Military history of Germany

The military history of Germany covers more than one millenium of Histoire through the Germany, the Europe and the old colonies German.

While the German language has a secular long story, the Germany as a State-nation goes up only with 1871, creation date of the German Empire. The first periods are still prone to discussions on their definition. The Frank, for example, were a union of Germanic tribes, however some Francs were identified later like Dutch, Flemish, French or Germans. The capital of the medieval empire of Charlemagne was the town of Aachen, area maintaining in Germany whereas it was however frank. France was baptized name of the Francs and the Dutchmen and Flemings are the only ones to speak a language which goes down from the franque language. Consequently almost all the continental countries of Western Europe can claim the heritage of Charlemagne. The Saint Germanic Roman Empire which it founded was not mainly even if not completely of German language. The Prussia, which unified Germany at the 19th century, had a significant part of the territory of current the Poland. At the beginning of the 19th century, the philosopher Friedrich Schlegel referred in Germany under the term of Kulturnation , a nation with the same culture but divided politically as into ancient Greece.

Early for the ancient medieval periods, the Germanic tribes did not have any written language. What we know of their military history comes from reports/ratios written in Latin and from the Archéologie. This leaves important remote regions. The Germanic wars against the Romains are rather well documented but with the point of view Roman and thus subjective. The Germanic Guerres against the Celtes remain however mysterious because no sides kept writings of the events.

Prehistory and Antiquity

It is thought that the Germanic tribes come from the Scandinavian Bronze Age in the Germany of north and the Scandinavia of the south. The tribes moved in the south, possibly moved by the deteriorating climate of their fatherland. It crossed the river Elba, probably conquering the territories of the Volcae Celtique in the basin of the Weser. The Romains recorded one of these migrations early when the Cimbres and the Teutons threatened the Republic oneself towards the end of second century BC In the east, other tribes like the Goths, the Ruges, and the Vandales settled at the edge of the the Baltic, pushing in the south and finally settling until the Ukraine. The Angles and the Saxons emigrated with the England. The Germanic Peuples often had a report/ratio tended with its neighbors, driving with more than two millenia of military conflict on dissensions territorial, religious, ideological, and economic.

The Saint Worsens Roman Germanic

The Seven Year old war

Napoleonean wars

See also: Napoleonean Wars, Cross of iron

The period of the Napoleonean Guerres put an end to the Saint Germanic Roman Empire and created new States of German language which will form modern Germany thereafter. Napoleon i reorganized certain smaller States of German language in the Confédération of the Rhine after the Bataille of Austerlitz of 1805 but neither the Prussia nor the Austria, the two greater States of German language, belonged to this confederation.

Frederic-Guillaume III of Prussia saw the confederation of the Rhine like a threat with the Prussian interests and was combined there to deal with Napoleon. The reputation of the Prussian army was remained important after the Guerre Seven Year old but the Tactique S soldiers had not evolved/moved and were always primarily based on foreign mercenaries. The lack of military reforms was disastrous. The Prussian defeats with Iéna and Auerstadt led to the reduction by half of the size of the country.

Demoralized Prussia pointed out its important general Gebhard Leberecht von Blücher out of the retirement and it reorganized the army. The Prussian military reforms were carried out by Gerhard von Scharnhorst and August von Gneisenau. They converted the professional army into an army based on the National service. They brought younger officers, a higher rate of mobilization, new a État-major centralized and improved the tactics overall.

It is in 1813 that military decoration Croix of iron was established like military honors by the king Frederic-Guillaume III. It will become later the symbol of the German army.

After the defeat of Napoleon in Russia, Prussia and some other States German joined the forces anti-Frenchwomen in the Sixth coalition. A decisive victory over France with Leipzig was gained and forced the abdication of Napoleon. In spite of the provisions of the Congress of Vienna, Napoleon will return and be definitively demolishes with the Bataille of Waterloo in 1815.

German Empire

First World War

The Weimar Republic and Third Reich

See also: Weimar Republic, Third Reich, Anschluss, Treated of Versailles (1919), Treated of Versailles, Pan-Germanism

My watchword: " To destroy by all the means. National-socialisme will reorganize the monde". | Adolf Hitler, 1933.

The Traité of Versailles imposed important restrictions on the German military force. The army was limited to: 100000 men with: 15000 additional men in the Navy. The fleet was composed of 6 Cuirassé S, 6 Croiseur S and 12 Destroyer S . The units of tanks, the heavy Artillery and the Air force had been dissolved. However, these men were very qualified officers and they will become the commanders of the troops during the war. The army of post-war period, the Reichswehr, had been established the March 23rd 1921. The Conscription was removed under another mandate of the treaty of Versailles. The treaty also forced Germany, which was recognized as responsible for the war, to pay billion Dollar S in the War reparations. Occupation of the Rhineland by the French forces and Belgian allowed not Germany to be able to pay its debt. Adolf Hitler, already at the origin of the Putsch of the brewery, a Coup d'etat missed, gathers the Germanic people by developing an authoritative ideology and perceptible Fasciste of its work Mein Kampf . The Pan-Germanism as well as the Anger and the Ressentiment of the treaty of Versailles was even one of the cause of sound arrived at the capacity.

The Weimar Republic mainly obeyed the restrictions of Versailles. The economic problems of repairs, the Hyperinflation and the Grande Depression also made the expenditure military difficult. However, the German armed forces maintained their strong bodies of officers in place.

The mode Nazi began remilitarization, discreetly at the beginning of the Années 1930. The German armed forces take the name of Wehrmacht of 1935 with 1945. The Heer was encouraged to try out techniques of combat based on a thorough mobility associating tanks and motorized Infanterie according to the ideas of Heinz Guderian. Later, with the addition of an air support, this technique will be known under the name of “ Blitzkrieg ”. Germany will innovate by organizing its tanks in regiments and either in simple brigade. The Kriegsmarine started again the construction of ships and Hitler created the Luftwaffe, a Air force with the command independent of the Army.

In same time, organizations Paramilitary S related to the party Nazi like the Sturmabteilung (SA) and the Schutzstaffel (S) develop in Germany, they have even military branches like the Waffen-SS. Some high-graded such as the Reichsführer - S Heinrich Himmler, have also military functions of importance.

In 1936, the German troops went on the the demilitarized Rhineland. Then, the March 12th 1938, the Austria is annexed by Germany in the Anschluss , the Sudètes in the October 1938 and finally the remainder of the grounds of Czechoslovakia in the form of protectorate in March 1939. The too weak Société of the Nations at the time could not stop that and in the fear of another world war, taken not decision.

Preparing the war, the Pacte Molotov-Ribbentrop is signed the August 23rd 1939 between the Foreign Ministers of the Third Reich, Joachim von Ribbentrop, and of the Soviet Union, Viatcheslav Molotov. In addition to the clause of “not aggression”, it poses the principle of the division of the Polish territory and a collaboration between the two dictatorships in spite of the opposite ideologies.

The Second world war

Cold war

Among the legacies of the era Nazi Procès of Nuremberg of 1945 with 1949 was the . This one established the concept of War crime in the international law and created a precedent to continue the future war criminals.

After the Second world war, the Eastern borders of the State German were appreciably modified as the treaty of rendering stipulated it. Prussia and other parts of the East of Germany were used to form a news Poland of which part of its original territory was incorporated in the the USSR. The remainder of Germany was divided into four zones of occupation: Soviet (later Russian), American, a Frenchwoman and a British just like the capital Berlin in spite of the discontinuity of the zones.

In 1949 the West Germany was formed of the French, British and American zones, whereas the Soviet zone formed the German Democratic republic. The Western territory of Germany fell naturally under protection from the Organization from the treaty from the North Atlantic (NATO) whereas the Eastern State united the Warsaw Pact. Each State had its own military force modelled according to the countries of their sphere of influence. Divisions continued until in 1990 where the two States were joined together.

The Bundeswehr was created in 1955 in West Germany. In 1956, the Conscription for all the men between 18 and 45 years was adopted after long discussions on the remilitarization of Germany. A significant exception in that came from the West German constitution. Indeed, the West Germany was the first country to grant an alternative civil service to all the men who opposed to the military service for reasons morals, independently of the religious affiliation . During the cold war, Bundeswehr had a force of: 495000 military personnel and: 170000 civilians. It was made up of three bodies with 12 divisions.

The majority of the experts of the Cold war regarded Germany as one of the place most likely to see the advent of a third world war and probably Nucléaire. The tensions were with highest in 1948 at the time of the Blocus of Berlin where the USSR and the German Democratic republic closed all the roads with the provisioning for West Berlin. A “Airlift” allied supported the population and avoided a new war. The construction of the Berlin Wall in 1961 began little from time after the unloading of the Baie of the Pigs and preceded the Crise by the missiles by Cuba.

In East Germany, the National popular army was founded on March 1st 1956. In 1987 with the apogee of its power, it counted: 175300 soldiers of which roughly the half were soldiers of career.