Rental Cars Germany - History of Germany
Many of Europe's great empires got their hands on Prussian-related states (that now make up modern Germany), but none were ever able to count the inhabitants as faithful subjects. The house of Habsburg, ruling from Vienna, took control in the 13th C which was a conglomerate of German-speaking states run by parochial princes. The Habsburgs ruled until the devastating Thirty Years War (1618-48) which was fuelled by ongoing religious and nationalist conflicts. Napoleon came along in the early 19th C taking control and decimating a third of its population. Prussia became the centre of resistance in the region with the 1813 war in Leipzig putting an end to Napoleon’s aspirations. In 1866 Otto von Bismarck, chancellor of Prussia, created a unified Germany, annexing the various states and consolidated his position in Europe with a victory over France in 1871. The Prussian king, Wilhelm I, was instated as Kaiser and a united Germany hit the world stage for the first time. Wilhelm II led Germany into WWI.
Then Adolf Hitler, an Austrian-born drifter and German army veteran, arrived forming the National Socialist German Worker’s Party (Nazi) in 1933 which assumed ultimate authority over Germany. His rule of terror, exorbitant spending and border crossing gave way to outright aggression resulting in WWII and the horrors of the Holocaust. Initially the invasions were successful but by 1943 heavy losses led to their 1945 unconditional surrender, facing the advancing allies from the west and Russian army from the east. Postwar Germany was divided up between the Allies; with Britain, France and the USA creating the Federal Republic of Germany in the west; and the eastern Soviet zone changing into the communist German Democratic Republic. West Germany received massive injections of US capital, attracting many workers from the unfavorable economic conditions in the East.
A wall was then built around West Berlin and over the next 25 years West Germany became one of the world's most prosperous nations while its communist Siamese sibling suffered. In 1989 communism collapsed in Eastern Europe and the Berlin frontier was opened – thus resulting in the reunification of Germany. This marked the beginning of the Helmut Kohl era which was a dramatic period in the country’s history. He bowed out to the coalition of Social Democrats in 1998.
Today's united Germany has its problems, but the social dislocation which was predicted has been minimal. There is still some resentment from both sides with the extreme right wing being occasionally violent, yet politically weak. Germany is still working towards true unity. Germany has absorbed many refugees from the former Yugoslavia – who have become, along with other immigrants, the targets of racial attacks.
