In 1871 the German Empire was proclaimed, which unified the many parts of Germany and created a country which extended from what is now part of Lithuania in the west, to today’s border with the Netherlands in the east, Alsace-Lorraine to the south-west (now part of France) and Silesia to the south-east (now part of Poland).

Otto Bismark, known as the ‘Iron Chancellor’, became Chancellor of the new Empire and Berlin was its capital.

In 1914 Germany, allied with Austria-Hungary and Turkey, went to war against Britain, France, Russia and Italy. In 1917 the USA entered the war and in 1918 Germany and its allies were defeated.

The Treaty of Versailles in 1919 made Germany pay for all the losses incurred by its enemies in the war, to cede territory to France and Poland, relinquish its colonies and pay compensation.

In 1919 the Emperor abdicated and the federal Weimar Republic was established.

The 1920s was a period of hyper-inflation, when workers had to collect their salaries in wheelbarrows, and the cost of a loaf of bread rose from 2 Deutsche Mark to 400 billion Deutsche Mark in just three years. This wrecked all confidence in the Republic and opened the way to political extremism.

In 1923 Adolf Hitler launched an unsuccessful attempt to topple the republic and ended up in jail, where he wrote the pro-nationalist, anti-Jewish Mein Kampf which sold nearly 10 million copies when it was first published.

In 1933 Hitler, as leader of the NSDAP (National Socialist German Workers Party) was appointed Chancellor, and was supported by the centre-right parties.

Within three months of coming to power Hitler had created a centralised totalitarian state.

Trade unions were dissolved, Germany was made a one-party state with all opposition repressed. Over 400 concentration camps were set up in which to detain people seen as a threat and open persecution of the Jews began.

In 1936 Germany began to re-arm.

In 1938 Germany annexed Austria. Then the Sudetenland of Czechoslovakia was handed to Germany, in an agreement signed by Mussolini, Chamberlain and Daladier in a bid to avoid another conflict. Next Moravia and Bohemia were annexed.

By August 1939 Hitler had signed non-aggression pacts with Japan, Italy and the USSR.

In late August 1939 Hitler’s troops marched into Poland, and three days later Britain and France declared war on Germany.

France, Belgium and the Netherlands quickly fell, then Yugoslavia and Greece.

In 1941 Germany turned its attention to Britain, and the Battle of Britain took place. In the same year Hitler broke the non-aggression pact with the USSR and brought Stalin into the war.

In December 1941 the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbour and brought the United States into the war.

In 1942 a conference at Wannsee came up with the “Final Solution”, a way to deal with the so called Jewish problem. This paved the way for the systematic murder of six million Jews, and six million Romanies, homosexuals, communists, priests, criminals, political opponents and the mentally and physically disabled.

Germany was fighting on too many fronts with the entry of the US into the war. Not only were her forces being pushed back by the USSR, but Britain and her Allies were increasing air attacks on German cities.

In April 1945 Hitler killed himself in a bunker in Berlin and on 8th May Germany surrendered.

Germany, and its capital Berlin, were partitioned into four zones of occupation, under the control of Britain, USA, France and USSR.

In 1947 the Cold War began.

In 1948 the Allies instituted the Marshall Plan, an economic aid package for the reconstruction of Europe, which greatly benefitted West Germany and laid the foundations for West Germany’s “economic miracle” and for the country to become a founding member of the European Union.

East Germany became a satellite state of the communist Warsaw Pact, and one of its most repressive regimes.

In 1961 The Berlin Wall and a fortified border – the “Iron Curtain” – were built to prevent the exodus of East Germans to freedom in West Germany. (Over half a million people fled in one year alone.)

In 1969 Willy Brandt became Chancellor of West Germany and began to establish relations with East Germany (known as Ostpolitik).

In 1972 both West and East Germany signed the Basic Treaty which enabled them both to join the United Nations the following year.

In 1974 West Germany joined G8.

In 1987 Chancellor Helmut Kohl gave a full state welcome to his East German counterpart Erich Honecker in the West German capital of Bonn.

In September 1989 Hungary opened its border with Austria and this led to a flood of East German citizens hoping to get to the West, crossing the border and taking refuge in West German embassies throughout Central and Eastern European countries.

In November 1989, Günter Schabowsky, leader of the SED (Socialist Unity Party, the ruling party of East Germany) surprised the world by mistakenly announcing that East German citizens could enter West Germany and West Berlin immediately. Hundreds of thousands did so and in the wild partying and euphoria that followed the long separated people’s reunion, the Berlin Wall was pulled down.

In 1990 East and West Germany were unified and East Germany ceased to exist.

In 1991 Berlin reverted to being the capital of Germany.

In 1999 Berlin became the seat of Government.