8.

The Reformation

In 1517 a small monk offers 95 theses to the Kirchtor in Wittenberg. The poor monk is aprofessor and sends the
theses to theologians. There was a scandal. The man is against the Church of th Pope and against indulgences
(Ablsse, the thing you buy so your sins are forgiven).

9. Bauernkrieg 1524-1526

Some peasants think everything is going to be different and stand up against their masters. They are led by
Thomas Mntzer, a Lutheran Priest. Luther himself says there was a misunderstanding and should make piece. A
lot of people died.

10. Meanwhile

There are variants of the Reformation movement. Calvin (1509-1564). Predestination preaches, and says, Christ
is only symbolic in mass. Luther and the Catcholics believe he is really there.

11. Augsburger Friede 1555

Cuius regio, eius religio. What your sovereign believes, you must also believe. There is a period of relative peace
between Catholics and Lutherans and Calvinists.

12. But then, 1618

The Bohemian Protestants do not want to become Catholic, what the emperor wanted. The Emperor's
ambassadors simply throw these Protestants out of the window in Prague ... this is the beginning of a series of
wars. All together we call the "Thirty Years War". It lasts until the Peace of Westphalia in 1648, when the eighty-
year war of the Dutch ends with Spain.

13. How much

People die in the Thirty Years' War, we do not know. There are many, perhaps a third of Germans. "The war
feeds the war", explained General Wallenstein. This means that not the Emperor and not the General pay the
soldiers, but the soldiers get everything they need from the population ...Sure, most think: "We will not do that
again!"

Von Preussen zu Nazis

1. 1701

The kingdom of Prussia is founded(Brandenburg and Prussia (today in Poland and Russia). Prussia soon became
the most powerful German state in Austria. Centralist in Prussia the military. Everything else is saved.

2. Friedrich II

1712-1786 reigns in Prussia Frederick II ("the Great"). An "enlightened" king. Voltaire and La Mettrie are guests.
He also speaks only French. Religious tolerance. "Everyone must be saved in his own way."But there is no
political or freedom of opinion.

3. Napoleon

1801-03 he comes to Germany. The Holy Roman Empire of the German Nation is at its end. In 1806 he defeated
the Prussians. So they had not expected. He wants to speak with Goethe. They meet and Napoleon criticizes the
"young Werther".

4. Napi

The Prussians are shocked and reformed with the Stein-Hardenberg reforms the entire state: the military and the
schools and the bureaucracy. The German university, as we know it today, comes from this time. For a short time
Wilhelm von Humboldt is minister. Napoleon brings reforms and the Code civil. End of discrimination against
Jews. The German national movement is also forming against Napoleon. Students and citizens go to war as
volunteers. They want a single, democratic Germany. But they do not get it.

5. Napoleon is defeated

At the Vienna Congress, the new European equilibrium system will be set up under the direction of the Austrian
Metternich. The kings and princes do not want to know anything about democracy and the unification of
Germany.

6. Karlsbader Beschlsse (Decisions)

After an assassination in 1819, the German-speaking rulers issued the Karlsbader resolutions. The new
fraternities (national student corporations) are banned, the press is censored. Whoever writes something critical
must count on imprisonment or death penalty.
7. 1848

But the Germans can not be suppressed forever ...

In 1848 came the bourgeois revolution. People go out into the street! Barricades are built!The rulers surrender:
"All right," they say, "you get your democratic constitution

After long and difficult discussions, the parliamentarians in the parliament of the Paulskirche in Frankfurt decide
for the small German solution (without Austria) and want a German emperor.But William IV of Prussia, an old
romantic, believes that he is king by the grace of God, and says no: "" The crown from the gutter? I do not want
to!"

The parliamentarians continue to argue. Then the rulers send military and dissolve the parliament. From the
dream. No national unity and no democracy.

8. 1860 1871

Prussia becomes powerful.In 1864, it waged war against Denmark and won Schleswig. The people of Schleswig
wanted neither Prussia nor Denmark, but no one asked them. In 1866, it waged war against Austria and won. In
1870-71 it waged war against France and won. The German Empire was founded, the King of Prussia became a
German Emperor. William I crowned in Versailles.

The man behind it is called Bismarck. (1815-1898). He was Chancellor from 1871 to 1890.He organizes
everything, makes everything, solves all problems, can do everything.

9. 1888

Is the Dreikaiser year. Wilhelm I. dies. The successor to Frederick suffers from cancer and dies a few months
later.The new emperor becomes Wilhelm II, a man with problems. Bismarck must go. William II is for an
imperialist course.Germany now has a few colonies. There is an insurrection in German-South-West Africa
(Namibia). The German troops are driving a million hereros into the desert, a sure death.

10. 1914

After the assassination attempt on the Austrian heir to the throne in Sarajevo, the first world war took place.The
Germans and Austrians against the rest of Europe. That is not enough, the German Admiralty torpedoes
American ships and the US entered the war. Thus, Austrians and Germans lose. In 1918 everything is over. But
many people want a revolution like that in Russia (1917), for example, Rosa Luxemburg. Others want a
democracy. And others want to return the Emperor.

11. Die Weimarer Republik (1918-1933)

In Berlin is shot. The parliamentarians of the young republic emigrate to Weimar (Goethe city, etc.) and found
the first republic on German soil. In their constitution, they also set paragraph 48, the emergency agreement.
That's not a good idea.

12. Die arme Republik

Communists and monarchists and the new Fascists, and... Democrats, too... In 1923, the most sympathetic of all
neighbors occupied the Ruhr area to confiscate steel and coal. This leads indirectly to the great inflation of
1923 ...

It goes better

Germany is once again taking up diplomatic relations with all the world, even coming into the League of
Nations! But slowly, under the leadership of a man from Austria, the National Socialist German Workers'
Party ...

13. 1929

The global economic crisis ... there is no work, no money, nothing to eat. The Germans are now choosing more
extreme parties ... one government follows the other.

14. 1933

The NSDAP receives 43.9% of the votes. Hitler took over the government in a coalition. The Reichstag is on
fire. The President of the Republic shall issue the Emergency Decree under paragraph 48 of the Constitution.
This is the end. The rights of freedom are extinguished.Hitler forbids opposition parties. Then Hindenburg dies.
Hitler also became president of the Reich. He is now the leader of the Germans ...

15. Ab 1933
Concentrating bearings are being built. Political oppositionists, then (after 1935) homosexuals, Jews, Sinti and
Roma, simple criminals and "asocials" are tormented, exploited and murdered there.

16. 1940

The Germans attack the neutral Netherlands. The Netherlands emerged immediately after the bombing of
Rotterdam. Or? Zeeland does not exist ...

History 2 (1945 today)

1. Das nationalsozialistische Deutschland

Has murdered 6,000,000 Jews in camps, 400,000 Sinti and Roma, about 10,000 homosexuals, political
opponents, but also simple criminals and more than 10,000 homeless people.

The Germans have gassed disabled people and also shot women and children in the war, especially in the East.
They began, together with Italy and Japan, the Second World War, in which between 60 and 80 million people
were killed.

2. Nach 1945

Deutschland gibt es nicht mehrThere are four zones of occupation.The Soviets in the East, the other three in the
West (ironically called Trizonesia). Berlin is also divided into four zones. the rest? Prussia and Pomerania and
Silesia?

A crowd of people Had to change their place of residence from 1945 onwards. This was a consequence of the
resolutions of the Potsdam Conference. There the heads of the three victorious powers (UK, USA, Russia) had
agreed.

Eastern Poles became Russian and the people moved to Silesia and East Prussia and that became Polish. The
Germans, who lived in East Prussia, Silesia, and Pomerania, had to leave. They moved to the West. Most of these
displaced persons (12 to 14 million) never saw their home again.

3. In east Germany

Reign the Soviets. They want reparations and bring every second machine and every second railroad to the
Soviet Union. In 1946, the Social Democratic Party of Germany and the Communist Party of Germany (not
entirely voluntarily) joined. The new party is called the Socialist Unity Party of Germany, and it will govern
alone in the GDR from 1949 to 1990. But first ...

The Americans decide to help the devastated Western Europe.

With the Marshall Plan of 1948 a lot of money comes to West Germany. But ... you need a reasonable currency.
The old Reichsmark was worth nothing. They acted black and paid for natural goods (cigarettes, etc.). The shop
windows were empty. But on June 20, 1948, the Deutsche Mark was introduced in the western zones. The next
day the shop windows are full. After years of hunger this was a surprise ...

4. Als Reaktion auf die enge Bindung des Westens an die USA

The Soviets are blocking the West Sectors of Berlin. The people there have nothing to eat and no coal for
heating. But the Americans and the British do not leave their allies alone and organize the air bridge.

277.728 itinerary flights

2.34 million tonnes of airfreight.
On average, an airplane landed in Tempelhof every three minutes.
The costs for the air bridge were enormous. American and British alone paid 200 million dollars.
41 British, 31 Americans and 13 Germans lost their lives in accidents during the
airlift.
5. And now a state is missing.
In 1949 the Federal Republic of Germany was founded in the West Sectors, a
multi-party parliamentary democracy with a liberal economic order. In 1949,
shortly afterwards, the German Democratic Republic was established in the
Soviet Zone, a socialist republic with a one-party system and a planned economy.
6. Die BRD erholt sich ziemlich schnell..
With the American financial aid, reconstruction is proceeding swiftly. Since 1955,
the country has once again military: the Bundeswehr is founded. The FRG (BRD)
is contributing to NATO. However, many people also protest. The first peace
movement arises. In 1951 the FRG founded the Montanunion, a precursor of the
European Union.In 1957, the Saarland became German again. In the years 1949
to 1963, Konrad Adenauer (CDU) was a chancellor from Cologne who had nothing
to do with the Nazis.
7. Die DDR hat Schwierigkeiten .
The high reparations, little help from the outside, and the plan economy ... on
June 17, 1953, there were violent protests against the government throughout
the country. The insurrection is crushed. The country is supervised by the Ministry
of State Security. People know about the beginning prosperity in the West and
more and more people flee from the GDR (DDR), which soon has too few workers.
As a reaction, the state built the wall on 13 August 1961.
8. Das Wirtschaftswunder
Under Ludwig Erhardt (CDU) as Minister of Economic Affairs and then Federal
Chancellor (1963-66), the West German economy is growing rapidly. Wages are
rising. But ... nobody talks about the past. In 1966 Kurt Georg Kiesinger (CDU)
became Chancellor. This is the first and last Federal Chancellor who had been a
Nazi. He ruled with a large coalition, that is, the second large party, the SPD.
There is practically no opposition in the Bundestag. The government wants to
issue the emergency law. This had already been a problem for Weimar ...
9. 1967 bis 1969: Protest!
Many people protest, especially the students want to abolish the authoritarian
structures in schools and universities. They also demonstrate against the
Vietnam War. The Paris May 1968 became the guiding principle. "Under the
pavement lies the beach!"
Am Ende der Studentenbewegung
.. Communist groups (K groups)
And the Red Army faction, a group of terrorists who abducted and / or murdered
some German industrialists
10. Von 1960 bis 1973 kommen
"Guest workers," as they say (today: "labor migrants") to Germany. They come
from Italy, Spain, then Yugoslavia, from Greece and from Turkey ...
A lot of them go back after a couple years, but a lot of them stay.
11. Seit 1969 regiert
But the socio-liberal coalition of FDP (Liberals) and SPD. Federal Chancellor Willy
Brandt wants peace and treaties with Eastern Europe and reconciliation with the
victims of the Nazis. In Warsaw he kneels before a monument to the Warsaw
Ghetto uprising.
12. Nach einem Skandal (sein Sekretr ist ein DDR-Spion) wird Brandt abgewhlt
And Helmut Schmidt (SPD) (1918-2015) becomes Federal Chancellor (1974-
1982). Then comes Helmuth Kohl, who remains chancellor until 1998.
Under his chairmanship, the German Democratic Republic came together in 1989
to unite the BRD and the DDR after the German Democratic Republic collapsed
financially and politically in 1989.
Berlin will be the capital and ...
13. 2005 regiert hier eine Frau,
Dr. Angela Merkel, daughter of a Lutheran priest, who grew up in the DDR.