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1815: Founding of the German Confederation

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1815: Founding of the German Confederation

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"In 1815, the Congress of Vienna had created the German Confederation, a loose organization of thirty-nine states, including the German-speaking lands of Prussia and Habsburg Austria, but not the non-German-speaking lands under Prussian and Austrian control farther east." (p. 721)
Connect: This German federation laid the foundation for the establishment of a customs system. "Prussia’s most significant victory in this respect came with the Zollverein (or customs union) in 1834, which established free trade among the German states and a uniform tariff against the rest of the world." (p. 724)

Reflect: Although, this federation also seems to be meaningless for the awakening and unification of the country. With all member states having their own sovereignty and no standing army belonging to the federation, this federation was largely a redundant lock to maintain the balance of power in Napoleonic Europe. Yet it was crucial to the future development of Germany.

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It is also a sample of today's Federal German Basic Law.

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"Like liberals in France, liberal Germans wanted a ruler who would abide by a constitution, allow for greater press freedoms, and accept some form of representative government, though not necessarily universal suffrage" (p. 721)

Describe: In 1848, loose protests broke out in the German Confederation and throughout the Austrian Empire, with rebels generally dissatisfied with the divided and autocratic traditional political structure of the 39 independent states within the German Confederation. After one rebellion and uprising after another, the democratic forces finally achieved an important goal: they forced the various feudal states ruled by princes and aristocrats to establish liberal governments and elect a German-wide constitutional national assembly. in 1850, "King Frederick William promulgated a Prussian constitution in 1850, establishing a bicameral parliament with a lower house elected by universal male suffrage ." (p. 742).

Connect: When the Constitution of the Weimar Republic was written in 1919, the list of fundamental rights of the Frankfurt Constitution was its blueprint. One hundred years after its birth, the Basic Law of the post-war Federal Republic of Germany was also quoted from the Frankfurt Constitution.

Reflect: It was an epochal day in German history when the National Assembly conceived the first constitution. It is also a sample of the basic law of the Federal Republic of Germany today.

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1867: Founding of the North German Confederation

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1867: Founding of the North German Confederation

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Describe: “In 1866, casting Prussia as the defender of larger German interests, he declared war on Austria. The conflict, known as the Seven Weeks’ War, ended in a Prussian victory. Austria gave up all claims to Schleswig and Holstein, surrendered Venetia to the Italians, and agreed to dissolve the German Confederation. In its place, Bismarck created the North German Confederation, a union of all the German states north of the Main River.” (P. 743）
In 1866, after Prussia defeated Austria, Prussia created the North German Confederation, a union of twenty-two northern German states, based on the Treaty of August 1867, and Otto von Bismarck created the constitution of the North German Confederation.

Connect: The North German Confederation was a decisive step on the road to German unification.

Reflect: With the establishment of the North German Confederation, there were no restrictions on internal transport, no obstacles to the circulation of goods, and a unified currency and a uniform system of weights and measures were established. The foreign policy and foreign trade of the Confederation were also decided by the Confederation government, and the most important economic issues were unified. Thus, the establishment of the North German Confederation undoubtedly created favorable conditions for the development of capitalism in all of Germany.

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Crowning of King Wilhelm I of Prussia in the Hall of Mirrors

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Describe: "On January 18, 1871, in the Hall of Mirrors at Versailles, the German Empire was proclaimed. The remaining German states (except Austria) declared their allegiance to Wilhelm I, henceforth emperor, or Kaiser, of Germany." (P. 744)
On January 18, 1871, the German states under Prussian leadership won a united victory in the Franco-Prussian War, the German Empire was proclaimed, and King William I of Prussia was crowned German Emperor in the Hall of Mirrors of Versailles.

Connect: After the founding of the German Empire, Germany began to grow rapidly and became one of the most powerful countries in Europe. Germany's economic, military, and cultural strength grew considerably, and German culture and art began to flourish. During this period, Germany made a significant contribution by becoming one of the leaders of the Second Industrial Revolution.

Reflect: The establishment of the German Empire marked the completion of Germany's unification with Prussia at last and the end of a centuries-old federal political system. At the same time, the establishment of the German Empire could reflect the spirit of future Prussia, but it also exposed the defects of domestic politics and brought the German Empire to an end.

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Describe: "On June 28, 1914, a group of Bosnian Serbs assassinated the heir to the Austro-Hungarian throne, Archduke Franz Ferdinand (1863–1914), and his wife, Sophie, as they paraded through Sarajevo, the capital of Bosnia." (p. 839)
The assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand and the Grand Duke in 1914 was the trigger for the outbreak of the First World War. The battlefields of the Great War became intertwined with the European powers, and the war eventually spread globally, with most of the world's nations subsequently being drawn into it. During the four-year war "Of the 70 million people mobilized, nearly nine million were killed." (p. 873)  In November 1918, the Allies, led by Germany, surrendered. This was the end of World War I.

Connect: Another aspect of World War I as a watershed in world history lies in the post-war move toward establishing new rules for an international order, breaking with the traditional secret diplomacy of Europe, and establishing mechanisms to guarantee peace. It also led directly to the outbreak of World War II two decades later.

Reflect: Germany's defeat in World War I led to the end of the German Empire. The harsh treaties, land cessions, and reparations signed by Germany and other countries left the German people in dire straits and their lives hit rock bottom. However, tolerance and acquiescence to anti-Semitic violence and discrimination against minorities in various regions was raised.

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Describe: "Germany committed nearly all of its combat troops and planes to the invasion. Well-coordinated attacks by German panzers (tanks) and armored vehicles, supported by air power, cut the Polish army to pieces." (p. 924)
Germany used blitzkrieg tactics to occupy Poland in only 27 days.
Under the leadership of Nazi Hitler, Germany invaded Poland, triggering World War II in Europe and involving the vast majority of countries around the globe. This included all the major powers and eventually divided into two opposing military alliances - the Allies and the Axis powers. The war was the largest in human history, with over 100 million troops mobilized for the military conflict. The major participating countries declared a state of total war, devoting almost their countries' entire economies, industries, science, and technology to the war.

Connect: Germany's military technology led the world during World War II with tanks, aircraft, and submarines, giving them the courage to dare to weigh in on other countries. This is the same as the military powers nowadays, who attach great importance to their country's military equipment and even make national security the first development.

Reflect: World War II profoundly impacted mankind, and the bloody killings brought about by the war and the enormous damage caused were reflected in all aspects of human social life long after the war.

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Describe: From 1941 to 1945, the Nazis persecuted all ethnic and political groups in Europe, and the Jews were systematically and extensively slaughtered on the largest scale in history. There were 15 million Jews in the world at the time, and nearly 9 million in Europe, nearly two-thirds of whom were murdered, including nearly 1.5 million children. “In Mein Kampf, Hitler had already outlined his view that a war against the Untermenschen (“subhumans”)—Jews, Roma, and Slavs—was natural and necessary.” (p. 937)
-Hitler was an extreme racist and anti-Semite.

Connect: World War II memorials, Holocaust memorials, Holocaust Remembrance Day, etc. are now being established all over the world. Their purpose is to make the world remember the historical tragedy and prevent history from repeating itself.

Reflect: The unparalleled tragedy of the Holocaust cannot be rewritten, and this humiliating and horrific tragedy must be remembered as long as human memory continues to exist.

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Auschwitz Concentration Camp Reel 2 (1945)

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Describe: "The Allies divided Germany into four zones of occupation; the capital, Berlin, was in Soviet territory, but it too was divided." (p. 964)- At the end of World War II, the Allies divided conquered Germany into four regions. The Soviet Union, Britain, France, and the United States divided Germany. However, because the Soviet Union was a communist country, it disputed political and economic interests with other countries. Britain, France, and the United States occupied West Germany, while the Soviet Union occupied East Germany. The same East-West split also occurred in Berlin.

Connect: The division of Germany meant a confrontation between the two regimes, the bourgeoisie and communism, and a cold war between the two superpowers, the Soviet Union and the United States.

Reflect: This aim was mainly to prove the power of capitalism and communism. They both wanted to pull the city out of the ruins and make it theirs, both proving the power of their ideas.