In the 4th century, Huns invaded the Gothic kingdom. Vandals, Boynes and Goths among the East Germanic people left their homes and migrated to the west and south. The West Germans, on the other hand, opened up a living place for themselves between the North Sea and the Alps. Six tribes lived in this period, namely Fries, Saxons, Franks, Thuringians, aleman and Bavarians. Clovis, the military leader of the Frankish MaiTam dynasty, and his successors unified the Frankish region around 500 AD, defeated the last Roman governor of Gaul, led the Arreman people by the government, and unified most of the rest of the West Germanic peoples in a kingdom. As Clovis converted to Christianity, Christianity spread throughout the Frankish kingdom. The most important monarch among the Frankish kings is Charlemagne. In 800 AD, he was crowned emperor by the Pope of Rome, with the title "Emperor of Rome". Since then, he has become the emperor of the ancient Roman world and the protector of the Christian church.
Charlemagne Empire includes almost the whole of France, Italy and Central Europe, bounded by Ajd River, Elbe River, Salle River, Danube River and Delaware River. This powerful empire was divided many times during the rule of its successor, and all countries after the division embarked on their own development path. In this way, within a century, Carolingian Empire was divided into Western Frankish Kingdom, Eastern Frankish Kingdom and Bordeaux-Provence-Central Italy Kingdom, thus completing the re-division of Europe politically. This new order laid the foundation for the separation of medieval and modern countries.
The last monarch of Caroline Dynasty died on 9 1 1. The dukes of the Eastern Frankish Kingdom elected Condra as king. The election of Condra I meant the division of the complete Frankish kingdom and the beginning of German history. The language used by the residents of East Franks is "German" (the word comes from diot, meaning human). Since the middle of 10 century, people have called the countries that use this language "German Empire".
Condra I did not establish real kingship against dukes of other tribes. The unification and consolidation of the young German Empire was completed in the hands of his successor Herzogtum Von Sachsen Henry and his son Otto, who were recommended by him and elected by the Duke. Therefore, some people think that the history of Germany began in 9 19, when the cross-interest was to gain the throne of the Eastern Frankish Kingdom and establish the German Kingdom. In 926, Otto I was crowned emperor by the Pope in Rome. As the secular leader of all Christians and the protector of western churches, Otto I ruled the eastern part of the former Charlemagne Empire and most of Italy. This area was later named "German Holy Roman Empire" and lasted for 8 centuries.
After the collapse of German imperial power in the Middle Ages, the value of ancient Greek and Roman culture was rediscovered in Italy. Through the study of classical works in the ancient world, a new relationship has been established between man and god, nature and art, and the literary revival has fundamentally shaken the foundation of feudal rule and church theocracy, greatly developing and spreading new ideas and cultures. In this period of ideological, political, social and religious turmoil, humanists with critical and rationalistic ideas take the lead in opposing the increasingly exposed corruption. It was also at this time that Martin Luther, with his religious piety, launched an attack on the church.
Engels pointed out in "Introduction to Dialectics of Nature" that the Reformation and Renaissance "are the greatest and most progressive changes that mankind has never experienced, and it is an era when giants are needed and produced-giants with thinking ability, enthusiasm and personality, versatility and erudition." Martin Luther is such a giant, a heroic fighter fighting for Germany's independence and freedom. 1534, Luther translated all the Bible into German. "It has become a book for the people, a book that is truly meaningful in life, and a book that popularizes the whole society." Thus providing the public with a useful weapon against exploitation and oppression.
The most glorious period in German cultural history is the period of classical humanism, that is, from the birth of Lessing (1729) to the death of Goethe (1832). The Enlightenment, which originated in France, opposed faith with reason and religion with science, and became the forerunner of bourgeois political revolution, eventually involving all European scholars. /kloc-In the second half of the 0/8th century, the Enlightenment also rose in Germany, but because there was no political and economic goal for all German people at that time, the idea of this movement could not become a political reality. When the tyrant was in power, Germany was torn apart by countless small countries, and the profound contradictions in Germany's ideological and political life still played a decisive role. It is also in this case that German classical humanism has formed its own unique tradition.
Lessing was a major thinker during the German Enlightenment. He struggled for a long time to establish realistic literature and drama of the German nation, to eliminate the influence of court nobles and blindly worship French classicism. His aesthetic works "laocoon" and "Hamburg Drama Review" laid the foundation of German realistic literary theory. Its theory and creation embody the spirit of bourgeois democracy and have a great influence on the development of German culture.
From 65438 to 1960s, as the continuation and development of the Enlightenment, a violent movement arose in German literary circles. The poet Goethe is the standard-bearer of this movement, and the philosopher Herder is the spiritual leader of this movement. The main characteristics of the wave movement are: first, it advocates giving full play to people's subjective initiative and realizing personality liberation; Second, it advocates "genius" and thinks that "genius" embodies the perfect image of full development of personality; Third, advocate "return to nature" and coexist with nature. These are undoubtedly anti-feudal progressive tendencies. During this period, the young Ge created the novel Young Werther, which made him famous all over the world. Young Schiller wrote The Robber and Conspiracy and Love, which pushed the drama of the soaring movement to a new stage. The great works created by these two geniuses at that time and later became the theme and soul of German literature.
After Stourm and Delong, German classical philosophy was born. Its most famous representatives are Kant, Fichte and Hegel. Kant defined his philosophy as critical philosophy. To some extent, his philosophy summed up the positive achievements of human history, fundamentally subverted the metaphysical way of thinking that ruled Europe for 300 years, and opened the way for German classical philosophy to develop cognitive dialectics. Fichte, starting from Kant's philosophy, cleansed the materialistic elements in Kant's philosophy, that is, "things are in themselves", grasped the "self-awareness" or "self-thinking" in Kant's philosophy, and developed it into a subjective idealism system of "knowledge". So Hegel said, "Fichte's philosophy is the completion of Kant's philosophy." The second kind of qualification is the epitome of German classical idealism dialectics. His philosophy started directly from the philosophy of Kant, Fichte, Schelling and others, and formed and developed in the criticism of their philosophy. His thought about the dialectical development of nature, society and human thinking is the reasonable core of his "absolute idealism" system. Engels therefore commented, "Hegel first described the whole natural, historical and spiritual world as a process, that is, it was in the process of continuous movement, change, transformation and development, and attempted to reveal the internal relationship between this movement and development."
German classical philosophy is one of the sources of Marxist theory. Marx and Engels critically transformed German classical philosophy, especially Hegel's and Feuerbach's philosophy, absorbed the "reasonable core" of Hegel's philosophy and the "basic core" of Feuerbach's philosophy, and founded the theory of historical materialism, namely Marxist philosophy, which revolutionized philosophical thinking. They wrote their thoughts on historical philosophy, social analysis and politics into the manifesto and wage labor and capital, and further enriched and developed these thoughts in Das Kapital.
German classical humanism has also created German music, a valuable world wealth. Bach and Gandel, the representatives of baroque music, and Gluck and Beethoven, the representatives of classical music, are world-class music masters.
From 1970, romanticism began to permeate the spiritual life of Germany. In literature and art, romanticism rebelled against classical humanism. Of course, German romanticism goes far beyond the scope of literature and aesthetics, affecting almost all fields such as science, language, economy and even politics, and has a far-reaching impact on the later historical process of Germany. The main representatives of German romanticism are schlegel Brothers, Tick, Novalis, Hoffman, Kleist, eichendorff and Green Brothers, and of course, the poet Heine. 1833, Heine published his aesthetic masterpiece "On Romanticism", summarizing the romanticism that has actually declined.
After the Franco-Prussian War, Prussia completed the unification of Germany and established the German Empire in 187 1. This is the masterpiece of Bismarck, the "bloody prime minister", and it is also a historical fact of great significance in the second half of the19th century. When the empire was founded, the vast majority of German residents still lived and worked in rural areas and small and medium-sized cities. With the rapid development of industry and agriculture and the acceleration of urbanization, great changes have taken place in the occupational structure and social structure of residents. By the end of 19 and the beginning of the 20th century, Germany had caught up with the leading position of Britain in industrial production, and the total industrial and agricultural production had surpassed Britain, ranking second in the world after the United States.
Bismarck's tyranny eventually led to his ouster by the young emperor in 1890. In his last years in power, Germany's domestic political life became rigid; The increasing development of science and industry also requires the society to take the road of democracy and parliament. 1896, Bismarck, who was over eighty years old, visited Hamburg Port, where there were many masts and city walls, and countless giant pens of China machines were waving freely. Facing the busy scene in front of him, the old man exclaimed, "This is a brand-new and changed world, a new era!" "
From the second half of the19th century to the100th year, the German state played an increasingly noticeable role on the world stage. Inheriting the spirit and tradition of a great nation, many admirable philosophers, politicians, industrialists, scientists and artists have emerged in this fertile land of Germany. With unremitting struggle and extraordinary achievements, they have made outstanding contributions to the progress of the whole human history.