A SHORT
HISTORY OF GERMANY
BY
MARY PLATT PARMELE
NEW YORK
CHARLES SCRIBNER'S SONS
1898
COPYRIGHT, 1897, BY
MARY PLATT PARMELE
COPYRIGHT, 1898, BY
CHARLES SCRIBNER'S SONS
BY THE SAME AUTHOR
A SHORT HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES
A SHORT HISTORY OF ENGLAND
A SHORT HISTORY OF FRANCE
A SHORT HISTORY OF GERMANY
A SHORT HISTORY OF SPAIN
It is more important to comprehend the forces which have created agreat nation, and the progressive steps by which it has unfolded, thanto know the multitudinous events and incidents which have attended suchunfolding.
In order to forestall criticism for the absence of some events in thisHistory of Germany the author desires to say, that there has been aneffort to keep strictly to the main line of development and to resistthe temptation of introducing details which do not bear directly uponsuch line.
The bypaths of history are fascinating, but they are of secondaryimportance, and may better be explored after the main road has beentraveled and is thoroughly known.
Such is the ideal which has been very imperfectly followed in this book.
M. P. P.
NEW YORK, June 21, 1897.
CONTENTS.
Indo-European Migrations—Divisions of the Aryan Family into EuropeanRaces—The Teutonic Race
Hermann—Defeat of Varus—Characteristics of the Ancient Germans
Social Conditions—Form of Government—The Goth in Rome—A GothicKingdom in Spain—The Teuton Race Covering the European Surface—TheAngles and Saxons in Britain
Ulfilas—The Hunnish Invasion—The Roman Empire Perishing—ItsConversion—An Eastern Empire—Increasing Power of theChurch—Charlemagne—France and Germany Separated—Feudal System
Early Conditions—Hungarian Invasions—Creation ofBurgs—Knighthood—Pope and Emperor Become Rivals—HenryIV.—Canossa—First Hohenstaufen—Welf and Waiblingen—TheCrusaders—Conrad—Frederick Barbarossa
Source of Weakness in the Empire—The Great Interregnum—The NibelungenLied—The Hanseatic League—The Guilds—Meistersingers
Conditions—First Hapsburg and First Hohenzollern—SwissFreedom—Intellectual Awakening—The Golden Bull—Hussite War—AHohenzollern Receives a Mortgage on the Territory ofBrandenburg—Discovery of Gunpowder—Conditions Existing underFrederick III.—Invention of Printing—The Passing of the Old andComing of the New
General European Conditions—Centralizing Tendencies a