Early History

Until 1871, Germany was not just one big country. Instead, the Germanic people lived in many small kingdoms, nation-states, or even city-states.

In 1871, Otto von Bismark, leader of Prussia, which was the largest of the Germanic kingdoms, convinced all the nation-states to unite into one large country, which they called The German Empire. Wilhelm I became Kaiser, which means emperor.

In 1918, Germany was defeated in The Great War (later to be known as World War I). Kaiser Wilhelm fled to Holland and the Weimar Republic was established in Germany.

The 1930s and 40s

In the 1930s, Germany experienced a great depression in the economy, just as the United States did. Millions of people were poor and had no jobs. Adolf Hitler came to power in 1933 as leader of the Nazi Party by promising that people would have jobs and the economy would improve. Sadly, though, the Nazis persecuted all minority groups, especially the Jews. What Hitler really wanted was for Germany to rule all of Europe, and in September of 1939, the German army invaded Poland, starting another world war.

When World War II ended in 1945, the four victorious Allied Nations (the U.S., Great Britain, France, and the Soviet Union) divided Germany into four zones. The city of Berlin, which was in the Soviet zone, was also divided. In 1949, the British, American, and French zones joined and became known as West Germany (Federal Republic of Germany) which had a democratic form of government. The Soviet zone was then called East Germany (German Democratic Republic) which was ruled by a communist government. Berlin remained divided with West Berlin existing as a democratic free city within communist East Germany.

The Berlin Wall

During the 1950s many Germans who did not want to live under communist rule left East Germany and immigrated either to West Germany or into West Berlin. In 1961, to put a stop to this flow of East German citizens to the west, the government built a wall right through the city of Berlin. They also fenced the entire 1400 kilometer border between East and West Germany! People were separated from their families and friends. West Germans could travel to the east, but East Germans had to have special permision to go to the west.