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Historical profile
Prior to the nineteenth century, the area of modern-day Germany consisted of a series of city states forming part of the Holy Roman Empire. Following invasion by France and subsequent liberation in 1815, Prussia emerged as the most powerful state in the region.
1871 Germany was unified under the Prussian royal house of the Hohenzollerns. Wilhelm I was appointed Germany's first Kaiser. After defeating France in the Franco-Prussian War, Alsace-Lorraine was annexed by Germany.
1880–1900 After Germany became Europe's leading industrial power, it attempted to expand territorially and become a world power, establishing colonies in Africa and trying to influence politics in the Balkans.
1914–18 Germany invaded Belgium and then France. The UK intervened, but the war in France became attritional until 1917, when US troops joined British and French forces. The First World War ended in 1918 with Germany's defeat. Kaiser Wilhelm II went into exile in the Netherlands. The Weimar Republic, a federation of 19 states, was declared in November 1918.
1919 Friedrich Ebert was appointed Germany's first president. Germany was called on to make massive financial reparations and to cede Alsace-Lorraine to France and parts of the Saarland to Poland, as part of the Treaty of Versailles. The Rhineland was de-militarised and occupied by the Western European powers.
1920s Germany was gripped by an economic depression, suffering from hyper-inflation and high unemployment. As it could not afford to pay war reparations, France and Belgium occupied the industrialised Rhur as a protest.
1931 The instability of the economy and of democratic government led to the fascist National-Sozialistische Deutsche Arbeiterpartei (NSDAP) (Nationalist Socialist German Workers' Party) or Nazis, led by Austrian Adolf Hitler, becoming the largest party in the German parliament.
1933 Adolf Hitler was appointed chancellor of Germany.
1934 The Nazis consolidated their power. Hitler established himself as the führer (leader) of the Third Reich. The economy was rebuilt, all other political parties were banned and Hitler's opponents, Jews and other minorities were placed in concentration camps.
1936 German troops re-took the Rhineland and provided military aid to Spanish nationalists fighting the Spanish Civil War. Germany, Italy and Japan formed an alliance.
1938 Austria became part of the German Third Reich after its pro-Nazi chancellor, Arthur von Seyss Inquart, invited German troops into the country. Annexation of Sudetanland, Czechoslovakia.
1939 Germany signed a non-aggression pact with the Soviet Union. Britain and France declared war on Germany after German roops invaded Poland.
1940 Germany captured most of Western Europe while most of Eastern Europe had pro-German puppet governments installed.
1941 Germany invaded the Soviet Union. Following Japan's attack on Pearl Harbour, the US declared a state of war with Japan; three days later, Japan's allies, Germany and Italy, declared war on the US.
1944–45 The US, Britain and the Soviet Union liberated Nazi-occupied Europe. Adolf Hitler committed suicide in Berlin. Following the end of the Second World War, Germany was occupied by the Allied powers.
1949 The Federal Republic of Germany (FRG) was established in the western zone by unifying the British, French and American zones of control, and the German Democratic Republic (GDR) was established in the east, under the Sozialistische Einheitspartei Deutschlands (SED) (Socialist Unity Party), following failure of negotiations to establish a unified administration. Konrad Adenauer became federal chancellor. Waltar Ulbricht became general secretary of the GDR's ruling communist party until 1971 when Erich Honeker replaced him.
1951 The FRG and France merged their coal and steel industries through the European Coal and Steel Community (ECSC).
1953 Severe food shortages and the policy of 'sovietisation' in GDR led to uprisings and strikes, suppressed by Soviet troops, causing large numbers of refugees to begin fleeing to the West.
1954 The FRG was admitted to NATO.
1955 The GDR became a member of the Soviet Union's Warsaw Pact.
1957 The FRG declared Berlin its capital. Bonn became the seat of government until reunification.
1958 The FRG became a founding member of the forerunner of the EU, the European Economic Community (EEC).
1961 The GDR constructed the Berlin Wall between eastern and western sectors to stem the flow of refugees to West Berlin.
1963--66 Ludwig Erhard succeeded Adenauer as federal chancellor.
1966--69 Federal Chancellor Kurt Georg Kiesinger 's coalition comprised the two largest parties, Christlich-Demokratische Union (CDU) (Christian Democratic Union)/Christlich-Soziale Union (CSU) (Christian Social Union) and the Sozialdemokratische Partei Deutschland (SPD) (Social Democratic Party of Germany). He chose the mayor of Berlin, Willi Brandt, as his foreign minister.
1969 Willi Brandt (SPD) became chancellor, heading a coalition of SPD and Freie Demokratische Partei (FDP) (Free Democratic Party). He implemented a policy of ostpolitik, orienting FRG foreign policy towards Eastern Europe and détente with the GDR.
1971 Erich Honecker became leader of the GDR, which became one of the most hardline members of the Warsaw Pact. In the late 1980s, Honecker resisted calls for democratisation on the Russian glasnost pattern.
1973 The FRG and GDR joined the UN.
1974 Helmut Schmidt became federal chancellor after the fall of Brandt in a security scandal. Disputes over the deteriorating economic situation, nuclear power and defence policy led to coalition instability and the withdrawal of the FDP in 1982.
1982 The CDU leader, Helmut Kohl, became federal chancellor and formed a coalition government.
1989–90 The Soviet Union withdrew support for the Honecker regime, prompting his resignation, the dismantling of the Berlin wall, democratisation of the GDR and moves towards a market economy. The reunification of Germany took place in October 1990. Helmut Kohl won the first free German election since 1931.
1994 Federal elections resulted in a narrow victory for Chancellor Kohl and his CDU-led coalition.
1998 The SPD gained the largest share of the vote in the elections. Gerhard Schröder became chancellor and formed a coalition government with Bündis 90 (Alliance 90) and Die Grünen (Greens).
1999 Germany became a founding member of the European Economic and Monetary Union (Emu). Johannes Rau was elected as federal president.
2000 Helmut Kohl resigned as chairman of the CDU following revelations about illicit funding to the party during his time as chancellor. He was replaced by Angela Merkel.
2002 The Deutsche mark was replaced by the euro as Germany's national currency. Gerhard Schröder was re-elected as chancellor by one of the narrowest margins in German election history.
2003 In March, the Constitutional Court rejected a government request to ban the neo-Nazi National Democratic Party, after accusations that state agents had infiltrated the party's ranks, acting as agents provocateurs to discredit it.
2004 In March, Franz Muentefering succeeded Gerhard Schröder as leader of the SPD. On 1 Jul, Horst Köhler took office as federal president.
2005 Chancellor Schröder's government lost support because of Germany's poor economic performance and the unpopular reforms the government had pushed through. On 1 July, the Chancellor lost a confidence vote in parliament at his own request, paving the way for its dissolution and early elections.
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