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Main article: History of Germany
The German language and the feeling of "Germanhood" go back more than a thousand years, but the state now known as Germany was unified as a modern nation-state only in 1871, when the German Empire, dominated by the Kingdom of Prussia, was forged. This was the second German Reich, usually translated as " empire", but also meaning " realm".
The first Reich – known for much of its existence as the Holy Roman Empire of the German Nation – stemmed from a division of the Carolingian Empire in 843, which was founded by Charlemagne on December 25th, 800, and existed in varying forms until 1806. During these almost thousand years, the Germans expanded their influence successfully with help of the organization of the Catholic Church, Northern Crusades and the Hanseatic League. In 1530, the attempt of Protestant Reformation of Catholicism turned out to have failed, and a separate Protestant church was acknowledged as new state religion in many states of Germany. This led to inter-German strife, the Thirty Years War ( 1618) and finally the Peace of Westphalia ( 1648), that resulted in a drastically enfeebled and politically disunited Germany, unable to resist the stroke of the Napoleonic Wars, during which the Reich was overrun and dissolved in 1806. After that, France was for long perceived as Germany's arch-enemy. In the Franco-Prussian War of 1870, Germany revenged, but also during World War I, the invasion of France ( 1914) was a chief objective.
The lasting effect of the dissolution of the Holy Roman Empire came to be the division between Austria, formerly the leading state of Germany, from the more western and northern parts. Between 1815 and 1871 Germany consisted of dozens of independent states, thirty-nine of which formed the German Confederation (Deutscher Bund).
The second Reich, i.e. the German Empire, was proclaimed in Versailles on January 18th, 1871, after the French defeat. This was mainly the result of the efforts of Otto von Bismarck, Germany's most prominent statesman of the 19th century, among other things known for an anti- Catholic " Kulturkampf" and for fighting Socialists with social reforms.
The Second Reich, often perceived as a Golden Age, ended with World War I; and Germany's emperor was forced to abdicate. After a quenched revolution the democratic Weimar Republic was established. Economic hardship due to both harsh peace conditions and the world wide Great Depression contributed to making the democracy unpopular: Anti-democratic parties, both right-wing and left-wing, were increasingly supported by German opinion leaders and voters. In extraordinary elections of 1932, the anti-democratic Nazis got 37,2% in July and 33,0% in November. On January 30, 1933, Adolf Hitler was appointed Chancellor of Germany, and by the Enabling Act on March 23, 1933, a wide majority of the parliament effectively disbanded the constitution of the Weimar Republic.
The Third Reich was that of the National Socialists, which lasted 12 years, from 1933 to 1945. In 1934, Hitler affirmed total control of government, when he de facto also succeeded the President of Germany. His policy of annexing neighbouring territories was one of several reasons that led to the outbreak of World War II in Europe on September 1, 1939. Initially, Germany and her allies had many military successes, and gained control over most of Europe's mainland. After attacking the Soviet Union on June 22, 1941, which meant a two-front war for Germany, the momentum in the war switched; which Hitler's declaration of war on the United States December 11, 1941, did nothing to help. On 8 May, 1945, Germany surrendered after the Red Army had occupied Berlin where Hitler had committed suicide.
The war resulted in large losses of territory; ethnic cleansing of 15 million Germans from Eastern Germany; occupation and 45 years of division, during which the remaining parts of the country were split up into West Germany and East Germany. In 1949, during the Berlin Blockade, Western forces airlifted food and supplies into West Berlin that now in the wake of the Cold War had become a Western exclave behind the Iron Curtain. The people of West Germany became increasingly pro-American, in part due to strong German anti-communism. The American Marshall Plan for the reconstruction of Europe after the War, and later the foundation of the European Union, contributed together with a generally supporting attitude of the occupation forces in West Germany. The reconstructed West Germany once again became one of the world's major economies and the democracy was reconstructed. East Germany, by contrast, became one of the most repressive of the socialist satellite states of the Warsaw Pact. (In West Germany, East Germany was officially referred to as Middle Germany; it is still referred to as such by people who think that the historical Eastern German provinces constitute rightfully parts of Germany.)
The increasingly tense relations between the Superpowers of the Cold War also influenced Germany. Ultimately, on August 13, 1961, East Germany erected the Berlin Wall between East and West Berlin and reinforced the border to West Germany in order to avoid all contacts and migration over the inter-German border. Willy Brandt, West Berlin's mayor 1957– 1966 and West Germany's Chancellor 1969– 1974, attempted to soothe the tensions, but particularly his acceptance of the loss of historical Eastern Germany caused much controversy, most Germans considered him a traitor.
After the fall of Communism in Europe, Germany was reunited in 1990, not without economic difficulty (costs till today: €1.5 trillion). Berlin once again became capital of Germany. Together with France, the new Germany is playing the leading role in the European Union. Germany is at the forefront of European states seeking to advance the creation of a more unified and capable European political, defense and security apparatus. The Chancellor recently also called for a permanent seat for Germany in the UN Security Council.
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