of
Germania Antiqua, situated between the
Rhine and
Elbe rivers, a region which the early
Roman Empire attempted to conquer and control
Ancient history in 972 (red line) and 1035 (red dots) with the
Kingdom of Germany, including
Lotharingia, marked in blue The first information about the peoples living in what is now Germany was provided by the Roman general and dictator
Julius Caesar, who gave an account of his conquest of
Gaul in the 1st century BC. He used the term to describe the
Germanic peoples living on both sides of the
Rhine river, which he defined as a boundary between geographical
Gaul and
Germania. He emphasized that the originated east of the river, and that this river border needed to be defended in order to avoid dangerous incursions. Archaeological evidence shows that at the time of Caesar's invasion, both Gaul and Germanic regions had long been strongly influenced by the same
celtic La Tène culture. These peoples had come under the dominance of the western Franks starting with
Clovis I, who established control of the Romanized and Frankish population of Gaul in the 5th century, and began a process of conquering the peoples east of the Rhine. The regions long continued to be divided into "
Stem duchies", corresponding to the old ethnic designations. By the early 9th century AD, large parts of Europe were united under the rule of the Frankish leader
Charlemagne, who expanded the
Frankish empire in several directions including east of the Rhine, consolidating power over the
Saxons and
Frisians, and establishing the
Carolingian Empire. Charlemagne was crowned emperor by
Pope Leo III in 800. In the generations after Charlemagne the empire was partitioned at the
Treaty of Verdun (843), eventually resulting in the long-term separation between the states of
West Francia,
Middle Francia and
East Francia. Beginning with
Henry the Fowler, non-Frankish dynasties also ruled the eastern kingdom, and under his son
Otto I, East Francia, which was mostly German, constituted the core of the
Holy Roman Empire. Also under control of this loosely controlled empire were the previously independent kingdoms of
Italy,
Burgundy, and
Lotharingia. The latter was a Roman and Frankish area which contained some of the oldest and most important old German cities including
Aachen,
Cologne and
Trier, all west of the Rhine, and it became another Duchy within the eastern kingdom. Leaders of the stem duchies which constituted this eastern kingdom — Lotharingia,
Bavaria,
Franconia,
Swabia,
Thuringia, and
Saxony ― initially wielded considerable power independently of the king. German kings were elected by members of the noble families, who often sought to have weak kings elected in order to preserve their own independence. This prevented an early unification of the Germans. A warrior nobility dominated the
feudal German society of the Middle Ages, while most of the German population consisted of peasants with few political rights. The church played an important role in the Holy Roman Empire in the Middle Ages, and competed with the nobility for power. Between the 11th and 13th centuries, German speakers from the empire actively participated in five
Crusades to "liberate" the
Holy Land. From the beginnings of the kingdom, its dynasties also participated in a push eastwards into Slavic-speaking regions. At the
Saxon Eastern March in the north, the
Polabian Slavs east of the Elbe were conquered over generations of often brutal conflict. Under the later control of powerful German dynasties it became an important region within modern Germany, and home to its modern capital, Berlin. German population also moved eastwards from the 11th century, in what is known as the
Ostsiedlung. Over time, Slavic and German-speaking populations assimilated, meaning that many modern Germans have substantial Slavic ancestry. From the 12th century, many German speakers settled as merchants and craftsmen in the
Kingdom of Poland, where they came to constitute a significant proportion of the population in many urban centers such as
Gdańsk. During the 13th century, the
Teutonic Knights began conquering the
Old Prussians, and established what would eventually become the powerful German state of
Prussia. Further south,
Bohemia and
Hungary developed as kingdoms with their own non-German speaking elites. The
Austrian March on the
Middle Danube stopped expanding eastwards towards Hungary in the 11th century. Under
Ottokar II, Bohemia (corresponding roughly to modern Czechia) became a kingdom within the empire, and even managed to take control of Austria, which was German-speaking. However, the late 13th century saw the election of
Rudolf I of the
House of Habsburg to the imperial throne, and he was able to acquire Austria for his own family. The Habsburgs would continue to play an important role in European history for centuries afterwards. Under the leadership of the Habsburgs the Holy Roman Empire itself remained weak, and by the late Middle Ages much of Lotharingia and Burgundy had come under the control of French dynasts, the
House of Valois-Burgundy and
House of Valois-Anjou. Step by step, Italy, Switzerland,
Lorraine, and
Savoy were no longer subject to effective imperial control. Trade increased and there was a specialization of the arts and crafts. In the late Middle Ages the German economy grew under the influence of urban centers, which increased in size and wealth and formed powerful leagues, such as the
Hanseatic League and the
Swabian League, in order to protect their interests, often through supporting the German kings in their struggles with the nobility. These urban leagues significantly contributed to the development of German commerce and banking. German merchants of Hanseatic cities settled in cities throughout Northern Europe beyond the German lands.
Modern history with the boundaries of the confederation marked in red, 1815–1866 in a mass grave at
Bergen-Belsen concentration camp from
Poland in 1948 The Habsburg dynasty managed to maintain their grip upon the imperial throne in the
early modern period. While the empire itself continued to be largely de-centralized, the Habsburgs' personal power increased outside of the core German lands.
Charles V personally inherited control of the kingdoms of Hungary and Bohemia, the wealthy Low Countries (roughly modern Belgium, Luxembourg and the Netherlands), the Kingdoms of Castile, Aragon, Sicily, Naples, and Sardinia, and the Dukedom of Milan. Of these, the Bohemian and Hungarian titles remained connected to the imperial throne for centuries, making Austria a powerful multilingual empire in its own right. On the other hand, the
Low Countries went to the Spanish crown and continued to evolve separately from Germany. The introduction of printing by the German inventor
Johannes Gutenberg contributed to the formation of a new understanding of faith and reason. At this time, the German monk
Martin Luther pushed for reforms within the Catholic Church. Luther's efforts culminated in the
Protestant Reformation. Religious schism was a leading cause of the
Thirty Years' War, a conflict that tore apart the Holy Roman Empire and its neighbours, leading to the death of millions of Germans. The terms of the
Peace of Westphalia (1648) ending the war, included a major reduction in the central authority of the Holy Roman Emperor. Among the most powerful German states to emerge in the aftermath was Protestant
Prussia, under the rule of the
House of Hohenzollern. Charles V and his Habsburg dynasty defended Roman Catholicism. In the 18th century, German culture was significantly influenced by the
Enlightenment. After centuries of political fragmentation, a sense of German unity began to emerge in the 18th century. The Holy Roman Empire continued to decline until being
dissolved altogether by
Napoleon in 1806. In central Europe, the Napoleonic wars ushered in great social, political and economic changes, and catalyzed a
national awakening among the Germans. By the late 18th century, German intellectuals such as
Johann Gottfried Herder articulated the concept of a German identity rooted in language, and this notion helped spark the
German nationalist movement, which sought to unify the Germans into a single
nation state. Eventually, shared ancestry, culture and language (though not religion) came to define German nationalism. The
Napoleonic Wars ended with the
Congress of Vienna (1815), and left most of the German states loosely united under the
German Confederation. The confederation came to be dominated by the Catholic
Austrian Empire, to the dismay of many German nationalists, who saw the German Confederation as an inadequate answer to the
German Question. Throughout the 19th century, Prussia continued to grow in power.
In 1848, German revolutionaries set up the temporary
Frankfurt Parliament, but failed in their aim of forming a united German homeland. The Prussians proposed an
Erfurt Union of the German states, but this effort was torpedoed by the Austrians through the
Punctation of Olmütz (1850), recreating the German Confederation. In response, Prussia sought to use the
Zollverein customs union to increase its power among the German states. Under the leadership of
Otto von Bismarck, Prussia expanded its sphere of influence and together with its German allies defeated
Denmark in the
Second Schleswig War and soon after
Austria in the
Austro-Prussian War, subsequently establishing the
North German Confederation. In 1871, the Prussian coalition decisively defeated the
Second French Empire in the
Franco-Prussian War, annexing the German speaking region of
Alsace-Lorraine. After taking Paris, Prussia and their allies
proclaimed the formation of a united
German Empire. In the years following unification, German society was radically changed by numerous processes, including industrialization, rationalization, secularization and the rise of capitalism. German power increased considerably and numerous overseas colonies were established. During this time, the German population grew considerably, and many emigrated to other countries (mainly North America), contributing to the growth of the
German diaspora. Competition for colonies between the Great Powers contributed to the outbreak of
World War I, in which the German, Austro-Hungarian and
Ottoman Empires formed the
Central Powers, an alliance that was ultimately defeated, with none of the empires comprising it surviving the aftermath of the war. Under the terms of the Treaty of Versailles, the German and Austro-Hungarian Empires were both dissolved and partitioned, resulting in millions of Germans becoming ethnic minorities in other countries. The monarchical rulers of the German states, including the German emperor
Wilhelm II, were overthrown in the
November Revolution which led to the establishment of the
Weimar Republic. The Germans of the
Austrian side of the
Dual Monarchy proclaimed the
Republic of German-Austria, and sought to be incorporated into the German state, but this was forbidden by the
Treaty of Versailles and
Treaty of Saint-Germain. during
its fall in 1989 in front of the
Brandenburg Gate What many Germans saw as the "humiliation of Versailles", continuing traditions of authoritarian and
antisemitic ideologies, and the
Great Depression all contributed to the rise of Austrian-born
Adolf Hitler and the Nazis, who after coming to power democratically in the early 1930s, abolished the Weimar Republic and formed the totalitarian
Third Reich. In his quest to subjugate Europe, six million
Jews were murdered in
the Holocaust. WWII resulted in widespread destruction and the deaths of tens of millions of soldiers and civilians, while the German state was partitioned. About 12 million Germans
had to flee or were expelled from Eastern Europe. Significant damage was also done to the German reputation and identity, which became far less nationalistic than it previously was. The German states of
West Germany and
East Germany became focal points of the
Cold War, but were
reunified in 1990. Although there were fears that the reunified Germany might resume nationalist politics, the country is today widely regarded as a "stabilizing actor in the heart of Europe" and a "promoter of democratic integration". ==Language==