history of Germany

between world wars

• 
  In 20th-century international relations: Peacemaking, 1919–22

  …in the wake of the German, Habsburg, Russian, and Ottoman collapses. Revolution sputtered in Berlin and elsewhere, and civil war in Russia. Trench warfare had left large swaths of northern France, Belgium, and Poland in ruin. The war had cost millions of dead and wounded and more than $236,000,000,000 in…

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• 
  In 20th-century international relations: Poland and Soviet anxiety

  …of peace, declared war on Germany on September 3.

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• anti-Semitism
  • 
    In anti-Semitism: Nazi anti-Semitism and the Holocaust

    In Germany anti-Semitism became official government policy—taught in the schools, elaborated in “scientific” journals and research institutes, and promoted by a huge, highly effective organization for international propaganda. In 1941 the liquidation of European Jewry became official party policy. During World War II an estimated 5.7…

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  • 
    In Leo Baeck: Role as Jewish leader

    …the end of the 1,000-year-old German Jewish community.

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• deportation program
  • 
    In population: Forced migrations

    …by the Nazi government of Germany, which deported 7,000,000–8,000,000 persons, including some 5,000,000 Jews later exterminated in concentration camps. After World War II, 9,000,000–10,000,000 ethnic Germans were more or less forcibly transported into Germany, and perhaps 1,000,000 members of minority groups deemed politically unreliable by the Soviet government were forcibly…

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• fascism
  • 
    In fascism: Germany

    ” In 1949 Fritz Dorls and Otto Ernst Remer, a former army general who had helped to crush an attempted military coup against Hitler in July 1944, founded the Socialist Reich Party (Sozialistische Reichspartei; SRP), one of the earliest neofascist parties in Germany. Openly sympathetic…

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• forced labour
  • In forced labour

    …the totalitarian regimes of Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union (especially during the rule of Joseph Stalin), in which it was used on a vast scale. Under these regimes, persons either suspected of opposition or considered racially or nationally unfit were summarily arrested and placed under long or indefinite terms…

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• Great Depression
  • 
    In Great Depression: Timing and severity

    Germany’s economy slipped into a downturn early in 1928 and then stabilized before turning down again in the third quarter of 1929. The decline in German industrial production was roughly equal to that in the United States. A number of countries in Latin America fell…

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• Nazi party
  • 
    In Nazi Party

    …party came to power in Germany in 1933 and governed by totalitarian methods until 1945.

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  • 
    In history of Europe: The trappings of dictatorship

    Nazi Germany, in fact, was Europe’s most elaborately developed dictatorship. Characteristically, Hitler took great care with the design of its emblem, a black swastika in a white circle on a red background; as iconography, it has long survived its regime. The swastika, originally the obverse of…

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• Nazism
  • 
    In Nazism

    …of the Nazi Party in Germany. In its intense nationalism, mass appeal, and dictatorial rule, Nazism shared many elements with Italian fascism. However, Nazism was far more extreme both in its ideas and in its practice. In almost every respect it was an anti-intellectual and atheoretical movement, emphasizing the will…

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• propaganda program
  • 
    In Joseph Goebbels

    …the NSDAP for all of Germany. Goebbels began to create the Führer myth around the person of Hitler and to institute the ritual of party celebrations and demonstrations that played a decisive role in converting the masses to Nazism. In addition, he spread propaganda by continuing his rigorous schedule of…

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  • 
    In propaganda: Signs, symbols, and media used in contemporary propaganda

    …crushing military might of the German Volk; to some Asiatic and North American peoples it is a symbol of universal peace and happiness. Some Christians who find a cross reassuring may find a hammer and sickle displeasing and may derive no religious satisfaction at all from a Muslim crescent, a…

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• reparation payments
  • In Dawes Plan

    Germany’s payment of reparations after World War I. On the initiative of the British and U.S. governments, a committee of experts (with two members each from France, Belgium, Italy, Britain, and the United States), presided over by an American financier, Charles G. Dawes, produced a…

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• restoration policy
  • In Korfanty Line

    …Treaty of Versailles with defeated Germany, they provided for a plebiscite in Upper Silesia, which contained a large Polish population, to determine whether that territory should remain a part of Germany or be attached to Poland. The plebiscite was finally held on March 20, 1921, after the Poles in Upper…

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  • 
    In Gustav Stresemann: Years as foreign minister of Gustav Stresemann

    …Western powers, especially France, for Germany had already renewed ties with Russia through the Treaty of Rapallo in 1922. By meeting the reparation payments, for the reduction of which he fought as stubbornly as he did for removal of French troops from west of the Rhine, he hoped to gain…

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• Third International
  • In Third International

    In Germany in the early 1930s, the communists focused their attacks on the social democrats and even cooperated with the Nazis, whom they claimed to fear less, in destroying the Weimar Republic. World revolution was once more to be considered imminent, despite Stalin’s own concentration on…

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  • 
    In Soviet Union: The Communist International

    In Germany three revolutionary efforts undertaken with the help of local communists and sympathizers—in early 1919, in 1921, and again in 1923—failed, partly from the passivity of the workers, partly from effective countermeasures of the Weimar government. In Hungary a Bolshevik government under Béla Kun came…

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• Young Plan
  • In Young Plan

    …Plan, (1929), second renegotiation of Germany’s World War I reparation payments. A new committee, chaired by the American Owen D. Young, met in Paris on Feb. 11, 1929, to revise the Dawes Plan of 1924. Its report (June 7, 1929), accepted with minor changes, went into effect on Sept. 1,…

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colonialism

• African partition
  • In Western colonialism: Partition of Africa

    It was in Africa that Germany made its first major bid for membership in the club of colonial powers: between May 1884 and February 1885, Germany announced its claims to territory in South West Africa (now South West Africa/Namibia), Togoland, Cameroon, and part of the East African coast opposite Zanzibar.…

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• Cameroon
  • 
    In Cameroon: German Kamerun (1884–1916)

    …the coast, in 1884 the Germans claimed the region as Kamerun. The explorer Gustav Nachtigal arrived in July 1884 to annex the Douala coast. The Germans moved inland over the years, extending their control and their claims. Initially, their major dealings were with African traders, but direct trade with the…

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• China
  • In Shandong question

    …from the weakened Qing dynasty, Germany obtained the use of Jiaozhou Bay, on the southern coast of the Shandong Peninsula, and the right to construct a naval base at Qingdao there. After World War I began, Japan joined the Allies and took over German interests in the peninsula. At the…

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  • 
    In Qingdao

    In 1897 the German government, which had ambitions in this area, dispatched a force to occupy Qingdao; the next year it forced the Chinese government to pay an indemnity and to grant Germany a 99-year lease on Jiaozhou Bay and the surrounding territory, together with railway and mining…

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  • 
    In Shandong: History of Shandong

    In 1897 Germany landed troops, and in 1898 a treaty was signed by which China ceded to Germany, for 99 years, two entries to Jiaozhou Bay and the islands in the bay and granted the right to construct a naval base and port, Qingdao. Germany used Qingdao…

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• East Africa
  • 
    In Kenya: The British East Africa Company

    As Germany, Britain, and France were carving up East Africa in the mid-1880s, they recognized the authority of the sultan of Zanzibar over a coastal strip 10 miles (16 km) wide between the Tana (in Kenya) and Ruvuma (in Tanzania) rivers. The hinterland, however, was divided…

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  • 
    In Kenya: World War I and its aftermath

    Germany had hoped that no battles with Britain would be fought on African soil during World War I, but Britain was concerned with its communications with India and with the safety of the Ugandan railway. Britain initiated hostilities, to which Germany responded, with Britain ultimately…

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  • 
    In Tanzania: German East Africa

    It was left to Germany, with its newly awakened interest in colonial expansion, to open up the country to European influences. The first agent of German imperialism was Carl Peters, who, with Count Joachim von Pfeil and Karl Juhlke, evaded the sultan of Zanzibar late in 1884 to land…

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• German East Africa
  • 
    In German East Africa

    …Deutsch-Ostafrika, former dependency of imperial Germany, corresponding to present-day Rwanda and Burundi, the continental portion of Tanzania, and a small section of Mozambique. Penetration of the area was begun in 1884 by German commercial agents, and German claims were recognized by

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  • 
    In eastern Africa: Partition by Germany and Britain

    …tide of diplomatic hostility between Germany and Britain in Europe, secured the grant of an imperial charter for his German East Africa Company. With this the European scramble for Africa began. In east-central Africa the key occurrence was the Anglo-German Agreement of 1886, by which the two parties agreed that…

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• German–Herero conflict of 1904–1907
  • 
    In German-Herero conflict of 1904–07: Background

    …Namibia) were formally colonized by Germany between 1884–90. The semiarid territory was more than twice as large as Germany, yet it had only a fraction of the population—approximately 250,000 people. In contrast to Germany’s other African possessions, it offered little promise for large-scale mineral or agricultural extractions. Instead, South West…

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• maintenance of sphere of influence
  • 
    In sphere of influence

    …agreement between Great Britain and Germany in May 1885, the first to make use of the term, provided for “a separation and definition of their respective spheres of influence in the territories on the Gulf of Guinea.” This agreement was followed by many of a similar nature, of which article…

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• mandated territories
  • 
    In mandate

    …nation to govern a former German or Turkish colony. The territory was called a mandated territory, or mandate.

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• Marshall Islands
  • In Jaluit Atoll

    …also the site (1885) of Germany’s formal declaration of a protectorate over the islands. Chosen as an administrative centre by Germany, it continued as such under the Japanese. Heavily fortified by the Japanese, Jaluit was devastated by U.S. bombing in World War II. Copra is exported and fishing is important.…

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  • 
    In Marshall Islands: History of the Marshall Islands

    Germany established a coaling station on Jaluit Atoll by treaty with island chiefs and in 1886, by agreement with Great Britain, established a protectorate over the Marshalls. Japan seized the islands in 1914 and later (after 1919) administered them as a League of Nations mandate.…

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• Nauru
  • 
    In Nauru: History of Nauru

    …own interests on the island, Germany incorporated Nauru into its Marshall Islands protectorate in late 1888. The German administration and the arrival of the missionaries shortly thereafter brought an end to armed hostilities. In 1906 the Pacific Phosphate Company, a British concern, negotiated an agreement with the German administration to…

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• New Guinea
  • 
    In Papua New Guinea: The colonial period

    …New Guinea, administered by the German imperial government after 1899, that most early economic activity took place. Plantations were widely established in the New Guinea islands and around Madang, and labourers were transported from the Sepik River region, the Markham valley, and Buka Island.

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• Northern Mariana Islands
  • 
    In Northern Mariana Islands: Spanish colonial rule

    German and British soldiers and settlers began to encroach on Spanish claims in Micronesia, and difficulties were averted in 1886 by the mediation of Pope Leo XIII, whose efforts in this regard prevented war between Germany and Spain. But Spain’s empire was weakening, and by…

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• Pacific Islands
  • In Bismarck Archipelago

    Annexed by Germany in 1884, the archipelago was named for the German statesman Otto von Bismarck. The Germans developed copra plantations, but nonnative diseases carried by the Europeans killed many people on the islands. The archipelago was occupied by Australia in 1914 and made a mandated territory…

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  • 
    In Pacific Islands: Foreign intervention and control

    …of the colonial party in German politics. The British government appointed consuls to some islands, but their powers to maintain order were limited and, except for the visits of warships, unenforceable. The United States also appointed consuls.

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• Papua New Guinea
  • In flag of Papua New Guinea

    …Guinea were administered by the Germans, British, and Australians. The colonial governments had no official symbols of local relevance, although a proposed coat of arms for German New Guinea—never adopted because of Germany’s involvement in World War I—featured a bird-of-paradise. In 1962 a local flag also incorporated a bird-of-paradise. That…

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• Portuguese-African conflict
  • In Quionga

    In 1886 Germany and Portugal had agreed on the Rovuma as the boundary between then German East Africa (now Tanzania) and Portuguese Mozambique, but the Germans later claimed (1892) that Portugal had no rights north of Cabo Delgado, approximately 20 miles (32 km) south of the Rovuma’s…

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  • 
    In Portugal: The First Republic, 1910–26

    …itself to military operations against Germany. On September 11 the first expedition left to reinforce the African colonies, and there was fighting in northern Mozambique, on the Tanganyika (now Tanzania) frontier, and in southern Angola, on the frontier of German South West Africa. In February 1916, in compliance with a…

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• Rwanda
  • 
    In Rwanda genocide of 1994: Background

    During the colonial era, Germany and later Belgium assumed that ethnicity could be clearly distinguished by physical characteristics and then used the ethnic differences found in their own countries as models to create a system whereby the categories of Hutu and Tutsi were no longer fluid. The German colonial…

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• Solomon Islands
  • 
    In Solomon Islands: Establishment of colonial rule

    To protect their own interests, Germany and Britain divided the Solomons between them in 1886, but in 1899 Germany transferred the northern islands, except for Buka and Bougainville, to Britain (which had already claimed the southern islands) in return for recognition of German claims in Western Samoa (now Samoa) and…

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• South West Africa
  • 
    In Southern Africa: Germans in South West Africa

    The Germans were the last imperial power to arrive in Africa. Their annexation and control of South West Africa was eased by the intense cleavages that had opened up between the local Nama and the Herero chiefdoms, a result of…

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  • 
    In Namibia: The German conquest

    …way was left open to German colonial annexation as South West Africa in the 1880s. The acquisitions, by exceedingly dubious “treaties” and more naked theft, did not go smoothly, despite the employment of so-called “divide and rule” tactics within and between peoples. The first major resistance—by the Herero in 1885—forced…

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  • 
    In South Africa: The road to war

    Germany annexed South West Africa in 1884. The Transvaal claimed territory to its west; Britain countered by designating the territory the Bechuanaland protectorate and then annexed it as the crown colony of British Bechuanaland. Rhodes secured concessionary rights to land north of the Limpopo River,…

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• Sperrgebiet
  • In Sperrgebiet

    …of Lüderitz led to the German colonial government’s closing of the area to unauthorized persons later in the same year. In 1920 the assorted German-owned mining companies of the northern Sperrgebiet (the Lüderitz area) sold their interests to Consolidated Diamond Mines of South West Africa, Ltd. (a subsidiary of the…

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• Steiermark
  • 
    In Steiermark

    …century it was overrun by Germanic tribes, followed by the Avars and their Slav subjects (Slovenes). Subjected by the Bavarians in the 8th century, the country became a mark, or frontier territory, of the Frankish Empire. Further German colonization led to Germanization by c. 1300, except in the southern countryside.…

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• Togo
  • 
    In Togo: German occupation

    German missionaries arrived in Ewe territory in 1847, and German traders were soon established at Anécho. In 1884 Gustav Nachtigal, sent by the German government, induced a number of coastal chiefs to accept German protection. The protectorate was recognized in 1885, and its…

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• Togoland
  • In Togoland

    …von Bismarck claimed it for Germany and other European powers formally recognized the claim. The Germans intended to make Togoland a model colony. Because the region lacked mineral resources (its phosphate reserves were not then known), Germany concentrated on agricultural development. Valuable oil palms grew naturally near the coast. The…

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• western Africa
  • 
    In western Africa: Effect of local conditions

    …appearance in 1884 of the German flag on the Togoland coast, between the Gold Coast and Dahomey, and in the Cameroons—was to intensify and to accelerate existing French and British tendencies to exert their political and military authority at the expense of traditional African rulers.

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• Western Samoa
  • 
    In Samoa: European influence

    …States annexed eastern Samoa, whereas Germany annexed the western part of the islands—Western Samoa. The division was carried out without consulting the Samoan people, and many of them resented it deeply.

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• Zanzibar
  • In Zanzibar Treaty

    …arrangement between Great Britain and Germany that defined their respective spheres of influence in eastern Africa and established German control of Helgoland, a North Sea island held by the British since 1814. The treaty was symptomatic of Germany’s desire for a rapprochement with Great Britain after the abandonment of a…

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conflicts

• Baltic War of Liberation
  • In Baltic War of Liberation

    …from both Soviet Russia and Germany. Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania had been part of the Russian Empire since the end of the 18th century, but after the Russian Revolution of 1917 they became independent states. After World War I ended, however, Soviet Russia, hoping to advance through the Baltic states…

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• Battle of Dresden
  • In Battle of Dresden

    …Napoleon’s last major victory in Germany. It was fought on the outskirts of the Saxon capital of Dresden, between Napoleon’s 120,000 troops and 170,000 Austrians, Prussians, and Russians under Prince Karl Philipp Schwarzenberg.

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• Battle of Sedan
  • 
    In Battle of Sedan

    …Mac-Mahon and more than 200,000 German troops under General Helmuth von Moltke.

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• Franco-German War
  • 
    In Franco-German War

    …in which a coalition of German states led by Prussia defeated France. The war marked the end of French hegemony in continental Europe and resulted in the creation of a unified Germany.

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• Italian wars
  • 
    In history of Europe: Political, economic, and social background

    …France and the Habsburgs of Germany fought each other, with the Italian states as their reluctant pawns. For the next 60 years the dream of Italian conquest was pursued by every French king, none of them having learned anything from Charles VIII’s misadventure except that the road southward was open…

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• Peasants’ War
  • In Peasants’ War

    …War, (1524–25) peasant uprising in Germany. Inspired by changes brought by the Reformation, peasants in western and southern Germany invoked divine law to demand agrarian rights and freedom from oppression by nobles and landlords. As the uprising spread, some peasant groups organized armies. Although the revolt was supported by Huldrych…

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• Schleswig-Holstein conflict
  • 
    In Schleswig-Holstein: History

    …had Danish minorities in predominantly German areas and German minorities surrounded by Danes, and consequently its history has been one of border and sovereignty disputes and, more recently, accommodations.

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  • 
    In Otto von Bismarck: Prime minister

    …between the Danes and the German population of the duchies of Schleswig and Holstein. (Both duchies were in union with Denmark; Schleswig, however, had a large German population, and Holstein was a member of the German Confederation.) When the Danish king acted rashly, Bismarck made sure that it was Prussia…

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• Seven Weeks’ War
  • 
    In Seven Weeks’ War

    …the exclusion of Austria from Germany. The issue was decided in Bohemia, where the principal Prussian armies met the main Austrian forces and the Saxon army, most decisively at the Battle of Königgrätz. A Prussian detachment, known as the army of the Main, meanwhile dealt with the forces of Bavaria…

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• Thirty Years’ War
  • 
    In Thirty Years’ War

    …to gain valuable territory in Germany to balance his earlier loss of Baltic provinces to Sweden. Christian’s defeat and the Peace of Lübeck in 1629 finished Denmark as a European power, but Sweden’s Gustav II Adolf, having ended a four-year war with Poland, invaded Germany and won many German princes…

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  • 
    In history of Europe: The crisis in Germany

    The war originated with dual crises at the continent’s centre: one in the Rhineland and the other in Bohemia, both part of the Holy Roman Empire.

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  • 
    In history of Europe: War

    Northwestern Germany, for example, was little affected; some cities, such as Hamburg, actually flourished, while others, such as Leipzig and Nürnberg, quickly responded to commercial demand. The preindustrial economy proved to be as resilient as it was vulnerable. Yet the German population did not rise to…

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• Wars of Religion
  • 
    In history of Europe: The Wars of Religion

    Germany, France, and the Netherlands each achieved a settlement of the religious problem by means of war, and in each case the solution contained original aspects. In Germany the territorial formula of cuius regio, eius religio applied—that is, in each petty state the population had…

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diplomacy

• Algeciras Conference
  • In Algeciras Conference

    …police “reforms” brought the indignant German emperor William II to Tangier in March 1905. William challenged French intentions by affirming the sovereignty of the Sultan and demanding the retention of the “open door” for commerce.

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• Anti-Comintern Pact
  • In Anti-Comintern Pact

    …Pact, agreement concluded first between Germany and Japan (Nov. 25, 1936) and then between Italy, Germany, and Japan (Nov. 6, 1937), ostensibly directed against the Communist International (Comintern) but, by implication, specifically against the Soviet Union.

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• Berlin Congress
  • 
    In Congress of Berlin

    Dominated by the German chancellor Otto von Bismarck, the congress solved an international crisis caused by the San Stefano treaty by revising the peace settlement to satisfy the interests of Great Britain (by denying Russia the means to extend its naval power and by maintaining the Ottoman Empire…

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• Berlin West Africa Conference
  • In Berlin West Africa Conference

    …which Great Britain, France, and Germany had already agreed in principle.

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• Brest-Litovsk treaties
  • 
    In treaties of Brest-Litovsk

    …issue propaganda statements, while the Germans grew increasingly impatient.

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  • 
    In Kyiv: The revolutionary period

    German troops promptly occupied the country and set up a puppet Ukrainian government in Kyiv, but it collapsed with the German surrender to the Allies in November 1918 and the subsequent withdrawal of German troops. Once more an independent Ukraine was declared in Kyiv, under…

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  • 
    In Soviet Union: Brest-Litovsk of Soviet Union

    The Germans and Austrians promptly agreed to the proposal. In negotiations held at Brest-Litovsk, an armistice was arranged (December 1917). This was to be followed by a peace treaty. The Germans, however, posed extremely harsh conditions, causing a split in the Bolshevik high command: Lenin favoured…

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• Dreikaiserbund
  • In Dreikaiserbund

    …of the 19th century of Germany, Austria-Hungary, and Russia, devised by German chancellor Otto von Bismarck. It aimed at neutralizing the rivalry between Germany’s two neighbours by an agreement over their respective spheres of influence in the Balkans and at isolating Germany’s enemy, France.

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• Dual Alliance
  • In Dual Alliance

    Germany, assuming that ideological differences and lack of common interest would keep republican France and tsarist Russia apart, allowed its Reinsurance Treaty (q.v.) with Russia to lapse in 1890. In the event of war, France wanted support against Germany; and Russia, against Austria-Hungary. The two…

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• German-Soviet Nonaggression Pact
  • 
    In German-Soviet Nonaggression Pact

    …23, 1939), nonaggression pact between Germany and the Soviet Union that was concluded only a few days before the beginning of World War II and which divided eastern Europe into German and Soviet spheres of influence.

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• Lausanne Conference
  • In Lausanne Conference

    …the payment of reparations by Germany to the former Allied and Associated powers of World War I. Attended by representatives of the creditor powers (Great Britain, France, Belgium, and Italy) and of Germany, the conference resulted in agreement on July 9, 1932, that the conditions of world economic crisis made…

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• Locarno, Pact of
  • 
    In Pact of Locarno

    …1925), series of agreements whereby Germany, France, Belgium, Great Britain, and Italy mutually guaranteed peace in western Europe. The treaties were initialed at Locarno, Switz., on October 16 and signed in London on December 1.

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• Munich Agreement
  • 
    In Munich Agreement

    …30, 1938), settlement reached by Germany, Great Britain, France, and Italy that permitted German annexation of the Sudetenland, in western Czechoslovakia.

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• Rapallo, Treaty of
  • In Treaty of Rapallo

    …(April 16, 1922) treaty between Germany and the Soviet Union, signed at Rapallo, Italy. Negotiated by Germany’s Walther Rathenau and the Soviet Union’s Georgy V. Chicherin, it reestablished normal relations between the two nations. The nations agreed to cancel all financial claims against each other, and the treaty strengthened their…

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• Reinsurance Treaty
  • In Reinsurance Treaty

    …1887), a secret agreement between Germany and Russia arranged by the German chancellor Otto von Bismarck after the German-Austrian-Russian Dreikaiserbund, or Three Emperors’ League, collapsed in 1887 because of competition between Austria-Hungary and Russia for spheres of influence in the Balkans. The treaty provided that each party would remain

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• Triple Alliance
  • In Triple Alliance

    >Germany, Austria-Hungary, and Italy formed in May 1882 and renewed periodically until World War I. Germany and Austria-Hungary had been closely allied since 1879. Italy sought their support against France shortly after losing North African ambitions to the French. The

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• Versailles Treaty
  • 
    In Treaty of Versailles

    … and associated powers and by Germany in the Hall of Mirrors in the Palace of Versailles, France, on June 28, 1919; it took force on January 10, 1920.

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  • 
    In history of Europe: The mood of Versailles

    …impose harsh terms, especially on Germany. French military circles sought not only to recover Alsace and Lorraine and to occupy the Saar but also to detach the Rhineland from Germany. Members of the British Parliament lobbied to increase the reparations Germany was to pay, despite the objections of several farsighted…

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• Vienna Congress
  • 
    In Congress of Vienna: Decisions of the congress

    …confederation, was drawn up for Germany—a triumph for Metternich. Denmark lost Norway to Sweden but got Lauenburg, while Swedish Pomerania went to Prussia. Switzerland was given a new constitution.

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• Westphalia Peace
  • 
    In Peace of Westphalia

    … and the Dutch and the German phase of the Thirty Years’ War. The peace was negotiated, from 1644, in the Westphalian towns of Münster and Osnabrück. The Spanish-Dutch treaty was signed on January 30, 1648. The treaty of October 24, 1648, comprehended the Holy Roman emperor Ferdinand III, the other…

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effect of Lutheranism

• 
  In history of Europe: Reformation and Counter-Reformation

  …a wave of enthusiasm throughout Germany. The reformer was by instinct a social conservative and supported existing secular authority against the upthrust of the lower orders. Although the Diet of Worms accepted the excommunication in 1521, Luther found protection among the princes. In 1529 the rulers of electoral Saxony, Brandenburg,…

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• Melanchthon and education reform
  • 
    In Philipp Melanchthon: Luther and the Reformation

    …plan was widely copied throughout Germany, and at least 56 cities asked his advice in founding schools. Through his lectures and textbooks, and the teachers he trained, Melanchthon exercised great influence in Protestant Germany. He helped found the universities of Königsberg, Jena, and Marburg and reformed those of Greifswald, Wittenberg,…

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foreign relations

• Austria
  • 
    In Austria: Revolution and counterrevolution, 1848–59

    The Germans themselves also experienced a certain degree of national fervour, but in their case it was part of a general German yearning for national unification. Responding to calls for a meeting of national unity, in May 1848 delegates from all the German states met at…

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  • 
    In Austria: Allied occupation

    …pay reparations but assigned the German foreign assets of eastern Austria to the U.S.S.R.), control machinery was set up for the administration of Austria, giving supreme political and administrative powers to the military commanders of the four occupying armies (U.S., British, French, and Soviet). In September 1945 a conference of…

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  • 
    In Austria: International relations: the Balkan orientation

    …sought the friendship of the German Empire in order to strengthen his position in a possible confrontation with Russia over problems in the Balkans. The Dreikaiserbund (Three Emperors’ League) of 1873, by which Franz Joseph and the German and Russian emperors agreed to work together for peace, gave expression to…

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  • 
    In Austria: Authoritarianism: Dollfuss and Schuschnigg

    …Hitler was in power in Germany, and Nazi propaganda for the incorporation of Austria was greatly increased. Dollfuss turned to fascist Italy and authoritarian Hungary for help, as he was convinced that British and French aid would be ineffective. This shift in foreign policy also can be attributed to the…

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• Austria-Hungary
  • 
    In Austria: Foreign policy, 1878–1908

    …in 1879 Austria-Hungary and the German Empire had joined in the Dual Alliance, by which the two sovereigns promised each other support in the case of Russian aggression. The signing of the Dual Alliance was Andrássy’s last act as foreign minister, but the alliance survived as the main element in…

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  • 
    In Austria: Conflict with Serbia

    In the meantime, the German government had taken control of the situation. Placing German strategic and national plans over Austro-Hungarian interests, Germany changed the Balkan conflict into a continental war by declaring war against Russia and France. (See World War I.)

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• Baltic states
  • 
    In Baltic states: The conquest of Estonia and Latvia

    …intruders had been joined by Germans, who between 1198 and 1290 overran the remainder of what is now Estonia and Latvia. The Liv territories had succumbed by 1207. Most of Latgalia suffered the same fate a year later. Estonia was conquered by 1227 and Courland by 1263. The Semigallians held…

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  • 
    In Baltic states: German occupation

    The Germans held out in western Lithuania until early 1945 and in Courland until the capitulation of May 8, 1945.

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  • 
    In Estonia: German conquest

    Meinhard, a monk from Holstein, landed in 1180 on what is now the Latvian coast and for 16 years preached Christianity to the Livs, a Finno-Ugric tribe. His successor, Berthold of Hanover, appointed bishop of Livonia, decided that the sword had to be…

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  • 
    In Latvia: German rule

    During the time of the Crusades, German—or, more precisely, Saxon—overseas expansion reached the eastern shores of the Baltic. Because the people occupying the coast of Latvia were the Livs, the German invaders called the country Livland, a name rendered in Latin as Livonia.…

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• Belgium
  • 
    In Belgium: Nazi occupation

    On May 10, 1940, Germany invaded Belgium, Luxembourg, and the Netherlands. The Netherlands capitulated after 6 days, Belgium after 18. France, which along with Britain had sent troops to Belgium, had to lay down arms three weeks later. The British troops, covered by the Belgian army, retreated from Dunkirk,…

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• Brussels
  • 
    In Brussels: The 20th century

    The German occupation of Belgium during World War I lasted from August 1914 to November 1918. Numerous social relief movements were instituted; among them, the National Committee for Relief and Food had its headquarters in Brussels and, with U.S. aid, organized the feeding of the Belgian…

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• Bulgaria
  • 
    In Bulgaria: World War II

    …was especially the case after Germany and the Soviet Union, then allied by the German-Soviet Nonaggression Pact, forced Romania to restore the southern Dobruja to Bulgaria in August 1940.

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• Czechoslovakia
  • 
    In Czechoslovak history: The establishment of the republic

    Ultimately, it was Germany that most strongly influenced the course of Czechoslovak foreign affairs. One of Beneš’s highest priorities was to prevent the union of Austria and Germany. Nevertheless, the relations between Czechoslovakia and Germany improved slightly after the Locarno Pact of 1925.

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  • 
    In Czechoslovak history: World War II

    …5 an uprising against the German troops concentrated in central Bohemia started in Prague. Appeals for Allied help were largely ignored. Troops under U.S. Gen. George S. Patton reached Plzeň (Pilsen) but, complying with instructions from Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower, did not advance to Prague. Finally, on May 9, Soviet…

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• Denmark
  • 
    In Denmark: Parliamentary democracy and war, c. 1900–45

    …became increasingly important to define Germany’s intended attitude toward Denmark in the event of a European conflict. The Germans were well aware that the Schleswig affair had left a good many Danes with a loathing for everything German, and the constant friction between the Danish minority and the German administration…

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• Finland
  • 
    In Finland: Competition for trade and converts

    …Gulf of Finland had intensified: German traders had regular contacts with Novgorod via Gotland, and Denmark tried to establish bases on the gulf. The Danes reportedly invaded Finland in 1191 and again in 1202; in 1209 the pope authorized the archbishop of Lund to appoint a minister stationed in Finland.…

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• Greece
  • 
    In Greece: The Metaxas regime and World War II

    …was anxious to avoid provoking German intervention in the conflict. However, his successor agreed to accept a British expeditionary force as it became apparent that Hitler’s aggressive designs extended to the Balkans. The combined Greek and British forces, however, were able to offer only limited resistance when the Germans crossed…

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• Hungary
  • 
    In Hungary: Financial crisis: the rise of right radicalism

    Hungary, Italy, and Germany, since his two proposed partners were then at loggerheads over Austria. Gömbös, one of whose first acts had been to dash to Rome and breathe new life into Hungary’s friendship with Italy, now found himself drawn into the “Rome Triangle” (Italy, Austria, and Hungary)…

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• Italy
  • 
    In Italy: Politics and the political system, 1870–87

    …joined the Triple Alliance with Germany and Austria-Hungary. This was essentially a defensive alliance guaranteeing German and Austrian support against any attack by France, Italy’s main rival in the Mediterranean. Meanwhile, Italy embarked on its first real colonial ventures, the takeover of the Red Sea ports of Asseb and Massawa…

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  • 
    In Italy: Foreign policy

    …into Hitler’s orbit, hoping that German backing would frighten the British and French into granting further concessions to Italy. However, the policy failed to bring further territorial gains in Africa. Furthermore, Italy became the junior partner in the “Rome-Berlin Axis,” and in 1938 Mussolini had to accept Hitler’s annexation of…

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• Japan
  • 
    In Japan: The Sino-Japanese War

    Russia, and Germany were not willing to endorse Japanese gains and forced the return of the Liaotung Peninsula to China. Insult was added to injury when Russia leased the same territory with its important naval base, Port Arthur (now Lü-shun), from China in 1898. The war thus…

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  • 
    In Japan: Foreign relations

    …signed the Anti-Comintern Pact with Germany and later with Italy. This was replaced by the Tripartite Pact in September 1940, which recognized Japan as the leader of a new order in Asia; Japan, Germany, and Italy agreed to assist each other if they were attacked by any additional power not…

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• Lithuania
  • 
    In Lithuania: Independence

    …1915 Lithuania had come under German military occupation. The goal of the German administration was to create a Lithuanian state that would be a satellite of Germany after the final peace treaty. It authorized a gathering in Vilnius, on Sept. 18–22, 1917, of a congress of 214 Lithuanian delegates. The…

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• Moroccan crises
  • In Moroccan crises

    …to control Morocco and on Germany’s concurrent attempts to stem French power.

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• Netherlands
  • 
    In Netherlands: World War II

    Nonetheless, when Nazi Germany undertook the campaign against France in the spring of 1940, its forces struck not only against Belgium in order to outflank the French defenses but also against the Netherlands. The Dutch land armies were overwhelmed in less than a week, and the government, accompanied…

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• Norway
  • 
    In Norway: World War I

    …off exports of fish to Germany and, at the same time, forbade exports of iron pyrites and copper, which were important commodities for the German war industry. Because of the many casualties caused by German submarine warfare, public feeling in Norway became strongly anti-German. The government, however, under the leadership…

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• Ottoman Empire and Turkey
  • 
    In Ottoman Empire: World War I, 1914–18

    …was strong but not decisive; Germany’s trade with the Ottomans still lagged behind that of Britain, France, and Austria, and its investments—which included the Baghdad Railway between Istanbul and the Persian Gulf—were smaller than those of France. A mission to Turkey led by the German military

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  • 
    In Turkey: World War II and the postwar era, 1938–50

    …support for an alliance with Germany, which seemed to offer prospects of realizing old Pan-Turkish aims. Although a nonaggression pact was signed with Germany (June 18, 1941), Turkey clung to neutrality until the defeat of the Axis powers became inevitable; it entered the war on the Allied side on February…

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• Poland
  • 
    In Poland: The early state

    …pillars of medieval Christendom, the Germanic Holy Roman Empire and the papacy, Mieszko battled the expansive tendencies of the former—a record that dates from 963 refers to a struggle with the German dukes—while he sought reliance on Rome, to which he subordinated his state in a curious document, the Dagome…

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  • 
    In Poland: Accommodation with the ruling governments

    German Chancellor Otto von Bismarck’s anti-Polish policies culminated in the Kulturkampf, designed to strengthen the cohesion of the newly created German Empire. In addition, policies of cultural and linguistic Germanization and German settlement in the provinces continuously threatened the Polish and Roman Catholic character of…

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  • 
    In Poland: The Second Republic

    …between an inimical and revisionist Germany (which constantly denounced the “corridor” separating it from East Prussia) and the Soviet Union was dangerous from the start. The tasks of Polish diplomacy during the interwar period were exceedingly difficult. The only option was to remain neutral in regard to its two giant…

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• Polish Corridor
  • In Polish Corridor

    …Versailles (1919) transferred from defeated Germany to Poland. Perhaps no provision of the treaty caused so much animosity and resentment among Germans than this arrangement, for the corridor ran between Pomerania and East Prussia and separated the latter province from the main body of the German Reich to the west.…

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• pre-World War I Europe
  • 
    In history of Europe: Prewar diplomacy

    Germany had begun construction of a large navy, for example, in the late 1890s, in part to assure its place as an imperialist power; but this development, along with Germany’s rapid industrial surge, threatened Britain. France ran a massive empire, but its nationalistic yearnings were…

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• Prussia
  • 
    In Frederick II

    …in the history of modern Germany. Under his leadership Prussia became one of the great states of Europe. Its territories were greatly increased and its military strength displayed to striking effect. From early in his reign Frederick achieved a high reputation as a military commander, and the Prussian army rapidly…

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  • 
    In Frederick II: Significance of Frederick’s reign

    …deeply influenced the course of German history. In the struggles of the 1740s and ’50s he weakened still further the tottering structure of the Holy Roman Empire. The bitter Austro-Prussian rivalry that he began was to be a dominant political force in Germany and central Europe for well over a…

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• Romania
  • 
    In Romania: Independence

    The primary attraction was Germany, whose military and economic power they admired and hoped to use as protection against Russia. But the majority of Romanians were sympathetic to France, and for this reason the treaty was kept secret. Also, Romania’s adherence to the Triple Alliance was under constant strain…

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• Russia
  • 
    In Russia: Peter’s youth and early reign

    …national and political minority: the German elites—urban bourgeoisie and landowning nobility—with their corporate privileges, harsh exploitation of native (Estonian and Latvian) servile peasantry, and Western culture and administrative practices. Eventually these elites made significant contributions to the imperial administration (military and civil) and helped bring German education, science, and culture…

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  • 
    In Russia: Foreign policy

    The friendship with Germany and Austria weakened, and in the 1890s the Triple Alliance of Germany, Austria-Hungary, and Italy stood face to face with a Dual Alliance of France and Russia.

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  • 
    In Russia: War and the fall of the monarchy

    The German and Turkish blockade choked off most imports. The food supply was affected by the call-up of numerous peasants and by the diversion of transport to other needs. The strain of financing the war generated accelerating inflation, with which the pay of ordinary workers failed…

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  • 
    In Russia: The Stalin era (1928–53)

    The German invasion in June 1941 resulted in much of Ukraine being overrun. Many Ukrainians welcomed the Wehrmacht (German armed forces). Stalin was already displeased with the Ukrainians, and this reinforced his feelings. (In his victory toast after the war, he drank to the Russian triumph…

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• Spain
  • 
    In Francisco Franco: Franco’s military rebellion

    …military assistance from Adolf Hitler’s Germany and Benito Mussolini’s Italy, Franco was the obvious choice. In part because he was not a typical Spanish “political general,” Franco became head of state of the new Nationalist regime on October 1, 1936. The rebel government did not, however, gain complete control of…

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  • 
    In Spanish Civil War

    …from Fascist Italy and Nazi Germany. The Republicans received aid from the Soviet Union as well as from the International Brigades, composed of volunteers from Europe and the United States.

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  • 
    In Spain: The Civil War

    …appealed immediately to Hitler in Germany and to Benito Mussolini in Italy, both of whom supplied aircraft early in the war. In return for mineral concessions, the Germans supplied the Condor Legion (100 combat planes), and the Italians sent some 70,000 ground troops; both supplied tanks and artillery. This support…

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• Sweden
  • 
    In Sweden: The reign of Gustav II Adolf

    …Swedish army landed in northern Germany, joining in the Thirty Years’ War. In 1631 Sweden concluded its treaty with France, and, at Breitenfeld in that same year, the Swedish army practically annihilated the imperial forces under the famous Bavarian general the Count von Tilly

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  • 
    In Sweden: Neutrality and friendship with Germany

    …the same time, connections with Germany became much closer, and from the mid-1870s Swedish politics were influenced by a close friendship with Germany, which was emphasized during the last years of the 19th century by the growing fear of Russia.

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  • 
    In Sweden: Foreign policy (1918–45)

    Hitler’s rise to power in Germany resulted in a reexamination of Sweden’s defense policy, which in 1936 was amended to strengthen the country’s defenses. Sweden followed a strictly neutral course, in close collaboration with the other Scandinavian countries and the Netherlands, Belgium, and Switzerland. As a consequence, Hitler’s proposal in…

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• Ukraine
  • 
    In Ukraine: World War I and the struggle for independence

    A German-Austrian offensive dislodged the Bolsheviks from Kyiv in early March, and the Rada government returned to the capital. In April the Red Army retreated from Ukraine.

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  • 
    In Ukraine: Western Ukraine under Soviet and Nazi rule

    …Polonized area was permitted under German oversight, but political activities were banned, except for the OUN. The OUN itself was rent by factional strife between the followers of Andry Melnyk, who headed the organization from abroad after the assassination of Konovalets by a Soviet agent in 1938, and the younger…

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• United Kingdom
  • 
    In United Kingdom: World War I

    …British declaration of war on Germany on August 4, 1914, brought an end to the threat of civil war in Ireland, which since March had occupied Prime Minister H.H. Asquith’s Liberal cabinet almost to the exclusion of everything else. Formally at least, party warfare came to an end. The Conservatives…

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  • 
    In United Kingdom: Foreign policy and appeasement

    …a policy of accommodation with Germany and Italy. But Chamberlain was also the man who began British rearmament, pronounced appeasement a failure, and declared war upon Germany. Baldwin was equally zealous to avoid any sort of confrontation with the European dictators while doing as little as possible to strengthen Britain’s…

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• U.S.S.R.
  • 
    In Soviet Union: Foreign policy

    …particular attention to relations with Germany, which it saw as the key to a European revolution. Aware of Germany’s bitterness over the Treaty of Versailles, Moscow, both directly and through the German Communist Party, identified itself with nationalist forces and incited hostility against France and Britain. A by-product of this…

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  • 
    In Soviet Union: Foreign policy, 1928–40

    >Germany had been facilitated by Moscow’s refusal to let the German Communist Party cooperate against him with the Social Democrats and others. In fact, Nazi rule was at first interpreted as a victory for the communists, in that capitalism had been driven to its last…

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interaction with

• Churchill
  • 
    In Winston Churchill: As Liberal minister

    In 1911 the provocative German action in sending a gunboat to Agadir, the Moroccan port to which France had claims, convinced Churchill that in any major Franco-German conflict Britain would have to be at France’s side. When transferred to the Admiralty in October 1911, he went to work with…

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• Clemenceau
  • 
    In Georges Clemenceau: Negotiation of the Peace

    …armistice signed by the defeated Germans on November 11, 1918, proved him right and brought him, the last survivor of those who had protested at Bordeaux in 1871 against the harsh terms imposed on France, the satisfaction of seeing Alsace-Lorraine returned to France. Clemenceau found that building the peace was…

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• Daladier
  • 
    In Édouard Daladier

    …an agreement that enabled Nazi Germany to take possession of the Sudetenland (a region of Czechoslovakia) without fear of opposition from either Britain or France.

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• Enver Paşa
  • 
    In Enver Paşa

    …of a defensive alliance with Germany against Russia. When the Ottoman Empire entered World War I on the side of the Central Powers (November 1914), Enver cooperated closely with German officers serving in the Ottoman army. His military plans included Pan-Turkic (or Pan-Turanian) schemes for uniting the Turkic peoples of…

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• Henry II
  • 
    In Henry II: Reign

    …gave him political influence in Germany, Castile, and Sicily. His continental dominions brought him into contact with Louis VII of France, the German emperor Frederick I (Barbarossa), and, for much of the reign, Pope Alexander III. With Louis the relationship was ambiguous. Henry had taken Louis’s former wife and her…

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• Imrédy
  • In Béla Imrédy

    …collaboration with the Nazis during World War II led to his execution as a war criminal.

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• Kállay
  • In Miklós Kállay

    …a dangerous dependence on Nazi Germany. Under the Kállay government (March 9, 1942–March 19, 1944), Jews enjoyed a degree of protection almost unparalleled on the European continent, and the press and the parties of the left continued to function. Internationally, Kállay pursued a policy of armed opposition to Russia concurrently…

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• Lenin
  • 
    In Vladimir Lenin: Leadership in the Russian Revolution of Vladimir Lenin

    …to permit their passage through Germany to neutral Sweden. Berlin hoped that the return of anti-war Socialists to Russia would undermine the Russian war effort.

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• Palmerston
  • 
    In United Kingdom: Palmerston

    …and the rise of Bismarck’s Germany, which he did not understand, were developments that reshaped the world in which he had been able to achieve so much by forceful opportunism. When Palmerston died, in October 1865, it was clear that in foreign relations as well as in home politics there…

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medieval Europe

• allodial land tenure
  • In allodium

    In Germany large allodial estates held by nobles continued to exist, particularly in Saxony. In England there was a considerable amount of allodial land before the Norman Conquest (1066), but it disappeared under the new rulers. Allodial land, though free of limitations from above, was not…

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• Crusades
  • 
    In Crusades: The Second Crusade

    …May 1147, accompanied by many German nobles, the kings of Poland and Bohemia, and Frederick of Swabia, his nephew and the future emperor Frederick I (Frederick Barbarossa). Conrad’s poorly disciplined troops created tension in Constantinople, where they arrived in September. Conrad and Manuel, however, remained on good terms, and both…

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• Investiture Controversy
  • In Investiture Controversy

    …Roman Empire (the union of Germany, Burgundy, and much of Italy; see Researcher’s Note), France, and England on the one hand and the revitalized papacy on the other. At issue was the customary prerogative of rulers to invest and install bishops and abbots with the symbols of their office. The…

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• Italy
  • 
    In Italy: The Ottonian system

    …much involved in affairs in Germany, he came to Italy in 951 and married Adelaide, but he returned quickly to Germany to deal with a rebellion by Liudolf, duke of Swabia, his son from an earlier marriage. Moreover, events in Germany forced him to fight the Magyars in 955 at…

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  • 
    In Italy: The war in northern Italy

    …northern Italy, Frederick returned to Germany. He even hoped to repair his differences with Gregory, who proved amenable. However, the attempted settlement broke down. On November 27, 1237, Frederick, back in Italy, dealt the Lombards a heavy blow in the Battle of Cortenuova. He followed his military success with a…

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modern state origins

• 1830 Revolutions
  • In Revolutions of 1830

    Revolts in Italy and the German kingdoms were equally unsuccessful. Belgium declared its independence from the Netherlands, and it was recognized in 1831 as a separate nation. For several years the Greeks had been fighting for their independence from the Ottoman Empire, and in 1832 the European powers recognized Greece…

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• Erfurt Union Parliament
  • In Erfurt Union Parliament

    … to form a union of German states headed jointly by Prussia and Austria. Opposed by Austria, the plan failed to win the adherence of the other large German states and had to be renounced by Prussia in the Punctation of Olmütz on November 29.

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• Gastein Convention
  • In Convention of Gastein

    …between them for hegemony over Germany. The pact provided that both the emperor of Austria and the king of Prussia were to be sovereign over the duchies, Prussia administering Schleswig and Austria administering Holstein (which was sandwiched between Schleswig to the north and Prussian territory to the south). Both duchies…

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• German Confederation
  • In German Confederation

    German states, established by the Congress of Vienna in 1815 to replace the destroyed Holy Roman Empire. It was a loose political association, formed for mutual defense, with no central executive or judiciary. Delegates met in a federal assembly dominated by Austria. Amid a growing…

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• nationalism
  • 
    In nationalism: French nationalism

    In Germany the struggle was led by writers and intellectuals, who rejected all the principles upon which the American and the French revolutions had been based as well as the liberal and humanitarian aspects of nationalism.

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• North German Confederation
  • In North German Confederation

    …Norddeutscher Bund, union of the German states north of the Main River formed in 1867 under Prussian hegemony after Prussia’s victory over Austria in the Seven Weeks’ War (1866). Berlin was its capital, the king of Prussia was its president, and the Prussian chancellor was also its chancellor. Its constitution…

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• Revolutions of 1848
  • In Revolutions of 1848

    …movement for the unification of Germany, hoisted the black, red, and gold flag that had become the symbol of German unity. The German governments agreed to the convocation of three constituent assemblies at Berlin, Vienna, and Frankfurt by which democratic constitutions were to be drafted for Prussia, Austria, and Germany.

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• Swabia
  • In Swabia

    …tribal) duchies of earlier medieval Germany—with Franconia, Saxony, Bavaria, and Lotharingia (Lorraine)—and was held by successive families. Rudolf of Rheinfelden, duke in 1057, was set up as German king in 1077 in opposition to Henry IV, who in 1079 appointed the rebel’s son-in-law, Frederick I of Hohenstaufen, duke of Swabia.…

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Reformation

• 
  In Reformation

  The Reformation movement within Germany diversified almost immediately, and other reform impulses arose independently of Luther. Huldrych Zwingli built a Christian theocracy in Zürich in which church and state joined for the service of God. Zwingli agreed with Luther in the centrality of the doctrine of justification by faith,…

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• 
  In Christianity: Church polity

  In the German Evangelical (Lutheran and Reformed) territories, the bishops’ line of apostolic succession was ruptured by the Reformation. As imperial princes, the Roman Catholic German bishops of the 16th century were rulers of their territories; they did not join the Reformation in order to avoid renouncing…

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• 
  In Protestantism: The continental Reformation: Germany, Switzerland, and France

  Martin Luther said that what differentiated him from previous reformers was that they attacked the life of the church while he confronted its doctrine. Whereas they denounced the sins of churchmen, he was disillusioned by the whole

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• Gustavus Adolphus
  • 
    In Gustavus Adolphus: Resolution of internal problems

    …cause plunged to disaster in Germany, its leaders increasingly turned their eyes to Gustavus as a possible saviour. But before he was prepared to commit himself to any Protestant league and undertake a military campaign in Germany, Gustavus required adequate assurance of support. The disastrous defeat (1626) of Christian IV…

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World War I

• 
  In 20th-century international relations: The era of the great powers

  in Italy and Germany (1871), the establishment of universal manhood suffrage in Germany (1867), equality for the Hungarians in the Habsburg monarchy (1867), emancipation of the serfs in Russia (1861), and the adoption of free trade by the major European states all seemed to justify faith in the…

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• 
  In 20th-century international relations: Germany’s final battles

  Germany was also to turn over a large number of locomotives, munitions, trucks, and other matériel—and to promise reparation for damage done.

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• 
  In World War I: The outbreak of war

  …assured by William II of Germany’s support if Austria-Hungary should start a preventive war against Serbia. This assurance was confirmed in the week following the assassination, before William, on July 6, set off upon his annual cruise to the North Cape, off Norway.

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• 
  In World War I: The Armistice

  …and expansionist policies by which Germany could redeem its defeat in the war, gain vengeance upon its enemies, and become the preeminent power in Europe.

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• biological weapons use
  • In biological weapon: Biological weapons in the World Wars

    Germany initiated a clandestine program to infect horses and cattle owned by Allied armies on both the Western and Eastern fronts. The infectious agent for glanders was reported to have been used. For example, German agents infiltrated the United States and surreptitiously infected animals prior…

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• Central Powers
  • 
    In Central Powers

    …that consisted primarily of the German Empire and Austria-Hungary, the “central” European states that were at war from August 1914 against France and Britain on the Western Front and against Russia on the Eastern Front. Germany, Austria-Hungary, and Italy had been parties to a secret agreement, the Triple Alliance, from…

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• chemical warfare
  • In Chemical Weapons Convention: Negotiating a treaty

    …on the battlefield by the German army in 1915, chemical weapons were produced and employed by all the powers participating in World War I, and more than a million chemical casualties and an estimated 91,000 fatalities resulted. Following the war, Germany was forbidden to manufacture or import poison gas munitions…

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• Entente Cordiale
  • In Entente Cordiale

    …for their diplomatic cooperation against German pressures in the decade preceding World War I (1914–18). The agreement in no sense created an alliance and did not entangle Great Britain with a French commitment to Russia (1894).

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• Fourteen Points
  • 
    In Fourteen Points

    …Prince Maximilian of Baden, the German imperial chancellor, sent a note, via Switzerland, to President Wilson, requesting an immediate armistice and the opening of peace negotiations on the basis of the Fourteen Points. Germans would later argue a “betrayal” when faced by the harsher terms of the Armistice and the…

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• Krupp industries
  • 
    In Big Bertha

    …was first used by the German army to bombard Belgian and French forts during World War I. Officially designated as the 42-cm kurze Marinekanone 14 L/12 in Räderlafette (“42-cm short naval canon 14 L/12 on wheeled carriage”), the gun was nicknamed “Big Bertha” by German soldiers after one of its…

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  • 
    In Gustav Krupp von Bohlen und Halbach

    …Krupp made many contributions to Germany’s arsenal. One was the 98-ton howitzer that shelled Liège and Verdun. Others included the great cannon that bombarded Paris from a range of about 75 miles (120 km) and Germany’s submarines, which were built at the family’s Kiel shipyards. Because Germany was defeated, the…

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• “Lusitania” sinking
  • 
    In Lusitania

    …about 173 tons), and the Germans, who had circulated warnings that the ship would be sunk, felt themselves fully justified in attacking a vessel that was furthering the war aims of their enemy. The German government also felt that, in view of the vulnerability of U-boats while on the surface…

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• Mata Hari
  • 
    In Mata Hari

    …on charges of spying for Germany during World War I. The nature and extent of her espionage activities remain uncertain, and her guilt is widely contested.

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• military aircraft
  • 
    In aerospace industry: World War I

    >Germany, both aware of the military potential of aircraft, began relatively large-scale manufacturing around 1909. By the outbreak of World War I in 1914, France had built a total of 2,000 airplanes, of which 1,500 were military; Germany ranked second with about 1,000 military aircraft;…

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  • 
    In military aircraft: Airships

    …of World War I the German armed forces had 10 zeppelins and three smaller airships, but this impressive offensive capability was largely offset by the highly explosive nature of the hydrogen gas that gave the zeppelins their lifting power. After losing three zeppelins in daylight raids over heavily defended areas…

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• offensive battle tactics
  • 
    In Ferdinand Foch: Under Joffre in World War I

    …tried to break through the German line in Artois and at the Somme, but he could not compensate for the lack of equipment and supplies. In May 1917 he was appointed chief of the war minister’s general staff, a position that made him adviser to the Allied armies. But advising…

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  • 
    In Erich Ludendorff

    …who was mainly responsible for Germany’s military policy and strategy in the latter years of World War I. After the war he became a leader of reactionary political movements, for a while joining the Nazi Party and subsequently taking an independent, idiosyncratic right-radical line.

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• Remembering World War I
  • 
    In Remembering World War I

    Encyclopædia Britannica (1926), continued:

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• Rethondes armistice
  • 
    In Paris Peace Conference

    …and that of Rethondes with Germany on November 11—the conference did not open until January 18, 1919. This delay was attributable chiefly to the British prime minister, David Lloyd George, who chose to have his mandate confirmed by a general election before entering into negotiations.

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• Russian Revolution of 1905
  • 
    In Soviet Union: Lenin and the Bolsheviks

    …attracted the attention of the Germans, who came to realize that they could not win the war unless they somehow succeeded in forcing Russia to sign a separate peace. In April 1917 they arranged for Lenin’s transit through Germany to Sweden and thence to Russia, where they hoped the Bolsheviks…

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• strategic planning
  • 
    In strategy: Strategy in the age of total war

    …decided by the collapse of German forces after two brilliant but costly German offensives in the spring and summer of that year, followed by a remorseless set of Allied counterattacks.

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• Sussex Incident
  • 
    In Sussex Incident

    …steamer, the Sussex, by a German submarine, leaving 80 casualties, including two Americans wounded. The attack prompted a U.S. threat to sever diplomatic relations. The German government responded with the so-called Sussex pledge (May 4, 1916), agreeing to give adequate warning before sinking merchant and passenger ships and to provide…

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• U.S. policy and involvement
  • 
    In United States: Loans and supplies for the Allies

    …establish a long-range blockade of Germany. The U.S. State Department sent several strong protests to London, particularly against British suppression of American exports of food and raw materials to Germany. Anglo-American blockade controversies were not acute, however, because the British put their blockade controls into effect gradually, always paid for…

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• Verdun
  • 
    In Battle of Verdun

    …the French repulsed a major German offensive. It was one of the longest, bloodiest, and most-ferocious battles of the war; French casualties amounted to about 400,000, German ones to about 350,000. Some 300,000 were killed.

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• war reparations
  • 
    In history of Europe: The impact of the slump

    …the financial penalties imposed on Germany by the Treaty of Versailles.

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• Zimmermann Telegram
  • In Arthur Zimmermann

    …June 6, 1940, Berlin, Germany), German foreign secretary during part of World War I (1916–17), the author of a sensational proposal to Mexico to enter into an alliance against the United States.

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World War II

• 
  In 20th-century international relations: Hitler’s war or Chamberlain’s?

  For two decades after 1939, German guilt for the outbreak of World War II seemed incontestable. The Nürnberg war-crimes trials in 1946 brought to light damning evidence of Nazi ambitions, preparations for war, and deliberate provocation of the crises over Austria, the Sudetenland, and Poland. Revelation of Nazi tyranny, torture,…

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• 
  In 20th-century international relations: The final Allied agreements

  …a despairing Hitler declared that Germany had proved unworthy of him and committed suicide in his Berlin bunker. Hitler’s successor, Admiral Karl Dönitz, opened negotiations with the Western powers, hoping to save as many troops and refugees as possible from Soviet reprisals. But the U.S.S.R. refused to recognize the surrender…

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• 
  In World War II: The outbreak of war

  …early part of 1939 the German dictator Adolf Hitler had become determined to invade and occupy Poland. Poland, for its part, had guarantees of French and British military support should it be attacked by Germany. Hitler intended to invade Poland anyway, but first he had to neutralize the possibility that…

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• 
  In World War II: The German collapse, spring 1945

  …further document, covering all the German forces, was signed with more ceremony at Eisenhower’s headquarters at Reims, in the presence of Soviet as well as U.S., British, and French delegations. At midnight on May 8, 1945, the war in Europe was officially over.

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• Albania occupation
  • 
    In Albania: World War II

    After Nazi Germany defeated Greece and Yugoslavia in 1941, the regions of Kosovo and Çamëria were joined to Albania, thus creating an ethnically united Albanian state. The new state lasted until November 1944, when the Germans—who had replaced the Italian occupation forces following Italy’s surrender in 1943—withdrew…

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• Athens occupation
  • 
    In Athens: The city plan

    During the German occupation many people died from starvation, and the city began to fall apart from lack of maintenance. When the Germans left, part of the Allied-equipped resistance refused to lay down its arms, and the civil war began. For a while the government held only…

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• Axis powers
  • 
    In Axis powers

    >Germany, Italy, and Japan that opposed the Allied powers in World War II. The alliance originated in a series of agreements between Germany and Italy, followed by the proclamation of an “axis” binding Rome and Berlin (October 25, 1936),

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• Baltic occupation
  • 
    In Baltic states: Soviet occupation

    …were still under way when Germany attacked the U.S.S.R. on June 22, 1941.

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• Battle of Stalingrad
  • 
    In Battle of Stalingrad

    It stopped the German advance into the Soviet Union and marked the turning of the tide of war in favour of the Allies.

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• Battle of the Bulge
  • 
    In Battle of the Bulge

    …16, 1945), the last major German offensive on the Western Front during World War II—an unsuccessful attempt to push the Allies back from German home territory. The name Battle of the Bulge was appropriated from Winston Churchill’s optimistic description in May 1940 of the resistance that he mistakenly supposed was…

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• Ciscaucasia
  • In history of Transcaucasia: Postrevolutionary period

    …the autumn of 1942, the German armies overran parts of Ciscaucasia, and, in a drive toward the oil fields, they had by the end of October of that year reached the Georgian military highway leading to Tʿbilisi. The tide turned in November, when the Germans began to pull out of…

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• control of Atlantic sea routes
  • In Battle of the Atlantic

    …and the Axis powers (particularly Germany) for the control of Atlantic sea routes. For the Allied powers, the battle had three objectives: blockade of the Axis powers in Europe, security of Allied sea movements, and freedom to project military power across the seas. The Axis, in turn, hoped to frustrate…

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• Croatia
  • 
    In Croatia: World War II

    …their campaign against Yugoslavia, the Germans exploited Croatian discontent, presenting themselves as liberators and inciting Croats in the armed forces to mutiny. In April 1941 Germans and Italians set up the Independent State of Croatia, which also embraced Bosnia and Herzegovina and those parts of Dalmatia that had not been…

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• D-Day in pictures
  • 
    In D-Day in pictures

    …naval and aerial bombardment of German defenses on the Channel coast of France and the Low Countries, the Allied invasion of Normandy began in the early morning hours of June 6, 1944. Supreme Allied Commander Dwight D. Eisenhower issued this statement as his order of the day:

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• Dunkirk evacuation
  • 
    In Dunkirk evacuation: Blitzkrieg and the Allied collapse

    …of the Dunkirk evacuation was Germany’s invasion of the Low Countries and northern France in May 1940. On May 10 the German blitzkrieg attack on the Netherlands began with the capture by parachutists of key bridges deep within the country, with the aim of opening the way for mobile ground…

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• Einstein’s Letter to President Roosevelt, 1939
• Finland
  • 
    In Finland: Cooperation with Germany

    After the Treaty of Moscow the plan for a Nordic defense union was resumed. The Soviet Union still objected, however, and the plan was thus abandoned. In December 1940 President Kyösti Kallio resigned, and Ryti was elected in his place. When the tension between Germany…

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• Indian independence movement
  • 
    In Subhas Chandra Bose: A falling-out with Gandhi

    and Moscow, eventually reached Germany in April.

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• July Plot
  • 
    In July Plot

    …high army circles increased as Germany’s military situation deteriorated. Plans for the coup, code-named Walküre (“Valkyrie”), were set late in 1943, but Hitler, increasingly suspicious, became more difficult to access and often abruptly changed his schedule, thus thwarting a number of earlier attempts on his life.

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• Katyn Massacre
  • In Katyn Massacre

    After Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union concluded their Nonaggression Pact of 1939 and Germany invaded Poland from the west, Soviet forces occupied the eastern half of Poland. As a consequence of this occupation, tens of thousands of Polish military personnel fell into Soviet hands and were…

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• Krupp munitions industry
  • In Krupp AG

    During World War II the aged Gustav was succeeded by his eldest son, Alfried von Bohlen und Halbach, who, by the Lex Krupp (Krupp Law) of 1943, assumed the name Krupp and became the sole owner of his mother’s vast holdings. Even before 1939, the extent…

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  • 
    In Alfried Krupp von Bohlen und Halbach

    Alfried Krupp was the son of Bertha Krupp, the heiress of the Krupp industrial empire, and Gustav Krupp von Bohlen und Halbach. Shortly after the outbreak of World War II it became evident that his father was drifting into senility. Alfried assumed his duties, and…

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• Kursk
  • 
    In Battle of Kursk

    …(July 5–August 23, 1943), unsuccessful German assault on the Soviet salient around the city of Kursk, in western Russia, during World War II. The salient was a bulge in the Soviet lines that stretched 150 miles (240 km) from north to south and protruded 100 miles (160 km) westward into…

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• military aircraft
  • 
    In aerospace industry: World War II

    Germany’s aircraft industry after World War I was heavily restricted by the Treaty of Versailles. In 1921–22 the constraints were eased, and a productive light-aircraft industry began to develop. When restrictions were basically abolished in 1926, a number of new ventures were formed; those which…

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• North Africa campaigns
  • 
    In North Africa campaigns

    …road of alliance with Nazi Germany. On October 25, 1936, the Rome-Berlin Axis was proclaimed, but Italy, its strength depleted by the Ethiopian campaign and by its support for Nationalist forces during the Spanish Civil War, was in no condition to support Germany during the first nine months of World…

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• Operation Barbarossa
  • 
    In Operation Barbarossa

    …II, code name for the German invasion of the Soviet Union, which was launched on June 22, 1941. The failure of German troops to defeat Soviet forces in the campaign signaled a crucial turning point in the war.

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• Partisans
  • In Partisan

    Germany and Italy occupied Yugoslavia in April 1941, but it was not until Germany invaded the Soviet Union in June of that year that the Yugoslav communists were ordered to mount attacks against Axis units. Under the direction of the party leader, Josip Broz Tito,…

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• Potsdam Conference
  • 
    In Potsdam Conference

    The Potsdam Conference’s Declaration on Germany stated, “It is the intention of the Allies that the German people be given the opportunity to prepare for the eventual reconstruction of their life on a democratic and peaceful basis.” The four occupation zones of Germany conceived at the Yalta Conference were set…

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• Quebec Conference
  • 
    In Quebec Conference

    …made there to advance against Germany on two western fronts, instead of pursuing a concerted drive on Berlin, was criticized in the postwar period because it allowed the Soviet army to take possession of the German capital. This second Quebec Conference also resulted in a revised timetable to invade the…

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• resistance movements
  • In resistance

    …groups that sprang up throughout German-occupied Europe during World War II to oppose Nazi rule. The exact number of those who took part is unknown, but they included civilians who worked secretly against the occupation as well as armed bands of partisans or guerrilla fighters. Their activities ranged from publishing…

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• Saint Petersburg invasion
  • 
    In St. Petersburg: The Soviet period

    …the initial targets of the German invasion in 1941; by September of that year, German troops were on the outskirts of the city and had cut off communication with the rest of the U.S.S.R., while Finnish troops advanced from the north. Many of the inhabitants and nearly three-fourths of the…

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• Siege of Leningrad
  • 
    In Siege of Leningrad

    …in the Soviet Union by German and Finnish armed forces during World War II. The siege actually lasted 872 days.

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• Slovenia
  • 
    In Slovenia: World War II

    …took the southwest, including Ljubljana; Germany annexed the north directly into the Reich; and Hungary recovered Prekmurje. Although the Slovenes had been deemed racially salvageable by the Nazis, the mainly Austrian rulers of the Carinthian and Styrian regions commenced a brutal campaign to destroy them as a nation. Resistance groups…

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• Switzerland
  • 
    In Switzerland: World War II and the Cold War

    … closed in late 1942 when Germany occupied the southern part of France. When most Swiss feared that they would become the next victim of Nazi expansionism, federal councillor Marcel Pilet-Golaz gave a speech on June 25, 1940, that generally was interpreted as an adaptation to the new Europe controlled by…

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• Tehrān Conference
  • 
    In Tehrān Conference

    Though the settlement for Germany was discussed at length, all three Allied leaders appeared uncertain; their views were imprecise on the topic of a postwar international organization; and, on the Polish question, the western Allies and the Soviet Union found themselves in sharp dissension, Stalin expressing his continued distaste…

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• Tobruk
  • In Tobruk

    …were then forced by the Germans to withdraw to the east, leaving Tobruk an isolated British garrison that was periodically besieged by the Germans (March 1941–June 1942) when the Germans captured the city, taking about 35,000 Allied troops prisoner and capturing immense quantities of matériel. The British finally recaptured Tobruk…

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• Vichy France
  • 
    In Vichy France

    …zones: one to be under German military occupation and one to be left to the French in full sovereignty, at least nominally. The unoccupied zone comprised the southeastern two-fifths of the country, from the Swiss frontier near Geneva to a point 12 miles (19 km) east of Tours and thence…

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• Warsaw occupation
  • 
    In Warsaw: World War II and contemporary Warsaw

    …its inhabitants carried away to German labour camps or to concentration camps.

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• Yalta Conference
  • 
    In Yalta Conference

    …defeat and occupation of Nazi Germany.

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