| 1914 |
|
First World War - Germany/Austria vs Britain/France/Russia |
| 1916 |
|
Albert Einstein publishes General Theory of Relativity |
| 1916 |
|
Inconclusive battles at Verdun and Somme in France |
| 1916 |
|
Tristan Tzara develops Dada art movement |
| 1918 |
|
End of First World War (25m killed) - Versailles Conference |
| 1919 |
|
Treaty of Versailles - Germany loses annexed lands and colonies |
| 1919 |
|
Germany proclaimed a republic |
| 1919 |
|
Bauhaus art movement developed by architect Walter Gropius |
| 1923 |
|
Arnold Schoenberg develops 12-tone system of music |
| 1925 |
|
Franz Kafka writes "The Trial" |
| 1926 |
|
German physicist Werner Heisenberg develops his uncertainty principle |
| 1926 |
|
Death of Rainer Maria Rilke (poet) |
| 1927 |
|
Werner Heisenberg publishes treatise on Uncertainty Principle |
| 1929 |
|
Kurt Weill writes "Threepenny Opera" |
| 1933 |
|
Adolph Hitler becomes dictator after coup |
| 1935 |
|
Germany under Hitler begins persecution of Jews (6m killed) |
| 1938 |
|
Hitler siezes Austria (Anschluss) and Czechoslovakia |
| 1939 |
|
Britain and France enter Second World War after Hitler invades Poland |
| 1939 |
|
Discovery of nuclear fission by German physicists Hahn, Meitner, Strassmann and Frisch |
| 1941 |
|
Germany invades Russia - Russia enters Second World War |
| 1942 |
|
British army under Montgomery drives Germans out of Egypt |
| 1945 |
|
Germany surrenders - end of Second World War (45m killed) |
| 1946 |
|
Nuremburg War Crimes Tribunal |
| 1949 |
|
West Germany declared a republic - Konrad Adenauer becomes Chanceller |
| 1955 |
|
Death of Albert Einstein, German-born physicist |
| 1961 |
|
Berlin Wall built between East and West Germany |
| 1969 |
|
Willi Brandt becomes German Chanceller |
| 1972 |
|
Treaty recognizes East and West Germany as sovereign states |
| 1976 |
|
Baader-Meinhof Gang (leftist terrorists) active in Germany |
| 1980 |
|
Relations between East and West Germany deteriorate |
| 1983 |
|
Helmut Kohl becomes German Chancellor |
| 1989 |
|
Berlin Wall demolished |
| 1990 |
|
East and West Germany unite as Federal Republic of Germany |
| 1998 |
|
German chancellor Helmut Kohl defeated by Gerhard Schröder |
