Timeline of German History - 1870-1919

1870-1919

• 1870 - Franco-Prussian War; defeat of France; Alsace-Lorraine acquired
• 1871 - German Empire (Second Reich) merges all German states except Austria
  • - King Wilhelm I of Prussia becomes German Emperor ("Kaiser"); his policies are largely controlled by Bismarck
• 1871-90 - Otto von Bismarck (1815–98) as powerful Chancellor of Germany

• 1871-80 - Bismarck launches Kulturkampf to weaken the Catholic Church and bring it under his control; half the bishops are imprisoned or driven to exile. But 37% of the people are Catholic and they form their Centre Party. Bismarck finally reverses when secularists and Socialists take the opportunity to attack all religion. The Catholics then support Bismarck's policies.
• 1873 - League of the Three Emperors, alliance with Austria and Russia
• 1875-1955 - Novelist Thomas Mann
• 1878 - Congress of Berlin
• 1879 - Dual Alliance with Austria

• 1879-1955 - Physicist Albert Einstein; to U.S. in 1933
• 1880s - British Prime Minister William E. Gladstone calls for an idealistic "Concert of Europe"—a peaceful European order that overcomes traditional rivalries by emphasizing cooperation over conflict, mutual trust over suspicion. He proposes that the rule of law should supplant the reign of force and begger-thy-neighbor policies. However, he was outmaneuvered by Bismarck's realistic system of "realpolitik" using manipulated alliances and antagonisms.
• 1882 - Triple Alliance with Austria and Italy lasts until 1914; stands opposed to Triple Entente of Britain, France and Russia
• 1884 - Berlin Conference
• 1886 - automobiles with gasoline-powered internal combustion engines produced independently by Carl Benz and Gottlieb Daimler
• 1887 - Reinsurance Treaty
• 1888 - Year of Three Emperors
• 1889-1945 - Adolf Hitler; Chancellor 1933-45
• 1890 - Heligoland-Zanzibar Treaty. Germany gained control of a strategic island near its main seaports, and gained agreement on its colonial holdings in Africa, while turning its Zanzibar colony over to Britain.
• 1891 Foundation of the Alldeutscher Verband
• 1892 Rudolf Diesel (1858-1913) invents Diesel engine
• 1896 Kruger telegram