Timeline of German history

This timeline is incomplete; some important events may be missing. Please help add to it.

BC

• 500 BC, the Germanic tribes appear in northern Germany, see the Nordic Bronze 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 Frisii, Saxons, Jutes and Angles by about now
• 10 BC (approximately) differentiation of localized Teutonic tribes (Alamanni, Hermunduri, Marcomanni, Quadi, Suebi) in area formerly occupied by Rome.
• 8 BC Marcomanni and Quadi drive the Boii out of Bohemia; Confederation of Marcomanni, Semnones, Lombards of others

3 BC there was a large obstruction on the capital and led to a new constitution

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 recognized
• 1653 Johann Pachelbel born
• 1683 Battle of Vienna
• 1685 Johann Sebastian Bach born
• 1686 Grand Alliance formed
• 1697 August of Saxony becomes king of Poland
• 1701 Frederick I of Prussia declares himself as king of the newly found kingdom of Prussia
• 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 abolishedBattle of the Nations monument, Leipzig
• 1815 Karl WT Weirstrass was born
• 1815 Congress of Vienna
  • German Confederation formed
• 1817 Wartburg festival
• 1818 Karl Marx born
• 1819 August von Kotzebue assassinated and Carlsbad Decrees
• 1826 Mathematician Georg Frederich Bernhard Riemann born
• 1832 Wilhelm Busch born
  • Hambach Festival
• 1834 Zollverein formed
• 1837 Protest of the Göttingen Seven
• 1840 First kindergarten opened by Fröbel
• 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 in what is now Austria
• 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 devised
• 1911 Agadir Crisis (Second Moroccan 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 Spartacist Uprising
  • Ebert elected the first President of Germany
    • Bavarian Soviet Republic declared and then crushed
      • Treaty of Versailles
        • 1919–1933 Weimar Republic
• 1920 Kapp Putsch
  • Ruhr Uprising
• 1922 Treaty of Rapallo
• 1923-1925 French and Belgian Occupation of the Ruhr
  • 1923 Munich Putsch
    • German inflation (~1921-1923)
      • Gustav Stresemann becomes Chancellor and introduces Rentenmark to tackle hyperinflation
• 1924 Dawes Plan
• 1925 Locarno Treaties
  • 1925 - Joins the League of Nations
• 1929 Young Plan
  • Death of Gustav Stresemann
    • Wall Street Crash
• 1930 German election, 1930
• 1933 Adolf Hitler appointed Chancellor of Germany; Gleichschaltung
  • 1933 - 1945 Nazi Germany (Third Reich)
    • Reichstag Fire and the subsequent Reichstag Fire Decree the next day
      • Enabling Act of 1933
• 1934 Night of the Long Knives
  • Death of President Hindenburg
    • Hitler pronounces himself Führer, taking the power of the President
• 1935 Rearmament begins
• 1936 Re-militarisation of the Rhineland
• 1938 Anschuluss with Austria
  • Kristalnacht
• 1942-1945 Holocaust
• 1939 - 1945 World War II (see also Timeline of World War II)
• 1941 Konrad Zuse builds the first computer, Z3
• 1941 Wannsee Conference
• 1945 Potsdam Conference
• 1946 First of The industrial plans for Germany is signed
  • U.S. Restatement of Policy on Germany
    • 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
      • Last of 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
  • General Treaty Deutschlandvertrag
• 1953 Uprising of 1953 in East Germany
  

  

  The Berlin Wall
• 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
  • Treaty of Moscow
    • Treaty of Warsaw
• 1970s - 1998 Red Army Faction operates
• 1971 Four Power Agreement on Berlin
• 1972 Basic Treaty between West and East Germany
  • 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

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
• 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.
• 2010 Germany wins the eurovision
• 2011 Germany host the eurovision