German 2520/3520

Timeline of German History

(N.B. This contains only selected information that is part of the German 3520 course. This is not intended to represent a complete historical sketch.)

A.D. 98 - Tacitus, Germania

[Merovingian Dynasty - 5th to 8th century]

[Carolingian Dynasty - 5th to 9th century]
 
2nd-6th Cent. A.D. - Tribal migrations, begun in the 2nd cent., accelerated by the arrival of the Huns in Europe in A.D. 375.
- followers of Arianism (denying the divinity of Jesus and the belief in the Trinity)

This heresy followed the Christianization of the Germanic tribes and became the state religion of the Ostrogoths (in Italy), the Visigoths (in southern Gaul and Spain), Burgundians (in southern France), Vandals (first in Spain, then in northern Africa). The term Aryan, which became synonymous with Germanic, was derived from Arianism, which died out when the various tribes were defeated (by the end of the 7th cent.)

The Visigoths are also important because it was their successful attack on the Roman Empire in the West (Battle of Adrianople, A.D. 378) ) that sounded the death knell for the almost legendary superiority and invincibility of the Romans.

A.D. 486 - CLOVIS (Chlodovech), a Salian Frank (the "free ones" on the east bank of the Rhine, non-tributary to the Romans) of the family Meroveus, became the absolute ruler of a strong Germanic kingdom of mixed Germanic-Roman population. He got to that position by killing off all of his possible rivals.

 

His capital city: Aachen
Died in 814
Charlemagne's empire: significance for today? Maastricht Treaty
 

A.D. 911 - The Franconian duke Conrad I - first German king ("Frankish King," later "Roman King")

[Saxon Dynasty: 919 - 1024]

A.D. 919-936 - Conrad's successor, the Saxon duke Henry I

A.D. 936-973 - Henry's son, Otto (I)

[Salian dynasty: 1039-1125]

A.D. 1039-1056 - Henry III - height of power, supremacy over Papacy

- squabble with Pope Gregory VII (1073-1085) over "lay investiture"

 

A.D. 1190-1197 - Henry VI

A.D. 1212-1250 - Frederick II

 

A.D. 1438-1806 - Habsburg dynasty

A.D. 1493-1519 - Maximilian I

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 Electoral Monarchy

 Prince Electors: (up to 1257)

 in 1257 King of Bohemia added

stable situation until 1623 when ruler of Bavaria took the place of the Count Palatinate

1648 (after 30 years' War) Count Palatinate added back as #8

1692 - Hannover (Braunschweig-Lüneburg) added as #9

after 1803 - added were Baden, Hesse-Kassel, Württemberg, and Salzburg, but the Holy Roman Empire really did not exist after 1806 anyway

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Rise of the cities: market place, wall, "Peace of the King"

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October 31, 1517 - Martin Luther: 95 Theses on castle church door in Wittenberg

April 16, 1521 - Luther before the Diet of Worms

1522/23 Reich knights rose

1525 - Peasants' Revolt
 

 John Calvin

Ulrich Zwingli

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Counter-Reformation

Protestant Union -1608

Catholic League - 1609

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- cession of territories to France and Sweden

- confirmed the withdrawal of Switzerland and the Netherlands from the Reich.

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Frederick II the Great (1740-1786), King of Prussia

Castle Sanssouci in Potsdam

[1789 - French Revolution]

1806 - Confederation of the Rhine under French protection (Napoleon); Emperor Franz II lays down the crown

1814-1815 - Congress of Vienna: German Confederation

dominance of Prussia and Austria

1834 - German Customs Union

1844 - uprising of the Silesian weavers

1864 - war: Prussia and Austria vs. Denmark

1866 - war: Prussia vs. Austria

1890 - young William (Wilhelm) II dismisses Bismarck

1914 - heir to the Austrian throne assassinated in Sarajevo. Beginning of World War I

1923 - height of inflation; Hitler's Beer Hall Putsch

 

Updated 10/22/04. pjc.