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Brandenburg
Brandenburg emerged initially as the North March (or Mark), situated between
the Billungers March to the north (on the Baltic coast and extreme
south-eastern
Denmark), and the Lusatia
March to the south. The duchy of
Saxony bordered all the marches to the west, with Christian
Poland in the east. The March
counties were founded by
German expansion eastwards and the initial
reorganisation of conquered territory. In time they became formalised as margraviates. |
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Margraves of the North March
AD 936 - 1136
Brandenburg began as the North March, or border area, formed in AD 936, when
the territory west of the Oder was incorporated into the March of the
Billungs and the North March of the
Holy Roman Empire. |
936 - 937 |
Sigfried |
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937 - 945 |
Christian |
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937 - 965 |
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Gero |
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965 - 985 |
Dietrich |
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985 - 1003 |
Lothar |
|
1003 - 1009 |
Werner |
|
1009 - 1018 |
Bernard I |
|
1018 - 1044 |
Bernard II |
|
1044 - 1056 |
William |
|
1056 - 1057 |
Lothar Udo I |
|
1057 - 1082 |
Udo
II |
|
1082 - 1087 |
Henry
I |
|
1087 - 1106 |
Lothar Udo III |
|
1106 - 1114 |
Rudolph |
|
1114 - 1128 |
Henry
II |
|
1128 - 1130 |
Udo
IV |
|
1130 - 1133 |
Conrad Plotzkau |
|
1134 - 1136 |
Albert I the Bear |
First Ascanian. Duke of
Saxony
(1138-1142). |
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1136 |
The margraviate of
Brandenburg is created
from the March. |
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Margraves of Brandenburg (Ascanians)
AD 1136 - 1323
Brandenburg was formed in 1136 from the North March.
In part it bordered the new duchy of
Pomerania which had been formed on the
south Baltic coast in what is now north-western
Poland. Wartislaw I of
Pomerania made vast conquests on the west bank of the Oder, and these were
placed under the overlordship of Albert I by the
Holy Roman Emperor. |
1136 - 1170 |
Albert I the Bear |
Albert of
Saxony
(1138-1142). |
1170 - 1184 |
Otto
I |
|
1184 - 1205 |
Otto
II |
|
1205 - 1220 |
Albert II |
Duke of
Saxony (1212-1260). |
1220 - 1267 |
Otto
III |
|
1220 - 1266 |
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John |
|
1266 - 1308/9 |
Otto
IV |
|
1266 - 1281 |
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John II |
|
1266 - 1304 |
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Conrad |
|
1304 - 1319 |
Waldemar |
|
1319 - 1323 |
The
title is apparently vacant before being gained by the
Wittelsbachs. |
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Margraves of Brandenburg (Wittelsbachs)
AD 1323 - 1355 |
1323 - 1355 |
Louis
I |
Louis V of
Bavaria. |
1355 |
The
margraviate is raised to an
Electorate. |
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Electors of Brandenburg (Wittelsbachs)
AD 1355 - 1373 |
1355 - 1361 |
Louis
I |
|
1351 - 1355 |
Louis
II |
|
1351 - 1373 |
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Otto V |
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Electors of Brandenburg (Luxembourg)
AD 1373 - 1417 |
1373 - 1378 |
Charles |
Holy Roman Emperor
Charles IV (1347-1378). |
1373 - 1378 |
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Wenceslaus |
Holy Roman Emperor
(1378-1400). Died 1419. |
1378 - 1397 |
Sigismund |
Pretender to the
Polish throne (1382-1383). |
1397 - 1411 |
Jobst
of Moravia |
HRE rival
(1410-1411). |
1411 - 1417 |
Sigismund |
Restored.
HRE (1410-1437).
Died 1438. |
1415 - 1417 |
The
title is managed by Frederick, Captain & Administrator of Brandenburg,
before his Hohenzollern
family purchase the title. |
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Electors of Brandenburg (Hohenzollern) /
Brandenburg-Prussia
AD 1415 - 1701
In 1415 the electorate of
Brandenburg
was purchased from the
Holy Roman Empire
by the house of
Hohenzollern which came from southern Germany, in former
Swabia.
To the east, the
monastic state of the Teutonic Knights was formed during their conquest of
the pagan Baltic Old Prussians in the thirteenth century, but this was
secularised in 1525, during the Protestant Reformation, and replaced with
the duchy of East Prussia. Joining these two possessions together in 1618, the
Hohenzollerns formed
Brandenburg-Prussia. |
1415 - 1440 |
Frederick I Hohenzollern |
Captain & Administrator of Brandenburg (1415-1417). |
1440 - 1470 |
Frederick II Iron Tooth |
|
1470 - 1486 |
Albert
III Achilles |
|
1486 - 1499 |
John Cicero |
|
1499 - 1535 |
Joachim I |
|
1525 |
A member of the
family, grandmaster of the
Teutonic Knights Albrecht von Hohenzollern,
margrave of Brandenburg-Kulmbach, combines Teutonic East Prussia with
Brandenburg.
The two segments are run by the two main branches of the
family, and East Prussia remains under the control of Albrecht. William, grandson of
Elector Albert III, remains archbishop of
Riga until the post's
secularisation in 1563. |
1535 - 1571 |
Joachim II |
|
1571 - 1598 |
John George |
|
1587 |
The duchy of
Courland is divided in two, and the ruler of the western section, Wilhelm,
marries the daughter of the duke of
East Prussia and regains the Grobina district. |
1598 - 1608 |
Joachim Frederick |
|
1608 - 1619 |
John Sigismund |
|
1618 |
The duke of East
Prussia (Albert Frederick) dies without an heir and the territory is inherited by
Brandenburg. |
1619 - 1640 |
George William |
First Elector of
Brandenburg-Prussia 1618. |
1640 - 1688 |
Frederick William the
Great Elector |
|
1648 |
Sweden loses Further-Pomerania to
Brandenburg-Prussia under the terms of the Peace of Westfalia. |
1688 - 1701 |
Frederick III |
Son. Elevated to Frederick I,
first king of Prussia. |
1701 |
The electorate is elevated
to a kingdom by the Holy Roman Emperor,
the first German state to be raised in this manner. |
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Kingdom of Prussia
AD 1701 - 1871 |
1701 - 1713 |
Frederick I |
Former elector,
Frederick III. |
1713 - 1740 |
Frederick William I |
Son. |
1740 - 1786 |
Frederick II the Great |
Son. |
1772 |
Prussia gains territory in Poland-Lithuania during the First Partition: Royal Prussia,
Warmia, and parts
of Great Poland which are formed into the province of West Prussia. |
1786 - 1797 |
Frederick William II |
|
1792 - 1795 |
Prussia
declares war on republican
France, along
with
Austria, as part of the First Coalition. Between 1793-1795 the kingdom
greatly benefits by
gaining more territory during the Second Partition of Poland-Lithuania (1793), and the Third Partition of Poland-Lithuania (1795), which wipes the joint states from the map. With these
targets achieved, Prussia agrees a separate peace with France in 1795. |
1797 - 1840 |
Frederick William III |
Son. |
1806 - 1807 |
The emperor of France, Napoleon
Bonaparte, heavily defeats Prussia and the Fourth Coalition, and liberates Prussia's holdings
in Poland, forming
them into an Imperial satellite state. In 1807,
Pomerania is seized from
Prussia. |
1814 - 1815 |
France
is defeated at the end of the Napoleonic Wars and Prussia gains
Pomerania
from Sweden as part of the
reshuffle of territories and power that follows during the Congress of
Vienna. Prussia also gains Saxe-Merseburg, Saxe-Weissenfels and Saxe-Zeitz from the kingdom
of Saxony.
The kingdom has to fight again, however.
The duke of Wellington's
Anglo-Dutch-German
army defeats Napoleon's resurgent French army at the
Battle of Waterloo on 18 June in conjunction with the Prussian army,
decisively ending twenty-five years of war in Europe. |
1840 - 1861 |
Frederick William IV |
|
1861 - 1871 |
William I |
Brother. Kaiser of Germany from 18 January 1871. |
1865 |
Prussia gains the former Saxon territory of
Saxe-Lauenburg. |
1866 |
Prussia forcibly annexes the duchy of
Nassau and the
electorate of
Hessen-Kassel. |
1868 - 1871 |
The
exile of Queen Isabella of Spain to
France starts a
remarkable chain of events. Isabella's abdication on 25 June 1870 leads to
the Franco-Prussian war when France refuses to accept the possibility of the
Prussian Prince Leopold of Hohenzollern-Sigmaringen gaining the Spanish
throne. French troops are
humiliated by Prussia's ultra-modern army and the siege of Paris brings
about the downfall of its empire. Following the victory, the Second Reich
(Germanic empire) is declared by Prussia, which now displaces
Austria
as the main Germanic power. |
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German Empire
AD 1871 - 1918
The remarkable victory over the
French empire in
1871 allowed Prussia to declare the 'Second German Empire' under the former
Prussian King William I, now Emperor William. Pursuing an aggressive policy
of integration within Germany under Chancellor Bismarck, the new empire incorporated the grand duchy of
Baden as a state
under its overall control.
Saxony,
Bavaria,
Württemberg, and
Hessen-Darmstadt were also forcibly included within the empire as vassal
states. |
1871 - 1888 |
William I |
First Prussian
German emperor. |
1888 |
Frederick III |
Son.
Died after 100 days' rule. m Vicky, dau. of
Victoria. |
1889 - 1918 |
William II |
Son. 'Kaiser Bill'. Fled to
Holland in 1918. |
1899 |
A year after
Spain loses
the Spanish-American War, it sells the last of its islands in the Pacific to
Germany. |
1890 |
A
British
Protectorate is created for
Zanzibar under the terms of the Helgoland-Zanzibar Treaty in which
Germany undertakes to avoid becoming involved in British interests in the
area. |
1905 |
The
Supreme Parish and Collegiate Church (Evangelical Oberpfarr- und Domkirche)
is completed in the heart of Berlin, serving as the primary church of
Germany's Protestants. |
1914 |
The German empire moves swiftly to support its ally,
Austria-Hungary, in a
long-anticipated Great War (later more readily known as the First World War,
or World War I). At the start it is successful against the
Russian invasion of
Prussia, routing their army at the Battle of Tannenberg, and in the west its
armies reach the northern outskirts of Paris before they are stopped by the
armies of
Britain
and France, together
with the small Belgian army.
Turkey
joins the German cause on 31 October, but
Afghanistan remains neutral, refusing to attempt an attack on British India. |
1915 |
In the secret Treaty of London of 26 April,
Italy agrees to abandon its allies, Germany and
Austria-Hungary,
declaring war on them instead. Germany begins to conquer the
Baltic Provinces by taking
Courland.
A German U-boat sinks the SS Lusitania on 7 May, killing 1,198 and inflaming
anti-German feeling in the
USA. |
1916 |
German vessels which have been interned in
Portuguese ports are
seized by the country's government, so William declares war on Portugal. It
responds by sending troops to the Western Front to fight alongside the
British.
On the Eastern Front,
Russian defeats bring
Latvia and
Lithuania under Imperial control, much to the relief of the
German-descended land-owning aristocracy there. |
1917 |
In April, Bolivia,
Cuba, and the
USA all side with the allies but Bolivia
takes no active role in the war. In October,
Brazil,
Peru, and
Uruguay also join the allied side, with
Ecuador and
Panama
following suit in December.
Venezuela remains neutral. |
1918 |
In April,
Guatemala joins the allies, followed a month later by
Costa Rica
and Nicaragua.
Honduras makes the same move in July. The conquest of the
Baltic Provinces is completed by Germany with the taking of Estonia.
But as the diplomatic, and
social situation worsens in Germany in late 1918, the country loses its
Austrian
ally on 3 November. William II, at the Western Front with his troops from 29
October following riots in Berlin, is forced to abdicate on 9 November,
signalling the end of the House of
Hohenzollern in power. The next day he flees to neutral
Holland
and spends the remainder of his life as a gentleman farmer on a private
estate, under loose house arrest by the Dutch Government. The war officially
ends on 11 November. |
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German Republics
AD 1919 - Present Day
Following the collapse at the end of the First World War, Germany became
a republic with a new government, proclaimed on 9 November 1918, but without
a president until 1919. Wracked by uncertainty and civil war at the start,
it was never entirely stable and, pressured by massive inflation and unemployment,
excessive war reparation payments to the Allied nations, and plotting from extremist
fascist groups, it fell in 1933, to be replaced by a Nazi government. After the
conclusion of the Second World War, two separate governments were established in the
now-divided Germany, east and west, until 1990, when the country was reunited under the
western government and Berlin again became the capital of a single Germany.
Successive claimants to the Hohenzollern imperial throne are shown with a shaded
background, while rival claimants and disqualifications are shown in
green text.
|
1918 - 1941 |
William II |
Deposed emperor of Germany. Died 1941. |
1919 |
Germany adopts the democratic 'Weimar constitution' following the abolition
of the German empire. This new Germany consists of the former German
kingdoms and duchies, all of which have now been abolished, which include
Baden,
Bavaria,
Hesse,
Saxony and
Württemberg. |
1921 |
The new
Polish state ends the
Russo-Polish War and
confirms its borders, which also include West Prussia, cutting off East
Prussia from Germany, which has already lost
Pomerania. |
1933 |
The Third Reich is established under Adolf Hitler's dictatorial Nazi rule,
sweeping away the Weimar Republic. |
1933 - 1945 |
Adolf Hitler |
Austrian
Nazi leader, or 'fuehrer'. |
1937 - 1939 |
For much of the
Spanish Civil War both Hitler and Mussolini's
Italy supply weapons
and even aircraft to Franco's forces. For Hitler, it proves to be a trial
run for his 'blitzkrieg' tactics of 1940.
Austria and
Carinthia
are annexed to Germany in 1938, as is
Czechoslovakia's
Sudetenland, while the
Teutonic Knights are outlawed. |
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1939 |
The Nazi invasion of Poland
on 1 September is the trigger for the Second World War. With both
France and
Great Britain pledged to support
Poland, both countries have no option but to declare war on 3 September. |
1940 |
The German invasion of the Low Countries begins, using a new military
doctrine called 'blitzkrieg', with the result that the
Netherlands, Belgium, and then
France are invaded
and occupied. Later in the same year, the Baltic States,
Lithuania,
Latvia and
Estonia, are also
occupied, as are
Denmark and Norway.
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Adolf Hitler at the height of his rule over Nazi Germany |
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1941 |
Greece is occupied, and a
pro-German coup in
Iraq
is suppressed. In December,
Costa Rica,
Cuba,
El Salvador,
Guatemala,
Honduras,
Nicaragua,
Panama, the Philippines,
Puerto Rico, and the
USA join the war on the allied side,
initially against
Japan, but Germany is soon included.
Portugal, while
officially neutral, provides
Great Britain with naval facilities in the Azores. |
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1941 - 1951 |
Crown Prince Frederick William |
Eldest son. of William II. 'Little Willy'. Renounced throne Dec 1918. |
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Prince William |
Eldest son. Disqualified by making a morganatic marriage. |
1942 |
Peru becomes the first South American nation to declare war against Germany,
joined in August by
Brazil.
The sinking of a
Mexican tanker also brings that country into the war on the
allied side. |
1943 |
In April, Bolivia joins the war on the allied side, while
Colombia joins in
July. In September,
Germany takes control of
Albania and Istria, as
well as northern Italy
in the face of the Allied invasion and liberation as far as
Rome. |
1944 |
Finland is
invaded, but the Finns manages to expel German forces from Northern Lapland
in the Lapland War. |
1945 |
Ecuador, Paraguay,
Turkey, Uruguay, and
Venezuela belatedly join the allied side in the war in
February, while
Argentina joins in March, and
Chile joins in April. In the same month, as Adolf Hitler celebrates his
fifty-sixth birthday, the first Soviet
Russian artillery
shells fall on Berlin. Hitler subsequently commits suicide in his bunker on
30 April as Soviet forces overrun Berlin. Nazi Germany surrenders
unconditionally on 7 May to the Allies at General Eisenhower's HQ at Rheims in France. |
1945 - 1949 |
Following the Nazi surrender, Germany is occupied by the forces of Soviet
Russia, the
United States,
Britain, and France
until 1949. The victorious Russians take
East Prussia and annexe it directly to the state.
The German population either flees or is expelled and is replaced by an
imported Russian population. |
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1949 |
Soviet
Russian forces lift the
blockade of Berlin (24 June 1948 to 11 May 1949), during which the 'Berlin
Airlift' makes 278,228 supply flights.
The sectors controlled by the
United States,
Britain and France
are merged to form the Federal Republic of Germany in West Germany on 7 October 1949, while
the Soviet zone establishes the German Democratic Republic in East Germany. |
1951 - 1994 |
Prince Louis Ferdinand |
Second son
of William II. Born 1907. |
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Prince Frederick William V |
Son. Disqualified through
two morganatic marriages. |
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Prince Michael |
Brother. Disqualified
through morganatic marriage. |
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Prince Louis Ferdinand |
Brother. Born
1944, died of injuries in 1977. Next in line for title. |
|
1961 |
The East German government closes the border with West Berlin on 13 August
and begins building a dividing wall. The Berlin airlift follows, saving West
Berlin from annexation by the Communists. |
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1989 - 1990 |
With the weakening of the Soviet Union and increased calls for reform, the
Berlin Wall is pulled down by the people of both halves of the divided
city, the border guards taking no action to stop them. The following year, the
two Germanies are reunited on 3 October. |
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Modern Germany
AD 1990 - Present Day
Modern Germany may descend from a broad swathe of central European territory
that was known as Germania during the
Roman empire period, but
its political foundation arose thanks to the
Carolingian empire
of the Franks. The subsequent formation of the
Holy Roman empire under purely
German leaders saw its borders crystallised, especially on the always more
fluid eastern side.
The Hohenzollern family lived on after the fall of Prussia, and never
renounced their claim to the Prussian throne, although all six of William
II's sons swore not to succeed him to the German Imperial throne. The royal house is
now led by the hereditary claimant, and a branch of the family is heir to the
throne of Romania.
Successive claimants to the Hohenzollern imperial throne are shown with a shaded
background, while rival claimants and disqualifications are shown in
green text.
(Information expanded by Tom Horne.) |
1994 - Present |
Prince George Frederick |
Son
of Louis. Born 1976 and inherited title. Has no offspring. |
2011 |
George Frederick, the son of Prince Louis Ferdinand, great-grandson of
Kaiser William II, and the heir to the Prussian throne, is married on
Saturday 27 August. His bride is Princess Sophie von Isenburg, who is just a
year younger than the prince himself. The ceremony takes place in the Church
of Peace in Sanssouci in Potsdam. The marriage, and the possibility of
future issue, places Prince Christian-Sigismund's position as heir in doubt. |
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Prince Christian-Sigismund
of Prussia |
Uncle of George and heir.
Son of Louis-Ferdinand. Born 1946. |
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