Transcript Slide 1

Germany
Notes
German Recent History and Government
• After a history of division and two world wars, Germany is
now a unified country.
• In 1914, European national rivalries led to World War I.
Germany and those fighting with her were defeated in 1918.
Germany was blamed for starting the war.
• Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party took power in Germany in
1933.
• Germany invaded Austria, Czechoslovakia, and then Poland
to begin WW2 in 1939.
• Germany and Italy had conquered most of Europe by 1942.
Japan also fought with Germany.
German Recent History and Government
• Over six million Jews and
millions of elderly,
handicapped, and others
were murdered by the
Nazis during the
Holocaust.
• The Allied forces that
eventually defeated Germany
included the United States,
Great Britain (UK) the Soviet
Union, and others.
The Allied leaders –
Winston Churchill, Franklin
D. Roosevelt, and Josef Stalin
German Recent History and Government
• After the war, Germany was divided
into occupation zones. France,
Britain and the US formed a
democratic West Germany, while
the Soviet Union set up a
communist East Germany.
• In 1961, East Germany built the
Berlin Wall to stop East Germans
from escaping into the West. The
East was not as prosperous as the
West.
• In 1989, the wall came down.
Germany experienced reunification
shortly afterward.
Map of Occupied Germany
German Recent History and Government
• Much money has
been spent in recent
years to improve all
of Germany’s
infrastructure.
• Germany is now a
democracy with a
Parliament that
elects a Prime
Minister, called a
Chancellor.
The Bundestag (Parliament) in Berlin
German Culture
• During the 1500s, Germany was the center of the
Reformation, a movement—led by Martin Luther—to
reform Christianity. Reformers were called Protestants.
• Today, many Germans have no religious affiliation
because the Communists suppressed it from 1945 until
1990.
• The Germans began the tradition of the Christmas tree.
Door of the
Schlosskirche
(castle church)
to which Luther
is said to have
nailed his 95
Theses, sparking
the Reformation.
German Culture
•Superhighways called autobahns link German
cities—along with railroads.
•The German
autobahn sign
•A stretch of
the German
autobahn
•Famous German composers: Bach, Beethoven
•Famous German products: BMW, Mercedes,
Volkswagen