INTRODUCTION TO GERMAN HISTORY

1. What’s German about German History?

I
Emperor, Empire, Reform and Reformation (1486

II High and Late Modernity

- attendance 3 page essay combining 2 lectures
- mündliche Prüfung. 20 minutes . encompasses all lectures presented by the lecturer
of choice.
after the lectures
- Early Modernity Winnerling
- High and Late Modernity Nonn
mary fullbrook a concise history of Germany Cambridge 2019
neil macgregor Germany memories of a nation London 2014

Last five hundred year of history. What can be designated as modern german history.
Modern German History, to be able to label it “german”, we need a definition. How
can it be defined?
We can try to say to say that german history is the history of the german people, but
becomes complicated when looking at history. What means german?
1.1. The German people
(Nuremberg Chronicle, 1493)
Compiled by a team of scholars in Nuremberg, the so considered german city in the
middle of the german land.
It illustrates what being german consists of. Implies two things:
- German people (teutsches volck)
- German nation (teutsche nation)
Late 15th century German intellectual had no clear definition of German People ir
German Nation. Both were used to describe:
- People descended from ancient Germans.
- People inhabiting specific German regions
- People speaking German.

The continuous questioning of what being German means. It needs to be constantly

questioned.

The history of the German lands, something on the map. Described by the chronicles
as something flexible because they constantly change. Over the course of time, they
claimed the German lands have expanded because they conquered new lands. These
lands have changed so much over time due to several factors such as agriculture that
Julio Caesar would say these lands were not the same lands he once saw.
Political history
1.2. The Holy Roman Empire
For a time there was no political entity calling itself Germany. The first one came with
the German States.
The Early Roman Empire was very different, it was far larger and always included
people that were never thought of germans because they didn’t speak the language. It
incorporated many non-German regions.
teutsched kayseryhumb German Emperorship

Holy Roman Empire of the German Nation Heiliges Römisches Reich deutscher Nation
HREmperor seen as successor of the Ancient Roman Emperors and heir of
Charlemagne
Right to elect the Emperor seen as a God’s gift to the Germans. So it would built a
more stable institution than before.
They refounded the empire. The Italians lost the favor of God and passed the “gift” to
the germans. No matter if the emperor is german or not. it was an universal empire.
the emperor was the universal monarch with the right to govern all the Christianity.
Crowded by the pope. Based on this claim, the emperor was considered to be above of
all the population.
If the HRE
“the French king is king withing his kingdom”

there were 3 candidates in. the imperial election of 1519

Francis I King of France
Henry VIII king of ENGLAnd
Calros I king of Spain Elected King of the Romans Charles (Karl V)
He was elected when being already the king of spain.

The HRE of the german nation until 1806

- no nation-state
no unified state
but more than just a oose federation of principalities
seen by many of its inhabitants as a mixed political order combining the best of
monarchy, aristocracy and republicanism (because of elections)- this lead by a Imperial
patriotism (Reichpatriotismus), based on that claim.

1.3. The german language

German-speaking area around the year 962
Said to have appeared for the first time in
When the empire of Charlemagne

Language or dialect?
Low, middle and Bavarian-Austrian.
The difference between language and dialect
Dutch was considered a variety of the german language.
- Main division between low german dn upper german (Niederdeutsch, oberdeutsch)
- language status is a political matter: in the 16 th century Dutch is still counted as a
german dialect (duytsch)
- German as a language is considered of low value even by German native speakers
during early modernity.
- Latin is the language of learning, education, German the language of law, the imperial
institutions record their proceedings in German. No matter how much they spoke and
learned, german law was written down in german. The main institutions recored theis
proceedings in german.
This is thus a difficult factor because many things of the german history were not
recorded in german but in latin.
1.4. German Nations
Schiller defined Germany as a land whose borders cannot be found.He meant that
there was a Germany of intellectuals and a Germany of politicians.
Intellectual as Schiller defined Germany as a land that didn’t exist, Germany as a
german national state: Intellectual utopia
Political reality: a collection of territories
The empire in 1797. there were herman people speakimg outside of Germany. there
were lots of Germany lands who were not german speaking. During the 19 and 20 th
century there were two controversial questions:

Questions of borders. What borders should Germany have. What people sould belong
to Germany?
Question of Constitution, internal structure of Germany. Should it be a monarchy? An
empire? a confederation (collection of national states), a federation or should it have
an unitary structure?
Borders
1815 German Confederation (Deutscher Bund). The borders are not so much
difference from the borders of the empires. It was a copy of the old empire,
independent states and had the rule of Austria as the empire had. There were some
germaan speaking people outsode the borders of th confederation. there were still lots
of non speaking german within this borders, such as French people. nach dem Wiener
Kongress
only a part of the Austrian empire was german.prusia was inside of the
other European states woth lands inside the german borders. for example Denmark,
the Netherlands, great Britain

north grman confederation dominated mainly by prusia 1867-1871

much smaller, officially still a confederation but because more than 9’% of the
population were prusians, prusia dominated this confederation.
4 years later these became the german empire…

german empire 1871-1918 , still dominated by Prusiam 2/3 of its population. The
prusian king became emperor of the german empire. 1871 when the constitution
there was a national parliament and a chamber. that german empire became a
republic in 1919

german empire (Weimar Republic) 1919-1933

smaller after WWI it was a democracy, it still was a federation
domoinated by the prusians??
the Gemrna Empire (NS Germany) in 1938 after Austria became part of it
the nazis dissolved the state and became a
summer 1939 it started to expand because there were still lots of people outside the
borders

empire requires an ermperor, in german not: reich doesn’t imply a kaiser

September 1939

1944 the german empire greater Germany. the country became a prision,
concentrarion camps and extermination camps. ejded with wwii
1945 occupied Germany after wwii it was occupied and divided into 2 sections. all the
parts of Germany
1949-1957 we had a divided Germany
federal republic of germane (Saar independent until 1957 when they wanted to
become. apart of germany) and the German democratic Republic (West Berlin).
Russian zone became a centralist communist dictatorship. it included east berlin at the
end.

1957-1989 Federal Republic of Germany and German Democraticc Republic (west

berlin)
Federal Republic of Germany since 1990 since the end of cold war

1.5. Someone-thing German still outside our borders?

German Empire 1871-1918
even in the area when german had reached a national state, there was still an
uncomfortable feeling because Germans there were still outside the german territory.
the german had a feeling there were still people speaking german outside of the
german territoty.
- The Austrian question. Did the Austrians belong to Germany? It had been part of
Germany for centuries and then in 1871 it was kicked out of Germany.german
catholics were a minority and they considered Austria to be part of Germany.
Pangermans
the ausyrians 1918 at least thought themselves they were german. the nacional
socialist believed Austria reunified but they were separated again in 1945

- german overseas
where people from Germany emigrated to? all of this people who had emigrated
abroad, more than 5 million, where still seen as part of lost german. .. to reclaim
german citizenship, and they could reclaim it proving their ancestors emigratied from
Germany

german colonies : west and south Africa who becamed colonies in the middle of the
1880s. they were not really important numerically, most of the emigrants went to
America

eastern Europe, where lots of german settled

mitteleuropa central Europe
small states
the only real mayor power in the area was still the german empire, the gfermans
thought they were supposed to lead this area. before wwi. after wwii this sort of
political alliance became an economic idea or union and became much more
connected by Germany. also there was the idea that eastern Europe was Germanys
culture ground because so many germans settled there.
deutscher kulturboden/ german cultural gound
territories where Germany had ruled: Austria Germany
areas once settled by germans and lost in the middle ages
areas where the germans brought theis culture.all of yhis was very artificial

verlorene ostgebiete
lost eastern territories
1.6. spmeone else onside orur borders?
catholics in the german empire
inside the countries were strangers for them because the german empire there were
people who deidnt speak the same langua. the catholics have been expelled an it was
the catholic german who thought that in 1871 that should be together

poles, danes, Alsatians

catholics a religios minority were considered to be untrustworthy
jews in 1930 1% of jews
muslims only came to Germany after 1970
migrants
during the wwii
the slaves were changed by the german refugees
Turkish and other gesut workers since 1950s. lots of them stayed
asylum seekers since 1970s for example coming from Vietnam, irak or siria

Germany very much became a country of inmigrants. lots of say it is not agood idea
that it is so multicultural, thie question is nowdays still open