Destination: GERMANY | |||||||||||||||||||||
Time Line
Bavarian craftsmanship - the astrological clock on the Old Town Hall in Munich © AA Photo Library |
Timeline
800-700 BC Celtic tribes settle around the Rhineland. AD 800 Franks overrun the territory; Charlemagne, the Frankish king, is crowned Holy Roman Emperor. 1273 Rudolf of Habsburg is elected king, founding the 600-year Habsburg dynasty. 1517 Martin Luther precipitates the Reformation. 1740 Frederick the Great is crowned king of Prussia. 1871 Franco-Prussian War ends with states united under the Prussian Kaiser Wilhelm and chancellor, Otto von Bismarck. 1914-19 Habsburg claims to the Balkans lead to World War I; the Treaty of Versailles demands huge war reparations and surrender of territories from defeated Germany. 1930 The Nazis gain power in elections. 1933 Adolf Hitler is made chancellor; under Hitler's dictatorship, millions of Jews and minorities are persecuted and killed. 1939 Hitler invades Poland; Britain and France declare war. 1945 Allied forces enter Berlin; Hitler kills himself. 1949 Western occupying powers create the Federal Republic of Germany; Russia forms the German Democratic Republic. 1961 The Berlin Wall is built. 1990 A year after the demolition of the wall, East and West Germany reunite; Germany leads support for a politically and economically integrated European Union. 1999 Government moves to Berlin. Parliament meets in the newly refurbished, glass-domed Reichstag. |
|