The Shaping of Germany

Red Baron likes the Deutsches Historisches Museum (German Historical Museum) on Unter den Linden located in Berlin's former arsenal. Right at the entrance to the permanent exhibition, a new slide show presents the historical development of the present German territory. Located in the heart of the continent, Germany has more neighboring countries than any other European country.

Here come the most essential steps in the development of present-day Germany. Looking at the timeline on the left, you will notice many more dates than covered by the following slideshow.

395: The Roman Empire extended over most of Western Europe and the Mediterranean.
Only some German tribes east of the Rhine River resisted their impregnation by
Roman culture and the Latin language.

1041: Emperor Henry III ruled a Holy Roman Empire comprising Italy.
Note the formation of neighboring states.

1253: Colonization of north-east territories is in full swing

On the evening of the Reformation, Germany is threatened in the west by France,
in the east by the Ottoman Empire.

The 100th anniversary of the Reformation causes a renewed flare-up
of religious differences leading to the outbreak of the Thirty Years War.

The Peace of  Westfalia saw a devastated Empire with more than one-third
of its population killed. It comprises nearly 1500 territories, while
the Netherlands and Switzerland become independent.
The question in Goethe's Faust is most relevant:
What still holds together the Holy Roman Empire?

1763: Enlightenment leading to American independence and the French Revolution

1815: Following the devastating rule of Napoleon over most of Europe,
the Vienna Congress launched a German Federation.

1866: The Austrian Empire and the Prussian territories drift apart,
culminating in the creation of a North-German Federation led by Prussia.

1871: The unified Second Empire comprises all German territories,
excluding the multinational Austrian Empire.

1919: The treaty of Versailles reduced the German territories in the west and east.

1938: The Austrians plebiscite their Anschluss to the Third Great-German Reich. 

1942: The beginning of the fall of the Third Reich 

1949: After World War II, a rudimentary Germany was divided into four zones
occupied by the four allied forces, they later became the BRD and the GDR.

1990: The reunification of Germany in 1989 also meant the breaking apart
of the Eastern block, including the Soviet Union, as seen in the following years

2000: In ten years, the shape of Germany has not changed,
but Czechoslovakia split into the Czech Republic and Slovakia.

As you may have noticed, peripheral German tribes diffused off over the centuries. They became independent from the former Holy Empire as there are the Dutch, the Swiss, and the Flemish-speaking Belgians. However, the apotheose was the explosion of the Habsburgian Austrian-Hungarian Empire at the end of the Great War and the division of Germany following the Second World War.

Let's have peace!

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