1.
History of Germany
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Following the Fall of the Western Roman Empire, the Franks conquered the other West Germanic tribes. When the Frankish Empire was divided among Charlemagnes heirs in 843, in 962, Otto I became the first emperor of the Holy Roman Empire, the medieval German state. In the High Middle Ages, the dukes, princes. Martin Luther led the Protestant Reformation against the Catholic Church after 1517, as the states became Protestant. The two parts of the Holy Roman Empire clashed in the Thirty Years War, which was ruinous to the twenty million civilians living in both states. The Thirty Years War brought tremendous destruction to Germany, more than 1/4 of the population,1648 marked the effective end of the Holy Roman Empire and the beginning of the modern nation-state system, with Germany divided into numerous independent states, such as Prussia, Bavaria and Saxony. After the French Revolution and the Napoleonic Wars, feudalism fell away, the Industrial Revolution modernized the German economy, led to the rapid growth of cities and to the emergence of the Socialist movement in Germany. Prussia, with its capital Berlin, grew in power, German universities became world-class centers for science and the humanities, while music and the arts flourished. The new Reichstag, a parliament, had only a limited role in the imperial government. Germany joined the other powers in colonial expansion in Africa and the Pacific, Germany was the dominant power on the continent. By 1900, its rapidly expanding industrial economy passed Britains, allowing a naval race, Germany led the Central Powers in World War I against France, Great Britain, Russia and the United States. Defeated and partly occupied, Germany was forced to pay war reparations by the Treaty of Versailles and was stripped of its colonies as well as Polish areas and Alsace-Lorraine. The German Revolution of 1918–19 deposed the emperor and the kings and princes, leading to the establishment of the Weimar Republic. In the early 1930s, the worldwide Great Depression hit Germany hard, as unemployment soared, in 1933, the Nazi party under Adolf Hitler came to power and quickly established a totalitarian regime. Political opponents were killed or imprisoned, after forming a pact with the Soviet Union in 1939, Hitler and Stalin divided Eastern Europe. After a Phoney War in spring 1940 the German blitzkrieg swept Scandinavia, only the British Commonwealth and Empire stood opposed, along with Greece. Hitler invaded the Soviet Union in June 1941, in 1942, the German invasion of the Soviet Union faltered, and after the United States had entered the war, Britain became the base for massive Anglo-American bombings of German cities. Germany fought the war on multiple fronts through 1942–1944, however following the Allied invasion of Normandy, millions of ethnic Germans fled from Communist areas into West Germany, which experienced rapid economic expansion, and became the dominant economy in Western Europe
2.
Military history of Germany
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While German-speaking people have a long history, Germany as a nation state dates only from 1871. Earlier periods are subject to definition debates, the Franks, for instance, were a union of Germanic tribes, nevertheless, some of the Franks later identified themselves as Dutch, Flemish, French and again others as Germans. The capital of medieval ruler Charlemagnes empire was the city of Aachen, now part of Germany, France was named after the Franks and the Dutch and Flemish people are the only ones to speak a language that descends from Frankish. Hence nearly all continental Western European historians can claim his victories as their heritage, the Holy Roman Empire he founded was largely but far from entirely German speaking. The Kingdom of Prussia, which unified Germany in the 19th century, had significant territory in what is now Poland, in the early 19th century, the philosopher Schlegel referred to Germany as a Kulturnation, a nation of shared culture and political disunity, analogous to ancient Greece. Until the unification of 1871, Austria was considered a part of Germany even though much of its empire was not in the Holy Roman Empire and was non-German, during the ancient and early medieval periods the Germanic tribes had no written language. What we know about their military history comes from accounts written in Latin. Germanic wars against the Romans are fairly well documented from the Roman perspective, Germanic wars against the early Celts remain mysterious because neither side recorded the events. Germanic tribes are thought to have originated during the Nordic Bronze Age in northern Germany, the tribes spread south, possibly motivated by the deteriorating climate of that area. They crossed the River Elbe, probably overrunning the territories of the Celtic Volcae in the Weser Basin, the Romans recorded one of these early migrations when the Cimbri and the Teutons tribes threatened the Republic itself around the late 2nd century BC. In the East, other tribes, such as Goths, Rugii and Vandals, settled along the shores of the Baltic Sea pushing southward, the Angles and Saxons migrated to England. It was never a state, from the beginning it was made up of many ethnicities and languages. Its unifying characteristic was its Carolingian heritage and strong religious connotations, its claim to German-ness the ethnicity of most of its subjects, from 919-36, the Germanic peoples were united under Henry the Fowler, then Duke of Saxony, who took the title of King. For the first time, the term Kingdom of the Germans was applied to the Frankish kingdom, in 955, the Hungarians were decisively defeated at Lechfeld by his son Otto the Great, ending the threat from the Eurasian steppes for four centuries. In 962, partly on the strength of victory, Otto went to Rome and was crowned the first Emperor of the Holy Roman Empire by the pope. By 1155, the German states had descended into disorder, Emperor Frederick I Barbarossa managed to restore peace through diplomacy and skillfully arranged marriages. He claimed direct control over Italy and made several incursions into northern Italy. In 1189, Frederick embarked on the Third Crusade, after a few initial successes against the Turks, notably at the Battle of Iconium, Frederick died when trying to cross a river
3.
Economic history of Germany
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Germany before 1800 was heavily rural, with some urban trade centers. In the 19th century it began a stage of economic growth and modernization. By 1900 it had the largest economy in Europe, a factor that played a role in its entry into World War I. Devastated by World War II, West Germany became an economic miracle in the 1950s and 1960s with the help of the Marshall Plan, currently it is the largest individual economy in the EU with GDP of roughly 3 trillion USD. Medieval Germany, lying on the open Northern European Plain, was divided into hundreds of contending kingdoms, principalities, dukedoms, bishoprics, and free cities. Economic prosperity did not mean geographical expansion, it required collaboration with some, competition with others, and an understanding among government, commerce. A desire to save was also born in the German experience of political, military, the German lands had a population of about 5 or 6 million. The great majority were farmers, typically in a state of serfdom under the control of nobles and monasteries, a few towns were starting to emerge. From 1100, new towns were founded around imperial strongholds, castles, the towns began to establish municipal rights and liberties. Several cities such as Cologne became Imperial Free Cities, which did not depend on princes or bishops, the towns were ruled by patricians. The craftsmen formed guilds, governed by rules, which sought to obtain control of the towns. Society was divided into sharply demarcated classes, the clergy, physicians, merchants, various guilds of artisans, political tensions arose from issues of taxation, public spending, regulation of business, and market supervision, as well as the limits of corporate autonomy. Colognes central location on the Rhine river placed it at the intersection of the trade routes between east and west and was the basis of Colognes growth. The economic structures of medieval and early modern Cologne were characterized by the status as a major harbor. It was governed by its burghers, long-distance trade in the Baltic intensified, as the major trading towns came together in the Hanseatic League, under the leadership of Lübeck. The chief cities were Cologne on the Rhine River, Hamburg and Bremen on the North Sea, the Hanseatic cities each had its own legal system and a degree of political autonomy. The Thirty Years War was ruinous to the twenty million civilians and set back the economy for generations, the fighting often was out of control, with marauding bands of hundreds or thousands of starving soldiers spreading plague, plunder, and murder. The armies that were under control moved back and forth across the year after year, levying heavy taxes on cities
4.
Territorial evolution of Germany
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The territorial changes of Germany include all changes in the borders and territory of Germany from its formation in 1871 to the present. Modern Germany was formed in 1871 when Otto von Bismarck unified most of the German states, with the exception of Austria. After the First World War Germany lost about 10% of its territory to its neighbours and this republic included territories to the east of todays German borders. The period of Nazi rule from the 1930s through the end of the Second World War brought significant territorial losses for the country, Nazi Germany initially expanded the countrys territory dramatically and conquered most of Europe, though not all areas were added to Germany proper. The Nazis fortunes changed after the failure of the invasion of Soviet Union, the Nazi regime eventually collapsed, and the Allies occupied Germany. The former eastern territories of Germany were ceded to Poland and the Soviet Union, in the west, the Saar area formed a French-controlled protectorate with limited autonomy, but its own citizenship laws. With the onset of the Cold War, the part of Germany was unified as the Trizone. Western-occupied West Berlin declared its accession to the Federal Republic of Germany in 1949 but was denied by the occupying powers, the Soviet zone, including the Soviet sector of Berlin, became the communist German Democratic Republic in October the same year. Effective 1 January 1957 the Saar Protectorate declared its accession to the Federal Republic of Germany, part of the motivation behind the territorial changes is based on historical events in Germany and Western Europe. Migrations that took place more than a millennium led to pockets of Germans living throughout Central. The existence of these enclaves was sometimes used by German nationalists, such as the Nazis, the territorial changes of Germany after World War II can be interpreted in the context of the evolution of global nationalism and European nationalism. The latter half of the 19th century and the first half of the 20th century saw the rise of nationalism in Europe, previously, a country consisted largely of whatever peoples lived on the land that was under the dominion of a particular ruler. As principalities and kingdoms grew through conquest and marriage, a ruler could wind up with different ethnicities under his dominion. The concept of nationalism was based on the idea of a people who shared a bond through race, religion, language. Furthermore, nationalism asserted that people had a right to its own state. Many interior conflicts were a result of more or less pressurising citizens of alternative ethnicities and/or other native languages to assimilate to the ethnicity dominant in the state, switzerland was the bright exception showing that patriotism only needs civic pride and legal equality, not a common native language. Much conflict would arise when one nation asserted territorial rights to land outside its borders on the basis of a bond with the people living on the land. Yet another source of conflict was the desire of some nations to expel people from territory within its borders because people did not share a bond with the majority of people of that nation
5.
Germanic peoples
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The Germanic peoples are an ethno-linguistic Indo-European group of Northern European origin. They are identified by their use of Germanic languages, which diversified out of Proto-Germanic during the Pre-Roman Iron Age, the term Germanic originated in classical times when groups of tribes living in Lower, Upper, and Greater Germania were referred to using this label by Roman scribes. Tribes referred to as Germanic by Roman authors generally lived to the north, in about 222 BCE, the first use of the Latin term Germani appears in the Fasti Capitolini inscription de Galleis Insvbribvs et Germ. This may simply be referring to Gaul or related people, the term Germani shows up again, allegedly written by Poseidonios, but is merely a quotation inserted by the author Athenaios who wrote much later. Somewhat later, the first surviving detailed discussions of Germani and Germania are those of Julius Caesar, from Caesars perspective, Germania was a geographical area of land on the east bank of the Rhine opposite Gaul, which Caesar left outside direct Roman control. This usage of the word is the origin of the concept of Germanic languages. In other classical authors the concept sometimes included regions of Sarmatia, also, at least in the south there were Celtic peoples still living east of the Rhine and north of the Alps. Caesar, Tacitus and others noted differences of culture which could be found on the east of the Rhine, but the theme of all these cultural references was that this was a wild and dangerous region, less civilised than Gaul, a place that required additional military vigilance. Caesar used the term Germani for a specific tribal grouping in northeastern Belgic Gaul, west of the Rhine. He made clear that he was using the name in the local sense and these are the so-called Germani Cisrhenani, whom Caesar believed to be closely related to the peoples east of the Rhine, and descended from immigrants into Gaul. Caesar described this group of both as Belgic Gauls and as Germani. Gauls are associated with Celtic languages, and the term Germani is associated with Germanic languages, but Caesar did not discuss languages in detail. It has been claimed, for example by Maurits Gysseling, that the names of this region show evidence of an early presence of Germanic languages. The etymology of the word Germani is uncertain, the likeliest theory so far proposed is that it comes from a Gaulish compound of *ger near + *mani men, comparable to Welsh ger near, Old Irish gair neighbor, Irish gar- near, garach neighborly. Another Celtic possibility is that the name meant noisy, cf. Breton/Cornish garm shout, however, here the vowel does not match, nor does the vowel length ). Others have proposed a Germanic etymology *gēr-manni, spear men, cf. Middle Dutch ghere, Old High German Ger, Old Norse geirr. However, the form gēr seems far too advanced phonetically for the 1st century, has a vowel where a short one is expected. The term Germani, therefore, probably applied to a group of tribes in northeastern Gaul who may or may not have spoken a Germanic language
6.
Migration Period
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The Migration Period was a time of widespread migrations within or into Europe in the middle of the first millennium AD. It has also been termed the Völkerwanderung and, from the Roman, many of the migrations were movements of Germanic, Slavic, and other peoples into the territory of the then Roman Empire, with or without accompanying invasions or war. Although immigration was common throughout the time of the Roman Empire, later invasions, also had significant effects, however, they are outside the scope of the Migration Period. Germanic peoples moved out of southern Scandinavia and Germany to the adjacent lands between the Elbe and Oder after 1000 BC. The first wave moved westward and southward, moving into southern Germany up to the Roman provinces of Gaul and Cisalpine Gaul by 100 BC and it is this western group which was described by the Roman historian Tacitus and Julius Caesar. A later wave of Germanic tribes migrated eastward and southward from Scandinavia between 600 and 300 BC to the opposite coast of the Baltic Sea, moving up the Vistula near the Carpathians, the Barbarian Invasions may be divided into two phases. The first phase, occurring between AD300 and 500, is documented by Greek and Latin historians but difficult to verify archaeologically. It puts Germanic peoples in control of most areas of what was then the Western Roman Empire, the Tervingi entered Roman territory in 376. Some time thereafter in Marcianopolis, the escort to Fritigern was killed while meeting with Lupicinus, fending off challenges from the Allemanni, Burgundians, and Visigoths, the Frankish kingdom became the nucleus of what would later become France and Germany. The initial Anglo-Saxon settlement of Britain occurred during the fifth century, the Burgundians settled in North Western Italy, Switzerland and Eastern France in the fifth century. The second phase took place between 500 and 700 and saw Slavic tribes settling in central and eastern Europe, gradually making it predominantly Slavic, additionally, Turkic tribes such as the Avars became involved in this phase. In 567, the Avars and the Lombards destroyed much of the Gepid Kingdom, the Lombards, a Germanic people, settled in Italy with their Herulian, Suebian, Gepid, Thuringian, Bulgarian, Sarmatian and Saxon allies in the 6th century. They were later followed by the Bavarians and the Franks, who conquered and ruled most of Italy, during the Khazar–Arab Wars, the Khazars stopped the Arab expansion into Europe across the Caucasus. At the same time, the Moors invaded Europe via Gibraltar and these battles broadly demarcated the frontiers between Christendom and Islam for the next millennium. The following centuries saw the Muslims successful in conquering most of Sicily from the Christians by 902, the Hungarian conquest of the Carpathian Basin from around 895, and the Viking expansion from the late 8th century conventionally mark the last large movements of the period. Christianity gradually converted the non-Islamic newcomers and integrated them into the medieval Christian order, a number of contemporary historical references worldwide refer to an extended period of extreme weather during 535–536. Evidence of this period is also found in dendrochronology and ice cores. The consequences of this period are debated
7.
Francia
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The kingdom was founded by Clovis I, crowned first King of the Franks in 496. The tradition of dividing patrimonies among brothers meant that the Frankish realm was ruled, nominally, even so, sometimes the term was used as well to encompass Neustria north of the Loire and west of the Seine. Most Frankish Kings were buried in the Basilica of Saint Denis, modern France is still named Francia in Spanish and Italian. The Franks emerged in the 3rd century as a confederation of smaller Germanic tribes, such as the Sicambri, Bructeri, Ampsivarii, Chamavi and Chattuarii, in the area north and east of the Rhine. Some of these peoples, such as the Sicambri and Salians, already had lands in the Roman Empire, in 357 the Salian king entered the Roman Empire and made a permanent foothold there by a treaty granted by Julian the Apostate, who forced back the Chamavi to Hamaland. As Frankish territory expanded, the meaning of Francia expanded with it, after the fall of Arbogastes, his son Arigius succeeded in establishing a hereditary countship at Trier and after the fall of the usurper Constantine III some Franks supported the usurper Jovinus. Jovinus was dead by 413, but the Romans found it difficult to manage the Franks within their borders. The Frankish king Theudemer was executed by the sword, in c, around 428 the Salian king Chlodio, whose kingdom included Toxandria and the civitatus Tungrorum, launched an attack on Roman territory and extended his realm as far as Camaracum and the Somme. The kingdom of Chlodio changed the borders and the meaning of the word Francia permanently, Francia was no longer barbaricum trans Rhenum, but a landed political power on both sides of the river, deeply involved in Roman politics. Chlodios family, the Merovingians, extended Francia even further south, the core territory of the Frankish kingdom later came to be known as Austrasia. Chlodios successors are obscure figures, but what can be certain is that Childeric I, possibly his grandson, Clovis converted to Christianity and put himself on good terms with the powerful Church and with his Gallo-Roman subjects. In a thirty-year reign Clovis defeated the Roman general Syagrius and conquered the Roman exclave of Soissons, defeated the Alemanni, Clovis defeated the Visigoths and conquered their entire kingdom with its capital at Toulouse, and conquered the Bretons and made them vassals of Francia. He conquered most or all of the neighbouring Frankish tribes along the Rhine, by the end of his life, Clovis ruled all of Gaul save the Gothic province of Septimania and the Burgundian kingdom in the southeast. The Merovingians were a hereditary monarchy, the Frankish kings adhered to the practice of partible inheritance, dividing their lands among their sons. Cloviss sons made their capitals near the Frankish heartland in northeastern Gaul, Theuderic I made his capital at Reims, Chlodomer at Orléans, Childebert I at Paris, and Chlothar I at Soissons. During their reigns, the Thuringii, Burgundes, and Saxons and Frisians were incorporated into the Frankish kingdom, the fraternal kings showed only intermittent signs of friendship and were often in rivalry. Theuderic died in 534, but his adult son Theudebert I was capable of defending his inheritance, which formed the largest of the Frankish subkingdoms and the kernel of the later kingdom of Austrasia. Theudebert interfered in the Gothic War on the side of the Gepids and Lombards against the Ostrogoths, receiving the provinces of Rhaetia, Noricum, and part of Venetia
8.
East Francia
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East Francia or the Kingdom of the East Franks was a successor state of Charlemagnes empire and precursor of the Holy Roman Empire. Until 911 it was ruled by Carolingian dynasty and it was created after the 840-43 civil war between Charlemagnes grandchildren which ended with the Treaty of Verdun which divided the former empire into three kingdoms. In August 843, after three years of war following the death of emperor Louis the Pious on 20 June 840. The division of lands was based on the Meuse, Scheldt. The contemporary East Frankish Annales Fuldenses describes the kingdom being divided in three and Louis acceding to the eastern part, while West and Middle Francia contained the traditional Frankish heartlands, the East consisted mostly of lands only annexed to the Frankish empire in the eighth century. These included the duchies of Alemannia, Bavaria, Saxony and Thuringia, as well as the northern and eastern marches with the Danes, in 869 Lotharingia was divided between West and East Francia under the Treaty of Meersen. The short lived Middle Francia turned out to be the theatre of Franco-German wars up until the 20th century, all the Frankish lands were briefly reunited by Charles the Fat, but in 888 he was deposed by nobles and in East Francia Arnulf of Carinthia was elected king. The increasing weakness of royal power in East Francia meant that dukes of Bavaria, Swabia, Franconia, Saxony, Kings increasingly had to deal with regional rebellions. Because Conrad I was one of the dukes, he found it hard to establish his authority over them. Duke Henry of Saxony was in rebellion against Conrad I until 915 and struggle against Arnulf, on his deathbed Conrad I chose Henry of Saxony as the most capable successor. This kingship changed from Franks to Saxons, who had suffered greatly during the conquests of Charlemagne, by his death in July 936 Henry had prevented collapse of royal power as was happening in West Francia and left a much stronger kingdom to his successor Otto I. After Otto I was crowned as the Emperor in Rome in 962 the era of the Holy Roman Empire began, the term orientalis Francia originally referred to Franconia and orientales Franci to its inhabitants, the ethnic Franks living east of the Rhine. The use of the term in a sense, to refer to the eastern kingdom, was an innovation of Louis the Germans court. Since eastern Francia could be identified with old Austrasia, the Frankish heartland, under his grandson, Arnulf, the terminology was largely dropped and the kingdom, when it was referred to by name, was simply Francia. When it was necessary, as in the Treaty of Bonn with the West Franks, Henry I refers to himself as rex Francorum orientalium, king of the East Franks, in the treaty. By the 12th century, the historian Otto of Freising, in using the Carolingian terminology had to explain that the kingdom of the Franks was now called the kingdom of the Germans. The regalia of the Carolingian empire had divided by Louis the Pious on his deathbed between his two faithful sons, Charles the Bald and Lothair. Louis the German, then in rebellion, received nothing of the jewels or liturgical books associated with Carolingian kingship
9.
Holy Roman Empire
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The Holy Roman Empire was a multi-ethnic complex of territories in central Europe that developed during the Early Middle Ages and continued until its dissolution in 1806. On 25 December 800, Pope Leo III crowned the Frankish king Charlemagne as Emperor, reviving the title in Western Europe, more than three centuries after the fall of the Western Roman Empire. The title was revived in 962 when Otto I was crowned emperor, fashioning himself as the successor of Charlemagne, some historians refer to the coronation of Charlemagne as the origin of the empire, while others prefer the coronation of Otto I as its beginning. Scholars generally concur, however, in relating an evolution of the institutions and principles constituting the empire, the office of Holy Roman Emperor was traditionally elective, although frequently controlled by dynasties. Emperor Francis II dissolved the empire on 6 August 1806, after the creation of the Confederation of the Rhine by Napoleon, before 1157, the realm was merely referred to as the Roman Empire. In a decree following the 1512 Diet of Cologne, the name was changed to Holy Roman Empire of the German Nation, by the end of the 18th century, the term Holy Roman Empire of the German Nation had fallen out of official use. As Roman power in Gaul declined during the 5th century, local Germanic tribes assumed control, by the middle of the 8th century, however, the Merovingians had been reduced to figureheads, and the Carolingians, led by Charles Martel, had become the de facto rulers. In 751, Martel’s son Pepin became King of the Franks, the Carolingians would maintain a close alliance with the Papacy. In 768 Pepin’s son Charlemagne became King of the Franks and began an expansion of the realm. He eventually incorporated the territories of present-day France, Germany, northern Italy, on Christmas Day of 800, Pope Leo III crowned Charlemagne emperor, restoring the title in the west for the first time in over three centuries. After the death of Charles the Fat in 888, however, the Carolingian Empire broke apart, according to Regino of Prüm, the parts of the realm spewed forth kinglets, and each part elected a kinglet from its own bowels. After the death of Charles the Fat, those crowned emperor by the pope controlled only territories in Italy, the last such emperor was Berengar I of Italy, who died in 924. Around 900, autonomous stem duchies reemerged in East Francia, on his deathbed, Conrad yielded the crown to his main rival, Henry the Fowler of Saxony, who was elected king at the Diet of Fritzlar in 919. Henry reached a truce with the raiding Magyars, and in 933 he won a first victory against them in the Battle of Riade, Henry died in 936, but his descendants, the Liudolfing dynasty, would continue to rule the Eastern kingdom for roughly a century. Upon Henry the Fowlers death, Otto, his son and designated successor, was elected King in Aachen in 936 and he overcame a series of revolts from an elder brother and from several dukes. After that, the managed to control the appointment of dukes. In 951, Otto came to the aid of Adelaide, the queen of Italy, defeating her enemies, marrying her. In 955, Otto won a victory over the Magyars in the Battle of Lechfeld
10.
Ostsiedlung
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The affected area roughly stretched from Slovenia in the south to Estonia in the north, and extended into Transylvania in the southeast. In part, Ostsiedlung followed the expansion of the Empire. German historians of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries often exaggerated the importance of the adoption of Salic law and settlement in Central, thus Ostsiedlung is part of a process termed Ostkolonisation or Hochmittelalterlicher Landesausbau, although these terms are sometimes used synonymously. Ethnic conflicts erupted between the newly arrived settlers and local populations and expulsions of native populations are known of. In several areas subject to the Ostsiedlung, the population was later discriminated against. Central Europe underwent dramatic changes after the Migration period of 300 to 700 CE, the Roman Empire had lost its dominant position. The Franks had created an empire that, besides former Roman Gallia, had united the former West Germanic tribes, East Francia, an early predecessor of Germany, aimed to be the successor to the Christian Western Roman Empire, and developed into the Holy Roman Empire. In Scandinavia, the former North Germanic tribes entered the Viking Age, affecting the whole of Europe through trade, some former East Germanic tribes had entered and merged into Rome, their own culture ceasing to exist. The Slavs living within the reach of the Frankish Empire were collectively called Wends and they seldom formed larger political entities, but rather constituted various small tribes, dwelling as far west as to a line from the Eastern Alps and Bohemia to the Saale and Elbe rivers. As the Frankish Empire expanded, various Wendish tribes were conquered or allied with the Franks, such as the Obodrites, the conquered Wendish areas were organized by the Franks into marches, which were administered by an entrusted noble who collected the tribute, reinforced by military units. The establishing of marches was also accompanied by missionary efforts, Frankish kings initiated numerous, yet not always successful, military campaigns to maintain their authority. Weakened by ongoing conflicts and constant warfare, the independent Wendish territories finally lost the capacity to provide effective military resistance. From 1119 to 1123, Pomerania invaded and subdued the northeastern parts of the Liutizian lands, in 1124 and 1128, the Pomeranian duke Wartislaw I, at that time a vassal of Poland, invited bishop Otto von Bamberg to Christianize the Pomeranians and Liutizians of his duchy. In 1147, as a campaign of the Northern Crusade, the Wendish Crusade was mounted in the Duchy of Saxony to retake the marches lost in 983, the crusaders also headed for Pomeranian Demmin and Stettin, despite these areas having already been successfully Christianized. The Havelberg bishopric was set up again to Christianize the Wends, after Henry the Lion lost an internal struggle with Emperor Frederick I, Mecklenburg and Pomerania became part of the Holy Roman Empire in 1181. Terra Mariana was the name for Medieval Livonia or Old Livonia which was formed in the aftermath of the Livonian Crusade in the territories comprising present day Estonia and Latvia. It was established on February 2,1207 as a principality of the Holy Roman Empire, the nominal head of Terra Mariana as well as the city of Riga was the Archbishop of Riga as the apex of the ecclesiastical hierarchy. In 1561, during the Livonian war, Terra Mariana ceased to exist, the island of Saaremaa became part of Denmark
11.
Germany in the early modern period
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The German-speaking states in the early modern period were divided politically and religiously. They all suffered greatly in the Thirty Years War, catholic Austria and Lutheran Prussia were the major players. The Holy Roman Empire was dominated by the House of Habsburg throughout the Early Modern period and this was a result of German artists who had traveled to Italy to learn more and become inspired by the Renaissance movement. Many areas of the arts and sciences were influenced, notably by the spread of humanism to the various German states and principalities, there were many advances made in the development of new techniques in the fields of architecture, the arts, and the sciences. This also marked the time within Germany of a rise of power, independent city states, the German Reformation initiated by Martin Luther leads to the German Peasants War in 1524-1525. At a religious conference with the Zwinglians in 1529, Melanchthon joined with Luther in opposing a union with Zwingli, with the protestation of the Lutheran princes at the Diet of Speyer and rejection of the Lutheran Augsburg Confession at Augsburg, a separate Lutheran church finally emerged. In Northern Europe Luther appealed to the national consciousness of the German states because he denounced the Pope for involvement in politics as well as religion. Moreover, he backed the nobility, which was now justified to crush the Great Peasant Revolt of 1525 and this explains the attraction of some territorial princes to Lutheranism. However, the Elector of Brandenburg, Joachim I, blamed Lutheranism for the revolt, though Charles V fought the Reformation, it is no coincidence either that the reign of his nationalistic predecessor Maximilian I saw the beginning of the Reformation. The Reformation and printing press combined to mark a major breakthrough in the spread of literacy, from 1517 onward religious pamphlets flooded Germany and much of Europe. By 1530 over 10,000 publications are known, with a total of ten million copies, the Reformation was thus a media revolution. Luther strengthened his attacks on Rome by depicting a good against bad church, from there, it became clear that print could be used for propaganda in the Reformation for particular agendas. Reformist writers used pre-Reformation styles, clichés, and stereotypes and changed items as needed for their own purposes, illustrations in the newly translated Bible and in many tracts popularized Luthers ideas. Lucas Cranach the Elder, the great painter patronized by the electors of Wittenberg, was a friend of Luther. He dramatized Luthers views on the relationship between the Old and New Testaments, while remaining mindful of Luthers careful distinctions about proper and improper uses of visual imagery, the Thirty Years War was a religious war principally fought in Germany, where it involved most of the European powers. The conflict began between Protestants and Catholics in the Holy Roman Empire, but gradually developed into a general, political war involving most of Europe. The Thirty Years War was a continuation of the France-Habsburg rivalry for European political pre-eminence, the major impact of the Thirty Years War, fought mostly by mercenary armies, was the extensive destruction of entire regions, denuded by the foraging armies. Episodes of famine and disease significantly decreased the populace of the German states, some of the quarrels that provoked the war went unresolved for a much longer time
12.
Kleinstaaterei
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Estimates of the total number of German states at any given time during the 18th century vary, ranging from 294 to 348 or more. Furthermore, many German states were composed of two or more parts, often politically united through a marriage. Most states had at least one or two enclaves or exclaves, and some considerably more, during the early modern period, these small states modernised their military, judicial, and economic administrations. These hardly existed at the level, and the emperor was little more than a feudalistic confederal figurehead. After the Reformation, the Empires small states were divided along religious lines and those headed by Roman Catholic dynasties faced those ruled by Protestant dynasties in the Thirty Years War and other conflicts. After French Emperor Napoleon Bonaparte forced the Holy Roman Emperor, Francis II, to dissolve the Empire in 1806, Kleinstaaterei was altered and this confederation did not survive Napoleons military defeat at the hands of the allies, but the previous principalities were not entirely restored. Prussia and the Austrian Empire—the successor state to the Habsburg Monarchy—were the only major German powers, the resulting territorial division resulted in a consolidated version—around 40 states—of the pre-Napoleonic Kleinstaaterei. The rise of nationalism across Europe brought movements striving for nation-states, German nationalists began to insist on a unified Germany. The founding of the German Empire created a largely German nation-state, the unification of the German Empire put Germany on the map as a major European power, albeit too late to become a major colonial presence. The decentralised nature of Kleinstaaterei made it difficult for the German economy to live up to its potential, varying systems of weights and measures, different currencies and numerous tariffs impeded trade and investment, although the creation of the German Customs Union had begun to lift these barriers. The startling rapidity of Germanys economic growth after unification under Bismarck provided further evidence that the Kleinstaaterei had been economically repressive, the system did contribute to cultural diversity within Germany, and the numerous rival courts—though usually politically insignificant—often gained some renown through patronage. Balkanisation German Mediatisation List of participants in the Reichstag of 1792 List of states in the Holy Roman Empire
13.
18th-century history of Germany
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Germany in the era 1680s to 1789 comprised many small territories. Germany, or more exactly the old Holy Roman Empire, in the 18th century entered a period of decline that would lead to the dissolution of the Empire during the Napoleonic Wars. Since the Peace of Westphalia in 1648, the Empire had been fragmented into independent states. In 1701 Elector Frederick of Brandenburg was crowned King in Prussia, from 1713 to 1740, King Frederick William I, also known as the Soldier King, established a highly centralized state. The term German dualism describes the conflict between the two largest German states Austria and Prussia from 1740 to 1866 when Prussia finally forced Austria out of the German Confederation. The Kingdom of Prussia emerged as the state of the Empire. Frederick III became King Frederick I of Prussia in 1701, since there was only one King of the Germans within the Empire, Frederick gained the assent of Emperor Leopold I to his adoption of the title of King in Prussia based on his non-imperial territories. The title came into general acceptance with the Treaty of Utrecht, Swedens defeat by Russia, Saxony, Poland, Denmark–Norway, Hanover, and Prussia in the Great Northern War marked the end of significant Swedish power on the southern shores of the Baltic Sea. In the Prusso–Swedish Treaty of Stockholm, Prussia regained Stettin and other parts of Swedens holding in Pomerania, the Hohenzollerns of Brandenburg had held the reversion to the Duchy of Pomerania since 1472. During this time, the set in motion by the Great Elector reached their culmination, as the Junkers. In 1740, King Frederick II came to the throne, in 1744, Frederick invaded again to forestall reprisals and to claim, this time, the province of Bohemia. When Frederick preemptively invaded Saxony and Bohemia over the course of a few months in 1756–57 and this war was a desperate struggle for the Prussian Army, and the fact that it managed to fight much of Europe to a draw bears witness to Fredericks military skills. The situation became progressively grimmer until the death of Empress Elizabeth of Russia, the accession of the Prussophile Peter III relieved the pressure on the eastern front. This result confirmed Prussias major role within the German states and established the country as a European great power and this gave the start to the rivalry between Prussia and Austria for the leadership of Germany, referred to as German dualism. From 1763, against resistance from the nobility and citizenry, an enlightened absolutism was established in Prussia and Austria, the economy developed and legal reforms were undertaken, including the abolition of torture and the improvement in the status of Jews, the emancipation of the peasants began. The Kingdom of Prussia annexed most of the Polish province of Royal Prussia, including Warmia, the new territory connected East Prussia with Pomerania, uniting the kingdoms eastern territories. After Frederick died in 1786, his nephew Fredrick William II continued the partitions, in 1795, the Kingdom of Poland ceased to exist and a large area to the south of East Prussia became part of Prussia. These new territories were organized into the Provinces of New Silesia, South Prussia, the French Revolution sparked a new war between France and several of its Eastern neighbors, including Prussia and Austria
14.
Kingdom of Prussia
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It was the driving force behind the unification of Germany in 1871 and was the leading state of the German Empire until its dissolution in 1918. Although it took its name from the region called Prussia, it was based in the Margraviate of Brandenburg, the kings of Prussia were from the House of Hohenzollern. Prussia was a power from the time it became a kingdom, through its predecessor, Brandenburg-Prussia. Prussia continued its rise to power under the guidance of Frederick II, more known as Frederick the Great. After the might of Prussia was revealed it was considered as a power among the German states. Throughout the next hundred years Prussia went on to win many battles and it was because of its power that Prussia continuously tried to unify all the German states under its rule. Attempts at creation of a federation remained unsuccessful and the German Confederation collapsed in 1866 when war ensued between its two most powerful states, Prussia and Austria. The North German Confederation which lasted from 1867–1871, created a union between the Prussian-aligned states while Austria and most of Southern Germany remained independent. The North German Confederation was seen as more of an alliance of military strength in the aftermath of the Austro-Prussian War, the German Empire lasted from 1871–1918 with the successful unification of all the German states under Prussian hegemony. This was due to the defeat of Napoleon III in the Franco-Prussian War of 1870–71, in 1871, Germany unified into a single country, minus Austria and Switzerland, with Prussia the dominant power. Prussia is considered the predecessor of the unified German Reich. The Kingdom left a significant cultural legacy, today notably promoted by the Prussian Cultural Heritage Foundation, in 1415 a Hohenzollern Burgrave came from the south to the March of Brandenburg and took control of the area as elector. In 1417 the Hohenzollern was made an elector of the Holy Roman Empire, after the Polish wars, the newly established Baltic towns of the German states including Prussia, suffered many economic setbacks. Many of the Prussian towns could not even afford to attend political meetings outside of Prussia, the towns were poverty stricken, with even the largest town, Danzig, having to borrow money from elsewhere to pay for trade. Poverty in these towns was partly caused by Prussias neighbors, who had established and developed such a monopoly on trading that these new towns simply could not compete and these issues led to feuds, wars, trade competition and invasions. However, the fall of these gave rise to the nobility, separated the east and the west. It was clear in 1440 how different Brandenburg was from the other German territories, not only did it face partition from within but also the threat of its neighbors. It prevented the issue of partition by enacting the Dispositio Achillea which instilled the principle of primogeniture to both the Brandenburg and Franconian territories, the second issue was solved through expansion
15.
Unification of Germany
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The unification of Germany into a politically and administratively integrated nation state officially occurred on 18 January 1871, in the Hall of Mirrors at the Palace of Versailles in France. Princes of the German states gathered there to proclaim Wilhelm I of Prussia as German Emperor after the French capitulation in the Franco-Prussian War. The Holy Roman Empire of the German Nation, which had included more than 500 independent states, was dissolved when Emperor Francis II abdicated during the War of the Third Coalition. Economically, the creation of the Prussian Zollverein in 1818, and its subsequent expansion to other states of the German Confederation. Emerging modes of transportation facilitated business and recreational travel, leading to contact, the model of diplomatic spheres of influence resulting from the Congress of Vienna in 1814–15 after the Napoleonic Wars endorsed Austrian dominance in Central Europe. The negotiators at Vienna took no account of Prussias growing strength within and among the German states and this German dualism presented two solutions to the problem of unification, Kleindeutsche Lösung, the small Germany solution, or Großdeutsche Lösung, the greater Germany solution. Reaction to Danish and French nationalism provided foci for expressions of German unity, military successes—especially those of Prussia—in three regional wars generated enthusiasm and pride that politicians could harness to promote unification. This experience echoed the memory of mutual accomplishment in the Napoleonic Wars, by establishing a Germany without Austria, the political and administrative unification in 1871 at least temporarily solved the problem of dualism. 1797, The French First Republic annexed the Left Bank of the Rhine as a result of the War of the First Coalition,1802, Previous annexations by France confirmed following its victory in the War of the Second Coalition. 1804, Francis I of Austria declared the new Austrian Empire as a reaction to Napoleon Bonapartes proclamation of the First French Empire in 1804. 1806, As a result of the War of the Third Coalition, Napoleon I annexed some territories East of the Rhine,1807, Prussia lost one half of its territory following the War of the Fourth Coalition. 1815, After the defeat of Napoleon, the Congress of Vienna reinstated the Germanic states into the German Confederation under the leadership of the Austrian Empire,1834, The Prussian-led custom union evolved into the Zollverein that included almost all Confederation states except the Austrian Empire. 1848, Revolts across the German Confederation, such as in Berlin, Dresden and Frankfurt, in the meantime, the Frankfurt Parliament was set up in 1848 and attempted to proclaim a united Germany, but this was refused by William IV. The question of a united Germany under the Kleindeutsch solution or the so-called Großdeutsch began to surface,1864, The Danish-Prussian War started as Prussia protested against Danish incorporation of Schleswig into the Kingdom of Denmark. The Austrian Empire was deliberately drawn into war by Otto von Bismarck. The Austro-Prussian victory led to Schleswig, the part, being governed by Prussia and Holstein. 1866, Bismarck accused the Austrian Empire of stirring up troubles in Prussian-held Schleswig, Prussian troops drove into Austrian-held Holstein and took control of the entire state of Schleswig-Holstein. Austria declared war on Prussia and, after fighting the Austro-Prussian War, was swiftly defeated, Napoleon III declared war against Prussia
16.
Confederation of the Rhine
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The Confederation of the Rhine was a confederation of client states of the First French Empire. It was formed initially from 16 German states by Napoleon after he defeated Austria and Russia in the Battle of Austerlitz, the Treaty of Pressburg, in effect, led to the creation of the Confederation of the Rhine. It lasted from 1806 to 1813, the members of the confederation were German princes from the Holy Roman Empire. They were later joined by 19 others, all together ruling a total of over 15 million subjects providing a significant strategic advantage to the French Empire on its eastern front, Prussia and Austria were not members. Napoleon sought to consolidate the modernizing achievements of the revolution, but he wanted the soldiers, Napoleon required it to supply 63,000 troops to his army. The success of the Confederation depended on Napoleons success in battle, on 12 July 1806, on signing the Treaty of the Confederation of the Rhine in Paris,16 states in present-day Germany joined together in a confederation. On 1 August, the members of the confederation formally seceded from the Holy Roman Empire, Francis and his Habsburg dynasty continued as emperors of Austria. According to the treaty, the confederation was to be run by common constitutional bodies, as such, he was President of the College of Kings and presided over the Diet of the Confederation, designed to be a parliament-like body although it never actually assembled. The President of the Council of the Princes was the Prince of Nassau-Usingen, in return for their support of Napoleon, some rulers were given higher statuses, Baden, Hesse, Cleves, and Berg were made into grand duchies, and Württemberg and Bavaria became kingdoms. States were also made larger by incorporating the many smaller Kleinstaaten and they had to pay a very high price for their new status, however. The Confederation was above all a military alliance, the members had to maintain substantial armies for mutual defense, as events played out the members of the confederation found themselves more subordinated to Napoleon than they had been to the Habsburgs. After Prussia lost to France in 1806, Napoleon cajoled most of the states of Germany into the Confederation of the Rhine. Eventually, an additional 23 German states joined the Confederation and it was at its largest in 1808, when it included 36 states—four kingdoms, five grand duchies,13 duchies, seventeen principalities, and the Free Hansa towns of Hamburg, Lübeck, and Bremen. Only Austria, Prussia, Danish Holstein, and Swedish Pomerania stayed outside, not counting the west bank of the Rhine and the Principality of Erfurt, which were annexed by the French empire. In 1810 large parts of what is now northwest Germany were quickly annexed to France in order to monitor the trade embargo with Great Britain. The Confederation of the Rhine collapsed in 1813, in the aftermath of Napoleons failed campaign against the Russian Empire, many of its members changed sides after the Battle of Leipzig, when it became apparent Napoleon would lose the War of the Sixth Coalition. The following table shows the members of the confederation, with their date of joining, the allies opposing Napoleon dissolved the Confederation of the Rhine on 4 November 1813. It was dissolved on 20 June 1815, on 30 May 1814 the Treaty of Paris declared the German states independent
17.
German Confederation
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Most historians have judged the Confederation to have been weak and ineffective, as well as an obstacle to the creation of a German nation-state. It collapsed due to the rivalry between Prussia and Austria, warfare, the 1848 revolution, and the inability of the members to compromise. In 1848, revolutions by liberals and nationalists were an attempt to establish a unified German state. Talks between the German states failed in 1848, and the Confederation briefly dissolved, but was re-established shortly after and it decidedly fell apart only after the Prussian victory in the Seven Weeks War of 1866. This led to the creation of the North German Confederation under Prussian leadership in 1867, a number of South German states remained independent until they joined the North German Confederation, which was renamed the German Empire. The War of the Third Coalition lasted from about 1803 to 1806, following defeat at the Battle of Austerlitz by the French under Napoleon in December 1805, Holy Roman Emperor Francis II abdicated, and the Empire was dissolved on 6 August 1806. The resulting Treaty of Pressburg established the Confederation of the Rhine in July 1806, after the Battle of Jena–Auerstedt of October 1806 in the War of the Fourth Coalition, various other German states, including Saxony and Westphalia, also joined the Confederation. Only Austria, Prussia, Danish Holstein, Swedish Pomerania and the French-occupied Principality of Erfurt stayed outside the Confederation of the Rhine and these nations would later join in the War of the Sixth Coalition from 1812 to 1814. The German Confederation was created by the 9th Act of the Congress of Vienna on 8 June 1815 after being alluded to in Article 6 of the 1814 Treaty of Paris, ending the War of the Sixth Coalition. The Confederation was formally created by a treaty, the Final Act of the Ministerial Conference to Complete and Consolidate the Organization of the German Confederation. This treaty was not concluded and signed by the parties until 15 May 1820, States joined the German Confederation by becoming parties to the second treaty. The German Confederation ended as a result of the Austro-Prussian War of 1866 between Austrian Empire and its allies on one side and the Kingdom of Prussia and its allies on the other. In the Prague peace treaty, on 23 August 1866, Austria had to accept that the Confederation was considered to be dissolved, the following day, the remaining member states confirmed the dissolution. The treaty allowed Prussia to create a new Bundesverhältnis in the North of Germany, the South German states were proposed to create a South German Confederation but this did not come into existence. Prussia and its allies created the North German Confederation in 1867, because of French intervention it had to exclude, besides Austria, the South German states Bavaria, Württemberg, Baden and Hesse-Darmstadt. During November 1870 the four states joined the North German Confederation by treaty. The North German Confederation Reichstag and Bundesrat accepted to rename the North German Confederation as the German Empire, the new constitution of the state, the Constitution of the German Confederation, introduced the new name and title on 1 January 1871. The Austrian Empire and the Kingdom of Prussia were the largest, Austria and Prussia each had one vote in the Federal Assembly
18.
Zollverein
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The Zollverein or German Customs Union was a coalition of German states formed to manage tariffs and economic policies within their territories. Organized by the 1833 Zollverein treaties, the Zollverein formally came into existence on 1 January 1834, however, its foundations had been in development from 1818 with the creation of a variety of custom unions among the German states. By 1866, the Zollverein included most of the German states, Prussia was the prime motivating force behind the creation of the customs union. Austria was excluded from the Zollverein because of its highly protected industry, after the founding of the German Empire in 1871, the Empire assumed the control of the customs union. However, not all states within the Empire were part of the Zollverein until 1888, conversely, although it was not a state in the German Reich, Luxembourg remained in the Zollverein until 1919. The splintering of territory and states over generations meant that by the 1790s in the German-speaking Holy Roman Empire in Central Europe, even within the Prussian state itself there were at the beginning of the 19th century over 67 local customs and tariffs with as many customs borders. To travel from Königsberg in East Prussia to Cologne, for example and this last piece of major legislation enacted by the Holy Roman Empire re-arranged the map of Central Europe, especially in the southwestern territories. Most of the cities, imperial abbeys, and ecclesiastical states and cities were mediatized or secularized in 1803. With the final dissolution of the Holy Roman Empire in 1806, the Zollverein created a larger market for German-made farm and handicraft products and promoted commercial unification under fiscally sound economic parameters. While the Union sought to trade and commercial barriers between and among member states, it continued to uphold the protectionist barriers with outsiders. During the Napoleonic Era, efforts toward economic unity in the Rhineland had mixed success, the Confederation of the Rhine, and the other satellite creations of Napoleonic France, sought to establish economic autonomy in European trade. By 1806, as Napoleon I sought to secure his hegemony in Europe, however, the main purpose of the Continental System was military not economic. Napoleon wanted a trade embargo against Britain, through which he hoped to wreck the British economy, reduction in trade meant the near bankruptcy of the smaller states. At the Congress of Vienna in 1814 and 1815, diplomats – principally those from the Great Powers – confirmed the remapping of Europe, and broadly, the rest of the world, into spheres of influence. The German states themselves remained autonomous, however, the old institution of the Reichstag was reinvented in the form of a Confederation Diet that would meet in Frankfurt. The Habsburg archdukes, now Emperors of Austria, were to serve as permanent presidents of this institution, isolated voices, such as those of Joseph Görres and Freiherr vom Stein, called for the abolition of domestic tolls and the creation of a German tariff on imports. Instead, the articles that established the Confederation simply suggested that trade, Prussia and the central and southwestern states of Hesse-Nassau and Hesse-Darmstadt, Württemberg, Baden, and Bavaria were leaders in the modernization of the toll system within the German states. The addition of territory to the existing Prussian state made elimination of customs barriers a powerful factor in Prussian politics, the significant differences between old Prussia and the newly acquired territories complicated the debate
19.
North German Confederation
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The North German Confederation was a confederation of 22 previously independent states of northern Germany, with nearly 30 million inhabitants. It was the first modern German nation state and the basis for the later German Empire, after several unsuccessful proposals from several sides to reform the German Confederation, the North German major power Prussia left the German Confederation with some allies. It came to war between states on one hand and southern states led by Austria on the other. After a quick decision in the Austro-Prussian War of July 1866, Prussia, at first, it was a military alliance between independent states, the so-called August Alliance, but the states already had the intention to form a federation or confederation with a constitution. The North German Confederation is historically important for the economic and judicial unification of Germany, many of its laws were taken over by the German Empire, the North German Confederation continues as the German nation state which still exists today. On January 1,1871, the received a new constitution that gave it the name German Empire. In 1815, after the defeat of Napoleon, the German princes. The sovereignty remained with the individual German states, there were several attempts to create a modern nation state, most prominently in the Revolution of 1848. A major issue in the struggle was the rivalry between Austria, the principal power in Germany, and the ascending Prussia. The Austro-Prussian War of 1866 demonstrated the superiority of Prussia, led by its ingenious. The alliance had 15 members then, with 80 percent of the living in Prussia. A notable exclave of the North German Confederation was the Prussian territory of Hohenzollern in the south, hesse-Darmstadt was part of the new Confederation only with its northern part. A South German Confederation, as mentioned in the Peace of Prague, from the beginning the alliance was supposed to become a nation state with a federal constitution. On 15 December 1866, Bismarck presented a proposal to the representatives of the allied governments and their complaints did not seriously alter the proposal. On 7 February 1867, the proposal of the governments was ready. It was the not to impose the new constitution but to stipulate it together with a representation of the people. To this end a parliament was elected on 12 February and this Konstituierender Reichstag accepted the constitution, with relatively minor changes, on 16 April 1867. Then, the state parliaments adopted it, consequently, the first North German Reichstag was elected, the only one during the existence of the North German Confederation
20.
German Reich
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Deutsches Reich was the official name for the German nation state from 1871 to 1943 in the German language. It translates literally to German Empire, with a context approximating that of German Realm, from 1943 to 1945, the official name was – but not formally proclaimed – Großdeutsches Reich on account of the new territories annexed into the states administration during the Second World War. Informally, this nation was known simply as Germany. The Nazis also contemptuously referred to it as the System, following the Anschluss annexation of Austria in 1938, Nazi Germany informally named itself the Greater German Reich. This name was made the state name only during the last two years of Nazi rule under Adolf Hitler, though the change was never proclaimed. After World War II, the denotation German Reich quickly fell into disuse in Allied-occupied Germany, however, though the German word Reich translates to the English word empire, this translation was not used throughout the full existence of the German Reich. As the literal translation German Empire denotes a monarchy, the term is used only in reference to Germany before the fall of the monarchies at the end of World War I in 1918. After the unification of Germany, under the reign of the Prussian king Wilhelm I and his Chancellor Otto von Bismarck, on 14 April 1871, the Reichstag parliament passed the Constitution of the German Empire, which was published two days later. On the other hand, the German Reich of 1871 comprised extended Prussian territories with large sections of the population, like Posen. Before and during the events of World War I, the German state was called an empire in English, German Reich was used in legal documents and English-language international treaties — for example, the Kellogg–Briand Pact and the Geneva Conventions. If the term Empire had still been considered valid at this point and that Reich was never translated to Empire after 1918 has to do with the lack of a precise equivalent in English. Old English had the word rīc which was cognate with Reich, on 8 May 1945, with the capitulation of the German armed forces, the supreme command of the Wehrmacht was handed over to the Allied Powers. This claimed identity was however, contested by most other countries of the world, other countries tended to regard the German Reich to have been divided into two states. On meeting these conditions under Article 7.2 The United Germany accordingly full sovereignty over its internal and external affairs and this was confirmed in the 1990 rewording of the preamble, Germans. have achieved the unity and freedom of Germany in free self-determination. This Basic Law thus applies to the entire German people, national colours of Germany Germany Greater Germanic Reich, a conceptual entity that the Nazis planned to establish during World War II. Administrative history of the German Reich German Reich map of states 1913
21.
German Empire
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The German Empire was the historical German nation state that existed from the unification of Germany in 1871 to the abdication of Kaiser Wilhelm II in 1918, when Germany became a federal republic. The German Empire consisted of 26 constituent territories, with most being ruled by royal families and this included four kingdoms, six grand duchies, five duchies, seven principalities, three free Hanseatic cities, and one imperial territory. Although Prussia became one of kingdoms in the new realm, it contained most of its population and territory. Its influence also helped define modern German culture, after 1850, the states of Germany had rapidly become industrialized, with particular strengths in coal, iron, chemicals, and railways. In 1871, it had a population of 41 million people, and by 1913, a heavily rural collection of states in 1815, now united Germany became predominantly urban. During its 47 years of existence, the German Empire operated as an industrial, technological, Germany became a great power, boasting a rapidly growing rail network, the worlds strongest army, and a fast-growing industrial base. In less than a decade, its navy became second only to Britains Royal Navy, after the removal of Chancellor Otto von Bismarck by Wilhelm II, the Empire embarked on a bellicose new course that ultimately led to World War I. When the great crisis of 1914 arrived, the German Empire had two allies, Italy and the Austro-Hungarian Empire, Italy, however, left the once the First World War started in August 1914. In the First World War, German plans to capture Paris quickly in autumn 1914 failed, the Allied naval blockade caused severe shortages of food. Germany was repeatedly forced to send troops to bolster Austria and Turkey on other fronts, however, Germany had great success on the Eastern Front, it occupied large Eastern territories following the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk. German declaration of unrestricted submarine warfare in early 1917 was designed to strangle the British, it failed, but the declaration—along with the Zimmermann Telegram—did bring the United States into the war. Meanwhile, German civilians and soldiers had become war-weary and radicalised by the Russian Revolution and this failed, and by October the armies were in retreat, Austria-Hungary and the Ottoman Empire had collapsed, Bulgaria had surrendered and the German people had lost faith in their political system. The Empire collapsed in the November 1918 Revolution as the Emperor and all the ruling monarchs abdicated, and a republic took over. The German Confederation had been created by an act of the Congress of Vienna on 8 June 1815 as a result of the Napoleonic Wars, German nationalism rapidly shifted from its liberal and democratic character in 1848, called Pan-Germanism, to Prussian prime minister Otto von Bismarcks pragmatic Realpolitik. He envisioned a conservative, Prussian-dominated Germany, the war resulted in the Confederation being partially replaced by a North German Confederation in 1867, comprising the 22 states north of the Main. The new constitution and the title Emperor came into effect on 1 January 1871, during the Siege of Paris on 18 January 1871, William accepted to be proclaimed Emperor in the Hall of Mirrors at the Palace of Versailles. The second German Constitution was adopted by the Reichstag on 14 April 1871 and proclaimed by the Emperor on 16 April, the political system remained the same. The empire had a parliament called the Reichstag, which was elected by universal male suffrage, however, the original constituencies drawn in 1871 were never redrawn to reflect the growth of urban areas
22.
History of Germany during World War I
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During World War I, the German Empire was one of the Central Powers that lost the war. A tight blockade imposed by the Royal Navy caused severe shortages in the cities, especially in the winter of 1916–17. The German government, dominated by the Junkers, thought of the war as a way to end Germanys disputes with rivals France, Russia, despite its membership in the Germany]] ended its differences with the Imperial government and abandoned its principles of internationalism to support the war effort. It soon became apparent that Germany was not prepared for a war lasting more than a few months, at first, little was done to regulate the economy for a wartime footing, and the German war economy would remain badly organized throughout the war. Germany depended on imports of food and raw materials, which were stopped by the British blockade of Germany, Food prices were first limited, then rationing was introduced. In 1915 five million pigs were massacred in the so-called Schweinemord to both food and preserve grain. The winter of 1916/17 was called turnip winter because the potato harvest was poor, during the war from August 1914 to mid-1919, the excess deaths over peacetime caused by malnutrition and high rates of exhaustion and disease and despair came to about 474,000 civilians. The Belgians fought back, and sabotaged their rail system to delay the Germans, the plan called for the right flank of the German advance to converge on Paris and initially, the Germans were very successful, particularly in the Battle of the Frontiers. By 12 September, the French with assistance from the British forces halted the German advance east of Paris at the First Battle of the Marne, the last days of this battle signified the end of mobile warfare in the west. The French offensive into Germany launched on 7 August with the Battle of Mulhouse had limited success, in the east, only one Field Army defended East Prussia and when Russia attacked in this region it diverted German forces intended for the Western Front. The Central Powers were thereby denied a victory and forced to fight a war on two fronts. The German army had fought its way into a defensive position inside France and had permanently incapacitated 230,000 more French. Despite this, communications problems and questionable command decisions cost Germany the chance of obtaining an early victory,1916 was characterized by two great battles on the Western front, at Verdun and Somme. They each lasted most of the year, achieved minimal gains, Verdun became the iconic symbol of the murderous power of modern defensive weapons, with 280,000 German casualties, and 315,000 French. At Somme, there were over 400,000 German casualties, at Verdun, the Germans attacked what they considered to be a weak French salient which nevertheless the French would defend for reasons of national pride. The Somme was part of a plan of the Allies to attack on different fronts simultaneously. German experts are divided in their interpretation of the Somme, enthusiasm faded with the enormous numbers of casualties, the dwindling supply of manpower, the mounting difficulties on the homefront, and the never-ending flow of casualty reports. A grimmer and grimmer attitude began to prevail amongst the general population, the highlight only was the first use of mustard gas in warfare, in the Battle of Ypres
23.
Weimar Republic
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Weimar Republic is an unofficial, historical designation for the German state between 1919 and 1933. The name derives from the city of Weimar, where its constitutional assembly first took place, the official name of the state was still Deutsches Reich, it had remained unchanged since 1871. In English the country was known simply as Germany. A national assembly was convened in Weimar, where a new constitution for the Deutsches Reich was written, in its fourteen years, the Weimar Republic faced numerous problems, including hyperinflation, political extremism, and contentious relationships with the victors of the First World War. The people of Germany blamed the Weimar Republic rather than their leaders for the countrys defeat. However, the Weimar Republic government successfully reformed the currency, unified tax policies, Weimar Germany eliminated most of the requirements of the Treaty of Versailles, it never completely met its disarmament requirements, and eventually paid only a small portion of the war reparations. Under the Locarno Treaties, Germany accepted the borders of the republic. From 1930 onwards President Hindenburg used emergency powers to back Chancellors Heinrich Brüning, Franz von Papen, the Great Depression, exacerbated by Brünings policy of deflation, led to a surge in unemployment. In 1933, Hindenburg appointed Adolf Hitler as Chancellor with the Nazi Party being part of a coalition government, the Nazis held two out of the remaining ten cabinet seats. Von Papen as Vice Chancellor was intended to be the éminence grise who would keep Hitler under control, within months the Reichstag Fire Decree and the Enabling Act of 1933 had brought about a state of emergency, it wiped out constitutional governance and civil liberties. Hitlers seizure of power was permissive of government by decree without legislative participation and these events brought the republic to an end, as democracy collapsed, a single-party state founded the Nazi era. The Weimar Republic is so called because the assembly that adopted its constitution met at Weimar, Germany from 6 February 1919 to 11 August 1919, but this name only became mainstream after 1933. To the right of the spectrum the politically engaged rejected the new democratic model, the Catholic Centre party, Zentrum favoured the term Deutscher Volksstaat while on the moderate left the Chancellors SPD preferred Deutsche Republik. Only during the 1930s did the term become mainstream, both within and outside Germany, after the introduction of the republic, the flag and coat of arms of Germany were officially altered to reflect the political changes. The Weimar Republic retained the Reichsadler, but without the symbols of the former Monarchy and this left the black eagle with one head, facing to the right, with open wings but closed feathers, with a red beak, tongue and claws and white highlighting. If the Reichs Eagle is shown without a frame, the charge and colors as those of the eagle of the Reichs coat of arms are to be used. The patterns kept by the Federal Ministry of the Interior are decisive for the heraldic design, the artistic design may be varied for each special purpose. The achievements and signs of movement were mostly done away with after its downfall
24.
Nazi Germany
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Nazi Germany is the common English name for the period in German history from 1933 to 1945, when Germany was governed by a dictatorship under the control of Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party. Under Hitlers rule, Germany was transformed into a fascist state in which the Nazi Party took totalitarian control over all aspects of life. The official name of the state was Deutsches Reich from 1933 to 1943, the period is also known under the names the Third Reich and the National Socialist Period. The Nazi regime came to an end after the Allied Powers defeated Germany in May 1945, Hitler was appointed Chancellor of Germany by the President of the Weimar Republic Paul von Hindenburg on 30 January 1933. The Nazi Party then began to eliminate all opposition and consolidate its power. Hindenburg died on 2 August 1934, and Hitler became dictator of Germany by merging the powers and offices of the Chancellery, a national referendum held 19 August 1934 confirmed Hitler as sole Führer of Germany. All power was centralised in Hitlers person, and his word became above all laws, the government was not a coordinated, co-operating body, but a collection of factions struggling for power and Hitlers favour. In the midst of the Great Depression, the Nazis restored economic stability and ended mass unemployment using heavy military spending, extensive public works were undertaken, including the construction of Autobahnen. The return to economic stability boosted the regimes popularity, racism, especially antisemitism, was a central feature of the regime. The Germanic peoples were considered by the Nazis to be the purest branch of the Aryan race, millions of Jews and other peoples deemed undesirable by the state were murdered in the Holocaust. Opposition to Hitlers rule was ruthlessly suppressed, members of the liberal, socialist, and communist opposition were killed, imprisoned, or exiled. The Christian churches were also oppressed, with many leaders imprisoned, education focused on racial biology, population policy, and fitness for military service. Career and educational opportunities for women were curtailed, recreation and tourism were organised via the Strength Through Joy program, and the 1936 Summer Olympics showcased the Third Reich on the international stage. Propaganda minister Joseph Goebbels made effective use of film, mass rallies, the government controlled artistic expression, promoting specific art forms and banning or discouraging others. Beginning in the late 1930s, Nazi Germany made increasingly aggressive territorial demands and it seized Austria and Czechoslovakia in 1938 and 1939. Hitler made a pact with Joseph Stalin and invaded Poland in September 1939. In alliance with Italy and smaller Axis powers, Germany conquered most of Europe by 1940, reichskommissariats took control of conquered areas, and a German administration was established in what was left of Poland. Jews and others deemed undesirable were imprisoned, murdered in Nazi concentration camps and extermination camps, following the German invasion of the Soviet Union in 1941, the tide gradually turned against the Nazis, who suffered major military defeats in 1943
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Allied-occupied Germany
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The four powers divided Germany into four occupation zones for administrative purposes, into what is collectively known now as Allied-occupied Germany. This division was ratified at the Potsdam Conference, in Autumn 1944 the United States, United Kingdom, and Soviet Union had agreed on the zones by the London Protocol. The Final German Peace Treaty would result in the westward of Polands borders back to approximately as they were before 1722. In the closing weeks of fighting in Europe, United States forces had pushed beyond the boundaries for the future zones of occupation. The so-called line of contact between Soviet and American forces at the end of hostilities, mostly lying eastward of the July 1945-established inner German border was temporary. After two months in which they had areas that had been assigned to the Soviet zone. All territories annexed by Germany before the war from Austria and Czechoslovakia were returned to these countries, the Memel Territory, annexed by Germany from Lithuania before the war, was annexed by the Soviet Union in 1945 and transferred to the Lithuanian SSR. All territories annexed by Germany during the war from Belgium, France, Luxembourg, Poland, the American zone consisted of Bavaria and Hesse in Southern Germany, and the northern portions of the present-day German state of Baden-Württemberg. The ports of Bremen and Bremerhaven were also placed under American control because of the American request to have certain toeholds in Northern Germany, the headquarters of the American military government was the former IG Farben Building in Frankfurt am Main. Beginning in May 1945, many of the American combat troops and airmen in, Army, the Army Air Forces, and the U. S. Navy upon their return home. The Canadian Army was tied down in surrounding the Netherlands until the Germans there surrendered on 5 May 1945 – just two days before the surrender of the Wehrmacht in Western Europe to U. S. Then in July 1945, the British Army withdrew from small slices of Germany that had previously agreed to be occupied by the Soviet Army. Within the British Zone of Occupation, the CCG/BE re-established the German state of Hamburg, also in 1947, the German state Free Hanseatic City of Bremen became an exclave of the American Zone of Occupation located within the British Zone. In 1946, the Norwegian Brigade Group in Germany had 4,000 soldiers in Hanover, despite its being one of the Allied Powers, the French Republic was at first not granted an occupation zone in Germany. This created a French zone of occupation in the westernmost part of Germany and it consisted of two barely contiguous areas of Germany along the French border that met at just a single point along the Rhine River. It included the Saargebiet, which was disentangled from it on 16 February 1946, by 18 December 1946 customs controls were established between the Saar area and allied occupied Germany. The French zone ceded further adjacent municipalities to the Saar, included in the French zone was the town of Büsingen am Hochrhein, a German exclave separated from the rest of the country by a narrow strip of neutral Swiss territory. The Swiss government agreed to limited numbers of French troops to pass through its territory in order to maintain law
26.
Former eastern territories of Germany
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The former eastern territories of Germany are those provinces or regions east of the current eastern border of Germany which were lost by Germany after World War I and then World War II. All territories lost in both World Wars account for 33% of the former German Empire, while land ceded by Germany after World War II constituted roughly 25% of its pre-war Weimar territory. The post-war border between Germany and Poland along the Oder–Neisse line was recognized by East Germany in 1950 by the Treaty of Zgorzelec. In 1952, recognition of the Oder–Neisse line as a permanent boundary was one of Stalins conditions for the Soviet Union to agree to a reunification of Germany, the offer was rejected by West German Chancellor Konrad Adenauer. In 1970, West Germany recognised the line as a de facto boundary in the Treaty of Warsaw, with this repeal the post-1990 boundaries of Germany are closed to further expansion. In German there is only one term, Ostdeutschland, meaning East Germany or Eastern Germany. The rather ambiguous German term never gained prevailing use for the GDR as did the English term, since Ostdeutschland has been used to denote the post-war and the respective five states of the reunited Germany. At the time of the foundation of the German Empire in 1871, prussian territory east of the Oder-Neisse line included West Prussia and Posen, also Silesia, East Brandenburg, and Pomerania. Later, these territories would come to be called in Germany Ostgebiete des deutschen Reiches, the territories ceded to Poland in 1919 were those with an apparent Polish majority, such as the Province of Posen, the east-southern part of Upper Silesia and the Polish Corridor. The city of Danzig with the delta of the Vistula river at the Baltic Sea, was made the Free City of Danzig under the League of Nations, however, as distinct from other lost Czechoslovakian domains, it was not attached to Sudetengau but to Prussia. By late 1938, Lithuania had lost control over the situation in the Memel Territory, between the two world wars, many in Germany claimed that the territory ceded to Poland in 1919–1922 should be returned to Germany. This claim was one of the justifications for the German invasion of Poland in 1939, the Third Reich annexed the former German lands, comprising the Polish Corridor, West Prussia, the Province of Posen, and parts of eastern Upper Silesia. The council of the Free City of Danzig voted to become a part of Germany again, although Poles and Jews were deprived of their voting rights, in addition to taking territories lost in 1919, Germany also took additional land that had never been German. These territories had an area of 94,000 km2 and a population of 10,000,000 people, the remainder of Polish territory was annexed by the Soviet Union or made into the German-controlled General Government occupation zone. The open question was whether the border should follow the Eastern or Lusatian Neisse rivers, and whether Stettin, originally, Germany was to retain Stettin while the Poles were to annex East Prussia with Königsberg. Eventually, however, Stalin decided that he wanted Königsberg as a warm water port for the Soviet Navy. The wartime Polish government in exile had little to say in these decisions, at the Yalta Conference, it was agreed to split Germany into four occupation zones after the war, with a quadripartite occupation of Berlin as well, prior unification of Germany. The status of Poland was discussed, but was complicated by the fact that Poland was at this time under the control of the Red Army and this effectively excluded the Polish government-in-exile that had evacuated in 1939
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German reunification
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The end of the unification process is officially referred to as German unity, celebrated on 3 October. Following German reunification, Berlin was once designated as the capital of united Germany. The East German regime started to falter in May 1989, when the removal of Hungarys border fence with Austria opened a hole in the Iron Curtain and it caused an exodus of thousands of East Germans fleeing to West Germany and Austria via Hungary. The united Germany is the continuation of the Federal Republic. For political and diplomatic reasons, West German politicians carefully avoided the term reunification during the run-up to what Germans frequently refer to as die Wende, after 1990, the term die Wende became more common. The term generally refers to the events led up to the actual reunification, in its usual context. When referring to the events surrounding unification, however, it carries the connotation of the time. However, anti-communist activists from Eastern Germany rejected the term Wende as it was introduced by SEDs Secretary General Egon Krenz, the capital city of Berlin was divided into four occupied sectors of control, under the Soviet Union, the United States, the United Kingdom and France. Germans lived under such imposed divisions throughout the ensuing Cold War, into the 1980s, the Soviet Union experienced a period of economic and political stagnation, and they correspondingly decreased intervention in Eastern Bloc politics. In 1987, US President Ronald Reagan gave a speech at Brandenburg Gate challenging Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev to tear down this wall that had separated Berlin. The wall had stood as an icon for the political and economic division between East and West, a division that Churchill had referred to as the Iron Curtain. In early 1989, under a new era of Soviet policies of glasnost, perestroika and taken to more progressive levels by Gorbachev. Further inspired by images of brave defiance, a wave of revolutions swept throughout the Eastern Bloc that year. In May 1989, Hungary removed their border fence and thousands of East Germans escaped to the West, however, events rapidly came to a head in early 1990. First, in March, the Party of Democratic Socialism—the former Socialist Unity Party of Germany—was heavily defeated in East Germanys first free elections. A grand coalition was formed under Lothar de Maizière, leader of the East German wing of Kohls Christian Democratic Union, on a platform of speedy reunification, second, East Germanys economy and infrastructure underwent a swift and near-total collapse. While East Germany had long been reckoned as having the most robust economy in the Soviet bloc, the East German mark had been practically worthless outside East Germany for some time before the events of 1989–90 further magnified the problem. Discussions immediately began for a merger of the German economies
28.
New states of Germany
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The new states, which had been abolished by the East German government in 1952 and were re-established in 1990, are Brandenburg, Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, Saxony, Saxony-Anhalt and Thuringia. The state of Berlin, the result of a merger between East and West Berlin, is not considered one of the new states, although many of its residents are former East Germans. Since the reunification, Germany thus consists of 16 states with equal legal statuses, yet the process of the inner reunification between the former Eastern and Western Germany is still ongoing. Persisting differences in culture and mentality among the old East Germany, ossis are stereotyped as racist, poor and largely influenced by Russian culture. Wessis are usually considered snobbish, dishonest, wealthy, and selfish, the terms can be considered disparaging. In 2009, twenty years after the fall of the wall, 62% feel in a kind of limbo, no longer citizens of East Germany but not fully integrated into the unified Germany. Around 11% would have liked to have East Germany back, a 2004 poll found that 25% of West Germans and 12% of East Germans wished reunification had not happened. Some East German brands have been revived, appealing to former East Germans who are nostalgic for the goods they grew up with, another notable difference is the attitude towards naturism or FKK in German. While it existed in both East and West, only in the East was it a cultural phenomenon in which almost everybody participated. This can still be seen at beaches of former East Germany compared to their West German counterparts, more children are born out of wedlock in eastern Germany than in western Germany. In 2009, in eastern Germany 61% of births were to unmarried women, the states of Saxony-Anhalt and Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania had the highest rate of birth outside wedlock, each with 64%, followed by Brandenburg with 62%. The state of Baden-Württemberg had the lowest rate with 22%, followed by Hesse and Bavaria, the economic reconstruction of eastern Germany is proving to be more long-term than originally foreseen. The standard of living and annual income significantly lower in the new federal states. Reunification cost the federal government €2 Trillion, at reunification, almost all East German industry was considered outdated. The government privatised 8,500 state-owned East German enterprises, since 1990, between €100 billion and €140 billion a year have been transferred to the new states. More than $60 billion were spent supporting businesses and building infrastructure in the years 2006-2008. A €156 billion economic plan, Solidarity Pact II, came into force in 2005, the tax, which raises €11 billion a year, will be maintained until 2019 at least. Ever since the reunification, the unemployment rate in the east has been almost twice that of the west, the unemployment rate reached 12. 7% in April 2010, after having reached a maximum of 18. 7% in 2005
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History of Germany since 1990
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The history of Germany since 1990 spans the period following the Reunification of Germany, when West Germany and East Germany were reunited after being divided during the Cold War. Germany after 1990 is referred to by historians as the Berlin Republic and this time-period is also determined by the ongoing process of the inner reunification of the formerly divided country. The reunified Berlin became the capital of Germany on October 3, December 2 marks the first elections for the city parliament after reunification. The first federal election after reunification, the German federal election,1990, the CDU became the largest party with 43. 8%, followed by the SPD and the Free Democratic Party of Germany. On June 20,1991, the Bundestag decided that the parliament and parts of the government and central administration would be relocated from Bonn to the capital, at this time, the term Berlin Republic emerged. Roman Herzog, a former Judge at the Federal Constitutional Court of Germany, was elected President of Germany in 1994, following the German federal election,1994, Helmut Kohl was reelected as Chancellor for his fifth and last term. Joschka Fischer, a leading Green politician, became Vice Chancellor, shortly after the formation of the government, Minister of Finance Oskar Lafontaine, a former SPD chairman and rival of Schröder, resigned from the cabinet. He was succeeded as Minister of Finance by Hans Eichel, in 1998, it became known that the CDU/CSU had received anonymous funding. Helmut Kohl subsequently resigned as party chairman, and in 2000. Angela Merkel, the Secretary General of the CDU since 1998, in 1999, Johannes Rau was elected President of Germany. Rau had tried to be elected President for several years, a large tax reform was implemented in 2000. After 2003, the government enacted a number of reforms in social and health policy. The Schröder government also stressed environmental issues and promoted the reduction of greenhouse gas, Germany took part in the NATO war against Yugoslavia in 1999, when German forces saw combat for the first time since World War II. Chancellor Schröder supported the war on terror following the September 11 attacks against the United States, Germany also sent forces to Kosovo and other parts of the world. In 1999, Germany partially adopted the Euro, which replaced the Deutsche Mark as the currency of Germany in 2002. Several German cities, notably Dresden and Magdeburg, experienced severe flooding during the 2002 European floods, in 2002, Edmund Stoiber was the candidate for Chancellor for the CDU/CSU, the first time a CSU politician was chancellor candidate since the candidacy of Franz Josef Strauss in 1980. Both CDU/CSU and the SPD polled 38. 5% in the German federal election,2002, since the Greens became larger than the liberals, Gerhard Schröders government was reelected. Germany and France vehemently opposed the 2003 Iraq War, leading the administration of George W. Bush to label Germany and France as the Old Europe, however, Germany supported the United States militarily in other parts of the world, notably in the Horn of Africa and Kuwait
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History of Austria
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The history of Austria covers the history of Austria and its predecessor states, from the early Stone Age to the present state. The name Ostarrîchi has been in use since 996 AD when it was a margravate of the Duchy of Bavaria, Austria was dominated by the House of Habsburg from 1273 to 1806, when the Holy Roman Empire came to an end. When this empire collapsed in 1918, Austria was reduced to the main German speaking areas of the empire, however this union was forbidden by the Allies at the Treaty of Versailles. Following the First Republic, Austrofascism tried to keep Austria independent from the German Reich, but in 1938 it was annexed by Nazi Germany with the support of the large majority of the Austrian people. After the Second World War Austria again became an independent republic as the Second Republic in 1955, the history of Austria raises a number of questions. Should it be confined to the current Republic of Austria, or to all lands formerly ruled by the rulers of Austria, should Austrian history include 1938–1945 when it did not exist. Within Austria there are regional variations, and parts of Austria have at various times wished to become part of adjacent countries. Human habitation of current Austria can be traced back to the first farming communities of the early Stone Age. In the late Iron Age it was occupied by a Celtic culture, at the end of the 1st century BC this became part of the Roman Empires lands to the south of the Danube, and was incorporated as the Province of Noricum around 40 AD. The most important Roman settlement was at Carnuntum, in the 6th century, another Germanic people, the Bavarii occupied these lands until it fell to the Frankish Empire in the 9th century. Around 800 AD Charlemagne established the outpost of Avar March in what is now Lower Austria, to hold back advances from Slavs and Avars. In the 10th century an eastern outpost of the Duchy of Bavaria, bordering Hungary, was established as the Marchia orientalis or Margraviate of Austria in 976 and this Eastern March, in German was known as Ostarrîchi or Eastern Realm, hence Austria. The first mention of Ostarrîchi occurs in a document of that name dated 996 CE, from 1156 the Emperor Frederick Barbarossa created an independent duchy under the House of Babenberg, until its extinction in 1246, corresponding to modern Lower Austria. The 15th and early 16th century saw expansion of the Habsburg territories through diplomacy and marriages to include Spain. This expansionism, together with French aspirations and the resultant Habsburg-French or Bourbon-Habsburg rivalry were important factors shaping European History for 200 years, by 1526 Ferdinand had also inherited the kingdoms of Bohemia, and Hungary after the Battle of Mohács which partitioned the latter. However the Ottoman Empire now lay directly adjacent to the Austrian lands, even after the unsuccessful first Siege of Vienna by the Turks in 1529, the Ottoman threat persisted for another one and a half centuries. The 16th Century also saw the spread of the Reformation, from around 1600 the Habsburg policy of recatholicisation or Catholic Renewal eventually led to the Thirty Years War. Originally a religious war, it was also a struggle for power in central Europe, eventually the pressure of the anti-Habsburg coalition of France, Sweden, and most Protestant German states contained their authority to the Austrian and Czech lands in 1648
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Austria
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Austria, officially the Republic of Austria, is a federal republic and a landlocked country of over 8.7 million people in Central Europe. It is bordered by the Czech Republic and Germany to the north, Hungary and Slovakia to the east, Slovenia and Italy to the south, the territory of Austria covers 83,879 km2. The terrain is mountainous, lying within the Alps, only 32% of the country is below 500 m. The majority of the population speaks local Bavarian dialects of German as their native language, other local official languages are Hungarian, Burgenland Croatian, and Slovene. The origins of modern-day Austria date back to the time of the Habsburg dynasty, from the time of the Reformation, many northern German princes, resenting the authority of the Emperor, used Protestantism as a flag of rebellion. Following Napoleons defeat, Prussia emerged as Austrias chief competitor for rule of a greater Germany, Austrias defeat by Prussia at the Battle of Königgrätz, during the Austro-Prussian War of 1866, cleared the way for Prussia to assert control over the rest of Germany. In 1867, the empire was reformed into Austria-Hungary, Austria was thus the first to go to war in the July Crisis, which would ultimately escalate into World War I. The First Austrian Republic was established in 1919, in 1938 Nazi Germany annexed Austria in the Anschluss. This lasted until the end of World War II in 1945, after which Germany was occupied by the Allies, in 1955, the Austrian State Treaty re-established Austria as a sovereign state, ending the occupation. In the same year, the Austrian Parliament created the Declaration of Neutrality which declared that the Second Austrian Republic would become permanently neutral, today, Austria is a parliamentary representative democracy comprising nine federal states. The capital and largest city, with a population exceeding 1.7 million, is Vienna, other major urban areas of Austria include Graz, Linz, Salzburg and Innsbruck. Austria is one of the richest countries in the world, with a nominal per capita GDP of $43,724, the country has developed a high standard of living and in 2014 was ranked 21st in the world for its Human Development Index. Austria has been a member of the United Nations since 1955, joined the European Union in 1995, Austria also signed the Schengen Agreement in 1995, and adopted the euro currency in 1999. The German name for Austria, Österreich, meant eastern realm in Old High German, and is cognate with the word Ostarrîchi and this word is probably a translation of Medieval Latin Marchia orientalis into a local dialect. Austria was a prefecture of Bavaria created in 976, the word Austria is a Latinisation of the German name and was first recorded in the 12th century. Accordingly, Norig would essentially mean the same as Ostarrîchi and Österreich, the Celtic name was eventually Latinised to Noricum after the Romans conquered the area that encloses most of modern-day Austria, around 15 BC. Noricum later became a Roman province in the mid-first century AD, heers hypothesis is not accepted by linguists. Settled in ancient times, the Central European land that is now Austria was occupied in pre-Roman times by various Celtic tribes, the Celtic kingdom of Noricum was later claimed by the Roman Empire and made a province
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Hallstatt culture
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It is commonly associated with Proto-Celtic and Celtic populations in the Western Hallstatt zone and with Illyrians in the eastern Hallstatt zone. Parts of Britain and Iberia are included in the expansion of the culture. Social distinctions became increasingly important, with emerging elite classes of chieftains and warriors, society was organized on a tribal basis, though very little is known about this. Only a few of the largest settlements, like Heuneburg in the south of Germany, were rather than villages by modern standards. In 1846, Johann Georg Ramsauer discovered a prehistoric cemetery near Hallstatt, Austria. Eventually the excavation would yield 1,045 burials, although no settlement has yet been found and this may be covered by the later village, which has long occupied the whole narrow strip between the steep hillsides and the lake. Some 1,300 burials have been found, including around 2,000 individuals, with women and children, nor is there a princely burial, as often found near large settlements. The community at Hallstatt was untypical of the wider, mainly agricultural, culture and these had been worked from time to time since the Neolithic period, and in this period were extensively mined with a peak from the 8th to 5th centuries BC. The style and decoration of the goods found in the cemetery are very distinctive. Finds at Hallstatt extend from about 1200 BC until around 500 BC, in this period, people were cremated and buried in simple graves. In phase B, tumulus burial becomes common, and cremation predominates, little is known about this period in which the typical Celtic elements have not yet distinguished themselves from the earlier Villanova-culture. The Hallstatt period proper is restricted to HaC and HaD, corresponding to the early European Iron Age, Hallstatt lies in the area where the western and eastern zones of the Hallstatt culture meet, which is reflected in the finds from there. Hallstatt D is succeeded by the La Tène culture, Hallstatt C is characterized by the first appearance of iron swords mixed amongst the bronze ones. For the final phase, Hallstatt D, daggers, almost to the exclusion of swords, are found in western zone graves ranging from c, there are also differences in the pottery and brooches. Halstatt D has been divided into the sub-phases D1-D3, relating only to the western zone. Major activity at the site appears to have finished about 500 BC, many Hallstatt graves were robbed, probably at this time. There was widespread throughout the western Hallstatt zone, and the salt workings had by then become very deep. By then the focus of mining had shifted to the nearby Hallein Salt Mine, with graves at Dürrnberg nearby where there are significant finds from the late Hallstatt
33.
Noricum
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Noricum is the Latin name for a Celtic kingdom, or federation of tribes, that included most of modern Austria and part of Slovenia. In the first century AD, it became a province of the Roman Empire and its borders were the Danube to the north, Raetia and Vindelicia to the west, Pannonia to the east and southeast, and Italia to the south. The kingdom was founded around 400 BC, and had its capital at the residence at Virunum on the Magdalensberg. Its area corresponded to the part of modern Styria and Carinthia, Upper/Lower Austria west of Vienna, Salzburg, a part of Bavaria. The famous Noric steel was used in the making of Roman weapons. Gold and salt were found in considerable quantities, the plant called saliunca grew in abundance and was used as a perfume according to Pliny the Elder. Noric steel was famous for its quality and hardness, in Noricum, almost all those Celtic invaders are mentioned. The Hallstatt graves contained weapons and ornaments from the Bronze age, through the period of transition, up to the Hallstatt culture, william Ridgeway made a strong case for the theory that the cradle of the Homeric Achaeans was in Noricum and neighbouring areas. The kingdom of Noricum was a provider of weaponry for the Roman armies from the mid-Republic onwards. Especially the Roman swords were made was made of the best-quality steel then available, the strength of iron is determined by its carbon content. The wrought iron produced in the Greco-Roman world generally contained only traces of carbon and was too soft for tools. It thus needed to be carburised to at least 1. 5% carbon content. The main Roman method of achieving this was to heat the wrought iron to a temperature of over 800 C and hammer it in a charcoal fire. This technique had been developed empirically, as there is no evidence that ancient iron producers understood the chemistry involved, the rudimentary methods of carburisation used rendered the quality of the iron ore critical to the production of good steel. The ore needed to be rich in manganese, but also to very little, or preferably zero, phosphorus. The ore mined in Carinthia fulfills both criteria to an unusual degree, the Celtic peoples of Noricum empirically discovered that their ore made superior steel around 500 BC and established a major steel-making industry around it. At Magdalensberg, a production and trading centre was established. The finished products were mostly exported southwards, to Aquileia, a Roman colony founded in 180 BC, Noricum became a key ally of the Roman Republic, providing a reliable supply of high-quality weapons and tools in return for Roman military protection
34.
Pannonia
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Pannonia was an ancient province of the Roman Empire bounded north and east by the Danube, coterminous westward with Noricum and upper Italy, and southward with Dalmatia and upper Moesia. Julius Pokorny believes the name Pannonia is derived from Illyrian, from the Proto-Indo-European root *pen-, swamp, water, the Ionian Danube fleet reached as far as Boio-Aria, populated until the late 8th century CE by Celts and Slavs under Aryan rulers. Pliny the Elder, in Natural History, places the eastern regions of the Hercynium jugum and he also gives us some dramaticised description of its composition, in which the close proximity of the forest trees causes competitive struggle among them. But even he—if the passage in question is not an interpolated marginal gloss—is subject to the legends of the gloomy forest and he mentions unusual birds, which have feathers that shine like fires at night. Medieval bestiaries named these birds the Ercinee, the first inhabitants of this area known to history were the Pannonii, a group of Indo-European tribes akin to Illyrians. From the 4th century BC, it was invaded by various Celtic tribes, little is heard of Pannonia until 35 BC, when its inhabitants, allies of the Dalmatians, were attacked by Augustus, who conquered and occupied Siscia. The country was not, however, definitively subdued by the Romans until 9 BC, when it was incorporated into Illyricum, the frontier of which was thus extended as far as the Danube. After the rebellion was crushed in AD9, the province of Illyricum was dissolved, the date of the division is unknown, most certainly after AD20 but before AD50. The proximity of dangerous barbarian tribes necessitated the presence of a number of troops. Some time between the years 102 and 107, between the first and second Dacian wars, Trajan divided the province into Pannonia Superior, and Pannonia Inferior. According to Ptolemy, these divisions were separated by a line drawn from Arrabona in the north to Servitium in the south, later, the whole country was sometimes called the Pannonias. Pannonia Superior was under the legate, who had formerly administered the single province. Pannonia Inferior was at first under a praetorian legate with a single legion as the garrison, after Marcus Aurelius, it was under a consular legate, the frontier on the Danube was protected by the establishment of the two colonies Aelia Mursia and Aelia Aquincum by Hadrian. In the 4th-5th century, one of the dioceses of the Roman Empire was known as the Diocese of Pannonia. It had its capital in Sirmium and included all four provinces that were formed from historical Pannonia, as well as the provinces of Dalmatia, following the Migrations Period in the middle of the 5th century, Pannonia was ceded to the Huns by Theodosius II. After the collapse of the Hunnic empire in 454, large numbers of Ostrogoths were settled by Emperor Marcian in the province as foederati, afterwards, it was again invaded by the Avars in the 560s, the Slavs, who first settled c. This language and the culture became extinct with the arrival of the Magyars. The native settlements consisted of pagi containing a number of vici, the cities and towns in Pannonia were, The country was fairly productive, especially after the great forests had been cleared by Probus and Galerius
35.
Raetia
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Raetia was a province of the Roman Empire, named after the Rhaetian people. It bordered on the west with the country of the Helvetii, on the east with Noricum, on the north with Vindelicia, on the west with Transalpine Gaul and on south with Venetia et Histria. It thus comprised the districts occupied in modern times by eastern and central Switzerland, southern Bavaria and the Upper Swabia, Vorarlberg, the part of Tirol. Later Vindelicia formed part of Raetia, the northern border of Raetia during the times of Augustus and Tiberius was the River Danube. Later the Limes Germanicus marked the boundary, stretching for 166 km north of the Danube. Raetia linked to Italy across the Alps over the Reschen Pass, the Romansh people living in Southeast Switzerland are believed to be direct descendants of the Raetians. However, the lineage of the Romansh people remains incomplete. Little is known of the origin or history of the Raetians, livy states distinctly that they were of Etruscan origin. The Raetians are first mentioned by Polybius, and little is heard of them till after the end of the Republic, there is little doubt, however, that they retained their independence until their subjugation in 15 BC by Tiberius and Drusus. During the reign of Marcus Aurelius, Raetia was governed by the commander of the Legio III Italica, the boundary between them is not clearly defined, but may be stated generally as a line drawn eastwards from the lacus Brigantinus to the Oenus. Much of Raetia prima remained as a political unit, Raetia Curiensis, for several centuries. Some of the valleys, however, were rich and fertile, and produced wine, Augustus Caesar preferred Raetian wine to any other. Considerable trade in pitch, honey, wax, and cheese occurred, the chief towns of Raetia were Tridentum and Curia. The Rätikon mountain range derives its name from Raetia, Alpine regiments of the Roman army This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain, Chisholm, Hugh, ed. Raetia. PC von Planta, Das alte Rätien T Mommsen in Corpus Inscriptionum Latinarum, iii. p.706 Joachim Marquardt, P. pp.16,161,196 Mary B Peaks, The General Civil and Military Administration of Noricum and Raetia. Bagnall, R. J. Drinkwater, A. Esmonde-Cleary, W. Harris, R. Knapp, S. Mitchell, S. Parker, C. Wells, J. Wilkes, R. Talbert, M. E. Downs, M. Joann McDaniel, B. Z. Lund, T. Elliott, cS1 maint, Multiple names, authors list
36.
Marcomanni
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According to Tacitus and Strabo they were Suebian. It is believed their name derives possibly from the Proto-Germanic forms of march and men, *Markōmanniz, the Marcomanni first appear in historical records as confederates of the Suebi of Ariovistus fighting against Julius Caesar in Gaul, having crossed the Rhine from present-day southern Germany. The exact position of their lands at this time is not known, the fact that their name existed before the Romans had territory near the Danube or Rhine raises the question of which border they lived near in order to explain their name. It has been suggested that they may have lived near the conjunction of Rhine and this was described as being within the Hercynian forest and was possibly in the region of modern Bohemia, although this is not certain. By 6 BC, their king, Maroboduus, had established a kingdom there that Augustus perceived as a threat to Rome. Before he could act, however, the revolt in Illyria intervened, eventually Maroboduus was deposed and exiled by Catualda. Catualda was in turn deposed by Vibilius of the Hermunduri the same year, around 50 AD, Vannius was himself also deposed by Vibilius, in coordination with his nephews Vangio and Sido. Tacitus, in the late 1st century mentions the Marcomanni as being under kings appointed by Rome, in the 2nd century AD, the Marcomanni entered into a confederation with other peoples including the Quadi, Vandals, and Sarmatians, against the Roman Empire. This was probably driven by movements of larger tribes, like the Goths, according to the historian Eutropius, the forces of the emperor, Marcus Aurelius, battled against the Marcomannic confederation for three years at the fortress of Carnuntum in Pannonia. Eutropius compared the war, and Aureliuss success against the Marcomanni and their allies, the comparison was apt in that this war marked a turning point and had significant Roman defeats, it caused the death of two Praetorian Guard commanders. The war lasted until Aureliuss death in 180 and it would prove to be only a limited success for Rome, the Danube river remained as the frontier of the empire until the final fall of the West. The Christianisation of the Marcomanni, at least into a Roman orthodox form of Christianity, seems to have occurred under their queen and she corresponded with Ambrose of Milan to bring about the conversion. This was the last clear evidence of the Marcomanni having a polity and it was possibly on the Roman side of the Danube by this time. Soon after, the Pannonian and Danubian area went into a period of turmoil. These Suevi were probably a mix of Suevian groups from the north of Danube and Pannonian basin such as the Marcomanni, Quadi. There, Hermeric swore fealty to the emperor in 410, bracara Augusta, the modern city of Braga in Portugal, previously the capital of Roman Gallaecia, now became the capital of the Suebic Kingdom. The Danubian area meanwhile became the core of Attila the Huns empire, one group of them managed to reform into an independent group after the Battle of Nedao in 454, like many other groups who emerged from Attilas confederation. These Suevi eventually came into conflict with the Ostrogoths, who had been on the side at Nadao
37.
Lombards
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The Lombards or Longobards were a Germanic people who ruled large parts of the Italian Peninsula from 568 to 774. In the 1st century AD, they formed part of the Suebi, the Lombard king Audoin defeated the Gepid leader Thurisind in 551 or 552, his successor Alboin eventually destroyed the Gepids at the Battle of Asfeld in 567. The Lombards were joined by numerous Saxons, Heruls, Gepids, Bulgars, Thuringians, and Ostrogoths, by late 569 they had conquered all north of Italy and the principal cities north of the Po River except Pavia, which fell in 572. At the same time, they occupied areas in central Italy and they established a Lombard Kingdom in north and central Italy, later named Regnum Italicum, which reached its zenith under the 8th-century ruler Liutprand. In 774, the Kingdom was conquered by the Frankish King Charlemagne, however, Lombard nobles continued to rule southern parts of the Italian peninsula, well into the 11th century when they were conquered by the Normans and added to their County of Sicily. In this period, the part of Italy still under Longobardic domination was known by the name Langbarðaland in the Norse runestones. Their legacy is apparent in the regional name Lombardy. The fullest account of Lombard origins, history, and practices is the Historia Langobardorum of Paul the Deacon, pauls chief source for Lombard origins, however, is the 7th-century Origo Gentis Langobardorum. The Origo Gentis Langobardorum tells the story of a tribe called the Winnili dwelling in southern Scandinavia. The Winnili were split into three groups and one part left their land to seek foreign fields. The reason for the exodus was probably overpopulation, the departing people were led by the brothers Ybor and Aio and their mother Gambara and arrived in the lands of Scoringa, perhaps the Baltic coast or the Bardengau on the banks of the Elbe. Scoringa was ruled by the Vandals and their chieftains, the brothers Ambri and Assi, the Winnili were young and brave and refused to pay tribute, saying It is better to maintain liberty by arms than to stain it by the payment of tribute. The Vandals prepared for war and consulted Godan, who answered that he would give the victory to those whom he would see first at sunrise. The Winnili were fewer in number and Gambara sought help from Frea, at sunrise, Frea turned her husbands bed so that he was facing east, and woke him. So Godan spotted the Winnili first and asked, Who are these long-beards. and Frea replied, My lord, thou hast given them the name, from that moment onwards, the Winnili were known as the Longbeards. When Paul the Deacon wrote the Historia between 787 and 796 he was a Catholic monk and devoted Christian and he thought the pagan stories of his people silly and laughable. Paul explained that the name Langobard came from the length of their beards, a modern theory suggests that the name Langobard comes from Langbarðr, a name of Odin. Priester states that when the Winnili changed their name to Lombards, they changed their old agricultural fertility cult to a cult of Odin
38.
Bavarians
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Bavarians are an ethnographic group of Germans of the Bavaria region, a state within Germany. The groups dialect or speech is known as the Bavarian language, native to Altbayern, like the neighboring Swabians and Austrians, Bavarians are traditionally Catholic. There is no distinction between Bavarians and Austrians. The Bavarian language is divided into three dialects, Upper Palatinian is spoken in northern Bavaria. Danube Bavarian is spoken in central and south-eastern Bavaria and in Central, alpine Bavarian is spoken in south-western Bavaria, in southern Austria and in South Tyrol. On the southern side of the river Danube was the Roman controlled province of Raetia, Bavarians are first mentioned in the mid 6th century, in the foothills north of the Alps, on both sides of the Danube river. It is difficult to distinguish the mobile and mixing groups of the Danube in this period archaeologically and they seem to have been closely related to the Lombards who were developing as a force to the east of them. Their legal system shows heavy Roman influence, and their unification appears to have been under a Duke installed by the Franks, Elbe Germans, came from the Elbe river to the north, which was under Thuringian rule, and is where the Lombards had also been. But also more northern groups had moved along the Elbe from the direction of the North Sea, as did some Saxons who joined the Lombards, and possibly the Heruls. Also, East Germanic groups such as the Goths had entered the Pannonian region east of the Bavarians in the leading up to the empire of Attila. These peoples had not only contributed to the Hunnic empire, Slavs and Avars were settling to the north-east, and Goths and Langobards to the east and south were later displaced by Slavs and Magyars. A Diocese of Laureacum had been in existence since the 4th century, in the 8th century moved to Passau, the Bishopric of Regensburg was founded in 739 by Boniface. The Lex Baiuvariorum was a codex of Germanic law, comprising 23 articles of traditional law recorded in the 740s, Bavaria within the Carolingian Empire was bordering on Swabia in the west, Thuringia in the north, Lombardy in the south and Slavic Carinthia in the east. The Duchy of Bavaria was a duchy of the Holy Roman Empire, established in the 10th century. In the 14th and 15th centuries, upper and lower Bavaria were repeatedly subdivided, four Duchies existed after the division of 1392, Lower Bavaria-Straubing, lower Bavaria-Landshut, Bavaria-Ingolstadt and Bavaria-Munich. Munich, now the capital and cultural center of Bavaria, was founded in the medieval period. In 1503, Bavaria was re-united by Duke Albrecht IV of Bavaria-Munich, in 1623, Bavaria was elevated to Electorate. The Kingdom of Bavaria was established at the Peace of Pressburg, the kingdoms territory fluctuated greatly over the following years, eventually fixed at the Treaty of Paris, which established most of what remain the borders of the modern state
39.
Suebi
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The Suebi was a large group of related Germanic peoples who lived in Germania in the time of the Roman Empire. They were first mentioned by Julius Caesar in connection with his battles against Ariovistus in Gaul and they actually occupy more than half of Germania, and are divided into a number of distinct tribes under distinct names, though all generally are called Suebi. At one time, classical ethnography had applied the name Suevi to so many Germanic tribes that it appeared as if, in the first centuries AD, classical authors noted that the Suevic tribes, compared to other Germanic tribes, were very mobile and not reliant on agriculture. Various Suevic groups moved from the direction of the Baltic Sea, towards the end of the empire, the Alemanni, also referred to as Suebi, first settled in the Agri Decumates and then crossed the Rhine and occupied Alsace. An area in southwest Germany is still called Swabia, which derives from the Suebi. Other Suebi entered Gaul and some moved as far as Gallaecia, where they established the Kingdom of the Suebi, which lasted for 170 years until its integration into the Visigothic Kingdom. Notably, the Semnones, known to classical authors as one of the largest Suebian groups, also seem to have a name with this same meaning, alternatively, it may be borrowed from a Celtic word for vagabond. Caesar placed the Suebi east of the Ubii apparently near modern Hesse, in the position where later writers mention the Chatti, some commentators believe that Caesars Suebi were the later Chatti or possibly the Hermunduri, or Semnones. Later authors use the term Suebi more broadly, to cover a number of tribes in central Germany. Whether or not the Chatti were ever considered Suevi, both Tacitus and Strabo distinguish the two partly because the Chatti were more settled in one territory, whereas Suevi remained less settled. The definitions of the greater ethnic groupings within Germania were apparently not always consistent and clear, whereas Tacitus reported three main kinds of German peoples, Irminones, Istvaeones, and Ingaevones, Pliny specifically adds two more genera or kinds, the Bastarnae and the Vandili. The Vandals were tribes east of the Elbe, including the well-known Silingi, Goths, and Burgundians, the modern term Elbe Germanic similarly covers a large grouping of Germanic peoples that at least overlaps with the classical terms Suevi and Irminones. In the time of Caesar, southern Germany was Celtic, in addition, also near the Hercynian forest Caesar believed that the Celtic Tectosages had once lived. All of these peoples had for the most part moved by the time of Tacitus, nevertheless, Cassius Dio wrote that the Suebi, who dwelt across the Rhine, were called Celts, which could mean that some Celtic groups were absorbed by larger Germanic tribal confederations. Strabo, in Book IV of his Geography also associates the Suebi with the Hercynian Forest and the south of Germania north of the Danube. He describes a chain of mountains north of the Danube that is like an extension of the Alps, possibly the Swabian Alps. In Book VII Strabo specifically mentions as Suevic peoples the Marcomanni, some of these tribes were inside the forest and some outside of it. Tacitus confirms the name Boiemum, saying it was a survival marking the old population of the place
40.
Pannonian Avars
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The Pannonian Avars /ˈævɑːrz/ also known as the Obri, the Abaroi and Varchonitai, and the Pseudo-Avars and Varchonites, were a group of Eurasian nomads of unknown origin during the early Middle Ages. The name Pannonian Avars, is used to them from the Avars of the Caucasus – who may or may not have been an unrelated people. They established the Avar Khaganate, which spanned the Pannonian Basin and considerable areas of Central and they were ruled by a khagan, who was assisted by an entourage of professional warriors. The language or languages spoken by the Avars are now unknown, denis Sinor states that most of the Avar words used in contemporaneous Latin or Greek texts, appear to have their origins in Siberian languages, especially Tungusic languages and Mongolian. There is also evidence, however, that ruling and subject clans spoke a variety of languages, proposals by scholars include Caucasian, Iranian, Tungusic, Hungarian and Turkic. A few scholars suggest that Proto-Slavic became the lingua franca of the Avar Khaganate, according to Gyula László, the late 9th century Pannonian Avars spoke a variety of Old Hungarian, thereby forming an Avar-Hungarian continuity with then newly arrived Hungarians. The earliest clear reference to the Avar ethnonym comes from Priscus the Rhetor,463, the Šaragurs, Onogurs and Ogurs were attacked by the Sabirs, who had been attacked by the Avars. In turn, the Avars had been driven off by people fleeing man-eating griffins coming from the ocean, whilst Priscus accounts provide some information about the ethno-political situation in the Don-Kuban-Volga region after the demise of the Huns, no unequivocal conclusions can be reached. Denis Sinor has argued that whoever the Avars referred to by Priscus were, they differed from the Avars who appear a century later, during the time of Justinian. The next author of late antiquity to discuss the Avars, Menander Protector in the 6th century, each time, the Turks appear angered at the Byzantines for having made an alliance with the Avars, whom the Turks saw as their subjects and slaves. Turxanthos, a Turk prince, calls the Avars Varchonites and escaped slaves of the Turks, many more, but somewhat confusing, details come from Theophylact Simocatta, who wrote c. 629, but detailed the two decades of the 6th century. For it is by a misnomer that the barbarians on the Ister have assumed the appellation of Avars, so, when the Avars had been defeated some of them made their escape to those who inhabit Taugast. Taugast is a city, which is a total of one thousand five hundred miles distant from those who are called Turks. These make their habitations in the east, by the course of the river Til, the earliest leaders of this nation were named Var and Chunni, from them some parts of those nations were also accorded their nomenclature, being called Var and Chunni. Then, while the emperor Justinian was in possession of the royal power and these named themselves Avars and glorified their leader with the appellation of Chagan. Let us declare, without departing in the least from the truth, for this reason they honoured the fugitives with splendid gifts and supposed that they received from them security in exchange. In point of fact even up to our present times the Pseudo-Avars are divided in their ancestry, some bearing the time-honoured name of Var while others are called Chunni
41.
Samo
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Samo founded the first recorded political union of Slavic tribes, known as Samos Empire, stretching from Silesia to present-day Slovenia, ruling from 623 until his death in 658. In 631, Samo successfully defended his realm against the Frankish Kingdom in the three-day Battle of Wogastisburg, the dates for Samos rule are based on Fredegar, who says that he went to the Slavs in the fortieth year of Chlothar II and reigned for thirty five years. The Avars first arrived in the Pannonian Basin and subdued the local Slavs in the 560s, Samo may have been one of the merchants who supplied arms to the Slavs for their regular revolts. Whether he became king during a revolt of 623–24 or during one that followed the Avar defeat in 626. A string of victories over the Avars proved his utilitas to his subjects, Samo went on to secure his throne by marriage into the major Wendish families, wedding at least twelve women and fathering twenty-two sons and fifteen daughters. The most well-documented event of Samos career was his victory over the Frankish royal army under Dagobert I in 631 or 632. Provoked to action by a violent quarrel in the Pannonian kingdom of the Avars or Huns during his ninth year, the Franks were routed near Wogastisburg, an unidentified location meaning fortress/castle of Vogast. The majority of the armies were slaughtered, while the rest of the troops fled, leaving weapons. In the aftermath of the Wendish victory, Samo invaded Frankish Thuringia several times, the Sorbian prince Dervan abandoned the Franks and placed himself and his people under Samos realm. In 641 the rebellious duke of Thuringia, Radulf, sought an alliance with Samo against his sovereign, Samo also maintained long-distance trade relationships. On his death, however, his title was not inherited by his sons, ultimately, Samo can be credited with forging a Wendish identity by speaking on behalf of the community that recognised his authority. The main source of information on Samo and his empire is the Fredegarii Chronicon. Though theories of multiple authorship once abounded, the notion of a single Fredegar is now common scholarly fare, the last or only Fredegar was the author of a brief account of the Wends including the best, and only contemporary, information on Samo. According to Fredegar, Samo a Frank by birth from the Senonian province, although he was of Frankish origin, Samo demanded that an ambassador of Dagobert I put on Slavic clothes before entering his castle. All other sources for Samo are derived from Fredegar and are more recent. The Gesta Dagoberti I regis Francorum was written in the first third of the 9th century, the Conversio Bagoariorum et Carantanorum from Salzburg, written in 871–72, is a very tendentious source, as its name suggests. According mainly to the Conversio, Samo was a Karantanian merchant, the sources Fredegar used to compile his Wendish account are unknown. A few scholars have attacked the entire account as fictitious, but Fredegar displays a critical attitude and it is possible that he had an eyewitness in the person of Sicharius, the ambassador of Dagobert I to the Slavs
42.
Carantania
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Carantania, also known as Carentania, was a Slavic principality that emerged in the second half of the 7th century, in the territory of present-day southern Austria and north-eastern Slovenia. It was the predecessor of the March of Carinthia, created within the Carolingian Empire in 889, the name Carantania is of pre-Slavic origin. Paul the Deacon mentions Slavs in Carnuntum, which is erroneously called Carantanum and its Slovene name *korǫtanъ was adopted from the Latin *carantanum. The toponym Carinthia is also claimed to be related, deriving from pre-Slavic *carantia. Carantanias capital was most likely Karnburg in the Zollfeld Field, north of town of Klagenfurt. It most probably also included the territory of the modern Slovenian province of Carinthia, the few existing historical sources distinguish between two separate Slavic principalities in the Eastern Alpine area, Carantania and Carniola. The latter, which appears in records dating from the late 8th century, was situated in the central part of modern Slovenia. It was the predecessor of the later Duchy of Carniola, in the 4th century Chur became the seat of the first Christian bishopric north to the Alps. Despite a legend assigning its foundation to an alleged Briton king, St. Lucius, in the 6th century, the Alpine Slavs, who are reckoned to be among the ancestors of present-day Slovenes, settled the eastern areas of the Friulia region. They settled in the easternmost mountainous areas of Friuli, known as the Friulian Slavia, as well as the Karst Plateau, the northern part of Tyrol came under the influence of the Bavarii, while the west probably was part of Alamannia. In 568, the Langobards receded into Northern Italy, subsequently, in the last decades of the 6th century, Slavs settled in the depopulated territory with the help of their Avar overlords. In 588 they reached the area of the Upper Sava River and in 591 they arrived in the Upper Drava region, in 592 the Bavarians won, but three years later in 595 the Slavic-Avar army gained victory and thus consolidated the boundary between the Frankish and the Avar territories. By that time, todays East Tyrol and Carinthia came to be referred to in sources as Provincia Sclaborum. In the 6th century, the Alpine Slavs, who are reckoned to be among the ancestors of present-day Slovenes and they settled in the easternmost mountainous areas of Friuli, known as the Friulian Slavia, as well as the Kras Plateau and the area north and south from Gorizia. In the 6th century Chur was also conquered by the Franks, the territory settled by Slavs, however, was also inhabited by the remains of the indigenous Romanized population, which preserved Christianity. Slavs in both the Eastern Alps and the Pannonian region were subject to Avar rulers. After Avar rule weakened around 610, a relatively independent March of the Slavs, governed by a duke, historical sources mention Valuk as the duke of Slavs. In 623 Slavs of the Eastern Alps probably joined Samos Tribal Union, the year 626 brought an end to Avar dominance over Slavs, as the Avars were defeated at Constantinople
43.
Duchy of Bavaria
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The Duchy of Bavaria was, from the sixth through the eighth century, a frontier region in the southeastern part of the Merovingian kingdom and was ruled by dukes under Frankish lordship. In the late ninth century a new duchy was created from this area and it was one of the stem duchies of the Kingdom of Germany and the Holy Roman Empire. Between 1070 and 1180 the Emperor was opposed by Bavaria, especially by the House of Welf, in the final conflict between the Duke Henry the Lion and the Hohenstaufen emperor Frederick I, Frederick I triumphed and deprived Henry of his fiefs. Bavaria then passed over to the House of Wittelsbach, which held it until 1918, the origins of the older Bavarian duchy can be traced to the year 551/555. In his Getica, the chronicler Jordanes writes, That area of the Swabians has the Bavarii in the east, until the end of the first duchy, all rulers descended from the family of the Agilolfings. The first documented duke was Garibald I, a scion of the Frankish Agilolfings, at around 743, the Bavarian duke Odilo vassalised the Slavic princes of Carantania, who had asked him for protection against the invading Avars. The residence of the largely independent Agilolfing dukes was then Regensburg, in the adjacent Alamannic lands west of the Lech river, Augsburg was a bishops seat. When Boniface established the Diocese of Passau in 739, he could build on local Early Christian traditions. In the south, Saint Rupert had founded in 696 the Diocese of Salzburg, probably after he had baptized Duke Theodo of Bavaria at his court in Regensburg, becoming the Apostle of Bavaria. In 798 Pope Leo III created the Bavarian ecclesiastical province with Salzburg as metropolitan seat and Regensburg, Passau, Freising, in the west, the Carolingian mayor of the palace Carloman had suppressed the last Alamannic revolt at the 746 Blood court at Cannstatt. The last tribal stem duchy to be incorporated was Bavaria in 788, the conquest of the Lombard Kingdom by Charlemagne entailed the fall of Tassilo, who was deposed in 788. Bavaria was then administrated by Frankish prefects, from 825 Louis the German styled himself King of Bavaria in the territory that was to become the centre of his power. Carlomans natural son Arnulf of Carinthia, raised in the former Carantanian lands, secured possession of the March of Carinthia upon his fathers death in 880, Carinthia and Bavaria were the bases of his power, with Regensburg as the seat of his government. Due mainly to the support of the Bavarians, Arnulf could take the field against Charles in 887, in 899 Bavaria passed to Louis the Child, during whose reign continuous Hungarian ravages occurred. During the reign of Louis the Child, Luitpold, Count of Scheyern, the German king Conrad I unsuccessfully attacked Arnulf when the latter refused to acknowledge his royal supremacy. The Carolingian reign in East Francia ended in 911 when Arnulfs son, King Louis the Child, the discontinuation of the central authority led to a new strengthening of the German stem duchies. At the same time, East Francia was exposed to the threat from Hungarian invasions. In 907 the army of Luitpold, Margrave of Bavaria suffered a defeat at the Battle of Pressburg
44.
Margraviate of Austria
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The Margraviate of Austria was a southeastern frontier march of the Holy Roman Empire created in 976 out of the territory on the border with the Kingdom of Hungary. Originally under the overlordship of the Dukes of Bavaria, it was ruled by margraves of the Franconian Babenberg dynasty and it became an Imperial State in its own right, when the Babenbergs were elevated to Dukes of Austria in 1156. In contemporary Latin, the entity was called the marcha Orientalis, marchia Austriae, the Old High German name Ostarrîchi first appeared on a famous deed of donation issued by Emperor Otto III at Bruchsal in November 996. Later the march was called the Margraviate of Austria or the Bavarian Eastern March to differentiate it from the Saxon Eastern March in the northeast. During the Anschluss period of 1938–45 the Nazi authorities tried to replace the term Austria with Ostmark, the march comprised the lands north and south of the Danube river, with the Enns tributary in the west forming the border with the Traungau shire of the Bavarian stem duchy. The eastern frontier with the Hungarian settlement area in the Pannonian Basin ran along the Morava and Leitha rivers, with the Gyepű borderland beyond. In the north, the march bordered on the Bohemian duchy of the Přemyslids, the early march corresponded closely to the modern region of Lower Austria. The initial Babenberger residence was probably at Pöchlarn on the former Roman limes, but maybe already Melk, the original march coincided with the modern Wachau, but was shortly enlarged eastwards at least as far as the Wienerwald. Under Margrave Ernest the Brave, the colonisation of the northern Waldviertel up to the Thaya river and the Bohemian march of Moravia was begun, the margraves residence later was moved down the Danube to Klosterneuburg until in 1142 Vienna became the official capital. The Babenbergs had a system of several castles built in the Wienerwald mountain range and along the Danube river. In the Austrian Alps some valleys retained their Rhaeto-Romance speakers until the 17th century, the first marches covering approximately the territory that would become Austria and Slovenia were the Avar March and the adjacent March of Carantania in the south. Both were established in the late 8th century by Charlemagne upon the incorporation of the territory of the Agilolfing dukes of Bavaria against the invasions of the Avars. When the Avars disappeared in the 820s, they were replaced largely by West Slavs, the March of Pannonia was set apart from the Duchy of Friuli in 828 and set up as a march against Moravia within the East Frankish regnum of Bavaria. These march, already called marcha orientalis, corresponded to a frontier along the Danube from the Traungau to Szombathely, by the 890s, the Pannonian march seems to have disappeared, along with the threat from Great Moravia, during the Hungarian invasions of Europe. Upon the defeat of Margrave Luitpold of Bavaria at the 907 Battle of Pressburg, in 955 King Otto I of Germany had started the reconquest with his victory at the 955 Battle of Lechfeld. However, much of Pannonia was still conquered by the Magyars and he appointed the Babenberg count Leopold the Illustrious from the House of Babenberg margrave in turn for his support. Leopold replaced one Burchard, whose status is not well known, margravial Austria reached its greatest height under Leopold III, a great friend of the church and founder of abbeys. He patronised towns and developed a level of territorial independence
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