THE HOMELAND / DIE HEIMAT
PAGE 1
A BRIEF OVERVIEW OF GERMANY'S HISTORY
Index:
9
A. D. Earliest Beginnings
Otto
1 (The Great)
Non-political
Developments
Johannes
Gutenberg
Jakob
Fugger
Franz
von Taxis
Albrecht
Dürer
Nicolaus
Copernicus
While
it would be impossible to pinpoint the origin of any modern European state with
any degree of accuracy, sufficient historical evidence exists today to establish
some reasonable references as to their “birthplace”. Germany is no exception.
Some
2000 years ago highly disciplined Roman legions expanded the outer limits of
the Roman Empire in all directions. Their invasive campaigns were almost always
successful. In order to protect newly occupied territories a ‘limes’ (border
wall) was built which, in today’s Germany roughly followed the ‘Rhenus Fluvis’
(Rhine River). West of the limes were the subjugated Germanic tribes of Germania
Inferior and Germania Superior which soon mixed their ethnic identity with that
of the Romans.
Constant
forays by the legions into the territories of the independent Germanic tribes
east of the limes (Germania Magna) finally caused an event which altered the
course of history of the future Germany. In 9 AD Arminius (17? BC – 21 AD),
the leader of the Cherusci, attacked and annihilated in three days the vastly
superior Roman army of Quintilius Varus in the Teutoburg Forest. This event
gave rises to the unfettered development of the German tribes east of the limes.
150
– 454 AD
· Germanic Migrations
· Germanic Tribes in Rome
·
The defeat of the Huns
In the
following 500 years the movements of many Germanic tribes, primarily to the
south, invaded the Roman Empire on several occasions, such as the Marcomanni,
the Vanadals, the Langobards (today’s Lombardy), and by far the two biggest
Germanic tribes namely, the Visigoths and the Ostrogoths whose ancestral homes
were today’s Denmark and Sweden.
Of course,
these invasions were always campaigns by force. However, once the Roman Empire
had been invaded the occupying forces took over the existing administration,
embraced the Roman way of life, and assumed Roman identity: they became, in
effect, Germanic-Romans. As a result they upheld the status of the Roman Empire
for several hundred years, i.e., they maintained the existing limits of the
Empire against outside pressures (further advances had long since been abandoned).
In fact, the decline of the Roman Empire would have occurred much earlier, had
it not been for the Germanic tribes of the Langobards, Visigoths, and Ostrogoths
whose empires reached from the Balkans to the Atlantic, including the northern
coast of Africa (5. century).
This situation was the saving grace for the entire Occident, when the first conquering hordes from eastern Asia, the ‘Hiung – nu’, or Huns as they were later called, invaded the Roman Empire (374 – 454), and penetrated past the limes of the Rhine into northern France. In a decisive battle on the Catalanian Fields (east of Paris) in 451 Roman and Germanic Forces defeated the Huns. Attila, the last leader of the Huns died in 453/4, and further upheavals of Germanic tribes against the Huns finalized the disintegration and subsequent eviction of the Huns from Germanic soil. These events permitted Germanic tribes on their original soil to evolve unfettered by outside influences.
(Note:
Comparing Germans to Huns is contrary to any historical evidence, and was nothing
but an outcrop of wartime propaganda in this century.)
481
– 870 The Frankish Empire under the Merovingian and Carolingian Dynasties; Charles
the Great (768 – 814)
The Frankish
Empire was the only Germanic entity which was of lasting duration after the
Germanic Migration. King Chlodwig of the Merovingian Dynasty, who reigned from
481 until his death in 511 established a vast empire, embracing almost all of
Gaul. His successors expanded it: the Gascogne and the Thuringian Empire in
531, the Burgundian Kingdom in 534, and the Provence and Alemannia (Swabia)
in 536/37.
The administrators
(major domo) of the eastern Frankish Empire gradually assumed sufficient power
to overthrow the last Merovingian king, and the Carolingian Dynasty appeared
under Pippin, (Karl Martell’s son), who had the Pope anoint him king in St.
Denis (751) in return for the protection of the Catholic Church. This linkage
between the Papacy and the Carolingians was the power base which Pippin’s son,
Charles the Great, used to his advantage.
Charles
the Great had two political aims during his reign, namely, the consolidation
of his inherited empire, and its eastward expansion to include the independent
Germanic tribes, and their conversion to Christianity. He succeeded beyond expectations,
although it took him over 30 years to conquer the stubborn Saxons, and had Duke
Widukind swear allegiance to Charles and convert to Christianity. Thus Charles
laid the foundation for the future Germany.
In 800
Charles responded to the plea of Pope Leo III to restore peace between the Pope
and Rome’s nobility. Charles succeeded, and as a sign of gratitude the Pope
crowned him emperor. (This coronation would bear grave consequences some 250
years later, resulting in strife between the Empire and the Papacy: Henry IV.
1056 – 1106).
While
wars had been the ‘order of the day’ since antiquity, and Charles’ reign was
no exception, he actively improved the administration during his reign, and
continuously furthered the cultural development of his empire throughout his
reign. He attracted eminent international personalities of his time to his court,
and Aachen (Germany), his favourite residence, became the cultural centre.
Charles
founded cathedral towns, supported monasteries and convents, and built schools.
He introduced standardized coins, weights and measures, and developed a clear
and graceful handwriting, the “Carolingian minuscule”. He initiated the grammar
for his Frankish mother tongue, and had the Lord’s Prayer and the Apostles’
Creed translated from Latin to Frankish to facilitate Christian teachings to
the common people.
Charles
gave the future France, Germany, and Italy the consciousness of their nationalities,
and he is part of their history. He died at the age of 67, and is buried in
Aachen.
Charles’
weak successors were incapable to keep his empire together. In the treaties
of Verdun (843) and Meersen (870) the West Frankish and the East Frankish empires
(the precursors of modern France and Germany), were separated by a linguistic
boundary which remained for almost 700 years. Burgundy and Italy became independent
kingdoms.
Otto
I was the second son of the Saxon King Henry I. In 936 Otto was crowned king
in Aachen, which was a political demonstration to show the world that he would
emulate Charles the Great. Otto embraced the Carolingian spirit, and the throughout
his reign, like Charles, strived for “ renovatio imperii”, the restoration of
the Roman Empire; this time, however, with specifically German interests in
mind. (For it was toward the end of the 9. century that the idea for a German
empire had first been expressed, and the first rulers of this Germany–in–the–making
were the Saxon rulers.) Otto wanted a Roman Empire of the German Nation, and
as such he determined the main characteristics of German politics for the next
centuries.
However,
before Otto could embark on the realization of his dreams he first had to settle
claims to the throne by his elder brother Thankmar and his younger brother Heinrich,
as well as demands, motivated by self–interest, by the nobility of Saxony, Frankonia,
and Bavaria. Although Thankmar lost his bid for the throne, Heinrich renewed
his challenge after a sound trouncing and subsequent mild treatment by Otto,
when he prepared for the assassination of Otto at the Easter celebrations in
941. The plot was discovered and on Christmas Day that year Otto, unbelievably,
pardoned him again. After another altercation with Liudolf, Otto’s son from
his first marriage (whom he also pardoned), Otto finally decided to put less
trust in the loyalty of his royal family and assigned administrative positions
to clerical members of his family who had no ambitions to the throne. This marriage
of clerical and secular powers reminds us of the Carolingian concept of a ‘state
church’.
Once
Otto had secured peace within his realm he launched an all–out counter attack
against the Hungarians who had invaded Bavaria and had laid siege to Augsburg.
In 955 Otto relieved Augsburg and annihilated the Hungarians in a decisive battle
on the Lech Field. The Hungarians permanently withdrew to the Theiss River Plain,
east of the Danube Knee. Otto also established the Havelberg and Brandenburg
dioceses to protect the eastern border against constant invasions by Slavic
tribes, and to regain possession of lost territories.
In his
desire to follow the model of the Charles the Great namely, that the Empire
and hegemony were indivisible in Italy, Otto responded to the Pope’s plea for
protection from the Saracens and Byzantynes (who had occupied large tracts of
Italy) by arriving in Rome with a military force (962). In return, the Pope
crowned and anointed him emperor. This secured Otto a voice in future pope selections.
Otto now fully embraced the imperial Carolingian style, when he received homage
from the rulers of Southern Italy (Capua, Benevent, and Salerno).
Otto
the Great has secured a vast empire and was recognized by the entire world.
He died in Memleben (Germany) in 973 and is buried in Magdeburg (Germany).
It’s
not only rulers and politicians who make history, other citizens contribute
to the development of their homeland and the world.
The inventor
of the printing press never reaped the fruits of his invention, and he died
forgotten. However, his invention spread around the world, and about 30 years
after his death some 40,000 different books had been printed by 270 publishers,
amounting to ten million copies. The significance of his invention was probably
best defined by Mark Twain: “ The incomparably biggest impact on world history!”
He and
his family established a world financial empire with shrewd investments (East–India
trade), acquisitions ( ore mines from Hungary to Spain), and by outmanoeuvring
his competitors with unorthodox (today, capitalistic) methods. He financed emperors
Maximilian and Karl V, and three popes; the last one, Julius II, finally got
his “Swiss Guard” with Fugger’s money. Despite large donations to the Church
and emperors, as well as the first major complex to house and feed the poor
(Fuggerei), he was not loved by many, but everyone needed him. A contemporary,
probably a debtor, said: “Fugger finances God and the World.”
Until
1490 the delivery of mail was carried out by private messengers belonging to
companies, trades, and guilds. In that year, on orders of Emperor Maximilian
I von Taxis began to introduce a standardized and centralized postal service
system from Austria to the Netherlands, and from France to Rome. It became von
Taxis’ life work. His system was a highly organized service known for its punctuality;
and it was cheap, as von Taxis operated it at his own risk. In 1516 he introduced
the mounted postal service between Brussels, Rome , and Vienna. Horses were
exchanged at change stations (“Posten”, hence Post), and his day-and-night service
permitted the riders to cover an unheard-of daily distance of 130-170 km. (What
was formerly an outstanding feat to cover the more than 800 km from Venice to
Nuremberg in a fortnight, was reduced to six days.) – Before 1506 letters and
parcels from general public were included in his service, and thus became what
it is still today.
Dürer
was born in a goldsmith in Nuremberg, and spent his entire life there, with
the exception of several study trips to Italy and the Netherlands. He was without
question the most prominent painter in Germany during that period. He produced
epoch–making altar paintings, graphic arts, and portraits. One of his pervading
themes was the portrayal of the human body after death. He also published scientific
works, such as “Instructions in Measurements” and “Study of Proportions”. –
Melanchthon (scholar, reformer, 1497–1560) characterized him best: “ A wise
man, whose artistic genius, outstanding as it was, was the least of his accomplishments.”
Equally
claimed by Germans and Poles, he was the son of a well–to–do patrician family.
He was born in Thorn, a town in East–Prussia, founded by the order of the Knighthood.
He studied law, medicine, mathematics, astronomy, and the humanities at various
European universities, and at the age of 26 became the cannon of the East Prussian
cathedral chapter Frauenburg in the diocese Ermland. Here, made curious by suggestions
of antique philosophers (Aristotle, 384-322 BC) that Earth is round, he proved
that it is a rotating sphere, and that all planets orbit around the sun. His
work, finished in 1530, was so revolutionary, even heretical by church standards,
that he delayed publishing it until the year he died. – Copernicus not only
downgraded the status of Earth from the centre of the Universe to a mere “third
rock from the sun”, he also changed forever man’s self-image.
(
The text was researched, compiled and donated by Mr. Egon Stanik, P. Eng.)
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