Timeline of German history

This timeline covers the history of the German peoples from ancient times to the present. It is incomplete; some important events may be missing. Please help add to it. For more in-depth analysis, see History of Germany.

Charlemagne, by Albrecht Dürer, the coat of arms above him show the German eagle and the French Fleur-de-lis.

BC

Germanic warriors storm the field at the Battle of the Teutoburg Forest in 9AD

*500 BC, the Germanic tribes appear in northern Germany, see the Nordic Bronze Age.

• 600 - 300 BC (approximately) East Germanic tribes move from Scandinavia into the area between the Oder and Vistula rivers.
• 113 BC - 439 AD Germanic Wars between Germanic tribes and the Romans.
• 109 BC Confederation of the Cimbri, Teutoni and Helvetii formed.
• 57 BC Julius Caesar's Gallic Wars; Caesar invades region which becomes Germania Inferior
• 53 BC Eburones, Nerwii, Menapii and Morinii tribes revolt but are put down by Caesar.
• 50 BC (approximately) Ingvaeones become Frisii, Saxons, Jutes, and Angles by about now.
• 10 BC (approximately) differentiation of localized Teutonic tribes (Alamanni, Hermunduri, Marcomanni, Quadi, Suebi) in area formerly occupied by Rome.
• 8 BC Marcomanni and Quadi drive the Boii out of Bohemia; Confederation of Marcomanni, Semnones, Lombards of others.
• 3 BC there was a large obstruction on the capital and led to a new constitution.

1-800

• 9 AD Battle of the Teutoburg Forest and the White Rebellion of Saxon.
• 100 - Roman author Tacitus in Germania provides a highly influential interpretation of German culture.
• 558-61 - King Chlothar I ruled much of Germany and made expeditions into Saxony, while the Southeast of modern Germany was still under influence of the Ostrogoths. Saxons inhabited the area down to the Unstrut River.
• 751 - Pippin III Mayor of the Palace, becomes king.

Expansion of the Frankish Empire:
Blue = realm of Pippin III in 758,
Red = expansion under Charlemagne until 814,
Yellow = marches and dependencies

800–1000

• 800 - Charlemagne crowned Imperator Romanorum (Emperor of the Romans)
• 804 - Saxons finally conquered by Charlemagne.
• 841 - Battle of Fontenoy (841).
• 843 - Treaty of Verdun.
• 870 - Treaty of Mersen divides the Carolingian Empire.
• 936 - Otto I the Great was crowned as king at Aachen.
• 955 - Otto I defeats Hungarians at Battle of Lechfeld.
• 962 - Otto I crowned Imperator Romanorum; Holy Roman Empire formed.
• 972 - Germans defeated by Poles at the Battle of Cedynia.
• 996 - Bruno of Carinthia (972 – 999) becomes Pope Gregory V; he is the grandson of the Emperor Otto I and the first German pope.

==1000–1500== -------8

File:AgnesofGermany.jpg

Agnes of Germany

• 11th - 13th centuries Crusades involve thousands of German soldiers.
• 1046-57 - A series of reform-minded popes come from Germany: Pope Clement II in 1046; Pope Dumasus II in 1048; Pope Leo IX in 1049; Pope Victor II in 1055; and Pope Stephen IX in 1057.
• 1072-1143 - Agnes of Germany, mother of several rulers.
• 1075-1122 - Investiture Controversy with pope over appointments to ecclesiastical offices; it produced a half-century of civil war and the triumph of the great dukes and abbots over the emperor.
• 1077 - Walk to Canossa
• 1096 - German Crusade, 1096
• 1098 - Hildegard of Bingen born
• 12th - 14th centuries Minnesänger singers
• 1122 - Concordat of Worms
• 1147 - 16th century Northern Crusades (Baltic Crusades) against people of North Eastern Europe around the Baltic Sea
• 1152 - Frederick I Barbarossa crowned
• 1170 - Walther von der Vogelweide born
• 1190 - Teutonic Knights formed after Third Crusade
• 1190 or 1200 Nibelungenlied written
• 1214 - Battle of Bouvines
• 1273 - Rudolph I crowned
• 1291 - Federal Charter of 1291
• 14th to 16th centuries Meistersinger lyric poets
• 1338 - Declaration of Rhense
• 1356 - Golden Bull of 1356

  

  Martin Luther by Lucas Cranach the Elder

  • - Hanseatic League officially founded
• 1370 - Treaty of Stralsund ends war between Hanseatic League and the Danes
• 1392 - Victual Brothers hired by the Dukes of Mecklenburg to fight against Denmark
• 1410 - Battle of Grunwald
• 1414 - 1418 - Council of Constance
• 1455 - Gutenberg Bible first printed by Johann Gutenberg
• 1471 - Artist Albrecht Dürer born
• 1483 - Martin Luther born 10 November 1483.*1495 - Imperial Reform; Reichskammergericht formed
• 1499 - Swabian War
• 1517 - Martin Luther's 95 Theses
• 1521 - Diet of Worms addresses Luther and the effects on the Protestant Reformation
• 1522 - Pope Adrian VI consecrated
• 1524 - 1526 - German Peasants' War
• 1525 - Prussian Homage, Albrecht Von Hohenzollern resigned his position as Grand Master of the Teutonic Knights and received the title "Duke of Prussia" from King Sigimund I the Old of Poland. the Duchy of Prussia became the first Protestant state in Europe.
• 1529 - Protestation at Speyer
• 1529 - Siege of Vienna
• 1546 - 1547 - Schmalkaldic War
• 1555 - Peace of Augsburg

==1600–1789== Penis ---------8

• 1608 Protestant Union of German princes
• 1609 Catholic League
• 1613 - James I, king of England and Scotland, marries his daughter to Frederick V, Elector Palatine, leader of the Protestant Union, thereby associating his realms with the anti-Habsburg forces.
• 1618 - 1648 - Thirty Years War, fought largely in German lands, causes massive devastation and population losses.
• 1629 - Edict of Restitution
• 1631 - Sack of Magdeburg
  • - Battle of Breitenfeld
• 1632 - Battle of Lützen and death of Gustavus Adolphus of Sweden
• 1642 - Second Battle of Breitenfeld
• 1646-1712 - Philosopher-mathematician Gottfried Leibniz; invented calculus; based in Hanover
• 1648 - Peace of Westphalia - Independence of Switzerland and the Netherlands from the Holy Roman Empire is recognized
• 1653-1706 - Musician Johann Pachelbel; organist at Nuremberg
• 1683 - Battle of Vienna
• 1685-1750 - Musician Johann Sebastian Bach; based in Leipzig
• 1686 - Grand Alliance formed
• 1697 - August of Saxony becomes king of Poland

Frederick the Great during the Seven Years' War, painting by Richard Knötel.

• 1700 - Leibniz founds the Berlin Academy of Sciences
• 1701 - Frederick I of Prussia declares himself as king of the newly kingdom of Prussia
• 1712-86 - Frederick the Great king 1740-86; gains control of Silesia and parts of Poland; an Enlightened Despot who sponsors arts, sciences and industry; he builds a highly efficient army.
• 1724-1804 - Philosopher Immanuel Kant, based in Königsberg
• 1740 - 1742; 1744–1745; 1756 - 1763 Silesian Wars
  • - War of the Austrian Succession
• 1749-1832 - Johann Wolfgang von Goethe poet, dramatist, novelist, and scientist; his career is based in Weimar
• - Seven Years' War 1756-63; pits Great Britain, Prussia and Hanover against[France, Austria, Russia, Sweden, and Saxony; Britain and Prussia are the major winners
• 1756-91 - Musician Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart; his short career is based in Vienna
• 1759-1805 - Friedrich Schiller, dramatist, poet, and historian; he was professor of history at Jena University, near Weimar.
• 1770-1827 - Musician Ludwig van Beethoven; his career is based in Vienna
• 1770-1831 - Philosopher Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel; his career is based in Berlin
• 1777-1855 - Johann Carl Friedrich Gauss, the leading mathematician of the era; director of the Observatory at Göttingen,
• 1788 Abitur examination introduced in Prussia

1789-1870

The main theme of this era is the rise of German nationalism in the face of Napoleon's conquests, followed by the Unification of Germany under the auspices of Prussia. Austria is left out. Prosperity grows, based first on agriculture and end of serfdom, and after 1850 based on industry and railroads.

• 1789 - 1799 French revolution; welcomed at first as a liberation, but then rejected in the name of emergent nationalism
• 1791 Declaration of Pillnitz. Prussia and Austria threaten revolutionary France
• 1792 - 1802 French Revolutionary Wars
• 1792 - Brunswick Proclamation; France declares war on Austria
• 1796 - France gains control of left (west) bank of Rhine River from Prussia
• 1797-1828 - Musician Franz Schubert; his short career is based in Vienna
• 1797-1828 - Frederick William III king of Prussia; weak and vacillating, he tried to be neutral in the Napoleonic Wars
• 1803 Napoleon imposes the Convention of Artlenburg
  • All but 6 of the Imperial Free Cities are eliminated
  • All ecclesiastic land holdings in Germany abolished
  • Schiller published William Tell, an inspiring story of patriotic resistance to foreign rule; anti-French patriotism swells across German lands
• 1804 - 1815 - Napoleonic Wars
• 1804 - Austria joins the Third Coalition against Napoleon
• 1806 - Napoleon shuts down the Holy Roman Empire
  • - Confederation of the Rhine formed
  • - Prussia joins the Fourth Coalition against Napoleon
  • - Napoleon decisively defeats Prussia at Jena
• 1806-10 The reforms of Baron vom Stein end serfdom and laid the basis of the modern Prussian administrative state
• 1807-8 - Fichte publishes Addresses to the German Nation, calling on the people in general, to disregard "all those divisions and distinctions between different sections of one nation caused by the unhappy events of past centuries....[in order to arouse] in the minds and hearts of Germans throughout the country a spirit of determined activity."
• 1807 - Treaties of Tilsit between Napoleon and Prussia makes Prussia a vassal of France—it continues to exist at the request of Russia. Much territory is lost.
• 1812 - Brothers Grimm publish first collection of fairy tales
  • - Convention of Tauroggen
• 1813 - A dramatic turning point for German nationalism, as "the spirit of a national devotion and sacrifice reached heights unparalleled for centuries."
• 1812 - 1814 - seventh Coalition includes German states
• 1813 - Battle of the Nations at Leipzig: Napoleon decisively defeated
• 1813-83 - Musician Richard Wagner, famous for his complex operas
• 1815 - Congress of Vienna; Prussia makes major gains
  • - German Confederation formed
• 1815-97 - Mathematician Karl Weierstrass, the "father of modern analysis"
• 1815-98 - Otto von Bismarck, the dominant political leader of Prussia/ Germany, (1862–90); unified Germany (1871); maintained peace in Europe by valance of power (1871–90)
• 1816-18 - Constitutions granted in Saxe-Weimar, Bavaria, and Baden
• 1817 - Wartburg festival, liberal students make demands
• 1818-83 - Social theorist Karl Marx revolutionizes Socialism
• 1819 - August von Kotzebue assassinated; conservatives counterattack on liberal demands for more freedom with repressive Carlsbad Decrees
• 1826-1866 - Mathematician Bernhard Riemann
• 1830 - Revolts in Hesse, Brunswick, and Saxony dethroned kings and create new liberal constitutions.
• 1832 - Hambach Festival calls for German nationalism and unity
• 1832-1908 - Author Wilhelm Busch, inventor of the comic strip
• 1833-97 - Musician Johannes Brahms; his career is based in Vienna
• 1833 - Zollverein formed as economic common market for German states; Austria is excluded
• 1837 - Protest of the Göttingen Seven
• 1839 - Treaty of London. Britain, Prussia and other powers guarantee the neutrality of Belgium; Germany violated it in 1914, so Britain declared war.
• 1840 - First kindergarten opened by Fröbel
• 1841 - Friedrich List, National System of Political Economy advocates economic nationalism in a unified Germany
• 1844-1900 - Philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche
• 1848 - 1849 - The Revolutions of 1848 in the German states
• 1848 - Frankfurt Parliament convenes
• 1848 - 1851 First Schleswig War
• 1849 - Suppression of liberals ("48 ers") ; many flee abroad, especially to the United States
• 1850 - Humiliation of Olmütz; France and Austria force Prussia to back down and accept the authority of the German Confederation
• 1850 - Prussian three-class franchise opens voting rights to all men over age 24; gives more power to those who paid the most taxes
• 1856 - Neanderthal remains found at the Neander valley
• 1858-1947 - PhysicistMax Planck; theorizes in 1900 that energy consists of fundamental indivisible units, which he called quanta.

Chancellor Bismarck (left), War Minister von Roon, and Army Chief of Staff Moltke led Prussia in the 1860s

• 1859-73 - Albrecht von Roon as Prussia's war minister; reforms the army
• 1863 - Social Democratic Party of Germany (Socialist)formed
• 1863 - Emperor Franz Joseph of Austria convenes congress of German princes at Frankfort; Prussia boycotts it and nothing results. Prussia seeks unified "Little Germany" (excluding Austria).
• 1864 - Danish-Prussian War; Prussia and Austria defeat Denmark over control of Schleswig-Holstein, and then feud over who will be in charge
• 1866 - Austro-Prussian War over control of Schleswig-Holstein; Italy and some small states support Prussia; Bavaria, Würtemberg, Saxony, Hanover, Baden, the two Hesses support Austria. Prussia invades Hanover, Hesse and Saxony; Prussia defeats Austria at Battle of Königgrätz, where Prussian tactics, technology (needle guns, railways) prove superior. Prussia expands from 19 million population to 23.5 as it absorbs Schleswig-Holstein, Hanover, Hesse, Nassau, the city of Frankfort; it also controls Saxony.

The North German Confederation (red). The southern German states that joined in 1870 to form the German Empire are in orange. Alsace-Lorraine is in a paler orange

• 1867-1870 - North German Confederation formed after German Confederation collapsed. It handles diplomatic and military affairs, as well as railways, for its members. Prussia has 24 million people and the other states 5 million; In the legislature Prussia had 17 of the 43 votes.

1870-1919

• 1870 - Franco-Prussian War; defeat of France; Alsace-Lorraine acquired
• 1871 - German Empire (Second Reich) merges all German states except Austria
  • - King Wilhelm I of Prussia becomes German Emperor ("Kaiser"); his policies are largely controlled by Bismarck
• 1871-90 - Otto von Bismarck (1815–98) as powerful Chancellor of Germany

Between Berlin and Rome (1875) portrays Kulturkampf as chess game; in the end the Catholics prevail

• 1871-80 - Bismarck launches Kulturkampf to weaken the Catholic Church and bring it under his control; half the bishops are imprisoned or driven to exile. But 37% of the people are Catholic and they form their Centre Party. Bismarck finally reverses when secularists and Socialists take the opportunity to attack all religion. The Catholics then support Bismarck's policies.
• 1873 - League of the Three Emperors, alliance with Austria and Russia
• 1875-1955 - Novelist Thomas Mann
• 1878 - Congress of Berlin
• 1879 - Dual Alliance with Austria

The Triple Alliance of 1882-1914, shown in red. Italy stays neutral in 1914, then joins Allies in 1915; Turkey joins Germany and Austria

• 1880s - British Prime Minister William E. Gladstone calls for an idealistic "Concert of Europe"—a peaceful European order that overcomes traditional rivalries by emphasizing cooperation over conflict, mutual trust over suspicion. He proposes that the rule of law should supplant the reign of force and begger-thy-neighbor policies. However, he was outmaneuvered by Bismarck's realistic system of "realpolitik" using manipulated alliances and antagonisms.
• 1882 - Triple Alliance with Austria and Italy lasts until 1914; stands opposed to Triple Entente of Britain, France and Russia
• 1884 - Berlin Conference
• 1886 - automobiles with gasoline-powered internal combustion engines produced independently by Carl Benz and Gottlieb Daimler
• 1887 - Reinsurance Treaty
• 1888 - Year of Three Emperors
• 1889-1945 - Adolf Hitler; Chancellor 1933-45
• 1890 - Heligoland-Zanzibar Treaty. Germany gained control of a strategic island near its main seaports, and gained agreement on its colonial holdings in Africa, while turning its Zanzibar colony over to Britain.
• 1891 Foundation of the Alldeutscher Verband
• 1892 Rudolf Diesel (1858-1913) invents Diesel engine
• 1896 Kruger telegram

1900-1945

• 1905 - 1906 First Moroccan Crisis
• 1905 - General Staff devises the Schlieffen Plan to win a future war against France by a quick sweep around Paris
• 1911 - Agadir Crisis (Second Moroccan Crisis)
• 1913 - Saverne Affair, political unrest in Alsace-Lorraine
• 1914 - Physicist Albert Einstein (1879-1955), educated in Switzerland; to Berlin in 1914; to U.S. in 1933
• 1914 - 1918 World War I

Main article: History of Germany during World War I

• • 1914 - invasion of Belgium and France stopped at First Battle of the Marne; Schlieffen Plan fails
  • 1914 - Germany moves troops from Schleiffen Plan to East; smashes Russia at the Battle of Tannenberg
  • 1914-17 - high casualties on the Western Front
  • - 1916. Battle of Verdun; Germans attack French weak point; stalemate costs a total of 1.2 million Frenchmen and Germans dead or wounded
  • - 1916, First Battle of the Somme; British and French attack leads to stalemate; each side suffers about 650,000 dead and wounded; German army gets the worst of it
  • - 1916 - Battle of Jutland, a strategic draw; Germany surface fleet permanently bottled up in harbor
  • - 1916 - Russia's Brusilov Offensive makes some gains but heavy losses demoralize Russians
  • - 1917 - Germany resumes unrestricted submarine warfare against all ships headed to Britain; US enters the war; convoy system defeats the U-boat threat
  • 1914-18 - British naval blockade cuts off supply of food; growing hunger
  • 1916-17 - "turnip winter"; failure of potato crop; severe food shortages in cities; reliance on Russian turnips
• 1918 - Overthrow of Kaiser and all royal families; Germany becomes the Weimar Republic
• 1918 End of Three class voting (which favoured the rich); universal equal suffrage; women get the vote for the first time.
• 1919 far-left Spartacist Uprising crushed
  • Ebert, Socialist, elected the first President of Germany
  • Bavarian Soviet Republic declared and then crushed
  • Treaty of Versailles imposes war guilt clause; strips away colonies; imposes reparations
  • 1919–1933 Weimar Republic, democratic but highly unstable
• 1920 Kapp Putsch
  • Ruhr Uprising
• 1922 Treaty of Rapallo
• 1923-1925 French and Belgian Occupation of the Ruhr
  • 1923 Munich Putsch by Hitler fails
  • German inflation (~1921-1923)
  • Gustav Stresemann becomes Chancellor and introduces Rentenmark to end hyperinflation
• 1924 Dawes Plan renegotiates reparations; US banks loan Germany money to pay
• 1925 Locarno Treaties
  • 1925 - Joins the League of Nations
• 1929 Young Plan
  • Death of Gustav Stresemann
    • Wall Street Crash marks start of Great Depression; Germany very hard hit
• 1930 German election, 1930
  • 1933 - 1945 Nazi Germany (Third Reich)
• 1933 Hitler appointed Chancellor of Germany; Gleichschaltung destroys opposition parties and non-Nazi societies
  • Reichstag Fire and the subsequent Reichstag Fire Decree the next day
  • Enabling Act of 1933
• 1934 Night of the Long Knives
  • Death of President Hindenburg; Hitler pronounces himself Führer, adding the powers of the President
• 1935 Rearmament begins
• 1936 Re-militarisation of the Rhineland
• 1938 Anschluss Germany absorbs Austria
  • Kristallnacht, Jewish businesses and synagogues heavily damaged by Nazi mobs

1939 - 1945 World War II

Further information: Timeline of World War II

• 1939 -August Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact sets peaceful relations with USSR; agreement on splitting control of Poland and other countries in East Europe
• 1939 - Sept. Invasion and quick conquest of Poland
• 1941 Konrad Zuse builds his first computer, Z3
• 1942-1945 Holocaust systematic killing of about 6 million Jews
  • 1942 Wannsee Conference plans Holocaust

1945 - 1989

• 1945-89 - Germany is divided during the Cold War into West Germany and East Germany, as is Berlin
• 1945 Potsdam Conference, Allies settle German boundaries
• 1945 - millions of refugees flee from eastern European and many are raped or killed
• 1946 First of The industrial plans for Germany is signed
  • U.S. Restatement of Policy on Germany
  • Party of Democratic Socialism formed
• 1948 Deutsche Mark introduced
  • Free Democratic Party (FDP) formed by businessmen
• 1948 - 1949 - Berlin Blockade, a Soviet attempt to shut down West Berlin; defeated by the Berlin Airlift of American and British supplies
• 1949 German Democratic Republic and Federal Republic of Germany formed (see History of East Germany, Constitution of the German Democratic Republic and Basic Law for the Federal Republic of Germany)
  • Christian Democratic Union of Germany founded
• Konrad Adenauer becomes first post-war Chancellor of Germany
• 1950s German economic miracle in West Germany
• 1951 - West Germany becomes one of the six founding members of the European Coal and Steel Community, later known as the European Union
• 1952 Inner German border is fortified, except around Berlin
  • General Treaty Deutschlandvertrag
• 1953 Uprising of 1953 in East Germany

  

  The Berlin Wall

• 1954 West Germany wins Football World Cup - The Miracle of Bern
• 1955 Federal Republic joins NATO; GDR joins Warsaw Pact controlled by Moscow
• 1961 Berlin Wall is built to stop East Germans fleeing to the West
• 1963-66 - CDU/CSU economist Ludwig Erhard is Chancellor
• 1964 National Democratic Party of Germany (NPD) formed
• 1966-69 - CDU/CSU Kurt Georg Kiesinger becomes Chancellor in Grand Coalition
• 1967 - 1968 German student movement
• 1969 Willy Brandt becomes Chancellor
• 1970 Voting age lowered from 21 to 18
  • Treaty of Moscow
  • Treaty of Warsaw
• 1970s - 1998 Red Army Faction operates
• 1971 Four Power Agreement on Berlin
• 1972 Basic Treaty between West and East Germany
  • West Germany hosts the 1972 Summer Olympics in Munich. Palestinian terrorists cause Munich Massacre
• 1973 East and West Germany join United Nations
• 1974 West Germany hosts and wins Football World Cup
  • Helmut Schmidt becomes Chancellor
• 1982 Helmut Kohl becomes Chancellor
• 1987 First ever official visit by Erich Honecker to the Federal Republic of Germany
• 1989 Monday demonstrations in Leipzig
  • - Berlin Wall falls

Since 1990

• 1990 -Treaty on the Final Settlement With Respect to Germany
• 1990 - West Germany wins Football World Cup
• 1990 - German reunification
• 1991 - Berlin becomes the capital
• 1993 - Alliance '90/The Greens merge
• 1993 - Germany signs Maastricht Treaty leading to the creation of the European Union
• 1994 - Federal Constitutional Court says Bundeswehr can take part in UN peacekeeping outside NATO territory
• 1998 - SPD's Gerhard Schröder becomes Chancellor (1998 to 2005) in coalition with Greens
• 1999 - The NATO war in Yugoslavia is the first war the Bundeswehr actively takes part in
• 2000 Hanover hosts Expo 2000
• 2001 Women join Bundeswehr for the first time
• 2002 Euro notes and coins introduced and replace Deutsche Mark as currency
• 2005 - Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger (b. 1927) becomes Pope Benedict XVI
• 2005-2009 - A grand coalition in control; CDU's Angela Merkel as chancellor
• 2006 Germany hosts Fifa World Cup 2006.
• 2009–present 2009 elections; Merkel heads a centre-right government of the CDU/CSU and FDP.
• 2012 - Euro financial crisis

Notes

• Biesinger, Joseph A. Germany: a reference guide from the Renaissance to the present (2006)
• Bithell, Jethro, ed. Germany: A Companion to German Studies (5th ed. 1955), 578pp; essays on German literature, music, philosophy, art and, especially, history. online edition
• Buse, Dieter K. ed. Modern Germany: An Encyclopedia of History, People, and Culture 1871–1990 (2 vol 1998)
• Clark, Christopher. Iron Kingdom: The Rise and Downfall of Prussia, 1600–1947 (2006) excerpt and text search
• Craig, Goordon. Germany, 1866-1945(1978), 845pp online
• Detwiler, Donald S. Germany: A Short History (3rd ed. 1999) 341pp; online edition
• Fulbrook, Mary. A Concise History of Germany (2004)
• Holborn, Hajo. A History of Modern Germany (1959–64); vol 1: The Reformation; vol 2: 1648–1840; vol 3: 1840–1945
• Kirk, Tim. Cassell's Dictionary of Modern German History (2003) excerpt and text search
• Koch, H. W. History of Prussia (1987)
• Maehl, William Harvey. Germany in Western Civilization (1979), 833pp; focus on politics and diplomacy
• Raff, Diether. History of Germany from the Medieval Empire to the Present (1988) 507pp
• Reinhardt, Kurt F. Germany: 2000 Years (2 vols., 1961), stress on cultural topics
• Sagarra, Eda. A Social History of Germany 1648–1914 (1977, 2002 edition)
• Schulze, Hagen, and Deborah Lucas Schneider. Germany: A New History (2001)
• Scheck, Raffael. Germany, 1871-1945: A Concise History (2008), 264pp online
• Sheehan, James J. German History, 1770-1866 (Oxford History of Modern Europe) (1993) excerpt and text search
• Taylor, A.J.P. The Course of German History: A Survey of the Development of German History since 1815. (2001). 280pp; online edition; excerpt and twext search
• Watson, Peter. The German Genius (2010). 992 pp covers many thinkers, writers, scientists etc. since 1750