More than 30,000 years ago the territory of present day Germany has been habited by the humans named after the village Neander Gorge near Düsseldorf, where remains of them were found in 1856. The cave dwellers were later replaced by Homo Sapiens tribal groups, active there during the Stone Age and Bronze Age. The warriors that stopped Julius Caesar invasion about 2,000 years ago on the river Rhine spoke already German language formed good several hundred years back, and the tribes west of the Rhine began to call themselves Germani.
Two centuries after the end of western Roman Empire king of Franks, Charlemagne has been crowned as Charles I, Emperor of the Roman Empire. The Reign after his death has been split into kingdoms of France, Burgundy, Italy and Germany, known later as the Holy Roman Empire of the German People, from 13th century controlled by the powerful Habsburg family.
The Middle Ages bring the development of feudal system, where powerful people became noblemen, granted by the ruler with various privileges and land properties.
The wealthiest and the strongest develop the royal titles of princes or kings, sovereign of the emperor, and taking control over the local aristocracy.
The nobility needed the protection provided the strong walls of the numerous castles, which shaped the country’s landscape till the present time.
The noblemen residences were protected by the knights, and at the bottom of the society were peasant farmers.
At the beginning of 16th century Martin Luther gives the spark for the religious changes, known later as the Protestant Reformation, which undermined the existing Habsburg dominance which based on Catholic order of the world recognizing the Pope as the supreme power. The following series of the religion wars brought the independence of Switzerland and part of Netherlands ( known later as Holland) from Habsburgs, who had to grant various privileges to numerous princes in Germany, which number at that time exceed 300.
In 17th century rises power of Prussia, which acquires new territory around Baltic Sea, and takes large groups of Protestants from France and Austria.
At the end of 18th century the Holy Roman Empire is in the hands of Napoleon, who in 1812 was defeated in Russia, and later in Prussia. The following Congress of Vienna brought to life German Federation, which replaces the Holy Empire
The 19th century Industrial Revolution starts migration to towns and cities of job seekers in textile factories and the new forming coal and iron industry, around the cities such as Cologne, Düsseldorf, Essen, Hanover, Leipzig, and Dresden.
In 1871 the Bismarck converted the North German Federation into the German Empire
with the king of Prussia given a hereditary position as emperor and Bismarck himself as chancellor.
Created in 1918 Republic of Weimar had to repay the sad duties after the World War I lost to England, Russia and France, that accelerated the crisis, and rose the society frustration, which
became the ground for establishment of NSDAP party leaded by Adolf Hitler, who, Sept 1, 1939 started the Second World War by the invasion to Poland.
After the War Germany was divided into four occupation zones; American, British and French, which in 1949 formed German Federal Republic, and the Russian zone converted later into German Democratic Republic with capital in East Berlin. The Berlin wall, which in 1961 was build by the Communists to prevent citizens from escaping to the Western part of the city, has been dismantled on November 9, 1989, and on October 3 the following year two parts of Germany were reunited with the new capital back in Berlin.
