German Empire 1871-1918
The German Empire was founded in 1871, during the Franco-Prussian War, when the south German states, except for Austria, joined the North German Confederation. On 1 January 1871, the new constitution came into force that changed the name of the federal state and introduced the title of Emperor of German for Wilhelm I, King of Prussia from the House of Hohenzollern. Berlin remained its capital, and Otto von Bismarck remained Chancellor, the head of government.
It consisted of 26 states, most of them ruled by noble families. They included four kingdoms, six grand duchies, five duchies, seven principalities, three free Hanseatic cities, and one imperial territory.
After 1850, the states of Germany had rapidly become industrialized, with particular strengths in coal, iron (and later steel), chemicals, and railways. In 1871, Germany had a population of 41 million people; by 1913, this had increased to 68 million. A heavily rural collection of states in 1815, the now united Germany became predominantly urban.
Name
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Reign start
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Reign end
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Notes |
18 Jan 1871
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9 Mar 1888
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Monarch of Germany since 1866 |
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9 Mar 1888
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15 June 1888
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Son of William I |
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15 June 1888
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28 Nov 1918
(abdicated)
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Son of Frederick III |
During its 47 years of existence, the German Empire was an industrial, technological, and scientific giant, gaining more Nobel Prizes in science than any other country. By 1900, Germany was the largest economy in Europe, surpassing the United Kingdom, as well as the second-largest in the world, behind only the United States.
From 1867 to 1878, Otto von Bismarck's tenure as the first and to this day longest reigning Chancellor was marked by relative liberalism, but it became more conservative afterwards. Bismarck's chief concern was that France would plot revenge after its defeat in the Franco-Prussian War.
In October 1873, Otto von Bismarck negotiated the League of the Three Emperors between the monarchs of Austria-Hungary, Russia and Germany. This agreement failed because Austria-Hungary and Russia could not agree over Balkan policy, leaving Germany and Austria-Hungary only in an alliance formed in 1879.
Germanisation
One of the effects of the unification policies was the gradually increasing tendency to eliminate the use of non-German languages in public life, schools and academic settings with the intent of pressuring the non-German population to abandon their national identity in what was called "Germanisation". These policies often had the reverse effect of stimulating resistance, usually in the form of home schooling and tighter unity in the minority groups, especially the Poles.
The Germanisation policies were targeted particularly against the significant Polish minority of the empire, gained by Prussia in the partitions of Poland. Poles were treated as an ethnic minority even where they made up the majority, as in the Province of Posen, where a series of anti-Polish measures was enforced.
Wilhelm II
Wilhelm II wanted to reassert his ruling prerogatives at a time when other monarchs in Europe were being transformed into constitutional figureheads. The old chancellor had hoped to guide Wilhelm as he had guided his grandfather, but the emperor wanted to be the master in his own house.
A key difference between Wilhelm II and Bismarck was their approaches for handling political crises, especially in 1889, when German coal miners went on strike in Upper Silesia. Bismarck demanded that the German Army be sent in to crush the strike, but Wilhelm II rejected this authoritarian measure, responding "I do not wish to stain my reign with the blood of my subjects." The fractious relationship ended in March 1890 with Bismarck's resignation.
With Bismarck's departure, Wilhelm II became the dominant ruler of Germany. Wilhelm II wanted to be fully informed and actively involved in running Germany, not an ornamental figurehead, although most Germans found his claims of divine right to rule amusing.
Austria-Hungary 1867-1918
The Austro-Hungarian Compromise of 1867 re-established the sovereignty of the Kingdom of Hungary, which was no longer subject to the Austrian Empire, and bore the official name Austro-Hungarian Monarchy/Realm in its international relations. The Habsburg monarch ruled as :
1. Emperor of Austria over the western and northern half of the country that was the Austrian Empire ("Lands Represented in the Imperial Council", or Cisleithania) ;
2. King of Hungary over the Kingdom of Hungary ("Lands of the Crown of Saint Stephen", or Transleithania).
The Austro-Hungarian economy changed dramatically during the Dual Monarchy. The capitalist way of production spread throughout the Empire during its 50-year existences. Technological change accelerated industrialization and urbanization. Many of the state institutions and the modern administrative system of Hungary were established during this period. Economic growth centered on Vienna and Budapest, the Austrian lands (areas of modern Austria), the Alpine region and the Bohemian lands.
As the twentieth century started to unfold, the greatest problem facing the dual monarchy was that it consisted of about a dozen distinctly different ethnic groups, of which only two, the Germans and Hungarians (who together accounted for about 44% of the total population), wielded any power or control. The other ethnic groups, which were not involved in the state affairs, included Slavic (Bosniaks, Croats, Czechs, Poles, Serbs, Slovaks, Slovenes and Ukrainians) and Romance peoples (Italians, Romanians).
The United States of Greater Austria was a proposal, conceived by a group of scholars surrounding Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria that never came to pass. This specific proposal was conceived in 1906 and aimed at federalizing Austria-Hungary to help resolve widespread ethnic and nationalist tensions.
World War I 1914–1919
The war drew in all the world's economic great powers, assembled in two opposing alliances: Triple Entente of the Russian Empire, the French Third Republic, and the United Kingdom) versus the Central Powers of Germany and Austria-Hungary.
Background
German industrial and economic power had grown greatly after the foundation of the German Empire. From the mid-1890s on, the government of Wilhelm II used this base to devote significant economic resources for building up the Kaiserliche Marine (Imperial German Navy), in rivalry with the British Royal Navy for world naval supremacy.
Austria-Hungary precipitated the Bosnian crisis of 1908–1909 by officially annexing the former Ottoman territory of Bosnia and Herzegovina, which it had occupied since 1878. This angered the Kingdom of Serbia and its patron, the Pan-Slavic and Orthodox Russian Empire.
The trigger for the war was the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand and his wife Sophie of Austria, heir to the throne of Austria-Hungary, by Yugoslavist group Gavrilo Princip, at the Bosnian capital, Sarajevo on 28 June 1914.
Austria-Hungary believed that Serbian officials were involved in the plot to murder the Archduke, and wanted to finally end Serbian interference in Bosnia. This set off a diplomatic crisis when Austria-Hungary delivered the July Ultimatum to the Kingdom of Serbia, and entangled international alliances formed over the previous decades were invoked.
Start of the War 1914
On 28 July, the Austro-Hungarians declared war on Serbia. As Russia mobilized in support of Serbia, Germany invaded neutral Belgium and Luxembourg before moving towards France, leading the United Kingdom to declare war on Germany.
The strategy of the Central Powers suffered from miscommunication. Austro-Hungarian leaders believed Germany would cover its northern flank against Russia. Germany, however, envisioned Austria-Hungary directing most of its troops against Russia, while Germany dealt with France. This confusion forced the Austro-Hungarian Army to divide its forces between the Russian and Serbian fronts.
Austria invaded and fought the Serbian army at the Battle of Kolubara beginning on 12 August. Over the next two weeks, Austrian attacks were thrown back with heavy losses, which marked the first major Allied victories of the war and dashed Austro-Hungarian hopes of a swift victory.
German advance to bypass the French armies concentrated on the Franco-German border, defeat the French forces closer to Luxembourg and Belgium and move south to Paris. Initially the Germans were successful, particularly in the Battle of the Frontiers (14–24 August). By 12 September, the French, with assistance from the British Expeditionary Force , halted the German advance east of Paris at the First Battle of the Marne (5–12 September) and pushed the German forces back some 50 km.
In the east, Russia invaded with two armies. Germany defeated Russia in a series of battles collectively known as the First Battle of Tannenberg (17 August – 2 September). While the Russian invasion failed, it caused the diversion of German troops to the east, allowing the Allied victory at the First Battle of the Marne. This meant Germany failed to achieve its objective of avoiding a long, two-front war.
Progress of the War 1915-1917
Neither side proved able to deliver a decisive blow for the next two years. In April 1915, Italy joined the Triple Entente and declared war on Austria-Hungary on 23 May. Fifteen months later, Italy declared war on Germany.
For the first ten months of 1915, Austria-Hungary used most of its military reserves to fight Italy. German and Austro-Hungarian diplomats, however, scored a coup by persuading Bulgaria to join the attack on Serbia.
Bulgaria declared war on Serbia on 12 October 1915 and joined the Austro-Hungarian army. The Serbs suffered defeat in the Battle of Kosovo. Montenegro covered the Serbian retreat towards the Adriatic coast in the Battle of Mojkovac in 6–7 January 1916, but ultimately the Austrians also conquered Montenegro. After conquest, Serbia was divided between Austro-Hungary and Bulgaria.
Ending of the War 1918
The Central Powers launched a crushing offensive on 26 October 1917, spearheaded by the Germans, and achieved a victory at Caporetto (Kobarid). The Italian Army was routed and retreated more than 100 kilometres to reorganize, stabilizing the front at the Piave River.
Serbian and French troops finally made a breakthrough in September 1918, after most of the German and Austro-Hungarian troops had been withdrawn. The Bulgarians were defeated at the Battle of Dobro Pole, and by 25 September British and French troops had crossed the border into Bulgaria proper as the Bulgarian army collapsed.
The Austro-Hungarians failed to break through in a series of battles on the Piave and were finally decisively defeated in the Battle of Vittorio Veneto in October 1918. On 1 November, the Italian Navy destroyed much of the Austro-Hungarian fleet stationed in Pula, preventing it from being handed over to the new State of Slovenes, Croats and Serbs.
On 3 November, Austria-Hungary sent a flag of truce to ask for an armistice. The terms, arranged by telegraph with the Allied Authorities in Paris, were communicated to the Austrian commander and accepted. The Armistice with Austria (Armistice of Villa Giusti) was signed on 3 November. Austria and Hungary signed separate armistices following the overthrow of the Habsburg Monarchy.
German Revolution 1918–1919
The German Revolution or November Revolution was a civil conflict in the German Empire at the end of the First World War (November 1918) that resulted in the replacement of the German federal constitutional monarchy with a democratic parliamentary republic that later became known as the Weimar Republic (August 1919).
The first acts of revolution were triggered by the policies of the German Supreme Command of the Army and its lack of coordination with the Naval Command. In the face of defeat, the Naval Command insisted on trying to precipitate a climactic battle with the British Royal Navy by means of its naval order of 24 October 1918.
The battle never took place. Instead of obeying their orders to begin preparations to fight the British, German sailors led a revolt in the naval ports of Wilhelmshaven on 29 October 1918, followed by the Kiel mutiny in early November. These disturbances spread the spirit of civil unrest across Germany and ultimately led to the proclamation of a republic on 9 November 1918. Shortly thereafter, Emperor Wilhelm II abdicated his throne and fled the country.
On 11 November, an armistice with Germany was signed in a railroad carriage at Compiègne. At "11 am on 11 November 1918", a ceasefire came into effect. During the six hours between the signing of the armistice and its taking effect, opposing armies on the Western Front began to withdraw from their positions, but fighting continued along many areas of the front, as commanders wanted to capture territory before the war ended.
The revolutionaries, inspired by socialist ideas, did not hand over power to Soviet-style councils as the Bolsheviks had done in Russia, because the leadership of the Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD) opposed their creation. Fearing an all-out civil war in Germany between militant workers and reactionary conservatives, the SPD did not plan to strip the old German upper classes completely of their power and privileges.
Instead, SPD sought an alliance with the German Supreme Command. This allowed the army to quell the communist Spartacist uprising of 4–15 January 1919 by force. The same alliance of political forces succeeded in suppressing uprisings of the left in other parts of Germany, with the result that the country was completely pacified by late 1919.
Republic of German-Austria 1918-1919
The Republic of German-Austria (Republik Deutsch-Österreich) was the initial rump state for areas with a predominantly German-speaking population within what had been the Austro-Hungarian Empire. In Habsburg Austria-Hungary, "German-Austria" was an unofficial term for the areas of the empire inhabited by Austrian Germans.
On 12 October 1918, Emperor Charles I met with the leaders of the largest German parties. German Nationalists wanted a constitutional monarchy of free nations; Christian Socialists wanted to maintain monarchy and a federation of nations; Social Democrats wanted a republic that would either be a part or federation of nations or join Germany.
On October 16, Charles I published a manifesto which offered to change Austria-Hungary into a federation of nationalities. This came too late as Czechs and Southern Slavs were well on their way to creating independent states. With the impending collapse of the empire the 208 ethnic German deputies to the Cisleithanian Austrian parliament met on 21 October and proclaimed itself to be a "Provisional National Assembly for German-Austria" representing the Germans in Cisleithanian lands.
On November 11, 1918, Emperor Charles I in all but name abdicated, by relinquishing his right to take part in Austrian affairs of state. The next day, the National Assembly officially declared German-Austria a republic.
On March 12, 1919 Constituent Assembly re-confirmed earlier declaration that German-Austria is a constituent part of German republic. This was grounded in the view that Austria had never been a nation in the true sense. While the Austrian territory had existed in one form or another for over 700 years, its only unifying force had been the Habsburgs. Apart from being German inhabited, these Lands had no common ‘Austrian’ identity and there had never been an Austrian state before.
Pan-German and Social Democrats supported the union with Germany, during spring and summer of 1919, unity talk meetings between German and Austrian representatives continued. However, all this changed after June 2, 1919 when the draft Peace treaty with Austria was presented and it demonstrated that Western Allies were opposed to the union of Germany and Austria.
Treaties of Saint-Germain and Versailles 1919
The Treaty treaties of Saint-Germain (for Austria) and Versailles (for Germany) were two of the peace treaties at the end of World War I. It ended the state of war between Austria-Hungary, Germany and the Allied Powers.
Austria-Hungary was partitioned into several successor states, including Republic of Austria, Hungary, Czechoslovakia, and Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes (later Yugoslavia), largely but not entirely along ethnic lines. Transylvania was shifted to Greater Romania.
The Habsburg rump state of German-Austria was given reduced borders which ceded German-populated regions in Sudetenland to Czechoslovakia, German-populated South Tyrol to Italy and a portion of Alpine provinces to the Yugoslavia. The Republic of Austria was created by the will of Allies who did not want the union of Germany and Austria to expand its borders.
In Western Europe, Germany was to cede Alsace-Lorraine to France, and Eupen-Malmédy was allotted to Belgium. In the Schleswig Plebiscites, the Danish-speaking population in the north voted for Denmark while the German speaking population in the south voted for Germany. Schleswig was thus partitioned and Holstein remained in Germany.
In Eastern Europe, Germany was to recognize the independence of Czechoslovakia and cede parts of the province of Upper Silesia. Germany had to recognize the independence of Poland and renounce "all rights and title over the territory". Portions of Upper Silesia and the province of Posen were to be ceded to Poland. Pomerelia (Eastern Pomerania), on historical and ethnic grounds, was transferred to Poland.
Weimar Republic 1919–1933
The Weimar Republic is an unofficial, historical designation for the German state during the years 1919 to 1933. The name derives from the city of Weimar, where its constitutional assembly first took place. The official name of the state remained Deutsches Reich, (2nd Deutsches Reich)unchanged since 1871.
In its fourteen years, the Weimar Republic faced numerous problems, including hyperinflation, political extremism as well as contentious relationships with the victors of the First World War. The people of Germany blamed the Weimar Republic rather than their wartime leaders for the country's defeat and for the humiliating terms of the Treaty of Versailles.
The growing post-war economic crisis was a result of lost pre-war industrial exports, the loss of supplies in raw materials and foodstuffs due to the continental blockade, the loss of the colonies, and worsening debt balances, exacerbated by an exorbitant issue of promissory notes raising money to pay for the war. Military-industrial activity had almost ceased.
Germans had no real experience with democracy and many wanted a return to monarchy—or at least the strong rule they associated with it. Although Weimar eventually solved the problem of hyperinflation, the mainstream political parties squabbled and many Germans yearned for strong rule. Many Germans looked to the ideas of German thinker Karl Marx as the answer, and supported a Communist takeover, like what had happened in 1917 in Russia.
Others looked to the far right National Socialist German Workers Party, who combined socialist rhetoric with extreme German nationalism. Unlike the Communists, they also had a charismatic leader: Adolph Hitler. They came to be known as the Nazis.
Adolf Hitler and Nazi Party 1921-1934
Adolf Hitler was the leader of the Nazi Party (Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiterpartei; NSDAP), Chancellor of Germany from 1933 to 1945 and Führer ("Leader") of Nazi Germany from 1934 to 1945.
Adolf Hitler was born on 20 April 1889 in a town in Austria-Hungary (in present-day Austria), close to the border with the German Empire. He was raised near Linz. After the sudden death of his father in January 1903, Hitler's performance at school deteriorated and his mother allowed him to leave.
In 1907 Hitler left Linz to live and study fine art in Vienna, financed by orphan's benefits and support from his mother. He applied for admission to the Academy of Fine Arts Vienna but was rejected twice. On 21 December 1907, his mother died of breast cancer at the age of 47. In 1909 Hitler ran out of money and was forced to live a bohemian life in homeless shelters and Meldemannstraße dormitory.
During his time in Vienna he pursued a growing passion for two interests, architecture and music. It was here that Hitler first became exposed to racist rhetoric. German nationalism had a particularly widespread following in the district where Hitler lived. Hitler read local newspapers such as Deutsches Volksblatt that fanned prejudice and played on Christian fears of being swamped by an influx of Eastern European Jews.
Hitler received the final part of his father's estate in May 1913 and moved to Munich, Germany. Hitler was called up for conscription into the Austro-Hungarian Army, so he journeyed to Salzburg in February 1914 for medical assessment. After he was deemed by the medical examiners as unfit for service, he returned to Munich. Hitler later claimed that he did not wish to serve the Habsburg Empire because of the mixture of races in its army and his belief that the collapse of Austria-Hungary was imminent.
During World War I, Hitler was allowed to enter the Bavarian Army, he continued to put forth his German nationalist ideas which he developed from a young age. After the war, he returned to Munich in 1919, when he joined the German Workers' Party (Deutsche Arbeiterpartei, DAP), the precursor of the NSDAP, and was appointed leader of the NSDAP in 1921.
In 1923, he attempted to seize power in a failed coup in Munich and was imprisoned. While in jail he dictated the first volume of his autobiography and political manifesto Mein Kampf ("My Struggle"). After his release from prison in 1924, Hitler gained popular support by attacking the Treaty of Versailles and promoting Pan-Germanism, anti-semitism and anti-communism with charismatic oratory. He frequently denounced international capitalism and communism as being part of a Jewish conspiracy.
The stock market in the United States crashed on 24 October 1929. In Germany, millions were thrown out of work and several major banks collapsed. Hitler and the NSDAP prepared to take advantage of the emergency to gain support for their party. They promised to repudiate the Versailles Treaty, strengthen the economy, and provide jobs.
The Great Depression provided a political opportunity for Hitler. Germans were ambivalent about the parliamentary republic, which faced challenges from right- and left-wing extremists. The moderate political parties were increasingly unable to stem the tide of extremism, and the German referendum of 1929 helped to elevate Nazi ideology.
The elections of September 1930 resulted in the break-up of a grand coalition and its replacement with a minority cabinet. Its leader, Chancellor Heinrich Brüning of the Centre Party, governed through emergency decrees from President Paul von Hindenburg.
By 1933, the Nazi Party was the largest elected party in the German Reichstag, but did not have a majority, and no party was able to form a majority parliamentary coalition in support of a candidate for chancellor. This led to former chancellor Franz von Papen and other conservative leaders persuading Paul von Hindenburg to appoint Hitler as Chancellor on 30 January 1933.
Hitler and his supporters successfully conned the leaders of the Center Party into agreeing to hand over all government power to Hitler as chancellor by passing the Enabling Act of 1933 (the power to enact laws without the involvement of the Reichstag).
The Nazis quickly used their new power to outlaw other parties, kill Communist Party supporters and leaders, and imprison or drive most of the leaders of the other parties into exile. On 14 July 1933, the NSDAP was declared the only legal political party in Germany. These events brought the republic to an end with democracy collapsed.
On 2 August 1934, Hindenburg died. The previous day, the cabinet had enacted the "Law Concerning the Highest State Office of the Reich". This law stated that upon Hindenburg's death, the office of president would be abolished and its powers merged with those of the chancellor. Hitler thus became head of state as well as head of government, and was formally named as Führer und Reichskanzler (leader and chancellor).
As head of state, Hitler became commander-in-chief of the armed forces. Immediately after Hindenburg's death, the traditional loyalty oath of soldiers was altered to affirm loyalty to Hitler personally, by name, rather than to the office of commander-in-chief or the state.
Nazi Germany 1933–1945
Nazi Germany is the common name for the period in German history from 1933 to 1945, when the country was governed by a dictatorship under the control of Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party (NSDAP). Under Hitler's rule, Germany was transformed into a fascist totalitarian state which controlled nearly all aspects of life. The official name of the state was Deutsches Reich (3rd Deutsches Reich, the Third Reich) from 1933 to 1943 and Großdeutsches Reich ("Greater German Reich") from 1943 to 1945.
President Hindenburg died on 2 August 1934, and Hitler became dictator of Germany by merging the powers and offices of the Chancellery and Presidency. A national referendum held 19 August 1934 confirmed Hitler as sole Führer (leader) of Germany. All power was centralized in Hitler's person, and his word became above all laws.
In the midst of the Great Depression, the Nazis restored economic stability and ended mass unemployment using heavy military spending and a mixed economy. Extensive public works were undertaken. The return to economic stability boosted the regime's popularity.
Unemployment fell from six million in 1932 to one million in 1936. Hitler oversaw one of the largest infrastructure improvement campaigns in German history, leading to the construction of dams, autobahns, railroads, and other civil works.
In January 1935, over 90% of the people of the Saarland, then under League of Nations administration, voted to unite with Germany. That March, Hitler announced an expansion of the Wehrmacht to 600,000 members—six times the number permitted by the Versailles Treaty. Britain, France, Italy, and the League of Nations condemned these violations of the Treaty, but did nothing to stop it.
Germany reoccupied the demilitarized zone in the Rhineland in March 1936, in violation of the Versailles Treaty.
On 13 March 1933, the Third Reich established a Ministry of Propaganda, appointing Joseph Goebbels as its Minister. Its goals were to establish enemies in the public mind: the external enemies which had imposed the Treaty of Versailles on Germany, and internal enemies such as Jews, Romani, Bolsheviks and cultural trends including "degenerate art".
Adolf Hitler and Nazi propagandists played on widespread and long-established German anti-Semitism. The Jews were blamed for things such as robbing the German people of their hard work while themselves avoiding physical labour. Hitler declared that the mission of the Nazi movement was to annihilate "Jewish Bolshevism". Hitler asserted that the "three vices" of "Jewish Marxism" were democracy, pacifism and internationalism and that the Jews were behind Bolshevism, communism and Marxism.
In 1935, anti-semitic laws were introduced known as the Nuremberg Laws. The Nuremberg Laws were based on notions of racial purity and sought to preserve the Aryan race, who were at the top of the Nazi racial hierarchy, and to teach the German nation to view the Jews as subhumans. As a results, fifty thousand German Jews had left Germany by the end of 1934, and by the end of 1938, approximately half the German Jewish population had left the country.
Anschluss was the Nazi propaganda term for the annexation of Austria into Nazi Germany in March 1938. The 1938 Anschluss stands in contrast to the Anschluss movement (Austria and Germany united as one country to form a "Greater Germany") attempted in 1918 when the Republic of German-Austria attempted union with Germany.
The Treaty of Versailles and Treaty of Saint-Germain (both signed in 1919) explicitly prohibited the political inclusion of Austria in the German state. This measure was criticized by the Weimar Constitution, who saw the prohibition as a contradiction of the Wilsonian principle of self-determination of peoples, intended to help bring peace to Europe.
The constitutions of the Weimar Republic and the First Austrian Republic included the political goal of unification, which was widely supported by democratic parties. In the early 1930s, popular support in Austria for union with Germany remained overwhelming.
In Austria, the new state was difficult to control, as much of the former empire's important economic regions had been taken away with the foundation of new nation-states. The matter was further complicated by the fact that a number of these new nation-states were still dependent on Vienna's banks, but business was hampered by the newly erected borders and tariffs.
Propaganda in Nazi Germany
Annexation of Austria 1938
The landlocked Austria was barely able to support itself with food and lacked developed industrial basis. Czechoslovakia, Hungary, Yugoslavia and Italy had imposed trade blockade and refused to sell food and coal to Austria, which eventually was saved by aid and support from the Western Allies. By 1922 half of the population was unemployed.
The Nazis aimed to re-unite all Germans either born or living outside of the Reich to create an "all-German Reich". Hitler had written in his 1925 autobiography (Mein Kampf) that he would create a union between his birth country Austria and Germany by any means possible ("German-Austria must be restored to the great German Motherland" "People of the same blood should be in the same Reich").
Earlier, Nazi Germany had provided support for the Austrian National Socialist Party (Austrian Nazi Party) in its bid to seize power from Austria's Fatherland Front government.
In February 1938, Hitler emphasized to Austrian Chancellor Kurt Schuschnigg the need for Germany to secure its frontiers. Schuschnigg called a referendum (plebiscite) regarding Austrian independence on 13 March, but Hitler demanded that it be cancelled. On 11 March, Hitler threatened invasion of Austria, demanded Chancellor Schuschnigg's resignation. On 12 March, the 8th Army of the German Wehrmacht crossed the border into Austria. The troops were greeted by cheering Austrians with Nazi salutes.
Occupation of Czechoslovakia 1939
It began with the German annexation of Czechoslovakia's northern and western border regions, formerly being part of German-Austria known collectively as the Sudetenland, under terms outlined by the Munich Agreement. The Munich Agreement stipulated that Czechoslovakia must cede Sudeten territory to Germany by 10 October 1938. An international commission representing Germany, Britain, France, Italy, and Czechoslovakia would supervise a plebiscite to determine the final frontier.
Hitler's pretext for this action was the alleged privations suffered by the ethnic German population living in those regions. The incorporation of the Sudetenland into Germany left the rest of Czechoslovakia weak, and it became powerless to resist subsequent occupation. On 15 March 1939, the German Wehrmacht moved into the remainder of Czechoslovakia and, from Prague Castle, Hitler proclaimed Bohemia and Moravia the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia.
The Czechs demonstrated against the occupation on 28 October 1939. The death on 15 November 1939 of a medical student, Jan Opletal, precipitated widespread student demonstrations, and the Reich retaliated. Politicians were arrested, as were an estimated 1,800 students and teachers. On 17 November, all universities and colleges in the protectorate were closed; further arrests and executions of Czech students and professors took place later during the occupation.
Invasion plan for Poland 1939
Hitler's own idea to invade Poland and create satellite or puppet states economically subordinate to Germany. As part of this long-term policy, Hitler pursued a policy of rapprochement with Poland, trying to improve opinion in Germany, culminating in the German–Polish Non-Aggression Pact of 1934.
The population of the Free City of Danzig was strongly in favor of annexation by Germany, as were many of the ethnic German inhabitants of the Polish territory that separated the German exclave of East Prussia from the rest of the Reich. Danzig had been separated from Germany after the treaty of Versailles and made into the nominally independent Free City of Danzig.
By 1937, Germany began to propose an extraterritorial roadway, part of the Reichsautobahn system, be built in order to connect East Prussia with Germany proper, running through the Polish Corridor, a strip of land that separated East Prussia from the rest of Germany. Poland rejected this proposal, fearing that after accepting these demands, it would become increasingly subject to the will of Germany and eventually lose its independence as the Czechs had.
In March 1939, Hitler demanded the return of the Free City of Danzig and the Polish Corridor. The British announced they would come to the aid of Poland if it was attacked.
Hitler's foreign minister, Joachim von Ribbentrop, arranged in negotiations with the Soviet Union a non-aggression pact, the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact, which was signed in August 1939. The treaty also contained secret protocols dividing Poland and the Baltic states into German and Soviet spheres of influence.
World War II 1939-1945
Germany invaded Poland on 1 September 1939. Britain and France declared war on Germany two days later, but they failed to provide any meaningful support. World War II in Europe was under way.
Polish forces abandoned the regions of Pomerelia (the Polish Corridor), Greater Poland and Polish Upper Silesia in the first week. The Polish plan for border defense was proven a dismal failure. By 12 September all of Poland west of the Vistula was conquered, except for isolated Warsaw. Poland fell quickly, as the Soviet Union attacked from the east on 17 September.
Starting from the first day of invasion, the German air force (the Luftwaffe) attacked civilian targets and columns of refugees along the roads to terrorize the Polish people, disrupt communications, and target Polish morale. The Luftwaffe killed 6,000–7,000 Polish civilians during the bombing of Warsaw.
The Holocaust
The Polish Campaign was the first action by Adolf Hitler in his attempt to create Lebensraum (living space) for Germans. Nazi propaganda was one of the factors behind the German brutality directed at civilians which had worked relentlessly to convince the German people into believing that the Jews and Slavs were Untermenschen (subhumans).
Germany gained control of about 2 million Jews in the occupied territory. German plans for expelling gentile Poles from large areas, confining Jews, and settling Germans on the emptied lands. To help the process along, Reinhard Heydrich, head of the Reich Security Main Office, ordered that the "leadership class" in Poland be killed.
Using lists prepared ahead of time, some 65,000 Polish intelligentsia, noblemen, clergy, and teachers were killed by the end of 1939 in an attempt to destroy Poland's identity as a nation.
The Germans initiated a policy of sending Jews from all territories they had recently annexed (Austria, Czechoslovakia, and western Poland) to the central section of Poland, which they called the General Government. There the Jews were concentrated in ghettos in major cities, chosen for their railway lines to facilitate later deportation. Food supplies were restricted and they were often subjected to forced labour. In the labour camps and ghettos at least half a million Jews died of starvation, disease, and poor living conditions.
Conquest of Europe 1940-1941
From the start of the war, a British blockade on shipments to Germany affected the Reich economy. The Germans were particularly dependent on foreign supplies of oil, coal, and grain. To safeguard Swedish iron ore shipments to Germany, Hitler ordered an attack on Norway, which took place on 9 April 1940. Much of the country was occupied by German troops by the end of April. Also on 9 April, the Germans invaded and occupied Denmark.
Hitler ordered an attack on France and the Low Countries, which began in May 1940. They quickly conquered Luxembourg, the Netherlands and Belgium. Within days, it became clear that French military forces were overwhelmed and that military collapse was imminent. Government and military leaders wanted to move the government to French territories in North Africa, and continue the war with the French Navy and colonial resources.
While this debate continued, the French government was forced to relocate several times, to avoid capture by advancing German forces and reaching Bordeaux. Finally the Armistice with France agreement was signed on 22 June 1940. The armistice divided France into occupied and unoccupied zones: northern and western France was occupied by Germany, and the remaining two-fifths of the country were under the control of the French government with the capital at Vichy. The unexpectedly swift defeat of France resulted in an upswing in Hitler's popularity and an upsurge in war fever.
Hitler made peace overtures to the new British leader Winston Churchill, which was rejected in July 1940. Hitler ordered a series of aerial attacks on Royal Air Force (RAF) airbases and radar stations, as well as nightly air raids on British cities, including London, Plymouth, and Coventry.
In February 1941, the German Afrika Korps arrived in Libya to aid the Italians in the North African Campaign and attempt to contain Commonwealth forces stationed in Egypt. On 6 April, Germany launched the invasion of Yugoslavia and the battle of Greece. German efforts to secure oil included negotiating a supply from their new ally, Romania, who signed the Tripartite Pact in November 1940.
On 22 June 1941, contravening the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact, 5.5 million Axis troops attacked the Soviet Union. In addition to Hitler's stated purpose of acquiring Lebensraum, this large-scale offensive (codenamed Operation Barbarossa) was intended to destroy the Soviet Union and seize its natural resources for subsequent aggression against the Western powers. The reaction among Germans was one of surprise and trepidation as many were concerned about how much longer the war would continue or suspected that Germany could not win a war fought on two fronts.
German Panzer IV in Thessaloniki. The banner on the building in the background reads "Bolshevism is the greatest enemy of our civilization". The invasion conquered a huge area, including the Baltic republics, Belarus, and West Ukraine. After the successful Battle of Smolensk, Hitler ordered Army Group Centre to halt its advance to Moscow and temporarily divert its Panzer groups to aid in the encirclement of Leningrad and Kiev.
This pause provided the Red Army with an opportunity to mobilise fresh reserves. The Moscow offensive, which resumed in October 1941, ended disastrously in December. On 7 December 1941, Japan attacked Pearl Harbor, Hawaii. Four days later, Germany declared war on the United States.
Turning point and collapse 1943-1944
Germany and Europe as a whole was almost totally dependent on foreign oil imports. In an attempt to resolve the persistent shortage, in June 1942 Germany launched Fall Blau (Case Blue), an offensive against the Caucasian oilfields. The Red Army launched a counter-offensive on 19 November and encircled the Axis forces, which were trapped in Stalingrad on 23 November.
Hitler's refusal to allow a retreat led to the deaths of 200,000 German and Romanian soldiers; of the 91,000 men who surrendered in the city on 31 January 1943, only 6,000 survivors returned to Germany after the war. Soviet forces continued to push the invaders westward after the failed German offensive at the Battle of Kursk and by the end of 1943 the Germans had lost most of their Eastern territorial gains.
In Egypt, Field Marshal Erwin Rommel's Afrika Korps were defeated by British forces under Field Marshal Bernard Montgomery in October 1942. The Allies landed in Sicily in July 1943 and in Italy in September. Meanwhile, American and British bomber fleets based in Britain began operations against Germany and many sorties were intentionally given civilian targets in an effort to destroy German morale. Soon German aircraft production could not keep pace with losses, and without air cover the Allied bombing campaign became even more devastating. By targeting oil refineries and factories, they crippled the German war effort by late 1944.
On 6 June 1944, American, British, and Canadian forces established a front in France with the D-Day landings in Normandy. On 20 July 1944, Hitler narrowly survived a bomb attack. He ordered brutal reprisals, resulting in 7,000 arrests and the execution of more than 4,900 people.
The failed Ardennes Offensive (16 December 1944 – 25 January 1945) was the last major German campaign of the war as Soviet forces entered Germany on 27 January. Hitler's refusal to admit defeat and his repeated insistence that the war be fought to the last man led to unnecessary death and destruction in the war's closing months. Through his Justice Minister Otto Georg Thierack, Hitler ordered that anyone who was not prepared to fight should be summarily court-martialed, and thousands of people were put to death. In many areas, people surrendered to the approaching Allies in spite of exhortations of local leaders to continue to fight.
Ending of the War 1945
During the Battle of Berlin (16 April 1945 – 2 May 1945), Hitler and his staff lived in the underground Führerbunker while the Red Army approached. On 30 April, when Soviet troops were within two blocks of the Reich Chancellery, Hitler and Eva Braun committed suicide in the Führerbunker. On 2 May, General Helmuth Weidling unconditionally surrendered Berlin to Soviet General Vasily Chuikov. On 4–8 May 1945, most of the remaining German armed forces surrendered unconditionally. The German Instrument of Surrender was signed 8 May, marking the end of the Nazi regime and the end of World War II in Europe.
During the final weeks of the Third Reich and the war in Europe, many civilians, government officials and military personnel throughout Nazi Germany committed suicide. In addition to high-ranking Nazi officials like Adolf Hitler, Joseph Goebbels, Heinrich Himmler, Philipp Bouhler and Martin Bormann, many others chose Selbstmord (German: Self-murder) rather than accept the defeat.
Studies have shown that the suicides were influenced through Nazi propaganda (reaction to the suicide of Adolf Hitler), the tenets of the Nazi Party, and the anticipated reprisals following the Allied occupation. For example in April 1945, at least 1,000 Germans killed themselves and others within 72 hours as the Red Army neared the East German town of Demmin. In Berlin more than 7,000 suicides were reported in 1945.
Post War Period 1945-1990
Upon the defeat of Nazi Germany in World War II, the victorious Allies asserted their joint authority and sovereignty over 'Germany as a whole', defined as all territories of the former German Reich which lay west of the Oder–Neisse line, having declared the extinction of Nazi Germany at the death of Adolf Hitler.
Allied-occupied Germany 1949-1950
The four powers divided 'Germany as a whole' into four occupation zones for administrative purposes, under the United States, United Kingdom, France and the Soviet Union respectively; creating what became collectively known as Allied-occupied Germany (Alliierten-besetztes Deutschland).
This division was ratified at the Potsdam Conference (17 July to 2 August 1945). All of Eastern and much of Central Europe was under Soviet occupation. This included most of the historical German settlement areas, as well as the Soviet occupation zone in eastern Germany.
Germany subsequently lost territories east of the Oder-Neisse Line in 1945, when international recognition of its right to jurisdiction over any of these territories was conditionally withdrawn.
The city of Berlin was jointly occupied by the Allied powers and subdivided into four sectors. All four occupying powers were entitled to privileges throughout Berlin that were not extended to the rest of Germany - this included the Soviet sector of Berlin which was legally separate from the rest of the Soviet zone.
Flight and expulsion of Germans
The original Allied plan to govern Germany as a single unit through the Allied Control Council broke down in 1946–1947 due to growing tensions between the Allies, with Britain and the US wishing cooperation, France obstructing any collaboration in order to unwind Germany into many independent states, and the Soviet Union unilaterally implementing from early on elements of its political-economic system.
Another dispute was the absorption of post-war expellees. While the UK, the US and the Soviet Union had agreed to accept, house and feed about six million expelled German citizens from former eastern Germany; and four million expelled and denaturalized Czechoslovaks, Poles, Hungarians and Yugoslavs of German ethnicity in their zones.
During the German occupation of Czechoslovakia, the Czech resistance groups demanded the deportation of Germans from Czechoslovakia. The decision was adopted by the Czechoslovak Government-in-Exile which, beginning in 1943, sought the support of the Allies for this proposal.
In the months following the end of the war "wild" expulsions happened from May until August 1945. Czechoslovak President on October 28 called for the "final solution of the German question" which would have to be solved by deportation of the ethnic Germans from Czechoslovakia. Several thousand died violently during the expulsion and more died from hunger and illness as a consequence.
France generally had not agreed to the expulsions approved by the Potsdam agreement and strictly refused to absorb war refugees who were denied return to their homes in seized eastern German territories or destitute post-war expellees who had been expropriated there, into the French zone.
By 1950, a total of approximately 12 million Germans had fled or been expelled from east-central Europe into Allied-occupied Germany and Austria. The largest numbers came from preexisting German territories ceded to Poland and the Soviet Union (about 7 million), and from Czechoslovakia (about 3 million).
The Split 1949
Tensions between the Soviets and the western allies began to intensify. The Soviets stopped cooperating with the other allied powers, and attempted to force them out of their zones in Berlin by cutting off road and rail access.
Following World War II, Soviet leader Joseph Stalin headed a group of nations on his Western border, the ‘Eastern Bloc’ that then included Poland, Hungary and Czechoslovakia, which he wished to maintain alongside a weakened Soviet-controlled Germany. As early as 1945, Stalin revealed to German communist leaders that he expected to slowly undermine the British position within the British occupation zone, that the United States would withdraw within a year or two, and that nothing would then stand in the way of a united communist Germany within the bloc.
The allied powers also disagreed about what to do about Germany; they increasingly believed that repairing Germany's economy was the key to economic recovery in all of Europe. They responded to the tensions with the Soviets by increasing their cooperation in their zones, introducing a new currency known as the deutsche Mark and encouraging the leaders of states in their zones. A uniform administration of the western zones evolved, known first as the Bizone (the American and British zones merged as of 1 January 1947) and later the Trizone (after inclusion of the French zone).
The complete breakdown of east-west allied cooperation and joint administration in Germany became clear with the Soviet imposition of the Berlin Blockade that was enforced from June 1948 to May 1949, preventing food, materials and supplies from arriving in West Berlin. The United States, the United Kingdom, France, Canada and several other countries began a massive "airlift", supplying West Berlin with food and other supplies.
The Soviets mounted a public relations campaign against the Western policy change. Communists attempted to disrupt the elections of 1948, preceding large losses therein, while 300,000 Berliners demonstrated for the international airlift to continue. In May 1949, Stalin lifted the blockade, permitting the resumption of Western shipments to Berlin.
The three western zones were merged to form the Federal Republic of Germany in May 1949, and the Soviets followed suit in October 1949 with the establishment of the German Democratic Republic in their zones of occupation, including the Soviet sector of Berlin.
East Germany 1949-1990
The German Democratic Republic (GDR, East Germany) was declared on 7 October 1949. By a secret treaty, the Soviet Ministry of Foreign Affairs accorded the East German state administrative authority, but not autonomy. The Soviets permeated East German administrative, military and secret police structures and had full control.
Their economy was centrally planned, and increasingly state-owned. Prices of basic goods and services were set by central government planners, rather than rising and falling through supply and demand. Although the GDR had to pay substantial war reparations to the Soviets, it became the most successful economy in the Eastern Bloc.
East Germany differed from West Germany (Federal Republic of Germany), which developed into a Western capitalist country with a social market economy and a democratic parliamentary government. Continual economic growth starting in the 1950s fuelled a 20-year "economic miracle" ("Wirtschaftswunder"). As West Germany's economy grew, and its standard of living steadily improved, many East Germans wanted to move to West Germany.
With the closing of the inner German border officially in 1952, the border in Berlin remained considerably more accessible then because it was administered by all four occupying powers. Accordingly, Berlin became the main route by which East Germans left for the West. On 11 December 1957, East Germany introduced a new passport law that reduced the overall number of refugees leaving Eastern Germany.
The Berlin Wall (Berliner Mauer) was a guarded concrete barrier that physically and ideologically divided Berlin from 1961 to 1989. Constructed by the East Germany, starting on 13 August 1961, the Wall cut off (by land) West Berlin from virtually all of surrounding East Germany and East Berlin. The vast majority of East Germans could no longer travel or immigrate to West Germany. Many families were split, while East Berliners employed in the West were cut off from their jobs. West Berlin became an isolated exclave in a hostile land.
West Germany 1949-1990
The Federal Republic of Germany (FRG, West Germany) was established from eleven states formed in the three Allied Zones of occupation held by the United States, the United Kingdom and France, US and British forces remained in the country throughout the Cold War. Its population grew from roughly 51 million in 1950 to more than 63 million in 1990. The city of Bonn was its (provisional) capital.
Initially the Federal Republic of Germany claimed an exclusive mandate for all of Germany, considering itself to be the democratically reorganized continuation of the 1871–1945 German Reich. It took the line that the GDR was an illegally constituted puppet state.
The foundation for the influential position held by Germany today was laid during the Wirtschaftswunder (economic miracle) of the 1950s when West Germany rose from the enormous destruction wrought by World War II to become the world's third-largest economy.
In West Germany, most of the political agencies and buildings were located in Bonn, while the German Stock Market was located in Frankfurt am Main, which became the economic center. The judicial branch of both the German Federal Constitutional Court (Bundesverfassungsgericht) and the highest Court of Appeals, were located in Karlsruhe.
The West German government was known to be much more decentralised than its state socialist East German counterpart, the former being a federal state and the latter a unitary one. West Germany was divided into states (Länder) with independently elected state parliaments and control of the Bundesrat, the second legislative chamber of the Federal Government.
German Reunification 1990
The German reunification (German: Deutsche Wiedervereinigung) was the process in 1990 in which the German Democratic Republic (East Germany, Deutsche Demokratische Republik) became part of the Federal Republic of Germany (West Germany, Bundesrepublik Deutschland) to form the reunited nation of Germany, and when Berlin reunited into a single city. Following the reunification on 3 October 1990 (German Unity Day), Berlin was once again designated as the capital of united Germany.
With the collapse of communism in Central and Eastern Europe in 1989, the East German regime started to falter in May 1989, when the removal of Hungary's border fence with Austria caused an exodus of thousands of East Germans fleeing to West Germany and Austria via Hungary.
The turning point in Germany, called "Die Wende", was marked by the Peaceful Revolution (a series of protests by East Germans, leading to the removal of the Berlin Wall), with East and West Germany subsequently entering into negotiations toward eliminating the division that had been imposed upon Germans more than four decades earlier.
On 28 November 1989—two weeks after the fall of the Berlin Wall—West German Chancellor Helmut Kohl announced a 10-point program calling for the two Germanys to expand their cooperation with a view toward eventual reunification.
The East German Declaration of Accession to the Federal Republic, as provided by article 23 of the West German Basic Law, was approved by the President of the East German on 23 August, and formally presented by its President to the President of the West German by means of a letter dated 25 August 1990. Germany was officially reunited on 3 October 1990. East Germany joined the Federal Republic as the five states of Brandenburg, Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, Saxony, Saxony-Anhalt and Thuringia.
The united Germany is the enlarged continuation of the Federal Republic and not a successor state. As such, the Federal Republic of Germany retained all its memberships in international organizations including the European Community (later the European Union) and NATO, while relinquishing membership in the Warsaw Pact and other international organizations to which only East Germany belonged.
Reunited Germany in 2015
The Berlin Institute for Population and Development concluded in a recent study that half of all Germans believe there are more differences between “Ossis” (easterners) and “Wessis” (westerners) than commonalities.
There is no example of merging two states with such vastly different political systems that has worked so smoothly. But this reunification was, and continues to be, far more difficult to achieve than was thought during the exuberance of the reunification celebrations.
Even if the two parts were only separated for 41 years – that's less than two generations – the citizens of east and west were socialized in such a different way that in retrospect the idea that integration would be swift was utopian.
It will take at least another generation before the two parts have truly grown back together. One major piece of evidence is that “many Wessis have never even been to the east,” while most Ossis have been to the west.
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