The discovery of America (1492) and the Reformation (1517) were particularly decisive for the demarcation of modern times from the Middle Ages. Both events are also of fundamental importance to German history. The overseas discoveries and the overseas trade that followed turned Germany into a hinterland and made it economically backward compared to Western Europe. The Reformation split the German states into Catholic and Protestant states, thereby completely cementing the fragmentation of the empire. Economic and political weakness made Germany vulnerable to foreign influence or even paternalism.
A characteristic of this epoch is princely absolutism. In place of the medieval feudal system, whose intricate system had granted many freedoms, he replaced the unified official state of the sovereign regiment. “Princely arbitrariness” bred a “submissive spirit” that was often strangely connected with “love and loyalty to the ancestral dynasty”.
Luther’s critique of the religion of the church of that time, which was concerned with outward appearances, became a reform of the faith. It quickly found followers all over Germany and was adopted by numerous imperial estates (princes and imperial cities). They laid down their new confession in the Augsburg Confession in 1530.
Reformation and Counter-Reformation – 1517-1648
Although Emperor Charles V (1519-56) possessed an empire on which “the sun never set”, he was unsuccessful in suppressing the new movement. He was too busy with the wars against France or the Turks, and finally, the resistance of the German princes to his superiority became too great. At the Diet of Augsburg (1555), the Augsburg Confession was finally recognized as equal to the Catholic Confession.
At the Council of Trent (1545-63) the Catholic Church opposed its doctrine to Protestantism and consolidated its organization. In the Jesuit order, from 1540 onwards, the papacy gained a skillful and indefatigable champion. The Counter-Reformation stopped Protestantism or even pushed it back. When in 1618 the Protestant estates in Bohemia rose up against the later Emperor Ferdinand II and a year later elected the Protestant Friedrich V of the Palatinate as king, the religious and political differences led to war.
In this Thirty Years’ War (1618-48), which devastated and depopulated large areas, Germany lost important areas in the north and west to the intervention of Sweden and France.
The Peace of Westphalia (1648) finally decided on the distribution of denominations in Germany: Catholicism in the south, Protestantism in the north, and a mixture in the west. Emperor and empire had to cede almost all sovereignty to the imperial estates. Most of them were of no weight at all because of their small size, but even the larger ones were subject to foreign influence. French politics, culture, and even language, prevailed at the courts; the princes imitated the “Sun King” Louis XIV, both in the absolutist form of government and in the construction of magnificent baroque palaces. Only narrow, modest conditions were granted to the people and to German intellectual life.
Rise of Austria and Prussia – 1648-1786
France used its superiority to expand further in Alsace and Lorraine. Alsace stayed with him too. Russia entered the ranks of European powers with Peter the Great (1682-1725) and his victory over Sweden. His pressure on Sweden and Poland enabled Brandenburg to expand to the Baltic Sea.
Brandenburg-Prussia had already expanded considerably under the Great Elector Friedrich Wilhelm (1640-88) and freed itself from Polish feudal sovereignty in Prussia. In 1701 Frederick III. was king of Prussia. The “soldier king” Friedrich Wilhelm I (1713-40) turned the country into a powerful military and civil service state. His son Frederick the Great (1740-86) took Silesia from Austria in 1740 and maintained it in the Seven Years’ War (1756-63) against the overwhelming coalition of Austria, France, and Russia. Prussia had become a great power. In addition, the figure of Frederick aroused German national pride, and his style of “enlightened absolutism” caused admiration and imitation.
Austria had already risen to become a major power before Prussia in countless battles against the Turks, who had already extended their empire to Hungary by the time of Charles V. In 1683 they even besieged Vienna, but in vain. Since then, Austria has been counterattacked, with Prince Eugene taking Hungary and Transylvania from the Turks (Peace of Karlowitz, 1699). However, Maria Theresa (1740-80) then had to cede Silesia to Prussia and recognize it as an equal power.
In the 18th century, the German bourgeoisie gained importance. Spiritual life grew out of it, starting with the pan-European Enlightenment, to the height of German Classicism and Romanticism. During the time of Goethe (1749-1832) German poetry, music, and philosophy gained international recognition.
Revolutionary Period – 1789-1815
The French Revolution (1789) brought about a social upheaval in France and a political upheaval in Germany. Aided by the fact that Prussia and Austria, together with Russia, were engaged in the progressive division of Poland (1772, 1793, and 1795), the French Republic conquered the German territories up to the Rhine in 1792-97. The German princes affected by this were to receive compensation in the rest of Germany. A resolution (1803) handed over all spiritual dominions to them (secularization, ie secularization), as well as most of the imperial cities and small secular dominions. The states of Bavaria, Baden, Württemberg, Hesse-Kassel, and Nassau were greatly enlarged; but this was only enough to make them more powerful vassals of Napoleon in the “Confederation of the Rhine” (1806)
The “Princes of the Confederation of the Rhine” formally withdrew from the empire. Emperor Franz II laid down the German imperial crown. As a precaution, he had already accepted the title of Emperor of Austria in 1804 as Franz I. In 1806-07 Napoleon overthrew Prussia and extended his dominion to the Elbe. But Prussia went down the road of internal renewal, and the French predominance stirred up German patriotism. When Napoleon was defeated in Russia in 1812, first Prussia rose up against him in 1813, followed soon by Austria, and finally, the states of the Confederation of the Rhine also took part in the German wars of liberation. In alliance with Russia and England, the Napoleonic Empire was overthrown in 1813-15. The Congress of Vienna (1814-15) gave Germany a new constitution.
