GERMANY 



2474 



GERMANY 



BATTLES). Later expeditions were dispatched 

 to the country, but the Romans never again 

 gained a hold on it, while they, on the other 

 hand, were forced constantly to defend them- 

 selves against the invasions of various German 

 tribes the Alemanni, the Franks, the Goths, 

 Vandals and Lombards. 



A Troubled Time. For centuries nothing is 

 known of the internal history of these warring, 

 shifting tribes, which were in no sense a nation. 

 When France, under Clovis, became a state, 

 more and more of the German tribes became 

 assimilated therewith, and in this period the 

 history of Germany is identical with that of 

 France (see FRANCE, subhead History) . Charle- 

 magne's great empire included Germany as 

 far to the north and east as the Elbe, and was 

 in fact more German than French. In 843, 

 with the Treaty of Verdun, which assigned to 

 Charlemagne's grandson Louis the eastern part 



dangerous enemy. The reigns of Louis the 

 Child (899-911) and of Conrad were largely 

 taken up with vain attempts to stay the pil- 

 laging, slaughtering Magyar hordes. 



King and Nobles. Though it had one king, 

 Germany was not at that time a single state, 

 but a number of duchies, whose rulers pos- 

 sessed great privileges. They elected the king, 

 and his power depended very largely upon 

 whether or not he retained their good will. 

 When Conrad died in 918, the strongest of 

 these nobles, Henry the Fowler of Saxony was 

 chosen king, and under him much was ac- 

 complished. He defeated the Magyars and 

 the Slavs, reduced the power of the great 

 nobles indeed, did a work which entitles him 

 to rank as the real creator of the German 

 Empire. Every lover of music is familiar with 

 him as the kingly judge in Wagner's Lohengrin. 



Otto I therefore succeeded in 936 to a fairly 



rmania 

 Raetia 

 Noricum 



BEGINNINGS OF GERMANY 



At left : Germany at the beginning of the Christian Era, showing the provinces of Raetia and 

 Noricum added to the Roman Empire during the reign of Augustus, and the frontiers along the Rhine 

 and Danube, by which the empire was bounded after A. D. 9. 



At right: Empire of Charlemagne, as divided in 843. The Holy Roman Empire under Charle- 

 magne was apportioned after his son's death among his three grandsons, Louis the German, Lothair 

 and Charles the Bald, by the Treaty of Verdun. 



of the empire, the separate existence of Ger- 

 many really began. From that date France 

 and Germany, in their earlier stages united, 

 have grown farther and farther apart, and 

 rarely has there been a time when perfect 

 friendliness has existed between them. 



The newly-established German state had to 

 fight for its very existence, first with the 

 Moravians who set up a strong kingdom in 

 the territory which still bears their name, then 

 with the invading Magyars, or Hungarians. 

 These Magyars, who had swept westward from 

 Northern Asia, Arnulf, the German king, had 

 invited to aid him in his struggle with the 

 Moravians, only to find in them a far more 



united state, which he proved strong enough 

 to hold together. He defeated the Hungarians 

 so decisively that they never again attempted 

 to invade the west, still further restricted the 

 power of the nobles, and conquered Lombardy, 

 placing on his head the famous Iron Crown 

 of the Lombards (see CROWN, subhead Iron 

 Crown) , and receiving at the hands of the Pope 

 the imperial title of Holy Roman Emperor. 

 So came into existence that curious anomaly, 

 the Holy Roman Empire, which endured until 

 1806. Many of the kings who followed Otto, 

 possessing his ambition without his ability, 

 strained all their powers to make conquests in 

 Italy, and for the sake of this foreign field 



