The first German to reach the New World was a sailor named Tyrker, a
companion of the Scandinavian seafarer Leif Ericsson. Sometime after the year
1000, Ericsson landed in Labrador, an island off the coast of Canada. According
to the Icelandic sagas, when Tyrker went ashore he found grapevines. Thus he
called the new land Vinland, or Vineland.
Five centuries later, more European explorers began to cross the Atlantic.
One of them, an Italian named Amerigo Vespucci, wrote an account of his voyage
that was read by a German mapmaker, Martin Waldseemiiller. In 1507,
Waldseemiiller gave the new continents the name America.
At the time of the early European explorations of America there was no
country called Germany. The German-speaking peoples of north-central Europe
lived in many different states that were part of a loose confederation called
the Holy Roman Empire.
Charles V, a member of the Hapsburg family, was crowned Holy Roman Emperor in
1519. Two years earlier, the German monk Martin Luther had begun the religious
Reformation that challenged the authority of the Roman Catholic Church.
Lutheranism spread through the German states, winning the support of
some of their rulers. A series of wars between Catholic and Lutheran states
followed. In 1555, Charles agreed to the Peace of Augsburg, which allowed the
ruler of each German state to choose the religion of his subjects.
Other Protestant religions sprang up after the success of Lutheranism.
In Switzerland, John Calvin's ideas led to the formation of what was called the
Reformed church. After the Peace of Augsburg, members of the Reformed church won
converts in some of the German states. Meanwhile, the Roman Catholic Church had
begun the Counter-Reformation to win back the "heretic" or dissenting
Protestants. Tensions increased among Calvinists, Lutherans, and
Catholics.
In 1619, Ferdinand II, a devout Catholic, became Holy Roman Emperor. The year
before, some of his Protestant subjects had started a rebellion that was
supported by the ruler of a German state called the Palatinate. Ferdinand
responded to this political and religious challenge by sending troops to crush
the rebellion.
This was the beginning of the Thirty Years' War {1618-1648), a long and
bloody conflict that eventually drew in most of the other European powers. For
three decades, armies of the warring nations marched through the German states,
killing not only each other but also the local citizenry, burning crops and
villages, and leaving devastation in their wake. About one-third of the
population of the German states died, either in the fighting or from the
starvation and epidemics that followed. At last, the war came to an end in 1648
with the Peace of Westphalia/Westfalen.
The peace agreement left the German states weaker and more divided than
before. There were now more than 300 "Germanies," some no larger than
a single city. For more than a century, the German states fell prey to their
stronger neighbors, such as Sweden and France.
During this time, some Germans began to seek haven elsewhere. The first
German American settlement in today's United States was founded in 1683 in
Pennsylvania, and more followed in the next century, when warfare again raged
through the German states.
In 1763, Empress Catherine the Great of Russia, who was herself German,
offered free land and religious freedom to foreigners who would agree to settle
in the southern parts of her empire. Catherine hoped to populate the vast steppe
region with loyal citizens who would strengthen her domain. Many Germans
accepted the offer. A century later, when the Russian government adopted a
hostile policy, sizable numbers of these "Russian Germans" immigrated
to the United States.
Meanwhile, Germany began the long process of unification. Under the
leadership of several able kings, the state of Prussia built an army that
rivaled those of the leading powers of Europe. Throughout the 18th century,
Prussia added territory to its domain. By 1772, when Prussia seized parts of
Poland, it was the largest and most powerful German state except for
Austria.
In spite of the division and warfare that plagued the German people, they
developed a rich culture. The writer Johann Wolfgang von Goethe {1749-1832)
expressed the German love of nature and the idea that human intellect must be
balanced by deep emotion. Goethe influenced other German writers such as the
playwright and poet Friedrich von Schiller and the philosopher Immanuel
Kant.
German culture had its most enduring influence in music. During the 18th and
19th centuries, the rulers of many German states maintained lavish courts,
supported by heavy taxes on their subjects. To add to the splendor of their
courts, the rulers sponsored gala musical entertainments. The world benefited,
for a series of German-speaking musical geniuses produced works that have never
been surpassed. Starting with Johann Sebastian Bach (1685- 1750), the list runs
through Joseph Haydn, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Ludwig van Beethoven, Franz
Schubert, Robert Schumann, Richard Wagner, Johann Strauss, and Johannes Brahms
(1833-97). Wherever German emigrants settled, they brought with them their
glorious musical tradition.
At the beginning of the 19th century, the German states, like the rest of
Europe, became engulfed in the Napoleonic Wars. After Napoleon Bonaparte seized
power in France in 1799, he embarked on a series of conquests. Napoleon's forces
soundly defeated Austria, bringing the Holy Roman Empire to an end. Prussia also
suffered, losing about half of its territory. But after Napoleon's disastrous
invasion in 1812, the tide turned against him. A coalition of European powers,
including Prussia and Austria took part in Napoleon's final defeat in 1815.
The victors met at the Congress of Vienna to redraw the map of Europe.
Prussia absorbed territory along the Rhine River, called the Rhineland. Austria
became an empire that included not only German-speaking people but also Czechs,
Slovaks, and Hungarians.
As a result of the Congress of Vienna, a German Confederation was created,
with Austria and Prussia as its leading members. The hundreds of German states
were consolidated into only 39. However, this Confederation was weak and never
achieved the status of a real government.
The Napoleonic Wars had spurred the spirit of national- ism throughout
Europe. Germans eagerly discussed the idea that they should unite into one
powerful nation.
However, the various non-Germans in the Austrian Empire wanted their own in-
dependence. In the fateful year 1848, revolts broke out all over Europe-in
Austria, the smaller German states, and France and Italy.
Some of the revolutionaries, inspired by democratic ideals, hoped to
establish constitutional governments. However, all of the revolutions of 1848
were doomed to failure and were cruelly crushed within a year. Many German
revolutionaries fled, some to the United States.
The German Confederation was restored, though it was clear that Prussia and
Austria would never yield power to each other. In addition, the princes, dukes,
margraves (military governors), and other rulers of the smaller states jealously
guarded their own authority.
In 1862, Otto von Bismarck became prime minister of Prussia. He was
determined to unite the German lands under Prussia's leadership. Though he often
had to urge a timid King William I to go along, Bismarck used Prussia's military
might to attain his goals. In 1866, Prussia's army defeated the Austrians at the
Battle of Sadowa. From then on, Bismarck excluded Austria, with its mixed
population, from his plans for a united Germany.
Four years later, in response to a French attack on German territory,
Bismarck forged a military alliance of German states. The Franco-Prussian War
ended with a decisive victory by Bismarck's forces at the Battle of Sedan in
September 1870. Bismarck now used his diplomatic skills to persuade the rulers
of the other German states to set aside their differences and unite into a
German empire. In January 1871, King William accepted the title Emperor of
Germany. For the first time, Germany was one nation.
Bismarck cemented German unification by standardizing the new nation's legal,
financial, and governmental systems. He also launched a Kulturkampf
("culture struggle") to reduce the influence of the Roman Catholic
Church in Germany. Some German Catholics responded to Bismarck's policies by
emigrating.
In 1890, a new German emperor, William II, forced Bismarck to retire. Only 29
years old when he took the throne, William II had ambitious ideas. He built up
his army and navy, preparing for war.
In 1914, World War I broke out in Europe. Geffi1any was allied with Austria
against France, Britain, and Russia. For three years, the nations of Europe
fought each other in battles made more devastating by new weapons such as
machine guns, airplanes, and heavy artillery. In November 1917, the United
States entered the war on the side of France, Britain, and Russia. A year later,
Germany and its allies were forced to surrender. William II abdicated and
Germany became a republic.
At the Peace Conference at Versailles, France, in 1919, the victors imposed
harsh terms. The new German government was required to give up part of its
territory to pay huge reparations to the victorious nations, and to drastically
reduce its army and navy.
Germany's people resented the humiliation and economic hardship caused by the
war reparations. Post-war inflation made their paper money almost valueless.
Capitalizing on widespread unrest, a former corporal in the German army named
Adolf Hitler began to attract support for his National Socialist {Nazi) Party,
which pledged to restore Germany to its former greatness. In 1933, the Nazis won
enough seats in the Reichstag {Parliament) to make Hitler the chancellor. He soon
was given dictatorial powers and set out on a policy of aggression.
In 1939, Hitler's troops invaded Poland, setting off the conflict that became
known as World War II. The German army won a series of victories that put Hitler
in control of most of the European mainland by 1944.
Blaming Jews for Germany's economic woes, Hitler herded them into camps to be
used as slave laborers or killed. The German Jewish community, which had
contributed to German life and culture since the Middle Ages, was virtually
destroyed in the Holocaust.
However, Hitler squandered his military resources by invading the Soviet
Union. In June 1944, a combined American and British force landed in
Nazi-controlled France. Soviet troops invaded Germany from the east. Within a
year, Hitler's regime lay in ruins.
After the war, Germany was divided into four zones, administered by the
United States, Britain, France, and the Soviet Union. Eventually, the Soviet
zone became Communist- dominated East Germany; the other three zones the
democratic country of West Germany. In 1990, with the collapse of communism,
East and West Germany combined into a single nation once again.
* These are excerpts from the book 'The German American Family Album' by Dorothy and Thomas Hoobler