The following information is not only interesting but you may
find it helpful conducting German research.
The information was taken from the book, The German Research
Companion, by S. Riemer, R. Minert, and J. Anderson.
Chronology of Events in German History
1000-100 B.C.: The
Germani tribes occupy the lands from the Baltic Sea to the Danube River, and
from the Rhine to the Order River.
9 B.C.- 9 A.D. The
Romans move eastward to the Elbe River. In 9 A.D. they withdraw to the Rhine.
481-511: The
king of the Franks, Clovis, establishes the Frankish Empire.
768-814: Charlemagne
(Karl der Grobe) rules what is to become the Holy Roman Empire.
800: Charlemagne
crowned in Rome as emperor of the Holy Roman Empire of the German Nation.
843: Treaty
of Verdun; empire divided among Charlemagne's three grandsons; Charles the Bold
– West Franks; Louis the German – East Franks, (nucleus of the future German
state); Lothar – Middle Kingdom (Alsace-Lorraine)
919-1024: German
tribes unified.
925: Lorraine
becomes a German duchy.
936-973: Otto
I rules.
962: Otto
I crowned (Holy Roman) Emperor in Rome, founding Holy Roman Empire of the
German Nation, lasting until 1806.
1000-1500: Jewish
expulsions: from German areas (1000-1350), from Hungary (1300's), and from
Austria (1400's).
1096: Beginning
of first Crusade
1123-24: Plague
sweeps France and Germany.
1141-81: “Saxons”
(mostly Franks) invited to settle in Transylvania to defend Hungary's eastern
border.
1152-90: Reign
of Frederick I (Barbarossa), of the Hobenstaufen dynasty, who converts the
Slavs to Christianity. Age of chivalry.
1190: Teutonic
Order founded.
1200: Early
Gothic period begins (Rheims, Cologne, constructed).
1241: Hanseatic League formed.
1273-1806: Hapsburg
dynasty begins; ends with abolition of Holy Roman Empire by Napoleon in 1806.
1348-65: More
than 25 million Europeans die in the Bubonic plague.
1356: The
Golden Bull, an ecclesiastic document, laid down rules for election of the
king, to be elected in Frankfurt and crowned in Aachen.
1417: Frederick
of Nurnberg of Hohenzollern family appointed Elector of Brandenburg.
1440: In
Mainz, Johann Gutenberg invents the art of printing with moveable type.
1500: Surnames
are in common use throughout German territories of Europe by 1500.
1517: Protestant
Reformation begins; Luther said to have fastened 95 theses on Wittenberg church
door. First significant non-Catholic religions among Germanic people.
1518-23: Ulrich
Zwingli begins Reformation in Switzerland, leading to formation of Reformed
(Calvinist) Church.
1520: Anabaptist
movement develops in Switzerland and Germany.
1521: Luther’s
arrest by Charles V, for Diet of Worms. Luther translates New Testament into
German, devising new written form of German.
1524-26: Peasants
Revolt. Peasants influenced by Luther's teachings rise up against their feudal
overlords and 5,000 peasants are massacred.
1524: Protestant
church records begin in Nurnberg.
1530: Augsburg
Confession (creed) adopted by Lutherans.
1534: A
standardized German language is established with the publication of the Old
Testament in Luther's translation of the Bible from Hebrew and Greek into
vernacular German.
1536: Menno
Simons leaves the Church and begins “Mennonite” preaching.
1541: Reformation
introduced in Switzerland by John Calvin.
1545: Catholic
Counter-Reformation begins.
1555:
Peace of Augsburg: Doctrine of cuius regio, eius religion adopted,
meaning that the religion of the prince determined the religion (Catholic or
Lutheran) of his subjects.
1556: Palatinate
becomes Lutheran.
1562: Wars
of Religion in France between Catholics and French Calvinists (Huguenots, of
French “Reformed” faith).
1563: The
rulings of the Catholic Council of Trent require priests to include more detail (principally the names of
sponsors and witnesses) in the baptism and marriage records they are already
keeping.
1568: Protestants
in the Spanish Netherlands, including Belgium, are persecuted by the Duke of
Alva. Waloon Calvinists flee, especially
to the Palatinate, Hessen, and Brandenburg; Dutch Flemish-Frisian Mennonites
flee to Danzig area.
1583: Gregorian
calendar is adopted by most Catholic countries of Europe – by Prussia in 1612,
by most Protestant countries in 1700, by Great Britain in 1752, and by Russia
in 1917.
1598: In
France, Edict of Nantes gives Huguenots political and some religious rights in
some places.
1618-48: Thirty
Years War devastates Holy Roman Empire. France emerges as Europe's leading
power. Some records are burned. Population drops from 20 million to 13 million.
1622: Pfalz
suffers great destruction in the war. January 1 declared as beginning of the
year(previously began March 25).
1633: Outbreak
of plague in Bavaria.
1639-60: Grain
crisis in Europe.
1648: Peace
of Westphalia ends Thirty Years War. Holy Roman Empire dissolved. France gets
Alsace-Lorraine. By this time, there are 350 different German states.
Switzerland officially recognized as independent from the Holy Roman Empire.
Reformed Church members granted same rights as those Lutherans had been granted
almost 100 years earlier.
1650: Essentially
all Catholic and Protestant churches are keeping vital records in the
German-language territories of Europe.
1652: Famine
in Lorraine and surrounding lands.
1653: Germans
from Heidelberg introduce vineyards and wine making to America.
1654: Spain
occupies Palatinate.
1671-77: William
Penn first visits Germany to propagate Quaker faith.
1681: William
Penn founds Pennsylvania.
1683: First
permanent German settlement in the United States is founded at Germantown,
Pennsylvania. Encouraged by American Quaker William Penn, Franz Daniel
Pastorius organizes the immigration of 13 Mennonite families from Krefeld, beginning
German group immigration to North America.
1685: King
Louis XIV of France revokes the Edict of Nantes (see 1598). Persecution and
forcible conversion of Huguenots (French Protestants) causes flight to
Switzerland, Germany, the Netherlands, Great Bititian, and North America. Friedrich Wilhelm, the Great Elector, helps
many immigrants to Brandenburg.
1687-97: Invasion
of France into the Palatinate.
1689-97: War
of the League of Augsburg results in French burning down many towns in the
Palatinate and mass flight of the population.
1694: Johann
Kelpius leads a group of German mystics to America and forms a brotherhood on
Wissahickon Creek near Philadelphia.
1700: The
last German Protestant areas finally switch to the Gregorian calendar.
1701: Frederick
III, elector of Brandenburg, renames his duchy the Kingdom of Prussia, and he
becomes King Frederick I.
1701-14: War
of Spanish Succession; Palatines leave for England.
1708: Joshua
Kocherthal brings 61 Protestant emigrants from Rhenish Palatinate to America.
1709: Thousands
more of the Palatine Germans, fleeing destruction caused by the invading
French, emigrate to the Hudson River Valley and Pennsylvania. Large numbers of emigrants, called Palatines
(Pfalzer), leave the Pfalz region of Germany for England and America.
1710: A
group of German and Swiss immigrants settle New Bern, North Carolina.
1710-11: First
relatively large-scale immigration of Swiss and Palatines to American colonies.
1711: An
estimated 500,000 die of plague in Austria and German areas.
1714: Christopher
von Graffenried brings miners from Siegen, Westphalia to Virginia to work
Governor Spotswood's iron mines.
1719: Peter
Becker brings the first German Baptist “Dunkers” to Germantown. The sect's
founder, Alexander Mack, comes to America with another group ten years later.
1727: The
German population of Pennsylvania numbers around 20,000.
1727: Beginning
of Philadelphia port records.
1722: Austria-Hungarian
monarchs begin inviting Germans to settle parts of their empire.
1730: Beginning
of community at Ephrata (Pennsylvania)
1731-38: Expulsion
of Salzburg Protestants, some of whom come to America, most going to East
Prussia and other European areas.
1732: Benjamin
Franklin publishes the first German language newspaper in America, the Philadelphische
Zeitung.
1732: Conrad
Beissel, a Seventh Day Dunker from the Palatinate, founds the Ephrata Cloisters
near Lancaster, Pennsylvania.
1733: Members
of the Schwenkfelder sect from Silesia settle in Montgomery County,
Pennsylvania.
1734: Refugees
from Salzburg arrive in Savannah, Georgia.
1736: The
Herrnhuters, or Moravians, found their first settlement, in Georgia, under the
leadership of August Gottlieb Spangenberg.
1740-86: Under
Frederick II of Prussia(Frederick the Great), Prussia becomes a great power.
1740-48: War
of Austrian Succession between Prussia and Austria; Prussia wins new
territories, thus becoming a major European power.
1742: Silesia
becomes part of Prussia in the war with Austria.
1742: Nikolaus
Lugwig, Count of Zinzendorf and Pottendorf, founds the Moravian settlement of
Bethlehem, Pennsylvania.
1743: Christopher
Saur of Philadelphia prints a German-language Bible; the first complete Bible
published in America.
1748: George
Washington first encounters German immigrants in the Shenandoah Valley.
1749: Settlement
of New Germantown(Braintree), Massachusetts.
1749-53: Peak
of Germanic immigration to colonial America, mostly from near the Rhine Valley
about 1750.
1750: Beginning
of Pennsylvania-German emigration to North Carolina. Also, the first Germans arrive in Nova
Scotia.
1753: Europeans
found the town of Lunenburg, to become the most important ship-building center
of Nova Scotia. Moravians begin settlement on the Wachovia tract, North
Carolina.
1754: The
Schwenkfelder sect of Pennsylvania establishes the first Sunday School in
America.
1755: Beginning
of French and Indian War.
1756-63: Germans
play a significant role in fighting the French in the French and Indian War.
1756-63: Seven
Years War. An Anglo-Prussian alliance faces off against a coalition of Austria,
Saxony, France, and Russia. Prussia wins more territory and goes on to become a
great power.
1759: Michael
Hillegas opens America's first music store in Philadelphia
1763: Catherine
the Great begins inviting Germans to settle in Russia, granting them free land,
freedom from military service, and many other special privileges.
1764-67: Heavy
immigration of Germans to Volga River region in Russia.
1766: France
acquires Lorraine.
1771: Patronymic
naming system is to be abolished in Schleswig-Holstein.
1772-95: Partition
of Poland by Russia, Prussia, and Austria in three stages; 1772, 1793, and
1795. Poland disappears as an independent country until 1918.
1775-83: American
Revolution, with independence declared in 1776; 30,000 Hessian and other German
mercenaries fight for Great Britain. Thousands remain in United States and
Canada.
1776: Henry
Miller's Staatsbote is first American newspaper to print news of the
Declaration of Independence.
1778: General
Friedrich Wilhelm von Steuben takes over the training of the Continental Army.
1781: Palatine
emigration (since 1709) to U.S. Continues.
1781: Freedom
of Religion guaranteed in Austria, opening the way for immigration of
Protestants.
1781-1864: Feudalism
is phased out in northern Europe. Key dates: Austria (1781, again in 1848 after
being reinstituted); France (1789); Prussia (1807); all German territory (by
1848); Hungary (1853-54); Russia (1861); Russian Poland and Romania (1854).
1782-87: Heavy
German immigration to Danube region of southern Hungary, Galicia and Bukovina,
all recently acquired by Austria under Emperor Joseph II
1783: German
is decreed as the language of all church records in Austria (replacing Latin in
many cases).
1783: German
Loyalists settle in Upper Canada, where the town of Berlin (whose name was
changed to Kitchener during World War I) would become the center of a
predominately German area
1785-1844: Jews
required to adopt family names in all Austrian-ruled lands except Hungary (178587),
in France and Germany (1802-12), and in Russia and Poland (1844).
1786: German
Mennonites from Pennsylvania begin to emigrate to Ontario, more heavily
after 1807.
1789: Paris
mob storms Bastille; Declaration of Rights of Man and of Citizens is
published. French Revolution begins.
1789: Frederick
Augustus Muhlenberg becomes fist Speaker of United States House of
Representatives.
1789-1824: Heaviest
German immigration to Black Sea region of Russia (now Ukraine).
1789-1917: Jews
emancipated, being granted equality by law in France (1789), Prussia (1850);
Austria-Hungarian Empire (1867); Germany (1871); Switzerland (1874) and Russia
(1917)
1792: France
starts civil registration in German territories west of the Rhein.
1792: French
Republican Calendar begins, used 8-13 years in some areas.
1792-1815: Napoleonic
wars against revolutionary France by Prussia, Austria and other countries.
Napoleon forces end Holy Roman Empire in 1806. Hapsburg family continues to
rule Austria, but no longer influential in German lands. Rhenish Confederation
founded in 1806.
1794: Changing
of surnames is forbidden in Prussia.
1795: Franco-Prussian
War. Prussia defeated.
1798: Switzerland
declares neutrality.
1800: Industrial
Revolution underway.
