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 monarchs, 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."

BC

*1000 BC - 500 BC, the Germanic tribes appear in northern Germany, see the Nordic Bronze Age and the Pre-Roman Iron Age.
*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
*8 BC Confederation of Marcomanni,Semnones, Lombards of others

1 AD–800 AD

*9 AD Battle of the Teutoburg Forest establishes the boundary between Romans and Germanic peoples.
**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 Batavian rebellion of the Batavians 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) "Völkerwanderung"
*496 Battle of Tolbiac between the Franks and the Alamanni
*530 Pope Boniface II consecrated
*5th - 9th century High German consonant shift distinguishes High German languages from other West Germanic languages
*715 Saint Boniface begins his work as a missionary

800–1000

*800 Charlemagne crowned "Imperator Romanorum" (Emperor of the Romans)
*804 Saxons finally conquered by Charlemagne
*843 Treaty of Verdun
*870 Treaty of Mersen divides the Carolingian Empire
*955 Otto I defeats Hungarians at Battle of Lechfeld
*962 Otto I crowned "Imperator Romanorum"; Holy Roman Empire formed
*972 Battle of Cedynia
*996 Pope Gregory V consecrated

1000–1500

*11th - 13th centuries Crusades
*1046 Pope Clement II consecrated
*1048 Pope Damasus II consecrated
*1049 Pope Leo IX consecrated
*1055 Pope Victor II consecrated
*1057 Pope Stephen IX consecrated
*1072 Agnes of Germany born
*1075 start of Investiture Controversy
*1077 Walk to Canossa
*1096 German Crusade, 1096
*1098 Hildegard of Bingen born
*12th - 14th centuries "Minnesänger" singers
*1122 Concordat of Worms
*1147 - sixteenth century Northern Crusades (Baltic Crusades) against people of North Eastern Europe around the Baltic Sea
*1152 Frederick I Barbarossa crowned
*1190 Teutonic Knights formed after Third Crusade
*1190 or 1200 "Nibelungenlied" written
*1214 Battle of Bouvines
*1273 Rudolph I crowned
*1291 Federal Charter of 1291
*14th to 16th centuries "Meistersinger" lyric poets
*1338 Declaration of Rhense
*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
*1414 - 1418 Council of Constance
*1455 Gutenberg Bible first printed by Johann Gutenberg
*1471 Albrecht Dürer born
*1495 Imperial Reform; "Reichskammergericht" formed
*1499 Swabian War
*1517 Martin Luther's 95 Theses
*1521 Diet of Worms addresses Martin Luther and the effects on the Protestant Reformation
*1522 Pope Adrian VI consecrated
*1524 - 1526 Peasants' War
*1529 Protestation at Speyer
*1529 Siege of Vienna
*1546 - 1547 Schmalkaldic War
*1555 Peace of Augsburg

1600–1800

*1608 Protestant Union
*1609 Catholic League
*1618 - 1648 Thirty Years War
*1629 Edict of Restitution
*1631 Sack of Magdeburg
**Battle of Breitenfeld
*1632 Battle of Lützen and death of Gustavus Adolphus of Sweden
*1642 Second Battle of Breitenfeld
*1646 Gottfried Leibniz born
*1648 Peace of Westphalia - Independence of Switzerland and the Netherlands from the Holy Roman Empire is recognised
*1683 Battle of Vienna
*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 - 1763 Seven Years' War
*1756 Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart born
*1759 Friedrich Schiller born
*1770 Ludwig van Beethoven born
**Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel born
*1777 Johann Carl Friedrich Gauss (Gauß) 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 ecclesiastic 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
**Convention of Tauroggen
*1812 - 1814 Sixth Coalition includes German states
*1813 Wilhelm Richard Wagner born
**Battle of the Nations at Leipzig: Napoleon defeated
*1815 Congress of Vienna
**German Confederation formed
*1817 Wartburg festival
*1818 Karl Marx born
*1819 August von Kotzebue assassinated and Carlsbad Decrees
*1832 Wilhelm Busch born
**Hambach Festival
*1834 Zollverein formed
*1837 Protest of the Göttingen Seven
*1840 First kindergarten opened by Froebel
*1844 Friedrich Nietzsche born
*1848 - 1849 The Revolutions of 1848 in the German states
*1848 Frankfurt Parliament convenes
*1848 - 1851 First Schleswig War
*1850 Punctation of Olmütz
*1850 "Dreiklassenwahlrecht" introduced in Prussia
*1856 Neanderthal remains found at the Neander valley
*1858 Max Planck born
*1863 Social Democratic Party of Germany formed
*1864 Danish-Prussian War
*1865 Gastein Convention
*1866 Austro-Prussian War; Battle of Königgrätz
*1867 North German Confederation formed after collapse of German Confederation
*1870 Franco-Prussian War
*1871 German Empire proclaimed from North German Confederation.
*1873 League of the Three Emperors
*1875 Thomas Mann born
*1878 Congress of Berlin
*1879 Dual Alliance
**Albert Einstein born
*1882 Triple Alliance
*1884 Berlin Conference
*1886 automobiles with gasoline-powered internal combustion engines produced independently by Carl Benz and Gottlieb Daimler
*1887 Reinsurance Treaty
*1888 Year of Three Emperors
*1889 Adolf Hitler born
*1890 Heligoland-Zanzibar Treaty
*1891 Foundation of the Alldeutscher Verband
*1892 Rudolf Diesel invents Diesel engine
*1896 Kruger telegram

1900s

*1900 "Bürgerliches Gesetzbuch" comes into effect
*1905 - 1906 First Moroccan Crisis
*1905 Schlieffen Plan
*1911 Agadir Crisis
*1913 Saverne Affair
*1914 Assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand
**1914 - 1918 World War I
*1918 End of "Dreiklassenwahlrecht"; universal suffrage introduced (women get the vote for the first time)
*1919 Treaty of Versailles
**1919–1933 Weimar Republic
*1920 Kapp Putsch
*1922 Treaty of Rapallo
*Munich Putsch
**Ruhr Crisis
**1920s German inflation
**Gustav Stresemann becomes Chancellor and introduces Rentenmark
*1924 Dawes Plan
*1925 Locarno Treaties
**1925 - Joins the League of Nations
*1929 Young Plan
**1929 Gustav Stresemann assassinated
*1930 German election, 1930
*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)
*1941 Konrad Zuse builds the first computer, Z3
*1945 Potsdam Conference
*1946 First of the The industrial plans for Germany is signed
*1946 U.S. Restatement of Policy on Germany
*1946 Party of Democratic Socialism formed
*1947 U.S. occupation directive JCS 1067 is rescinded.
*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
*1949 Last of the The industrial plans for Germany is signed.
*1950s "Wirtschaftswunder"
*1951 - West Germany becomes one of the six founding members of the European Coal and Steel Community, later known as the European Union
*1952 Inner German border is fortified, except around Berlin
**Deutschlandvertrag
*1953 Uprising of 1953 in East Germany
*1954 West Germany wins Football World Cup - The Miracle of Bern
*1955 Federal Republic joins NATO; GDR joins Warsaw Pact
*1961 Berlin Wall is built
*1963 Ludwig Erhard becomes Chancellor
*1964 National Democratic Party of Germany (NPD) formed
*1966 Kurt Georg Kiesinger becomes Chancellor
*1967 - 1968 German student movement
*1969 Willy Brandt becomes Chancellor
*1970 Voting age lowered from 21 to 18
**1970 Treaty of Moscow
**1970 Treaty of Warsaw
*1970s - 1998 Red Army Faction operates
*1971 Four Power Agreement on Berlin
*1972 Basic Treaty between West and East Germany
*1972 West Germany hosts the 1972 Summer Olympics in Munich. Palestinian terrorists cause Munich Massacre
*1973 East and West Germany join United Nations
*1974 West Germany hosts and wins Football World Cup
**Helmut Schmidt becomes Chancellor
*1982 Helmut Kohl becomes Chancellor
*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, West Germany wins Football World Cup
**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
*1998 Gerhard Schröder becomes Chancellor
*1999 The NATO war on Yugoslavia is the first non-defensive war the Bundeswehr actively takes part in

ince 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
*2005 Pope Benedict XVI consecrated
*2005 Angela Merkel elected as the chancellor, marking the first woman chancellor of the government.
*2006 Germany hosts Fifa World Cup 2006.

ee also

*List of German presidents since 1919 for a list of presidents of the German Reich, heads of state of the German Democratic Republic and presidents of the Federal Republic of Germany (1949-present)
*Chancellor of Germany for a list of chancellors since 1871.

References