German History

If you take the time to read any analysis of historical events then you will be absolutely certain to notice that historians tend to disagree a lot! They dispute fact, figures and anything else that may arise in the course of their historical investigations but when it comes to genealogy, they all agree on one thing. They all agree that history has played a major part in shaping German genealogy and understanding German history is crucial to understanding genealogy. This is because a brief German history can reveal much about the origins of surnames as well as how those surnames came to be in existence.

Any brief German history will tell you that the first occupants of the area were thought to be tribes that had settled there in around 500BC. Of course, there is very little to actually back this assertion up aside from archaeological finds so we have no idea how the first people in the brief German history lived. However, the area started to appear in records during 2BC because the Romans invaded and seemed determine to control the area. They did eventually take over but it was not until 800 years later that the area gained an identity and became Germany. It was the Franks that arrived in the 6^th Century that eventually brought Christianity to the region and named it Germany.

The brief German history covering that period to the 19^th Century was a key period in German history because it was characterised by struggle and strife. It was during that time that towns and villages began to grow and people adopted surnames. As such, many German families found their roots during this period of brief German history. Various dynasties, such as the Saxons and Hapsburgs, governed during this period but it was the church that caused more conflict than anything else. The north became Protestant and the south Catholic, which of course caused war after war. However, in 1701, some years after the 1648 end to religious conflict, Germany finally cemented its place in Europe as a key power.

When known as Prussia in the 1800s, the German Empire was born. Following victory against Austria in the Austro-Prussian War of 1866, Germany expanded and began to establish industry. However, all of their hard work came to nothing when it was on the losing side of the First World War and the country fell into poverty. This was one of the main reasons why Adolf Hitler came to power and caused the Second World War. After his fall, the country was split into two by the Berlin Wall. With the country unified in 1990, it has become a legitimate force in Europe in recent years and is now slowly restoring its former glory!