A Timeline in the Histories of the Historic Highlights of Germany

100 B.C. Roman Empire

16 B.C. Roman Emperor Augustus founds Trier

15 B.C. Emperor Augustus founds Augsburg

13 B.C. Drusus, adoptive son of Emperor Augustus, founds Mainz

9 A.D.  Germanic tribes lure Roman legions into an ambush at Battle of Varus outside Osnabrück

83 - 145 A.D.  Building of the Roman fortified "limes" (stretching 300 miles from the Rhine to the Danube)

179  Roman Emperor Marcus Aurelius founds Regensburg

407  "Wisabada" - now Wiesbaden - becomes popular Rhine trading post for conquering Teutons

477  Collapse of the Western Roman Empire

481  Clovis I founds the Frankish Kingdom

6th  century Beginning of Christianization

7th  century Emergence of the feudal order

704 First mention of Würzburg in an official document

780  Charlemagne, king of the Franks, erects a stone church on the banks of the river Hase, the nucleus of today’s Osnabrück

742  Bishop Bonfatius founds Erfurt

768 - 814  Reign of Charlemagne, King of the Franks

800  Charlemagne is crowned emperor by the pope

805  Bishop Ludger founds Münster

828 – 830  Wiesbaden mentioned for the first time as “Wisibada”, lateron a royal court and imperial city

889  The Frankish Empire falls apart (Frankfurt, Germany)

919  Henry I (of Saxony) becomes the first German king

936  Reign of Saxon's King Otto I

962  King Otto I is crowned emperor by the pope

1024  Reign of the Frankish emperors (the Salier dynasty) begins

1095  Start of the Crusades (to conquer back the Holy Land from the infidels)

1120  Founding of the city of Freiburg

1137  Era of the Hohenstaufen dynasty begins

1196  Heidelberg is mentioned for the first time

1218  Rostock acquires municipal rights

1254 - 1440  Kings of various lines rule

1270  End of the Crusades1300 Famine

1317  Potsdam is mentioned as a town

1348/49  Spread of the plague to Germany

1412-1669  Osnabrück a member of the Hanseatic League,

1417 - 1918  Reign of the Hohenzollern dynasty (Brandenburg-Prussia)

1440   In Mainz, Johannes Gutenberg invents printing process with movable
type, allowing first mass production of printed books

1440 - 1803  Reign of the Habsburg dynasty

1452 - 1455  Johannes Gutenberg prints the bible

1500 - end of 18th century Modern Age

1517 Martin Luther: Reformation

1530  Religious conflicts

1555  Peace of Augsburg

1609 - 1611  Koblenz and Ehrenbreitstein fortified with ramparts

1618  Start of the Thirty Years War

1648  End of the war: Peace of Westphalia in Münster/Osnabrück

1794  Koblenz seized by French

1806 - 13  The French occupy Germany under Napoleon

1815  Start of the rule of Prussia

1866  Prussian rulers support development of Wiesbaden

1867 - 71  Franco-German War

1871  Founding of the German Empire

1871 - 88  William I becomes German emperor

1888 - 1918  William II becomes German emperor

1914 - 18  First World War

1918  End of the German Empire, start of the Weimar Republic

1918  Founding of the democratic Weimar Republic, with Friedrich Ebert from Heidelberg as president

1933  Hitler seizes power

1939 - 45  Second World War

1945  Potsdam Conference at Cecilienhof Palace

1949  Bonn becomes Germany's capital

1949 The Federal Republic of Germany and the German Democratic Republic are founded

1961  The Berlin Wall goes up on August 13, 1961

1989  The Berlin Wall falls on November 9, 1989

1990  Reunification of West and East Germany with Berlin as the capital on October 3, 1990

1999 T he government moves from Bonn to Berlin

2002  UNESCO ranks Upper Middle Rhine Valley between Koblenz and Wiesbaden as World Cultural Landscape

2006  United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) World Heritage Committee, included Regensburg’s Old Town among ten sites worldwide added to UNESCO's World Heritage List, July 13, 2006