The history of Germany
A guided tour, 9 CE – 1989 CE, in 11 stops.
From a forest ambush of Roman legions to printing, Luther, Bismarck and a Berlin divided and reunited.
The stops
Teutoburg Forest (9 CE)
In 9 CE Germanic warriors under Arminius ambushed and destroyed three Roman legions. Rome gave up on ruling the land beyond the Rhine.
Otto the Great (962 CE)
King Otto I beat the Magyars and was crowned emperor in Rome in 962. His Holy Roman Empire lasted until 1806.
Gutenberg (1450 CE)
In Mainz, Johannes Gutenberg printed with movable metal type. His Bible of about 1455 began a revolution in how knowledge spread.
Luther (1517 CE)
In 1517 the monk Martin Luther published 95 theses against the sale of indulgences in Wittenberg. The Reformation split the western church.
The Thirty Years’ War (1618 CE)
From 1618 to 1648 the German lands were the battlefield of Europe. Armies, famine and plague killed perhaps a third of the population.
Bach in Leipzig (1723 CE)
From 1723 Johann Sebastian Bach was music director in Leipzig, writing a new cantata for its churches almost every week.
One empire (1871 CE)
After wars against Denmark, Austria and France, Bismarck united the German states. The empire was proclaimed in 1871 in the palace of Versailles.
Einstein (1879 CE)
Albert Einstein was born in Ulm in 1879. His theories of relativity changed our ideas of space, time and gravity.
Dictatorship and war (1933 CE)
Hitler took power in 1933. His regime started the Second World War and murdered six million Jews. By 1945 Germany lay in ruins.
The Berlin Wall (1961 CE)
Germany was split into West and East. In 1961 East Germany built a wall straight through Berlin.
The Wall falls (1989 CE)
On 9 November 1989 the checkpoints opened and Berliners climbed the Wall. Germany was reunited eleven months later.