Germanic History & Culture

By LeahTR
  • 321

    Constantine refers to Jewish community in Cologne

  • 476

    Odoacer deposes Romulus Augustulus

  • Jan 1, 742

    Charlemagne is born

  • Jan 1, 751

    earliest traceable instance of German vernacular in literature

  • Jan 1, 751

    Pepin is crowned, est. idea of "divine right to rule"

  • Jan 1, 771

    Charlemagne crowned king

  • Jan 1, 1075

    beginning of open conflict between pope and emperor

  • Jan 1, 1096

    1st Crusade

  • Jan 1, 1146

    2nd Crusade

    with the 1st Crusade, heralds end of peaceful coexistence between Germans and Jews
  • Period: Jan 1, 1170 to Jan 1, 1230

    life of Walther von der Volgeweide (poet)

  • Jan 1, 1200

    Berlin founded

  • Jan 1, 1291

    Swiss Confederation is established

  • Jan 1, 1348

    University established in Prague

  • Period: Jan 1, 1348 to Jan 1, 1350

    Bubonic Plague kills 1/3 population

  • Jan 1, 1356

    Charles IV's Golden Bull is the first German constitution

    made emperor/king dependent on nobles
  • Jan 1, 1422

    Pope Martin V issues Bull forbidding trumped-up ritual murder charges against Jews

  • Period: Jan 1, 1438 to

    dominance of the Hapsburg family

  • Jan 1, 1455

    Gutenberg invents the printing press (Mainz)

  • Period: Jan 1, 1483 to Jan 1, 1546

    life of Martin Luther

  • Jan 1, 1499

    Switzerland becomes officially independent from the Holy Roman Empire

  • Jan 1, 1516

    Reinheitsgebot established in Bavaria

    standardized ingrdients and prices to protect the purity of beer
  • Jan 31, 1517

    95 Theses posted at Wittenberg

    called beginning of Protestant Reformation
  • Period: Jan 1, 1518 to Jan 1, 1520

    Luther publishes 25 editions of "Indulgence & Grace"

  • Jan 1, 1521

    Luther condemned as a heretic by the Diet at Worms

  • Jan 1, 1522

    German translation of the New Testament completed in 10 wks.

  • Jan 1, 1526

    Imperial Diet of Speyer allows Lutherans independence in church matters

  • Jan 1, 1534

    Luther's complete German Bible appears in print

  • Jan 1, 1555

    Peace of Augsburg

    establishes Lutheran estates as equal to Catholic estates

  • Frederich IV of the Palatinate creates the Evangelical Union

  • Maximilian of Bavaria founds the Catholic League

  • Period: to

    Thirty Years' War

  • Period: to

    German War (Thirty Years' War, part I)

  • Defenestration of Prague

    catalyst for beginning the Thirty Years' War
  • Period: to

    Danish War (Thirty Years' War, part II)

  • Period: to

    Swedish War (Thirty Years' War, part III)

  • Period: to

    French War (Thirty Years' War, part IV)

  • Peace of Westphalia

    ends the Thirty Years' War
  • Period: to

    life of Georg Friedrich Handel

  • Period: to

    life of Johann Sebastian Bach

  • Period: to

    Charles V is Holy Roman Emperor

    establishes Court treasury and Court war council
  • Period: to

    Friedrich Wilhelm I rules Prussi

    stimulates economic & administrative centralization
  • Period: to

    life of Glueck (Classicist)

  • Period: to

    life of C.P.E. Bach

    commissioned by Friedrich der Grosse
  • Period: to

    life of Haydn (Classicist)

  • Period: to

    Friedrch der Grosse rules Prussia

    increases power of State & armed forces
  • Period: to

    Maria Theresa is Holy Roman Emperor

    develops functional administrative offices, de-politicizes judiciary, allows serfs to leave land
  • Period: to

    life of Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

    "Gothic Shakespeare"
    associated with Classicism and Sturm und Drang
  • Period: to

    life of Mozart (Classicist)

  • Period: to

    life of Beethoven (Classicist)

  • Period: to

    life of E.T.A. Hoffman

  • Late 1700s: establishment of the Mannheim School

    increased size of orchestra, developed the clarinet
  • Period: to

    Joseph II is Holy Roman Emperor

    peasants are subject to crown, not landlords, makes German the official language

  • Joseph II issues Edict of Tolerance

    very important for the Jews
  • Period: to

    life of Weber (Romanticist)

  • Period: to

    Classicism in Literature

    featuring Goethe and Schiller
  • Period: to

    life of Schubert (Romanticist)

  • Napoleon declares himself Holy Roman Emperor

    shortly thereafter dissolves the Holy Roman Empire

  • land reform measures free peasants meeting certain criteria

  • Period: to

    life of Mendelssohn (Romanticist)

  • Prussia introduces Gewerbefreiheit (freedom of trade)

  • Period: to

    life of Schumann (Romanticist)

  • Period: to

    life of Liszt (Romanticist)

  • Period: to

    life of Wagner

    known for Nationalism, anti-Semitism

  • defeat of Napoleon

  • Confederal Act

    no emigration tax for moving between member states

  • Congress of Vienna

    organizes 300+ Holy Roman Empire states into 39 states in the German Confederation, to be led by Austria and Prussia

  • Wartburg Fest

    students call for democracy
  • Period: to

    life of Brahms (Romanticist)

  • Period: to

    Industrial Revolution

  • Bismarck speaks against full citizenship for Jews

  • Quiet Revolution

  • meeting of 3 Assemblies

    National Assembly at Frankfurt, National Assembly of Prussia, Parliament of Vienna
  • Period: to

    Poetic Realism

  • Bismarck becomes Minister-President of Prussia

  • acquisition of Schleswig-Holstein

  • die Deutsche Shakespeare-Gesellschaft is established

    now the oldest Shakespeare society in the world

  • Allgemeiner Deutscher Frauenverein established

  • Lette Verein established to train women for secretarial, etc. jobs

  • unrestricted freedom of trade est. in North German Federation

  • North German Confederation of States makes law to end "all limitations of civic & citizen rights deriving from differences of religion"

  • Period: to

    Franco-Prussian War

  • foundation of German State, ceremony of proclamation at Versailles

  • Period: to

    Imperial Germany

  • Period: to

    Otto von Bismarck is chancellor of Germany for Emperor Wilhelm I

  • beginning of Great Depression

  • Law of Withdrawal

    Jews can remove affiliation with Jewry
  • Period: to

    New Paths movement in literature

    resentment of new wealth & industry, expressionism

  • Bund Deutscher Frauenverein replaces Allgemeiner Deutscher Frauenverein

  • recovery from 1873 Depression

  • Period: to

    period of high industrialization

  • Aspirin invented by Dr. Felix Hoffmann

  • Civil Code defines women as socially & economically inferior

  • universities begin accepting women

  • Die Bruecke founded in Dresden

  • more rights established for women

    Women may join political parties, take part in public assemblies, and address public meetings.

  • Staatsangehoerigkeit Law

    citizenship established by ius sanguinis

  • assassination of Archduke Ferdinand of Austria in Serbia

    beginning of WWI
  • Period: to

    World War I

  • Women's suffrage granted

  • Period: to

    Weimar Republic

  • Emperor Wilhelm II abdicates

  • The Bauhaus is founded by architect Walter Gropius

  • Treaty of Versailles

    end of WWI

  • assassins attack Walther Rathenau's car

    anti-Semitism becomes lethal

  • war reparations reduced, Nazis win seats in Reichstag

  • Paul von Hindenburg becomes president

  • Germany joins League of Nations

  • stock market crash, economic crisis

  • Bruenning becomes Chancellor, Nazis win 1/6 of the vote

  • Nazis become largest political party

  • Von Papen is appointed Chancellor

    tries to appease Nazis and is removed from office, is reinstated in 1933

  • Nazi Party is the only political party

  • campaign against "double earners"

    forces women with employed husbands out of the labor force

  • Hitler becomes Chancellor

    beginning of Third Reich
  • Period: to

    The Third Reich

  • boycott of Jewish businesses ordered

  • Association of German Students burn 20,000 books in the square in front of Berlin's opera house

  • Nazi govt. arranges for Fremdarbeiter from Italy, Poland, Yugoslavia

  • Ernst von Roehm, supporters, & other potential regime opponents are murdered

  • Pres. Hindenburg dies, offices of President & Chancellor are combined into "Fuehrer"

  • Reich Citizenship Law reduces to Jews to "subject" status

  • obligatory 1-yr. period of Reichsarbeitdienst for women 17-25

  • beginning of Nuremburg racial laws

    lack of civil rights for Jews, no interracial marriage, etc.

  • women barred from being judges, public prosecutors, authorities over men

  • Hitler appoints himself Commander-in-Chief

  • law requires special ID papers for Jews

  • Herszel Grynzpan (Polish Jew) assassinates Ernst von Rath (German diplomat) in France

  • Kristallnacht

  • equal pay in public service jobs

  • Germans conquer Poland, ghettoization proceeds

  • Special Criminal Law passed to extend the death penalty

  • invasion of Poland, WWII begins

  • Period: to

    World War II

  • USA enters WWII

  • Hermann Goering instructs Reich Security Main Office to devise a "final solution"

  • Wannsee Conference establishes death camps

  • D-Day

  • attempt on Hitler's life by army officers & highly placed civilians

  • Nuremburg Trials begin

  • Germany surrenders unconditionally

  • Period: to

    Germany is divided into 4 occupation zones

  • first political parties officially licensed

  • last full-scale European pogram in Keilce, Poland

  • foundation of Gruppe 47

    concerned for the future of German literature and language

  • passage of Law 59 in the American sector

    provides for individual reimbursement of confiscated/sold Jewish property

  • USSR isolates East Germany/East Berlin, est. Checkpoints Alpha, Bravo, Charlie

  • Reichsmark replaced with the Deutsche Mark in Western zones

  • Period: to

    Cold War

  • foundation of the Bundesrupublik Deutschland

  • Period: to

    Wirtschaftswunder (BRD)

  • Period: to

    Brain Drain (DDR)

    exodus of the educated and elite

  • establishment of merged Land of Baden-Wuerttemberg

  • German workers' strike in the DDR is crushed by military

  • abolition of the death penalty in BRD

  • first Gastarbeiter (1000 people) come to the BRD

  • ZERO Gruppe meet in Dusseldorf

  • trial of Adolf Eichmann begins

  • history of the Third Reich is required in secondary school curricula

  • JFK gives his "Ich bin ein Berliner" speech

  • Berlin Wall built

  • Auschwitz trials begin

  • BRD and Israel establish full and formal diplomatic relations

  • Deutsch-Israelische Gesellschaft established

  • BRD supports Israel in the Six-Days War

  • "cultural revolution" begins with dissatisfaction in reckoning with Nazi past

  • the two German States est. diplomatic relations and join the UN

  • Anbewerbestopp on Gastarbeiter

  • Constitution of DDR expresses desire for national unity

  • Bundestag agrees to legalize abortion

    overturned by Federal Constitutional Court

  • German hijackers on El Al airplane to Entebbe, Uganda "select" Jewish passengers

  • Civil Code of 1900 overturned

    "housewife" model replaced with "partnership" model

  • Sigmund Jaehn becomes first German in orbit on Suyoz 31

  • Parliament of BRD votes to drop statute of limitations on murder

  • Reagan visits Bitburg graveyard and Bergen-Belsen concentration camp

  • SPD is the 2nd political party to establish quotas for politics

  • fall of the Berlin Wall

  • non-Germans allowed to apply for unconditional residency after 8 years

  • first free elections in the DDR

  • currency and economic union for DDR and BRD

  • Treaty of Unification, reunification day

  • first all-German elections

  • Oetzi discovered

    Neolithic Alpine mummy found on the Similaun Glacier between Austria and Italy

  • European Union founded, Germany is charter member

  • Paragraph 175 abolished

    Pragraph 175, making sex between males a crime subject to imprisonment, dated to 1871.

  • telecommunications deregulated

  • 9 AD: Hermann (Arminius) defeats Romans at Teutoberger Wald

  • Euro becomes the currency of the EU

    Germany replaces the Deutsche Mark with the Euro

  • Clovis defeats Roman gov. in Gaul, est. German monarchy

  • Charlemagne crowned Holy Roman Emperor

  • Period: to Jan 1, 1500

    Holy Roman Empire

  • Period: to

    In literature:

    "Hildebrandslied," "Merseburge Zaubersprueche," "Heiland," "Evangelienbuch" by Otfrid