Evidence from the Paleolithic in what is now Germany suggests an early settlement by Homo heidelbergensis and the Neanderthals. After the last Ice Age, nomadic and Neolithic farming cultures (corded ceramics, bell-cup culture) and Bronze Age cultures (from 2000 BC) met in Central Europe. The Neolithic and Bronze Ages left behind some spectacular finds such as the Goseck solar observatory, the Nebra sky disc and the Schifferstadt gold hat. In the foothills of the Alps, from the 4th millennium BC onwards, BC prehistoric pile dwellings proven. The Iron Age Hallstatt culture (from 1200 BC) also included southern Germany and prepared the ground for the Celtic La Tène culture. Remains of the Celts are fortified central places (Oppida) such as Manching (Bavaria), ring walls and “princely graves” such as on Glauberg (Hesse). The culture of the Teutons in Germany is a. through finds of weapons, barrows (dolmens) and written records from Roman times, for example through Tacitus , as well as from post-Christian times through rune stones tangible. Haithabu on the Schlei was a northern European trading center of the Viking Age.
The Romans marked their territory in Germania through the Limes. Their presence up to the 5th century AD connected what was later to Germany with the Mediterranean area, documented in the founding of cities on the left of the Rhine, including Trier, Mainz, Cologne and Xanten, and in the Danube and Alpine areas (including Augsburg, Kempten) as a political, economic and cultural centers (Colonia). Amphitheater, thermal baths and city fortifications such as the Porta Nigra have been partially preserved, excavated or reconstructed. The Franconian Empire came together after the Great Migration (from the 5th century) on ancient traditions under Christian auspices.
Another line of cultural tradition was formed by West Slavic tribes, including Elbe Slavs and Baltic Sea Slavs, which were only assimilated in the course of the high medieval German settlement in the East, either peacefully or by force (e.g. Wendekreuzzug 1147). Remains of the “Germania Slavica” are castles and sanctuaries, for example in Raddusch (Spreewald) and Groß Raden (Mecklenburg), settlements like in Wendland as well as sagas and legends. Linguistic and cultural islands are still formed by the Sorbs (Sorbian art, Sorbian music, Sorbian literature) in Lusatia. Visit thedresswizard.com for you cant see Germany at once.
The German language is first comprehensible as Old High German or Old Low German with evidence from the Carolingian and Ottonian times: politically in the Treaty of Meerssen (870), literarily in the Heliand and Hildebrandslied. At that time German meant “vernacular”, in contrast to the Latin-speaking scholarly culture (Middle Latin language). Heroes epics such as the Nibelungenlied, courtly verse novels such as Iwein (Hartmann von Aue ) Parzival (Wolfram von Eschenbach ) and Tristan (Gottfried von Straßburg ) as well as the love poetry of the Minnesang (including Walther von der Vogelweide ).
From the 16th century onwards, a standard German language emerged, largely promoted by the literature of humanism and the Reformation, especially by Martin Luther’s translation of the Bible. With the Protestant hymn, Luther also added a new genre to music. Church music reached a climax in the Baroque, as evidenced by the rich work of Johann Sebastian Bach . At that time, the German theater also developed, coming from France and Italy (opera), favored by the “small states” with their large number of court stages. The Thirty Years’ War, a fixed point in German historical memory, is reflected in the poetry of Andreas Gryphius and the picaresque novel Simplicissimus.
German literature flourished in Goethe’s time (1770–1830). It combined enlightenment (sensitivity), storm and stress, classic (Weimar classic) and romanticism. In addition to the namesake, “Poet Prince” Johann Wolfgang von Goethe , Friedrich Schiller , Gotthold Ephraim Lessing and Heinrich von Kleist created world literature; their dramas are still part of the common theater repertoire today. The same applies to the works of Haydn , Mozart, Beethoven, Schubert, Brahms, Schumann andMendelssohn Bartholdy (German music). In Romanticism, “popular” forms came to the fore, literarily in poetry (e.g. Clemens Brentano, Novalis, Joseph von Eichendorff ), in fairy tales (Wilhelm Grimm and Jacob Grimm , Ludwig Bechstein ), in opera (Der Freischütz), in the operetta and in the folk song – the heyday of choral societies began in German-speaking countries. Abendfüllende music dramas with designs from the Germanic mythology was Richard Wagne r in a separate Festspielhaus in Bayreuth perform (Bayreuth Festival).
In the 19th century, political demands and social upheavals made the literary figures of Young Germany (Heinrich Heine, Ludwig Börne ), realism (Wilhelm Raabe, Theodor Fontane, Theodor Storm ) and naturalism (Gerhart Hauptmann) an issue. Opposing tendencies – retreat into the private and subjective “internalization” – were expressed in the Biedermeier period as well as in the pictures of the Nazarenes and Caspar David Friedrichs . Sharpened the humorous-satirical view of the German philistines Carl Spitzweg and Wilhelm Busch . In contrast to Impressionism, Expressionism set strong accentsin Germany: in music with the atonal music of Arnold Schönberg , in literature, including Franz Werfel , but above all in painting by the artists’ associations Blauer Reiter and Brücke as well as in film – Nosferatu and » The cabinet of Dr. Caligari «became style-defining and at the same time represented the international status of German film (Ufa) before 1933.
