History

PREHISTORY

C 10,000 BC: As climatic conditions become milder towards the end of the Ice Age, groups of Upper Paleolithic hunter-gathers move northwards across Germany in pursuit of reindeer.

c 4,000 BC: Areas of easily worked soil have been cleared of primeval forest and are cultivated by Neolithic people in Rhineland and elsewhere. These first farmers are succeeded by Bronze Age people and then, in the Iron Age, by Celts.

c 500 BC: The Celts begin to suffer the depredations of Germanic tribes people moving southwards from the Baltic coast and islands.

ROMAN AND HOLY ROMAN EMPIRES

58 BC: The attempt by Germans to move westwards into Roman-dominated Gaul is blocked by Julius Caesar, who drives them back across the Rhine.

AD 9: The Germans frustrate the Roman wish to extend their frontier eastward to the River Elbe in the battle of the Teutoberger Wald, in which warriors led by Hermann destroy three legions commanded by Varus. The Romans stabilize their domain with the limes, a line of fortifications linking the Rhine and Danube.

Late 5th-early 6th century: Clovis (or Chlodwig), the Merovingian king of the Franks, establishes a powerful kingdom between the Rhine and the Seine and extends its territory far into present-day Germany.

800: The Frankish ruler Charlemagne (Karl der Grosse) is anointed Holy Roman Emperor by the Pope.

843: The Treaty of Verdun weakens Charlemagne's unified empire by dividing it into three realms. The eastern Franks are now a recognizably German nation.

MEDIEVAL GERMANY

955: Otto the Great is crowned emperor by the Pope, but the following centuries are marked by a struggle between Papacy and Empire, in which successive Popes undermine the Emperor's power by supporting his enemies, among them princes and archbishops.

1152-90: Reign of Frederick Barbarossa of the Hohenstaufen dynasty, an enthusiastic Crusader who raises the power and prestige of the Empire.

1241: The formation of the Hanseatic League linking ports and trading cities confirms German economic dominance of the North Sea and Baltic coasts.

1356: The constitutional means whereby the Emperor is chosen is established by the Golden Bull. The four princes and three archbishops who make up the electoral college see their power significantly enhanced.

1410: The Teutonic Knights, responsible for much of the German settlement of the Baltic, are defeated by Poles and Lithuanians at the battle of Tannenberg.

REFORMATION AND WARS OF RELIGION

1517: Augustinian monk Martin Luther nails his 95 theses to the door of the church at Wittenberg, marking the beginning of the Reformation. Though Luther is subsequently excommunicated, he completes his translation of the Bible into German in the castle of Wartburg under the protection of the Duke of Saxony.

1555: The Peace of Augsburg brings religious wars to a temporary end and acknowledges the division of Germany into a multitude of Catholic or Protestant states.

1618-48: Thirty Years' War renews religious conflict. Although drawing in Denmark, Sweden and France, it is almost entirely fought in Germany. The land is left devastated and much of the Empire's borderland (Netherlands, Alsace) passes into the hands of foreign powers.

THE RISE OF PRUSSIA

1701: The granting of the title King to the Hohenzollern Elector of Prussia marks the rise to power of this hitherto minor state, based on a centralized administration and well-disciplined standing army. Under Frederick the Great (1740-86) Prussia acquires Silesia and participates in the partition of Poland.

1806: Napoleon Bonaparte absorbs the Rhineland and establishes a chain of puppet states stretching from Bavaria in the south to Westphalia in the north. The title of Holy Roman Emperor, held for centuries by the Austrian branch of the Habsburgs, is abolished.

1813: Germany is suffused with nationalistic feeling and Prussia leads a coalition to victory over the French army at the "Battle of Nations' near Leipzig.

1815: The Congress of Vienna confirms Prussia as the pre-eminent power in northern Germany and establishes the Germanic Confederation consisting of 35 states and four free cities.

THE MOVE TO UNITY

1834: A customs union, the Zollverein, removes barriers to commerce between the German states.

1848-9: The "Year of Revolutions' awakens hopes of a liberal, united Germany, but the National Assembly meeting in Frankfurt proves indecisive and is eventually dissolved by the threat of military force.

1866: The Prussian Chancellor, Bismarck, provokes war with Austria. Following the defeat of the Austrian army at Königgrätz, Austria is excluded from German affairs, which from now on are dominated by Prussia.

1871: The French Emperor, Napoleon III, is lured into war by Bismarck. Victory over the French leads to the unification of Germany under Prussian leadership, with the Prussian king Wilhelm I as Emperor.

20TH-CENTURY DISASTERS AND DIVISIONS

1914-18: The arms race between the European powers leads to the outbreak of World War I. Initial German successes quickly give way to the attrition of trench warfare. Eventually, in October 1918, Germany requests an armistice and Emperor Wilhelm II goes into exile in Holland.

1918-33: The democratic Weimar Republic is undermined by the rise of nationalism and chauvinism, which finds its focus in the National Socialist Workers Party led by Austrian-born Adolf Hitler.

1933-45: The totalitarian Third Reich is led by Hitler into rearmament, territorial conquest and, in 1939, into war. A run of German military successes comes to an end at the battles of Stalingrad and Alamein and the war finishes with Hitler's suicide and Nazi Germany's unconditional surrender in May 1945. The surviving Nazi leaders are subsequently indicted and tried for war crimes and crimes against humanity at the Nuremberg Trials.

1949: Germany divides into the Federal Republic of Germany in the west and the Communist German Democratic Republic (GDR) in the east.

1961: The GDR builds the Berlin Wall to stop the exodus of its population to the free and affluent West.

1989-99: The Berlin Wall is opened and, in 1990, the two Germanys are reunited. In 1994, Russian, British and French forces withdraw from Berlin. In 1999 Germany adopts the Euro. The German Parliament moves back to Berlin.

2000: Millennium Expo 2000, Hanover hosts 40 million guests from all over the world.

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