In its early history, Germany was settled by Germanic tribes in the north and Celts in the south. The areas south of the Danube and on the left side of the Rhine belonged to the Roman Empire from 58 BC to AD 455. The Romans’ attempt to advance further north failed in AD 9 at the Battle of the Teutoburg Forest. In the 4th century, the invasion of the Huns triggered the Migration Period, during which Slavic tribes advanced into eastern Germany and settled the sparsely populated regions. Over time, the Romans were displaced. By the 8th century, most of Germany belonged to the Frankish Empire of Charlemagne. After his death in 814, the empire was divided into three parts.
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| Artistic depiction of Germany’s transformation from fragmented states to a modern democratic nation. Image credit: Microsoft Copilot AI Art Generation, 2026. |
The year 962 is considered the beginning of the German state tradition. In that year, King Otto I was crowned Roman-German Emperor, and the term “Holy Roman Empire of the German Nation” emerged. Unlike the western Frankish Empire, which later became France, the German Empire was characterized by its many princes and divided into countless larger and smaller territories. Several attempts by emperors to gain more power failed. From 1618 to 1648, Germany became the scene of the bloody Thirty Years’ War and was devastated. Afterward, the German emperor, ruling from Austria, held only formal power.
In the 18th century, the individual states modernized following the French model, but Germany retained its fragmented structure. Prussia, under King Frederick II, increasingly became the leading German power. In 1806, however, Prussia was defeated by France under Emperor Napoleon, and the Holy Roman Empire was dissolved. All German states except Prussia and Austria were then grouped into the Confederation of the Rhine.
After Napoleon’s defeat in 1814/15, Prussia and Austria formed the German Confederation, which included 38 states. Over time, many Germans developed a sense of national identity and a desire for a unified German state. The revolution of 1848, which aimed to create a united Germany under a constitutional monarchy, failed due to the resistance of King Frederick William IV of Prussia and military action against the revolutionaries. In 1866, war broke out between Prussia and Austria. After Prussia’s victory, the German Confederation was dissolved, and Prussia became the dominant power in Germany.
In 1870/71, war against France followed, in which the German states acted together for the first time and defeated the French. After the victory, the German Empire was proclaimed in Versailles under the direction of Otto von Bismarck, who became the first Reich Chancellor. The first emperor was King Wilhelm I of Prussia.
In the following years, Germany developed into a rising European power. However, Bismarck’s balancing policy changed after Emperor Wilhelm II took office, as he sought to make Germany a world power. This isolated the German Empire and led to confrontations with France, England, and Russia, which culminated in World War I.
In 1918, the war was lost, and Wilhelm II had to abdicate. Germany became a republic. The harsh peace terms of the Treaty of Versailles made the survival of the Weimar Republic difficult. Between 1919 and 1923, there were many uprisings, murders, and coup attempts. After a brief period of stability during the “Golden Twenties,” the world economic crisis of 1929 hit Germany hard and accelerated the rise of the NSDAP and Adolf Hitler.
On January 30, 1933, the National Socialists seized power and eliminated all political opponents. From 1935, the Nuremberg Race Laws and the persecution of Jews followed. In the subsequent years, Hitler re-annexed territories lost in 1919. Austria was incorporated into the German Reich, and Czechoslovakia was occupied.
When Germany invaded Poland in 1939, Britain and France declared war. This marked the beginning of World War II, which claimed about 55 million lives. After conquering most of Europe, Germany faced a turning point in 1943, leading to the retreat of the Wehrmacht, which ended in Berlin. With Adolf Hitler’s suicide and Germany’s surrender in 1945, the German Reich also came to an end.
Germany was then divided into four occupation zones and two states: the Federal Republic of Germany and the GDR. The eastern territories were ceded to Poland and Russia, and the German inhabitants had to leave these areas.
From 1949 to 1989, the Federal Republic and the GDR faced each other in hostile camps during the Cold War, with the construction of the Berlin Wall in 1961 marking its peak. When the socialist system in the GDR collapsed in 1989, the Wall fell, and on October 3, 1990, Germany was reunified.
Source: Was-war-wann.de – History of Germany
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