A Super Quick History of Germany

hello everyone and welcome to mister [Music] this is europe and here's germany now let's go shall we long ago before there was a deutschland there was just the land which back then had even more trees on it and into the misty forest stepped tribes of mammoth hunters and musicians yes the oldest musical instruments in the world are from germany flutes carved from ivory and swan bones found in baden-wurttemberg what did they play rock music skipping through the centuries we spy the influence of indo-european arrivals as various cultures of craftsmen farmers shepherds and warriors appear the germanic people seemed to have originated as such in scandinavia and in the wake of the nordic bronze age migrated south and sooner or later ended up running into the romans who thought the germans nothing but primitive savages but they did fear them while generals like julius caesar and germanicus slaughtered their fair share of odin worshipers one of rome's biggest military catastrophes occurred in ad9 when the germans under arminius decimated three roman legions in the battle of toiterbaugh forest and from that point rome's expansion beyond the rhine was pretty much halted and they never conquered all germania so years passed and as rome slowly weakened and as the huns stormed in from the east germanic tribes like the goths began overrunning the empire and it fell at last in 476 the tumultuous time of migration invasion and city sacking steadily subsided and some semblance of order returned to western europe with the rise of the franks the franks were a cluster of germanic clans whose power ballooned upon being united by clovis around the year 500 and his a spousal of catholic christianity foreshadowed the gradual acceptance of that faith by all the germanic peoples frankish might attained its peak with charlemagne whose dominions covered much of modern-day germany the empire of charlemagne was split among his grandsons with the german bit going to louis the german i mean who else and it was from this slice that the holy roman empire was born in earnest in 1962 with otto the great who stopped hungarian invaders and married his way into italy and was crowned emperor by the pope the reason this inflated german state was called the holy roman empire was because it was deemed defender of italy and the roman catholic church and this holy roman empire would exist for many centuries but not as some unified singular entity but rather as an intricate complex of states principalities dukedoms counties bishoprics margraviats lordships and estates and yes there were power struggles and quarrels the empire was strengthened and further enriched under three rich the first whom the italians called barbarossa meaning redbeard but the germans called him meaning redbeard meanwhile the germans were pushing east across the river elba to the lands inhabited by pagan slavs called the winds german settlers moved in and the slavic culture there slowly disintegrated german dominance of commerce in the baltic came about with the hanseatic league a confederation of northern cities with mutual mercantile mindsets such as lubick and hambok with increasing wealth came culture as it typically does and you had minasangas like walter von de vogelweider singing love songs and the epic poem the nibelungen lead about the dragon slaying hero zigfried and his formidable wife kremhild now to the east in this spot here dwelt a pagan populace called the old prussians and the emperor gave the go-ahead to conquer it a task undertaken in the prussian crusade led by the german teutonic knights who gobbled up prussian lands and then went further ultimately carving out a big baltic bit of territory and thus making a german state outside of germany prussia which became rich and strong the 1300s was a bitter time of famine and black death but amid the recovery in the ensuing century a number of world altering things took place in german lands politically there was the austrian habsburg family taking the wheel of the holy roman empire in 1452 under which dynasty the empire grew immensely powerful but before that a goldsmith called johannes gutenberg invented a printing press that changed the world now books could be produced faster and cheaper than ever before ideas could spread rapidly and to more people and they did in 1517 pope leo the tenth needed money to fund his glorious rebuilding of saint peter's basilica and promoted a campaign of selling indulgences basically telling people if they gave money their loved ones would suffer less in purgatory and get to heaven quicker a fellow called johann tetzel was particularly zealous in his efforts on behalf of the pope and attracted the attention of a hot-headed priest and professor of theology at wittenberg called martin luther luther was disgusted by the whole thing and publicly denounced it and these arguments were mass printed and spread and his doctrinal disputes with rome soon became political you see many of the princes and so on in german lands did not like being limited by the church and they saw in luther's call for reformation a chance at getting more complete power in their regions and more money the emperor charles v ruled a gigantic realm and did not relish the prospect of division and luther was summoned but refused to renounce his beliefs and so we have the beginning of the split of the western church and the inception of protestantism prussia became the first state to officially adopt protestantism and thus shuffle off the authority of the pope other states followed and the holy roman empire was denominationally divided there was unease on both sides for a long time but after a catholic started pushing protestants about in bohemia the protestants fought back and things escalated into what would become the 30 years war religion started it but politics kept it going france wanted to weaken habsburg's strength and thus supporting protestant powers even though it was catholic this was among the most devastating wars in history with millions of people killed while the holy roman empire weakened a new power arose in prussia which became a kingdom in 1701 and grew stronger as seen with frederick the great who further reformed the state and army into europe's most efficient and went out and conquered silesia from austria which led to war and prussia emerged triumphant frederick smashing the austrians and french at waspa despite being heavily outnumbered prussia's ascent coincided with a time of immense german cultural accomplishment especially in music and pretty much all the greatest composers are german bach handel beethoven schumann brahms wagner strauss for a long time french culture had dominated europe but the germans started searching deeper into their own souls to express themselves and what they found were the seeds of the romantic movement intense emotion angst storm and stress europe was swept up in this artistic outburst which was in large part a rage against encroaching modernity but it was futile the world was growing less romantic and more mechanical don't worry the germans would prove to be good at that too now the holy roman empire was dismantled in 1806 by napoleon and the following decades would see the industrial revolution hammer its way into the german lands with the fast altering world of factories and steam trains and muddled political economic societal shifting alongside continental famine the german states were set ablaze in 1848 by revolution seeking reform and the union of german states when the rebellions were crushed many unhappy germans migrated to the united states and today over 40 million americans are of german descent meanwhile prussia was getting strong again and setting itself up as the state to take charge of the german world crusher's otto von bismarck determined to make this a reality he was a clever ambitious man who through quick wars and shrewd diplomacy bolstered prussia's standing and after defeating france in 1871 he succeeded in unifying the german states under prussian leadership and the german empire was born and for the first time there was a single nation on the map that you could point to and say that's germany germany became after the us the world's foremost industrial power but the european chessboard grew more tense and as nations strengthened they began to fear each other bismarck knew france wanted revenge and did not want them allying with austria while russia was expanding in the east and britannia ruled the waves in 1882 germany austria and italy entered into an alliance promising to help each other if attacked kaiser wilhelm ii wanted germany to be a colonial power and oversaw the snatching up of various bits of africa germany also became the world's center of science breakthroughs in physics chemistry and biology coincided with the germans inventing the automobile motorbike diesel engine x-rays and gummy bears then in 1914 the heir to the austrian throne was shot dead by a serb setting off a diplomatic crisis and it all spiraled into world war one and while the germans put up a very tough fight beating russia on the eastern front the western front saw germany up against france britain belgium and later the united states which proved too much an armistice was signed a socialist revolution forced the kaiser to abdicate and many germans simply refused to believe they had lost thinking they'd been betrayed government debt added to demanded reparations equaled economic crisis enter adolf hitler an austrian who had fought in the great war hitler believed germany had been stabbed in the back and blamed the communists and the jews hitler quickly became the leader of the national socialist german workers party his immense speaking skills employed in passionate speeches winning him a popularity that surged after the great depression when the fun and games of the weimar era expired and hard times surfaced hitler became chancellor in 1933 and after some murderous maneuverings managed to win himself dictatorial powers germany's economy improved ultrabands were built and in 1938 austria joined germany but hitler wanted more land and got it and was in the process of getting more in poland that world war ii began the biggest and most destructive in history it was germany italy and japan against the world germany proving especially strong with its frightfully effective wehrmacht occupying most of europe and in the midst of the war the hated jews were rounded up and put in camps where many were executed or died of disease along with other undesirables like poles and roma in what is called the holocaust millions of deaths and endless sorrow but hitler's doom was sealed when he made the same mistake napoleon made he invaded russia furious lost battles like stalingrad and kursk the unrelenting british and the arrival of the americans meant the third reich was no more the war saw europe torn to pieces and while the movies give the idea that it was a basic battle of good versus evil it just wasn't that simple there wasn't much heroism in what the soviet soldiers did to women and girls in east germany and there wasn't much bravery in the british american bombing of dresden and its civilians after the war germany ended up split into the east influenced by the soviet union and the west by the west which under conrad are now lost no time in recovering and rebuilding and re-flourishing as communism declined the berlin world went down and germany was united again and took up a leading role in the european union in policy and treaty and so on germany today is one of the top richest countries in the world with a very high human development index rank a very high standard of living and a knack for technological and industrial innovation germany has given most plentifully in literature science philosophy sport and music not bad for a country whose fairy tales for children are more violent than most horror films what awaits germany and future days comment below but for now bye