed from the floodgates of
new manufactures. Unable to compete with industrial efficiency, textile weavers quickly saw their economic base vanish.
This base of small artisans, textile weavers, journeymen, guildsmen, and small businessmen would later pose a threat to
the Second Reich, dominated by an emerging coalition of the landed upper class and industrialists, posing problems the
Second Reich later on. These sharp class conflicts, the weakness of democratic traditions, and the narrow a social base
of the landowning and military aristocracy, would be later quelled by authoritarian means of rule under the Second Reich,
especially during Bismarck's suppression of Catholics and Socialists.
The Zollverein also weakened Austrian domination of the Confederation as economic unity increased the desire for
political unity and nationalism. In the following years, the other German states began to regard Prussia, not Austria, as
their leader.
The Revolutions of 1848
However, the Zollverein, at this point, still did not suffice to eliminate the desires of the German middle class to attain the
right to rule. News of the 1848 Revolution in Paris quickly reached discontented bourgeois liberals and more radical
workingmen, only leaving the most reactionary regimes of the Romanovs and Ottomans unscathed.
On March 15, 1848, the subjects of Frederick William IV of Prussia thus vented their long-repressed political aspirations
in violent rioting in Berlin as barricades were erected all over the French capital to contain urban combat between
Parisians and the army. As France's Louis Philippe fled to Britain, the Prussian king, cowed and coerced, capitulated to
revolutionary demand, promising a constitution, a parliament, and support for German unification.
Meanwhile, from the point of view of the monarch, at least his regime was standing. In France, where the conservative
aristocracy was soundly pushed aside by the Revolutions of 1789, 1830, and 1848, the new Second Republic erupted
into civil war between rival revolutionary groups — the bourgeois moderates who favored order and constitutional
democracy and the socialists, supported by the Parisian working class. In Paris, unemployed workers, with the cry of
"bread or lead," hoisted the red flag, the first time that the red flag emerged as a symbol of the proletariat, and erected
barricades to overthrow the Second Republic. Not since the Reign of Terror had Paris seen fighting on this scale, later
crushed by savage repression that left a bitter hatred between the French working class and bourgeois elements.
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On May 18 the Frankfurt Parliament opened its first session from various German states and Austria proper. However, it
was immediately divided between those favoring a kleindeutsche (small German) or grossdeutsche (greater German)
solution. The former favored offering the imperial crown to Prussia. The latter favored the Habsburg crown in Vienna,
which would have integrated Austria proper and Bohemia (but not Hungary) into the new Germany.
From May to December, the Assembly eloquently debated academic topics while conservatives swiftly reacted against
the reformers. Meanwhile, such competition intensified authoritarian and reactionary trends among the landed upper
class, as it did under Metternich's Austria and Russia under staunch reactionary Nicholas I, as it found its economic basis
sinking. Thus, it would turn to political levers to preserve its rule. As the Prussian army proved to be loyal, and peasants
proved to be uninterested, King Fredrick Wilhelm regained his confidence. While the Assembly issued its Declaration of
the Rights of the German people, and a constitution was drawn (excluding Austria since it downright refused the offer),
the leadership of the Reich was offered to Fredrick Wilhelm, who refused to "pick up a crown from the gutter." Most
delegates returned home, and the Prussian army responded to quell some rioting. Thousands of middle class liberals
fled abroad, especially to the United States.
In 1850 the Prussian king issued his own constitution, responding to the failed revolution from below. His document
sponsored a confederation of North German states and concentrated real power in the hands of the King and the upper
classes. However, Prussia responded to Austrian and Russian pressure, fearing a strong, Prussian-dominated Germany,
at the conference of Olomouc, known as the "humiliation of Olmutz."
Bismarck and the Wars of Unification
Shortly after the "humiliation of Olmutz," a new generation of statesmen began to respond to popular demands for
national unity for their own ends not only in Germany, but in Italy and Japan as well, continuing Prussia's tradition of
autocracy and reform from above. It takes very able leadership to drag along the less perceptive reactionary elements,
and Italy and Germany found it to accomplish the seemingly paradoxical task of conservative modernization. Bismarck,
like Stein and Hardenberg, sought to essentially preserve the position of the Junkers in a time of great changes.
Bismarck, in fact, was appointed by Kaiser Wilhelm I to circumvent the liberals in the lastag who opposed the Kaiser's
military build-up because of its elitist nature. Gradually the Junkers, led by Bismarck, would win over the middle class,
reacting to their revolutionary sentiments expressed in 1848 by providing them with the economic opportunities for which
the urban middle sectors had been fighting.
One striking fact about the course of conservative modernization is the appearance of a galaxy of distinguished political
leaders; Cavour in Italy; in Germany, Stein, Hardenberg, and Bismarck, the most famous of them all; in Japan the
statesmen of the Meiji Era. It seems unlikely that the appearance of a similar leadership in similar circumstance could be
pure coincidence. All were conservatives in the political spectrum of their time and country, devoted to the monarchy,
willing and able to use it as an instrument of reform, modernization, and national unification. Though all were aristocrats,
they were dissidents or outsiders in relation to the old order. To the extent that their aristocratic background contribution
habits of command and a flair for politics, one may perhaps detect a contribution of the agrarian ancien regimes to the
construction of a new society.
Territorial legacy
The current countries whose entire territory were located inside the boundaries of German Confederation by the time of
the dissolution in 1866 are:
* Germany
* Luxembourg (minus the western half lost to Belgium in 1839)
* Liechtenstein
* Czech Republic
The current countries whose part of their territory were located inside the boundaries of German Confederation by the
time of the dissolution are:
* Austria (all states except Burgenland)
* Poland (voivodships of Pomerania, West Pomerania, Lubusz, Lower Silesia, Opole, Silesia and Greater Poland)
* Belgium (German-speaking community at east of province of Liege)
* Netherlands (only the province of Limburg was a member since 1839, when the other half was lost to Belgium)

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* Denmark (county of South Jutland and, in personal union, duchies of Schleswig and Holstein, partially viz. totally lost to
Prussia/Germany)
* Italy (autonomous regions of Trentino-South Tyrol and Friuli-Venezia Giulia)
* Slovenia (except for Prekmurje)
* Croatia (county of Istria)
North German Confederation
The North German Confederation (in German, Norddeutscher Bund), came into existence in 1867, following the
dissolution of the German Confederation. Formed by 22 states of northern Germany, it was effectively a transitional
grouping, lasting only until the founding of the German Empire in 1871. However, it cemented Prussian control over
northern Germany, and emanated that same control via the Zollverein (Customs Union) into southern Germany. Notably,
the Confederation excluded both Austria and Bavaria.
The Confederation came into being after Prussia defeated Austria in the Austro-Prussian War. Otto von Bismarck
created the constitution, which came into force on 1 July, 1867, with the King of Prussia, Wilhelm I, as its President, and
Bismarck as Chancellor. The states were represented in the Bundesrat (Federal Council) with 43 seats (of which Prussia
held 17), while the people elected the Norddeutscher Reichstag (North German Diet).
Following Prussia's defeat of France in the Franco-Prussian War of 1871, Bavaria, Wurttemberg, and Baden (together
with parts of the Grand Duchy of Hesse which had not originally joined the Confederation), now grouped together with
the various states of the Confederation to form the German Empire, with Wilhelm I taking the new title of German
Emperor.
Postage stamps
One of the functions of the Confederation was to handle the mail and issue postage stamps, which it began doing on 1
January 1868. To accommodate the different monetary systems in use by the various states, it issued a series valued in
groschen for the Northern District, and another using kreuzer for the Southern District, distinguishing them by framing the
value number in a circle for the groschen stamps, and in an oval for the kreuzers. All of these stamps were inscribed
"NORDDEUTSCHER POSTBEZIRK".
In addition, there was a special quarter-schilling stamp for Hamburg, with the additional inscription "STADTPOSTBRIEF
HAMBURG".
Early in 1869 the stamps were issued with perforations, the previous issues having been rouletted. On 1 March, 10gr and
30gr values were issued, notable for being printed on goldbeater's skin, a scheme to prevent reuse of these high-value
stamps.
Confederation stamps were superseded on 1 January 1872 by the first issues of the German Empire.
List of member states
* Prussia (incl. Lauenburg)

* Saxony
* Mecklenburg-Schwerin
* Saxe-Weimar
* Mecklenburg-Strelitz
* Oldenburg
* Brunswick
* Saxe-Meiningen
* Saxe-Altenburg
* Saxe-Coburg-Gotha
* Anhalt
* Schwarzburg-Rudolstadt
* Schwarzburg-Sondershausen
* Waldeck
* Reuss (Elder Line)
* Reuss (Younger Line)
* Schaumburg-Lippe
* Lippe
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* Lubeck
* Bremen
* Hamburg
* the part of the Grand Duchy of Hesse that was north of the River Main (province of Upper Hesse, “Oberhessen”)
German Empire
The term German Empire commonly refers to Germany, from its foundation as a unified nation-state on January 18,
1871, until the abdication of its last Emperor, Wilhelm II, on November 9, 1918. Germans, when referring to the Reich in
this period under the Kaisers, typically use the term Kaiserreich and this term has often been used by non-German
historians.
Sometimes in English, but rarely in German, the name Second Reich is used, based on counting the Holy Roman Empire
of the German Nation as the first German empire and Nazi Germany as the third. Numbering of the Reichs began in
1923 by Arthur Moeller van Den Bruck (he longed for a third, which he idealized) and was briefly taken up by Nazi
propaganda. After the Great War, Drittes Reich (or semi-translated 'Third Reich') became the standard name for Nazi
Germany.
It should be noted that Deutsches Reich was the state's official name not only in the period of the Kaisers 1871 to 1918,
but also during the Weimar Republic, and in Nazi Germany; thus the next two articles of the History of Germany series
also cover the official Deutsches Reich.
Bismarck's founding of the Empire
Under the disguise of idealism giving way to realism, German nationalism rapidly shifted from its liberal and democratic
character in 1848 to Prussian prime minister Otto von Bismarck's authoritarian Realpolitik. Bismarck wanted unification to
achieve his aim of a conservative, Prussian-dominated German state. He accomplished this through three military
successes:
1. He first allied with Austria in order to defeat Denmark in a short war (the Second war of Schleswig) fought during
1864, thus acquiring Schleswig-Holstein.
2. In 1866, in concert with Italy, he virtually created the Austro-Prussian War and won a decisive victory at the Battle of
Koniggratz, which, in the same year, allowed him to exclude long-time rival Austria when forming the North German
Confederation with the states that had supported Prussia in the Austro-Prussian War. The Confederation was the direct
precursor to the 1871 Empire.
3. Finally, France was defeated in the Franco-Prussian War (1870–71); the Confederation was transformed into the
Empire with the proclamation of Prussian King Wilhelm I as German Emperor at the Palace of Versailles, to the
humiliation of the French.
Bismarck himself prepared in broad outline the 1866 North German Constitution, to become the 1871 Constitution of the
German Empire with some adjustments. Germany acquired some democratic features: notably the Reichstag, that in
contrast to the parliament of Prussia was elected by direct and equal manhood suffrage. However, legislation also
required the consent of the Bundesrat, the federal council of deputies from the states, in which Prussia had a large
influence. Behind a constitutional facade, Prussia thus exercised predominant influence in both bodies with executive
power vested in the Kaiser, who appointed the federal chancellor – Otto von Bismarck. The Chancellor was accountable
solely to and served entirely at the discretion of the Emperor. Officially, the Chancellor was a one-man cabinet and was
responsible for the conduct of all state affairs; in practice, the State Secretaries (bureaucratic top officials in change of
such fields as finance, war, foreign affairs, etc) acted as unofficial portfolio ministers. With the exception of the years
1872-1873 and 1892-1894, the Chancellor was always simultaneously the Prime Minister of the imperial dynasty's
hegemonic home-kingdom, Prussia. The Reichstag had the power to pass, amend or reject bills, but could not initiate
legislation. The power of initiating legislation rested with the Chancellor.
While the other states retained their own governments, the military forces of the smaller states were put under Prussian
control, while those of the larger states such as the kingdoms of Bavaria and Saxony, were coordinated along Prussian
principles and would in war times be controlled by the federal government. Although authoritarian in many respects, the
empire permitted the development of political parties.
The evolution of the authoritarian German Empire is somewhat in line with parallel developments in Italy and Japan.
Similarly to Bismarck, Count Camillo Benso di Cavour in Italy used diplomacy and war to achieve his objectives: he allied
with France before attacking Austria, securing the unification of Italy as a kingdom under the Piemontese dynasty (except
for Austrian Venice and the Papal States) by 1861. In the interests of Piedmont-Sardinia, Cavour, hostile to the more
revolutionary nationalism of liberal republicans such as Giuseppe Garibaldi and Giuseppe Mazzini, sought the unification
of Italy along conservative lines. Similarly, Japan would follow a course of conservative modernization from the fall of the
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Tokugawa Shogunate and the Meiji Restoration to 1918 along with Cavour's Italy. In fact, Japan issued a commission in
1882 to study various governmental structures throughout the world and were particularly impressed by Bismarck's
Germany, issuing a constitution in 1889 that formed a premiership with powers analogous to Bismarck's position as
chancellor with a cabinet responsible to the emperor alone. The unification of Germany also meant absorbing the entire
Kingdom of Prussia into it. The three provinces of East Prussia, West Prussia and Provinz Posen were incorporated into
the new nation-state. All had notable Polish populations. The Polish leadership had plans of its own nation-state for a
long time but it had been impossible for Frankfurt Parliament in 1848 to find a practicable solution. Most Poles wanted to
be or didn't mind becoming Prussians, but less often Germans. The German government could not count on the Polish-
speaking citizens' loyalty anymore, many Poles defied assimilation. Since 1873 the government enforced the German
language in a bid to counteract that process; however, it did not at all reverse the trend and more confrontations
followed, also as a result. One factor in the social anatomy of these governments had been the retention of a very
substantial share in political power by the landed elite, the Junkers, due to the absence of a revolutionary breakthrough
by the peasants in combination with urban areas.
List of Constituent States of the Empire
* Kingdoms (“Konigreiche”)
o Bavaria (“Bayern”) - capital Munich
o Prussia (“Preu?en”) - capital Berlin
o Saxony (“Sachsen”) - capital Dresden
o Wurttemberg - capital Stuttgart
* Grand Duchies (“Gro?herzogtumer”)

o Baden - capital Karlsruhe
o Hesse (“Hessen”) - capital Darmstadt
o Mecklenburg-Schwerin - capital Schwerin
o Mecklenburg-Strelitz - capital Strelitz
o Oldenburg - capital Oldenburg
o Saxe-Weimar-Eisenach (“Sachsen-Weimar-Eisenach”) - capital Weimar
* Duchies (“Herzogtumer”)
o Anhalt - capital Dessau
o Brunswick (“Braunschweig”) - capital Braunschweig
o Saxe-Altenburg (“Sachsen-Altenburg”) - capital Altenburg
o Saxe-Coburg-Gotha (“Sachsen-Coburg und Gotha”) - capital Coburg
o Saxe-Meiningen (“Sachsen-Meiningen”) - capital Meiningen
* Principalities (“Furstentumer”)
o Lippe - capital Detmold
o Reuss-Gera or Reuss Younger Line (“Reu? jungere Linie”) - capital Gera
o Reuss-Greiz or Reuss Elder Line (“Reu? altere Linie”) - capital Greiz
o Schaumburg-Lippe - capital Buckeburg
o Schwarzburg-Rudolstadt - capital Rudolstadt
o Schwarzburg-Sondershausen - capital Sondershausen
o Waldeck-Pyrmont - capital Arolsen
* Free Cities (“Freie Hansestadte”)

o Bremen
o Hamburg
o Lubeck
* Others:
o Imperial Territory of Alsace-Lorraine (“Reichsland Elsa?-Lothringen”)
Conservative modernization
Bismarck's domestic policies played a great role in forging the authoritarian political culture of the Kaiserreich. Less
preoccupied by continental power politics following unification in 1871, Germany's semi-parliamentary government
carried out a relatively smooth economic and political revolution from above that pushed them along the way towards
becoming the world's leading industrial power of the time.
Not only did German manufacturers capture German markets from British imports, by the 1870s, British manufacturers in
the staple industries of the Industrial Revolution were beginning to experience real competition abroad. Industrialization
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progressed dynamically in Germany and the United States, allowing them to clearly prevail over the old French and
British capitalisms. The German textiles and metal industries, for example, had by the beginning of the Franco-Prussian
War surpassed those of Britain in organization and technical efficiency and usurped British manufacturers in the
domestic market. By the turn of the century, the German metals and engineering industries would be producing heavily
for the free trade market of Britain.
After achieving formal unification in 1871, Bismarck devoted much of his attention to the cause of national unity and
achieving this under the ideology of Prussianism. Catholic conservatism, conceptualized by the reactionary turn of the
Vatican under Pope Pius IX and its dogma of Papal Infallibility, and working class radicalism, represented by the
emerging Social Democratic Party, in many ways both reacted to concerns of dislocation by very different segments of
German society, brought by a rapid shift from an agrarian-based economy to modern industrial capitalism under
reactionary tutelage. While out-and-out suppression failed to contain either socialists or Catholics, Bismarck's "carrot and
stick" approach significantly mollified opposition from both groups.
One can summarize Bismarck's objectives under three keywords: Kulturkampf, Social reform and national unification.
* Kulturkampf. Following the incorporation of the Catholic states in the south and the former Polish lands in the east,
Catholicism, represented by the Catholic Centre Party, was seemingly the principal threat to Bismarck's military-
aristocratic Prussian nationalism, because Catholics were perceived as having loyalty to Pope over the state. Southern
Catholics, hailing from a much more agrarian base and falling under the ranks of the peasantry, artisans, guildsmen,
clergy, and princely aristocracies of the small states more often than their Protestant counterparts in the North, initially
had trouble competing with industrial efficiency and the opening of outside trade by the Zollverein.
After 1878, the struggle against socialism would unite Bismarck with the Catholic Centre Party, bringing an end to the
Kulturkampf, which had led to far greater Catholic unrest than existed beforehand and had strengthened rather than
weakened Catholicism in Germany.
* Social reform. To contain the working class and to weaken the influence socialist groups, Bismarck's reluctant creation
of a remarkably advanced welfare state would give the working class a stake in German nationalism as well. The social
security systems installed by Bismarck (health care in 1883, accidents insurance in 1884, invalidity and old-age
insurance in 1889) at the time were the most advanced in the world and, to a degree, still exist in Germany today.
* National unification. Bismarck's efforts also initiated the levelling of the enormous differences between the German
states, which had been independent in their evolution for centuries, especially with legislation.
The completely different legal histories and judicial systems posed enormous complications, especially for national trade.
While a common trade code had already been introduced by the Confederation in 1861 (which was adapted for the
Empire and, with great modifications, is still in effect today), there was little similarity in laws otherwise.
In 1871, a common Criminal Code (Reichsstrafgesetzbuch) was introduced; in 1877, common court procedures were
established through the Gerichtsverfassungsgesetz, the Zivilprozessordnung and the Strafprozessordnung (court
system, civil procedures, and criminal procedures, respectively). In 1873 the constitution was amended to allow the
Empire to replace the various and greatly differing Civil Codes of the states (if they existed at all; for example, parts of
Germany formerly occupied by Napoleon's France had adopted the French Civil Code, while in Prussia the Allgemeines
Preu?isches Landrecht of 1794 was still in effect). In 1881, a first commission was established to produce a common
Civil Code for all of the Empire, an enormous effort that would produce the Burgerliches Gesetzbuch (BGB), possibly one
of the most impressive legal works of the world; it was eventually put into effect on 1 January 1900. It speaks volumes for
the conceptual quality of these codifications that they all, albeit with many amendments, have been in effect until today.
Carrying out many of the same tasks that would have been brought to fruition with the help of a revolution from below,
the ultimate effects of conservative modernization are distinct. With real political power still in the hands of the
aristocracy, the government sought to preserve as much of the original social framework as they could, even as the
economic base of the landowners rapidly diminished in comparison to industry. Unification was followed by a prolonged
period of conservative and even authoritarian government. The leadership had to have at hand or be able to construct a
sufficiently powerful bureaucratic apparatus, including the agencies of repression, the military and the police. But in place
a strong central government would have to establish strong authority and uniform administrative system, and a more or
less uniform law code managed to create a sufficiently powerful military machine to be able to make the wishes of its
rulers felt in the arena of international politics.
Militarism
One of the by-products of conservative modernization was militarism. To unite the upper classes—both the military-
aristocracy and industrialists—militarism proved necessary to continue modernization without changing socio-political
structures. Each of the elites in the ruling coalition of the Empire found some advantages in formal, overseas expansion:
mammoth monopolies wanted imperial support to secure overseas investments against competition and domestic
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political tensions abroad; bureaucrats wanted more occupations; military officers desired promotion; and the traditional
but waning landed gentry wanted formal titles. Observing the rise of trade unionism, socialism, and other protest
movements during an era of mass society in both Europe and later North America, the elite in particular was able to
utilize nationalistic imperialism to co-opt the support of the industrial working class. Riding the sentiments of the late
nineteenth century Romantic Age, imperialism inculcated the masses with neo-aristocratic virtues and helped instill
broad, nationalist sentiments. Thus, Prussia—heir to the garrison state built up by figures such as Friedrich Wilhelm I and
Frederick the Great in the 18th century—managed to create a sufficiently powerful military machine not only capable of
challenging rivals on the continent such as Austria and France, but able to make its presence known in the arena of
international politics.
German imperialists (of the Alldeutsche Verband), for instance, argued that Britain's world power position gave the British
unfair advantages on international markets, thus limiting Germany's economic growth and threatening its security. Many
European statesmen and industrialists wanted to accelerate the Scramble for Africa, securing colonies before they strictly
needed them. Their reasoning was that markets might soon become glutted, and a nation's economic survival depend on
its being able to offload its surplus products elsewhere. In response, British imperialists such as Joseph Chamberlain
thus concluded that formal imperialism was necessary for Britain because of the relative decline of its share of the
world's export trade and the rise of German, American, and French economic competition.
Economic trends certainly played a major role, explaining why statesmen from Jules Ferry to Francesco Crispi sought
new roles for the emerging powers that they led, especially during the Great Depression of 1873, but shifts in the
European balance of power are what ultimately facilitated formal overseas expansionism. With the reactionary
continental order established by the Congress of Vienna shattered, the allure of imperialism was an option beyond the
traditional great powers of France and Britain. The new nation states of Germany and Italy were no longer embroiled in
continental concerns and domestic disputes as they were before the Franco-Prussian War.
Thus, Bismarck, once openly uninterested in overseas adventurism, was eventually brought to realize the political value
of colonies. The absolutist Central Powers, led by a newly unified, dynamically industrializing Germany, with its
expanding navy, doubling in size between the Franco-Prussian War and the Great War, were strategic threats to the
markets and security of the more established Allied powers and Russia. German colonial efforts from 1884 brought only
a small overseas empire compared to those of Britain and France, although in the Herero Wars it shared with those
empires the phenomenon of armed conflict between natives and colonials.
Subsequent German foreign policy initiatives (notably the initiation of a large battle fleet under the naval laws of 1898
and 1900) drove Britain into diplomatic alignment (the Entente) with a Franco-Russian alliance already in the offing at the
time of Bismarck's fall.
After Bismarck
The Empire flourished under Bismarck's guidance until the Kaiser's death (March 1888). In this so-called Dreikaiserjahr
(Year of Three Emperors), Friedrich III, his son and successor, only lived 99 days, leaving the crown to a young and
impetuous Wilhelm II, who forced Bismarck out of office in March 1890.
Within Germany, the opposition Social Democratic Party (SPD) rose to become for a time the strongest socialist party in
the world, winning a third of the votes in the January 1912 elections to the Reichstag (imperial parliament). Government
nevertheless remained in the hands of a succession of conservative coalitions supported by right-wing liberals or
Catholic clericals and heavily dependent on the Kaiser's favour.
The shaky European balance of power broke down when Austria-Hungary, Germany's ally since 1879, declared war on
Serbia (July 1914) after the assassination in Sarajevo of the heir to the Austrian throne. Germany supported their one
loyal ally's objectives in Serbia and gave them a "blank cheque" to pursue whatever means they found necessary there.
Serbia was supported by Russia, which in turn was allied with France. Following Russia's decision for general
mobilisation (i.e. against both Austria-Hungary and Germany) Germany declared war on both Russia and France in what
it called a preventive strike.
This was the beginning of World War I. Despite early successes, Germany and its allies suffered military defeat in the
face of an enemy strengthened after 1917 by the intervention of the United States. The Kaiser Wilhelm II was driven into
exile (November 1918) by a revolution led by elements of the opposition SPD and communist groups, who later
organised their own abortive bid for power (January 1919).
In June 1919, the Treaty of Versailles formally ended the war. It was signed in the Hall of Mirrors at Versailles, the same
place where the Second Reich had been proclaimed nearly half a century before. Germany lost territories to France,
Belgium, and the reinstated nation of Poland, and elsewhere, and was required to pay reparations for its alleged sole
responsibility for the war.

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Legacy
Bismarck's rule of reactionary co-optation and coercion and his perpetuation of Junker virtues of militarism, hierarchy,
and autocracy can be understood best when one considers that the nation was only recently and in some ways
tenuously united; that the large and powerful neighbor, France, had for centuries pursued an active policy of keeping "the
Germanies" weak and divided; and that Germany had again and again been the field where the power struggles of other
European states and kingdoms were played out, with devastating consequences in most German regions. The earliest
memories of Bismarck's generation of leaders encompassed the Napoleonic Wars and Prussia's attendant national
humiliations. A perceived need not to manifest outward weakness made the adoption of more liberal means of
government by these men unlikely, at best.
Intensified by the reign of the far more militaristic Kaiser Wilhelm II, Bismarck's legacy would contribute to the political
culture in which Nazism found significant support-bases. This should raise questions over their true roles in history,
despite the era of progress and prosperity over which they presided. Under Bismarck, much of this entails his strategies
to suppress Catholic and socialist opposition while promoting militaristic Prussianism. As a result, in Germany, as in
Japan and Italy, later attempts to extend democracy would succeed in establishing unstable democracies (the Weimar
Republic, Japan in the twenties, and Italy from the end of World War I to the 1922 appointment of Mussolini as premier
by Victor Emmanuel III). Each of these constitutional democracies could not to cope with the severe problems of the day
and the reluctance or inability to bring about fundamental structural changes.
Despite advances in industry and science under the Second Reich, Germany retained a despotic aspect to its character,
due to its militaristic inclinations and having achieved its unification by "blood and iron". The armed forces, inculcated in
the militarism of the Prussian Junkers – the glorification of war, and supreme and unquestioning loyalty to the state,
leader, and hierarchy – remained passionately loyal to the Hohenzollern dynasty. The values of Prussia's repressive
"garrison state," grounded in Prussia's repressive system of agriculture since the defeat of the Teutonic Knights, would
be carried to a new extreme under the Third Reich.
Prussianism caught on because prosperity satisfied the old support base of the middle class liberals, and the state was
solicitous of the material welfare for many eventually won over—including the working class. German education emerged
strong in vocational fields as well as propaganda. From the side of the landed aristocracy came the conceptions of
inherent superiority in the ruling class and a sensitivity to matters of status, prominent traits well into the twentieth
century. Fed by new sources, these conceptions could later be vulgarized and made appealing to the German population
as a whole in doctrines of racial superiority. The royal bureaucracy introduced, against considerable aristocratic
resistance, the ideal of complete and unreflecting obedience to an institution over and above class and individual.
At the foundation of these currents was centuries of economic, political, and cultural evolution starting with an agricultural
system dominated for centuries by repressive means rather than through the market. German peasants were not only
under the repressive watch of their landowners, but grounded in village and work structures that favor solidarity,
diminishing their revolutionary potential. Thus, in the realm of propaganda, the Junkers established the generally
successful Agrarian League in 1894, laying the groundwork for Nazi doctrine. The league sought the support of peasants
in non-Junker areas of smaller farms, inculcating them in "fuhrer worship," the idea of a corporative state, militarism, anti-
Semitism. They would also make the distinction between "predatory" and "productive" capital, a distinction later used by
the Nazis to appeal to anti-capitalist sentiments among the peasantry.
On the other hand the Kaiserreich did guarantee freedom of press, security of property and it managed to establish a
system of public welfare based on compulsory insurance, which survived two World Wars and in its core survives still
today. There was a modern election system to the federal Parliament, the Reichstag, which represented every adult man
by one vote. This enabled the German Socialists and the Catholic Centre Party to play remarkable roles in the empire's
political life, although both parties were officially regarded more or less as "foes of the empire". And the time of the
Kaiserreich is well remembered in Germany as a period, when academic research and university life flourished as well as
arts and literature. Thomas Mann published his novel the Buddenbrocks in 1901. Theodor Mommsen was awarded the
Nobel prize for literature a year later for his Roman history. Painters like the groups Der Blaue Reiter and Die Brucke
made a significant contribution to modern art. The AEG turbine building in Berlin by Peter Behrens from 1909 can be
regarded as a milestone in classic modern architecture and an outstanding example of emerging functionalism.
Bismarck's unified Germany also had a significant impact in East Asia. The unification of Germany was considered a
model for both the successful modernization of Japan (which modelled much its imperial constitution on the Hohenzollern
empire) and the less successful modernization of China at the beginning of the 20th century. The German civil code
became the basis of the legal systems of Japan and the Republic of China after the retreat of the latter to Taiwan
remains as the basis of the legal system there. In addition, the Prussian military model (mainly army, the British
impressed more as a naval power) had also influenced the Chinese and Japanese armies greatly until the Second World
War through their employment of German military advisors, instructors and the acquisition of Germany military
equipment. The Ottoman army was reorganised prior to World War One under German influence.

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History of Germany during World War I
The German Empire was one of the defeated Central Powers during World War I. It entered the conflict following the
declaration of war against Serbia by its ally, Austria-Hungary. German forces attacked the Allies on both the eastern and
western fronts, although the German territory itself remained relatively safe from widespread invasion for most of the war.
By 1918, however, the Central Powers were exhausted from fighting, and the Allies had just won the support of the
United States. Even though the eastern front was hundreds of miles away from the borders of the Reich, the invasion of
the Rhineland on the other front precipitated uprisings and an attempted revolution throughout Germany. By the end of
that year, the country had capitulated and the Empire had been replaced by the Weimar Republic.
Weimar Republic
This article outlines political events from 1918 until the collapse of the Republic in 1933. The Nazi Germany article
describes what came after (see also Gleichschaltung for details on how the Nazi dictatorship was installed). For
discussion of the cultural climate in Germany between the wars see Weimar culture.
The Weimar Republic (German Weimarer Republik, IPA: [?va??mar?r repu?bli?k]) is the historical name for the republic
that governed Germany from 1919 to 1933. This period of German history is often known as the Weimar period. The
republic was named after the city of Weimar where a national assembly convened to produce a new constitution after the
German Monarchy was abolished following the nation's defeat in World War I. Despite its political form, the new Republic
still called itself "Deutsches Reich" (German Empire).
This first attempt to establish a liberal democracy in Germany happened during a time of civil conflict, and failed with the
ascent of Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party in 1933. Although technically the 1919 constitution was not invalidated until after
World War II, the legal measures taken by the Nazi government in 1933 (commonly known as Gleichschaltung)
destroyed the mechanisms of a typical democratic system, so 1933 is cited as the end of the Weimar Republic.
The phrase Weimar Republic is an invention of historians, and was not used during its existence. Germany's legal name
was still the "German Empire" (Deutsches Reich), the same name used by the German monarchy before 1919. The use
of the English word empire and its adjective imperial may be confusing because the Weimar Republic was a republic;
empire is an imprecise translation of the German word Reich (which does not have a specific monarchic connotation)
and is increasingly translated as commonwealth or realm.
Controlled revolution: the establishment of the Republic (1918–1919)
From 1916 onwards, the 1871 German Empire had effectively been governed by the military, led by the Oberste
Heeresleitung (OHL, Supreme Army Command) with the Chief of Staff Paul von Hindenburg. When it became apparent
that World War I was lost, the OHL demanded that a civil government be installed in order to meet a key peace talk
condition from United States President Woodrow Wilson. Any attempt to continue the war after Bulgaria had left the
Central Powers would only have caused German territories to be occupied. The new Reichskanzler Prince Max von
Baden thus offered a cease-fire to President Wilson on October 3, 1918. On October 28, 1918, the 1871 constitution was
finally amended to make the Reich a parliamentary democracy, which the government had refused for half a century: the
Chancellor was henceforth responsible to Parliament, the Reichstag, and no longer to the Kaiser.
The plan to transform Germany into a constitutional monarchy similar to Britain quickly became obsolete as the country
slid into a state of near-total chaos. Germany was flooded with soldiers returning from the front, many of whom were
wounded physically, psychologically, or both. Violence was rampant, with fights breaking out even between rival leftist
groups at funerals for leaders assassinated by right-wing adversaries.
Rebellion broke out when on October 29, the military command, without consultation with the government, ordered the
German High Seas Fleet to sortie. This was not only entirely hopeless from a military standpoint, but was also certain to
bring the peace negotiations to a halt. The crews of two ships in Wilhelmshaven mutinied. When the military arrested
about 1,000 seamen and had them transported to Kiel, the Wilhelmshaven mutiny turned into a general rebellion that
quickly swept over most of Germany. Other seamen, soldiers and workers, in solidarity with the arrested, began electing
worker and soldier councils modelled after the soviets of the Russian Revolution of 1917, and took over military and civil
powers in many cities. On November 7, the revolution had reached Munich, causing King Ludwig III of Bavaria to flee.
Initially, the demands of the councils were modest: they wanted the arrested seamen to be freed. In contrast to Russia
one year earlier, the councils were not controlled by a communist party. Still, with the emergence of the Soviet Union, the
rebellion caused great fear in the establishment down to the middle classes. The country was on the verge of becoming
a socialist republic.

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From November 1918 through January 1919, Germany was governed dictatorially by the Council of People's
Representatives composed of three representatives each from the Social Democratic Party (SPD) and of the
"Independent Social Democrats" (USPD, for Unabhangige Sozialdemokratische Partei Deutschlands), until withdrawal of
the USPD left the SPD to rule alone. In these three months, the government was extraordinarily active, and issued a
large number of decrees. At the same time, its main activities were confined to certain spheres: the 8 hour day, domestic
labour reform, agricultural labour reform, right of civil-service associations, local municipality social welfare relief (split
between Reich and individual states) and important national health insurance, re-instatement of demobilised workers,
protection arbitrary dismissal with appeal as right, regulated wage agreement, and Universal suffrage from 20 years of
age in all classes of elections - local and national. Occasionally the name "Die Deutsche sozialdemokratische Republik"
(The German Social-Democratic Republic) appeared in leaflets and on posters from this era, although this was never the
official name of the country.
At the time, the political representation of the working class was divided: a faction had separated from the Social
Democratic Party, calling themselves "Independent Social Democrats" (USPD) and leaning towards a socialist system. In
order not to lose their influence, the remaining "Majority Social Democrats" (MSPD, who supported a parliamentary
system) decided to put themselves at the front of the movement, and on November 7, demanded that Emperor Wilhelm II
abdicate. On November 9, 1918, the Republic was proclaimed by Philipp Scheidemann at the Reichstag building in
Berlin, two hours after a socialist republic was proclaimed around the corner at the Berlin Castle by Karl Liebknecht.
On November 9, in a legally questionable act, Reichskanzler Prince Max von Baden transferred his powers to Friedrich
Ebert, the leader of the MSPD. It was apparent that this act would not be sufficient to satisfy the masses, so a day later,
a revolutionary government called "Council of People's Deputies" (Rat der Volksbeauftragten) was created, consisting of
three MSPD and three USPD members, led by Ebert for the MSPD and Hugo Haase for the USPD. Although the new
government was confirmed by the Berlin worker and soldier council, it was opposed by the Spartacist League led by
Rosa Luxemburg and Karl Liebknecht. Ebert called for a National Congress of Councils, which took place from
December 16 to 20, 1918, and in which the MSPD had the majority. Ebert thus managed to enforce quick elections for a
National Assembly to produce a constitution for a parliamentary system, marginalizing the movement that called for a
socialist republic (see below).
The Reichswehr and the Revolution
To ensure that his fledgling government was able to maintain control over the country, Ebert made a pact with the OHL,
now led by Ludendorff's successor General Wilhelm Groener. This Ebert-Groener pact stipulated that the government
would not attempt to reform the Army so long as the army swore to protect the government. On the one hand, this
agreement symbolised the acceptance of the new government by the military, assuaging concern among the middle
classes; on the other hand, it was considered a betrayal of worker interests by the left wing. The new model Reichswehr
army, limited by the Treaty of Versailles to 100,000 men, remained fully under the control of the Imperial military caste
despite its nominal re-organisation. As an independent and conservative group in Weimar, it wielded a large amount of
influence over the fate of the republic. Unlike all other revolutions, the men of the German Revolution asked the High
Command how to bring the army home.
This pact also marked one of several steps that caused the permanent split in the working class's political representation
into the SPD and communists. The eventual fate of the Weimar Republic in no small part derives from the general
political backwardness of the German labour movement. The several strands within the central mass of the socialist
movement adhered more to sentimental loyalty to alliances arising from chance than to any recognition of political
necessity. Combined action on the part of the socialists was impossible without action from the millions of workers who
stood midway between the parliamentarians and the ultra-leftists who supported the workers councils. Confusion through
Weimar as a whole made acute the danger of extreme right and extreme left engaging in virulent conflict.
The split became final after Ebert called upon the OHL for troops to put down another Berlin soldier mutiny on November
23, 1918, in which soldiers had captured the city commandant and closed off the Reichskanzlei where the Council of
People's Deputies was situated. The suppression was brutal with several dead and injured. This caused the left wing to
call for a split with the MSPD, which, in their view, had joined with the counter-revolutionary military to suppress the
Revolution. The USPD thus left the Council of People's Deputies after only seven weeks. The split deepened when, in
December, the Kommunistische Partei Deutschlands (KPD) was formed out of a number of left-wing groups, including
the left wing of the USPD and the Spartakus group.
In January, more bloody attempts at establishing council communism by workers in the streets of Berlin were put down
by paramilitary Freikorps units consisting of volunteer soldiers, culminating in the beating to death of Rosa Luxemburg
and Liebknecht on January 15. With the affirmation of Ebert, the murderers were tried not before a civil court, but a
military court, leading to very lenient sentences, which did not exactly lead to more acceptance for Ebert on the left wing
either.
The National Assembly elections took place January 19, 1919. In this time, the new left-wing parties, including the USPD
and KPD, were barely able to get themselves organized, leading to a solid majority of seats for the moderate forces. To
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avoid the ongoing fights in Berlin, the National Assembly convened in the city of Weimar, giving the future Republic its
unofficial name. The Weimar Constitution created a republic under a semi-presidential system with the Reichstag elected
by proportional representation. The Socialist and Democratic parties obtained a solid 80 per cent of the vote.
During the debates in Weimar, fights continued. A Soviet republic was declared in Munich, but was quickly put down by
Freikorps and regular army units. Sporadic fighting continued to flare up around the country. In eastern territories, forces
loyal to the Kaiser fought the republic, while the Polish population fought for independence: Great Poland Uprising in
Provinz Posen and three Silesian Uprisings in Upper Silesia.
The socialist roots of Weimar
The carefully thought-out social and political legislation introduced during the revolution was generally unappreciated by
the German working-class. The two goals sought by the government, democratisation and social protection of the
working class, were never achieved. This has been attributed to a lack of pre-war political experience on the part of the
Social Democrats. The government had little success in confronting the twin economic crises following the war.
The permanent economic crisis was a result of lost pre-war industrial exports, the loss of supplies in raw materials and
food stuffs from Alsace-Lorraine, Polish districts and the colonies along with worsening debt balances and reparations
payments. Military-industrial activity had almost ceased, although controlled demobilisation kept unemployment at around
one million.
The Entente permitted only low import levels of goods that most Germans could not afford. After four years of war and
famine, many German workers were exhausted, physically impaired and discouraged. Millions were disenchanted with
capitalism and hoping for a new era. Meanwhile the currency devalued.
The German peace delegation in France signed the Treaty of Versailles, accepting mass reductions of the German
military, heavy reparations payments and the controversial "War Guilt Clause". Adolf Hitler later blamed the republic and
its democracy for the oppressive terms of this treaty.
The Republic's first Reichsprasident ("Reich President"), Friedrich Ebert of the MSPD, signed the new German
constitution into law on August 11, 1919.
The early years: internal conflict (1919–1923)
The Republic was under great pressure from both left and right-wing extremists. The left accused the ruling Social
Democrats of having betrayed the ideals of the workers' movement by avoiding a communist revolution. The right was
opposed to any democratic system, preferring an authoritarian state like the 1871 Empire. To further undermine the
Republic's credibility the right (especially the military) blamed it for Germany's defeat in World War I (see
Dolchsto?legende).
The Kapp Putsch took place on March 13, 1920, involving a group of Freikorps troops who captured Berlin and installed
Wolfgang Kapp (a right wing journalist) as chancellor. The national government fled to Stuttgart and called for a general
strike. This completely halted the economy and the Kapp government collapsed after only four days on March 17.
Inspired by the general strikes, a communist uprising began in the Ruhr region when 50,000 people formed a "Red Army"
and took control of the province. The regular army and the Freikorps ended the uprising without orders from the
government. Other communist rebellions were put down in March 1921 in Saxony and Hamburg.
By 1923, the Republic could no longer afford the reparations payments required by the Versailles treaty, and the
government defaulted. In response, French and Belgian troops occupied the Ruhr region, Germany's most productive
industrial region at the time, taking control of most mining and manufacturing companies in January of 1923. Strikes were
called, and passive resistance was encouraged. These strikes lasted eight months, further damaging the economy and
raising expensive imports.
Since striking workers were paid benefits by the state, much additional currency was printed, fueling a period of
hyperinflation. The value of the Mark had declined from 4.2 per US dollar to 1 million per dollar by August 1923 and 4.2
million million (trillion) per dollar on November 20. On December 1, a new currency, the Rentenmark, was introduced at
the rate of 1 million million (trillion) old marks for 1 new mark. Reparation payments resumed, and the Ruhr was returned
to Germany.
Further pressure from the right came in 1923 with the Beer Hall Putsch, staged by Adolf Hitler in Munich. In 1920, the
German Workers' Party had become the Nazi Party (NSDAP), and would become a driving force in the collapse of
Weimar. Hitler was named chairman of the party in July 1921. The SA was established in November 1921 and acted as
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Hitler's personal army. On November 8, 1923, the Kampfbund, in a pact with Erich Ludendorff, took over a meeting by
Bavarian prime minister Gustav von Kahr at a beer hall in Munich. Ludendorff and Hitler declared a new government,
planning to take control of Munich the following day. The 3,000 rebels were thwarted by 100 policemen. Hitler was
arrested and sentenced to five years in prison, a minimum sentence for the charge and he served only nine months
before his release. Following the failure of the Beer Hall Putsch, his imprisonment and subsequent release, Hitler
focused on legal methods of gaining power.
Stresemann's Golden Era (1923–1929)
Gustav Stresemann was Reichskanzler for a brief period in 1923, and served as Foreign Minister from 1923-1929, a
period of relative stability for the Weimar Republic when there were fewer uprisings and seemingly the beginnings of an
economic recovery.
Stresemann's first move was to issue a new currency, the Rentenmark, to halt the extreme hyperinflation crippling
German society and the economy. It was successful because Stresemann repeatedly refused to issue more currency,
the initial cause of the inflationary spiral. To further stabilise the economy, he reduced spending and bureaucracy while
increasing taxes. He signed the Locarno Treaties with the Allied countries in 1925 as a means of restoring Germany's
diplomatic status in Europe.
During this period, the Dawes Plan was also created, tying reparations payments to Germany's ability to pay. Germany
was admitted into the League of Nations, made agreements over her western border, signed a neutrality pact with
Russia, and disarmament was brought to a halt. However, this progress was funded by overseas loans, increasing the
nation's debts, while overall trade decreased and unemployment rose. Stresemann's reforms did not relieve the
underlying weaknesses of Weimar but merely gave the appearance of a stable democracy.
Despite the progress made during these years, Stresemann was criticized by his opponents for his policy of "fulfillment",
or compliance with the terms of the Versailles Treaty.
In 1929, Stresemann's death marked the end of the "Golden Era" of the Weimar Republic.
The Republic crumbles and Hitler's support rises (1930–1932)
Loss of credibility for the Republic
The last years of the Weimar republic were stamped by even more political instability than in the previous years and the
administrations of Chancellors Bruning, Papen, Schleicher and Hitler (from 30 January to 23 March 1933) were all
Presidentially appointed Dictatorships. On March 29, 1930, the finance expert Heinrich Bruning had been appointed the
successor of Chancellor Muller by Paul von Hindenburg after months of political lobbying by General Kurt von Schleicher
on behalf of the military. The new government was expected to lead a political shift towards conservatism, based on the
emergency powers granted to the Reichsprasident by the constitution, since it had no majority support in the Reichstag.
After an unpopular bill to reform the Reich's finances was left unsupported by the Reichstag, Hindenburg established the
bill as an emergency decree based on Article 48 of the constitution. On July 18, 1930, the bill was again invalidated by a
slim majority in the Reichstag with the support of the SPD, KPD, the (then small) Nazi Party (NSDAP) and DNVP.
Immediately afterwards, Bruning submitted to the Reichstag the president's decree that it would be dissolved.
The Reichstag general elections on September 14, 1930, resulted in an enormous political shift: 18.3% of the vote went
to the NSDAP, five times the percentage compared to 1928. This had devastating consequences for the Republic. There
was no longer a majority in the Reichstag even for a Great Coalition of moderate parties, and it encouraged the
supporters of the NSDAP to bring out their claim to power with increasing violence and terror. After 1930, the Republic
slid more and more into a state of civil war.
From 1930 to 1932, Bruning attempted to reform the devastated state without a majority in Parliament, governing with
the help of the President's emergency decrees. During that time, the Great Depression reached its highpoint. In line with
liberal economic theory that less public spending would spur economic growth, Bruning drastically cut state expenditures,
including in the social sector. He expected and accepted that the economic crisis would, for a while, deteriorate before
things would improve. Among others, the Reich completely halted all public grants to the obligatory unemployment
insurance (which had been introduced only in 1927), which resulted in higher contributions by the workers and less
benefits for the unemployed -- not exactly a popular measure to adopt.
The economic downturn lasted until the second half of 1932, when there were first indices of a rebound. By this time
though, the Weimar Republic had lost all credibility with the majority of Germans. While scholars greatly disagree about
how Bruning's policy should be evaluated, it can safely be said that it contributed to the decline of the Republic. Whether
there were alternatives at the time remains the subject of much debate.
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The bulk of German capitalists and land-owners originally gave support to the Conservative experiment: not from any
personal liking for Bruning, but believing the Conservatives would best serve their interests. As, however, the mass of the
working class and also of the middle classes turned against Bruning, also more of the great capitalists and landowners
declared themselves in favour of his opponents-Hitler and Hugenberg. By late 1931 Conservatism as a movement was
dead, and the time was coming when Hindenburg and the Reichswehr would drop Bruning and come to terms with
Hugenberg and Hitler. Hindenburg himself was no less a supporter of an anti-democratic counter-revolution represented
by Hugenberg and Hitler.{ source Arthur Rosenberg-A History of The German Republic,1936)
On May 30, 1932, Bruning resigned after no longer having Hindenburg's support. Five weeks earlier, Hindenburg had
been reelected Reichsprasident with Bruning's active support, running against Hitler (the president was directly elected
by the people while the Reichskanzler was not).
Franz von Papen calls for elections
Hindenburg then appointed Franz von Papen as new Reichskanzler. Von Papen lifted the ban on the SA, imposed after
the street riots, in an unsuccessful attempt to secure the backing of Hitler.
SPD election poster, 1932. Translation: "Against Papen, Hitler, Thalmann; List 2, Social Democrats". The poster shows
the Social Democrats crushing their three ideological enemies, Monarchism, Nazism and Communism.
Enlarge
SPD election poster, 1932. Translation: "Against Papen, Hitler, Thalmann; List 2, Social Democrats". The poster shows
the Social Democrats crushing their three ideological enemies, Monarchism, Nazism and Communism.
Papen was closely associated with the industrialist and land-owning classes pursued an extreme Conservative policy on
Hindenberg's lines. He appointed as Reichswehr Minister Kurt von Schleicher and all of the members of the new cabinet
were of the same political opinion as Hugenberg. This Government was to be expected to assure itself of the co-
operation of Hitler. Since the Republicans and Socialists were not yet ready to take action and the Conservatives had
shot their political bolt, Hitler and Hugenberg were certain to achieve power.
Elections of July 1932
Since most parties opposed the new government, von Papen had the Reichstag dissolved and called for new elections.
The general elections on July 31, 1932 yielded major gains for the KPD and the NSDAP. The latter won 37.2% of the
vote for the NSDAP, supplanting the Social Democrats as the largest party in the Reichstag.
Hitler now demanded to be appointed Chancellor, but was rejected by Hindenburg on August 13, 1932. There was still
no majority in the Reichstag for any government; as a result, the Reichstag was dissolved and elections took place once
more in the hope that a stable majority would result.
July 1932 resulted in the question as to now what part this immense Party [NSDAP] would play in the Government of the
country . The NSDAP owed its huge increase to an influx of workers, unemployed, despairing peasants, and middle class
people. The millions of radical adherents at first forced the Party towards the Left .They wanted a re-newed Germany and
a new organisation of German society. The left of the NSDAP strove desperately against any drift into the train of such
capitalist and feudal reactionaries. Therefore Hitler refused Ministry under Papen, and demanded the Chancellership for
himself, but was rejected by Hindenburg on August 13, 1932.
November and 'Socialist General' Schleicher
The November 6, 1932 elections yielded 33.0% for the NSDAP: it dropped 2 million voters. Franz von Papen stepped
down, and was succeeded by General von Schleicher as Reichskanzler on December 3. The political army officer
Schleicher, had developed in atmosphere of semi-obscurity and intrigue that encompassd the Republican military policy.
He had for years been in the camp of those supporting the Conservative counter-revolution. Schleicher's bold and
unsuccessful plan was to build a majority in the Reichstag by uniting the Trade Unionist left wings in the various parties,
including that of the NSDAP led by Gregor Strasser. This did not prove successful either. In this brief Presidential
Dictatatorship entr'acte, Schleicher took the role of 'Socialist General', and entered into relations with the Christian Trade
Unions , the Left [NSDAP], and even with the Social Democrats . Schleicher's plan was for a sort of Labour Government
under his Generalship. It was an utterly un-workable idea as the Reichswehr officers were hardly prepared to follow
Schleicher on this path, and the working class had a natural distrust of their future allies. Equally, Schleicher aroused
hatred amongst the great capitalists and landowners by these plans. The above suspicion accompanied an opening for
the Republicans and Socialists. The SPD and KPD Could have achieved success building on a Berlin transport strike.
Hitler learned from von Papen that the general had no authority to abolish the Reichstag parliament, whereas any
majority of seats did. The cabinet (under a previous interpretation of Article 48) ruled without a sitting Reichstag, which
could vote only for its own dissolution. Hitler also learned that all past crippling Nazi debts were to be relieved by German
big business.
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On January 22, Hitler's efforts to persuade Oskar von Hindenburg (the President's son) included threats to bring criminal
charges over estate taxation irregularities at the President's Neudeck estate (although 5000 extra acres were soon
alloted to Hindenburg's property). Out maneuvered by von Papen and Hitler on plans for the new cabinet, and having lost
Hindenburg's confidence, Schleicher asked for new elections. On January 28 von Papen described Hitler to Paul von
Hindenburg as only a minority part of an alternative, von Papen-arranged government. The four great political
movements, the SPD, KPD, Centre, and the [NSDAP] were in opposition. If this continued there was real danger the
Centre and the [NSDAP] would radicalize further, and that in the end a vast united national bolshevist front would be
formd against the ruling system.
On 29 January Hitler and von Papen thwarted a last-minute threat of an officially-sanctioned Reichswehr takeover, and
on 30 January 1933 Hindenburg accepted the new Papen-Nationalist-Hitler coalition with the Nazis holding only three of
eleven Cabinet seats. Later that day, the first cabinet meeting was attended by only two political parties, representing a
minority in the Reichstag: The Nazis and the DNVP led by Alfred Hugenberg (196 + 52 seats). Eyeing the Catholic
Centre Party's 70 (+ 20 BVP) seats, Hitler refused their leader's demands for constitutional "concessions" (amounting to
protection) and planned for dissolution of the Reichstag.
Hindenburg, despite his misgivings about the Nazis' goals and about Hitler as a person, reluctantly agreed to Papen's
theory that, with Nazi popular support on the wane, Hitler could now be controlled as chancellor. The date dubbed
Machtergreifung (seizure of power) by the Nazi propaganda is commonly seen as the beginning of Nazi Germany.
Hitler's chancellorship and the death of the Weimar Republic (1933)
Hitler was sworn in as Chancellor on the morning of January 30, 1933 in what some observers later described as a brief
and indifferent ceremony. By early February, a mere week after Hitler's assumption of the chancellorship, the
government had begun to clamp down on the opposition. Meetings of the left-wing parties were banned, and even some
of the moderate parties found their members threatened and assaulted. Measures with an appearance of legality
suppressed the Communist Party in mid-February and included the plainly illegal arrests of Reichstag deputies.
Reichstag Fire
The Reichstag Fire on February 27 was blamed by Hitler's government on the Communists, and Hitler used the
emergency to obtain President von Hindenburg's assent to the Reichstag Fire Decree the following day. The decree
invoked Article 48 of the Weimar Constitution and suspended a number of constitutional protections of civil liberties,
allowing the Nazi government to take swift and harsh action against political meetings.
The Government induced the President by means of the agent provocateur Reichstag Fire of 27 February and other anti-
Communist maneuvers, to issue martial emergency . With this extraordinary ruse Hitler was at a stroke able to break the
log-jam of forces arrayed against him by simple physical arrest, and some murder, of the entire KPD Communist Party.
Reichstag election of March 5
Hitler and the Nazis exploited the German state's broadcasting and aviation facilities in a massive attempt to sway the
electorate, but this election — the last democratic election to take place until the end of the Third Reich twelve years later —
yielded a scant majority of 16 seats for the coalition. At the Reichstag elections, which took place 5 March, the NSDAP
obtained seventeen million votes. The Communist, Socialist and Catholic Centre votes stood firm .
Hitler addressed disparate interest groups, stressing the necessity for a definitive solution to the perpetual instability of
the Weimar Republic. He now blamed Germany's problems on the Communists, even threatening their lives on March 3.
Former Chancellor Heinrich Bruning proclaimed that his Centre Party would resist any constitutional change and
appealed to the President for an investigation of the Reichstag Fire. Hitler's successful plan was to induce what remained
of the now Communist depleted Reichstag to grant him, and the Government, the authority to issue decrees with the
force of law .The hitherto Presidential Dictatorship hereby was to give itself a new legal form.
On 15 March the first cabinet meeting was attended by the two coalition parties, representing a minority in the Reichstag:
The Nazis and the DNVP led by Alfred Hugenberg (196 + 52 seats). According to the Nuremburg Trials this Cabinet
meeting's first order of business was how to at last achieve the complete counter-revolution by means of the
constitutionally allowed Enabling Act , requiring two-thirds parliamentary majority . This Act would, and did, bring Hitler
and the NSDAP unfettered dictatorial powers .
Hitler cabinet meeting in mid-March

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At the meeting of the new cabinet on March 15, Hitler introduced the Enabling Act, which would have authorized the
cabinet to enact legislation without the approval of the Reichstag. Meanwhile, the only remaining question for the Nazis
was whether the Catholic Centre Party (Zentrum) would support the Enabling Act in the Reichstag, thereby providing the
two-thirds majority required to ratify a law that amended the constitution. Hitler expressed his confidence to win over the
Centre's votes. Hitler is recorded at the Nuremberg Trials as being sure of eventual Centre Party Germany capitulation
and thus rejecting of the DNVP's suggestions to "balance" the majority through further arrests, this time of socialists .
Hitler however assured his coalition partners that arrests would resume after the elections, and in fact some 26 SDP
Socialists were physically removed . After meeting with Centre leader Monsignor Ludwig Kaas and other Centre Trade
Union leaders daily ,and denying them a substantial participation in the government, negotiation succeeded in respect of
guarantees towards Catholic civil-servants and education issues. Kaas himself negotiated a letter of constitutional
guarantee in theory accepted by the Centre Party as final condition for assent to the Enabling Act, which guarantee was
not finally given, before the Centre indeed assented through Kaas towards the two-thirds majority.
Monsignor Ludwig Kaas, the party's chairman since 1928, had strong connection to the Vatican Secretary of State, later
Pope Pius XII At the last internal Centre meeting prior to the debate on the Enabling Act, Kaas expressed no preference
or suggestion on the vote, but as a way of mollifying opposition by Centre members to the granting of further powers to
Hitler, Kaas somehow arranged for a letter of constitutional guarantee from Hitler himself prior to his voting the centre en
blocin favor of the Enabling Act.
Kaas is remembered in connection with this vote he handed, and in this connection to the Vatican for whom he thereafte
set in train and drafted the Holy See's very long desired Reichskonkordat with Germany . Ludwig Kaas is named along
with von Papen as being one of the two most important political figures within this achievement of Dictatorship by Adolf
Hitler. (K.vKlemperer-German Resistance Against Hitler, OUP 1992)
The Socialist leader Otto Wels is remembered as the sole brave opposing voice to the 23 March Enabling Act that marks
the end of the Weimar republic and of democracy in modern Germany .
Enabling Act negotiations
On March 20 negotiation began between Hitler and Frick on one side and the Catholic Center Party (Zentrum) leaders —
Kaas, Stegerwald and Hackelsburger — on the other. The aim was to settle on conditions under which Center would vote
in favor of the Enabling Act. Because of the Nazis' narrow majority in the Reichstag, Center's support was necessary to
receive the required two-thirds majority vote. On March 22, the negotiations concluded; Hitler promised to continue the
existence of the German states, agreed not to use the new grant of power to change the constitution, and promised to
retain Zentrum members in the civil service. Hitler also pledged to protect the Catholic confessional schools and to
respect the concordats signed between the Holy See and Bavaria (1924), Prussia (1929) and Baden (1931). Hitler also
agreed to mention these promises in his speech to the Reichstag before the vote on the Enabling Act.
Kaas is remembered in connection with this vote he handed, and in his close connection to the Vatican for whom he
immediately set in train the Holy See's very long desired Reichskonkordat with Germany . Ludwig Kaas is named along
with von Papen as being one of the two most important political figures within this achievement of Dictatorship by Adolf
Hitler. (K von Klemperer,German Resistance Aaginst Hitler OUP,1992)
Ceremonial opening of the Reichstag in Potsdam on March 21
The ceremonial opening of the Reichstag on March 21 was held at the Garrison Church in Potsdam, a shrine of
Prussianism, in the presence of many Junker landowners and representatives of the imperial military caste. This
impressive and often emotional spectacle — orchestrated by Joseph Goebbels — aimed to link Hitler's government with
Germany's imperial past and portray National Socialism as a guarantor of the nation's future. The ceremony helped
convince the "old guard" Prussian military elite of Hitler's homage to their long tradition and, in turn, produced the
relatively convincing view that Hitler's government had the support of Germany's traditional protector — the Army. Such
support would announce to the population a return to conservatism to curb the problems affecting the Weimar Republic,
and that stability might be at hand. In a politically adroit move, Hitler bowed in respectful humility before President and
Field Marshal von Hindenburg.
Passage of the Enabling Act by the Reichstag on March 23
The Reichstag convened on March 23, 1933, and in the midday opening, Hitler made a historic speech, appearing
outwardly calm and conciliatory. It is most noticeable for its abrupt reversal of the Nazi Party's hardline stance against
Christianity and particularly Catholicism. Hitler presented an appealing prospect of respect towards Christianity by paying
tribute to the Christian faiths as "essential elements for safeguarding the soul of the German people". He promised to
respect their rights and declared his government's "ambition is a peaceful accord between Church and State" and that he
hoped "to improve our friendly relations with the Holy See." This speech aimed especially at the future recognition by the
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named Holy See and therefore to the votes of the Centre Party addressing many concerns Kaas had voiced during the
previous talks. Kaas is considered to have had a hand therefore in the drafting of the speech ( German Resistance
Against Hitler, Klemens von Klemperer, OUP, 1992 ) Kaas is also reported as voicing the Holy see's desire for Hitler as
bulwark against atheistic Russian nihilism previously as early as May 1932 (Edgar Ansel Mowrer, Triumph and
Turmoil,1968 p.209)
In the debate prior to the vote on the Enabling Act, Hitler orchestrated the full political menace of his paramilitary forces
like the storm troopers in the streets to intimidate reluctant Reichstag deputies into approving the Enabling Act. The
Communists' 81 seats had been empty since the Reichstag Fire Decree and other lesser known procedural measures,
thus excluding their anticipated "No" votes from the balloting. Otto Wels, the leader of the Social Democrats, whose seats
were similarly depleted from 120 to below 100 , was the only speaker to defend democracy and in a futile but brave effort
to deny Hitler the two-thirds majority, he made a speech critical of the abandonment of democracy to dictatorship. At this
Hitler could no longer restrain his wrath. (Rise and Fall of the Third Reich, William L. Shirer 1959).
In his retort to Wels, Hitler abandoned earlier pretence at calm statesmanship and delivered a characteristic screaming
diatribe, promising to exterminate all Communists in Germany and threatening Wels' Social Democrats as well.
Meanwhile Hitler's promised written guarantee to Monsignor Kaas was being typed up, it was asserted to Kaas, and
thereby Kaas was persuaded to silently deliver the Centre bloc's votes for the Enabling Act anyway.
Aftermath
The passing of the Enabling Act gave Hitler and his government sweeping powers to legislate without the Reichstag's
approval, and to make foreign policy decisions and deviate from the constitution where they saw fit. Hitler would use
these powers to remove all opposition to the dictatorship he wished to create. The decrees issueed by Hitler's cabinet
within succeeding weeks rapidly stripped Germans of their rights, removed all non-Nazi members of the Civil Service,
and banned all other political parties and unions, ushering in the Third Reich.
The NSDAP movement had rapidly passed the power of the majority Nationalist Ministers to control. Unchecked by the
police, the S.A indulged in acts of terrorism throughout Germany. Communists, Social Democrats, and the Centre were
ousted from public life everywhere. The violent persecution of Jews began, and by the summer 1933 the NSDAP felt
itself so invincible that it did away with all the other parties, as well as trades unions. The Nationalist Party was among
those suppressed. The NSDAP ruled alone in Germany. The Reichswehr had, however, remained completely un-
touched by all these occurrences. It was still the same State within a State that it had been in the Weimar Republic.
Similarly, the private property of great capitalists and landowners was untouched, whilst the administrative and judicial
machinery was only very slightly tampered with. {Arthur Rosenburg, A History of The German Republic, 1936)
Reasons for the Weimar Republic's failure
The Weimar Republic's catastrophic collapse is the subject of continued debate. Although Hitler became Reichskanzler
legally through mechanisms set forth in the constitution and the NSDAP gained a relative majority of the seats in
Parliament in two 1932 elections, he was appointed chancellor at a time when support for the NSDAP was not
considered sufficient to gain power. Scholars have expressed divided opinions on the reasons and historical analysis this
was complicated by the Cold War, when historians often attempted to justify ideologies. One speculation involves how
the NSDAP might have fared in the 1933 elections if Hitler didn't have the political and logistical advantages of being
chancellor.
No single reason can explain the rise of Nazism. The most commonly asserted causes might be grouped into three
categories.
Economic problems
The Weimar Republic had some of the most serious economic problems ever experienced by any Western democracy in
history. Rampant hyperinflation, massive unemployment and a large drop in living standards were primary factors. In
1923-29 there was a short period of economic recovery, but the Great Depression of the 1930s led to a worldwide
recession. Germany was particularly affected because it depended heavily on American loans. In 1932, about 5 million
Germans were unemployed. Many blamed the Weimar Republic. This was made apparent when political parties wanting
to disband the Republic altogether on both right and left made any democratic majority in Parliament impossible.
The Weimar Republic was severely affected by the Great Depression triggered by the Wall Street crash in 1929. The
crash and subsequent economic stagnation led increased demands on Germany to repay the debts owed to the U.S. As
the Weimar Republic was very fragile in all of its existence, the depression proved to be devastating, and played a major
role in the NSDAP's takeover.

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The Versailles treaty was considered by most Germans to be a punishing and degrading document because it forced
them to surrender resource-rich areas and pay massive amounts of compensation. These punitive reparations caused
consternation and resentment, although the actual economic damage resulting from the Treaty of Versailles is difficult to
determine. While the official reparations were considerable, Germany ended up paying only a fraction of them. However,
the reparations did damage Germany's economy by discouraging market loans, which forced the Weimar government to
finance its deficit by printing more money, causing rampant hyperinflation.
Most historians agree that many industrial leaders identified the Weimar Republic with labour unions and with the Social
Democrats, who had established the Versailles concessions of 1918/1919. Although some did see Hitler as a means to
abolish the latter, the Republic was already unstable before any industry leaders were supporting Hitler. Even those who
supported Hitler's appointment often did not want Nazism in its entirety and considered Hitler a temporary solution in their
efforts to abolish the Republic. Industry support alone cannot explain Hitler's enthusiastic support by large segments of
the population, including many workers who had turned away from the left.
Institutional problems
It is widely agreed that the 1919 constitution had several weaknesses, making the eventual establishment of a
dictatorship likely but it is unknown whether a different constitution could have prevented the Third Reich. However, the
1949 West German constitution (the Grundgesetz) is generally viewed as a strong response to these flaws.
* The institution of the Reichsprasident was frequently considered as an Ersatzkaiser ("substitute emperor"), an attempt
to replace the Kaiser (who resigned and fled in 1918) with a similarly strong institution meant to diminish party politics.
Article 48 of the constitution gave the President power to "take all necessary steps" if "public order and security are
seriously disturbed or endangered". Although this was intended as an emergency clause, it was often used before 1933
to issue decrees without the support of Parliament (see above) and also made Gleichschaltung easier. For example, the
Reichstag Fire Decree was issued on the basis of Article 48.
* The use of almost pure proportional representation meant any party with a small amount of support could gain entry
into the Reichstag. This led to many small parties, some extremist, building political bases within the system (after the
war only parties with 5% or more of the total vote would be allowed to enter the Bundestag). Yet, it has to be noted that
the Reichstag of the monarchy was fractioned to a similar degree although being elected by majority vote under a first-
past-the-post system.
* The Reichstag could remove the Reichskanzler from office even if it was unable to agree on a successor. This "Motion
of No Confidence" led to many chancellors in quick succession, adding to the Republic's instability (see Chancellor of
Germany for a list). As a result, the 1949 Grundgesetz stipulates that a chancellor may only be voted down by Parliament
if a successor is elected at the same time (see Constructive Vote of No Confidence).
* The constitution provided that in the event of the president's death or resignation, the Reichskanzler would assume
that office (and crucially possess its powers) pending election of a new president. This allowed Hitler to easily unite the
offices of Reichskanzler and Reichsprasident after Hindenburg's death in 1934. However, by this time the dictatorship
was already firmly installed and this clause alone cannot be blamed for Nazism.
Individual roles
Some historians prefer to consider individuals and the decisions they made. This brings up the problematic question of
what alternatives were available at the time and leads to speculation and hypothesis.
Bruning's economic policy from 1930-1933 has been the subject of much debate. It caused many Germans to identify the
Republic with cuts in social spending and extremely liberal economics. Whether there were alternatives to this policy
during Great Depression is an open question.
Paul von Hindenburg became Reichsprasident in 1925. He represented the older authoritarian 1871 Empire, and it is
hard to label him as a democrat in support of the 1919 Republic. During his later years (at well over 80 years old), he was
senile, but no Nazi. A president with solid democratic beliefs may not have allowed Parliament to be circumvented with
the use of Article 48 decrees and might have avoided signing the Reichstag Fire Decree. Hindenburg waited one and a
half days before he appointed Hitler as Reichskanzler on January 30, 1933, which indicates some hesitance. Some claim
Nazism would have lost much public support if Hitler had not been named chancellor.
Other roles
Writers John Cornwell and Ian Kershaw are amongst the modern commentators who have studied the role of Ludwig
Kaas and his alliance to Pope Pius XII.

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As regards the Rhenish-Westphalian Industrial Magnates and Franz von Papen, the Nuremburg Trials studied the era
from January 30, 1933, and came to the conclusion that it would not be an indictable offence to have assisted Adolf Hitler
and the NSDAP to power.
Nazi Germany
Nazi Germany, or the Third Reich, refers to Germany in the years 1933–1945, when it was under the control of the
National Socialist German Workers Party (Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiterpartei (NSDAP), or Nazi Party, with
the Fuhrer Adolf Hitler as chancellor and head of state.
History and terminology
Prior to and during World War II, Nazi Germany worked in close proximity with Imperial Japan and Fascist Italy.
Collectively referred to as the Axis Powers, all three nations participated in World War II, fighting against the Allies of
World War II, led by the United States, United Kingdom, and the Soviet Union.
Third Reich is often used as a near-synonym for Nazi Germany. Despite the interchangeable status of the two terms, the
"Third Reich" is never referred to as the "Third Empire", its rough English equivalent. In German, the regime is and was
sometimes referred to as the "Drittes Reich". The Nazi Party used the terms "Drittes Reich" and "Tausendjahriges Reich"
("Thousand-Year Reich") to connect the new German Empire to the ones of old - the Holy Roman Empire and German
Empire - while alluding to envisioned future prosperity and the nation's supposed destiny. In speeches, books and
articles about the Third Reich after 8 May 1945, the 1000 years is often juxtaposed against the twelve years of the Third
Reich's existence. The terms were used only briefly and dropped from propaganda in 1939, officially to avoid persiflage,
possibly also to avoid religious connotations.
Ideology
Ideologically, the Nazis endorsed the concept of "Grossdeutschland", Greater Germany, and saw the incorporation of the
Germanic peoples into one large nation as vital to their plans for the future. The "German problem", as it is often referred
to in English scholarship, focuses on the issue of administration in Northern and Central Europe, which has been an
important theme throughout German history. This nationalist, Wagnerian love affair with the Volk concept culminated in
the disaster of the Third Reich. Likewise, the issue over administration of the Polish corridor and Danzig ultimately led to
World War II.
The Nazis were also staunchly anti-Communist and regarded the leftist movement and international capitalism as the
work of conspirational Jewry. This platform manifested itself in the displacement, internment - and later, the systematic
extermination of - an estimated six million European Jews in the midst of World War II. Other victims of Nazi atrocities
included the Slavs, Gypsies, political opponents, social outcasts, religious dissidents Jehova witness's for example, and
unyielding Church-affiliated leadership. One could argue that a war with the Soviet Union was inevitable based on the
Third Reich's precepts, although World War II officially began when the United Kingdom and France declared war on
Nazi Germany two days after Poland was invaded. The global conflict that followed left Europe in ruins and led to the
deaths of roughly sixty-two million persons.
Pre-War Politics 1933-1939
In the wake of the frustrations imposed through the Versailles Treaty, the worldwide economic depression of the 1930's,
the counter-traditionalism of the Weimar period and the threat of Soviet-sponsored communism in Germany, many voters
began turning their support towards Adolf Hitler's radical Nazi Party, which made great promises of an economic,
cultural, and military renewal. The Dolchstosslegende figured prominently. On January 30, 1933, Hitler was appointed
chancellor of Germany by President Paul von Hindenburg after attempts by General Kurt von Schleicher to form a viable
government failed. Hindenberg was put under pressure by Hitler through his son Oskar, as well as intrigue from former
Chancellor Franz von Papen following his collection of participating financial interests. Even though the Nazi Party had
gained the largest share of the popular vote in the two Reichstag general elections of 1932, they had slim majority in
parliament within the Papen-proposed Nationalist DNVP- NSDAP coalition. This coalition ruled through accepted
continuance of un-Constitutional Presidential decree issuance under Article 48, prevalent in all Chancellorships since
October 1931.
Consolidation of power
The new government installed a dictatorship in a series of measures in quick succession (see Gleichschaltung for
details). On February 27, 1933 the Reichstag was set on fire, and this was followed immediately by the Reichstag Fire
Decree, which rescinded habeas corpus and civil liberties.
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A further step that turned Germany into a dictatorship virtually overnight was the Enabling Act passed in March 1933
under pressure. The act gave the government (and thus effectively Adolf Hitler) legislative powers and also authorized it
to deviate from the provisions of the constitution. With these powers, Hitler removed the remaining opposition and turned
the Weimar Republic into the "Third Reich".
Further consolidation of power was achieved on January 30, 1934, with the Gesetz uber den Neuaufbau des Reichs (Act
to rebuild the Reich). The act changed the highly decentralized federal Germany of the Weimar era into a centralized
state. It disbanded state parliaments, transferring sovereign rights of the states to the Reich central government and put
the state administrations under the control of the Reich administration.
Only the army remained independent from Nazi control, and the Nazi quasi-military SA expected top positions in the new
power structure. Wanting to preserve good relations with the army, on the night of June 30, 1934 Hitler initiated the Night
of the Long Knives, a purge of the leadership ranks of the SA as well as other political enemies, carried out by another,
more elitist, Nazi organisation, the SS. Shortly thereafter the army leaders swore their obedience to Hitler.
At the death of president Hindenburg on August 2, 1934, the Nazi-controlled Reichstag merged the offices of
Reichsprasident and Reichskanzler and reinstalled Hitler with the new title Fuhrer und Reichskanzler.
The inception of the Gestapo, police acting outside of any civil authority, highlighted the Nazis' intention to use powerful,
coercive means to directly control German society. Soon, an army estimated to be of about 100,000 spies and infiltrators
operated throughout Germany, reporting to Nazi officials the activities of any critics or dissenters. Most ordinary
Germans, happy with the improving economy and better standard of living, remained obedient and quiet, but many
political opponents, especially communists and some types of socialists, were reported by omnipresent eavesdropping
spies, and put in prison camps where they were severely mistreated, and many tortured and killed. It is estimated that
tens of thousands of political victims died or disappeared in the first few years of Nazi rule.
Social policy
The Nazi regime was characterized by political control of every aspect of society in a quest for racial (Aryan, Nordic),
social and cultural purity. Modern abstract art and avant-garde art was thrown out of museums, and put on special
display as "Degenerate art", where it was ridiculed. Interestingly, in one notable example on March 31, 1937, huge
crowds stood in line to view a special display of "degenerate art" in Munich, while a concurrent exhibition of 900 works
personally approved by Adolf Hitler attracted a tiny, unenthusiastic gathering.
The Nazi Party pursued its aims through persecution and killing of those considered impure, targeted especially against
minority groups such as Jews, Gypsies, Mormons, Jehovah's Witnesses and homosexuals.
In the years following the Nazi rise to power, many Jews fled the country and were encouraged to do so. By the
Nuremberg Laws passed in 1935, Jews were stripped of their German citizenship and denied government employment.
Most Jews employed by Germans lost their jobs at this time, their jobs being taken by unemployed Germans. On
November 9, 1938, the Nazi party incited a pogrom against Jewish businesses called Kristallnacht (Night of Broken
Glass, literally "Crystal Night"); the euphemism was used because the numerous broken windows made the streets look
as if covered with crystal. By September 1939, more than 200,000 Jews had left Germany, with the Nazi government
seizing any property they left behind.
The Nazis also undertook programs targeting "weak" or "unfit" members of their own population, such as the T-4
Euthanasia Program that killed tens of thousands of disabled and sick Germans in an effort to "maintain the purity of the
German Master race" (German: Herrenvolk) as described by Nazi propagandists. The techniques of mass killing
developed in these efforts would later be used in the Holocaust. Under a law passed in 1933, the Nazi regime carried out
the compulsory sterilization of over 400,000 individuals labeled as having hereditary defects, ranging from mental illness
to alcoholism.
Recent research has also emphasised the role of the extensive Nazi welfare programmes that supposedly helped
maintain public support for the regime until late in the war. The German community was nationalized and both labor and
entertainment, from festivals, to vacation trips to traveling cinemas, as part of the "Strength through Joy" program. Also
crucial to the building of loyalty and comradeship was the implimentation of the National Labor Service and the Hitler
Youth Organization, with the former being compulsatory and the latter consisting of nearly six million boys and girls. In
addition to a number of architectural projects that were undertaken, the construction of the Autobahn made it the first
National Motor Highway system in the world. It should be noted that between 1933 and 1936, Germany outpaced the
United States in construction, automobile production, unemployment and employment. All in all, the New Reich gave
Germans confidence and naturally instilled loyalty.

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Economic policy
When the Nazis came to power the most pressing issue was an unemployment rate of over 40%. The economic
management of the state was first given to respected banker Hjalmar Schacht. Under his guidance, a new economic
policy to elevate the nation was drafted. One of the first actions was to destroy the trade unions and impose strict wage
controls.
The government then expanded the money supply through massive deficit spending. However at the same time the
government imposed a 4.5% interest rate ceiling, creating a massive shortage in borrowable funds. This was resolved by
setting up a series of dummy companies that would pay for goods with bonds. The most famous of these was the MEFO
company, and these bonds used as currency became known as mefo bills. While it was promised that these bonds could
eventually be exchanged for real money, the collapse was put off until after the collapse of the Reich. These complicated
maneuvers also helped conceal armament expenditures that violated the Treaty of Versailles.
According to economic theory, price control combined with a large increase in the money supply should have produced a
large black market, but harsh penalties that saw violators sent to concentration camps or even shot prevented this
development. Repressive measures also kept volatility low, reducing inflationary pressures. New policies also limited
imports of consumer goods and focused on producing exports. International trade was greatly reduced remaining at
about a third of 1929 levels throughout the Nazi period. Currency controls were extended, leading to a considerable
overvaluation of the Reichsmark. These policies were successful in cutting unemployment dramatically.
Industry was mostly not nationalized, and businesses were still motivated by pursuing profits. However industry was
closely regulated with quotas and requirements to use domestic resources. These regulations were set by administrative
committees composed of government and business officials. Competition was limited as major companies were
organized into cartels through these administrative committees. Selective nationalization was used against businesses
that failed to agree to these arrangements. The banks, which had been nationalized by Weimar, were returned to their
owners and each administrative committee had a bank as member to finance the schemes.
The German economy was transferred to the leadership of Hermann Goring when, on October 18, 1936 the German
Reichstag announced the formation of a Four-year plan which was designed to gear the Nazi economy towards a war
footing, which Hitler had revealed in the Hossbach Memorandum. It showed that Hitler planned a war in Eastern Europe
in the pursuit of Lebensraum (trans. "living-space"). Hitler did not however, believe that the Western powers of Britain or
France would intervene, leaving him free to take over the USSR whom he saw as the natural enemy of Germany. The
four-year plan technically expired in 1940, but by this time Hermann Goring had built up a power base in the "Office of
the Four-Year Plan" that effectively controlled all German economic and production matters.
Under the leadership of Fritz Todt a massive public works project was started, rivaling the New Deal in both size and
scope; its most notable achievement was the network of Autobahnen. Once the war started, the massive organization
that Todt founded was used in building bunkers, underground facilities and entrenchments all over Europe. Another part
of the new German economy was massive rearmament, with the goal being to expand the 100,000-strong German Army
into a force of millions.
In 1942 the growing burdens of the war and the death of Todt saw the economy move to a fully war economy under
Albert Speer.
World War II
The "Danzig crisis" peaked when Germany invaded Poland on 1 September, 1939. This led to the outbreak of the
Second World War in Europe when on 3 September 1939, the United Kingdom and France both declared war on
Germany. The Phony War followed, until in 1940, when the Germans entered Denmark. As the British failed in their effort
to secure Norway and undoubtedly cut the Germans off from Scandanavian ore, the Germans emerged victorous from
the first encounter. Also in 1940, France and the Low Countries were invaded and fell to the Germans. Later that year,
Germany subjected Britain to heavy bombing during the Battle of Britain. This may have served two purposes, either as a
precursor to Operation Sea Lion or it may have been an effort to dissuade the British populace from continuing to support
the war and the their government's meddling in European affairs. Already prior to the war, negative press in the country
attempted to turn Britons against Adolf Hitler and in 1940, the government made its position clear at Mers-el-Kebir.
Germany invaded the Soviet Union on 21 June 1941 and on the eve of the invasion, Hitler's former deputy, Rudolf Hess,
attempted to negotiate terms of peace with the United Kingdom in an unofficial private meeting after crash-landing in
Scotland. Adolf Hitler declared war on the United States on 11 December, 1941, four days after the Japanese bombed
Pearl Harbor. Although Nazi hubris is often cited, Hitler presumably sought the further support of Japan and was
convinced of the United States' aggressive intentions following the leaking of Rainbow Five and hearing the forboding
anti-German content of Franklin Roosevelt's Pearl Harbor speech.
Meanwhile, the persecution of minorities and "undesirables" continued both in Germany and the occupied countries.
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From 1941 Jews were required to wear a yellow star in public, and most were transferred to ghettos, where they
remained isolated from the rest of the population. In January 1942, at the Wannsee conference under the supervision of
Reinhard Heydrich, a plan for the "Final Solution of the Jewish Question" (Endlosung der Judenfrage) in Europe was
hatched. From then until the end of the war some six million Jews and many others, including homosexuals, Slavs and
political prisoners, were systematically killed and more than 10 million people were put into forced labor. This genocide is
called the Holocaust in English and the Shoah in Hebrew. (The Nazis used the euphemistic German term
Endlosung—"final solution.") Thousands were shipped daily to extermination camps (Vernichtungslager, sometimes called
"death factories") and concentration camps (Konzentrationslager, KZ), some of which were originally detention centers
but later converted into mass-murder factories, or had death camps added to their facilities, for the purpose of killing of
their inmates.
Parallel to the Holocaust, the Nazis conducted a ruthless program of conquest and exploitation over the captured Soviet
and Polish territories and their Slavic populations as part of their Generalplan Ost. According to estimates, 20 million
Soviet civilians, three million non-Jewish Poles, and seven million Red Army soldiers died under Nazi maltreatment in
what the Russians call the Great Patriotic War. The Nazis' plan was to extend German lebensraum ("living space")
eastward, with the pretext for launching the war in Eastern Europe in order "to defend Western Civilization against
Bolshevism". Due to many of the atrocities suffered under Stalin, the Nazi message was interpreted by many to be
legitimate. Many Ukranians, Balts and other disillusioned Soviets fought with the Germans, not to mention other
Europeans enlisted in numerous Schutzstaffel divisions.
By February 1943 the Soviets had defeated the Germans at Stalingrad and began the push westward, winning the tank
battle at Kursk-Orel in July. The German Army was pushed back to the borders of Poland by February 1944 following the
great success of Operation Bagration. The Allies opened a second front in June 1944 in Normandy, a year and a half
after the Soviets had turned the tide on the eastern front. Soviet troops moving westward met Allied troops moving
eastward at the Elbe on April 26, 1945 (Cohen).
On April 30, 1945, as Berlin was being taken by Soviet forces, Hitler committed suicide. He was suceeded by Grand
Admiral Karl Donitz, whose caretaker government sought a seperate peace with the Western Allies. On May 4–8, 1945
German armed forces surrendered unconditionally. This was the end of World War II in Europe and, with the creation of
the Allied Control Council on June 5, 1945, the four Allied powers "assume[d] supreme authority with respect to
Germany" (Declaration Regarding the Defeat of Germany, US Department of State, Treaties and Other International Acts
Series, No. 1520).
Virtually all Germans in Central Europe had been expulsed to west of the Oder-Neisse line, having affected about
seventeen million ethnic Germans. The French, US and British occupation zones later became West Germany (the
Federal Republic of Germany), while the Soviet zone became the communist East Germany (the German Democratic
Republic, excepting sections of Berlin). West Germany recovered economically by the 1960s, being called the economic
miracle (German term Wirtschaftswunder) partly due to economic aid by the United States of America (Marshall Plan),
while the East recovered at a slower pace under Communism until 1990, due to reparations paid to the Soviet Union and
the effects of the centrally planned economy.
After the war, surviving Nazi leaders were put on trial by an Allied tribunal at Nuremberg for crimes against humanity. A
minority were sentenced to death and executed, but most were jailed and then released by the mid 1950s due to poor
health and old age. In the 1960s, 1970s and 1980s, some renewed efforts were made in West Germany to take those
who were directly responsible for crimes against humanity to court (e.g. Auschwitz trials). However, many of the less
prominent leaders continued to live well into the 1970s and 1980s.
In all non-fascist European countries legal purges were established to punish the members of the former Nazi and
Fascist parties. Even there, however, some of the former leaders found ways to accommodate themselves under the
new circumstances. An uncontrolled punishment hit the children of Nazis and those fathered by German soldiers in
occupied countries, including the "Lebensborn" children.
Military Structure
Wehrmacht — Armed Forces
OKW — Armed Forces High Command
Chief of the Supreme Command of the Armed Forces - Field Marshal Wilhelm Keitel
Chief of the Operations Staff - Colonel General Alfred Jodl

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Heer — Army
OKH — Army High Command

Army Commanders-in-Chief
Colonel General Werner von Fritsch (1935 to 1938)

Field Marshal Walther von Brauchitsch (1938 to 1941)
Fuhrer and Reich Chancellor Adolf Hitler (1941 to 1945)
Field Marshal Ferdinand Schorner (1945)
Kriegsmarine — Navy
OKM — Navy High Command

Navy Commanders-in-Chief
Grand Admiral Erich Raeder (1928-1943)

Grand Admiral Karl Donitz (1943-1945)
General Admiral Hans-Georg von Friedeburg (1945)
Luftwaffe — Airforce
OKL — Airforce High Command
Reichsluftschutzbund (Air Force Auxiliary)
Air Force Commanders-in-Chief
Reich Marshal Hermann Goring (to 1945)

Field Marshal Robert Ritter von Greim (1945)
Abwehr — Military Intelligence
Rear Admiral Konrad Patzig {1932-1935)

Vice Admiral Wilhelm Canaris (1935-1944)
Waffen-SS — Nazi Party military branch
Organization of the Third Reich
The leaders of Nazi Germany created a large number of different organizations for the purpose of helping them stay in
power. They rearmed and strengthened the military, set up an extensive state security apparatus and created their own
personal party army, the Waffen SS.
Through staffing of most government positions with Nazi Party members, by 1935 the German national government and
the Nazi Party had become virtually one and the same. By 1938, through the policy of Gleichschaltung, local and state
governments lost all legislative power and answered administratively to Nazi party leaders, known as Gauleiters.
The organization of the Nazi state, as of 1944, was as follows:
Head of State and Chief Executive
* Fuhrer und Reichskanzler (Adolf Hitler)
Cabinet and national authorities
* Office of the Reich Chancellery (Hans Lammers)

* Office of the Party Chancellery (Martin Bormann)
* Office of the Presidential Chancellery (Otto Meissner)
* Privy Cabinet Council (Konstantin von Neurath)
* Chancellery of the Fuhrer (Philip Bouhler)
Reich Offices
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* Office of the Four-Year Plan (Hermann Goring)

* Office of the Reich Master Forester (Hermann Goring)
* Office of the Inspector for Highways
* Office of the President of the Reich Bank
* Reich Youth Office
* Reich Treasury Office
* General Inspector of the Reich Capital
* Office of the Councillor for the Capital of the Movement (Munich, Bavaria)
Reich Ministries
* Reich Foreign Ministry (Joachim von Ribbentrop)

* Reich Interior Ministry (Wilhelm Frick, Heinrich Himmler)
* Reich Ministry for Public Enlightenment and Propaganda (Joseph Goebbels)
* Reich Ministry of Aviation (Hermann Goring)
* Reich Ministry of Finance (Lutz Schwerin von Krosigk)
* Reich Ministry of Justice (Franz Schlegelberger)
* Reich Economics Ministry (Walther Funk)
* Reich Ministry for Nutrition and Agriculture (Walther Darre)
* Reich Labor Ministry (Franz Seldte)
* Reich Ministry for Science, Education, and Public Instruction (Bernhard Rust)
* Reich Ministry for Ecclesiastical Affairs (Hanns Kerrl)
* Reich Transportation Ministry (Julius Dorpmuller)
* Reich Postal Ministry (Wilhelm Ohnesorge)
* Reich Ministry for Weapons, Munitions, and Armament (Fritz Todt, Albert Speer)
* Reich Ministers without Portfolio (Konstantin von Neurath, Hans Frank, Hjalmar Schacht, Arthur Seyss-Inquart)
Occupation authorities
* Reich Ministry for the Occupied Eastern Territories (Alfred Rosenberg)

* General Government of Poland (Hans Frank)
* Reich Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia (Konstantin von Neurath)
o Deputy Reich Protector of Bohemia and Moravia (Reinhard Heydrich)
* Office of the Military Governor of France
Legislative Branch
* Reichstag
o Speaker of the Reichstag (Hermann Goring)
* Reichsrat (disbanded February 14, 1934)
Paramilitary organizations
* Sturmabteilung (SA)
* Schutzstaffel (SS)
o Allgemeine SS
o Waffen SS
o Germanische SS
* Deutscher Volkssturm
* Nationalsozialistisches Kraftfahrerkorps (NSKK)
* Nationalsozialistisches Fliegerkorps (NSFK)
National police
Reich Central Security Office (RSHA — Reichssicherheitshauptamt) Ernst Kaltenbrunner
* Regular Police (Ordnungspolizei (Orpo))

o Schutzpolizei (Safety Police)
o Gendarmerie (Rural Police)
o Gemeindepolizei (Local Police)
* Security Police (Sicherheitspolizei (Sipo))
o Geheime Staatspolizei (Gestapo)
o Reichskriminalpolizei (Kripo)
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o Sicherheitsdienst (SD)
Political organizations
* Nazi Party — National Socialist German Workers Party (abbreviated NSDAP)

* Youth organisations
o Hitler-Jugend — Hitler-youth (for boys and young men)Baldur von Schirach
o Bund Deutscher Madel (for girls and young women)
o Deutsches Jungvolk (for very young boys and girls ages 6-8)
Service organizations
* Deutsche Reichsbahn (State Railway)

* Reichspost (State Postal Service)
* Deutsches Rotes Kreuz (German Red Cross)
Religious organizations
* German Christians
* Protestant Reich Church
Academic organizations
* National Socialist German University Teachers League

* National Socialist German Students League
Prominent persons in Nazi Germany
Nazi Party and Nazi government leaders and officials
* Artur Axmann — Reich Youth Leader (successor of Baldur von Schirach in 1940)
* Ernst Wilhelm Bohle — Secretary of State, Head of the NSDAP Foreign Organisation (1933-1945)
* Martin Bormann — Head of the Party Chancellery (Parteikanzlei) and Private Secretary to Adolf Hitler
* Karl Brandt — Reich Commissioner of Health and Sanitation
* Alois Brunner — SS Lieutenant Colonel and Adolf Eichmann’s most important assistant
* Otto Dietrich — Secretary of State, Reich Chief of the Press
* Karl Fiehler — Nazi Lord Mayor of Munich and Head of the unity organization for local politics
* Hans Frank — Minister, Head of the German Law Academy
* Roland Freisler — State Secretary at the Reich Ministry of Justice and President of the Volksgerichtshof
* Wilhelm Frick — Minister of the Interior
* Hans Fritzsche — senior official of the Reich Ministry for Propaganda
* Walter Funk — Minister of Industries
* Joseph Goebbels — Minister of Propaganda
* Hermann Goring — Reichsmarschall and Minister-President of Prussia. Air Minister.
* Franz Gurtner — Minister of Justice
* Karl Hanke — Secretary of State, Propaganda Ministry
* Rudolf Hess — the Fuhrer's Deputy
* Reinhard Heydrich — Head of Reich Main Security Office and Protector of Bohemia and Moravia
* Konstantin Hierl — Head of the Reich Labour Service
* Heinrich Himmler — Reich Leader SS
* Adolf Hitler — Imperial Chancellor, the Fuhrer
* Hanns Kerrl — Reich Minister of Ecclesiastical Affairs (1933–1941)
* Karl Otto Koch — SS Colonel and commandant of the concentration camps at Buchenwald and Majdanek
* Hans Lammers — Head of the Reich Chancellery
* Herbert Lange — SS Major, chief inspector of the Posen State Police Headquarters
* Robert Ley — Leader of the German Labour Front
* Viktor Lutze — Chief of Staff of the SA (1934–1943)
* Otto Meissner — Head of the Reich President’s Office
* Alfred Meyer — State Secretary at the Reich Ministry for the Occupied Eastern Territories
* Hans Nieland - Head of the NSDAP Foreign Organisation (1931-1933) and Lord Mayor of Dresden (1940-1945)
* Erich Priebke — SS Captain, participated in the massacres at the Ardeatine caves near Rome
* Ernst Rohm, Chief of Staff of the SA (1931–1934)
* Alfred Rosenberg — ideologist of National Socialism, Reich Minister for the Occupied Eastern Territories
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* Bernhard Rust — Minister of Education

* Carl Schmitt — expert on constitutional law and political philosopher, who affected Nazism with his anti-Semite and
antidemocratic theses
* Albert Speer — First Architect, Minister for Armament from 1942
* Konstantin von Neurath — Head of the Secret Cabinet
* Joachim von Ribbentrop — Foreign Minister (1938–1945)
* Fritz Sauckel — General Plenipotentiary for the Employment of Labour (1942–1945)
* Baldur von Schirach — Leader of Nazi Youth Organisations and Gauleiter of Vienna
* Franz Seldte — Reich Minister of Labor (1933–1945)
* Arthur Sey?-Inquart — Reichsstatthalter in Austria, Commissioner for the Occupied Netherlands
* Josef Terboven — Reichskommissar of Norway (1940–1945)
* Julius Streicher — publisher of the Nazi propaganda newspaper Der Sturmer
* Fritz Todt — Inspector General for German Roadways, Reich Minister for Armaments and Munitions (1940-1942)
* Hjalmar Schacht — Minister, President of the Reichsbank (1933-1939)
* Gertrud Scholtz-Klink — Reich Leader of Women (1934-1945)
* Hans von Tschammer und Osten — Secretary of State and Reich Sports Leader (1933-1943)
SS personnel
* See: List of SS Personnel
Military
* Karl Donitz-Commander of the German U-Boat force, later the German Navy. Named by Hitler as his successor in
1945.
* Gerd von Rundstedt
* Erwin Rommel
* Wilhelm Keitel
* Claus von Stauffenberg
* Wilhelm Canaris
* Alfred Jodl
* Erich Raeder
* Robert Ritter von Greim
* Albert Kesselring
* Erich von Manstein
Other
* Gottfried Benn
* Eva Braun
* Wernher von Braun
* Houston Stewart Chamberlain
* Anton Drexler
* Gottfried Feder
* Friedrich Flick
* Theodor Fritsch
* Arthur de Gobineau
* Hans Friedrich Karl Gunther (not to be confused with Hans Gunther)
* Karl Harrer
* Willibald Hentschel
* Alfred Hoche
* Armin D. Lehmann
* Lanz von Liebenfels
* Guido von List
* Karl Lueger
* Alfred Ploetz
* Ferdinand Porsche
* Traudl Junge
* John Rabe
* Geli Raubal
* Leni Riefenstahl
* Oskar Schindler
* Rudolf von Sebottendorf
* Richard Sorge
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* Johannes Stark
* Walter Thiel
* Richard Wagner
* Winifred Wagner
* Konrad Zuse
* Otto van hinbrick
* Walther Sommerlath
Noted victims
* Dietrich Bonhoeffer
* Georg Elser
* Anne Frank
* Janusz Korczak
* Erich Muhsam
* Carl von Ossietzky
* White Rose (Sophie and Hans Scholl and others)
* Bruno Schulz
* Ernst Thalmann
Noted refugees
* Albert Bassermann
* Johannes R. Becher
* Rudolf Belling
* Walter Benjamin
* Bertolt Brecht
* Marlene Dietrich
* Albert Einstein
* Lion Feuchtwanger
* Sigmund Freud
* Erich Fromm
* Kurt Godel
* Walter Gropius
* Friedrich Hayek
* Heinrich Eduard Jacob
* Theodor Kramer
* Fritz Lang
* Thomas Mann
* Ludwig von Mises
* Solomon Perel
* Erich Maria Remarque
* Anna Seghers
* Kurt Tucholsky
* Kurt Weill
Noted survivors
* Bruno Bettelheim
* Viktor Frankl
* Eugen Kogon
* Primo Levi
* Martin Niemoller
* Kurt Schumacher
* Franz von Papen
* Roman Polanski
* Elie Wiesel
* Simon Wiesenthal
* Arnulf Overland

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History of Germany during World War II
Foreword
When in 1933 Hitler gained power, no one could have predicted the scope, intensity, and duration of the armed conflict
that would follow in just a few short years. When conditions reached their climax and the Second World War came in
1939, the Western democracies were shocked at the speed at which Poland fell, given that they had seen the Polish
army defeat the vast Soviet Union less than a generation before at the Battle of Warsaw (1920). The democracies were
even more shocked some months later when France also fell despite its superior tanks and its Maginot Line. Many of the
Nazi German army tactics and techniques were untried but the office corps and the general staff were vigilant and
speedy in their adaptations. The officers and men were young and full of enthusiasm, with considerable numbers of
veterans of World War I beside them to supply experience and wisdom. However, after over five and a half years of
conflict, the Nazi German Army was a shadow of its former self. Overwhelmed on all sides and suffering from severe
shortages, the casualty had grown tremendously. In the final years of the war, the Nazi forces had to resort to old men,
boys, disabled, and unreliable foreigners.
[edit]
Start of the War
In September 1, 1939 Nazi Germany invaded to Poland (see Polish September Campaign). The invasion led the United
Kingdom and France to declare war on Nazi Germany, accordingly to the agreement that they had with Poland.
Following the United Kingdom Australia, Canada, New Zealand, South Africa also declared war on Nazi Germany. After
the end of the campaign in Poland the war entered a period of relative inactivity known as the Phony War. This ended
when Nazi Germany invaded Denmark and Norway in April of 1940 (see Operation Weserubung) and the Netherlands,
Belgium and France in May (see Battle of France). All of the invaded countries swiftly capitulated and the forces of the
United Kingdom and its allies suffered a humiliating defeat in Norway (see British campaign in Norway) and a near-
disastrous retreat from France (see Battle of Dunkirk). The United Kingdom was threatened with an amphibious invasion
(see Operation Sealion) but during the Battle of Britain the Luftwaffe failed to achieve air superiority and the invasion was
postponed indefinitely.
North Africa
After Italy's declaration of War on the United Kingdom and France in June of 1940 Italian forces in Libya came under
punitive attack from the British in Egypt. The Italian forces soon took the initiative by occupying British Somaliland in
August and invading Egypt in September. The British and Commonwealth forces, despite being outnumbered by 500,000
available troops to 35,000 (of whom 17,000 were non-combatants), made a fighting withdrawal and after reinforcements
were sent to the region in December, counterattacked, dealing out several humiliating defeats to the Italians and
capturing over 130,000 prisoners in a two-month campaign. In February of 1941 the Afrika Korps were sent to the Libya
to reinforce their Italian allies and a hard fought campaign ensued. This theatre of war is known as the North African
Campaign.
South Eastern Europe
The Italian invasion of Greece in December of 1940 was a disaster and Italian forces were driven back into Albania which
Italy had occupied in 1939. Nazi Germany attacked Yugoslavia and Greece in May of 1941 to assist their allies and
prevent any possibility of disruption to the production of oil from their oilfields by hostile forces.
Soviet Union
The Soviet Union had in 1939 invaded Poland together with Nazi Germany in accordance with the secret part of the
Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact. Sources made available after the collapse of the Soviet Union reveals the Kremlin strategy to
provoke Europe's capitalist powers into war against each other to facilitate Communist revolutions by their war-ravaged
proletarians. Stalin counted on Hitler to avoid a two-front war. As long as the war with the British Empire wasn't
concluded, Stalin was in no hurry to make defensive preparations, and was rather preparing his army for offensive to
take over the wrecked Europe.
For the Nazis, however, the war in the West was seen as only the overture to the great operations against Communist
Russia. The successful campaigns against Poland, Scandinavia and France, and the bad standing of the Red Army after
the Great Purge in the 1930s, as indicated by the fiasco of the Winter War, made Hitler believe the power relations
between Nazi Germany and Russia would not again become as favorable. The crusade against Bolshevism, codenamed
Operation Barbarossa, was to be launched sooner rather than later. It was planned to unite Western Europe behind Nazi
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Germany's strong leadership for the common goal to fight Communism.
The Nazi German campaigns in Greece and North Africa delayed the planned invasion by several weeks, and a great
deal of the good summer weather was already lost by the time the invasion was launched on June 22, 1941. The
massive attack still turned out to be a success, conquering whole areas of the Soviet Union's western region. Their only
significant strategic failure was the advance on Moscow, which was halted by stiff resistance and a very harsh winter.
The following years, however, were less successful on the Eastern Front.
The first major defeats
Germany declared war on the United States immediately after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor in December of
1941. This has been considered a disastrous blunder since the USA had been supplying and offering increasing non-
combative support to the Allies since the outbreak of the war and now, the war declaration gave US President Franklin D.
Roosevelt complete license to bring the full force of the American military and immense war production capability to bear
in the conflict against Germany. The first major defeats were in North Africa at the hands of the British at the battles of
Gazala and the second Battle of El Alamein in 1942. Around about the same time the tide was turning for the Germans in
Russia. The defeat at the Battle of Stalingrad shocked many in the German High Command and the realisation that the
German forces were not invincible began to permeate through the minds of the German people.
Italian Armistice
The Nazi German and Italian defeat in North Africa allowed the Allied forces to contemplate opening up a new theatre of
war in the south. Sicily was invaded in July of 1943 leading to the overthrow and imprisonment of Mussolini. In
September the Italian mainland was invaded. Shortly afterwards an armistice was signed and Italian troops found
themselves arrested and imprisoned by the Nazi Germans. The Nazi Germans fought on in Italy and in October the new
Italian government declared war on Nazi Germany. The campaign in Italy eventually bogged down as the focus of
attention for the Western allied was drawn to opening up a new front.
Defeat in the East, the Invasion of Normandy and final defeat
In the east the Nazi Germans had been steadily withdrawing in the face of increasingly capable Red Army offensives.
After the Battle of Kursk in July 1943 (an overwhelming victory for the Soviets) the Germans arsenal was depleted of
much needed armoured vehicles and Germany was unable to launch another serious offensive in the east. By the time of
D-Day invasion on 6 June 1944, German forces were stretched thinly on three fronts. By August, Soviet forces had
crossed into eastern Germany. Allied forces crossed the Rhine a month later. In December of 1944 a last ditch effort to
strike a blow to the western allies (the Ardennes Offensive) ground to a halt due to lack of supplies and bitter allied
opposition. By the beginning of 1945 the regime was beginning to disintegrate, and a feared last-ditch defense from a
"National Redoubt" never happened. In April, Hitler committed suicide and Germany finally surrendered in the first week
of May.
History of Germany since 1945
Following Germany's defeat in World War II and the beginning of the Cold War, Germany was split for about 40 years,
representing the focus of the two global blocks in the east and west. Only in 1990 Germany would be reunited.
The division of Germany
At the Potsdam Conference in August 1945, after Germany's unconditional surrender on May 8, 1945, the Allies divided
Germany into four military occupation zones – French in the southwest, British in the northwest, United States in the
south, and Soviet in the east. The territories east of the Oder-Neisse line (East Prussia, Eastern Pomerania and Silesia)
were removed from Germany and put under Polish administration, effectively shifting Poland westward. A transfer of
Germans from Poland, Czechoslovakia and Hungary was agreed on, but the countries were urged to stop the transfers
at that particular moment. The urging had however no effect on the ongoing Expulsion of Germans after World War II.
The intended governing body was called the Allied Control Council. The commanders-in-chief exercised supreme
authority in their respective zones and acted in concert on questions affecting the whole country. Berlin, which lay in the
Soviet sector, was also divided into four sectors with the Western sectors later becoming West Berlin and the Soviet
sector becoming East Berlin, capital of East Germany.
A key item in the occupiers' agenda was denazification; toward this end, the swastika and other outward symbols of the
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Nazi regime were banned, and a Provisional Civil Ensign was established as a temporary German flag; the latter
remained the "official" flag of the country (necessary for reasons of international law as German ships had to carry some
sort of identifying marker) until East Germany and West Germany (see below) came into existence, separately, in 1949.
The United States, the United Kingdom, and the Soviet Union had agreed at Potsdam to a broad program of
decentralization, treating Germany as a single economic unit with some central administrative departments. These plans
broke down in 1948 with the emergence of the Cold War.
The initial post surrender policy of the western powers was one of "salted earth"[1], in line with the Morgenthau Plan
which albeit officialy discredited ended up greatly influencing policy[2][3]. One of the last effects of this policy was the
removal of the ore rich Saar from Germany in 1947, a fate that came close to happening to the Ruhr Area[4] as well.
However, by 1948 with the emergency of increased rivalry between the eastern and the western powers and fears that
the population might turn communist the western powers had a change of hearts. They became concerned about the
deteriorating economic situation in their zones; the American Marshall Plan economic aid was extended to Western
Germany and a currency reform introduced the Deutsche Mark and halted rampant inflation there. The Soviets had not
agreed to this currency reform and withdrew in March 1948 from the four-power governing bodies and initiated the Berlin
blockade in June 1948, blocking all ground transport routes between Western Germany and West Berlin. The Western
Allies replied with a continuous airlift of supplies to the western half of the city. The Soviets ended the blockade after 10
months.
Two Germanies
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 "provisional" capital. In English the two states were known informally as "West Germany" and "East
Germany" respectively. In both cases the former occupying troops remained permanently stationed there. 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. Though the German inhabitants of West Berlin were citizens of the Federal
Republic of Germany, West Berlin was not legally incorporated into West Germany; it remained under the formal
occupation of the western allies until 1990, although most day-to-day administration was conducted by an elected West
Berlin government.
West Germany was allied with the United States of America, the UK and France. A western capitalist country with a
"social market economy", the country enjoyed prolonged economic growth (Wirtschaftswunder) following the currency
reform of June 1948 and US assistance through Marshall Plan aid (1948-1951).
East Germany was at first occupied by and later (May 1955) allied with the Soviet Union. An authoritarian country with a
Soviet-style economy, East Germany soon became the richest, most advanced country in the Soviet bloc, but many of its
citizens looked to the West for political freedoms and economic prosperity.
West Germany
The Western Allies turned over increasing authority to German officials and moved to establish a nucleus for a future
German government by creating a central Economic Council for their zones. The program later provided for a West
German constituent assembly, an occupation statute governing relations between the Allies and the German authorities,
and the political and economic merger of the French with the British and American zones.
On May 23, 1949, the Grundgesetz (Basic Law), the constitution of the Federal Republic of Germany, was promulgated.
Following elections in August, the first federal government was formed on September 20, 1949, by Konrad Adenauer
(CDU). The next day, the occupation statute came into force, granting powers of self-government with certain exceptions.
After the Petersberg agreement West Germany quickly progressed toward fuller sovereignty and association with its
European neighbors and the Atlantic community. The London and Paris agreements of 1954 restored most of the state's
sovereignty (with some exceptions) in May 1955 and opened the way for German membership in the North Atlantic
Treaty Organisation (NATO). In April 1951, West Germany joined with France, Italy and the Benelux countries in the
European Coal and Steel Community (forerunner of the European Union).
The outbreak of war in Korea (June 1950) led to U.S. calls for the rearmament of West Germany in order to defend
western Europe from the perceived Soviet threat. But the memory of German aggression led other European states to
seek tight control over the West German military. Germany's partners in the Coal and Steel Community decided to
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establish a European Defence Community (EDC), with an integrated army, navy and air force, composed of the armed
forces of its member states. The West German military would be subject to complete EDC control, but the other EDC
member states (Belgium, France, Italy, Luxembourg and the Netherlands) would cooperate in the EDC while maintaining
independent control of their own armed forces.
Though the EDC treaty was signed (May 1952), it never entered into force. France's Gaullists rejected it on the grounds
that it threatened national sovereignty, and when the French National Assembly refused to ratify it (August 1954), the
treaty died. The French had killed their own proposal. Other means then had to be found to allow West German
rearmament. In response, the Brussels Treaty was modified to include West Germany, and to form the Western
European Union (WEU). West Germany was to be permitted to rearm, and have full sovereign control of its military; the
WEU would however regulate the size of the armed forces permitted to each of its member states. Fears of a return to
Nazism, however, soon receded, and as a consequence these provisions of the WEU treaty have little effect today.
The three Western Allies retained occupation powers in Berlin and certain responsibilities for Germany as a whole. Under
the new arrangements, the Allies stationed troops within West Germany for NATO defense, pursuant to stationing and
status-of-forces agreements. With the exception of 45,000 French troops, Allied forces were under NATO's joint defense
command. (France withdrew from the collective military command structure of NATO in 1966.)
Political life in West Germany was remarkably stable and orderly. The Adenauer era (1949-63) was followed by a brief
period under Ludwig Erhard (1963-66) who, in turn, was replaced by Kurt Georg Kiesinger (1966-69). All governments
between 1949 and 1966 were formed by the united caucus of the Christian-Democratic Union (CDU) and Christian Social
Union (CSU), either alone or in coalition with the smaller Free Democratic Party (FDP).
Kiesinger's 1966-69 "Grand Coalition" was between West Germany's two largest parties, the CDU/CSU and the Social
Democratic Party (SPD). This was important for the introduction of new emergency acts - the Grand Coalition gave the
ruling parties the two-thirds majority of votes required to see them in. These controversial acts allowed basic
constitutional rights such as freedom of movement to be limited in case of a state of emergency.
Rudi Dutschke in 1967
During the time leading up to the passing of the laws, there was fierce opposition to them, above all by the Free
Democratic Party, the rising German student movement, a group calling itself Notstand der Demokratie (Democracy in
Crisis) and the labour unions. Demonstrations and protests grew in number, and in 1967 the student Benno Ohnesorg
was shot in the head and killed by the police. The press, especially the tabloid Bild-Zeitung newspaper, launched a
massive campaign against the protesters and in 1968, apparently as a result, there was an attempted assassination of
one of the top members of the German socialist students' union, Rudi Dutschke.
In the 1960s a desire to confront the Nazi past came into being (Frankfurt Auschwitz trials). Successfully, mass protests
clamored for a new Germany. Environmentalism and anti-nationalism became fundamental values of West Germany.
Rudi Dutschke recovered sufficiently to help establish the Green Party of Germany by convincing former student
protesters to join the Green movement. As a result in 1979 the Greens were able to reach the 5% limit required to obtain
parliamentary seats in the Bremen provincial election. Dutschke died in 1979 due to the epilepsy he had from the attack.
Another result of the unrest in the 1960s was the founding of the Red Army Faction (RAF) which was active from 1968,
carrying out a succession of terrorist attacks in West Germany during the 1970s. Even in the 1990s attacks were still
being committed under the name "RAF". The last action took place in 1993 and the group announced it was giving up its
activities in 1998.
In the 1969 election, the SPD – headed by Willy Brandt – gained enough votes to form a coalition government with the
FDP. Chancellor Brandt remained head of government until May 1974, when he resigned after a senior member of his
staff was uncovered as a spy for the East German intelligence service, the Stasi.
Finance Minister Helmut Schmidt (SPD) then formed a government and received the unanimous support of coalition
members. He served as Chancellor from 1974 to 1982. Hans-Dietrich Genscher, a leading FDP official, became Vice
Chancellor and Foreign Minister. Schmidt, a strong supporter of the European Community (EC) and the Atlantic alliance,
emphasized his commitment to "the political unification of Europe in partnership with the USA".
In October 1982, the SPD-FDP coalition fell apart when the FDP joined forces with the CDU/CSU to elect CDU Chairman
Helmut Kohl as Chancellor in a Constructive Vote of No Confidence. Following national elections in March 1983, Kohl
emerged in firm control of both the government and the CDU. The CDU/CSU fell just short of an absolute majority, due to
the entry into the Bundestag of the Greens, who received 5.6% of the vote.
In January 1987, the Kohl-Genscher government was returned to office, but the FDP and the Greens gained at the
expense of the larger parties. Kohl's CDU and its Bavarian sister party, the CSU, slipped from 48.8% of the vote in 1983
to 44.3%. The SPD fell to 37%; long-time SPD Chairman Brandt subsequently resigned in April 1987 and was succeeded
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by Hans-Jochen Vogel. The FDP's share rose from 7% to 9.1%, its best showing since 1980. The Greens' share rose to
8.3% from their 1983 share of 5.6%.
East Germany
In the Soviet occupation zone, the Social Democratic Party was forced to merge with the Communist Party in April 1946
to form a new party, the Socialist Unity Party (SED). The October 1946 elections resulted in coalition governments in the
five Land (state) parliaments with the SED as the undisputed leader.
A series of people's congresses were called in 1948 and early 1949 by the SED. Under Soviet direction, a constitution
was drafted on May 30, 1949, and adopted on October 7, the day when East Germany was formally proclaimed. The
People's Chamber (Volkskammer) – the lower house of the East German parliament – and an upper house – the States
Chamber (Landerkammer) – were created. (The Landerkammer was abolished again in 1958.) On October 11, 1949, the
two houses elected Wilhelm Pieck as President, and an SED government was set up. The Soviet Union and its East
European allies immediately recognized East Germany, although it remained largely unrecognized by non-communist
countries until 1972-73.
East Germany established the structures of a single-party, centralized, communist state. On July 23, 1952, the traditional
Lander were abolished and, in their place, 14 Bezirke (districts) were established. Even though other parties formally
existed, effectively, all government control was in the hands of the SED, and almost all important government positions
were held by SED members.
The National Front was an umbrella organization nominally consisting of the SED, four other political parties controlled
and directed by the SED, and the four principal mass organizations – youth, trade unions, women, and culture. However,
control was clearly and solely in the hands of the SED. Balloting in East German elections was not secret. As in other
Soviet bloc countries, electoral participation was consistently high, with nearly unanimous candidate approval.
Berlin
Shortly after World War II, Berlin became the seat of the Allied Control Council, which was to have governed Germany as
a whole until the conclusion of a peace settlement. In 1948, however, the Soviet Union refused to participate any longer
in the quadripartite administration of Germany. They also refused to continue the joint administration of Berlin and drove
the government elected by the people of Berlin out of its seat in the Soviet sector and installed a communist regime in
East Berlin. From then until unification, the Western Allies continued to exercise supreme authority--effective only in their
sectors--through the Allied Kommandatura. To the degree compatible with the city's special status, however, they turned
over control and management of city affairs to the West Berlin Senate (executive) and House of Representatives,
governing bodies established by constitutional process and chosen by free elections. The Allies and German authorities
in West Germany and West Berlin never recognized the communist city regime in East Berlin or East German authority
there.
During the years of West Berlin's isolation--176 kilometres (110 mi.) inside East Germany --the Western Allies
encouraged a close relationship between the Government of West Berlin and that of West Germany. Representatives of
the city participated as non-voting members in the West German Parliament; appropriate West German agencies, such
as the supreme administrative court, had their permanent seats in the city; and the governing mayor of West Berlin took
his turn as President of the Bundesrat. In addition, the allies carefully consulted with the West German and West Berlin
Governments on foreign policy questions involving unification and the status of Berlin.
Between 1948 and 1990, major events such as fairs and festivals were sponsored in West Berlin, and investment in
commerce and industry was encouraged by special concessionary tax legislation. The results of such efforts, combined
with effective city administration and the Berliners' energy and spirit, were encouraging. West Berlin's morale was
sustained, and its industrial production considerably surpassed the prewar level.
The Final Settlement Treaty ended Berlin's special status as a separate area under Four Power control. Under the terms
of the treaty between West and East Germany, Berlin became the capital of a unified Germany. The Bundestag voted in
June 1991 to make Berlin the seat of government. The Government of Germany asked the allies to maintain a military
presence in Berlin until the complete withdrawal of the Western Group of Forces (ex-Soviet) from the territory of the
former East Germany. The Russian withdrawal was completed August 31, 1994. Ceremonies were held on September 8,
1994, to mark the final departure of Western Allied troops from Berlin.
Government offices have been moving progressively to Berlin, and it became the formal seat of the federal government
in 1999. Berlin also is one of the Federal Republic's 16 Lander.
East-West Relations
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Under Chancellor Adenauer West Germany declared its right to speak for the entire German nation. The Hallstein
Doctrine restricted diplomatic relations to countries that refused to give East Germany the status of state.
The constant stream of East Germans fleeing to West Germany placed great strains on East German-West German
relations in the 1950s. East Germany sealed the borders to West Germany in 1952, but people continued to flee from
East Berlin to West Berlin. On August 13, 1961, East Germany began building the Berlin Wall around West Berlin to slow
the flood of refugees to a trickle, effectively cutting the city in half and making West Berlin an exclave of the Western
world in communist territory. The Wall became the symbol of the Cold War and the division of Europe. Shortly
afterwards, the main border between the two Germanies was fortified.
In 1969, Chancellor Brandt announced that West Germany would remain firmly rooted in the Atlantic alliance but would
intensify efforts to improve relations with Eastern Europe and East Germany. West Germany commenced this Ostpolitik,
initially under fierce opposition from the conservatives, by negotiating nonaggression treaties with the Soviet Union,
Poland, Czechoslovakia, Bulgaria, and Hungary.
West Germany's relations with East Germany posed particularly difficult questions. Though 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. The two Germanies exchanged permanent
representatives in 1974, and, in 1987, East German head of state Erich Honecker paid an official visit to West Germany.
The unification of East and West Germany
Background
International plans for the unification of Germany were made during the early years following the establishment of the two
states, but to no avail. In March 1952, the Soviet government proposed holding elections for a united German assembly
while making the proposed united Germany a neutral state, as eventually did Austria. The Western Allied governments
refused this initiative, while continuing West Germany's integration into the western alliance system. The issue was
raised again during the Foreign Ministers' Conference in Berlin in Jan.-Feb. 1954, but the western powers refused
making Germany neutral. Following Bonn's adherence to NATO on May 9, 1955, such initiatives were abandoned by
both sides.
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. On October 7, Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev visited Berlin to celebrate the 40th
anniversary of the establishment of East Germany and urged the East German leadership to pursue reform, without
success.
On October 18, Erich Honecker was forced to resign as head of the SED and as head of state and was replaced by Egon
Krenz. But the exodus continued unabated, and pressure for political reform mounted. On November 4, a demonstration
in East Berlin drew as many as 1 million East Germans. Finally, on November 9, 1989, the Berlin Wall was opened, and
East Germans were allowed to travel freely. Thousands poured through the wall into the western sectors of Berlin, and
on November 12, East Germany began dismantling it.
On November 28, West German Chancellor Helmut Kohl outlined a 10-point plan for the peaceful unification of the two
Germanies based on free elections in East Germany and a unification of their two economies. In December, the East
German Volkskammer eliminated the SED monopoly on power, and the entire Politburo and Central Committee –
including Krenz – resigned. The SED changed its name to the Party of Democratic Socialism (PDS) and the formation and
growth of numerous political groups and parties marked the end of the communist system. Prime Minister Hans Modrow
headed a caretaker government which shared power with the new, democratically oriented parties. On December 7,
1989, agreement was reached to hold free elections in May 1990 and rewrite the East German constitution. On January
28, all the parties agreed to advance the elections to March 18, primarily because of an erosion of state authority and
because the East German exodus was continuing apace; more than 117,000 left in January and February 1990.
In early February 1990, the Modrow government's proposal for a unified, neutral German state was rejected by
Chancellor Kohl, who affirmed that a unified Germany must be a member of NATO. Finally, on March 18, the first free
elections were held in East Germany, and a government led by Lothar de Maiziere (CDU) was formed under a policy of
expeditious unification with West Germany. The freely elected representatives of the Volkskammer held their first session
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on April 5, and East Germany peacefully evolved from a communist to a democratically elected government. Free and
secret communal (local) elections were held in the GDR on May 6, and the CDU again won. On July 1, the two
Germanies entered into an economic and monetary union.
Settlement
During 1990, in parallel with internal German developments, the Four Powers – the Allies of World War II, being the United
States, United Kingdom, France, and the Soviet Union – together with the two German states negotiated to end Four
Power reserved rights for Berlin and Germany as a whole. These "Two-plus-Four" negotiations were mandated at the
Ottawa Open Skies conference on February 13, 1990. The six foreign ministers met four times in the ensuing months in
Bonn (May 5), Berlin (June 22), Paris (July 17), and Moscow (September 12). The Polish Foreign Minister participated in
the part of the Paris meeting that dealt with the Polish-German borders.
Of key importance was overcoming Soviet objections to a united Germany's membership in NATO. This was
accomplished in July when the alliance, led by President George H.W. Bush, issued the London Declaration on a
transformed NATO. On July 16, President Gorbachev and Chancellor Kohl announced agreement in principle on a united
Germany in NATO. This cleared the way for the signing in Moscow, on September 12, of the Treaty on the Final
Settlement With Respect to Germany – in effect the peace treaty that was anticipated at the end of World War II. In
addition to terminating Four Power rights, the treaty mandated the withdrawal of all Soviet forces from Germany by the
end of 1994, made clear that the current borders (especially the Oder-Neisse line) were viewed as final and definitive,
and specified the right of a united Germany to belong to NATO. It also provided for the continued presence of British,
French, and American troops in Berlin during the interim period of the Soviet withdrawal. In the treaty, the Germans
renounced nuclear, biological, and chemical weapons and stated their intention to reduce German armed forces to
370,000 within 3 to 4 years after the Conventional Armed Forces in Europe (CFE) Treaty, signed in Paris on November
19, 1990, entered into force.
Conclusion of the final settlement cleared the way for unification of East and West Germany. Formal political union
occurred on October 3, 1990, technically executed – not without criticism – via Article 23 of West Germany's Basic Law as
the accession of the restored five eastern Lander. On December 2, 1990, all-German elections were held for the first time
since 1933. In fact, accession meant that East Germany was annexed by West Germany: the new country kept the name
Bundesrepublik Deutschland, used the West German "Deutsche Mark" for currency, and the West German legal system
and institutions were extended to the east. Berlin would formally become the capital of the united Germany, but the
political institutions remained at Bonn for the time being. Only after a heated 1991 debate did the Bundestag conclude on
moving itself and most of the government to Berlin as well, a process that took until 1999 to complete, when the
Bundestag held its first session at the reconstructed Reichstag building.
Germany today
In the 2000s Germany has been arguably the centerpiece of the European Union (though the importance of France
cannot be overlooked in this connection). The German government was a strong supporter of the enlargement of NATO
and the European Union. German troops participate in the multinational efforts to bring peace and stability to the
Balkans. The nation is doing fairly well economically, being the world's third-richest economy (nominal GDP) (behind the
USA and Japan). It is among the top five countries in Internet access worldwide. Many Germans speak English and/or
French, in addition to standard German and their local dialect of German (of which there are many).
Most of the social issues facing European countries in general -- immigration, aging populations straining social-welfare
and pension systems -- are important in Germany. Employment is a particularly sensitive subject in present day Germany
- figures released in February 2005 showed an unemployment rate of 12.6% of the working age population, or 5.2 million
workers, the highest jobless rate since the 1930s.
In 2001 the discovery that the terrorist cell which carried out the attacks against the United States on September 11,
2001 was based in Hamburg, sent shock waves through the country. The government of Chancellor Gerhard Schroder
backed the following U.S. military actions, sending a force of Bundeswehr troops to Afghanistan as part of a NATO effort
to provide security in that country after the ousting of the Taliban.
Germany adopted a far more skeptical attitude toward America's 2003 invasion of Iraq; many commentators credit the
SPD's re-election in autumn 2002 to strong opposition to the impending invasion. Most of the public was strongly against
the conflict, and any deployment of troops. After a bitter defeat for the SPD in regional elections in the state of North
Rhine-Westphalia (22 May 2005), Chancellor Schroder asked the German Bundestag (lower house of parliament) for a
vote of no-confidence. Schroder argued that it had become increasingly difficult to push for the necessary socio-
economic reforms because of the opposition majority in the upper house of the parliament, the Bundesrat, as well as the
tensions within his own party. After receiving this vote (July 1st), Chancellor Schroder asked the German President,
Horst Kohler, to call new national elections.
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On 21 July 2005 Federal President Horst Kohler dissolved the parliament, thus agreeing to Chancellor Gerhard
Schroder's request, and scheduled early parliamentary elections for September 18. The elections rulted in a stalemate
for both major parties, SPD and CDU/CSU, as neither gained enough votes to archive a majority, unless they were to
take multiple coalition partners. This was resolved on November 11th 2005, when both parties agreed to form a "Grand
Coalition" led by Angela Merkel who became new chancellor of Germany.
Source http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_Germany

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* the rivers Oder and Vistula (Poland) (East Germanic tribes),

The concept of Volk

Collision with Rome

Role in the Fall of Rome

The modern account

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Carolingian Empire (751-843)

* Pippin the Younger (751-768)

* Louis the Pious (814-840)

West Francia (843-987)

Main article: West Francia

Middle Francia (843-869)

East Francia (843-962)

Holy Roman Empire

Character of the empire

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Names and designations of the empire

Structure and institutions

King of the Romans (German king)

From the East Franks to the Investiture Controversy

The Empire under the Hohenstaufen

The rise of the territories after the Staufen

Crisis after Reformation

The long decline

Successive German Reichs

Confederation of the Rhine

Member monarchies (alphabetically)

* Duchy of Anhalt-Bernburg joined 15 December 1806

Situation in space and time

Impact of the French Revolution and the Napoleonic invasions

Romanticism, nationalism, and Liberalism in the Vormarz era

The Revolutions of 1848

Bismarck and the Wars of Unification

* Austria (all states except Burgenland)

* Belgium (German-speaking community at east of province of Liege)

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* Italy (autonomous regions of Trentino-South Tyrol and Friuli-Venezia Giulia)

* Slovenia (except for Prekmurje)

* Croatia (county of Istria)

North German Confederation

List of member states

* Prussia (incl. Lauenburg)

Bismarck's founding of the Empire

List of Constituent States of the Empire

* Grand Duchies (“Gro?herzogtumer”)

* Free Cities (“Freie Hansestadte”)

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History of Germany during World War I

Controlled revolution: the establishment of the Republic (1918–1919)

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The Reichswehr and the Revolution

The socialist roots of Weimar

The early years: internal conflict (1919–1923)

Stresemann's Golden Era (1923–1929)

The Republic crumbles and Hitler's support rises (1930–1932)

Loss of credibility for the Republic

Franz von Papen calls for elections

Elections of July 1932

November and 'Socialist General' Schleicher

Hitler's chancellorship and the death of the Weimar Republic (1933)

Reichstag election of March 5