Germany profile - Timeline
A chronology of key events:
800 - Emperor Charlemagne, Frankish ruler of France and Germany, crowned
Roman emperor by Pope Leo III.
843 - Break-up of Frankish empire; Germany emerges as separate realm.
962 - German King Otto I crowned Roman emperor after gaining control of
northern Italy; beginning of what became known as Holy Roman Empire
centred on Germany.
1250 - Death of Emperor Frederick II Hohenstaufen marks virtual end of
central authority and acceleration of empire's collapse into independent
princely territories.
1438 - Election of Albert I marks beginning of Habsburg dynasty based in
Austria.
1517 - Martin Luther proclaims Ninety-Five Theses against traditional church
practices; start of Protestant split from Catholic Church.
Early modern Germany
1618-1648 Thirty-Years' War: failure of Habsburg emperors' attempt to
restore Catholic dominance and imperial authority against opposition of
Protestant princes; 1648 Treaty of Westphalia confirms near total
independence of territorial states.
1806 - Napoleon's armies impose French rule over much of Germany; Francis
II declares abolition of Holy Roman Empire and adopts title of emperor of
Austria.
1871 - Otto von Bismarck achieves unification of Germany under leadership
of Prussia; new German Empire's authoritarian constitution creates elected
national parliament, but gives emperor extensive powers.
1888 - Start of William II's reign; start of trend towards colonial expansion and
build-up of navy to compete with Britain's; rapid growth of economic power.
1890 - Growing workers' movement culminates in founding of Social
Democratic Party of Germany.
1914-1918 - World War I
1918 - Germany defeated, signs armistice. Emperor William II abdicates and
goes into exile.
1919 - Treaty of Versailles: Germany loses colonies and land to neighbours,
pays large-scale reparations.
Beginning of the Weimar Republic, based on a new constitution. Its early
years are marked by high unemployment and rampant inflation.
1923 - Adolf Hitler, head of the National Socialist German Workers' (Nazi)
Party, leads an abortive coup in a Munich beer hall.
France, Belgium occupy the Ruhr over failed reparation payments.
Hyperinflation leads to economic collapse.
1929 - Global depression, mass unemployment.
Third Reich
1933 - Hitler becomes chancellor. Weimar Republic gives way to a one-party
state. Systematic persecution of Germany's Jews escalates. Hitler proclaims the
Third Reich in 1934.
1935 - Germany begins to re-arm. Nuremberg Laws deprive German Jews of
citizenship.
1938 - Annexation of Austria and Sudetenland. Kristallnacht (Night of Broken
Glass) sees orchestrated attacks on Jews and their property as well as
synagogues.
Millions of people of all ages, mostly Jews but also large numbers of
Gypsies, Slavs and other races, the disabled, homosexuals and religious
dissenters, die as the Nazis implement an extermination policy in the death
camps of eastern Europe.
1945 - Germany defeated, Hitler commits suicide. Allies divide Germany
into occupation zones.
1945-1946 - Nuremberg war crimes trials see major Nazi figures executed
or imprisoned.
Country splits
1949 - Germany is divided. The US, French and British zones in the west
become the Federal Republic of Germany; the Soviet zone in the east
becomes the communist German Democratic Republic.
Konrad Adenauer, of the Christian Democrats is West Germany's first
chancellor. East Germany is led by Walter Ulbricht.
1950s - Start of rapid economic growth in West Germany.
1955 - West Germany joins Nato; East Germany joins the Warsaw Pact.
1957 - West Germany joins the European Economic Community.
1961 - Construction of the Berlin Wall ends steady flight of people from East
to West.
1969 - Social Democrat Willy Brandt becomes chancellor and seeks better
ties with the Soviet Union and East Germany under Ostpolitik (eastern
policy).
1971 - Walter Ulbricht is succeeded in East by Erich Honecker.
1973 - East and West Germany join the UN.
1974 - Brandt resigns after spy revelations surrounding one of his aides.
New Chancellor Helmut Schmidt continues Ostpolitik.
Wall tumbles
1982 - Christian Democrat Helmut Kohl becomes chancellor.
1987 - East German leader Erich Honecker pays first official visit to West.
1989 - Mass exodus of East Germans as neighbouring Soviet bloc
countries relax travel restrictions. Protests across East Germany lead to
rapid collapse of Communist rule. Germans from East and West tear down
Berlin Wall.
1990 - East Germans elect pro-unification parliament, state merged into
Federal Republic.
1994 - Russian and Allied troops finally leave Berlin.
Schroeder years
1998 - General election victory for Social Democrat leader Gerhard
Schroeder leads to coalition with Green Party.
2001 June - Government decides to phase out nuclear energy over next 20
years.
2001 November - Chancellor Schroeder survives parliamentary confidence
vote over the government's decision to deploy 4,000 troops in the US-led
campaign in Afghanistan, Germany's largest deployment outside Europe
since World War II.
2002 January - Euro replaces Deutsche Mark.
2002 March - Government pushes controversial immigration bill through
upper house of parliament. It allows a limited number of skilled non-EU
workers into the country.
Schroeder re-elected
2002 September - Schroeder coalition re-elected with sharply reduced
majority.
2004 May - Opposition CDU-backed candidate Horst Koehler, former IMF
head, elected president.
2004 August/September - Tens of thousands protest in streets, particularly in
eastern regions, over government plans to cut unemployment benefit and
other welfare and labour reforms.
2005 May - After his party suffers defeat in North Rhein-Westphalia regional
election, Chancellor Schroeder announces that he will seek early general
elections.
Parliament ratifies EU constitution.
First female chancellor
2005 November - Christian Democrat leader Angela Merkel becomes
chancellor in "grand coalition" with Social Democrats after inconclusive
elections in September.
2006 November - Unemployment falls below 4 million for the first time in
four years.
Financial crisis
2008 October - Germany agrees a $68bn plan to save one of the country's
largest banks, Hypo Real Estate, from collapse.
Germany says it will make as much as 500bn euros available in loan
guarantees and capital to bolster the European banking system.
2008 November - Germany is declared to be officially in recession.
2009 February - Parliament approves $63bn stimulus package aimed at
shoring up recession-hit economy.
2009 August - Figures are released showing that economy grew by 0.3% in
last quarter, bringing country out of recession.
2009 October - Mrs Merkel's CDU seals coalition deal with pro-business Free
Democrats (FDP) after parties reach agreement on major tax cut proposals
following September general election.
2010 - Official data shows the German economy shrank by 5% in 2009, hit
by a slump in exports and investment.
Eurozone woes
2010 May - Parliament votes to approve a 22.4bn euro contribution to bail
out debt-ridden Greece, prompting widespread public anger.
Chancellor Merkel's governing centre-right coalition suffers a defeat in regional
elections in North-Rhine Westphalia, thereby losing its majority in the upper
house of the federal parliament.
2010 September - Cabinet approves controversial plan to extend lifespan of
Germany's nuclear reactors, reversing 2001 decision to phase out nuclear
energy by 2021.
2011 January - Provisional figures show the economy grew by 3.6% in
2010, its fastest pace since reunification in 1990. Economists attributed the
rate to a recovery in exports.
2011 March - Setback for Chancellor Merkel as her Christian Democrats
lose the key state of Baden-Wuerttemberg for the first time in six decades.
2011 May - In further u-turn on nuclear power following crisis at Japan's
Fukushima plant, German government says all nuclear power plants will be
phased out by 2022.
2011 July - Chancellor Merkel defends her decision to back second huge
bail-out for Greece, insisting that it is Germany's historic duty to protect the
euro.
Growth slows
2012 August - The Federal Constitutional Court partly reverses severe
restrictions on military deployments enshrined in the constitution after World
War Two, giving the military the right to use weapons in Germany in the
event of an assault of "catastrophic proportions", but not to control
demonstrations.
2013 May - Figures show that in 2012 Germany experienced its biggest
surge in immigration in almost 20 years, with 400,000 "permanent migrants"
- people who have the right to stay for more than a year - arriving.
2013 October - Germany withdraws most of its troops from Afghanistan,
following a decade in which it was responsible for security in the northern
province of Kunduz.
2013 December - Mrs Merkel begins a third term of office as chancellor at
the head of a grand coalition with the other main party, the centre-left Social
Democrats, after falling short of an overall majority in the September
elections.
2014 April - Germany adopts a minimum wage for the first time, setting it at
8.50 euros an hour.
Migrant crisis
2015 September - Chancellor Merkel offers temporary asylum to refugees,
prompting mass movement of people through Balkans towards Germany in
autumn and winter, and stretching European Union Schengen Agreement
on abolition of border controls to breaking point in many countries.
2016 January - Sex attacks on hundreds of women in Cologne and other
German cities during New Year celebrations by men largely of North African
or Arab appearance prompts public backlash against Chancellor Merkel's
welcome to migrants. Government takes steps to curb influx.
2016 March - Anti-migrant Alternative for Germany party makes strong
showing in three state-level elections, beating Christian Democrats into third
place in Chancellor Merkel's home state of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern.
2016 July - Attacks by migrant Islamic State sympathisers in Wuerzburg
and Ansbach leave 17 people injured.
2016 March - Alternative for Germany party makes strong showing in Berlin
state elections.
2016 December - Tunisian migrant Anis Amri kills 12 people by driving a
hijacked lorry into a crowded Berlin Christmas market.
2017 September - The Alternative for Germany exploits social tensions over
migrants to surge into third place at parliamentary elections, behind the
much-weakened Christian Democrats and Social Democrats.
2018 March - Chancellor Merkel reforms the "Grand Coalition" with the
Social Democrats, after her failure to assemble a government with the probusiness
liberal Free Democrats and left-leaning Greens.
2018 August - Violent anti-immigrant protests in the eastern city of
Chemnitz after two migrants were detained over a fatal stabbing.