Modern Germany Final

Holy Roman Empire

a sprawling, decentralized political entity in Central and Western Europe that lasted from 800 (or 962) to 1806. It was a massive mosaic of hundreds of semi-independent states—such as kingdoms, duchies, and free cities—loosely bound under an elected Emperor. [1, 2, 3, 4]

Diet

The Imperial Diet (Reichstag) was the central deliberative and legislative assembly of the Holy Roman Empire. German speaking kingdoms/groups.

Martin Luther

German figure of the Protestant Reformation. He is considered one of the most influential figures in Western and Christian history. Created unity and a standard for German language.

Wartburg

A castle originally built around 1067, it is most famous as Martin Luther's refuge where he translated the Bible, as the historic gathering place for German unification in 1817

Serf

feudal laborer who was legally bound to work on a lord's estate. they were exchanged along with the land if it was sold.

Junkers

“country squire” member of the landowning aristocracy of Prussia and eastern Germany

Austria: Hapsburg

major royal German dynasty that controlled the Archduchy of Austria from 1282 until the collapse of the empire in 1918

Prussia: Hohenzollern

a historic German dynasty that ruled the Kingdom of Prussia and the German Empire from 1701 until the end of World War I in 1918

Frederick II “the Great”

Last king of Prussia. Father did not like him. Thought to be one of the best generals in the 1700s

Battle of Austerlitz

everyone expected Napoleon to attack England, instead he attacked Prussia and forced them to create an alliance with him.

Confederation of the Rhine

a union of German client states established by Napoleon Bonaparte after he defeated Austria and Russia at the Battle of Austerlitz. military buffer between france

Battle of Jena

1806 Prussia crushed by Germany. Unified by hatred of the French

Romanticism

a major intellectual and artistic movement in the late 18th and early 19th centuries. Driven by a revolt against Enlightenment rationalism and industrialization, it favored emotion, the unconscious, and the sublime power of nature.

Karl vom Stein

Prussian statesman who introduced the Prussian reforms, which paved the way for the unification of Germany.

“Wandering Jew”

Trope in art works. Jewish man killed Jesus and was forced to walk forever.

Blood Libel

Jews were supposedly capturing children and using them for blood sacrifices

Ghetto

Areas in town where Jews were allowed to live

Pogrom

is a violent, targeted riot or mob attack directed against a specific ethnic, religious, or national minority, typically accompanied by the destruction of property, looting, physical violence, and murder. 

 “Protected” Jew

Under this system, Jews were granted residential, commercial, or religious rights by local princes or city councils, usually in exchange for heavy taxation and special fees

Gotthold Lessing

Published Mendohlson’s book

Hep Hep Riots

riots against Jews, beginning in the Kingdom of Bavaria, during the period of Jewish emancipation in the German Confederation. spread across the whole of Germany

Rahel Levin

German writer who hosted one of the most prominent salons in Europe during the late-18th and early-19th centuries. She is the subject of a celebrated biography, Rahel Varnhagen: The Life of a Jewess,

Storm and Stress (Sturm und Drang)

proto-Romantic movement in German literature and music. Driven by young, disaffected artists, it rebelled against the rationalism of the Enlightenment

Johan Wolfgang von Goethe

Wrote The Sorrows of Young Werther, key work in the Storm and Stress movement and a foundational text for Romanticism

Immanuel Kant

wrote Critique of Pure Reason (1781/1787), argues for transcendental idealism, the doctrine that space and time are mere "forms of intuition"

G. W. F. Hegel

spanned the transitional period between the Enlightenment and the Romantic movement

German Confederation

association of 39 predominantly German-speaking sovereign states

Wartburg Festival

500 Protestant German students, held on 18 October 1817 at the Wartburg castle. The former refuge of reformer Martin Luther was considered a national symbol and the assembly a protest against reactionary politics

Karlsbad Decrees

By Metternich, targeted universities and the press in response to growing student unrest. press censorship

Biedermeier

emerging during a time of post-war poverty and political censorship, the style reflected a middle-class retreat from public life into the comfort of private family homes and domesticity

Hambach Festival

Romantic recreation of the Wartburg festival, but more people showed up and planted liberty trees. Metternich showed up with an army and uprooted the trees and banned the flag.

6 Articles

The set of rules that resulted from the Hambach festival. limited the rights of the Diets in constitutional states and stipulated that federal law superseded individual state law

Zollverein

the idea that they should knock down the walls that separated Germany and create a free zone without taxes.

Ludwig I

King of Bavaria, built a railroad and Walhalla for economic industrialization

Frederick William IV

Prussian king who rehired professors and pardoned imprisoned rioters. gave prussian people more of a say in government.

United Diet

created by Fredrick William IV. a council similar to parliament

Revolution of 1848

The year of revolutions. Started in Paris, spread all across Europe.

German National Assembly

Held in Frankfurt to create a whole new system

Basic Rights Law

First thing passed at the National Assembly. Included suffrage, equal rights among men and separation of church and state. Lasted for months which gave the opposers time to organize.

Otto von Bismarck

oversaw the unification of Germany and served as its first chancellor. His Realpolitik and firm governance earned him the nickname Iron Chancellor. Conservative, wanted a Kingdom of Germany.

Mikhail Bakunin

Created the concept of anarchism (no government). Kill anyone in power!

Karl Marx

Created and published the Communist Manifesto (constant revolution, about materials not idea) in 1848. Romantic student of Hagel.

Bourgeois

New upper class based on money instead of family.

Proletariat

Working class

Richard Wagner

German composer, conductor, essayist, and theater director who revolutionized opera through his Gesamtkunstwerk concept, or “total work of art”.

The Ring of the Niebelung

a cycle of four German-language epic music dramas composed by Richard Wagner. The works are based loosely on characters from Germanic heroic legend

Frederick Nietzsche

believed that people should create their own values and question everything. He argued that modern society had outgrown belief in God, famously stating “God is dead”. 

Herrenhaus

Upper house of government. based on income

Landtag

Lower house of government. based on income

William I

the first head of state of a united Germany

Wars of Unification

three localized conflicts spanning from 1864 to 1871 that transformed a fractured collection of states into the unified German Empire. Orchestrated by Prussian Chancellor Otto von Bismarck using Realpolitik, these wars successfully established Prussian dominance and united the German-speaking territories.

Schleswig-Holstein Affair

The first of the Wars of Unification.

Helmut von Moltke

Head of Prussian military. Regarded as the creator of a new, more modern method of directing armies in the field

Austro-Prussian War

fought in 1866 between the Austrian Empire and the Kingdom of Prussia, with each also being aided by various allies within the German Confederation.

Battle of Königgrätz

decisive final battle of the Austro-Prussian War in which the Kingdom of Prussia defeated the Austrian Empire.

Ems Dispatch

a telegram wrote on July 13, 1870 to Prussian Chancellor Otto von Bismarck, detailing a meeting between King Wilhelm I and the French ambassador regarding the Spanish succession. Bismarck famously edited and released this telegram to the press, making it seem like an insult to French honor, which provoked France to declare war on Prussia, starting the Franco-Prussian War.

Franco-Prussian War

a coalition of German states led by Prussia defeated France. The war resulted in the creation of a unified Germany.

Unrestricted Submarine Warfare

a naval tactic where submarines sink merchant ships—such as freighters and tankers carrying supplies—without warning, rather than following traditional "cruiser rules" that require searching the vessel and ensuring the safety of the crew

Karl Liebknecht + Rosa Luxemborg

Marxist revolutionary duo who wanted a rebellion with the labor force. put in prison.

Spartacus League

revolutionary Marxist movement in Germany during and immediately after World War I. It was famously led by radical socialists Rosa Luxemburg, Karl Liebknecht

Peace Resolution

passed by the Reichstag, sought a negotiated end to World War I

Treaty of Brest-Litovsk

a separate peace treaty signed on 3 March 1918 between Soviet Russia and the Central Powers, by which Russia withdrew from World War I.

Spring Offensives

a series of massive attacks on the Western Front during World War I. It was Germany’s all-or-nothing attempt to defeat the Allies before fresh U.S. troops arrived in overwhelming numbers.

Prince Max of Baden

briefly served as the last chancellor of the German Empire and minister-president of Prussia.e worked for the welfare of prisoners of war using his international connections.

Dolchstoss

translates to "stab in the back." It refers to the Stab-in-the-back myth, an antisemitic and anti-communist conspiracy theory widely promoted in Germany following World War I.

Kiel Mutiny

The Kiel mutiny was a revolt by sailors of the German High Seas Fleet against the maritime military command in Kiel.

Friedrich Ebert

German politician of the Social Democratic Party who served as the first president of Germany from 1919 until his death in 1925.

Matthias Erzberger

tasked with asking for a cease fire. germany needed soldiers to quell revolutions at home

Free Corps

irregular, right-wing paramilitary volunteer units in Germany. fought against communists and killed Karl Lieb and Rosa Luxem

Weimar Republic

German democratic government that existed from 1919 to 1933. Born from the chaos of World War I

 “Diktat”

. Derived from German and Latin, it is now commonly used to describe any dogmatic, authoritarian rule or order that must be obeyed, even if people disagree with it.

Anschluss

annexation of the Federal State of Austria into Nazi Germany on 12 March 1938. forbidden by the Treaty of Versailles.

Ruhr Crisis

a period of military occupation and severe economic collapse triggered when Germany defaulted on its World War I reparation payments to the Allies

Gustav Stresemann

one of the most stable chancellors

Dawes Plan

It stabilized the German economy through a staggered payment schedule, foreign reorganization of its central bank, and a massive international loan. This allowed Germany to pay the Allies, who in turn paid war debts to the U.S.

Kapp Putsch

a coup committed by right-wing soldiers in Berlin. They overthrew the democratically elected government and replaced it with an authoritarian leadership,

Bauhaus

a revolutionary German art and design school founded by Walter Gropius in 1919. It pioneered a radically new approach to design that unified fine arts with functional craftsmanship and mass production

National Socialist German Workers Party

a far-right, racist, and antisemitic political party that ruled Germany from 1933 to 1945. Led by Adolf Hitler, its totalitarian regime triggered World War II and perpetrated the Holocaust.

Ernst Röhm

German military officer, politician, and a leading member of the Nazi Party. A close friend and early ally of Adolf Hitler.

SA (sturmabteilung)

the original paramilitary wing of the Nazi Party. Known as the "Brownshirts" for their distinctive uniforms, they used violent intimidation, street brawls, and terror tactics to help Adolf Hitler violently rise to power in the 1920s and early 1930s

Heinrich Himmler

the chief architect of the Holocaust. As the head of the SS (Schutzstaffel) and Chief of the German Police, he controlled the Gestapo and directed the network of concentration and extermination camps that murdered six million Jews and millions of others

SS (schutzstaffel)

"Protection Squadron", the major paramilitary organization of the Nazi Party in Nazi Germany. evolved under Heinrich Himmler's leadership into the most powerful and feared branch of the Third Reich

Hermann Göring

one of the primary architects of the Third Reich. He is principally known for founding the Gestapo, commanding the German Air Force (Luftwaffe) during World War II, orchestrating the Holocaust’s economic plunder, and being convicted as a major war criminal at Nuremberg.

Beerhall Putsch

Adolf Hitler entered a beer hall in Munich and fired his pistol at the ceiling, the first step in his planned overthrow of Germany's democratic government. The coup attempt, to be known as the Beer Hall Putsch, fizzled out almost immediately.

Reichstag Fire

arson attack on the Reichstag building, home of the German parliament in Berlin, on Monday, 27 February 1933, precisely four weeks after Adolf Hitler was sworn in as Chancellor of Germany

Presidential Decree for the Protection of the People and the State

Passed just one day after the Reichstag fire, it was used by Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party to suspend civil liberties, eliminate political opposition, and establish a dictatorship

Enabling Law

allowed Chancellor Adolf Hitler's cabinet to enact laws without the involvement of the Reichstag or the president.

Night of the Long Knives

brutal political purge in Nazi Germany from June 30 to July 2, 1934. Chancellor Adolf Hitler, backed by the SS, ordered the extrajudicial execution of his political rivals

League of German Maidens

the female branch of the Hitler Youth in Nazi Germany. Formed in 1930, it was the only legal female youth organization in the Third Reich.

3 Ks (Kinder, Küche, Kirche)

“children, kitchen, church" first used to describe a woman's role in society

Autobahn

the famous German national federal highway system

Four Year Plan

economic program launched by Adolf Hitler in August 1936 to prepare Nazi Germany for war. Directed by Hermann Göring, its primary goals were to achieve economic self-sufficiency (autarky) and to ensure the military was fully prepared for conflict within four years

Confessing Church

a prominent Protestant resistance movement in Nazi Germany. Formed in 1934, it fiercely opposed Adolf Hitler’s attempt to absorb the church into the Nazi state

Dietrich Bonhoeffer

German Lutheran pastor, neo-orthodox theologian and anti-Nazi dissident who was a key founding member of the Confessing Church.

Nuremburg Laws

antisemitic and racist laws enacted in Nazi Germany on September 15, 1935. They stripped German Jews of their citizenship, prohibited intermarriage and sexual relations between Jews and Germans

Reich Citizenship Law

(part of the infamous Nuremberg Laws enacted in September 1935) was a foundational piece of antisemitic and racist legislation in Nazi Germany. It stripped Jews and other minorities of their German citizenship, reduced them to "subjects of the state,"

Kristallnacht

the Night of Broken Glass, a pogrom against Jews carried out by the Nazi Party's Sturmabteilung and Schutzstaffel paramilitary forces along with some participation from the Hitler Youth and German civilians throughout Nazi Germany

Blitzkrieg

a military tactic designed to create overwhelming psychological shock and disorganization by combining speed, surprise, and concentrated firepower

Lebensraum

idea was adopted by Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party to drive military conquests and racial policies during World War II. like biological species, a state requires ample geographic territory and natural resources to survive and thrive.

Festung Europa

Fortress Europe