timeline of german history

This is a timeline of German history. To read about the background to these events, see History of Germany. See also List of German Kings and Emperors, Lists of office-holders and List of years in Germany. This timeline is 'incomplete'; some important events may be missing. Please help add to it.

1000 BC–1 BC

1000 BC - 500 BC (approximately) Irminones tribe inhabits area between Elbe and Oder rivers. Ingvaeones move into Jutland, Holstein, Frisia and the Danish islands
600 - 300 BC (approximately) East Germanic tribes move from Scandinavia into the area between the Oder and Vistula rivers
113 BC - 439 AD Germanic Wars between Germanic tribes and the Romans
109 BC Confederation of the Cimbri, Teutoni and Helvetii formed
57 BC Julius Caesar's Gallic Wars; Caesar invades region which becomes Germania Inferior
53 BC Eburones, Nervii, Menapii and Morinii tribes revolt but are put down by Caesar.
50 BC (approximately) Ingvaeones become Frisians, Saxons, Jutes and Angles by about now
8 BC Marcomanni and Quadi drive the Boii out of Bohemia
10 BC (approximately) differentiation of localized Teutonic tribes (Alamanni, Hermunduri, Marcomanni, Quadi, Suebi) in area formerly occupied by Irminones
8 - 6 BC Confederation of Marcomanni, Lugier, Semnones, Lombards and others

1 AD–800 AD

9 AD Battle of the Teutoburg Forest establishes the boundary between Romans and Germans.

Upper Germanic Limes begun

16 AD Battle of the Weser River (Battle of Minden) between Romans (Germanicus) and Arminius, chief of the Cherusci
68 Year of the four emperors
69 Rebellion of the Batavii led by Civilis against the Roman Empire
90 Germania Superior and Germania Inferior established as Imperial Roman provinces (Germania)
268 Battle of Lake Benacus between the Alamanni and Claudius II

Battle of Naissus between the Goths and Gallienus

300 - 900 (approximately) Vlkerwanderung
496 Battle of Tolbiac between the Franks and the Alamanni
7th - 8th century Second Germanic sound shift separates High German from Low German
715 Saint Boniface begins his work as a missionary

800–1000

800 Charlemagne crowned Imperator Romanorum (Emperor of the Romans); Holy Roman Empire formed
804 Saxons finally conquered by Charlemagne
843 Treaty of Verdun
870 Treaty of Mersen divides the Carolingian Empire
955 Otto I, Holy Roman Emperor defeats Hungarians at Battle of Lechfeld

1000–1500

11th - 13th centuries Crusades
1075 start of Investiture Controversy
1096 German Crusade, 1096
1098 Hildegard of Bingen born
12th - 14th centuries Minnesnger singers
1122 Concordat of Worms
1147 - sixteenth century Northern Crusades (Baltic Crusades) against people of North Eastern Europe around the Baltic Sea
1190 Teutonic Knights formed after Third Crusade
1190 or 1200 Nibelungenlied written
1214 Battle of Bouvines
14th to 16th centuries Meistersinger lyric poets
1356 Golden Bull of 1356

Hanseatic League officially founded

1370 Treaty of Stralsund ends war between Hanseatic League and the Danes
1392 Victual Brothers hired by the Dukes of Mecklenburg to fight against Denmark
1410 Battle of Grunwald
1455 Gutenberg Bible first printed by Johann Gutenberg
1471 Albrecht Drer born
1495 Imperial Reform; Reichskammergericht formed
1517 Martin Luther's 95 Theses
1521 Diet of Worms addresses Martin Luther and the effects on the Protestant Reformation
1524 - 1526 Peasants' War
1555 Peace of Augsburg

1600–1800

1618 - 1648 Thirty Years War
1629 Edict of Restitution
1646 Gottfried Leibniz born
1648 Peace of Westphalia - European countries recognised Switzerland's independence from the Holy Roman Empire
1685 Johann Sebastian Bach born
1686 Grand Alliance formed
1697 August of Saxony becomes king of Poland
1724 Immanuel Kant born
1740 - 1742; 1744 - 1745; 1756 - 1763 Silesian Wars

War of the Austrian Succession
Seven Years' War pits Great Britain, Prussia and Hanover against France, Austria, Russia, Sweden, and Saxony

1749 Johann Wolfgang von Goethe born
1756 Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart born
1759 Friedrich Schiller born
1770 Ludwig van Beethoven born

Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel born

1777 Johann Carl Friedrich Gauss (Gau) born
1788 Abitur examination introduced in Prussia
1789 - 1799 French revolution
1791 Declaration of Pillnitz
1792 Brunswick Proclamation; France declares war on Austria
1792 - 1802 French Revolutionary Wars

1800s

1803 Napoleon imposes the Convention of Artlenburg

All of the Imperial Free Cities but six eliminated
All eccelesiatic land holdings in Germany abolished

1804 - 1815 Napoleonic Wars
Austria joins the Third Coalition
1806 Collapse of Holy Roman Empire

Confederation of the Rhine formed
Prussia joins the Fourth Coalition

1807 Peace of Tilsit
1812 Brothers Grimm publish first collection of fairy tales
1812 - 1814 Sixth Coalition includes German states
1813 Wilhelm Richard Wagner born
1815 Congress of Vienna

German Confederation formed

1816 Battle of the Nations at Leipzig: Napoleon defeated
1818 Karl Marx born
1832 Wilhelm Busch born
1834 Zollverein formed
1840 First ever kindergarten opened by Frbel
1844 Friedrich Nietzsche born
1848 - 1849 The Revolutions of 1848 in the German states
1848 Frankfurt Parliament convenes
1850 Dreiklassenwahlrecht introduced in Prussia
1856 Neanderthal remains found at the Neander valley
1858 Max Planck born
1863 Social Democratic Party of Germany formed
1866 Austro-Prussian War; Battle of Kniggrtz
1867 North German Confederation formed after collapse of German Confederation
1870 Franco-Prussian War
1871 German Empire proclaimed
1875 Thomas Mann born
1879 Albert Einstein born
1886 automobiles with gasoline-powered internal combustion engines produced independently by Carl Benz and Gottlieb Daimler
1888 Year of Three Emperors
1892 Rudolf Diesel invents Diesel engine

1900s

1900 Brgerliches Gesetzbuch comes into effect
1914 Assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand

1914 - 1918 World War I

1919 Treaty of Versailles

19191933 Weimar Republic

1923 Ruhr Crisis
1933 Adolf Hitler appointed Chancellor of Germany; Gleichschaltung

1933 - 1945 Nazi Germany (Third Reich)

1939 - 1945 World War II (see also Timeline of World War II)

1945 Potsdam Conference
1946 Party of Democratic Socialism formed
1948 Deutsche Mark introduced

Free Democratic Party formed
1948 - 1949 Berlin Blockade

1949 German Democratic Republic and Federal Republic of Germany formed (see History of East Germany, Constitution of the German Democratic Republic and Basic Law for the Federal Republic of Germany)

Christian Democratic Union of Germany founded
Konrad Adenauer becomes first post-war Chancellor of Germany

1950s Wirtschaftswunder
1953 Uprising of 1953 in East Germany
1955 Federal Republic joins NATO; GDR joins Warsaw Pact
1961 Berlin Wall and rest of GDR border system built
1964 National Democratic Party of Germany (NPD) formed
1967 - 1968 German student movement
1970s - 1998 Red Army Faction operates
1972 West Germany hosts the 1972 Summer Olympics in Munich. Palestinian terrorists cause Munich Massacre
1973 East and West Germany join United Nations
1987 First ever official visit by Erich Honecker to the Federal Republic of Germany
1989 Monday demonstrations in Leipzig

Berlin Wall falls

1990 Treaty on the Final Settlement With Respect to Germany

German reunification

1991 Berlin named new capital
1993 Alliance '90/The Greens merge

Germany signs Maastricht Treaty leading to the creation of the European Union

1994 Federal Constitutional Court says Bundeswehr can take part in UN peacekeeping outside NATO territory
1999 The NATO war on Yugoslavia is the first non-defensive war the Bundeswehr actively takes part in

Since 2000

2000 Hanover hosts Expo 2000
2001 Women join Bundeswehr for the first time
2002 Euro notes and coins introduced and replace Deutsche Mark as everyday currency