German lands - history of their formation. A Brief History of Germany

Germany is a European country with a rich history, during which it has experienced periods of unification and fragmentation, and has repeatedly changed its borders. Germanic tribes lived in Central Europe in the first millennium BC; the arrival of Asian nomadic peoples in Europe at the end of the 4th century forced the Germans to move to the border zone of the Roman Empire, from where they then began invading it. In the 5th century, separate kingdoms were created on the territory of the collapsed Roman Empire by the Germanic tribes of the Goths and Vandals.

Historically, the first German state is considered to be the East Frankish state. The name “German Reich” appeared in the 10th century; several centuries later the name “Reich der Deutschen” became generally recognized. In the twelfth century, the German state, thanks to the wars won, significantly expanded its borders. In the 16th century, the territory of Germany was divided into many principalities and kingdoms, among which Prussia was the most powerful. A union of 38 independent German states under the leadership of Austria was formed in 1815.

After the end of the Austro-Prussian-Italian War of 1866, the German Confederation was dissolved, and Prussia annexed the territories of several North German states that fought on the side of Austria. Four more southern German states were annexed by Prussia as a result of the Franco-Prussian War in 1871. In January of the same year, the German Empire was formed.

Spending significant amounts of money (about half of the state budget) on military needs, at the end of the first decade of the twentieth century, Germany had an army with the best weapons in the world. In 1933, the Nazis, led by Hitler, came to power in the country, and the Third Reich was formed. Started by Germany, Japan and Italy in September 1939, World War II lasted until September 1945 and ended with the defeat of Germany and its allies.

Germany as a single state ceased to exist on May 23, 1945, its territory was divided into four sectors. Three of them - French, British and American - became part of the Federal Republic of Germany, and the German Democratic Republic was formed on the territory of the USSR sector.

The unification of Germany became possible only in 1990, after the end of the Cold War, the basis for unification was laid by the “Two Plus Four” Treaty, signed with the Federal Republic of Germany and the German Democratic Republic by Great Britain, the USSR, France and the USA. Today Germany is the most populous country in Europe after Russia, with a powerful economy and political influence. Germany is a member of the European Union and NATO, and is part of the G8.

Germany- a state in Central Europe. Over the course of history, it has experienced periods of strong fragmentation and has repeatedly changed its borders. Therefore, the history of Germany is inseparable from the history of its closest neighbors, primarily Austria, Switzerland, Poland, the Czech Republic, Italy and France.

Antiquity

[b]Antiquity

Germans in ancient times

Main article: Germany (ancient)

Germanic tribes lived in the territory of Central Europe back in the first millennium BC; Tacitus gave a fairly detailed description of their structure and way of life at the end of the 1st century. Linguistic studies suggest that the separation of the Germanic peoples from the Balto-Slavs occurred approximately in the 8th-6th centuries BC. The Germans were divided into several groups - between the Rhine, Main and Weser lived the Batavians, Bructeri, Hamavians, Chatti and Ubii; on the North Sea coast - Hawks, Angles, Warins, Frisians; from the middle and upper Elbe to the Oder - Marcomanni, Quads, Lombards and Semnons; between the Oder and the Vistula - the Vandals, Burgundians and Goths; in Scandinavia - swions, gauts. From the 2nd century AD e. The Germans are increasingly invading the Roman Empire. To the Romans, however, they were simply barbarians. Gradually, they formed tribal alliances (Alemanni, Goths, Saxons, Franks).

Great Migration

At the end of the 4th century, the invasion of Asian nomadic peoples into Europe prompted the resettlement of the Germans. They settled the border lands of the Roman Empire, and soon began armed invasions of it. In the 5th century, the Germanic tribes of the Goths, Vandals and others created their own kingdoms on the territory of the collapsing Western Roman Empire. At the same time, on the territory of Germany itself, the primitive communal system was largely preserved. In 476, the last Roman emperor was deposed by a German commander.

[b]Middle Ages

Frankish state

After the fall of the Western Roman Empire, the Frankish tribes played the most significant role among the Germanic tribes. In 481, Clovis I became the first king of the Salic Franks. Under him and his descendants, Gaul was conquered, and among the Germans, the Alemanni and most of the Frankish tribes became part of the state. Later, Aquitaine, Provence, northern Italy, a small part of Spain were conquered, and the Thuringians, Bavarians, Saxons and other tribes were subjugated. By 800, all of Germany was part of the huge Frankish state.

In 800, the Frankish king Charlemagne was crowned Roman Emperor. This event was prepared in advance, but Charles did not think about the separation of Rome from Constantinople: until the year 800, the legal heir of the Roman Empire was Byzantium, the empire restored by Charles was a continuation of the ancient Roman Empire, and Charles was considered the 68th emperor, the successor of the eastern line immediately after Constantine VI, deposed in 797, and not the successor of Romulus Augustulus. In 843 the Frankish empire collapsed, although various kings (usually the kings of Italy) formally held the title of emperor intermittently until 924.

[b] The beginning of German statehood

Main article: East Frankish Kingdom

The origins of the German state are connected with the Treaty of Verdun, which was concluded between the grandchildren of Charlemagne in 843. This treaty divided the Frankish empire into three parts - the French (West Frankish Kingdom), which went to Charles the Bald, the Italian-Lorraine (Middle Kingdom), of which Charlemagne's eldest son Lothar became king, and the German, where power went to Louis the German.

Traditionally, the first German state is considered to be the East Frankish state. During the 10th century, the unofficial name “Reich of the Germans (Regnum Teutonicorum)” appeared, which after several centuries became generally accepted (in the form “Reich der Deutschen”).

In 870, most of the Kingdom of Lorraine was captured by the East Frankish king Louis the German. Thus, the East Frankish Kingdom united almost all the lands inhabited by the Germans. During the 9th-10th centuries there were wars with the Slavs, which led to the annexation of a number of Slavic lands.

The next East Frankish king in 936 was the Duke of Saxony Otto I (in the Russian historical tradition he is called Otto).

[b]Holy Roman Empire

Main article: Holy Roman Empire

Early Holy Roman Empire

On February 2, 962, Otto I was crowned Holy Roman Emperor in Rome. It was believed that he revived the power of Charlemagne. But now the empire consisted mainly of Germany and part of Italy.

The Holy Roman Empire of the German Nation (lat. Sacrum Imperium Romanum Nationis Teutonicae) is a political institution that retained the same form and the same claims for ten centuries (until 1806). The external history of the empire is, in essence, the history of Germany from the 9th to the 19th centuries. and Italy in the Middle Ages. By its origin, the S. Roman Empire was ecclesiastical and Germanic; its form was given by the unfading tradition of the universal dominion of eternal Rome; Germanic and Roman elements, merging, determined the comprehensive and abstract nature of the empire, as the center and head of the Western Christian world.

Despite the emperors' attempts to unite the "Holy Roman Empire", it was fragmented into numerous almost independent states and cities. Some North German cities united to form the Hansa, a military-trade alliance that monopolized trade in the Baltic Sea.

Germany in the Renaissance

Humanism arose in Germany in the 1430s, a century later than in Italy, under the influence of its culture.

A special role belonged to printing - the great discovery of the mid-15th century, which was brewing in a number of countries, but made in Germany by John Gutenberg.

Germany - the birthplace of the Reformation

The beginning of the Reformation was marked by the appearance in Germany in 1517 of the Augustinian monk Martin Luther with his positions, or as they were also called “theses for discussion”. The ideologies of the Reformation put forward theses that actually denied the need for the Catholic Church with its hierarchy and the clergy in general. The Catholic Sacred Tradition was rejected, the rights of the church to land wealth were denied, etc.

The Reformation gave impetus to the Peasants' War of 1524-1527, which immediately engulfed many German principalities. In 1532, the all-German criminal judicial code “Carolina” was published.

The Reformation marked the beginning of several religious wars in Germany, ending in 1648 with the Peace of Westphalia. As a result, the fragmentation of Germany was consolidated.

[b]The Rise of Prussia

Main article: Prussia

The Peace of Westphalia in 1648 led to a significant expansion of the possessions of the Electorate of Brandenburg, which had annexed the Duchy of Prussia even earlier (in 1618). In 1701, the Brandenburg-Prussian state received the name “Kingdom of Prussia.” It was distinguished by a rigid bureaucratic system and militarism. Prussia and other East German states saw a second edition of serfdom. On the other hand, it was in Prussia that Kant and Fichte laid the foundation for classical German philosophy.

The most famous was Frederick II (King of Prussia). He was considered a supporter of an enlightened monarchy, abolished torture, and reorganized the army on the basis of drill. Under him, Prussia participated in the War of the Austrian Succession, in the Seven Years' War, and in the division of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. Although the Austrian Habsburgs remained Holy Roman Emperors, their influence weakened, and Prussia took Silesia from Austria. East Prussia was not even considered an integral part of the empire. The Holy Roman Empire existed in a fragmented and weakened form until 1806.

Creation of a single state

[b]Germany during the Napoleonic Wars

Main article: Confederation of the Rhine

By 1804, when Napoleon I became French Emperor, Germany remained a politically backward country. In the Holy Roman Empire, feudal fragmentation remained, serfdom existed, and medieval legislation was in force everywhere. A number of German states had previously fought with revolutionary France with varying degrees of success.

In the fall of 1805, Napoleon's war began with a coalition that included Austria. Austria was defeated. The German Emperor Franz II, who just before this in 1804 also became the Emperor of the Austrian multinational state, left the German throne under pressure from Napoleon. In July 1806, the Holy Roman Empire was abolished and the Union of the Rhine was proclaimed in its place. Under Napoleon, the number of German principalities was significantly reduced due to their unification. Many cities also lost their independence, the number of which during their heyday was over eighty. By 1808, the Confederation of the Rhine included all German states except Austria, Prussia, Swedish Pomerania and Danish Holstein. Half of Prussia's territory was taken away from it and partially became part of the Confederation of the Rhine.

Serfdom was abolished in almost the entire Confederation of the Rhine. In most states of the Confederation of the Rhine, the Napoleonic Civil Code was introduced, which abolished feudal privileges and opened the way for the development of capitalism.

The Confederation of the Rhine took part in the Napoleonic Wars on the side of France. After the defeat of Napoleon in 1813, it virtually ceased to exist.

[b]German Confederation

Main article: German Confederation

At the Congress of Vienna (October 1814 - June 9, 1815), on June 8, 1815, the German Confederation was formed from 38 German states under the leadership of Austria. The states of the union were completely independent. In 1848, a wave of liberal uprisings swept across Germany, including Austria (see Revolution of 1848-1849 in Germany), which were ultimately suppressed.

Soon, after the revolution of 1848, a conflict began to brew between Prussia, which was increasing its influence, and Austria for a dominant position both in the German Confederation and in Europe as a whole. The Austro-Prussian-Italian War of 1866, which ended in Prussian victory, led to the dissolution of the German Confederation. Prussia annexed the territories of some North German states that participated in the war on the side of Austria - thus the number of German states also decreased.

[b]North German Confederation and German unification

Main article: North German Confederation

On August 18, 1866, Prussia and 17 North German states (four more joined in the fall) united into the North German Confederation. In fact, it was a single state: it had one president (the Prussian king), chancellor, Reichstag and Bundesrat, a single army, coin, foreign policy department, post office and railway department.

The Franco-Prussian War of 1870-1871 led to the annexation of four southern German states and the formation of the German Empire on January 18, 1871 (see German Unification (1871)).

United Germany (1871-1945)

German Empire (1871-1918)

Map of the German Empire at the beginning of the 20th century from the Brockhaus and Efron encyclopedia

The German Empire was a federal state that united 22 monarchies, 3 free cities and the land of Alsace-Lorraine. According to the constitution, the Prussian king was the emperor of the German Empire. He appointed the Chancellor. The Reichstag was elected by universal suffrage. The empire had a single budget, imperial bank, army, coinage, foreign affairs department, post office and railway department.

The absence of customs borders, progressive economic legislation and French indemnity led to rapid economic growth. Thanks to a well-thought-out system of secondary education and universities, science flourished and technology progressed. Strikes and legislative reforms carried out under the influence of the Social Democratic Party led to rising wages and easing social tensions.

Frenchman Tire-Bone. Triple Alliance. Germany, Austria-Hungary and Italy are smoking on a keg of gunpowder

Germany began to seize colonies late and was forced to look for ways to redistribute them. She concluded the Triple Alliance with Austria-Hungary and Italy. Thanks to huge military expenditures (up to half of the entire budget), by 1914 Germany had an army with the best weapons in the world.

[b]World War I

Main article: World War I

On June 28, 1914, the assassination of the Austrian heir Franz Ferdinand in the city of Sarajevo was the reason for the outbreak of the First World War.

Military success accompanied Germany on the Eastern Front in 1915: during this year, Germany managed to advance deep into Russia and capture its territories such as Lithuania and Poland.

Germany failed to break the French army and the war in the west turned into a positional one, with heavy human and material losses. Germany gradually bled dry, and the US entry into the war accelerated the predetermined outcome, which could no longer be influenced by the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk in the east.

On September 26, 1918, the Entente offensive began on the Western Front. Germany's allies were defeated and one after another signed a truce with the Entente (September 29, 1918 - Bulgaria, October 30 - Turkey, November 3 - Austria-Hungary). On October 5, the German government requested an armistice. It was concluded on November 11, 1918.

[b]Weimar Republic

Main article: Weimar Republic

The events of November 1918 are known as the November Revolution. On November 9, 1918, Kaiser Wilhelm II abdicated the throne and fled the country. On November 10, 1918, a provisional government was established - the Council of People's Representatives. On November 11, a ceasefire was declared and hostilities ceased. On December 16, 1918, the so-called Imperial Congress of Soviets took place in Berlin.

Numerous reforms were carried out, women received voting rights, and an eight-hour working day was introduced. The Spartacist uprising in January 1919 was suppressed by the Freikorps, and Communist leaders Rosa Luxemburg and Karl Liebknecht were killed. Until mid-1919, all attempts to establish a socialist Soviet republic in Germany were suppressed using the force of the Reichswehr and Freikorps groups. The last was the Bavarian Soviet Republic, which fell on May 2, 1919.

On January 19, elections to the national assembly took place. The elected deputies met for the first meeting not in riot-ridden Berlin, but in Weimar. The National Assembly elected Friedrich Ebert as Reich President and Philipp Scheidemann as Reich Chancellor. In accordance with the adopted Weimar Constitution, Germany received parliamentary democracy. The constitution provided for a strong Reich President, who was actually a replacement for the Kaiser and was even called ironically the “ersatz Kaiser,” and a qualified majority was required to change it.

On June 28, in accordance with the Treaty of Versailles, Germany ceded large territories and transferred its colonies to the League of Nations. The unification of Germany and Austria was banned. Germany and its allies were given full blame for starting the war. Germany was also forced to pay reparations. The Saarland came under the jurisdiction of the League of Nations, and the Rhineland received the status of a demilitarized zone. Significant restrictions were imposed on the German army.

The lack of democratic changes in the army, justice and administration, the Treaty of Versailles, which was perceived in the country as a “shameful dictatorship,” as well as the widespread conspiracy theory blaming Jews and communists for the defeat in the war, fell heavily on the shoulders of the young German state, critically called “ a republic without republicans."

In 1920, the Kapp Putsch and several political assassinations took place. In the Reichstag elections, extremist parties managed to significantly improve their performance. The Treaty of Versailles stipulated that the decision on the statehood of some border areas would be made through referendums. After two referendums, Schleswig was divided between Germany and Denmark. Northern Schleswig returned to Denmark, while Southern Schleswig remained with Germany. After the referendum on July 11, the districts of Allenstein and Marienwerder remained part of Prussia. On September 20, Eupen and Malmedy (near Aachen) retreated to Belgium.

In 1921 the Reichswehr was created. Upper Silesia, after a referendum accompanied by clashes with the use of force, was divided between Germany and Poland. In 1922, Germany and the Soviet Union concluded the Treaty of Rapallo to restore diplomatic relations.

In January 1923, French troops, in response to delays in paying reparations, occupied the Ruhr region, which marked the beginning of the so-called Ruhr conflict. The imperial government supported local resistance to the occupiers. The following months were accompanied by galloping inflation, which was brought to an end only by the November monetary reform.

Bavaria has become a haven for right-wing conservative political forces. In this situation, Hitler carried out his Beer Hall Putsch, was arrested and sentenced to prison, but was released a few months later.

In 1924, a period of relative stability began. Despite all the conflicts, democracy reaped the first fruits of its work. New money and loans that appeared in the country under the Dawes Plan marked the beginning of the “golden twenties.”

In February 1925, Friedrich Ebert died and was succeeded as Reich Chancellor by Paul von Hindenburg.

The Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Weimar Republic, Gustav Stresemann, together with his French colleague Aristide Briand, moved towards rapprochement between the two countries and the revision of the Treaty of Versailles, which was reflected in the Locarno Agreements concluded in 1925 and Germany's accession to the League of Nations in 1926.

The global economic crisis of 1929 marked the beginning of the end of the Weimar Republic. In the summer of 1932, the number of unemployed in the country reached six million. Since 1930, the country has been led by ministerial cabinets appointed by the Reich President without taking into account the opinion of parliament.

Economic problems were accompanied by a radicalization of the political situation, which resulted in street clashes between the NSDAP and the KPD. In 1931, the right-wing forces of Germany united into the Harzburg Front; the NSDAP, after the elections to the Reichstag on July 31, 1932, became the largest party in parliament. On January 28, 1933, Reich Chancellor Kurt von Schleicher announced his resignation.

On January 30, 1933, Adolf Hitler became Reich Chancellor. This event marked the end of the Weimar Republic.

[b]Third Reich

Main article: Third Reich

The regime that existed in Germany under the Nazis is called the Third Reich. On February 1, 1933, the Reichstag was dissolved. The presidential decree of February 4, 1933 became the basis for the ban on opposition newspapers and public speeches. Using the Reichstag fire as an excuse, Hitler began mass arrests. Due to a lack of prison space, concentration camps were created. Re-elections were called.

The NSDAP emerged victorious from the Reichstag elections (March 5, 1933). The votes cast for the communists were annulled. The new Reichstag, at its first meeting on March 23, retroactively approved Hitler's emergency powers.

Part of the intelligentsia fled abroad. All parties except the Nazi one were liquidated. However, activists of right-wing parties were not only not arrested, but many of them became part of the NSDAP. Trade unions were dissolved, and new ones were created in their place, completely controlled by the government. Strikes were prohibited, entrepreneurs were declared the Fuehrers of enterprises. Soon compulsory labor service was introduced.

In 1934, Hitler physically eliminated part of the top of his party (“Night of the Long Knives”), as well as, taking advantage of the opportunity, some objectionable people who had nothing to do with the NSDAP.

Thanks to the end of the Great Depression, the destruction of all opposition and criticism, the elimination of unemployment, propaganda that played on national feelings, and later territorial acquisitions, Hitler increased his popularity. In addition, he achieved major successes in the economy. In particular, under Hitler, Germany came out on top in the world in the production of steel and aluminum.

In 1936, the Anti-Comintern Pact was concluded between Germany and Japan. In 1937, Italy joined it, in 1939 - Hungary, Manchukuo and Spain.

On November 9, 1938, a pogrom of Jews was carried out, known as Kristallnacht. From this time on, mass arrests and extermination of Jews began.

In 1938, Austria was captured, in 1939 - part of the Czech Republic, and then the whole Czech Republic.

[b]World War II

Main article: World War II

On September 1, 1939, German troops invaded Poland. Great Britain and France declared war on Germany. During 1939-1941, Germany defeated Poland, Denmark, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Belgium, France, Greece, and Yugoslavia. In 1941, the Nazis invaded the Soviet Union and occupied much of its European territory.

There was a growing labor shortage in Germany. In all occupied territories, the recruitment of civilian migrant workers was carried out. In Slavic territories, mass deportations into slavery in Germany were also carried out. In France, a forced recruitment of workers was carried out, whose position in Germany was intermediate between the position of civilians and slaves.

A regime of intimidation was established in the occupied territories. Gradually, the mass extermination of Jews began, and in some areas, the partial extermination of the Slavic population (usually under the pretext of retaliation for the actions of the partisans). The number of concentration camps, death camps and prisoner of war camps grew in Germany and some occupied territories. In the latter, the situation of Soviet, Polish and Yugoslav prisoners of war differed little from the situation of prisoners in concentration camps.

Atrocities against civilians caused the growth of the partisan movement in Poland, Belarus and Serbia. Gradually, guerrilla warfare also unfolded in other occupied territories of the USSR and Slavic countries, as well as in Greece and France. In Denmark, Norway, the Netherlands, Belgium, Luxembourg, Latvia, Lithuania, and Estonia, the regime was softer, but there was anti-Nazi resistance there too. Separate underground organizations also operated in Germany and Austria.

On July 20, 1944, the military carried out an unsuccessful attempt at an anti-Nazi coup with an attempt on Hitler's life.

In 1944, food shortages began to be felt by the Germans as well. Aviation from the countries of the anti-Hitler coalition bombed cities. Hamburg and Dresden were almost completely destroyed. Due to large losses of personnel, the Volkssturm was created in October 1944, into which old men and young men were mobilized. Werewolf units were trained for future partisan and sabotage activities.

Germany after World War II

After World War II: Division of Germany (and Austria) into zones of occupation

[b]Occupation of Germany

Main article: Potsdam Agreement (1945)

Occupation zones

After World War II, members of the anti-Hitler coalition, primarily the USA, USSR, Great Britain, and later France, first sought to promote a collective occupation policy. The set objectives in the development of this policy were demilitarization and the so-called “denazification”. But already on the issue of interpretation of the concept of “democracy”, differences of opinion between the USSR on the one hand and the Western powers on the other became obvious.

The result was:

in the west - the Trizone of Germany or West Germany, since 1949 the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG),

in the east - the Soviet Zone of Germany or East Germany, since 1949 the German Democratic Republic

[b]Federal Republic of Germany

Main article: Federal Republic of Germany (until 1990)

The Federal Republic of Germany was proclaimed in 1949 on the territory of the British, American and French occupation zones. The capital of Germany was the city of Bonn. Thanks to American assistance under the Marshall Plan, rapid economic growth was achieved in the 1950s (the German economic miracle), which lasted until 1965. To meet the need for cheap labor, Germany supported the influx of guest workers, mainly from Turkey.

Until 1969, the country was ruled by the CDU party (usually in a bloc with the CSU and less often with the FDP). In the 1950s, a number of emergency laws were developed, many organizations were banned, including the Communist Party, and professions were banned. In 1955, Germany joined NATO.

In 1969, the Social Democrats came to power. They recognized the inviolability of post-war borders, weakened emergency legislation, and carried out a number of social reforms. Subsequently, Social Democrats and Christian Democrats alternated in power.

West Berlin

Main article: West Berlin

Since 1945, Berlin has been divided between the countries of the anti-Hitler coalition into four occupation zones. The eastern zone, occupied by Soviet troops, later became the capital of the German Democratic Republic. In the three western zones, control was exercised, respectively, by the occupation authorities of the United States, Great Britain and France.

After the formation of the Federal Republic of Germany and the German Democratic Republic, both states declared their claims to sovereignty over West Berlin.

With the conclusion of the Quadripartite Agreement on September 3, 1971, the relationship between the Federal Republic of Germany - West Berlin - the GDR was placed on a new legal basis. The occupation regime remained in West Berlin.

In 1990, West Berlin became part of a united Germany.

[b]German Democratic Republic

Main article: German Democratic Republic

The proclamation of the GDR took place five months later in response to the creation of the Federal Republic of Germany on the territory of three western occupation zones; on October 7, 1949, the Constitution of the GDR was proclaimed.

The USSR exported machinery and equipment from the GDR and collected reparations from the GDR. Only by 1950 did industrial production in the GDR reach the level of 1936. The Berlin crisis of 1953 led to the fact that instead of reparations, the USSR began to provide economic assistance to the GDR.

As proclaimed, the citizens of the GDR had all democratic rights and freedoms. Although the dominant position in the country was occupied by the Socialist Unity Party of Germany (its leading role was enshrined in the Constitution), along with it, four other parties existed for decades.

The pace of economic development of the GDR was lower than in the Federal Republic of Germany, and the lowest among the Warsaw Pact states. Nevertheless, the standard of living in the GDR remained the highest among Eastern European countries. By the 1980s, the GDR had become a highly developed industrial country with intensive agriculture. In terms of industrial output, the GDR ranked 6th in Europe.

Berlin Wall

Main article: Berlin Wall

The lack of a clear physical border in Berlin led to frequent conflicts and a massive outflow of specialists from the GDR. East Germans preferred to receive education in the GDR, where it was free, and to work in West Berlin or the Federal Republic of Germany. In August 1961, the GDR authorities began construction of a guarded wall that physically separated West Berlin from the GDR. The Berlin Wall was largely destroyed in 1990.

Modern history of Germany

Main article: Germany

Gorbachev's reforms in the USSR were received with caution by the authorities of the GDR and with enthusiasm in the Federal Republic of Germany. In 1989, tensions in the GDR began to increase. In the fall, the country's long-time leader Erich Honecker resigned from his post as the top party leader, and was replaced by the former leader of the Free German Youth League, Egon Krenz. However, he did not remain at the head of state for long, only a few weeks. At the beginning of November, a grandiose demonstration began in Berlin, ending with the destruction of the Berlin Wall. This was the first step towards the unification of the two German states. Soon, the German mark of the Federal Republic of Germany came into circulation on the territory of the GDR, and in August 1990, a Treaty establishing unity was signed between the two parties.

After the unification of the Federal Republic of Germany and the German Democratic Republic on October 3, 1990: Federal Republic of Germany (FRG). Since 1995, in the full name of the country in Russian, the word Germany has been in the nominative case.

der Tag der deutschen Vereinigung

06/09/2009 TUESDAY 00:00

HISTORY OF GERMANY

BIRTH

AND

DEVELOPMENT

OF THE GERMAN STATE

Written German history began: in 9 AD. e. That year, Arminius, prince of the German Cherusci tribe, won a victory in the Teutoburg Forest over three Roman legions under the command of Varus. Arminius, about whom there is no detailed information, is considered the first German national hero. In 1838-1875. A huge monument was erected to him in Detmold.

The German nation has been formed over centuries. The word "German" probably appeared only in the 8th century and initially meant only the language spoken by people in the eastern part of the Frankish state. This state, which became powerful under Charlemagne, included peoples who spoke partly Germanic and partly Romance dialects. Soon after Charles's death (814), his empire fell apart. In the course of various divisions of inheritance, Western and Eastern states emerged, the political border roughly coinciding with the border of German and French. Only gradually did the inhabitants of the Eastern state develop a sense of community. The name "German" was transferred from the language to its speakers and, finally, to their region of residence

The German western border was determined relatively long ago and remained fairly stable. The eastern border, by contrast, has been fluid for centuries. Around 900 it passed approximately along the Elbe and Saale rivers. In subsequent centuries, either peacefully or by force, the area of ​​German settlement was moved far to the east. This movement was suspended in the mid-14th century. The borders between the Germans and the Slavs that had been reached by that time remained until the Second World War.

Middle Ages

It is generally believed that the transition from the East Frankish to the German Empire occurred in 911, when, after the death of the last Carolingian, the Frankish Duke Conrad I was elected king. He is considered the first German king. (The official title was "Frankish king", later "Roman king", the empire was called "Roman" from the 11th century, "Holy Roman Empire" from the 13th century, in the 15th century "Germanic nation" was added to this name). The empire was an elective monarchy, the king was elected by the highest nobility. In addition, “family law” was in effect: the king had to be related to his predecessor. This principle has been violated many times. Double elections were often held. The medieval empire did not have a capital. The king ruled by raids. There were no imperial taxes. The king received his maintenance primarily from the “imperial estates,” which he administered as a guardian. He could force the powerful family dukes to respect himself only by resorting to military force and pursuing a skillful allied policy. This skill was demonstrated by Conrad I's successor, the Saxon Duke Henry I the Birdcatcher (919-936), and even more so by his son Otto I (936-973). Otto became the real ruler of the empire. His power was manifested in the fact that in 962 he forced Rome to crown himself emperor.

Since then, the German king had the right to bear the title of Kaiser. In theory, this gave him the right to rule over the entire West. Of course, this idea was never fully realized politically. To be crowned emperor, the king had to go to Rome to see the pope. This determined the Italian policy of the German kings. They maintained their dominance in Upper and Central Italy for 300 years, but this took away their strength to carry out important tasks in Germany. The empire experienced a new rise under the next dynasty of the Salic Franks. Under Henry III (1039-1056), the German kingdom and empire reached the height of their power. First of all, the imperial power decisively asserted its superiority over the papacy. Henry IV (1056-1106) was unable to maintain these positions. In the struggle for the right to appoint bishops, he, however, outwardly defeated Pope Gregory VII. But his public repentance in Canossa (1077) meant an irreparable infringement of imperial power. The Kaiser and the Pope confronted each other as equal rulers from then on.

1138 marked the beginning of the century of the Staufen dynasty. Frederick I Barbarossa (1152-1190) led the empire to new heights, fighting the papacy, the Upper Italian cities and his main rival in Germany, the Saxon Duke Henry the Lion. But under him, territorial fragmentation began, which ultimately weakened the central government. Under Barbarossa's successors, Henry VI (1190-1197) and Frederick II (1212-1250), this development continued, despite the enormous imperial power. Spiritual and temporal princes became semi-sovereign "owners of the lands."

With Rudolph I (1273-1291), a Habsburg representative ascended to the throne for the first time. The material basis of imperial power was no longer the lost imperial ones, but the “patrimonial possessions” of the corresponding dynasty. And the politics of the reigning house became the main business of any emperor.

The Golden Bull of Charles IV of 1356, a kind of Basic Law of the Empire, recognized the exclusive right to elect the king for the seven elected princes, the electors, and granted them other privileges in relation to other high-ranking persons. While the importance of small counts, sovereign princes and knights gradually fell, cities strengthened their influence, relying on their economic power. The union of cities into unions further strengthened their position. One of the most important such unions, the Hansa, became the leading power in the Baltic.

Since 1438, despite the fact that the empire remained elective, power was transferred to the Habsburg family almost by inheritance, since by that time it had received the strongest territorial power. In the 15th century, demands for imperial reforms were increasingly put forward. Maximilian I (1493-1519), who was the first to assume the title of emperor without being crowned by the Pope, tried unsuccessfully to implement such a reform. The representative institutions he created or newly introduced - the Reichstag, imperial districts, and the Supreme Imperial Court, although they survived until the end of the empire (1806), were unable to restrain its further fragmentation. A dualism of “emperor and empire” developed: the head of the empire was opposed by the imperial estates - electors, princes and cities. The power of the emperors was limited and increasingly emasculated by the “capitulations” they concluded with the electors during their elections. The princes significantly expanded their rights at the expense of imperial power. And yet the empire did not disintegrate: the glory of the imperial crown had not yet faded, the idea of ​​the empire continued to live, and the imperial union took small and medium-sized territories under its protection from attacks by powerful neighbors.

Cities became centers of economic power. This was primarily due to growing trade. In the textile industry and mining, forms of management appeared that went beyond the guild organization of the labor of artisans and, like non-resident trade, had signs of early capitalism. At the same time, changes took place in the spiritual sphere, bearing the imprint of the Renaissance and humanism.

Reformation

The latent dissatisfaction with the church spilled out mainly in 1517 after the speech of Martin Luther, who opened a period of reformation, which quickly became widespread and went beyond religiosity. The entire social structure was in motion. In 1522/23 the uprising of the imperial knighthood began, in 1525 - the Peasants' War, the first major revolutionary movements in German history that united political and social aspirations. Both uprisings failed or were brutally suppressed. Only petty princes benefited from this. According to the Augsburg Religious Peace of 1555, they received the right to determine the religion of their subjects. The Protestant religion became equal in rights with the Catholic one. This ended the religious split in Germany. Charles V (1519-1556) sat on the imperial throne during the Reformation, who by inheritance became the ruler of the world's largest empire since the time of Charlemagne. He was too busy defending his interests in world politics and therefore was unable to prove himself in Germany. After his abdication, the world empire was divided. From the German territorial and Western European nation-states a new system of European states emerged.

During the period of the Peace of Augsburg, Germany was four-fifths Protestant. But the religious struggle was not over yet. In the following decades, the Catholic Church again managed to conquer many areas (anti-Reformation). The irreconcilability of beliefs has worsened. Religious parties were created, the Protestant Union (1608) and the Catholic League (1609). A local conflict in Bohemia served as the pretext for the Thirty Years' War, which over the years turned into a pan-European one, where both political and religious contradictions collided. However, between 1618 and 1648, large parts of Germany were devastated and depopulated. At the Peace of Westphalia in 1648, France and Sweden tore away a number of territories from Germany. He confirmed the withdrawal of Switzerland and Holland from the imperial union. He granted the imperial estates all basic sovereign rights in spiritual and temporal affairs and allowed them to enter into alliances with foreign partners.

Almost sovereign territorial states on the French model adopted absolutism as a form of government. It gave the ruler unlimited power and ensured the creation of strict administrative control, the introduction of an orderly financial economy and the formation of a regular army. Many princes were so ambitious that they turned their residences into cultural centers. Some of them - representatives of "enlightened absolutism" - developed science and critical thinking, of course, within the framework of their sovereign interests. The economic policy of mercantilism also contributed to the economic strengthening of states. States such as Bavaria, Brandenburg (later Prussia), Saxony and Hanover became independent centers of power. Austria, which conquered Hungary as well as parts of the former Turkish Balkan countries, became a great power. In the 18th century, this power had a rival in Prussia, which under Frederick the Great (1740-1786) became a leading military power. Parts of the territories of both states were not part of the empire, and both of them pursued great power policies in Europe.

French revolution

The edifice of the empire collapsed from a shock in the West. In 1789, a revolution began in France. Feudal relations that had existed since the early Middle Ages were eliminated under pressure from the burghers. The separation of powers and human rights were supposed to ensure freedom and equality for all citizens. An attempt by Prussia and Austria to change relations in a neighboring country through armed intervention was a complete failure and led to a retaliatory strike by the revolutionary armies. Under the onslaught of Napoleon's troops, the empire finally collapsed. France captured the left bank of the Rhine. To compensate for the damage to the previous owners of these areas, a large-scale “elimination of stripes” was undertaken at the expense of small principalities: based on the decision of a special imperial deputation of 1803, almost four million subjects had their sovereign princes changed. The middle states won. Most of them united in 1806. under French protectorate in the "Confederation of the Rhine". That same year, Emperor Francis II renounced his crown, resulting in the end of the Holy Roman Empire of the German nation.

The French Revolution did not spread to Germany. A spark could not ignite a flame here because, in contrast to neutralist France, the federal structure of the empire prevented the spread of new ideas. In addition, it should be taken into account that it was the birthplace of the revolution, France, that stood before the Germans as an enemy and an occupying power. Therefore, the fight against Napoleon grew into a new national movement, which finally resulted in wars of liberation. Germany was not spared by the forces of social transformation. First, in the states of the Rhineland, and then in Prussia (there it is associated with such names as Stein, Hardenberg, Scharnhorst, W. Humboldt) reforms began to be implemented that were finally supposed to eliminate feudal barriers and create a free, responsible bourgeois society: abolition of serfdom, freedom of trade, urban self-government, equality before the law, general military service. True, many reform plans remained unfulfilled. Citizens were largely denied participation in legislation. The princes, especially in the south of Germany, were only slow to allow their states to adopt constitutions.

After the victory over Napoleon at the Congress of Vienna in 1814-1815. The Act on the Reconstruction of Europe was adopted. The hopes of many Germans for the creation of a free, united national state were not realized. The German Confederation, which replaced the old Empire, was a free association of separate sovereign states. The only body was the Bundestag in Frankfurt, not an elected parliament, but a congress of ambassadors. The alliance could only operate if there was unanimity between the two major powers - Prussia and Austria. In subsequent decades, the union saw its main task as containing all aspirations for unity and freedom. The press and journalism were subject to severe censorship, universities were controlled, and political activity was almost impossible.

Meanwhile, the development of a modern economy began to counteract these reactionary tendencies. In 1834, the German Customs Union was created and thus a single internal market. In 1835, the first section of the German railway was put into operation. Industrialization began. With the factories came a new class of factory workers. Rapid population growth soon led to a surplus of labor in the labor market. Since there was no social legislation, the masses of factory workers lived in great need. Tense situations were resolved with the use of force, as, for example, in 1844, when the Prussian military suppressed an uprising of Silesian weavers. Only gradually did the shoots of a labor movement begin to appear.

Revolution of 1848

The French February Revolution of 1848, unlike the revolution of 1789, immediately received a response in Germany. In March, popular unrest swept across all federal lands, forcing the frightened princes to make some concessions. In May, in the Frankfurt Church of St. Paul (Paulskirche) National Assembly elected the Austrian Archduke Johann as imperial regent and established an imperial ministry, which, however, had no power and did not enjoy authority. The determining factor in the National Assembly was the liberal center, which sought to establish a constitutional monarchy with limited suffrage. The adoption of the constitution was difficult due to the fragmentation of the National Assembly, in which the entire spectrum from conservatives to radical democrats was represented. But the liberal center was not able to eliminate the contradictions characteristic of all groups between adherents of the “Great German” and “Little German” solutions, i.e., the German Empire with or without Austria. After a difficult struggle, a democratic constitution was drawn up, which attempted to reconcile the old with the new and provided for a government accountable to parliament. However, when Austria insisted on including its entire state territory, which included more than a dozen nationalities, in the future empire, the Little German plan won, and the National Assembly offered the Prussian king Frederick William IV the hereditary German crown. The king refused it: he did not want to receive his imperial title as a result of the revolution. In May 1849 Popular unrest in Saxony, the Palatinate and Baden, the purpose of which was to force the adoption of a constitution from below, failed. This led to the final defeat of the German revolution. Most of the conquests were canceled, the constitutions of individual states were revised in a reactionary spirit. In 1850, the German Confederation was restored.

Bismarck's Empire

The fifties were characterized by rapid economic growth. Germany becomes an industrial country. Although it still lagged behind England in terms of industrial volume, it overtook it in growth rates. Heavy industry and mechanical engineering set the pace. Economically, Prussia was dominant in Germany. Economic power strengthened the political identity of the liberal bourgeoisie. The German Progressive Party, which arose in 1861, became the strongest parliamentary party in Prussia and denied the government funds when it decided to change the structure of the ground forces in a reactionary spirit. The appointed new prime minister, Otto von Bismarck (1862), ruled for several years without regard to the budgetary rights of parliament, which was required by the constitution. The Progressive Party in its resistance did not risk going beyond the actions of the parliamentary opposition.

Bismarck was able to strengthen his unstable domestic political position through foreign policy successes. In the Danish War (1864), Prussia and Austria seized Schleswig-Holstein from Denmark, which they initially ruled jointly. But Bismarck from the very beginning sought the annexation of both duchies and went into conflict with Austria. In the Austro-Prussian War (1866), Austria was defeated and had to leave the German scene. The German Confederation was dissolved. It was replaced by the North German Confederation, led by Federal Chancellor Bismarck, which united all German states north of the Main.

Now Bismarck concentrated his activities on completing German unity in the Lesser German plan. He broke French resistance in the Franco-Prussian War (1870/1871), which broke out as a result of a diplomatic conflict over the succession to the throne in Spain. France had to give up Alsace and Lorraine and pay a large sum of reparations. In patriotic military enthusiasm, the South German states united with the North German Confederation, creating the German Empire. At Versailles on January 18, 1871. King William I of Prussia was proclaimed German Emperor. German unity occurred not by the will of the people, “from below,” but on the basis of an agreement of princes, “from above.” Prussian dominance was oppressive. To many, the new empire was imagined as “Great Prussia.” The Reichstag was elected on the basis of general and equal suffrage. True, he did not influence the formation of the government, but he participated in imperial legislation and had the right to approve the budget. Although the Imperial Chancellor was answerable only to the Emperor and not to Parliament, he still needed to have a majority in the Reichstag in order to carry out his policies. There was not yet a unified suffrage for popular representation in individual lands. In eleven German federal states, class suffrage still existed, dependent on tax revenues; in four others, the old class structure of popular representation was preserved. The South German states, with their great parliamentary traditions, reformed the electoral law at the end of the century, and Baden, Württemberg and Bavaria brought it into conformity with the electoral law of the Reichstag. The transformation of Germany into a modern industrial country strengthened the influence of the bourgeoisie, which successfully developed the economy. Nevertheless, the tone in society continued to be set by the nobility and mainly by the officer corps, consisting mainly of nobles.

Bismarck ruled as Imperial Chancellor for nineteen years. Consistently pursuing a peaceful and allied policy, he tried to strengthen the position of the empire in the emerging new balance of forces on the European continent. His domestic policy was in direct opposition to his shrewd foreign policy. He did not understand the democratic trends of his time. He considered the political opposition “hostile to the empire.” He waged a fierce but ultimately unsuccessful struggle against the left wing of the liberal bourgeoisie, political Catholicism and especially against the organized labor movement, which was prohibited by the exceptional law against socialists for twelve years (1878-1890). Despite progressive social laws, the powerfully growing working class thus began to alienate itself from the state. In the end, Bismarck became a victim of his own system, and he was deposed in 1890 by the young Kaiser Wilhelm II.

William II wanted to rule himself, but for this he had neither the knowledge nor the constancy. More with his speeches than with his actions, he created the impression of a tyrant posing a threat to the world. Under him, a transition to “world politics” was made. Germany tried to catch up with the major imperialist powers and at the same time found itself increasingly isolated. In domestic politics, Wilhelm II soon began to pursue a reactionary course, after his attempt to win over the workers to a “social empire” did not produce the desired quick results. His chancellors relied on alternating coalitions created from conservative and bourgeois camps. Social Democracy, although the strongest party with millions of voters, was still out of action.

World War I

The assassination of the Austrian heir to the throne on June 28, 1914 served as the pretext for the First World War. Of course, neither Germany and Austria, on the one hand, nor France, Russia and England, on the other, consciously wanted it, but they were ready to take a certain risk. From the very beginning, everyone had clear military goals, for the implementation of which a military conflict was at least not undesirable. It was not possible to achieve the defeat of France, as envisaged in the German operational plan. On the contrary, after the German defeat at the Battle of the Marne, the war in the west froze, turning into a positional one, which ended in militarily meaningless battles with huge material and human losses on both sides. From the very beginning of the war, the Kaiser kept a low profile. The weak Imperial Chancellors succumbed increasingly to pressure as the war progressed from the Supreme Command, with Field Marshal Paul von Hindenburg as formal commander and General Erich Ludendorff as actual commander. The entry of the United States into the war on the side of the Entente in 1917 predetermined the long-planned outcome, which neither the revolution in Russia nor peace in the East could change. Although the country was completely drained of blood, Ludendorff, unaware of the situation, insisted on a “victorious peace” until September 1918, but then unexpectedly demanded an immediate truce. The military collapse was accompanied by a political one. Without resisting, the emperor and princes abandoned their thrones in November 1918. Not a single hand moved in defense of the monarchy, which had lost confidence. Germany became a Republic.

Weimar Republic

Power passed to the Social Democrats. Most of them had long since moved away from the revolutionary aspirations of previous years and considered their main task to be ensuring an orderly transition from the old state form to the new. Private property in industry and agriculture remained intact. Officials and judges, mostly opposed to the republic, remained in their posts. The Imperial Officer Corps retained command power in the army. Attempts by the radical left to turn the revolution into a socialist direction were suppressed by military measures. At the National Assembly elected in 1919, which met in Weimar and adopted the new imperial constitution, the majority was formed by three clearly republican parties: the Social Democrats, the German Democratic Party and the Center. But in the twenties, forces prevailed among the people and in parliament that treated the democratic state with more or less deep distrust. The Weimar Republic was a “republic without republicans,” fiercely opposed by its opponents and woefully inadequately defended by its supporters. Skepticism towards the republic was fueled primarily by the needs of the post-war period and the difficult conditions of the Treaty of Versailles, which Germany was forced to sign in 1919. The result of this was growing internal political instability. In 1923, the turmoil of the post-war period reached its climax (inflation, occupation of the Ruhr, Hitler's putsch, attempts at a communist coup). Then, after some economic recovery, political equilibrium was established. Thanks to the foreign policy of Gustav Stresemann, defeated Germany, having concluded the Treaty of Locarno (1925) and joining the League of Nations (1926), regained its political equality. Art and science enjoyed a brief but magnificent heyday during the Golden Twenties. After the death of the first Reich President, Social Democrat Friedrich Ebert, former Field Marshal Hindenburg was elected head of state in 1925. Although he strictly adhered to the constitution, he did not have an internal commitment to a republican state. The fall of the Weimar Republic began with the global economic crisis in 1929. Left and right radicals took advantage of unemployment and general poverty. There was no longer a majority in the Reichstag that could govern the country. The cabinets depended on the support of the Reich President (who, according to the constitution, had strong power). The previously insignificant National Socialist movement of Adolf Hitler, which combined extremely anti-democratic tendencies and vicious anti-Semitism with pseudo-revolutionary propaganda, has sharply gained weight since 1930. , and in 1932 it was the largest party. On January 30, 1933, Hitler became Reich Chancellor. In addition to members of his party, the cabinet included some politicians from the right camp, as well as ministers who did not belong to any political parties, so there was still hope for preventing the exclusive domination of the National Socialists.

National Socialist dictatorship

Hitler quickly freed himself from his allies, invested himself with almost unlimited powers thanks to the law granting emergency powers to the government, adopted with the approval of all bourgeois parties, and banned all parties except his own. Trade unions were disbanded, fundamental rights were virtually abolished, and freedom of the press was eliminated. The regime subjected undesirable persons to merciless terror. Thousands of people were thrown into hastily constructed concentration camps without trial or investigation. Parliamentary bodies at all levels were abolished or stripped of power. When Hindenburg died in 1934, Hitler combined the posts of chancellor and president. Thanks to this, he, as the Supreme Commander-in-Chief, gained power over the Wehrmacht, which had not yet lost its independence.

During the short period of the Weimar Republic, the majority of Germans failed to develop an understanding of the system of free democracy. Confidence in state power has been greatly shaken, primarily due to internal political confusion, clashes between political opponents with the use of violence, including bloody street battles, and mass unemployment caused by the global economic crisis. Hitler, however, managed to revive the economy through employment and weapons programs and quickly reduce unemployment. Its position was strengthened thanks to great foreign policy successes: in 1935 the Saarland, which until then had been under the protectorate of the League of Nations, was returned to Germany, and in the same year the right to create a regular army was restored. In 1936, the German army entered the demilitarized Rhineland. In 1938, the empire absorbed Austria, and the Western powers allowed Hitler to annex the Sudetenland. All this was to his advantage in the rapid implementation of his political goals, although in all strata of the population there were people who courageously opposed the dictator.

Immediately after seizing power, the regime began to implement its anti-Semitic program. Gradually the Jews were deprived of all human and civil rights. Due to persecution and suppression of free thought, thousands of people were forced to leave the country. Many of Germany's best writers, artists and scientists emigrated.

The Second World War

Dominion over Germany was not enough for Hitler. From the very beginning, he prepared for a war that he was ready to wage to gain dominance in Europe. On September 1, 1939, by attacking Poland, he started World War II, which lasted five and a half years, devastated large areas of Europe and cost the lives of 55 million people.

Initially, the German armies won victories over Poland, Denmark, Norway, Holland, Belgium, France, Yugoslavia and Greece. In the Soviet Union they approached Moscow closely, and in North Africa they were going to seize the Suez Canal. A brutal occupation regime was established in the occupied countries. The resistance movements fought against him. In 1942, the regime began the "Final Solution of the Jewish Question": all Jews who could be captured were thrown into concentration camps in occupied Poland and killed there. The total number of victims is estimated at six million. The year when this unthinkable crime began became a turning point in the war. From then on, Germany and its allies Italy and Japan suffered setbacks on all fronts. With the terror and military failures of the regime, the wave of resistance to Hitler within the country grew. On July 20, 1944, the uprising, organized mainly by officers, failed. Hitler survived an assassination attempt on his life, where a bomb was detonated, and took bloody revenge for it. In the following months, over four thousand members of the Resistance, representatives of all walks of life, were executed. Colonel General Ludwig Beck, Colonel Count Staufenberg and former Mayor of Leipzig Karl Goerdeler should be named as outstanding personalities of the Resistance movement.

The war continued. Suffering heavy losses, Hitler did not stop the war until the enemy occupied the entire territory of the empire. On April 30, 1945, he committed suicide. And eight days later, his successor in his will, Grand Admiral Dönitz, signed an act of unconditional surrender.

Germany after World War II

After the unconditional surrender of the German army on May 8-9, 1945, the imperial government led by Admiral Dönitz carried out its duties for another 23 days. Then it was arrested. Later, members of the government, along with other high-ranking officials of the National Socialist dictatorship, were put on trial on charges of crimes against peace and humanity.

On June 5, supreme power passed to the victorious countries: the USA, Great Britain, the Soviet Union and France. The main goal of the London Protocol (September 12, 1944) and subsequent agreements based on it was to exercise complete control over Germany. The basis of this policy was the division of the country into three occupation zones, the divided capital of Berlin into three parts, and a joint Control Council of three commanders-in-chief.

The division of Germany into occupation zones should have forever discouraged it from seeking world domination, after failed attempts in 1914 and 1939. It was important to put an end to Teutonic aggressive aspirations in the future, to eliminate Prussia as a stronghold of militarism, to punish the Germans for the destruction of peoples and war crimes, and to instill in them a democratic consciousness.

At the Yalta Conference (Crimea) in February 1945, France entered the circle of allies as the fourth controlling power and received its own occupation zone. In Yalta, it was decided to deprive Germany of its statehood, but not to allow its territorial fragmentation. In particular, Stalin was interested in preserving Germany as a single economic whole. For the enormous sacrifices of the Soviet Union as a result of the German attack, Stalin made such colossal demands for reparations that one zone could not satisfy them. In addition to the $20 billion, Moscow demanded the complete transfer of 80 percent of all German industrial enterprises to the Soviet Union.

In accordance with plans pursuing other goals, the British and French also advocated the preservation of the viability of the remaining part of Germany, but not out of a desire to receive reparations, but because without German participation, the restoration of Europe would have proceeded more slowly. Around the fall of 1944, President US Roosevelt also advocated a stable central Europe within a global system of equilibrium. This could not have been achieved without economic stability in Germany. Therefore, relatively quickly he rejected the notorious Morgenthau plan, according to which the German nation in the future was to engage only in agriculture and be divided into North German and South German states.

The victorious countries were soon united only by the common goal of disarmament and demilitarization of Germany. All the more quickly did its dismemberment become “a recognition of a dying idea only in words” (Charles Bolin), when the Western powers saw in amazement that Stalin, immediately after the military liberation of Poland and south-eastern Europe, began the mass Sovietization of these countries.

On May 12, 1945, Churchill telegraphed US President Truman that the “Iron Curtain” had fallen in front of the Soviet front. “We don’t know what’s going on behind it.” Since then, the concerned West has wondered what the consequences would have been if Stalin had been allowed to participate in decision-making in the implementation of reparation policy on the Rhine and Ruhr. As a result, it happened that at the Potsdam Conference (from July 17 to August 2, 1945), the initial goal of which was a post-war settlement in Europe, agreements were adopted that fixed rather than resolved the tensions that had arisen: unanimity was achieved only on issues of denazification, demilitarization and economic decentralization, as well as educating the Germans in a democratic spirit. Further, the West gave its consent, fraught with consequences, to the eviction of Germans from Poland, Hungary and Czechoslovakia. In clear contradiction with Western reservations about the “humane” implementation of this eviction was the subsequent brutal expulsion of about 6.75 million Germans. This is how they paid for both German guilt and the transfer of the Polish western border as a consequence of the Soviet occupation of Konigsberg and Eastern Poland. A minimal consensus was reached only on maintaining the four occupation zones as economic and political units. Meanwhile, each occupation power had to satisfy its reparation demands first at the expense of its occupation zone.

But, as time has shown, this set the main direction: not only the settlement of reparations, but also the linking of the four zones to different political and economic systems led to the fact that the Cold War manifested itself more acutely in Germany than anywhere else in the world. Meanwhile, the creation of German parties and administrative bodies began in individual occupation zones. This happened very quickly and under strict regulation in the Soviet zone. Already in 1945, central administrative bodies were authorized and formed there.

In the three western zones, political life developed from the bottom up. Political parties initially existed only locally; after the formation of the lands, they were allowed at this level. Only later did zone-scale unifications take place. At the zone level there were only the beginnings of administrative bodies. But since it was possible to overcome the material poverty of a country lying in ruins only with the help of broad planning covering all zones and lands, and the administration of the four powers did not act, in 1947 the USA and Great Britain decided to carry out the economic unification of both zones (Bieonia).

The duel between the dominant systems in the East and West, as well as the very different implementation of reparation policies in individual zones, led to a blockade of the all-German financial, tax, raw materials and production policies, which resulted in completely different development of the regions. At first, France was not interested in the interzonal economic administration (Bizonia/Trizonia). Stalin put forward a demand for participation in the control of the Ruhr region and at the same time isolated his zone. Thus, he did not allow any Western interference in the communist-oriented policy of creating official institutions in the Soviet Occupation Zone (SOZ). The West was helpless against Soviet tyranny, as, for example, in April 1946, during the forced unification of the Communist Party of Germany (KPD) and the Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD) into the Socialist Unity Party of Germany (SED).

In connection with this development, the British and Americans also began to pursue their own interests in their zones. High conservative military officials viewed socialism with disgust. Therefore, in the western zones the old structures of ownership and society have been preserved. The disastrous economic situation also forced us not to continue denazification, but to use good German specialists in the urgently needed restoration.

Transition to partnership with the West

US Foreign Secretary Byrnes's speech on September 6, 1946 in Stuttgart marked a turn in West Germany. Stalin's occupation and Poland's borders were described as only temporary. According to his concept, the military presence of the Western Allies in West Germany changed: the occupying and controlling power was replaced by a protective power. Only a “soft” reparation policy should have kept the Germans from nationalist revanchism and encouraged them to cooperate. On the initiative of Great Britain and the United States, after overcoming French resistance, Trizonia was finally created as a single Western economic region. The danger of further Soviet advance to the West after the state putsch in Prague on February 25, 1948 ultimately prompted France to adhere to allied interests. Byrnes's ideas were clearly reflected in the creation of the Brussels Pact (March 17, 1948), and then in the North Atlantic Treaty (April 4, 1949).

Such a treaty community could only function if West Germany were a single political and economic entity. In accordance with this, France, Great Britain and the USA agreed at the London Conference (February 23 - March 3, April 20 - June 1, 1948) on a joint state settlement of the western occupation zones. On March 20, 1948, at a meeting of the Control Council, the Soviet representative Marshal Sokolovsky demanded information about the London negotiations. When his Western colleagues rejected this, Sokolovsky left the meeting of the Control Council in order not to return here again.

While the Western powers were busy drawing up their recommendations to the West German prime ministers for convening a constitutional convention, the introduction of the Deutsche Mark in the West (currency reform of June 20, 1948) provided Stalin with the pretext to attempt to blockade West Berlin to annex it into the Soviet zone. On the night of June 23-24, 1948, all land communications between the western zones and West Berlin were blocked. The city's supply of electricity from the eastern sector and food products from POPs has ceased. On August 3, 1948, Stalin demanded recognition of Berlin as the capital of the GDR, which also received its own government on October 7, 1949. However, US President Truman remained adamant and true to his motto of July 20: neither West Berlin (“do not repeat Munich”) nor the founding of a Western state should be abandoned. Until May 12, 1949, supplies to West Berlin were provided via an air bridge organized by the Allies. This obvious attachment to Berlin as an outpost of Western politics and way of life, as well as America's demonstration of its strength, contributed to the development of cooperation with the occupation authorities.

Founding of the Federal Republic of Germany

Germany had been receiving foreign aid from America since 1946. But only the program to combat “hunger, poverty, despair and chaos” (the Marshall Plan) allowed it to make a decisive shift in restoring its economy ($1.4 billion in the period 1948- 1952) While the socialization of industry continued in the Soviet occupation zone, in West Germany, after the currency reform, the model of the “Social Market Economy” (Alfred Müller-Armack, 1947) gained more and more supporters. The new economic structure, on the one hand, was supposed to prevent the “swamping of capitalism” (Walter Aiken), on the other, to prevent the centralized planned economy from turning into a brake on creative activity and initiative. This economic goal was supplemented in the Bonn Basic Law by the principle of a legal and social state, as well as the federal structure of the republic. Moreover, the constitution was deliberately called the Basic Law in order to emphasize its temporary nature. The final constitution was to be adopted only after German unity had been restored.

This Basic Law naturally included many of the plans of the Western occupation authorities, who entrusted the drafting of the constitution to the West German prime ministers on July 1, 1948 (Frankfurt Papers). At the same time, it reflected the experience of the Weimar Republic and the “legal” establishment of the Nazi dictatorship. The Constitutional Assembly on Herrenchim See (10-23 August 1948) and the Parliamentary Council in Bonn (65 members delegated by the Landtags met on 1 September 1948) in the Basic Law (8 May 1949) prescribed future governments, parties and other political forces to adhere to the principles of preventive legal protection. All aspirations to eliminate the free democratic system, all attempts to replace it with a right-wing or left-wing dictatorship have since been considered worthy of punishment and prohibition. The legality of parties is determined by the Federal Constitutional Court.

These commitments were a direct response to the lessons learned during the National Socialist dictatorship. Many politicians who survived the troubles and oppression of this dictatorship immediately after 1945 became involved in active political activities and now brought the democratic traditions of the period 1848 and 1919, as well as the “Revolt of Conscience” of July 20, 1944, into the new construction of Germany.

throughout the world they personified the “other Germany” and enjoyed the respect of the occupation authorities. The new party landscape in West Germany was shaped by such figures as the first Federal President Theodor Heiss (FDP), the first Federal Chancellor Konrad Adenauer (CDU), Ludwig Erhard (CDU), this “locomotive of the economic miracle,” as well as such major opposition leaders from the SPD , like Kurt Schumacher and Erich Ollenhauer, or global citizen Carlo Schmid. Step by step they expanded German rights to participate in world politics and political influence. In July 1951, Great Britain, France and the United States declared the end of the state of war with Germany. The USSR followed this on January 25, 1955.

Foreign policy of the new Germany

It was based on Western integration and European understanding. For Federal Chancellor Adenauer, who until 1963 personally

had a great influence on the foreign and domestic policies pursued by Germany (“Chancellor democracy”), the highest

the political goal was the reunification of Germany while maintaining peace and freedom. A prerequisite for this was the inclusion of West Germany in the Atlantic Community. Therefore, with the acquisition of sovereignty by the Federal Republic of Germany on May 5, 1955, its entry into NATO was realized. The Union was supposed to provide a reliable shield after the European Defense Community (EDC) project could not be implemented due to French refusal. In parallel, the formation of the European Communities took place (Treaties of Rome, 1957). Adenauer's distrust of Moscow became so entrenched that in 1952 he together with the West, he rejected Stalin’s proposal to reunite Germany up to the Oder-Neisse border and give it neutrality status. The Chancellor considered it necessary to have American troops on German soil for protection purposes. His suspicion turned out to be completely justified when on June 17, 1953. tanks suppressed the popular uprising in the GDR, caused by captivity and “inflated standards” (Hans Mayer).

Sober state calculations prompted the establishment of diplomatic relations with the USSR, the largest power in Europe. During his visit to Moscow in September 1955, Adenauer, in addition to this goal, achieved the release of the last 10,000 German prisoners of war and about 20,000 civilians.

The suppression by Soviet troops of the popular uprising in Hungary in November 1956 and the “satellite shock” (October 4, 1957) testified to the great increase in the power of the USSR. This was expressed in the implementation of further coercive measures as part of the construction of a socialist society in the GDR, and above all in the Berlin ultimatum of Stalin's successor Nikita Khrushchev, who demanded that the Western allies liberate West Berlin within six months. The decisive refusal prompted Khrushchev to try to advance the Berlin issue with decoys. Indeed, Khrushchev's trip to the United States in 1959 led to a significant detente (the "spirit of Camp David"). In any case, US President Eisenhower, to the displeasure of the Bonn government, believed that the violations of rights on the Soviet side in Berlin were not so significant that they could serve as a reason for a violent conflict outside Germany.

Bonn's concerns about Berlin's security increased when, with the election of John F. Kennedy as president, a generational change occurred at the political top of the United States, as a result of which Adenauer's influence on American policy in Europe significantly diminished. Kennedy, it is true, guaranteed the presence of Western powers and the security of West Berlin on July 25, 1961, but ultimately the Allied response to the construction of the Berlin Wall (August 13, 1961) did not go beyond diplomatic protests and symbolic threats. Once again, Moscow managed to secure its protectorate. “Voting with your feet” against the GDR regime was suppressed through barriers, death strips and oppression. Before the construction of the wall, over 30,000 people left the GDR in July alone.

With this “wall” both superpowers “stake out their possessions.” The German question was not resolved, but it seemed settled. The process of mutual understanding between both superpowers, caused by the nuclear stalemate, continued even after the Cuban Missile Crisis of 1962. Accordingly, Bonn had to intensify its search for its path, and the temporary cooling of relations with Washington was compensated by the “summer of French friendship.” By concluding the Elysee Treaty in January 1963, Adenauer and De Gaulle gave special significance to German-French friendship. To emphasize the new quality of bilateral relations, De Gaulle, during his triumphal visit to Bonn (1962), made a speech in which he spoke about the “great German people.” As the general said, World War II should be viewed in terms of tragedy rather than guilt. The policy of mutual understanding with the West echoed the clarification of the situation in relations with Eastern Europe. NATO gave the appropriate signal in Athens in December 1963, adopting a new strategy of flexible response instead of massive retaliation.

In order to somehow move from its established positions, the Federal Republic of Germany sought to improve relations at least with the states located on the approaches to the USSR. Without officially abandoning the Hallstein Doctrine as an obstacle to diplomatic recognition of the GDR, Adenauer's successors Ludwig Erhard and Kurt Georg Kiesinger based their policies on the harsh realities in Central Europe. Not least of all, this was a response to the new line in foreign policy pursued by the SPD opposition, which on July 15, 1963, Egon Bahr characterized with the formula “Turn through change.”

The establishment of German trade missions in Bucharest and Budapest was considered an encouraging start. In the West, work was intensively carried out to create the European Community (EC), the European Coal and Steel Community, the European Atomic Energy Community and the European Economic Community (EEC).

The establishment of diplomatic relations with Israel despite pan-Arab protest was an important step in the German policy of mutual understanding. At the beginning of 1967, Bonn established diplomatic relations with Romania. In June 1967, trade missions were established in Bonn and Prague. In 1967 Bonn and Belgrade re-established diplomatic relations, previously interrupted due to Belgrade's recognition of the GDR. Poland joined the diplomatic discussion with proposals to conclude an agreement on the non-use of force.

In addition to reconciliation with European neighbors and integration into the community of Western states, Adenauer attached great importance to correcting crimes against the Jewish people. The Nazis' systematic campaign of extermination claimed the lives of six million Jews. The beginning of reconciliation between Jews and Germans was significantly influenced, not least by the good personal relations of the first Federal Chancellor with Israeli Prime Minister Ben Gurion. The meeting of both statesmen on March 14, 1960 at the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel in New York will forever be remembered. In 1961, in parliament, Adenauer emphasized that the Federal Republic of Germany would confirm the Germans' complete break with the National Socialist past only by compensating for material damage. Back in 1952, an agreement was signed in Luxembourg on the payment of assistance to Jewish refugees to establish life in Israel. In total, of the approximately 90 billion marks for compensation, one third was received by Israel and Jewish organizations, in particular Jewish Claims Conference , a fund created to support Jews persecuted anywhere in the world.

Germany and GDR

The ongoing process of détente did not undergo any significant changes, despite the “Brezhnev doctrine” of the indivisibility of socialist territories, within the framework of which the GDR carried out further demarcation measures (for example, the obligation to have a passport and visa in transit between the Federal Republic of Germany and West Berlin), and despite the fact that the Warsaw Pact stopped the Prague reform policy (Prague Spring). In April 1969, Bonn declared its readiness for agreements with the GDR, without proceeding to its recognition on the basis of international law. |

Without prior agreement with Moscow, however, it was difficult to achieve German-German agreements. When Bonn received a proposal from Moscow to conclude an agreement on the renunciation of the use of force, the outlines of the so-called “new Eastern policy” of the government of the social liberal coalition quickly began to emerge;

formed on October 21, 1969 A few months earlier, Gustav Heinemann, who had been a strong supporter of mutual understanding between East and West since Adenauer's time, had become federal president. Willy Brandt, a representative of the active resistance to Hitler's dictatorship, stood next to him at the head of the federal government, which directed its energies towards creating a pan-European peaceful order. The general conditions of world politics were favorable. Moscow and Washington were negotiating strategic arms limitation (START), and NATO was proposing to negotiate bilateral balanced troop reductions. On November 28, 1969, the Federal Republic of Germany acceded to the Agreement on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons. In general, having begun to pursue its policy of mutual understanding, the new government sought to achieve success, bypassing the internal political frictions of the Grand Coalition.

While negotiations on a non-use of force agreement began in Moscow and Warsaw, Bonn and East Berlin were also looking for ways to achieve better mutual understanding. On March 19, 1970, the first meeting between Brandt and Stoff, heads of government of both German states, took place in Erfurt. The meeting was continued on May 21, 1970 in Kassel. In August 1970, the Treaty on the Mutual Non-Use of Force and Recognition of the Status Quo was signed in Moscow. Both sides assured that they have no territorial claims “to anyone.” Germany noted that the Treaty was not inconsistent with the goal of promoting a state of peace in Europe “in which the German people would once again find unity under the right of freedom of self-determination.”

On December 7 of the same year, the Warsaw Agreement was signed, which confirmed the inviolability of the existing border (along the Oder-Neisse line). Warsaw and Bonn assured that they have no territorial claims against each other and announced their intention to improve cooperation between both countries. In the "Information" on humanitarian measures, Warsaw agreed to the resettlement of Germans from Poland and the unification of their families with the help of the Red Cross.

To ensure ratification of the agreement, France, Great Britain, the USA and the USSR signed the Berlin Agreement, according to which Berlin was not a constitutional part of the Federal Republic of Germany, but at the same time Bonn was recognized as having representative powers over West Berlin. In addition, ties between West Berlin and the Federal Republic of Germany were to be improved and relations between East Berlin and West Berlin were to be expanded. The German desire for peace and détente was recognized throughout the world when Willy Brandt was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize (1971).

But the CDU/CSU, which is in opposition for the first time, the results of the negotiations seemed insufficient. But the constructive vote of no confidence in Brandt did not pass, and on May 17, 1972, the German Bundestag approved agreements with the Soviet Union and Poland. The majority of CDU/CSU deputies abstained from voting. The Bundestag, in an “interpretive resolution” on the treaties, confirmed that they are not in conflict with the restoration of German unity through peaceful means.

The Eastern Treaties were finally supplemented and completed by the German-German Treaty on the Basic Relations, which had been meeting and negotiated since June 1972. With the re-election of Willy Brandt as Federal Chancellor on December 14, 1972, the way was cleared for the treaty to be signed in December of that year. The parties recorded in the agreement the refusal of both parties to the threat and use of force, as well as the inviolability of the German-German border and respect for the independence and independence of both states. Further, they confirmed their readiness to resolve humanitarian issues. Due to the special quality of their relations, they agreed to establish "representative offices" instead of regular embassies. And here, at the conclusion of the treaty, a letter was transmitted from the government of the Federal Republic of Germany, which emphasized the will to unity. That the treaty was not in conflict with this aim was confirmed by the Federal Constitutional Court at the request of the government of the Bavarian Republic. At the same time, the court stated that, according to international law, the German Empire continues to exist and is partially identical with the Federal Republic of Germany, and the GDR is not considered abroad, but part of the country.

In 1973, the Prague Treaty was signed between Czechoslovakia and the Federal Republic of Germany. It states that “in accordance with this agreement” the Munich Agreement of 1938 is recognized

Invalid. The provisions of the treaty also included the inviolability of borders and the renunciation of the use of force.

Relations between the GDR and the Federal Republic of Germany did not change significantly with the beginning of the Vienna negotiations on a balanced mutual reduction of armed forces, and during the conclusion of the Soviet-American agreement on the prevention of nuclear war, and during the meeting of 35 states on security and cooperation in Europe in Helsinki ( CSCE). On the one hand, East Berlin had material and financial benefits from individual agreements subsequently concluded on the basis of the Treaty on the Basic Principles of Relations, on the other hand, it scrupulously monitored the ideological demarcation. With the change in the constitution of the GDR, the concept of a “socialist state of the German nation” disappeared. It was replaced by a "socialist state of workers and peasants." Helmut Schmidt also sought to continue the policy of balancing. On May 16, 1974, he succeeded Willy Brandt as Federal Chancellor. Until 1981, the “swing” settlement was extended, under which the GDR was allowed to regularly overspend up to 850 million marks on a loan received from the Federal Republic of Germany.

As before, the GDR greatly benefited from various Western-financed transit settlements, while remaining in turn a politically closed country. The Final Act of the Helsinki CSCE (1975), which proclaimed freedom of movement at border traffic and greater respect for human and civil rights, was a source of disappointment not only for the citizens of the GDR. The nitpicking in border traffic, the arbitrariness with the ban on entry, and the rejection of visitors to the Leipzig fair did not stop. Critical reporting about the GDR was punished by the expulsion of Western journalists. By depriving the songwriter Wolf Biermann of his citizenship, the SED regime lost its authority throughout the world. However, for the sake of the people in the GDR, the Federal Republic of Germany continued its policy of mutual understanding and unity. Thus, in 1978, an agreement was concluded with East Berlin on the construction of the Berlin-Hamburg motorway and the repair of transit waterways to West Berlin, with a high share of the costs of the Federal Republic of Germany. In addition, the ransom of political prisoners from the GDR continued. As a result, Bonn paid the GDR over 3.5 billion marks for the liberation of 33,755 people and the unification of 250,000 families.

Exacerbation of the Cold War

While unification progressed well in Western Europe, in Eastern Europe the end of the decade of détente and the beginning of the eighties were marked by new conflicts. The Soviet invasion of Afghanistan and the declaration of martial law in Poland led to a worsening climate in relations between East and West, as did the installation of new intermediate-range missiles (SS 20) in the GDR and Czechoslovakia. NATO reacted to this dangerous destabilization of the security balance by deciding to begin missile rearmament in turn in 1983. The USSR was offered arms control negotiations (NATO's dual solution). The USA, Great Britain, Canada, Norway and the Federal Republic of Germany refused to participate in the 1980 Olympic Games in Moscow in protest against the intervention in Afghanistan.

Everything began to move again after the Americans put forward a proposal for the so-called “zero” solution, which provided for the elimination of Soviet medium-range missiles while NATO renounced the installation of Pershing missiles II and new cruise missiles. To eliminate security gaps, Federal Chancellor Helmut Schmidt insisted on rearmament as an alternative and at the same time tried to contain as much as possible the deterioration of relations between the two German states. Despite the requirement of head of state and party Erich Honecker to have his own citizenship and a sharp increase in the minimum exchange rate for visitors to the GDR from the West, Federal Chancellor Helmut Schmidt paid a visit to the GDR without receiving any significant concessions from Honecker. The increasing ideological tightening of the regime was not least a response to the rising wave of protest from increasingly large sections of the population in neighboring Poland, where people demanded economic reforms, freedom and disarmament.

On October 1, 1982, Helmut Kohl became the head of the new government of the CDU/CSU/FDP coalition. At the same time, he continued the policy of security and close cooperation with Paris and Washington, seeking to expand and secure a united Europe. Despite protests from the peace movement, parts of the SPD and the Greens, who first entered parliament in the 1983 Bundestag elections, the German Bundestag approved the deployment of medium-range missiles in November 1983, "since there is a threat due to the superiority of the Warsaw pact in conventional weapons" (Federal Chancellor Kohl).

German reunification

The GDR, founded on October 7, 1949, was the brainchild of Moscow. However, based on the experience of the National Socialist dictatorship, many Germans were initially willing to participate in the construction of their model of an anti-fascist state. The command economy, the secret police, the omnipotence of the SED and strict censorship led over time to a growing alienation of the population from the ruling apparatus. At the same time, the very low cost in providing basic material and social needs gave the closed system the flexibility that made it possible to organize life in a variety of ways, for example, the so-called existence in niches. The compensation was the major international successes of the GDR in the field of sports, as well as the satisfaction of the “workers” that, despite paying extremely high reparations to the Soviets, they achieved the highest industrial production and the highest standard of living within the Eastern bloc. People retreated into their private lives as soon as they began to feel instructive spiritual and cultural control and pressure.

Despite the propaganda about annually exceeding plans and winning battles to increase productivity, behind the façade of instilling hatred of imperialists in school, in production and in the army, the consciousness was increasingly maturing that the original economic goal of overtaking the West would remain a fiction. The depletion of resources, the aggressive destruction of the environment by industrial production, and the decline in labor productivity due to centralism and a planned economy forced the SED regime to dilute its promises. Increasingly, he had to turn to the West for large financial loans. The standard of living decreased, infrastructure (housing, transport, nature protection) was destroyed. As a result of a wide network of surveillance established over the entire people, psychological treatment and convulsive calls for solidarity, the claim to the leading role of “the working class and its Marxist-Leninist party” (Article 1 of the Constitution of the GDR) turned into empty rhetoric, especially for the younger generation. People demanded more rights to self-determination and participation in government, more individual freedom, and more and better goods. Often such wishes were combined with the hope of the ability to self-reform socialism, mired in bureaucracy and rejection of the West.

The deployment of missiles, which prompted the US government to create a space defense system (SDI program), and the continued policy of injections by the GDR led to an increasing chill in diplomatic relations. And here the citizens of the GDR themselves put their own government in a difficult position. This included, for example, the refusal of citizens intending to leave the GDR to leave the Permanent Representation of the Federal Republic of Germany in East Berlin until they were explicitly promised travel to the West. To achieve relief for the people, the government of the Federal Republic of Germany repeatedly facilitated the provision of large bank loans to the GDR. The fears of Moscow, which saw this as an erosion of socialism, were dispelled by Erich Honecker in 1984 in Neues Deutschland, the central organ of the SED: “Socialism and capitalism cannot be combined like fire and water.” Official self-confidence, however, was no longer able to hide the fact that the emerging reform movements in Eastern European countries were increasingly forcing the socialist bloc to take a defensive position. Honecker's dismissal of reproaches at the CSCE conference in Ottawa (1985) that in the Eastern Bloc people were deprived of freedom of speech and movement was a propaganda lie.

From the beginning of 1985, more and more people came to the Permanent Representation of the Federal Republic of Germany in East Berlin, as well as to the German Embassy in Prague. Soon the new General Secretary of the CPSU, Mikhail Gorbachev, would become the personification of the highest hopes both for the freedom-hungry citizens of the GDR and for new cooperation in future international security policy.

In 1986, Gorbachev declared the most important political task to be the elimination of atomic weapons by the end of the century. The willingness to engage in new dialogue was evident in the Secretary General's personal meetings with US President Reagan in Geneva and Reykjavik, at the Stockholm Conference on Confidence-Building Measures and Disarmament in Europe, and in preparation for negotiations on the reduction of conventional forces in Europe. Thanks to this readiness, German-German agreements in the fields of culture, art, education and science were possible. A general agreement on cooperation in the field of environmental protection was also concluded. In 1986, the cities of Saar-Louis and Eisenhüttenstadt concluded the first partnership agreement between East and West Germany. Gorbachev became a spokesman for hopes in the East and West. But the SED regime reacted lukewarmly to the new upsurge caused by Gorbachev’s mottos “perestroika” and “glasnost”. The wave of democratic transformations of society carried out in the USSR should not have reached the GDR. Kurt Hager, a member of the Politburo and the supreme ideologist of the SED, stubbornly insisted that there is no need to change the wallpaper in your apartment just because your neighbor does it.

The extent to which the GDR leadership thus ignored the aspirations of its people was shown by protest demonstrations in East Berlin on August 13, the day the wall was erected. The words of Helmut Kohl addressed to his guest, Erich Honecker, during his visit to Bonn (1987) were aimed against the German split: “We respect existing borders, but we will try to overcome the division peacefully on the basis of mutual understanding...” We bear a joint responsibility for preserving the vital foundations of our people."

Progress in securing these fundamentals of life was achieved with the INF Treaty between Reagan and Gorbachev. According to this agreement, within three years, all American and Soviet missiles with a range of 500-5000 km stationed in Europe were to be removed and destroyed. In turn, the Federal Republic of Germany announced its readiness to destroy its 72 Pershing 1A missiles.

Thanks to general détente in the GDR, demands for greater freedoms and reforms grew. In early 1988, 120 supporters of the peace movement Church Below were arrested during demonstrations in East Berlin. An intercessory service was held in the Getsemane-Kirche church for the sake of those arrested. Over 2000 people took part in it. Two weeks later, their number had risen to 4,000. In Dresden, police broke up a demonstration for human rights, freedom of speech and the press. In May, a visit by Soviet Defense Minister Jacob prompted Honecker to warn against the dangers of imperialism. He called for strengthening the Warsaw Pact.

Although Federal Chancellor Kohl welcomed some relief in travel, in December 1988, in his State of the Nation report to the German Bundestag, he could not help but condemn the suppression of reformist aspirations in the GDR. For the head of state and Honecker's party, the new civil rights movements were only "extremist attacks." To the call to remove the wall, he responded in January 1989 that “the anti-fascist protective rampart will remain until the conditions that led to its construction are changed. It will still stand in 50 and even 100 years.”

The dissatisfaction of the GDR population grew in the face of the annoying stubbornness of the GDR leadership at a time when Gorbachev was talking about the contours of a “common European home” and Helmut Kohl, full of hope, noted “a break in the rigidity that had developed over decades in Europe.” Sometimes it was necessary to close the Permanent Representation of the Federal Republic of Germany in East Berlin under pressure from those wishing to leave the GDR.

In September 1989 Hungary opened its borders to East German citizens wishing to leave it, and thousands of people left via Austria for the West. Such a gap in the discipline of the Warsaw Pact encouraged more and more people in the GDR to protest, now outside the churches. At the beginning of October 1989, the leadership of the GDR celebrated the 40th anniversary of the founding of the state with great pomp, which sparked mass demonstrations, mainly in Leipzig (“We are the people”).

Finally, Honecker, in order to save the foundations of the SED regime, resorted to the last resort of resigning. His successor as General Secretary of the SED and head of state of the GDR was Egon Krenz, whose promises of a “turnaround” were drowned in distrust of him as a person. Further developments forced the resignation of the entire Council of Ministers and the SED Politburo. The nonviolent “velvet revolution” caused a kind of paralysis of government agencies. It so happened that a vague announcement about the introduction of a new law on free movement, made by the district secretary of the SED, Schabowski, served as the impetus for a mass border crossing in Berlin on the evening of November 9, 1989. The authorities remained indifferent observers, losing control of the reins of government. The wall collapsed. Soon they began to break it and offer it in pieces as a souvenir all over the world.

The announcement of the opening of the wall found Federal Chancellor Kohl in Warsaw. He cut short his visit for one day and hurried to Berlin to speak to 20,000 people from the balcony of the Berlin town hall in Schöneberg. He appealed to the people's reason at this happy hour and thanked Gorbachev and friends in the West for their support. The spirit of freedom permeated all of Europe, the chancellor proclaimed. In Warsaw, he signed a statement on expanding and deepening German-Polish cooperation in the cause of peace, security and stability in Europe.

With the coup in the GDR, the chance for the long-awaited reunification of Germany appeared. But caution was required. For Paris and London, this “was not the topic of the day”; at a meeting with US President Bush on a ship off Malta (December 1989), Gorbachev warned against artificially forcing a solution to the German question, and in the GDR itself, the new government of Modrow linked the desire to quickly carry out reforms with demand to preserve their own statehood. Therefore, Federal Chancellor Kohl tried to achieve unity through a ten-point program that would provide for the creation of a treaty community based on a confederal structure and, as a condition, provide for a fundamental change in the political and economic system of the GDR. Chancellor Kohl sought to include direct negotiations with the GDR within the framework of pan-European development defined by the EU and the CSCE. At the same time, he did not name a specific date for the negotiations in order not to give rise to rumors about the possible role of a great Germany, which were already heard on the world stage at the very beginning of the unification process. It seemed that the path to the unification of both states would still be long, after at the plenum of the CPSU Central Committee back in December 1989, Gorbachev assured that Moscow “will not abandon the GDR to its fate. It is a strategic ally in the Warsaw Pact. One should always proceed from the existence of two German states, between which peaceful cooperation may well develop.” Federal Chancellor Kohl picked up the topic and what its pace and content should be should be decided first of all by the citizens of the GDR themselves.

But politicians have noticeably failed to keep up with the times. The population of the GDR did not trust their new government, the flow of masses to the West grew, and general destabilization progressed. But Gorbachev still hesitated, especially since Poland and Hungary were increasingly coming out of Moscow’s influence, the overthrow of Ceausescu was approaching in Romania, and the GDR’s withdrawal from the Warsaw Pact would lead to an imbalance in security policy. In the West, there were also calls for unification to “take into account the legitimate concerns of Germany’s neighboring countries.” Finally, the unification process was continued only after Bonn’s assurances that the issue of unification would not be related to changes in existing borders, that in the event of unification, NATO structures would not be expanded into the territory of the former GDR and as compensation for obtaining strategic benefits, a reduction in the German armed forces would be offered. US President Bush approved unification on the condition that the Federal Republic of Germany remained a member of NATO. In order to have democratically legitimized negotiating partners from the GDR, on March 18, 1990, in the GDR for the first time free elections were held within 40 years. A large coalition of the CDU, NSU, DP, SPD and FDP was led by Lothar de Maiziere. Bonn agreed with him the procedure for implementing an economic, monetary and social union on July 1, 1990, after it became obvious , that there was no longer an economic basis for the continued existence of the GDR as an independent state, and the majority of GDR citizens were in favor of joining the Federal Republic of Germany. In August 1990 The chamber spoke in favor of the speedy accession of the GDR to the Federal Republic of Germany. On August 31 of the same year, State Secretary of the GDR Krause and Federal Minister of the Interior Schäuble signed the corresponding “Treaty of Unification”. On October 3, 1990, the GDR was annexed to the Federal Republic of Germany on the basis of Article 23 03. The GDR states of Brandenburg, Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, Saxony, Saxony-Anhalt and Thuringia became states of the Federal Republic of Germany. Berlin was declared the capital. The Basic Law, with certain changes, began to apply in the annexed territory.

Unity became possible after Gorbachev gave his consent to the unification of both German states in July 1990 in his conversations with Chancellor Kohl in Moscow and Stavropol. The Federal Republic of Germany first had to agree to renounce weapons of mass destruction, to reduce the number of troops to 370,000 people, and also to refuse to transfer NATO structures to the territory of the GDR while Soviet troops were there. An agreement was reached on their withdrawal by the end of 1994, and Federal Chancellor Kohl agreed to provide financial assistance for the resettlement of the military in their homeland. Thanks to Gorbachev's approval, the signing of the so-called “Two Plus Four” agreement became possible. In it, the USSR, USA, France and Great Britain, as well as representatives of both German states, confirmed the creation of a united Germany, the territory of which included the territories of the GDR, the Federal Republic of Germany and Berlin. The external borders of Germany are recognized as final. Taking into account Poland's special, historically determined need for security, Bonn and Warsaw assured each other in the additional agreement that each party respected the territorial integrity and sovereignty of the other party, respectively.

With the ratification of the Treaty of Unification and the Treaty of "Two Plus Four", the rights and obligations of the four victorious powers "in relation to Berlin and Germany as a single whole" came to an end. Thus, Germany regained full sovereignty in its domestic and foreign policy, which was lost with the collapse of the National Socialist dictatorship 45 years ago.

United Germany

After the establishment of German unity and major geopolitical changes in the system of eastern states, Germany and its partners faced completely new challenges. It was necessary to promote construction in the new states and complete the actual unification of Germany. It was necessary to continue the development of Europe into an economic and political union. A global architecture for peace and security had to be created.

An enlarged Germany sought to match its increased responsibilities through close ties with its European and Atlantic partners. “To serve the cause of peace in a united Europe,” this is how Germany understands its role, according to President Richard von Weizsäckner. Chancellor Helmut Kohl emphasized that the country will continue to fulfill this role within the framework of the Western alliance: “The union that has provided us with peace for decades and freedom, can rely on our solidarity." And within the framework of United Nations measures, the German government expressed its readiness for expanded German cooperation.

The extent to which Germany was ready to cooperate both bilaterally and multilaterally is illustrated by German assistance to the countries of Central and Eastern Europe, as well as the former Soviet Union. In order to promote reforms in Central and Eastern Europe, Germany has allocated 37.5 billion since 1989. marks. Aid to Russia and other countries formed after the collapse of the Soviet Union amounted to 87.55 billion marks during the same period, which is more than the assistance provided by all other Western states combined. In addition, Germany contributed 28 percent to the European Community's assistance to the former Yugoslavia and took in almost half of all refugees from areas affected by civil war. The proportion of asylum seekers arriving in Germany in 1992 was - compared to other Western European countries - more than 70 percent. The costs of their placement and maintenance alone amounted to eight billion marks. Germany's assistance to stabilization in Central and Eastern Europe and its assistance to the Newly Independent States is not limited to financial assistance. Great efforts are also being made to promote democratization and market economic reforms. In addition to financial assistance, a large number of experts and retraining offers are sent to these countries. When providing assistance to developing countries, Germany also monitors the improvement of not only economic, but also socio-political living conditions of the population of these countries. Respect for human rights is one of the German government's highest criteria when allocating funds for development assistance.

European Union

Despite major upheavals in the European Monetary System, the German government continued to advocate for monetary union. At the beginning of 1993, a common internal market of twelve EU countries was formed. It unites 360 million Europeans in the economic region of the Earth with the greatest purchasing power. The countries of the EFTA European Free Trade Area (Austria, Sweden, Norway, Finland, Iceland and Liechtenstein), except Switzerland, have merged with the European Community to form the European Economic Region. Since mid-1990, the first stage of the monetary union was implemented, which ensured the free circulation of capital between EU states, broad coordination of the economic policies of partners and the development of cooperation between central banks. The last stage of the monetary union is the introduction of a new currency, the Euro, from 1999.

It was especially important for the German government that in 1991 the heads of state and government worked out in Maastricht not only an agreement on economic and monetary union, but also, in addition, agreed on the creation of the European Union, a joint roof of the further deepening of the European community. This should be ensured by a common foreign and security policy, as well as cooperation in the fields of justice and internal affairs. The deepening of the community must go in parallel with its expansion, not only through the accession of the EFTA states, but also - in the long term - through the inclusion of the states of Central, Eastern and Southern Europe in the EU.

The economic unification of Germany is taking place within the framework of the European unification and in parallel with the global change in the political and economic structure due to the transformation of the system of eastern states. The transition of the planned economy structures of the former GDR into a working system of a market economy is a task that history has never known before. To do this, it was necessary to carry out not only a huge transfer of finances from the west of Germany to the east, but also a reorganization of the entire management. It was necessary to develop new markets, re-create supply chains, and retrain and improve the skills of employees. Many of the GDR's plants were in such poor condition environmentally and technically that it would be irresponsible to put them back into operation. Economic restructuring has hit hard not only on employment. Lean production cannot be created without major layoffs. And gaining competitiveness is one of the conditions for the economic survival of enterprises in the long term. Using huge financial resources, the German government contributed to the creation of new jobs. Yet it could not be prevented that at first unemployment in East Germany was almost twice as high as in the old federal states. The privatization of state-owned enterprises that were still worth saving was carried out by the Board of Trustees using large financial resources. After the privatization of 128,000 and the closure of almost 3,000 enterprises, by the end of August 1993 there were another 1,500 under the jurisdiction of the Board of Trustees. But the owners of the privatized enterprises promised that they would retain or create 1.5 million. work places.

According to the German Federal Bank, the economy in eastern Germany has left the lowest point in its development and the process of economic growth will now develop more on its own. Many sectors of the economy, such as the construction industry, crafts and some service and industrial sectors, are experiencing significant growth. However, in many industrial sectors, as before, there are still major problems, which can not least be attributed to the low productivity of enterprises in the new states. Since 1995, new lands have been included in the general financial balancing. Their financial performance was ensured by the German Unity Foundation. This is a fundamental aspect in the settlement based on the solidarity pact adopted by the federation and the states. Also associated with the solidarity pact laws were significant improvements in East German housing construction, development measures in the fields of transport and postal services, and research. Since the early 1990s, economic development in Germany has not only been plagued by problems associated with construction in the east of the country. More and more, mainly since 1992, Germany has felt the consequences of the severe global crisis that has long been observed in other industrialized countries.

The government of the country, pursuing a policy of austerity, has embarked on the path of consolidating state budgets. This should lead to a significant reduction in new debt in the coming years. According to statistics from the International Monetary Fund, Germany's level of new debt is below the average of other Western countries. The program of austerity, consolidation and growth, with its very large cuts in public spending, is yet only one of many different measures through which the German government intends to maintain the country's attractiveness as an industrial location. Maintaining a high level of economy in the country is not only a task for the state, but also an equal requirement for the innovative potential of firms and the flexibility of tariff partners.

Article material kindly provided by EXRUS magazine

The history of Germany is doubly interesting because this state played a huge role in the life of all of Europe. Many decisions of German rulers still influence the lives of Europeans.

Antiquity and the era of barbarian kingdoms

People have lived on the territory of modern Germany since ancient times. The barbarian tribes that gave rise to modern Germans and Scandinavians came here in the middle of the 1st millennium BC. e.

The warlike Germans quickly subjugated neighboring tribes. If initially they lived in the Baltic region, then by the beginning of our era the Germans moved to Central and Southern Europe. However, their further advance was stopped at the border of the Roman Empire. Both sides were aggressive towards each other, and skirmishes regularly occurred between Roman and German troops on the outskirts of the empire.

The official date of the beginning of German history is considered to be 9 AD. e., when the German prince Armirius defeated three Roman legions at once in a battle in the Teutoburg Forest. Due to the success of Armirius, the Romans had to abandon their continued conquest of Central and Northern Europe. Since the 2nd century, German raids on the Roman Empire became increasingly frequent and successful. Two centuries later, after the start of the Great Migration, the Germans began a fierce struggle for Roman territories. At the end of the 5th century, Rome fell and barbarian kingdoms began to emerge on the territory of the former empire:

• Burgundy;
• Svevskoe;
• Lombard;
• Ostrogothic;
• Anglo-Saxon;
• Kingdom of the Vandals and Alans;
• Visigothic;
• and played a key role in the region - Frankish.

At the end of the 5th century, the Franks inhabited the north of modern Germany, but, conquering their neighbors, they constantly expanded their possessions. By the beginning of the 9th century, under Charlemagne, the Frankish kingdom reached the peak of its power. Its territory extended from the North Sea to the central part of the Apennine Peninsula and from the Carpathians to the Pyrenees. At the same time, modern Germany remained the core of the kingdom. However, the descendants of Charlemagne were unable to preserve their inheritance, and the Frankish state began to disintegrate. In 843, the kingdom of the Franks was divided into three parts among the grandchildren of Charles:

• Lothair I received the Middle Kingdom (the historical core of the Frankish state and Northern Italy), which was considered the most desirable piece. However, this kingdom did not last long and after the death of Lothair it was divided into parts;
• The West Frankish kingdom, on the territory of which France later arose, went to Charles II the Bald;
• Ludwig I of Germany became the master of the East Frankish Kingdom, which later became a new strong state - Germany.

The Holy Roman Empire and the Age of Fragmentation

The first years of the empire

In 936, Otto I became king of East Frankia. The new king sincerely believed in his exclusivity and in the fact that God had entrusted him with a special mission. Indeed, Otto I, later, like his famous ancestor, Emperor Charles, nicknamed the Great, managed to seriously influence the entire subsequent history of Europe. A brilliant commander and staunch defender of Christian values, after the conquest of Northern Italy in 962 he was crowned by the Pope himself, becoming the first Holy Roman Emperor and the spiritual heir of the Roman rulers.

But most empires sooner or later begin to experience a crisis. The German emperors constantly had to contend with the growing appetites of the bishops and local nobility. Under Frederick I Barbarossa of Hohenstaufen, who ruled in the 12th century, the first signs of feudal fragmentation arose in the Holy Roman Empire. During the life of Frederick I and his son, Henry VI, the country still remained united and even expanded its borders. Two talented emperors managed to restrain those centrifugal forces that threatened to split the empire. The Hohenstaufens created a developed bureaucratic system and did a lot to strengthen the vertical of power.

Feudal fragmentation

After the death of Henry VI in 1197, an internecine war for power and an uprising of Italians who did not want to obey the Hohenstaufens began in the empire. Only in 1220 did Henry VI's son, Frederick II, become emperor. He managed to subjugate Italy again and carried out a successful crusade, as a result of which he was proclaimed king of Palestine. However, due to the constant need to attend to Italian affairs, Frederick II was unable to keep an eye on the German bishops and nobles. In order not to once again conflict with his subjects, the emperor was forced to recognize their sovereign rights within the boundaries of the possessions of each of the lords. These concessions led to the formation of many independent principalities on the territory of the empire, many of which existed until the end of the 19th century.

The Hohenstaufen dynasty came to an end after the death of Frederick II. The era of interregnum lasted for about 20 years, during which chaos reigned in the empire and unions of strong independent cities began to emerge. In 1273, a new dynasty came to the imperial throne - the Habsburgs. The first representatives of this dynasty no longer had the same influence as the Hohenstaufens. They depended on the decisions of the Reichstag, the Electors (local princes who had the right to choose the emperor) and other noble German families, for example, the Luxemburgs and Wittelsbachs.

The Empire entered a period of crisis. Italy left German control, and the Duchy of Burgundy became a vassal of France. However, despite the deepening internal political crisis, Germany continued to be one of the strongest states in Europe.

The era of growth began under Emperor Charles IV (1346-1378), who belonged to the Luxembourg dynasty. The Emperor issued the Golden Bull, which legislated the rights of the electors. They could:

• choose the emperor;
• wage war among themselves within the empire (but not against the emperor);
• mint your own coin.

On the one hand, the document strengthened the position of regional rulers, but on the other, it excluded the intervention of the Pope in internal affairs. In fact, the Holy Roman Empire became a union of independent principalities. At the same time, the emperors actively fought against the emergence of coalitions of cities that could resist the highest power.

From the second quarter of the 15th century, the imperial throne began to be permanently occupied by representatives of the Habsburg dynasty. The Habsburgs of this era had little influence on politics, while individual principalities created their own financial, judicial and tax systems, as well as full-fledged armies. At the end of the 15th century, thanks to a series of dynastic marriages, the core of the Habsburg family domains took shape. This area included Hungary, the Czech Republic and Austria, the latter being the center of the entire empire. Very soon the Habsburgs began to understand that it was no longer possible to pursue a unified policy throughout the entire empire, so the emperors began to care, first of all, about their possessions, and secondarily about the good of all of Germany. During the same period, the official name of the state began to sound like the “Holy Roman Empire of the German Nation.”

Peasants' War and Reformation

The reason for the beginning of the reformation movement in Germany was the famous “95 Theses” (1517) of Martin Luther, where he condemned the practice of selling indulgences and abuses of the Catholic clergy. Luther's ideas resonated with all segments of the population, since many were dissatisfied with the existing state of affairs:

• the enormous wealth accumulated in monasteries and churches;
• serfdom;
• the high cost of religious rituals;
• condemnation of banking and trading by the church.

By the 16th century, the inhabitants of Germany needed a new bourgeois ideology and wanted to abandon the old feudal order imposed by the Catholic Church. Humanism also played a major role in the reform movement. The Reformation was supported by the best minds of the time - Erasmus of Rotterdam, Ulrich von Hutten, Philip Melanchthon and others.

The ideas of Luther and his associates were popular among wealthy people. Among the peasants, their own reformers appeared, who placed the main emphasis not on dogmatic subtleties, but on the need for social reforms. Under the slogans of liberating peasants from serfdom and establishing universal equality, the Peasants' War (1524-26) began. However, due to the lack of military training, supplies, weapons and the disorganization of actions, the peasants were defeated.

Emperor Charles V was an opponent of the Reformation. He sought to return his subjects to the rule of the Pope. However, many counties and cities were ready to oppose the king and the Catholic faith. They even turned to Germany's longtime rival, France, for support and, together with the French king, began a war against their emperor.

The result of the Reformation was the signing of the Peace of Augsburg (1555), according to which freedom of religion was proclaimed in the empire.

The Thirty Years' War (1618-48) and its consequences

For about 50 years after the signing of the Peace of Augsburg, Catholics and Protestants managed to coexist peacefully, but at the beginning of the 17th century, the established balance was disrupted. In the Protestant Czech Republic, an uprising began against the staunch Catholic Ferdinand of Styria, who was first to become the Czech king, and then the ruler of the entire empire.

The regional religious and political conflict very quickly grew into a pan-European war of progressive nation states against the hegemony of the conservative Habsburgs. The fight against the Habsburgs united France, Denmark, the Czech Republic, a number of German principalities, Russia, England, Sweden and many others. On the side of the Austrian emperors were the powers where the positions of the Catholic clergy were strong - Poland, Spain and Portugal, as well as Bavaria, Saxony and Prussia.

The Thirty Years' War went on with varying degrees of success. Many historians consider it the first real world war, since all European countries and many colonies were drawn into it. 5 million people died during the war. Many died from typhoid, plague and dysentery, which were raging in Europe at that time. The war ended with the Peace of Westphalia, according to which:

• Many regions broke away from the Holy Roman Empire;
• Protestants received equal rights with Catholics;
• the lands of the church were secularized;
• the financial, tax and judicial systems of the empire were restructured;
• The rights of the Reichstag and German princes were significantly expanded. The latter even gained the opportunity to conclude international treaties with other powers.

After the defeat of the Holy Roman Empire, France began to play a major role in the life of Europe. But the new hegemon also soon fell during the War of the Spanish Succession (1701-1714). The Habsburgs played a key role in the victory of the anti-French forces. Thanks to this, the Austrian rulers again began to enjoy greater authority and influence. The 18th century became a new golden age for the Habsburgs. Emperors waged successful wars, patronized the sciences and arts, annexed new territories to their possessions, and served as international arbiters. But despite this temporary rise, the empire slowly collapsed.

Rise of Prussia

In 1701, the Kingdom of Prussia arose on the territory of the Holy Roman Empire with its capital in Berlin. The first Prussian kings managed to accumulate considerable wealth and create a powerful army, which in the 18th century was considered the strongest in Europe. Very quickly the young kingdom became a full-fledged rival of Austria. The Prussian king Frederick II in 1740-45 carried out a number of successful military operations against the Austrian Archduchess Maria Theresa. Prussian rulers began to declare themselves defenders of German freedoms from the encroachments of the despotic Habsburgs, who by that time united about 350 different states and principalities under their rule.

Many representatives of the German nobility, who were burdened by outdated orders, were convinced of the need to get rid of the Habsburgs. The empire experienced its final collapse during the Napoleonic Wars. The French army occupied the heart of the empire - the city of Vienna. Many German princes not only did not defend their ruler, but also supported Napoleon Bonaparte. In 1805, Emperor Francis II was forced to agree to the terms of the Peace of Presburg, which gave France extensive possessions in Italy, Austria and Germany, and Bavaria and Württemberg became sovereign kingdoms. A year later, the pro-French Union of the Rhine arose on the territory of the empire, uniting 39 independent states and several free cities. Soon, members of the union announced their withdrawal from the empire. Francis II had no choice but to agree with the decision of his subjects and relinquish the title of emperor. Thus ended the history of the Holy Roman Empire of the German nation.

Although Prussia also suffered setbacks during the Napoleonic Wars, the kingdom continued to strengthen and grow. At the beginning of the 19th century, a series of reforms were carried out here, as a result of which serfdom was eliminated, Prussian industry began to develop, and the management system was improved. The Prussian kings never joined the Confederation of the Rhine and continued to pursue an independent policy.

Formation of a unified German state

The collapse of the empire, however, did not mean a complete break in relations between its former parts. The rivalry between Prussia and Austria did not prevent them from joining forces to revive a single state. After Napoleon's defeat at Leipzig in 1813, the Confederation of the Rhine collapsed. Its members began to join the confederation of German states, which functioned until 1866 under the auspices of Austria.

During the revolution of 1848-49, an attempt was made to create a unified power. However, neither the Austrian nor the Prussian emperors were ready to cooperate with the revolutionaries. Meanwhile, relations between the two largest states of the confederation became increasingly strained. In 1866, the Austro-Prussian War began, from which Prussia emerged victorious. After the end of the war, the North German Confederation arose, the center of which was Berlin. But the real triumph of Prussia was the Franco-Prussian War, which ended in 1871. As a result of the war, a number of large southern principalities were forced to join the North German Confederation. After this, the Prussian King William I and Minister-President Otto von Bismarck were able to solemnly announce the revival of the German Empire.

Germany during the era of two World Wars

First World War (1914-18)

The German emperors were the most powerful rulers in Europe. But in 1888, Wilhelm II, a staunch supporter of an aggressive foreign policy and German rule over all of Europe, ascended the throne. The new emperor removed Chancellor Bismarck from his post and very soon turned the English and Russian crowns against himself. In 1914, the First World War began. Germany and its allies made great successes on the Russian front, but suffered defeat on the western front. Despite the powerful economy and Russia's withdrawal from the war, Germany could no longer resist England and France. In November 1918, a revolution began in Germany. The population could no longer endure the hardships of the war and demanded the resignation of the emperor. William II was forced to abandon the throne and flee to the Netherlands.

Weimar Republic

The First World War ended with the signing of the Treaty of Versailles (1919), under which Germany lost a huge part of its territories, was transformed into the Weimar Republic and was forced to pay indemnities.

Back in the fall of 1918, hyperinflation broke out in Germany, almost completely devaluing the national currency. The terms of the Treaty of Versailles made the situation even more difficult. Although the Weimar Republic was nominally considered a democratic state, radical parties, both right and left, rapidly increased their influence in Germany. The centrist democratic parties had virtually no weight, and the poorer the population became, the fewer supporters the Democrats had. Governments constantly replaced each other, chaos and poverty reigned in the country. The global economic crisis that began in the United States in the late 1920s finally undermined people's trust in power.

The Germans dreamed of the revival of the former empire and a “strong hand.” The NSDAP party, led by former corporal Adolf Hitler, began to enjoy the greatest sympathy among the population at this time. In 1932, Hitler's party received a majority of votes in parliamentary elections. Not only workers, but many large industrialists, as well as the army elite, are beginning to provide support for the NSDAP. In 1933, Hitler becomes Reich Chancellor. He immediately introduces strict censorship of the press, outlaws the Communist Party, sets a course for the militarization of all life and begins to create concentration camps for his political opponents.

In addition, Hitler began strengthening the federal ruling apparatus. Germany became a unitary state, and the rights of individual states were eliminated.

World War II (1939-45)

In the fall of 1939, World War II began. In just two years, the German army managed to occupy almost all of Central and Eastern Europe. A policy of terror was carried out in the occupied territories, many nationalities were physically destroyed, and representatives of the rest of the population were used as cheap labor. But failure awaited Hitler on the territory of the USSR; already in 1941, the Barbarossa offensive plan was thwarted, and in the second half of 1943, German units rapidly retreated to the west. Germany's situation was aggravated by the fact that military factories lacked raw materials and labor. In May 1945, the Red Army and Allied troops occupied Berlin.

Post-war Germany

After the victory and the military tribunal in Nuremberg, the victorious countries began to formalize a new political system in Germany. This is how it came about:

• in the west - Germany with its capital in Bonn;
• in the east - the GDR with its capital in East Berlin.

Germany joined NATO and, in general, developed along the capitalist path. A strong economic base was quickly created here, and a number of social reforms of a democratic order were also carried out.

The GDR was part of the socialist camp. However, Soviet financial assistance also allowed eastern Germany to create a developed infrastructure and industry. In order to suppress anti-communist sentiments among East Germans, which, according to the Soviet leadership, were cultivated by the West, the Berlin Wall was built between the GDR and West Berlin.

In 1989, the Berlin Wall fell, and a year later the Federal Republic of Germany and the German Democratic Republic united.

Modern Germany

The legal basis for life in modern Germany is still the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Germany, which includes several amendments. The country's politics are determined primarily by two parties - the Social Democratic Party (A. Nales) and the Christian Democratic Union (A. Merkel).

Since the early 1990s, the unified government has had two main tasks:

• destroy all borders between East and West Germany, mainly due to the introduction of Western orders in the former GDR;
• integrate into pan-European political and economic processes.

Today both of these tasks have been successfully completed. Germany managed to once again take its place as a pan-European leader.

History of Germany

Formation of the German state.

The German state was formed as a result of the collapse of the Frankish Empire. The German duchies conquered at different times were united under the rule of the Frankish kings and, according to the Treaty of Verdun in 843, became part of the East Frankish Kingdom, which went to one of the sons of Louis the Pious - Louis the German. The Carolingian dynasty ended in Germany in 911. For a short time, Duke Conrad I of Franconia became king. But he failed to subjugate other dukes to his power and secure the throne for his dynasty. In 919, the magnates elected Henry I the Birdcatcher as king, marking the beginning of the Saxon dynasty.

The beginning of the reign of the Saxon dynasty.

The Saxon rulers manage to protect their possessions from invasion for quite a long time; since the reign of the Swabian Duke Liudolf they have been the most powerful rulers in Germany. Before his death, the ailing Conrad I of Franconia transfers the attributes of German royal power to his grandson Henry I.

Henry I organizes the defense of the eastern provinces from the Hungarians and Slavs. He becomes the founder of the new Saxon dynasty. After the death of Henry I in 936, his son Otto ascended the throne.

The position of royal power in the country is still unstable, and Otto I, until 953, had to rely only on the help of his brother Henry, until his power was recognized by all of Germany, while the dukes became loyal representatives of the central government in the localities. Otto I tries to put the church at the service of the state, generously endowing it with lands and introducing investiture. The influence of Otto I was facilitated by his decisive victory over the Hungarians in 955 on the Lech River near Augsburg, after which the Hungarians stopped their raids on German lands and stopped on the Danube Plain.

Reign of Otto I the Great.

In 951, Otto made his first campaign in fragmented Italy. The reason for the campaign was a call for help from Adelheid, the widow of King Lothair II, imprisoned by the local ruler Berengarius. Otto frees Adelheide, marries her and proclaims himself king of Italy. But due to circumstances I am forced to entrust the management of the country to the same Berengarius

In 961, Otto made a new campaign in Italy. This time he defeated Berengarius at the request of Pope John XII. On February 2, 962, the pope crowns Otto I with the imperial crown in Rome. Otto I recognizes the pope's claims to secular possessions in Italy, but the emperor is proclaimed the supreme lord of these possessions. A mandatory oath of the pope to the emperor is also introduced, which is an expression of the papacy’s subordination to the empire. Thus, in 962, the Holy Roman Empire arose.

The emperor administers justice in the kingdom of the Franks, calls for the conversion of the Polish prince Mieszko to Christianity, achieves the acceptance of the Gospel by the Hungarians and undertakes many campaigns in the Slavic lands. One of the clearest indicators of imperial power is the beginning of the production of silver coins from 970 from ore mined in the Harz Mountains. Finally, Otto, who himself drove the Byzantines out of Italy, marries his son to the daughter of the Greek emperor Theophano.

By the time of his death in 973, Otto the Great is the most powerful ruler of Europe. But his empire, which included part of Italy in addition to Germany, was not an exact copy of the former empire of Charlemagne.

Unfulfilled plans of Otto III.

Emperor Otto II died in one of the campaigns in Italy. The regency of the empresses Adelheide and Theophano, who ruled on behalf of the four-year-old Otto III, begins.

Otto III, brought up in Byzantine traditions, dreams of uniting the Christian world into one under the rule of the pope and the emperor. In 996 he was crowned in Rome, where his residence is located in the palace on Aventine Hill. In 999, he elevated his teacher Herbert of Aurignac to the papal throne, who took the name Sylvester II. The premature death of Otto III in 1002, and soon after that of Sylvester in 1003, put an end to their ambitious plans.

Politics of the kings of the Franconian dynasty.

In the 11th century, large feudal lords sought to create autonomous possessions and make royal power completely dependent on themselves. In order to attract small feudal lords to his side, Conrad II secured for them hereditary rights to their fiefs. The kings of the Franconian dynasty tried to create a standing army of knights and ministerials (service men), built burgs in their domain and placed garrisons from ministerials in them in order to be able to suppress conspiracies and rebellions. At the same time, the royal power tried to attract service people, church and secular magnates to its side, which it often succeeded in doing. In the first half of the 11th century, this policy provided not only a temporary increase in power, but also contributed to the rise of the ministerial government.

Royal power reached significant power under Henry III. This king strongly supported the movement for church reform, hoping in this way to weaken the episcopate and maintain dominance over the church. But in reality, the opposite happened: the reform strengthened the church hierarchy and weakened its dependence on imperial power. Under Henry III, the papacy remained dependent on the emperor. The king unceremoniously interfered in the affairs of the Roman Curia, removed and appointed popes.

Henry III's successor, Henry IV, inherited the throne at the age of six. The nobility took advantage of guardianship to seize actual power in the state and appropriate domain lands. Having reached adulthood, Henry IV tried to return the stolen property and curb the willfulness of the nobility, relying on small vassals and ministerials.

Saxon uprising.

The mass uprising of peasants and minor nobility in 1073 - 1075 in Saxony and Thuringia against King Henry IV was called the “Saxon Uprising”. The rebels opposed the system of measures of Henry IV - the construction of fortresses and the placement of garrisons in them from ministerials, mainly from Swabia and Franconia, the imposition of various duties on the local population, etc. - aimed at strengthening the royal domain in Saxony and Thuringia.

40-60 thousand people took part in the movement. At first, the rebels achieved some successes, captured and destroyed a number of fortresses; the king was forced to flee in August 1073 from the besieged Harzburg. Subsequently, Henry IV was supported by the feudal lords of the western and southern regions of Germany, as well as the city of Worms. On February 2, 1074, the leaders of the Saxon revolt made peace with Henry IV. The peasants, left without leadership, were defeated at Homburg on June 9, 1095. After the suppression of the uprising in Saxony, the process of involving peasants in feudal dependence accelerated. The feudal lords suffered almost no damage, only a few had their fiefs confiscated and some were subjected to short imprisonment.

Henry I the Birdcatcher (c. 876 - 936)

Saxon Duke of the Liudolfing family, King of Germany since 919, founder of the Saxon dynasty. The nickname "Birdcatcher" is based on the legendary story that the news of his election as king found Henry I catching birds. He paid attention and relied mainly on the lands of his domain (Saxony and possessions in Westphalia), rather than on Germany. He achieved recognition of his power by the tribal dukes, for which he granted some of them (the dukes of Swabia and Bavaria) significant privileges - in fact, they were almost independent of the king. He transformed the army and created a strong knightly cavalry. He built a number of burgs in East Saxony to fight Hungarian raids, and defeated the Hungarians on March 15, 933 at Riyadh on the Unstrut River. The capture of the Polabian Slavs began. In 925 he annexed Lorraine. Henry I's policies prepared for the strengthening of royal power under his son Otto I.

Otto I the Great (912 - 973)

King of Germany from 936, Holy Roman Emperor from 962, son of Henry I. To strengthen the central power and limit the separatism of the dukes, relying on an alliance with the church, which he tried to put in the service of the state. To do this, he granted the so-called “Ottonian privileges” to bishoprics and abbeys, granted them power over the territory, and gave them broad government powers. All episcopal and abbey positions were actually at the disposal of Otto I, and he also had the right of investiture. He strengthened the margraviate and palatine counties, split up the large duchies and placed his relatives at their head, which placed the major dukes in the position of royal officials and strengthened royal power in Germany. The ecclesiastical policy of Otto I was completed in his desire to establish control over the papacy. In 951, he began his first campaign in Italy, captured Lombardy and, having married Adelheid, the widow of King Lothair, took the title of king of the Lombards. In 961, Otto I made a new campaign to Rome and on February 2, 962, accepted the imperial crown from the hands of the pope, which marked the beginning of the Holy Roman Empire. He actually brought the papacy under his authority. However, his attempt to subjugate Southern Italy in 967 - 971 was unsuccessful. Otto I actively recruited church officials to perform diplomatic, administrative, military and public service. Such a church organization, placed at the service of royal power and becoming its support, was called the “imperial church.”

Otto I made campaigns against the Polabian Slavs and created two large brands on the conquered lands. In order to spread Christianity in the Slavic lands, he founded the Magdeburg Archbishopric in 968. He fought against the Hungarians and defeated them in 955 on the Lech River near Augsburg. Already during his lifetime, Otto I received the title "Great".

Otto II (955 - 983)

King and Holy Roman Emperor from 973; son of Otto I. He fought against the strengthening of the duchies, suppressed the rebellion of the Duke of Bavaria in 976, and strengthened the episcopal system created by his father. Invaded southern Italy in 981, met resistance from the Arabs and Byzantium and was defeated by them at Cotrona in Calabria in 982. It was the impetus for the uprising of the Danes and Polabian Slavs, who freed themselves from German rule thanks to the uprising of 983.

Otto III (980 - 1002)

King of Germany from 983, Holy Roman Emperor from 996; son of Otto II; had the nickname "Miracle of the World". Until he came of age in 995, his mother Theophano (until 991) and grandmother Adelheid were his regents. He was constantly in Italy, trying to restore the “world empire” and make Rome the capital of this empire, dreaming of uniting the entire Christian world under the rule of the Roman emperor.

Conrad II (c. 990 - 1039)

German king from 1024, Holy Roman Emperor from 1027, founder of the Franconian dynasty. In contrast to the strengthened secular and spiritual magnates, he sought to rely on a large layer of small feudal lords and ministerials. He forbade the feudal nobility from arbitrarily confiscating the fiefs of vassals, and secured them in the hereditary possession of the latter. The king's policies contributed to the strengthening of royal power. Captured Upper Lusatia from the Polish king Mieszko II in 1031. In 1032-1034 he annexed the kingdom of Burgundy (Arelat) to the empire.

Henry III the Black (1017 - 1056)

German king from 1039, Holy Roman Emperor from 1046; son of Conrad II. The main support of Henry III was the ministerials and chivalry. He made a campaign in Italy in 1046-1047, during which he deposed three rival popes; several times appointed candidates for the papal throne. He patronized the Cluny church reform, which contributed to the strengthening of papal power. He made the Czech Republic and Hungary dependent on the empire, and subjugated the Duke of Lorraine. Henry III sold fiefs for money, which alienated a number of feudal lords.

Henry IV (1050 - 1106)

German king from 1056, Holy Roman Emperor from 1084; son of Henry III. During his childhood (before 1065), the German princes became stronger, so upon reaching adulthood he had to strengthen royal power, which led to the Saxon uprising in 1073-1075. Having suppressed it, Henry IV opposed the intention of Pope Gregory VII to subjugate the German clergy and thereby weaken royal power. Henry IV's struggle with the pope for the right of church investiture in Germany and Northern Italy led to a clash in 1076: at a meeting of the highest German clergy in Worms, Henry IV announced the deposition of Gregory VII. In response, the pope excommunicated Henry IV from the church, deprived him of his royal rank, and freed the king's subjects from their oath to their sovereign. Under pressure from the princes, Henry IV in January 1077 was forced to go to repentance to the pope at the castle of Canossa in Northern Italy: having removed all the signs of royal dignity, hungry, barefoot, in only a hair shirt, with his head uncovered, he stood in front of the castle for three days. Finally, Henry IV was admitted to the pope and begged his forgiveness on his knees. In 1080 he was again excommunicated, but in 1084 he captured Rome and was crowned by his protege Clement III (antipope). Gregory VII fled south to the Normans and soon died. In 1090-1097, Henry IV made a third, unsuccessful campaign in Italy. In 1104, his son Henry rebelled against him, becoming close to his father’s opponents - the pope and a number of German princes. Henry IV was captured by his son, escaped, but died while preparing for war with his son.

Henry V (1081 - 1125)

German king from 1106, Holy Roman Emperor from 1111; son of Henry IV. At the end of 1104 he rebelled against his father. In 1122, he concluded a compromise Concordat of Worms with Pope Calixtus II, ending the struggle for investiture. With the death of Henry V, the Franconian dynasty ended.

The fight for investment. Church reform.

The Church is in the hands of secular people.

Since the 10th century, the decline of central power and the emergence of the feudal system have threatened the church with dangerous consequences. Promising to protect the church, those in power appropriate its wealth for themselves, dispose of abbeys and bishoprics, not without profit, and distribute the titles of prelates to members of their family. The Church falls completely into the hands of secular rulers.

For their part, some priests, attracted by material benefits, evaluate this or that position or rank according to the benefits that it can bring. They do not hesitate to buy and sell church positions and demand payment for performing services - a practice known as simony.

The number of priests who have a divine calling is rapidly falling. Many are married or have a partner, and the Archbishop of Reims Manassa even regrets that his duties include celebrating the Mass. The papacy itself became the object of rivalry between Roman families. During the first half of the 10th century, Senator Theophylact and his daughter Marozia erected and deposed popes. A century later, one of the counts fights for the papal throne until Emperor Henry III restores order in 1046.

Sprouts of church reform.

Given this state of affairs, in the first half of the 11th century, the first centers of reform appeared. The famous ascetic bishop Peter Damiani, who became a cardinal in 1057, sharply condemns the vices of the then clergy. His followers expose simony.

The idea is gradually emerging that in order to get out of the crisis, the church must get rid of the dominance of secular people. Thanks to this, in the 10th century a monastery was founded in Cluny, whose abbots led the Cluny movement for the reform of monastic life and the church. The Church must gain freedom, which requires a clear distinction between the clergy and secular people, their duties and way of life. Secular people are left with marriage, which by the end of the 11th century becomes a real social institution, and the clergy who devote themselves to serving God are left with celibacy, mandatory celibacy. The lifestyle of the latter should correspond to the life of monks in poor communities.

In addition, it was necessary that the reform of the church be universal and come from the pope, God's vicar on earth. Since 1046, emperors have elevated worthy people to the papal throne, people from the Lorraine reformers.

Pope Gregory VII.

On April 13, 1059, Pope Nicholas II promulgated a decree according to which only cardinals of the Roman Church had the right to elect a pope. The papacy, freed after imperial tutelage, can set about reforming the church and, above all, consecrating bishops.

This mission was entrusted to the former monk Hildebrand, who became an archbishop of the Roman Church and was an adviser to the reforming popes for 15 years. He ascended the papal throne on April 22, 1073 and took the name Gregory VII. As an authoritative figure wholly devoted to the service of God (he will be called "the servant of the servants of God"), he believes that the freedom of the church requires strict and centralized government.

In 1075, at the Roman Synod, Pope Gregory VII prohibited secular authorities from appointing bishops, that is, deprived them of the right to investiture, and also prohibited the clergy from receiving any positions from the hands of secular rulers. The actions of Gregory VII provoked a protest from Henry IV, who declared the pope a usurper and false monk. Gregory VII responded to this with a church curse, freeing his subjects from the oath taken to Henry IV.

Humiliation in Canossa.

The fight intensifies further when Henry IV appoints his chaplain as Bishop of Milan. Gregory VII excommunicates the king. Henry deposes the pope, and he, in turn, deposes the king in February 1076.

The German princes support the pope and want to replace the king. Henry IV refuses to comply. But he gives up, confessing in the castle of Canossa, a village in northern Italy. There, in January 1077, Gregory gives him absolution.

Heinrich tries to resume the fight. Then Gregory excommunicates him again and recognizes the new king chosen by the German princes. But on June 25, 1080, the German bishops deposed Gregory and elected antipope Clement III. Henry IV captures Rome, where Clement III crowns him emperor on March 31, 1084, while Gregory VII flees for his life. He died in Salerno in 1085.

The conflict would continue for about 40 years, until in 1122 Henry V, the son of Henry IV, concluded the Concordat of Worms with Pope Calixtus II, which ensured the emperor the right to participate in the election of bishops and abbots.

The Church is the head of Christianity.

In 1139, 1179 and 1215, the Lateran Councils regulated the life of the church and the leadership of the faithful, determined church discipline, the duties of the faithful, the order of worship and church rites.

The Church defended its right to lead Christianity. “Rome is the head of the world,” states the council in 1139. But Frederick I Barbarossa, starting in 1155, again tries to take control of the clergy. Claiming that he received his power from God, he declares his right to rule the world and attempts to establish power in Italy. He will face the Pope, the protector of the northern Italian cities united in the northern Lombard League. In the fight against the league, Emperor Frederick was defeated at Legnano in 1176 and signed a treaty in Venice in 1177, in which he recognized the sovereignty of the pope in church affairs and refused to support the antipopes. The plan to restore the emperor's supremacy over the papacy did not take place.

Reign of Lothair II /1125-1137/.

After the death of the childless Henry V in 1124, the German princes gathered in Mainz to elect a new king. There were three candidates: Frederick of Hohenstaufen, Duke of Swabia; Lothair, Duke of Saxony; Leopold, Margrave of Austria. The latter two asked voters not to place a heavy burden of power on them. On the contrary, Frederick considered himself alone worthy of the crown and did not hide this conviction. Archbishop Adalbert of Mainz, who could not expect anything good from the Hohenstaufens, close relatives of the late emperor, asked all three candidates whether each of them would be willing to obey the one chosen by the princes. Lothair and Leopold answered in the affirmative. Frederick was slow to answer and left the meeting under the pretext that he needed to consult with his friends. This angered the princes, and, at the suggestion of Adalbert, they gave their votes to Lothair, without waiting for Frederick's return. Just before the voting began, Lothair fell to his knees and with tears asked the princes to exclude him from among the candidates. And when he was finally chosen, he refused to accept the crown. But Adalbert and the papal legates convinced the princes not to accept his refusal.

The Hohenstaufens, deceived in their ambitious hopes, became Lothair's enemies. Soon open hostility broke out between them and the emperor. As Henry V's closest relatives, they inherited all of his lands. But Henry at one time confiscated many fiefs and family estates of the princes who rebelled against him. Frederick considered them his property. But at the first imperial congress in Regensburg in 1125, Lothair turned to the princes with the question: should the confiscated estates be considered the private property of the king or should they be treated as state lands. The congress decided that they belonged to the state and could not be alienated into private hands. Frederick refused to recognize this decision, which deprived him of many lands. The next congress, held in Strasbourg, declared him a rebel. Lothair understood that the war with the powerful Frederick would be difficult, and took care of his allies. He entered into an alliance with the powerful family of the Bavarian Dukes of Welf. He married his only daughter Gertrude to the head of their family, Duke Henry. After this, the Duke of Bavaria became a loyal ally of the emperor. Together they besieged Nuremberg, which belonged to the Hohenstaufens, but were unable to take it.

The war against the Swabian duke was soon supplemented by revolts in Burgundy and Lower Lorraine. In 1129, after a stubborn struggle, Lothair took Speyer, and the following year, together with the Dukes of Bavaria, Carinthia and Bohemia, he again approached Nuremberg. This time the city had to surrender. In 1131, Lothair pacified the Wends and repelled the attack of the Danes.

Deciding that now was the time for a coronation, Lothair marched with a small army to Italy in 1132. Verona and Milan closed the gates in front of him. The emperor besieged Cremona, stood under it for several weeks, but was never able to take it. Soon Pope Innocent II came to him, expelled from Rome by his rival Anacletus II. Around Easter 1133, Lothair approached Rome. On April 30, he entered the city and occupied the Aventine Hill. But the Castle of the Holy Angel and all the fortresses of the Roman region remained with the adherents of Anacletus. For several weeks the emperor tried to break through to St. Peter's Cathedral, but all his attacks were repulsed. I had to perform the coronation in the Lateran Temple. In June, Lothair returned to Germany.

Meanwhile, the war in Germany was going well. In 1134, Henry of Bavaria took Ulm, the last important fortress of those possessions that the Hohenstaufens fought to preserve. The war spread directly into Frederick's possessions - Lothair with a large army invaded Swabia and subjected it to devastation. The Hohenstaufens saw that the time had come to admit defeat. In March 1135, the rebellious Frederick appeared at the Bamberg Congress, fell at the feet of the emperor and swore allegiance to him. Lothair forgave him and confirmed him in the rank of Duke of Swabia. A few months later, Frederick's brother Conrad also reconciled with Lothair. At the next congress in Magdeburg, the Danish king Eric and Duke of Poland Boleslav Wrymouth took the oath of fealty to the emperor. Lothair established a general truce for 10 years.

In August 1136, Lothair went to Italy for the second time. This time he was accompanied by a large army, since all the princes took part in the campaign. In Verona and Milan the emperor was received with honor. Other Lombard cities were slow to submit. But after Lothair took Garda and Guastalla by storm, they also humbled themselves before him. Lothair conquered Pavia, Turin, took Piacenza by storm, and after a stubborn siege, Bologna. In January 1137, he moved against the Sicilian king Roger, who had taken possession of all of southern Italy. Lothair himself occupied all the Adriatic cities from Ancona to Bari. His son-in-law, Henry of Bavaria, meanwhile operated on the western side of the Apennines and captured all the cities from Viterbo to Capua and Benevente. Roger, not accepting the fight, fled to Sicily. Thus the power of the empire over all of Italy was restored. On the way back, Lothair fell ill and died in the village of Breitenwang. Before his death, he declared his son-in-law Henry Duke of Saxony and gave him the insignia of kingship.

Reign of Conrad III /1138-1152/.

After the death of Emperor Lothair II, who left no sons, the German princes had to elect a new king. There were two contenders - the son-in-law of the deceased Heinrich Welf, Duke of Bavaria and Saxony, and Conrad, to whom his eldest brother Frederick, Duke of Swabia, willingly ceded the right to represent the Hohenstaufen family. If the elections had taken place at a general congress, Henry would certainly have taken the lead, so the Hohenstaufens preferred to act by cunning. Two months before the appointed date, the papal legate Albert and Archbishop Arnold of Cologne convened a congress of nobles in Koblenz, which was attended mainly by supporters of the Hohenstaufens. Here on March 7, Conrad was proclaimed king, and a week later he was crowned in Aachen. This choice, however, was recognized by all the ruling princes. Heinrich Welf hesitated until July to express his submission, but when he saw that he was left alone, he sent Conrad the signs of royal dignity that had previously been kept with him. In August, the rivals met at a congress in Augsburg. But this meeting did not lead to peace. Conrad announced that state laws do not allow one person to own two duchies, and therefore Henry must renounce Saxony. Welf replied that he would defend his possessions with weapons. Fearing attack, Conrad hastily left Augsburg, and at the next congress in Würzburg, Henry was declared a rebel. This event marked the beginning of a many-year war, which once again split Germany into two parties.

In 1139, Margrave Albrecht the Bear, whom Conrad proclaimed Duke of Saxony, and Leopold, Margrave of Austria, who received Bavaria from the Emperor, tried unsuccessfully to take possession of their duchies. Both the Bavarians and the Saxons unanimously supported the Welfs. Henry defeated both of his opponents, and then forced the emperor himself to retreat. But in October he suddenly fell ill and died, leaving behind his 10-year-old son, Henry the Lion. After this, the war went more successfully for the king. In 1140, Conrad besieged Weinsberg, the family castle of the Welfs, and defeated Welf, the uncle of the little duke, under it. Then, after a difficult siege, he forced the defenders of the castle to surrender. He ordered all the men to be executed, and allowed the women to leave, taking with them what they could carry on their shoulders. Then the women took their husbands on their shoulders and left the castle. Frederick did not want to let their husbands pass and said that permission was given to carry property, not people. But Conrad, laughing, answered his brother: “The royal word is unchanged.” That's what the legend says, but there is a possibility that it really happened.

After two years, peace was concluded. In 1142, at the Frankfurt Congress, Henry the Lion renounced Bavaria and was confirmed as Duke of Saxony.

At the end of 1146, the emperor was carried away by the sermons of St. Bernard of Clairvaux and at a congress in Speyer he vowed to take part in the Second Crusade. More than 70 thousand knights gathered under his banner for the war against the infidels. At the beginning of September 1147, the Byzantine Emperor Manuel transported them to Asia. Burdened with a huge baggage train and poorly organized, the army slowly moved towards Phrygia. On October 26, when the crusaders reached Dorileum, Turkish cavalry appeared. The knights immediately rushed at the enemy, but only tired their horses in vain. The Turks evaded the first onslaught, but when the tired knights stopped, they boldly attacked them and inflicted a brutal defeat on the Germans. Then the mood of the crusaders completely changed. Conrad convened a council of war, at which it was decided to return to the sea and wait for the French crusaders, who, led by their king Louis VII, were following. This retreat completed the defeat of the crusaders. The Turks attacked their army from all sides, showering it with arrows. Conrad and the princes bravely fought the enemy hand-to-hand several times; the emperor was wounded, but could not save his army. The German losses were enormous, and all the supplies were gone. Hunger and disease destroyed tens of thousands of people. Many people had already died in Nicaea from hunger and wounds. Of those who survived, most returned to Constantinople and their homeland. Only a small force led by King Conrad was determined enough to make another attempt to continue the crusade.

Soon an army of French crusaders approached Nicaea. Louis greeted Conrad very warmly and both monarchs decided to act together. Through Pergamon and Smyrna the crusaders reached Ephesus. But then the hardships he had suffered made themselves felt, and Conrad became seriously ill. To rest, he returned to Constantinople and spent the first months of 1148 here in noisy festivities at the Byzantine court. Having improved his health as much as possible, the emperor landed in April with a small army in Akko. In Jerusalem, Conrad was also received in the most flattering manner. The young king Baldwin III persuaded him not to begin the siege of Edessa, which was actually the goal of the Second Crusade, but suggested that the crusaders march on Damascus. King Louis soon joined this enterprise. But, despite the fact that the crusaders had enough forces, the siege of Damascus in July ended in nothing due to infighting between the crusaders and Palestinian Christians. In September, Conrad left the Holy Land and returned first to Constantinople, and from there in the spring of 1149 he went to Germany. Soon after his return he fell ill. At the beginning of 1150, his only son Henry died. Therefore, when dying, the emperor recommended that his nephew Frederick Barbarossa, Duke of Swabia, be elected king.

Reign of Frederick I Barbarossa (c. 1125 - 1190)

Frederick I Barbarossa (Redbeard) - German king since 1152, from the Staufen dynasty, Holy Roman Emperor since 1155.

He made 5 military campaigns in Italy (1154 - 1155, 1158 - 1162, 1163 - 1164, 1166 - 1168, 1174 - 1178), the main goal of which was to subjugate the northern and Tuscan city-republics, as well as the pope and the Papal State.

During the first Italian campaign, he helped the pope suppress the uprising of Arnold of Brescia in Rome (1143 - 1155), for which the grateful pope presented him with the imperial crown.

In 1158 - 1176 he tried to forever subjugate the cities of Northern and Central Italy (the dependence of the cities of Lombardy and Tuscany on the empire before the campaigns of Frederick Barbarossa was nominal). During the second Italian campaign, in 1158, he gathered representatives of commune cities in the Roncal Valley (near Piacenza) and made a decision to deprive the cities of self-government rights and transfer them under the authority of the podesta. Thus, the northern Italian cities had to submit completely to the emperor. Milan, which opposed this decision, was taken by Frederick Barbarossa (after a two-year siege) and completely destroyed. The territory of the city was plowed with a plow.

This massacre of Frederick Barbarossa caused an uprising of two cities of Northern Italy led by Milan, which in 1167 created an alliance against the German emperor - the so-called Lombard League, which was supported by Pope Alexander III. After a long war with the Lombard League, Frederick Barbarossa was defeated at the Battle of Legnano in 1176 by the combined forces of the League and the Papal State. By the Peace of Constance of 1183, he renounced his claims to Italy, which effectively meant the restoration of self-government for the cities of Italy.

The reign of Frederick I Barbarossa is the period of the most external splendor of the empire. He pursued a policy of centralization within the country (generally unsuccessfully); sought to strengthen his power over the princes, for which he took a number of measures (for example, he obliged all feudal lords to perform military service for the emperor - the Feudal Law of 1158); centralized vassal-feudal relations; crushed the fiefs of the princes and tried to create a continuous royal domain in southwest Germany. In pursuing such a policy, he relied mainly on ministers.

In 1186, he annexed southern Italy and Sicily to the Staufen possessions, successfully marrying his son Henry to Constance of Sicily.

He led (together with the French king Philip II Augustus and the English king Richard I the Lionheart) the Third Crusade, during which he drowned on June 10, 1190 in the mountain river Salefa in Cilicia (Asia Minor).

Reign of Henry VI the Cruel /1165-1197/

Henry VI - German king since 1190, Holy Roman Emperor since 1191, from the Staufen dynasty, son of Frederick I Barbarossa. In 1186, he married the heiress of the Sicilian king Constance, annexed the Kingdom of Sicily to the Staufen possessions, but established himself there only in 1194 after a difficult struggle. He made plans to create a “world empire”, subjugate Byzantium, and made the English king Richard I the Lionheart a vassal of the empire. He sought to make the power of the emperors in Germany hereditary, which caused resistance from the papacy and a number of German princes.

Reign of Otto IV /1176 - 1218/

Otto IV of Brunswick - King of Germany from 1198, Holy Roman Emperor from 1209, from the House of Welf; son of Henry the Lion, nephew of Richard I the Lionheart, Count of Poitou. He was nominated by the Welfs as an “anti-king” in opposition to Philip of Swabia in 1197, after the death of Henry VI. He finally established himself on the throne of Germany in 1208 after a long struggle with Philip of Swabia. Was supported by Pope Innocent III. He tried to seize the Kingdom of Sicily (in 1210), which was under the rule of the pope, because of which the pope excommunicated Otto IV from the church and nominated Frederick II Staufen (son of Henry VI) to the German throne. In fact, he lost power after the defeat at Buvin in 1214.

Germany in the first half of the 13th century.

In 1212, Pope Innocent III helped Frederick II Staufen (1212-1250) take the German throne. By this time, the German princes had already strengthened their independence so much that there could be no question of their real subordination to the imperial power. Therefore, Frederick II, one of the most educated monarchs of the Middle Ages, did not set such goals. He seeks to maintain normal supremacy over the princes and obtain their military support to maintain power over Italy. Unlike his predecessors, he did not seek an alliance with individual princes or princely groups, but tried to pacify the entire princely class, assigning to it actually already acquired and new privileges. It was at this time that the highest state prerogatives of the princes were legislated. According to the “Privileges of the Princes of the Church” published in 1220, bishops received the right to mint coins, collect taxes and establish cities and markets. All German princes received even more significant privileges according to the decrees of 1231-1232. The emperor renounced his right to build cities and fortresses and establish mints if this would harm the interests of the princes. The princes were recognized with an unlimited right of jurisdiction in all matters; they could issue their own laws. Zemstvo cities remained in the complete power of the princes. All unions of townspeople were prohibited, including craft guilds. Cities were deprived of the right of self-government and the creation of intercity unions.

But the regulations aimed at cities remained only on paper. Cities, in a difficult struggle with the princes, defended their rights to unions and self-government. These decisions caused more damage to the royal power than to the cities, since they finally deprived it of reliable allies in clashes with the princes. Having acquired the support of the German princes at such a high price, Frederick II hoped with their help to subjugate the northern Italian cities and all of Italy. But such an intention had even less chance of success than in the time of Frederick Barbarossa.

Having consolidated his power in the Kingdom of Sicily, Frederick II began to strengthen his position in Northern Italy. The danger of enslavement forced the northern Italian cities to restore a military alliance - the Lombard League, which the pope again joined. Despite his victory over the league at the Battle of Cortenova, Frederick II was unable to force the cities to lay down their arms. The following year he was defeated at the siege of the city of Brescia. The League strengthened its military forces and was ready to repel any attack by the emperor.

Even more unsuccessful was Frederick II's attempt to subjugate the papacy. The Pope successfully used his fail-safe weapon of ecclesiastical excommunication. The emperor was constantly under the papal curse. To give his actions greater weight, Pope Gregory IX announced the convening of an ecumenical council in Rome. But Frederick II captured the prelates heading to the council and blocked Rome. Gregory IX soon died in the besieged city. His successor Innocent IV, with whom the emperor tried to reconcile at the cost of great concessions, secretly left Rome and went to French Lyon, where he convened an ecumenical council, at which Frederick II was excommunicated and deprived of all honors and titles. The appeal of the council called on the population to disobey the heretic king, and the princes to elect a new king in his place. The German nobility abandoned Frederick II and elected an anti-king, Henry Raspe. In Italy, the war with the Lombard League resumed. In the midst of these events, Frederick II died suddenly.

His successor Conrad IV (1250-1254) unsuccessfully continued the fight against the papal curia and the Lombard League. At the call of the pope, the brother of the French king, Charles of Anjou, landed in Sicily. In the war with the pope and the Angevins, all representatives of the Staufen dynasty died. In 1268, the last of them, 16-year-old Conradin, was beheaded in a square in Naples. Southern Italy and Sicily passed to the Angevin dynasty. A 20-year interregnum began in Germany.

Interregnum and the beginning of the Habsburg dynasty.

During the interregnum of 1254-1273, territorial fragmentation occurred in Germany. Although the imperial throne did not remain vacant, there was virtually no supreme power in the country, and local territorial rulers became completely independent sovereigns. The first place among them was occupied by electors - princes who enjoyed the right to elect an emperor.

The anarchy that prevailed in the country brought losses to the feudal lords themselves. That is why four of the seven electors decided to enter into an agreement to elect a new king. In 1273, the electors elected Rudolf of Habsburg to the throne, who bore the title of count, but did not belong to the class of imperial princes. The Habsburgs had relatively small possessions in Southern Alsace and Northern Switzerland. The electors hoped that the new king, who did not have sufficient funds, would not be able to pursue an independent policy and would carry out their will. But their hopes were disappointed. Rudolf Habsburg used imperial power to enrich his house and create a large hereditary principality.

He tried to take possession of lands that previously belonged to the Staufen domain and were appropriated by other princes, but failed. Then Habsburg started a war against the Czech king Przemysl II, as a result of which the Czech king died, and the lands belonging to him - Austria, Styria, Carinthia and Carniola - came into the possession of the Habsburgs. Rudolf Habsburg also increased his holdings in Alsace and Switzerland.

The strengthening of the Habsburg dynasty as a result of the seizure of Austrian lands made it undesirable for the princes to remain on the throne of the empire. After the death of Rudolf of Habsburg, the electors did not want to transfer the throne to his son Albrecht and elected one of the minor German princes, Adolf of Nassau, as king, forcing them to sign the so-called electoral capitulation, which put the king under the complete control of the prince-electors. In 1298 he was deposed by the Electors for violating this "surrender".

After a short stay on the throne of the representative of the Habsburg dynasty, Albrecht I, in 1308, one of the petty princes of Germany, the owner of the County of Luxembourg, Henry VII (1308 - 1313), was elected king, who followed the example of the Habsburgs: marrying his son John to the heir to the Czech throne, Elizabeth , Henry of Luxembourg provided his dynasty with hereditary rights to the Kingdom of Bohemia and the title of Elector of the Empire.

Henry VII resumed his campaigns in Italy. In 1310, he marched with troops beyond the Alps to obtain money and the imperial crown in Rome. The intense struggle between the warring parties in the cities of Italy ensured the success of the campaign at first, but the robberies and violence of the Germans caused uprisings in Italian cities. During the war, Henry VII died, and the senseless campaign ended in failure.

The intensified struggle for political dominance between the major princes led to the election of two kings to the throne at once - Frederick of Habsburg and Ludwig of Bavaria. The rivals started a war, from which Ludwig of Bavaria (1314 - 1347) emerged victorious. Like his predecessors, he used power to expand his house, in which he achieved considerable success. But this did not strengthen his position in the empire, but only increased the number of his opponents. Ludwig of Bavaria repeated his predatory campaign in Italy. Pope John XXII of Avignon excommunicated him and imposed an interdict on Germany. However, the campaign was a success at first. Relying on the opponents of the Avignon pope in Italy, Ludwig occupied Rome and installed the antipope on the throne, who placed the imperial crown on his head. But then the usual story repeated itself: the Germans’ attempt to collect a tax from the population caused an uprising of the Roman townspeople; the emperor and his protege, the antipope, fled the city.

Dissatisfied with the strengthening of the Bavarian house, the Electors elected the Czech King Charles of Luxemburg to the throne of the empire during Ludwig's lifetime. Charles IV (1347 - 1378) cared primarily about strengthening his hereditary kingdom of the Czech Republic. In an effort to establish calm in the empire, he made concessions to the princes and in 1356 issued the Golden Bull. According to this legislative act, the full political independence of the electors was recognized, the princely plurality of power that existed in Germany was confirmed and the established procedure for electing the emperor by a college of 7 prince-electors, which included 3 ecclesiastical persons / the archbishops of Mainz, Cologne and Trier / and 4 secular / the King of Bohemia, was legitimized. Count Palatine of the Rhine, Duke of Saxony, Margrave of Brandenburg/. The Emperor was elected by a majority vote in Frankfurt am Main. The election was to be carried out on the initiative of the Archbishop of Mainz. The bull defined the duties of the electors and sanctioned not only the old, but also the new privileges of the princes. It secured for them the right to develop mineral resources, mint coins, collect customs duties, have the right to a higher court, etc. At the same time, it legalized private wars, except for the war of a vassal against a lord, and prohibited alliances between cities. This bull greatly contributed to the political fragmentation of Germany.

The Luxembourg dynasty held the imperial throne (with a break) until 1437. In 1437, imperial power finally passed to the House of Habsburg. Under Frederick III (1440 - 1493), a number of imperial territories came under the rule of other states. Denmark took possession of Schleswig and Holstein in 1469, and Provence was annexed to France. At the end of his reign, Frederick III even lost his hereditary possessions - Austria, Styria and Carinthia, conquered by the Hungarian king Matthias Corvinus.

However, the complete collapse of the empire did not occur. At the end of the 15th century, the position of the Habsburgs strengthened. As a result of the collapse of the Burgundian state, the empire temporarily annexed the Netherlands and Franche-Comté, legally this was formalized by the marriage between Maximilian I of Habsburg and Mary of Burgundy. And in 1526, the Habsburgs again annexed a significant part of Hungary and Austria.

History of Bavaria.

Long before the new era and before the Romans came to these lands, ancient Celts lived in the territory of what is now Bavaria. And only after the departure of the Roman legions, in the 5th century AD, these places were populated by people from Bohemia, which at that time bore the name Boyerland. Therefore, both they and the Ostrogoths, Lombards and Thuringians who later moved here began to be called Bayovars, then Bavarians and, finally, Bavarians, and the country itself - Bavaria. After the creation of the Holy Roman Empire, the Bavarian dukes really laid claim to power in it. But only Ludwig IV of Bavaria, who belonged to the Wittelsbach dynasty, managed to receive the emperor's crown in 1314. The next representative of this family who managed to prove himself in the political arena was Duke Maximilian. The period of his reign included one of the most difficult periods for Europe - the Thirty Years' War of 1618 - 1648.

After the followers of Protestantism united in the Union in 1608, the Catholics, in turn, created the League, headed by Maximilian. With his commander Tilly, he wins the first battle of the Thirty Years' War - the Battle of White Mountain. But soon luck changed the winners. The Catholics were defeated, Swedish troops captured Munich. On October 6, 1648, Maximilian inflicted another defeat on the Swedes in the Dachau region, although this battle could no longer solve anything. For Germany, the Thirty Years' War turned into a shame and tragedy: the country broke up into separate principalities.

In 1741, the Bavarian Elector Karl Albrecht managed to achieve the title of Holy Roman Emperor, but during the Wars of the Austrian Succession (1740 - 1748), Bavaria was occupied by the Austrians three times, and in 1792, French troops captured the Rhine left bank of the Palatinate. Bavaria finds itself in a pincer movement. And then Maximilian IV Joseph entered the political scene. Skillfully maneuvering between the two sides, he made peace with France in 1800, and in 1805 he received Napoleon Bonaparte for a visit. As a result of the deal, from 1806 Bavaria became a kingdom and Maximilian became king. His daughter Augusta marries Napoleon's adopted son, Eugene Beauharnais. Soon, 30 thousand Bavarians are sent to the Russian front to help the French army and die during the retreat of Napoleonic troops from Russia. This was the price for the crown. After the defeat of Bonaparte, Maximilian goes over to the side of the Austrians, which allows him, according to the Treaty of Vienna of 1815, to preserve his kingdom.

In 1825, Maximilian’s son, Ludwig I, ascended the throne and launched extensive construction in the capital. In Munich, Ludwigstrasse Avenue appears, a complex of museums is built according to ancient models - Pinakothek, Glyptothek, Propylaea. And suddenly, when the king was already in his sixties, the young dancer Lola Montez came into his field of vision. Ministers and university professors seek her expulsion, and for Ludwig himself this adventure costs the crown: in 1848 he abdicates the throne in favor of his son.

Maximilian II behaves like a liberal and progressive politician: he organizes the first industrial exhibition on German soil in the Bavarian capital, following the example of his father, he builds a new avenue, Maximilianstrasse... However, not all of the king’s plans came true: his sudden death in 1864 prevented him. Ludwig II, the eldest son of Maximilian, who was only 19 years old at that time, becomes the new ruler.

In 1866, Bavaria was defeated in a quick war with Prussia. And when in 1871, after Prussia’s victories first over Austria and then over France, the issue of creating a united German Empire was decided, Ludwig II of Bavaria was forced to sign a letter recognizing Wilhelm I as Emperor. The sovereignty of Bavaria was infringed, the sense of independence of the Bavarians was offended. However, Ludwig is passionate about something else: Wagner's music and the personality of the composer himself. The monarch acts as the musician's patron and builds fantastic castles in the Bavarian Alps, inspired by images of Wagner's operas. Construction not only depletes Ludwig's own funds, but also almost ruins the state treasury. The government is trying to remove the king from the political arena and declares him incompetent. On June 13, 1886, Ludwig’s body was found in the waters of Lake Starnberg: he went for an evening walk without bodyguards and never returned to the castle. Today this romantic monarch is incredibly popular in Bavaria. His image is repeatedly depicted in works of sculpture and painting. And in memory of his favorite composer, the prestigious Wagner Festival is held in Bayreuth, an invitation to which music lovers wait ten years.

After the death of Ludwig II, power passed to his uncle, 65-year-old Luitpold. Since Ludwig II's mentally handicapped younger brother was then alive, Luitpold became Prince Regent and ruled Bavaria until 1912. The throne then passes to his son Ludwig III. After Germany's defeat in World War I, amid a political crisis and the November Revolution of 1918, Ludwig fled the country, ending the centuries-long reign of the House of Wittelsbach in Bavaria.

On April 7, 1919, the Soviet Republic was proclaimed in Bavaria, which did not last long - only three weeks. And after the formation of the Weimar Republic in July 1919, Bavaria became one of its lands. In 1923, Hitler’s “beer” putsch took place in Munich, which collapsed almost instantly. However, just 10 years later, the Nazis came to power legally - as a result of elections. Bavaria becomes the “heart” of its movement, but as a result of the general centralization of the German state it finally loses its independence and autonomy. After the end of World War II, a trial of war criminals was organized in Nuremberg. Thus, the Nazi movement, which originated in Bavaria, was condemned here. In 1946, Bavaria adopted a new constitution and, with the formation of the Federal Republic of Germany in 1949, became part of it.