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The only mention of the great German revolutionary Rosa Luxemburg is in a picture caption — her ideas are ignored and her brutal murder is entirely omitted. The stench of his fascist semi-apologism becomes almost too much to bear as the book continues, and I was tempted to simply give up several times, despite it being a short and very basic text. How like modern Polish far right revisionism this sounds. As I mentioned above, the writing at times borders on almost anti-semitic.
The clearest example being when he dismisses the post-war East German government as a prefabricated puppet government installed by Moscow. Maybe those East Germans who heroically purged their society of slav and jew hatred were the wrong kind of jews? Hawes more or less skips the GDR and the cold war as an irrelevant aberration. Strange, as this book is so much a product of the cold war that it could have been written by the CIA. Whether this is because he knows next to nothing about East German society, or because he actively wants to wipe it out of the history books is unclear.
Perhaps the only thing I agreed with in this whole sorry segment is that process by which reunification was undertaken was borderline criminal. However, while I see the economic terrorism and cultural purges of East German civil society as being the issue at hand including the totally unnecessary dismantling of its world class health system , Hawes objects to his beloved West Germany being saddled with an inferior society to subsidise.
The book concludes by asserting that the modern EU, as led by West Germany, is the natural successor to both Rome and Charlemagne. Frustrating and disturbing in equal measure Apr 24, Hristian Trendafilov rated it really liked it. I found this quite interesting. I really liked how history was traced from the beginning ie Bronze Age, pre Roman encounters all the way to the Present. It is interesting because then you can see certain themes emerge.
I've noticed this when I've traced other region's history in total and I found surprising coincidences. So the author argues there's an overlapping theme of West Germany vs East Germany. The rich against the powerful. So there is an opinion stated throughout the book. So I canno I found this quite interesting. So I cannot say it's unbiased. But I cant say it's boring too. I found this approach very refreshing. True, some parts did feel rushed and more detail could have been added. Yes, a counter argument would have been good.
Yes, a counter argument would have contributed to completeness. But then that would have disallowed the clear tracking of the main theses the author comes forth with. It's a well enough and engaging enough history in good sizeable to digest chunks. I'd defo consider it a worthy read. Check out my review at my blog using the link below! Jul 07, Miguel Pinto rated it it was amazing. Clearly written, not boring it focus on fact without putting you to sleep.
Mar 08, Stephen rated it really liked it. Amazing coverage of years in just over pages. Good to just get the most important points in one go. Most negative reviews hone in on the fact that this is just a poorly justified thesis that East Germany is culturally different from the rest of Germany because it was never fully romanised. I kinda agree with this, especially the last pages just really tried to hammer home this opinion. One thing I did like was small pieces of etymological detail for example, the origin of the word st Amazing coverage of years in just over pages.
One thing I did like was small pieces of etymological detail for example, the origin of the word sterling in relation to the Pound. Overall, I would recommend this as a good overview and to get an idea of the history of Germany and to possibly find a more narrow area of interest to read more deeply about. Mar 24, Rosie rated it liked it. I had very mixed thoughts on this book. On the one hand, he's drawn the history together very well in that he shows its continuity.
This makes a much more readable and compelling history than - as so often happens - it being treated as separate events that are isolated from one another. However, Hawes clearly has his own biases that crop up throughout the book. In an early map of Europe 'In the Proto-Beginning', xi he labels northern Germany 'Proto Germans' and the Mediterranean, specifically I had very mixed thoughts on this book. I wasn't sure if I was being overly critical but civilisation seems a particularly loaded term. This seems to be part of his wider bias towards West Germany.
It becomes clear in the last few pages where he talks of Germany's future and says that 'Merkel must hold firm and recall the Roman limes; Charlemagne's renaissance; the Golden Age of medieval Germany; the south western realms which fought in vain against Prussia in ; the hapless southern and western Germans shackled by Bismarck to war against Russia; the doomed southern and western Germans who never voted for Hitler but got him all the same; and Adenauer's late, lamented West Germany It must now act and it must now be embraced, as what it was always meant to be: I would not say 'The Shortest History of Germany' is impartial by any means - and credit where it's due, I've not seen anywhere claim it would be - but it casts a shadow on much of the rest of the work.
May 27, Alice rated it liked it. As a reference text for sorting out dates and chronology over the span of approximately 2, years in a mere pages, I think it does a pretty good job. Jun 06, Michael Keating rated it really liked it. Excellent little primer on a fascinating subject, of which we hear so little. Germany's place as a continuum of the Holy Roman Empire, just trying to be a Good European, but manipulated by Prussia into catastrophic world wars. It puts modern day Germany into a proper historical context, stretching back to Roman times, explaining why being in a federal Europe suits it so well.
His writing is straightforward, amusing, and avoids academese; it zips along. Apr 22, Stanislav Stanchev rated it really liked it. I am impressed with how much James Hawes has accomplished in just pages of image-rich and small-format pages. To me, the book has three layers on which it can be appreciated: First, the reader is served an engaging and accessible tale of 2, years of German history.
I particularly enjoyed the many maps and the interspersed etymological facts such as the English pound Sterling being derived from Easterling, referring to the reliable money of the Hansa merchants on the German Baltic Coast. S I am impressed with how much James Hawes has accomplished in just pages of image-rich and small-format pages. Second, the author supplements his historiography with succinct analyses of critical junctures that shaped the course of this history. These analytical points are frequently condensed into simple, parsimonious equations as illustrated below , ripe for contention and discussion.
It is in fact a reference to the central hypothesis of the essay: In ancient times, the Elbe was where the Roman general Drusus in 9 BC ended his military conquest of Germania, allegedly because of a superstitious warning against venturing further east. The author traces the significant intra-German west-east differences and tensions in terms of religion, culture, economy and the attitude towards the state in the period Thus, he convincingly argues that Germany was divided already before the post-WW2 iron curtain partitioning by the Allies.
Hawes naturally points out that the European Union had its beginnings in exactly this sort of neo-Carolingian geographical setup. Though it can seem eyebrow-raising at first, Hawes is not alone to present this sort of analysis: That the east-west divide cuts across Europe and across Germany has also been eloquently formulated by Ivan Krastev along with a good piece on the difference between western and eastern conservatism , among others. Using these pronouns is of course very awkward for me with my eastern genes and birthplace and western passport and coming-of-age.
That some borders — like the Roman limes or the river Elbe — are destined to remain permanent? Even Samuel Huntington was less pessimistic, at least drawing the inescapable civilizational fault line further east. It is pertinent to ask if Europe really would have been in a better geopolitical and economic state if Germany had not been re unified and if the EU had not been enlarged to the east. And though counterfactuals are very difficult to present and evaluate, I remain convinced that Europe as a whole has benefited from looking beyond the Elbe.
Because of the EU, many states in Eastern Europe e. And the tensions between centre and periphery are felt everywhere. Sharp, short and sweet? In the end, the concise format and parsimonious causal arguments of The Shortest History of Germany are both its greatest strengths and its biggest shortcomings. The main point is driven with force and precision already from Tacitus and all the way to Merkel. I very much appreciated this approach. It made the book feel less like a tedious political science master thesis and more like an impactful essay. It is up to the reader to ask the critical questions and to discuss rather than outright accept all of the arguments and conclusions.
I learned just as much from his points as from the questions he prompted me to ask for instance, it is not quite certain that Sterling is derived from Hansa traders, as the Oxford Dictionary explicitly states. Taking all of the above into consideration, I can highly recommend The Shortest History of Germany for anyone interested in European history, society and politics. It is a remarkable feat to produce something so accessible, so comprehensive and so thought-provoking that can easily be read in a single afternoon.
Jun 24, AnnaG rated it it was amazing Shelves: This is a swoop over 2, years of history that can be read in a couple of hours. It gives an interesting insight into the history of Germany. Some parts are brushed over rather lightly making it hard to understand exactly what is going on, but with the brevity, you don't get bogged down in the detail. The theory advanced that modern Germany is really a fusion of two separate cultures that have kept experiencing different developmental pressures is interesting and not one I'd heard before.
Whil This is a swoop over 2, years of history that can be read in a couple of hours. Whilst taking it's central premise with a pinch of salt, I do see this as an interesting case study showing how regions that have been through constant war and have porous and ill-defined borders such as East Elbia have very different political priorities than the relatively more peaceful areas. This high-level view shows how this can persist over centuries with continual reinforcement. As an example - were the Junkers and the cultural effects there-of just a symptom of the need for military strength in a region with the geography of East Elbia?
Do you get analogous structures in places with similar geography e. This book is a very helpful companion to the chapter on Russia in Prisoners of Geography: Jul 15, Kevin Gibbons rated it did not like it. This book is dishonest history. The main argument is based on a distinction between cultural "West Germans" who are descended from those tribes which were under the power of the Roman Empire, and "East Germans" who were never 'civilized'. This distinction is a fantasy, based on some idealized and, indeed, sterilized idea of what the Roman Empire was.
Rather than the source of all democratic and liberal thought, the Roman Empire is more accurately characterized by its "state-worship" and "scar- This book is dishonest history. Rather than the source of all democratic and liberal thought, the Roman Empire is more accurately characterized by its "state-worship" and "scar-faced militarism", the exact descriptors Hawes uses to describe the non-Romanized "East Elbians", than its commitment to liberal ideals.
If Hawes was right that the cultural monolith of the German People is properly conceived of as two distinct peoples, then in actuality the West Germans ought to be the ones with a militaristic, autocratic streak not the Easterners. But this is not the case. Hawes, lacking any realistic study of the romans, is therefore forced to make the wildest inferences to support his claim.
One has to wonder why Hawes is willing to go to these rhetorical lengths to defend such an obviously weak thesis, given that he does seem to possess a sweeping command of the relevant names, dates, and events. In the end though, all one can do is wonder. Apr 29, Laura rated it really liked it. A great book about a very interesting topic. This is one of the books that show that history, unlike many of us experienced in school, doesn't have to be dry and boring.
It's an entertaining read that taught me about the bigger power struggles in Europe over centuries, but also about my own family history. Does it go in to a lot of detail? Is that an issue?
This is not a history book in the classical sense of the word. It is not a regurgitation of facts that we have he A great book about a very interesting topic. It is not a regurgitation of facts that we have heard many times before. It's in part an opinion piece based on historical facts, an introduction to a fascinating topic that makes you want to start reading into several topics in more detail. I learned why bullies in school used to call me 'Pruus' a Dutch insult relating directly to Prussia , why, when growing up, my family's mentality was different from our surrounding culture, why the UK currency is called Pound sterling and why the East-West divide of Germany still persists.
In the current political climate I can only hope that industrial West Germany continues to support the notion of a unified Germany and help it's economically weaker Eastern twin out. Family don't always get along, but it's still a country with the same culture, language and a shared history. Aug 27, Ronald Watson rated it really liked it.
Then in the Diet of Augsburg met. The peace of Augsburg declared that princes could decide the religion of their state. Anyone who disagreed with their ruler could emigrate. Furthermore in the early 16th century there were a series of peasant uprisings across Germany, as the peasants, dissatisfied with their lot, demanded economic and social change. The unrest culminated in the Peasants War of However the princes easily crushed the rebellion and tens of thousands of peasants were killed.
However the late 16th century was a time of relative peace and stability in Germany. In the early 17th century the uneasy peace between Protestants and Catholics broke down. The Protestants formed a military alliance in In response the Catholics formed the Catholic League in Protestant nobles in Bohemia had gained certain privileges.
When Ferdinand II became king of Bohemia in he tried to undo them. In protest on 23 May Protestants threw royal officials out of a window in Prague. This event became known as the defenestration of Prague. The Bohemians rebelled and appealed to German Protestants to help them. However the emperor led a force of Catholics and defeated the Protestants at the battle of White Mountain in Nevertheless a long series of wars between Catholic and Protestant states began.
Other European powers became involved. The Swedes joined the Protestants in under their king Gustavus Adolphus although he was killed at the battle of Lutzen in France joined the Protestant side in The wars dragged on until the Peace of Westphalia in The Thirty Years War was a disaster for Germany. The population fell significantly and much of the country was devastated.
Germany took decades to recover from the destruction. The war had another effect. It weakened the power of the emperor and increased the power of the princes and kings. The main development in Germany during the 18th century was the rise of Prussia. In the 17th century the Hohenzollern family ruled both Brandenburg and East Prussia. In that year he crowned himself King of Prussia. Soon the whole realm was called Prussia. However at first Prussia was an economically backward area. Frederick had a very large army and he was a capable general, which allowed him to fight successful wars.
In Prussia invaded Silesia an Austrian possession. On 10 April the Prussians defeated the Austrians at the battle of Mollwitz. At first the battle went well for the Austrians. Their cavalry defeated the Prussian cavalry and Frederick fled from the battle. However the Prussian infantry stood and fought. They overcame both the Austrian cavalry and the Austrian infantry. As a result Prussia won the battle. Austria made peace in but the peace did not last long.
War began again in Frederick II ended the war in December with his territory enlarged. In Prussia went to war again when Frederick invaded Saxony. However this time Frederick II was faced with a powerful coalition of enemies. Nevertheless the Prussians won two victories at Rossback in November and at Leuthen in December The Prussians also defeated the Russians at the battle of Zorndorf in However the tide of war then turned against the Prussians and they were defeated at the battle of Minden in Fortunately in January , one of Frederick's most powerful enemies, Elizabeth of Russia, died and her son made peace with the Treaty of St Petersburg.
The war ended in Then in Prussia, Austria and Russia agreed to carve up part of Poland between them. In Prussia and Austria went to war with Revolutionary France. However the French won victories and Prussia made peace in Meanwhile the Prussians and Russians divided up the remaining part of Poland in Austria made peace with France in but war began again in However Austria was defeated and was forced to make peace in France defeated Austria again in As a result some German states allied themselves with Napoleon.
The Holy Roman Empire officially ceased to exist on 6 August Then in September Prussia went to war with France. However Napoleon crushed the Prussians at Jena on 14 October However in the French were utterly defeated in Russia. In Prussia joined Russia in the war against the French. Austria also joined and in October the combined armies defeated the French at the battle of Leipzig. After Napoleon's final defeat in the Congress of Vienna met to decide the fate of Europe. A German confederation was formed to replace the old Holy Roman Empire. It consisted of 38 states.
An assembly called the Bundestag, made up of delegates from the states was formed. Prussia was the biggest winner from the peace. It gained the Rhineland and Westphalia. The population of Prussia increased and it gained valuable mineral resources.
Prussia became increasingly important in German affairs. In the Prussians and other German states formed a customs union called the Zollverein. Furthermore in the s Germany began to industrialize. One sign of this was the opening of the first German railway in from Nuremberg and Furth.
As Prussia industrialized it grew stronger and stronger while its rival, Austria remained an agricultural country and so grew relatively weaker. Meanwhile an Austrian minister named Metternich tried to prevent the ideas of the French Revolution spreading in Germany. In there were student bodies in German universities called Burschenschaften. On 23 March a member of one killed a writer called August von Kotzebue. Metternich used this as an excuse to introduce press censorship and strict supervision of universities. His measures were called the Karlsbad decrees. However it proved impossible to put the genie back in the bottle.
In Baden and Bavaria introduced liberal constitutions. So did Wurttemberg in and Hessen-Darmstadt in Furthermore in a revolution in France triggered riots in parts of Germany and some German rulers were forced to make concessions. In Brunswick, Hesse and Saxony all introduced new constitutions. However in Prussia and Austria all liberal movements were repressed. Then, after there were a series of bad harvests.
There was also a recession and high unemployment. Discontent erupted in revolution in In February another revolution in France triggered demonstrations and unrest across Europe, including Germany. At first the rulers were so alarmed they backed down and made concessions.
James Hawes's brief yet rewarding history of Germany examines its place in a continent in the throes of upheaval. This item:The Shortest History of Germany by James Hawes Hardcover £ In stock. Sent from and I don't know of a better short history of this great country.'.
However they soon regained their nerve. In Prussia on 18 March the king announced he was willing to make some reforms. However Prussian troops fired at some demonstrators in Berlin and in the ensuing fighting many people were killed. Afraid of further unrest the king decided to appease the demonstrators. On 19 March he ordered the troops to leave Berlin. On 21 March he rode through Berlin dressed in the revolutionary colors, red, gold and black.
Then in May an elected assembly representing all Germany met in Frankfurt. The Frankfurt parliament discussed German unity. However the rulers soon regained their confidence and they began to crack down on the revolutionaries. However he rejected the offer.
The Frankfurt parliament gradually dispersed and its members went home. Meanwhile, in European rulers began to use their armies to put down rebellions. Soon the old order returned. Then, in the Danish king tried to annex the duchies of Schleswig and Holstein. Both Prussia and Austria fought a short war against Denmark in As a result Prussia and Austria were given joint administration of the two duchies.
Disagreements with Austria over the duchies gave Prussia a pretext to start a war in It was over within a short period. On 3 July Prussia won a great victory over the Austrians at Koniggratz.
Afterwards a peace treaty created North German Federation dominated by Prussia. Austria was expelled from German affairs. Bismarck, the German chancellor, then quarreled with France over the issue of who was to succeed to the Spanish throne. The French declared war on 19 July However the French were utterly defeated at the battle of Sedan on 2 September and they made peace in February Meanwhile the southern German states agreed to become part of a new German Empire with the Prussian king as emperor.
William I was proclaimed emperor on 18 January In the late 19th century Germany industrialized rapidly. By the end of the century it rivaled Britain as an industrial power. The two powers agreed to come to each others aid in the event of a war with Russia. Bismarck, the German chancellor also campaigned against socialism. In the late 19th century it was a growing force in Germany. Bismarck tried to take the wind out of Socialism's sails by introducing welfare measures.
In he introduced sickness insurance. In he introduced accident insurance. Then in he introduced old age pensions. However socialism continued to grow in Germany and by the Social Democratic Party was the largest party in the Reichstag. Finally Bismarck resigned in Bismarck always pursued friendly relations with Britain but under his successors it was different. From under Admiral Tirpitz Germany began expanding its navy. Britain, the largest naval power, was alarmed. Furthermore Europe became divided into two armed camps, with Germany and Austria-Hungary one side and Britain, France and Russia on the other.
The spark that ignited war came on 28 June when the Austrian Archduke Franz Ferdinand was assassinated in Sarajevo. In August the German army overran Belgium and marched on Paris. However they were defeated at the battle of the Marne in September. Both sides began a 'race for the sea'. Both sides reached it at the same time. They then dug trenches and years of deadlock followed. In the east the Germany was more successful. They crushed the Russians at the battle of Tannenberg. Russia gradually weakened and finally made peace by the treaty of Brest-Litovsk in March Meanwhile in Germany introduced unrestricted submarine warfare, which meant that ships from any nations trying to trade with the allies would be sunk.
In March Germany launched a series of assaults on the British and French lines. However they failed to break through and on 8 August the British counter-attacked with tanks. Furthermore in September the Americans began an offensive against the Germans. Slowly the allies advanced and on 29 September General Hindenburg advised the government that the war could not be won.
The Kaiser abdicated on 9 November and the Social Democrats formed a new government. On 11 November they were forced to sign an armistice with the allies. However although the Kaiser went the 'pillars' of the old regime, the generals, civil servants and judges remained. A new constitution was drawn up but it had a fatal weakness. It used a system of complete proportional representation.
This meant there was a huge number of parties in the Reichstag, none of them ever had a majority of seats and Germany was ruled by weak coalition governments. Worse, under Article 48 the President could ignore the Reichstag and pass laws of his own choosing. This was called rule by decree. In the German government were forced to sign the Versailles Treaty. However the vast majority of Germans bitterly resented the Versailles Treaty. Firstly the Germans were not consulted on the treaty and they resented being dictated to. They also resented the 'war guilt' clause, which blamed Germany and its allies for causing the war.
Worse under the treaty Germany lost a significant part of its territory and its population. A section of land called the Polish corridor was given to Poland so East Prussia was cut off from the main part of Germany. Also Memel was given to Lithuania. After a referendum Eupen-Malmedy was given to Belgium. After another referendum North Schleswig joined Denmark.
From , new towns were founded around imperial strongholds, castles, bishops' palaces, and monasteries. The towns began to establish municipal rights and liberties see German town law. Several cities such as Cologne became Imperial Free Cities , which did not depend on princes or bishops, but were immediately subject to the Emperor.
Craftsmen formed guilds , governed by strict rules, which sought to obtain control of the towns; a few were open to women. Society was divided into sharply demarcated classes: Political tensions arose from issues of taxation, public spending, regulation of business, and market supervision, as well as the limits of corporate autonomy. Cologne's central location on the Rhine river placed it at the intersection of the major trade routes between east and west and was the basis of Cologne's growth.
It was the seat of the archbishops, who ruled the surrounding area and from to built the great Cologne Cathedral , with sacred relics that made it a destination for many worshippers. By the city had secured its independence from the archbishop who relocated to Bonn , and was ruled by its burghers. From the early medieval period and continuing through to the 18th century, Germanic law assigned women to a subordinate and dependent position relative to men.
Salic Frankish law , from which the laws of the German lands would be based, placed women at a disadvantage with regard to property and inheritance rights. Germanic widows required a male guardian to represent them in court. Social status was based on military and biological roles, a reality demonstrated in rituals associated with newborns, when female infants were given a lesser value than male infants. The use of physical force against wives was condoned until the 18th century in Bavarian law.
Some women of means asserted their influence during the Middle Ages, typically in royal court or convent settings. Hildegard of Bingen , Gertrude the Great , Elisabeth of Bavaria — , and Argula von Grumbach are among the women who pursued independent accomplishments in fields as diverse as medicine, music composition, religious writing, and government and military politics. Benedictine abbess Hildegard von Bingen — wrote several influential theological, botanical, and medicinal texts, as well as letters, liturgical songs, poems, and arguably the oldest surviving morality play , while supervising brilliant miniature Illuminations.
About years later, Walther von der Vogelweide c. Around , Johannes Gutenberg of Mainz , used movable type printing and issued the Gutenberg Bible. He was the global inventor of the printing press , thereby starting the Printing Revolution. Cheap printed books and pamphlets played central roles for the spread of the Reformation and the Scientific Revolution. By then, the emperors had lost their influence in Italy and Burgundy. Hildegard von Bingen — Walther von der Vogelweide c. In the early 16th century there was much discontent occasioned by abuses such as indulgences in the Catholic Church, and a general desire for reform.
In the Reformation began with the publication of Martin Luther 's 95 Theses ; he posted them in the town square and gave copies of them to German nobles, but it is debated whether he nailed them to the church door in Wittenberg as is commonly said. The list detailed 95 assertions Luther believed to show corruption and misguidance within the Catholic Church.
One often cited example, though perhaps not Luther's chief concern, is a condemnation of the selling of indulgences ; another prominent point within the 95 Theses is Luther's disagreement both with the way in which the higher clergy, especially the pope, used and abused power, and with the very idea of the pope. In Luther was outlawed at the Diet of Worms.
A curious fact is that Luther spoke a dialect which had minor importance in the German language of that time. After the publication of his Bible, his dialect suppressed the others and evolved into what is now the modern German. In the German Peasants' War broke out in Swabia , Franconia and Thuringia against ruling princes and lords, following the preaching of Reformers.
As many as , German peasants were massacred during the revolt. From the Counter-Reformation began in Germany. The main force was provided by the Jesuit order , founded by the Spaniard Ignatius of Loyola. Central and northeastern Germany were by this time almost wholly Protestant, whereas western and southern Germany remained predominantly Catholic. But the treaty also stipulated that the religion of a state was to be that of its ruler Cuius regio, eius religio.
Its causes were the conflicts between Catholics and Protestants, the efforts by the various states within the Empire to increase their power, and the Catholic Emperor's attempt to achieve the religious and political unity of the Empire. The immediate occasion for the war was the uprising of the Protestant nobility of Bohemia against the emperor, but the conflict was widened into a European war by the intervention of King Christian IV of Denmark —29 , Gustavus Adolphus of Sweden —48 and France under Cardinal Richelieu.
Germany became the main theatre of war and the scene of the final conflict between France and the Habsburgs for predominance in Europe. The fighting often was out of control, with marauding bands of hundreds or thousands of starving soldiers spreading plague, plunder, and murder. The armies that were under control moved back and forth across the countryside year after year, levying heavy taxes on cities, and seizing the animals and food stocks of the peasants without payment.
The enormous social disruption over three decades caused a dramatic decline in population because of killings, disease, crop failures, declining birth rates and random destruction, and the out-migration of terrified people. It took generations for Germany to fully recover. The war ended in with the Peace of Westphalia. Alsace was permanently lost to France, Pomerania was temporarily lost to Sweden, and the Netherlands officially left the Empire. Imperial power declined further as the states' rights were increased. The German population reached about twenty million people, the great majority of whom were peasant farmers.
The Reformation was a triumph of literacy and the new printing press. Luther's translation of the Bible into German was a decisive moment in the spread of literacy, and stimulated as well the printing and distribution of religious books and pamphlets. From onward religious pamphlets flooded Germany and much of Europe.
By over 10, publications are known, with a total of ten million copies. The Reformation was thus a media revolution. Luther strengthened his attacks on Rome by depicting a "good" against "bad" church. From there, it became clear that print could be used for propaganda in the Reformation for particular agendas. Illustrations in the newly translated Bible and in many tracts popularized Luther's ideas. Lucas Cranach the Elder — , the great painter patronized by the electors of Wittenberg, was a close friend of Luther, and illustrated Luther's theology for a popular audience.
He dramatized Luther's views on the relationship between the Old and New Testaments, while remaining mindful of Luther's careful distinctions about proper and improper uses of visual imagery. His bible promoted the development of non-local forms of language and exposed all speakers to forms of German from outside their own area. Decisive scientific developments took place during the 16th and 17th centuries, especially in the fields of astronomy, mathematics and physics. The German astronomical community played a dominant role in Europe at this time, as its scientists kept in close touch with one another.
Several non-German scientists influenced this community too, like astronomers Copernicus who worked in Poland and Tycho Brahe , who worked in Denmark and Bohemia. Copernicus, for example, was better known inside the German community. He is best known for his laws of planetary motion. His ideas influenced contemporary Italian scientist Galileo Galilei and provided one of the foundations for Englishman Isaac Newton 's theory of universal gravitation. The Peace of Westphalia in strengthened it even further, through the acquisition of East Pomerania. From to , King Frederick William I , also known as the "Soldier King", established a highly centralized, militarized state with a heavily rural population of about three million compared to the nine million in Austria.
In terms of the boundaries of , Germany in had a population of 16 million, increasing slightly to 17 million by , and growing more rapidly to 24 million by Wars continued, but they were no longer so devastating to the civilian population; famines and major epidemics did not occur, but increased agricultural productivity led to a higher birth rate, and a lower death rate. Afterwards Hungary was reconquered from the Turks; Austria, under the Habsburgs, developed into a great power. Frederick II "the Great" is best known for his military genius, his reorganization of Prussian armies, his battlefield successes, his enlightened rule, and especially his making Prussia one of the great powers, as well as escaping from almost certain national disaster at the last minute.
He was especially a role model for an aggressively expanding Germany down to , and even today retains his heroic image in Germany. In the War of Austrian Succession — Maria Theresa fought successfully for recognition of her succession to the throne. After the Peace of Hubertsburg in between Austria, Prussia and Saxony , Prussia won recognition as a great power, thus launching a century-long rivalry with Austria for the leadership of the German peoples. From , against resistance from the nobility and citizenry, an " enlightened absolutism " was established in Prussia and Austria, according to which the ruler governed according to the best precepts of the philosophers.
The economies developed and legal reforms were undertaken, including the abolition of torture and the improvement in the status of Jews. Emancipation of the peasants slowly began. Compulsory education was instituted. In — Prussia took the lead in the partitions of Poland , with Austria and Russia splitting the rest. Prussia occupied the western territories of the former Polish—Lithuanian Commonwealth that surrounded existing Prussian holdings. Poland again became independent in Completely overshadowed by Prussia and Austria, according to historian Hajo Holborn , the smaller German states were generally characterized by political lethargy and administrative inefficiency, often compounded by rulers who were more concerned with their mistresses and their hunting dogs than with the affairs of state.
Bavaria was especially unfortunate in this regard; it was a rural land with very heavy debts and few growth centers. Saxony was in economically good shape, although its government was seriously mismanaged, and numerous wars had taken their toll. During the time when Prussia rose rapidly within Germany, Saxony was distracted by foreign affairs.
The house of Wettin concentrated on acquiring and then holding on to the Polish throne which was ultimately unsuccessful. Many of the city-states of Germany were run by bishops, who in reality were from powerful noble families and showed scant interest in religion. None developed a significant reputation for good government. He combined Enlightenment ideas with Christian values, cameralist plans for central control of the economy, and a militaristic approach toward diplomacy.
Hanover did not have to support a lavish court—its rulers were also kings of England and resided in London. George III , elector ruler from to , never once visited Hanover. Baden sported perhaps the best government of the smaller states. Karl Friedrich ruled well for 73 years — and was an enthusiast for The Enlightenment ; he abolished serfdom in The smaller states failed to form coalitions with each other, and were eventually overwhelmed by Prussia.
In the process, Prussia became too heterogeneous, lost its identity, and by the s had become an administrative shell of little importance. In a heavily agrarian society, land ownership played a central role. Germany's nobles, especially those in the East — called Junkers — dominated not only the localities, but also the Prussian court, and especially the Prussian army. Increasingly after , a centralized Prussian government based in Berlin took over the powers of the nobles, which in terms of control over the peasantry had been almost absolute.
To help the nobility avoid indebtedness, Berlin set up a credit institution to provide capital loans in , and extended the loan network to peasants in When the German Empire was established in , the Junker nobility controlled the army and the Navy, the bureaucracy, and the royal court; they generally set governmental policies.
Peasants continued to center their lives in the village, where they were members of a corporate body, and to help manage the community resources and monitor the community life. In the East, they were serfs who were bound permanently to parcels of land. In most of Germany, farming was handled by tenant farmers who paid rents and obligatory services to the landlord, who was typically a nobleman. Peasant leaders supervised the fields and ditches and grazing rights, maintained public order and morals, and supported a village court which handled minor offenses.
Inside the family the patriarch made all the decisions, and tried to arrange advantageous marriages for his children. Much of the villages' communal life centered around church services and holy days. In Prussia, the peasants drew lots to choose conscripts required by the army. The noblemen handled external relationships and politics for the villages under their control, and were not typically involved in daily activities or decisions.
The emancipation of the serfs came in —, beginning with Schleswig in The peasants were now ex-serfs and could own their land, buy and sell it, and move about freely. The nobles approved for now they could buy land owned by the peasants. The chief reformer was Baron vom Stein — , who was influenced by The Enlightenment , especially the free market ideas of Adam Smith. A bank was set up so that landowners could borrow government money to buy land from peasants the peasants were not allowed to use it to borrow money to buy land until The result was that the large landowners obtained larger estates, and many peasants became landless tenants, or moved to the cities or to America.
The other German states imitated Prussia after In sharp contrast to the violence that characterized land reform in the French Revolution, Germany handled it peacefully. In Schleswig the peasants, who had been influenced by the Enlightenment, played an active role; elsewhere they were largely passive. Indeed, for most peasants, customs and traditions continued largely unchanged, including the old habits of deference to the nobles whose legal authority remained quite strong over the villagers.
Although the peasants were no longer tied to the same land as serfs had been, the old paternalistic relationship in East Prussia lasted into the 20th century. The agrarian reforms in northwestern Germany in the era — were driven by progressive governments and local elites. They abolished feudal obligations and divided collectively owned common land into private parcels and thus created a more efficient market-oriented rural economy, which increased productivity and population growth and strengthened the traditional social order because wealthy peasants obtained most of the former common land, while the rural proletariat was left without land; many left for the cities or America.
Meanwhile, the division of the common land served as a buffer preserving social peace between nobles and peasants. Around the Catholic monasteries, which had large land holdings, were nationalized and sold off by the government. A major social change occurring between —, depending on region, was the end of the traditional "whole house" "ganzes Haus" system, in which the owner's family lived together in one large building with the servants and craftsmen he employed. No longer did the owner's wife take charge of all the females in the different families in the whole house.
In the new system, farm owners became more professionalized and profit-oriented. They managed the fields and the household exterior according to the dictates of technology, science, and economics. Farm wives supervised family care and the household interior, to which strict standards of cleanliness, order, and thrift applied.
The result was the spread of formerly urban bourgeois values into rural Germany. The lesser families were now living separately on wages. They had to provide for their own supervision, health, schooling, and old-age. At the same time, because of the demographic transition, there were far fewer children, allowing for much greater attention to each child. Increasingly the middle-class family valued its privacy and its inward direction, shedding too-close links with the world of work.
This allowed for the emergence of working-class organizations. It also allowed for declining religiosity among the working-class, who were no longer monitored on a daily basis. Before the German upper classes looked to France for intellectual, cultural and architectural leadership; French was the language of high society. Christian Wolff — was the pioneer as a writer who expounded the Enlightenment to German readers; he legitimized German as a philosophic language.
Prussia took the lead among the German states in sponsoring the political reforms that Enlightenment thinkers urged absolute rulers to adopt. However, there were important movements as well in the smaller states of Bavaria, Saxony, Hanover, and the Palatinate. In each case Enlightenment values became accepted and led to significant political and administrative reforms that laid the groundwork for the creation of modern states.
The reforms were aided by the country's strong urban structure and influential commercial groups, and modernized pre Saxony along the lines of classic Enlightenment principles. Johann Gottfried von Herder — broke new ground in philosophy and poetry, as a leader of the Sturm und Drang movement of proto-Romanticism. Weimar Classicism "Weimarer Klassik" was a cultural and literary movement based in Weimar that sought to establish a new humanism by synthesizing Romantic, classical, and Enlightenment ideas.
The movement, from until , involved Herder as well as polymath Johann Wolfgang von Goethe — and Friedrich Schiller — , a poet and historian. Herder argued that every folk had its own particular identity, which was expressed in its language and culture. This legitimized the promotion of German language and culture and helped shape the development of German nationalism. Schiller's plays expressed the restless spirit of his generation, depicting the hero's struggle against social pressures and the force of destiny.
German music, sponsored by the upper classes, came of age under composers Johann Sebastian Bach — , Joseph Haydn — , and Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart — Kant's work contained basic tensions that would continue to shape German thought — and indeed all of European philosophy — well into the 20th century. The German Enlightenment won the support of princes, aristocrats, and the middle classes, and it permanently reshaped the culture.
Before the 19th century, young women lived under the economic and disciplinary authority of their fathers until they married and passed under the control of their husbands. In order to secure a satisfactory marriage, a woman needed to bring a substantial dowry. In the wealthier families, daughters received their dowry from their families, whereas the poorer women needed to work in order to save their wages so as to improve their chances to wed.
Under the German laws, women had property rights over their dowries and inheritances, a valuable benefit as high mortality rates resulted in successive marriages. The Age of Reason did not bring much more for women: Within the educated classes, there was the belief that women needed to be sufficiently educated to be intelligent and agreeable interlocutors to their husbands.
However, the lower-class women were expected to be economically productive in order to help their husbands make ends meet. German reaction to the French Revolution was mixed at first. German intellectuals celebrated the outbreak, hoping to see the triumph of Reason and The Enlightenment. The royal courts in Vienna and Berlin denounced the overthrow of the king and the threatened spread of notions of liberty, equality, and fraternity. Reformers said the solution was to have faith in the ability of Germans to reform their laws and institutions in peaceful fashion.
Europe was racked by two decades of war revolving around France's efforts to spread its revolutionary ideals, and the opposition of reactionary royalty. War broke out in as Austria and Prussia invaded France, but were defeated at the Battle of Valmy The German lands saw armies marching back and forth, bringing devastation albeit on a far lower scale than the Thirty Years' War , almost two centuries before , but also bringing new ideas of liberty and civil rights for the people.
Prussia and Austria ended their failed wars with France but with Russia partitioned Poland among themselves in and The French took control of the Rhineland , imposed French-style reforms, abolished feudalism, established constitutions, promoted freedom of religion, emancipated Jews, opened the bureaucracy to ordinary citizens of talent, and forced the nobility to share power with the rising middle class.
Napoleon created the Kingdom of Westphalia — as a model state. When the French tried to impose the French language, German opposition grew in intensity. Napoleon established direct or indirect control over most of western Europe, including the German states apart from Prussia and Austria. The old Holy Roman Empire was little more than a farce; Napoleon simply abolished it in while forming new countries under his control. Prussia tried to remain neutral while imposing tight controls on dissent, but with German nationalism sharply on the rise, the small nation blundered by going to war with Napoleon in Its economy was weak, its leadership poor, and the once mighty Prussian army was a hollow shell.
Napoleon easily crushed it at the Battle of Jena Napoleon occupied Berlin, and Prussia paid dearly. Prussia lost its recently acquired territories in western Germany, its army was reduced to 42, men, no trade with Britain was allowed, and Berlin had to pay Paris heavy reparations and fund the French army of occupation. Saxony changed sides to support Napoleon and join his Confederation of the Rhine; its elector was rewarded with the title of king and given a slice of Poland taken from Prussia.
After Napoleon's fiasco in Russia in , including the deaths of many Germans in his invasion army, Prussia joined with Russia. Major battles followed in quick order, and when Austria switched sides to oppose Napoleon, his situation grew tenuous. He was defeated in a great Battle of Leipzig in late , and Napoleon's empire started to collapse.
One after another the German states switched to oppose Napoleon, but he rejected peace terms. Allied armies invaded France in early , Paris fell, and in April Napoleon surrendered. He returned for days in , but was finally defeated by the British and German armies at Waterloo. Prussia was the big winner at the Vienna peace conference, gaining extensive territory. Europe in was a continent in a state of complete exhaustion following the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars , and started to turn from the liberal ideas of the Enlightenment and Revolutionary era and to Romanticism under such writers as Edmund Burke , Joseph de Maistre , and Novalis.
Politically, the victorious allies set out to build a new balance of powers in order to keep the peace, and decided that a stable German region would be able to keep French imperialism at bay. To make this a possibility, the idea of reforming the defunct Holy Roman Empire was discarded, and Napoleon 's reorganization of the German states was kept and the remaining princes were allowed to keep their titles. The German Confederation German: Deutscher Bund was the loose association of 39 states created in to coordinate the economies of separate German-speaking countries.
It acted as a buffer between the powerful states of Austria and Prussia. Britain approved of it because London felt that there was need for a stable, peaceful power in central Europe that could discourage aggressive moves by France or Russia. According to Lee , most historians have judged the Confederation to be weak and ineffective, as well as an obstacle to German nationalist aspirations. It collapsed because of the rivalry between Prussia and Austria known as German dualism , warfare, the revolution, and the inability of the multiple members to compromise.
It was a transition from high birth rates and high death rates to low birth and death rates as the country developed from a pre-industrial to a modernized agriculture and supported a fast-growing industrialized urban economic system. In previous centuries, the shortage of land meant that not everyone could marry, and marriages took place after age After , increased agricultural productivity meant a larger food supply, and a decline in famines, epidemics, and malnutrition. This allowed couples to marry earlier, and have more children. Arranged marriages became uncommon as young people were now allowed to choose their own marriage partners, subject to a veto by the parents.
The high birthrate was offset by a very high rate of infant mortality and emigration, especially after about , mostly to the German settlements in the United States , plus periodic epidemics and harvest failures. The upper and middle classes began to practice birth control, and a little later so too did the peasants.
Before Germany lagged far behind the leaders in industrial development — Britain, France, and Belgium. In , Germany's social structure was poorly suited to entrepreneurship or economic development. Domination by France during the era of the French Revolution s to , however, produced important institutional reforms. Reforms included the abolition of feudal restrictions on the sale of large landed estates, the reduction of the power of the guilds in the cities, and the introduction of a new, more efficient commercial law.
Nevertheless, traditionalism remained strong in most of Germany. Until mid-century, the guilds, the landed aristocracy, the churches, and the government bureaucracies had so many rules and restrictions that entrepreneurship was held in low esteem, and given little opportunity to develop. From the s and s, Prussia, Saxony, and other states reorganized agriculture. The introduction of sugar beets, turnips, and potatoes yielded a higher level of food production, which enabled a surplus rural population to move to industrial areas.
The beginnings of the industrial revolution in Germany came in the textile industry, and was facilitated by eliminating tariff barriers through the Zollverein, starting in By mid-century, the German states were catching up. By Germany was a world leader in industrialization, along with Britain and the United States.
Historian Thomas Nipperdey sums it up:. Industrialization brought rural Germans to the factories, mines and railways. After , the urban population grew rapidly, due primarily to the influx of young people from the rural areas. Berlin grew from , in , to , in ; Hamburg grew from , to ,; Munich from 40, to ,; and Dresden from 60, to , Offsetting this growth, there was extensive emigration, especially to the United States. Emigration totaled , in the s, 1,, in the s, and , in the s. The takeoff stage of economic development came with the railroad revolution in the s, which opened up new markets for local products, created a pool of middle managers, increased the demand for engineers, architects and skilled machinists and stimulated investments in coal and iron.
Political disunity of three dozen states and a pervasive conservatism made it difficult to build railways in the s. However, by the s, trunk lines did link the major cities; each German state was responsible for the lines within its own borders. Economist Friedrich List summed up the advantages to be derived from the development of the railway system in Lacking a technological base at first, the Germans imported their engineering and hardware from Britain, but quickly learned the skills needed to operate and expand the railways. In many cities, the new railway shops were the centres of technological awareness and training, so that by , Germany was self-sufficient in meeting the demands of railroad construction, and the railways were a major impetus for the growth of the new steel industry.
However, German unification in stimulated consolidation, nationalisation into state-owned companies, and further rapid growth. Unlike the situation in France, the goal was support of industrialisation, and so, heavy lines crisscrossed the Ruhr and other industrial districts, and provided good connections to the major ports of Hamburg and Bremen. By , Germany had 9, locomotives pulling 43, passengers and 30, tons of freight a day, and forged ahead of France. A large number of newspapers and magazines flourished; A typical small city had one or two newspapers; Berlin and Leipzig had dozens.
The audience was limited to perhaps five percent of the adult men, chiefly from the aristocratic and middle classes, who followed politics. Liberal papers outnumbered conservative ones by a wide margin. Foreign governments bribed editors to guarantee a favorable image. After , strict press laws were used by Bismarck to shut down the Socialist, and to threaten hostile editors. There were no national newspapers. Editors focused on political commentary, but also included in a nonpolitical cultural page, focused on the arts and high culture.
Especially popular was the serialized novel, with a new chapter every week. Magazines were politically more influential, and attracted the leading intellectuals as authors. German artists and intellectuals, heavily influenced by the French Revolution and by the great German poet and writer Johann Wolfgang von Goethe — , turned to Romanticism after a period of Enlightenment. Philosophical thought was decisively shaped by Immanuel Kant — Ludwig van Beethoven — was the leading composer of Romantic music.
His use of tonal architecture in such a way as to allow significant expansion of musical forms and structures was immediately recognized as bringing a new dimension to music. His later piano music and string quartets, especially, showed the way to a completely unexplored musical universe, and influenced Franz Schubert — and Robert Schumann — In opera, a new Romantic atmosphere combining supernatural terror and melodramatic plot in a folkloric context was first successfully achieved by Carl Maria von Weber — and perfected by Richard Wagner — in his Ring Cycle.
At the universities high-powered professors developed international reputations, especially in the humanities led by history and philology, which brought a new historical perspective to the study of political history, theology, philosophy, language, and literature. With Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel — in philosophy, Friedrich Schleiermacher — in theology and Leopold von Ranke — in history, the University of Berlin , founded in , became the world's leading university.
Von Ranke, for example, professionalized history and set the world standard for historiography. By the s mathematics, physics, chemistry, and biology had emerged with world class science, led by Alexander von Humboldt — in natural science and Carl Friedrich Gauss — in mathematics. Young intellectuals often turned to politics, but their support for the failed Revolution of forced many into exile.
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe — Alexander von Humboldt — Ludwig van Beethoven — Carl Friedrich Gauss — Two main developments reshaped religion in Germany. Across the land, there was a movement to unite the larger Lutheran and the smaller Reformed Protestant churches. The churches themselves brought this about in Baden, Nassau, and Bavaria. His goal was to unify the Protestant churches, and to impose a single standardized liturgy, organization and even architecture. The long-term goal was to have fully centralized royal control of all the Protestant churches.
In a series of proclamations over several decades the Church of the Prussian Union was formed, bringing together the more numerous Lutherans, and the less numerous Reformed Protestants. The government of Prussia now had full control over church affairs, with the king himself recognized as the leading bishop. Opposition to unification came from the "Old Lutherans" in Silesia who clung tightly to the theological and liturgical forms they had followed since the days of Luther.
The government attempted to crack down on them, so they went underground.