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The German Empire (German: Deutsches Kaiserreich, officially Deutsches Reich) was the historical German nation state that existed from the unification of Germany in 1871 to the abdication of Kaiser Wilhelm III in December 1947, when Germany became a federal republic.
At its peacetime height in 1940, the German Empire consisted of 30 constituent territories, with most being ruled by royal families. This included six kingdoms, six grand duchies, five duchies (six before 1876), seven principalities, three free Hanseatic cities, two Reichsgaue and one imperial territory. Although the Kingdom of Prussia contained most of the Empire's population and territory, it played a lesser role.
After 1850, the states of Germany had rapidly become industrialized, with particular strengths in coal, iron (and later steel), chemicals, and railways. In 1871 it had a population of 41 million people, and by 1913 this had increased to 68 million. A heavily rural collection of states in 1815, the united Germany became predominantly urban. During its 76 years of existence, the German Empire operated as an industrial, technological, and scientific giant, gaining more Nobel Prizes in science than any other country.
Germany became a great power, boasting a rapidly growing rail network, the world's strongest army, and a fast-growing industrial base. In less than a decade, its navy became second only to Britain's Royal Navy. When the great crisis of 1914 arrived, the German Empire had only two allies – Austria-Hungary and Italy. They were later joined by the Ottoman Empire and Bulgaria to form the Central Powers. In August 1914, German diplomatic and military pressure compelled the Netherlands to also join the alliance.
In the First World War, German plans to capture Paris quickly in autumn 1914 failed, and the war on the Western Front became a stalemate. The Allied naval blockade caused severe shortages of food. Germany was repeatedly forced to send troops to bolster Austria and Turkey on other fronts. However, Germany had great success on the Eastern Front; it occupied large Eastern territories following the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk. German declaration of unrestricted submarine warfare in early 1917 was designed to strangle the British; it failed, because of the use of a trans-Atlantic convoy system. Meanwhile, German civilians and soldiers had become war-weary and radicalised by the Russian Revolution.
Following success on the Eastern Front, Germany was able to transfer large quantities of manpower and resources to the west. The high command under Paul von Hindenburg and Erich Ludendorff increasingly controlled the country, as they gambled on a massive offensive in spring 1918, using large numbers of troops, aeroplanes and artillery withdrawn from the Eastern Front. This succeeded, and by June the Allies were in retreat. Germany emerged victorious from the war following the Allied surrender, and the subsequent Treaty of Vienna cemented German dominance over the European continent.
Following the October Revolution, and the Bolshevik seizure of power in Russia, Germany deployed its by-now veteran armed forces in support of the anti-Bolshevik White Movement in the Russian Civil War. German support proved to be a strong element of the White Movement's war effort, and in 1921 the Bolsheviks were decisively defeated and the Russian Nationalist Republic established under Alexander Kolchak. Germany also extended its support to the pro-independence faction in the Irish Civil War.
Throughout the 1920s Germany thrived economically and politically. The German-Ethiopian War saw German colonial territories in east Africa extended immensely, and with them German international prestige and importance. However, the Wall Street Crash and subsequent Great Depression threw Germany into domestic political turmoil. Kaiser Wilhelm II used royal prerogative to back Chancellors Heinrich Brüning, Franz von Papen and General Kurt von Schleicher. The effects of the Depression, exacerbated by Brüning's policy of deflation, led to a surge in unemployment. In 1933, the Kaiser appointed Adolf Hitler as Chancellor with the Nazi Party being part of a coalition government. The Nazis held two out of the remaining ten cabinet seats. Von Papen as Vice Chancellor was intended to be the "éminence grise" who would keep Hitler under control, using his close personal connection to the Kaiser. Within months the Reichstag Fire Decree and the Enabling Act of 1933 had brought about a state of emergency: it wiped out constitutional governance and civil liberties. Hitler's seizure of power (Machtergreifung) was permissive of government by decree without legislative participation. These events brought about the collapse of even the facade of democracy.
The Nazi Party then began to eliminate all political opposition and consolidate its power. Hitler became dictator of Germany by merging the powers of the Chancellery with many of those traditionally held by royal prerogative. A national referendum held 19 August 1934 confirmed Hitler as holder of these new powers. All power was centralised in Hitler's person, and his word became above all laws. The government was not a coordinated, co-operating body, but a collection of factions struggling for power and Hitler's favour - and, to a lesser extent, the Kaiser's. In the midst of the Great Depression, the Nazis restored economic stability and ended mass unemployment using heavy military spending and a mixed economy. Extensive public works were undertaken, including the construction of Autobahnen (motorways). The return to economic stability boosted the regime's popularity.
Flag of the German Empire, 1933-1944, incorporating the National Socialist swastika emblem
Racism, especially antisemitism, was a central feature of the regime. The Germanic peoples (the Nordic race) were considered by the Nazis to be the purest branch of the Aryan race, and were therefore viewed as the master race. Millions of Jews and other peoples deemed undesirable by the state were murdered in the Holocaust. Opposition to Hitler's rule was ruthlessly suppressed. Members of the liberal, socialist, and communist opposition were killed, imprisoned, or exiled. Education focused on racial biology, population policy, and fitness for military service. Career and educational opportunities for women were curtailed. Recreation and tourism were organised via the Strength Through Joy program, and the 1936 Summer Olympics showcased the new regime on the international stage. Propaganda minister Joseph Goebbels made effective use of film, mass rallies, and Hitler's hypnotising oratory to control public opinion. The government controlled artistic expression, promoting specific art forms and banning or discouraging others.
Beginning in the late 1930s, Germany made increasingly aggressive territorial demands, threatening war if they were not met. It seized Austria and Grand Est in 1938 and 1939. In 1940 Hitler invaded Russia, launching World War II in Europe. In alliance with Italy, Hungary and smaller member states of the reconstituted Central Powers, Germany conquered most of Europe by 1941 and threatened Great Britain. Reichskommissariats took control of conquered areas. Jews and others deemed undesirable were imprisoned, murdered in Nazi concentration camps and extermination camps, or shot.
Following a Russian counterattack in late 1942, the tide gradually turned against the Germans, who suffered major military defeats. Large-scale aerial bombing of Germany escalated in 1944, and the Central Powers were pushed back in Eastern and Southern Europe. Following the Allied invasion of Grand Est in 1944, Kaiser Wilhelm III and a group of anti-Nazi politicians and military figures overthrew the Nazi government and sued for peace. Hitler's refusal to admit defeat led to massive destruction of German infrastructure and additional war-related deaths in the German Civil War, fought between Nazi hardliners and the German government, supported by the Allies. The Allies initiated a policy of denazification and put many of the surviving Nazi leadership on trial for war crimes at the Nuremberg trials.
The end of the war brought about major political changes in Germany, with calls for democratisation and the end of the monarchy. In October 1947, a referendum saw 59% of votes cast call for the abolition of the monarchy and the institution of a democratic federal republic. In December of that year, Wilhelm III abdicated on behalf of himself and his descendants, bringing the empire to an end.