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The
History of Early Germany and its Heritage: The origin of
the German people is unknown. However, as early as the time of Alexander
the Great, in the fourth century B.C., there is mention of German
tribes around the Baltic Sea, in what is now Scandinavia. Moving
southward and eastward, they reached the Rhine about 200 B.C. and
soon afterward pushed on into northeastern Gaul. In 102 -101
B.C. the tribe of the Teutones {Teutons} invaded Illyria, Gaul,
and Italy, but was defeated by the Roman general Marius. In his
Commentaries Julius Caesar tells of his encounters with certain
Germanic tribes in his Gallic Wars.
At various times
in Roman history the Romans were concerned with different German
tribes, and by the beginning of the Christian era, Roman dominion
had been firmly established in Germany. In 9 A.D., however, when
Emperor Augustus attempted to force Roman customs upon the German
people, they rebelled under the leadership of Arminius and completely
destroyed the Roman armies under General Varus. Never again did
the Romans establish themselves in Germany, and in the early centuries
of the Christina era they were often forced to defend themselves
against the invasion of powerful German tribes. It is interesting
to note that the Germans in reference to themselves did not use
the name Germani; the Romans from a Gallic word probably formed
it.
The roman historian
Tacitus, writing about A.D. 100, gives in his Germania a valuable
and interesting account of the customs and lives of the early Germans.
Although they were all of German blood, speaking a common language
and living under identical institutions, they were divided into
many tribes. The early tribal names mentioned by the Romans have
little historical significance; the better-known groupings of later
times were confederations of tribes, such as the Alemanni, Franks,
Vandals, Burgundians, Angles, Saxons, Lombards, and Goths. The Germans
lived in a land of fen and forest, dwelling in small villages of
wattled huts and practicing a rude form of agriculture. Most of
the people were free peasants, but above them was the class of nobles
and below ere the serfs and the slaves. A rudimentary form of representation
prevailed in the village council and in the county assembly and
court; in time of war the assembled tribesmen chose their military
chieftain. During the later years of the Roman Empire the tribes
bordering on the frontier became civilized and Christianized. To
a considerable degree these Germans also became romanized, learning
and adopting Roman building and farming methods and copying in many
instances the Roman way of life.
The
Wanderings of the German Nations: Late in the second century
A.D., furious warfare among the German tribes led to increasing
pressure on the Roman frontier. Many thousands of German colonists
entered the empire, and great numbers of the barbaric tribesmen
took service in the Roman legions, some rising to posts of command.
Germans and Romans also intermarried, and the cultures of the two
peoples were intermingled.
This
peaceful penetration ended with the invasion of Europe by the Asiatic
Huns about 375. The Visigoths {West Goths}, driven from their homes
by the invaders, gained permission from Rome to settle south of
the Danube; then followed in 378 the Battle of Adrianople in which
the refugees defeated and killed the Roman emperor Valens. Later
the Visigoths under Alaric invaded Italy, and in 410 they captured
Rome. Eventually, the Visigoths settled in Spain
and southern France. The Romans
were no longer able to hold back the barbarians, who quickly swept
over the doomed empire. The Vandals wandered into North Africa;
the Burgundians slipped into southeastern Gaul; Angles, Jutes, and
Saxons crossed the sea into Britain; the Ostrogoths {East Goths}
conquered Italy as well as the upper Danube region; the Franks spread
out into northwestern Gaul; and, in 568, the Lombards subjugated
northern Italy.
The Roman Empire
had lived on, after the fall of Rome in 476, with its capital at
Constantinople; but west of the Balkans its territory was occupied
by the several German kingdoms, which were virtually independent.
Eventually these Germans merged with their subject peoples, becoming
Italians, Spaniards, French, and English, and their history became
the history of their new homelands. In general, Roman culture gave
way to German culture, bringing the Dark Ages to Europe. Farming,
trade, political organization, and urban society declined, as a
relatively primitive civilization replaced one that was more advanced.
Even generations removed from barbarian tribal life, and, although
Roman influences did not die, the more backward order prevailed.
Empire
under the Franks: While the other Germans migrated, the
Franks merely expanded from their old homeland into northwestern
Gaul, which they invaded in 481. By 486 the ambitious Frankish chief
Clovis had defeated the Romans in Gaul and had set up his court
in the old city of Paris. The Frankish kingdom expanded in all directions,
conquering the Burgundians, Alemanni, Thuringians, and Bavarians
and ending Visigoth power in southern Gaul. From the time of Clovis
to the Treaty of Verdun in 843 the history of Germany is identical
with that of France.
After
the death in 814, of Charlemagne
his great empire disintegrated. The Treaty of Verdum divided the
empire among the three sons of Louis the Pious, Charlemagne's
son and successor. The western kingdom grew into modern France;
and the middle kingdom, including modern Netherlands, Belgium, Luxemburg,
Alsace-Lorraine, northern Italy, and part of Switzerland, became
a battleground and a buffer state. The eastern kingdom, which developed
into modern Germany, went to Louis the German, the son of Louis
the Pious. Louis reigned until 876 and made some advancement toward
national unity. The son of Louis, Charles the Fat, succeeded for
a time in reuniting the three kingdoms - France, Italy, and
Germany, but as he was unable to defend his empire against the Northmen
the nobles deposed him and elected his nephew, Arnulf, in his stead
{887}.
Roman
Empire and German Feudalism: On the death of Louis the
Child, the last of the Carolingian dynasty {the line of Charlemagne},
the kingship became elective. The first king, Conrad I {911-18},
Duke of Franconia, could neither unite feudal Germany nor defend
it from the attack of the Magyars of Hungary. The most powerful
of the nobles, Henry of Saxony, succeeded Conrad in 919 as Henry
I {the Fowler}, first of the Saxon line and considered to be the
creator of the German Empire; he united the dukedoms under his rule,
built fortresses, reformed the military system, defeated the Hungarians,
and instituted many internal reforms. The royal power was greatly
increased under his son and successor, Otto I {936 -73}, who
was surnamed the Great. Otto restricted the power of the nobles,
making himself complete master in his own kingdom; he defeated the
Hungarians on the Lech in 955; in 961 he acquired the crown of the
Lombards, thus imposing his dominion over Italy; and in 962 he was
crowned emperor in Rome by Pope John XII, thus founding the Holy
Roman Empire, which existed until 1806.
The political
consequences of the intimate union of Church and Sate which was
thus established were unfortunate for Germany; in pursuing the pretension
of world dominion, in attempting to subjugate rebellious Italy,
and in carrying on the long struggle between Church and State, the
emperors dissipated their power and lost control of Germany, which
became increasingly feudal as the other nations of western Europe
became centralized states.
When the Saxon
dynasty became extinct in 1024, the election fell on the Duke of
Franconia, who reigned as Conrad II {1024 - 39}, founding
the Franconian, or Salian, dynasty, which continued in power until
1125. The early monarchs of this line were strong rulers; in Germany
they held their own against the feudal lords, and in Italy they
dominated the Papacy.
Empire
against the Papacy. The struggle between emperor and pope
was base on the papal theory that, since the pope held supremacy
over the Church and the Church held supremacy over the State, all
rulers should be the pope's vassals. The emperor, on the other
hand, maintained that the nobles who elected him conferred his authority
upon him and that he should control Episcopal appointments in his
realm. In 1076 Pope Gregory VII stirred up a revolt in Saxony in
order to break the power of Henry IV {1056 - 1106} and in
1077 he forced the Emperor, in order to preserve his throne, to
present himself as a penitent before the Pope at Canossa. The continuing
State-Church controversy led to renew civil war in Germany, and
Henry himself died a fugitive in his own land. He was succeeded
by his son, Henry V {1106 - 25}, the last king of the Franconian
line.
Finally, during
the reign of Henry V, a compromise settlement of the controversy
was reached in the Concordat of Worms {1122}. This concordat decreed
that henceforth the pope or his legate should have the right to
fill bishops' and abbots' sees in the presence of the
emperor or his representative. The emperor, however, retained the
right to invest a bishop or abbot with the regalia of his office,
and the symbols of temporal authority were to be bestowed before
those of spiritual authority.
Hohenstaufens
and the Holy Roman Empire: When Henry died in 1125, the
papal party prevented the election of Frederick of Swabia of the
House of Hohenstaufen, the nearest heir of the Franconian line,
and the throne went instead to Lothair, Duke of Saxony, who reigned
until 1137 as Lothair II. Frederick and his brother Conrad, nephews
of Henry, revolted, but were put down by the new emperor. Then in
1138 Conrad, Duke of Swabia, ascended the throne as Conrad III and
founded the Hohenstaufen dynasty. Lothair III's son-in-law,
Henry the Proud, of the House of Welf, Duke of both Bavaria and
Saxony, opposed him. Out of their conflict grew the factions known
as the Welfs and the Waiblingers {named after the Hohenstaufen estate
of Waiblingen in Swabia}; the Welfs supported the Papacy in its
struggle with the imperial authority, while the Waiblingers upheld
Conrad in his great struggle with the pope. When the contest was
carried into Italy, the German names of the rival political groups
were corrupted into Guelph and Ghibellines.
Conrad III died
in 1152, after taking part in the Second Crusade, and was succeeded,
on his own recommendation, by his nephew Frederick, Duke of Swabia,
who reigned as Frederick I, or Frederick Barbarossa {Red Beard}.
When Pope Eugene III crowned him in 1155 he added the word "holy"
to the name of the empire, making it the Holy Roman Empire, the
name by which it was thereafter known. His ambition to become another
Augustus in a great empire comprising all Christendom brought him
into bitter conflict with the Papacy and with northern Italy, where
the commercial classes of the rising towns formed the Lombard League
to protect their liberties. Frederick led six expeditions into Italy,
but eventually had to recognize the rights of the Lombard cities.
In Germany he crushed Henry the Lion of the House of Welf and broke
up Henry's great duchies of Saxony and Bavaria. This partition,
intended to weaken the great duchies by dividing them into a number
of petty principalities which would by vassals of the emperor, strengthened
Frederick's position at home, but it had a tragic effect on
the nation: when he perished in the Third Crusade {1190}, Germany
was split up into nearly three hundred principalities, lay and clerical.
Frederick
Barbarossa was succeeded by his son, Henry VI {1190 - 97},
who by marriage and conquest added to his realm the Norman kingdom
comprised of Sicily and southern Italy {called the Kingdom of the
Two Sicilies}. Henry died suddenly, leaving an infant son, Frederick.
Civil war then broke out in Germany between the rival claimants
of the Welfs and the Hohenstaufens. Finally in 1212 the youthful
Frederick {already King of Sicily since 1194} was crowned King of
the Romans; in 1215 he was crowned emperor by Pope Honorius III.
One of the most brilliant and remarkable rulers of the Middle
Ages, Frederick II was little interested in Germany, which he
visited only three times. His primary objective was to unite Italy
and Sicily into a compact state; this ambition brought him into
conflict with the Lombard cities and with the Papacy. Frederick
died in 1250; with the death four years later of his son, Conrad
IV, the imperial line of the Hohenstaufens came to an end.
The
period of the Hohenstaufens is filled with contentions with the
popes and the Italian cities and with constant internal strife.
The royal power became insignificant, and neither German king nor
Roman emperor in reality existed. Some of the rulers seemed little
concerned about Germany, dividing their time between Sicily and
the Crusades, and Frederick II, one
of the ablest of medieval rulers, was not in Germany for fifteen
consecutive years.
The
Rise of the Hapsburgs and its Heritage in Germany: The
period between the death of Conrad IV in 1254 and the election of
Rudolph of Hapsburg in 1273 is known as the Great Interregnum. The
right to choose the emperor had been gradually usurped by a few
of the powerful nobles, who were called electors, and on the extinction
of the Hohenstaufen line these electors practically offered the
crown for sale. Various bidders appeared, and the two offering the
largest bribes, Richard of Cornwall and Alfonso of Castile, were
elected, but neither of them was crowned emperor at Rome or acquired
any real power.
Finally, in
1272, Pope Gregory X ordered a new election, and in the following
year Rudolph I {1273 - 1291}, of the House of Hapsburg, was
raised to the throne. He in a measure restored order and strengthened
the royal authority. Through his defeat of Otttokar II of Bohemia
he acquired lands in southeastern Germany. The most important of
these was Austria, which his son Albert received with the title
of duke; and from this time dates the rise of Austria and the House
of Hapsburg.
During
the fourteenth and early fifteenth centuries the intellectual forces
of the Renaissance were beginning
to be felt in Germany, notably in the invention of movable type
by Gutenberg at Mainz {about 1454}. However, there was but little
of interest in the history of the country. The imperial crown was
passed around from one house to another and was openly offered to
the highest bidder, the only care of the electors being to choose
a prince not strong enough to endanger their authority. At one time
there were three rival emperors ruling simultaneously. The first
noteworthy event was the promulgation in 1356 by Charles IV {1348
- 1378} of the Golden Bull, which secured to four secular
and three ecclesiastical princes the right of election and defined
their power. Another noteworthy event was the war of the Hussites.
In 1438 Albert
II of Austria was elected emperor, and from this time until the
dissolution of the Holy Roman Empire the crown was regarded as hereditary
in the Hapsburg family, although the electors always made a formal
choice. Frederick III {1440 - 1493}, who succeeded Albert,
was the last German emperor to be crowned by the pope. The greatest
of the early Hapsburg emperors was Maximilian I {1493 - 1519}.
His reign marked a strong tendency toward centralization and the
material growth of imperial authority. Although he restored much
of the former imperial glory, his war with the Swiss Confederacy
in 1499 lost to the empire the last sections from which an independent
Switzerland was formed.
The
Period of Charles V in Germany: Maximilian was succeeded
by his grandson, Charles V {1519 - 1556}. Besides Germany
and Austria, the Hapsburgs now ruled a vast empire that included
Bohemia, Moravia, Hungary, Transylvania, Italy, Sicily, Spain, Alsace,
Lorraine, Burgundy, Luxemburg, and the Low Countries. Charles bestowed
the Austria possessions of the House of Hapsburg on his brother
Ferdinand, who may be said to have founded the monarchy of Austria-Hungary.
In his reign came the sale of papal indulgences in Germany that
touched off the Reformation, under the leadership of Martin Luther.
The German peasants emboldened by the revolutionary mood of the
Reformation, revolted unsuccessfully {1524 - 1525} against
feudal oppression. The Peace of Augsburg {1555}, with which the
struggle between the Catholics and the Protestants was for the time
terminated, granted the Lutheran states the right to establish Protestant
worship.
In 1555 Charles
V abdicated; he assigned Spain and the Netherlands to his son Philip
II and turned over the empire and the Austrian lands to his brother,
Ferdinand I. The Roman Catholics began a counter-reformation during
the reign of Ferdinand {1556 - 1564}. While Matthias {1612
- 1619} was on the throne, his cousin Ferdinand was crowned
king of Bohemia in 1617, and the attempt to force the Protestants
of that country to accept him as their ruler led to the outbreak
of the Thirty Years' War {1618 - 1648}. The struggle
closed in the reign of Ferdinand III, by the Peace of Westphalia.
Germany by this treaty was divided into over two hundred independent
states, which owed only a nominal support to the emperor and became
in fact simply petty monarchies. The imperial authority was completely
wrecked and never afterward recovered. The war had devastated and
impoverished Germany beyond measure, national feeling had been crushed,
and all unity had been destroyed.
Rise
of Prussia: The interest of German history after the Treaty
of Westphalia centers largely in the rise of Prussia. The Great
Elector, Frederick William of Brandenburg {1640 - 1688}, gained
increased territory for his state, and by strengthening the royal
authority and forming a standing army brought Prussia rapidly forward.
His son, Frederick III {1688 - 1688}, added to his title of
elector of Brandenburg, that of King of Prussia in 1701. Normally
the King of Prussia was still subject to the emperor, but from this
time on, the emperors were in fact merely rulers of Austria, and
the imperial dignity was an empty honor. With the death of Charles
VI {1711 - 1740}, the male Hapsburg line became extinct. The
attempt of Charles by the Pragmatic Sanction to secure his dominions
to his daughter Maria Theresa brought on the War of the Austrian
Succession.
After a two
years' interregnum, the electors chose Charles Vii of Bavaria
as emperor {1742 - 1745}, and on his death Maria Theresa's
husband, Francis I {1745 - 1765}, was elected. His successor,
Joseph II {1765 - 1790}, tried to establish the imperial authority
in southern Germany, but was prevented by Prussia. In 1756 war broke
out between Maria Theresa and Frederick the Great of Prussia {1740
- 1786}. The advantage was decidedly with Frederick, and under
this great ruler, whose statesmanship was as remarkable as his generalship;
Prussia became the equal of Austria and showed itself as the one
possible center for a united Germany. The French Revolution destroyed
the remnant of the empire, and after the formation by a number of
German states in 1806 of the Confederation of the Rhine, under the
protectorate of Napoleon, Francis II formally resigned the imperial
crown and the Holy Roman Empire ceased to exist.
Confederation:
Napoleon's plan to add Germany, or at least the states of
the Confederation, to his empire was frustrated; and at the Congress
of Vienna, which met to restore order out of the chaos into which
European affairs had been plunged, the German states were organized
as a confederation, with the emperor of Austria as president in
1815. The various German states were independent in internal affairs,
and interstate disputes were to be settled by a diet. East state
was to have a constitutional form of government, but this provision
was little observed until the revolutions of 1830 and 1848 forced
the German rulers to accede to the demands of their subjects. In
1830 was formed the Zollverein, which secured free trade among the
several states. In 1848 a national assembly met at Berlin for the
purpose of framing a national constitution, but the rivalry of Austria
and Prussia prevented any successful results, and the Prussian King,
Frederick William IV, refused the title of Emperor of the Germans.
Frederick William
IV was succeeded by William I {1861 - 1888}. The new king
soon styled policy of "blood and iron" made possible
the final firm union of the German nation. The rivalry between Prussia
and Austria was encouraged by Bismarck, who was making ready for
the struggle which he knew would come. The final cause of the outbreak
was the contention over Schleswig-Holstein, which had been taken
from Christian IX of Denmark. War began between Austria and Prussia
in 1866. The outcome was complete success for Prussia, and in 1867
the North German Confederation was formed, with the King of Prussia
as president. The Catholic states of the south, Bavaria, Baden,
and Wurttemberg, held aloof, joining the Confederation just before
the close of the Franco-Prussian War in 1871.
The
Germany Empire: By the treaty, which followed the Prussian
victories in the Franco-Prussian War of {1870 - 1871}, France
lost Alsace and Lorraine and was compelled to pay a large indemnity.
The most important result to Germany, however, was the enthusiasm
and the spirit of nationality awakened by the Prussian success.
The German Confederation was charged to the German Empire, and William
I, King of Prussia, was proclaimed German emperor on January 18,
1871. The title, to be hereditary in his family, descended at his
death in 1888 to his son Frederick III. The latter lived but a few
months after his accession and was succeeded by his son, William
II, or Kaiser Wilhelm {1888 - 1818}. William at once showed
his intention to keep personal control of the government and accordingly
in 1890 dismissed Bismarck, who did not approve of his policy.
About 1883 Bismarck
had aided in the formation of the Triple Alliance, which included
Germany, Austria-Hungary, and Italy. Caprivi, his successor, renewed
this in 1891. Under the chancellorship of Hohenlohe, who succeeded
Caprivi in 1894, rapid progress was made in the extension of German
dominion in Africa. Toward the close of the century, Germany acquired
Northeast New Guinea, the Bismarck Archipelago, and the Caroline,
Palau, and Marshall islands in the Pacific, and shared the Mariana
and Samoa islands with the United States. The murder in 1897 of
two German missionaries in China gave Germany a pretext for demanding
the cession of the port of Kiaochow in Shantung, China; and the
murder of the German ambassador in Peking in 1900 compelled Germany
to take a prominent part in the expedition of the European powers
against China. In 1905 and again in 1911 William II deliberately
provoked the French in Morocco, but each time Great Britain supported
the French position, and the Emperor was obliged to withdraw.
Meanwhile
Germany had strengthened its army and built up a navy that rivaled
that of England. This aggressiveness
alarmed the major powers, and in 1907 Great Britain, France, and
Russia banded together as the Triple Entente. But the Kaiser, as
the German emperor had been called since 1871, countered the move
by reaching agreements with Bulgaria and Turkey; the bonds uniting
Germany with Austria-Hungary and Italy held until Italy's
withdrawal in 1915.
Read more about
Germany and its German Heritage in World War I and later, by looking
up Germany and World War I.
Of
course much has changed since then and the nation of Germany is
a thriving country proud of its heritage. Germany is a place that
you would be proud to display your German genealogy, family coat
of arms or surname history.
