War
Wars with the aim of forming the German nation state
The military history of Germany spans the period from ancient times to the present.
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Text from the Wikipedia article “Germany Unification War”, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
The military history of Germany spans the period from ancient times to the present.
During the ancient and early medieval periods the Germanic tribes had no written language. What we know about their early military history comes from accounts written in Latin and from archaeology. This leaves important gaps. Germanic wars against the ancient Rome are fairly well documented from the Roman perspective, such as the Battle of the Teutoburg Forest. Germanic wars against the early Celts remain mysterious because neither side recorded the events.
Germanic tribes are thought to have originated during the Jastorf culture in Iron Age in northern Germany and Denmark, their land was later called "Germania" by the Romans. The tribes spread south, possibly motivated by the deteriorating climate of that area. They crossed the River Elbe, probably overrunning the territories of the Celtic Volcae in the Weser Basin. The Romans recorded one of these early migrations when the Cimbri and the Teutons tribes threatened the Republic itself around the late 2nd century BC. In the East, other tribes, such as Goths, Rugii and Vandals, settled along the shores of the Baltic Sea pushing southward and eventually settling as far away as Ukraine. The Angles and Saxons migrated to England. The Germanic peoples often had a fraught relationship with their neighbours, leading to a period of over two millennia of military conflict over various territorial, religious, ideological and economic concerns.
The Holy Roman Empire of the German Nation (also referred as the First German Empire) emerged from the kingdom in the eastern part of Francia called Carolingian Empire at the time (first polity of Germany) in 962 after its division between the grandchildren of Charlemagne in the Treaty of Verdun of 843, and lasted almost a millennium until its dissolution in 1806. It was never a unitary state; from the beginning it was made up of many ethnicities and languages and would at its height comprise territories ranging from eastern France to northern Italy. Its unifying characteristic was its Carolingian heritage and strong religious connotations, its claim to "German-ness" the ethnicity of most of its subjects and rulers.
The military history of Germany during the Middle Ages was full of siege warfare and the technological changes that come from fighting that kind of war. From the creation of the First German Empire in 843 until the creation of the printing press by Johannes Gutenberg, the middles ages were fought in similar fashion to those of ancient times. Many changes were made due to the use of siege warfare and new military technologies.
During the Middle Ages, siege warfare was the primary way in which war was fought and territory taken through conquest. There were field battles fought, in which they employed a phalanx formation similar to what would have been studied in Vegetius' De re militari. However, the vast majority of battles were fought in defense of or the attempt to take fortifications. The men required to partake in a siege came from different areas of society. There were some nobles, some knights, the king's personal men, as well as the vast majority being peasant farmers conscripted into fighting. Siege warfare in effect was the way in which war was fought in Germany during the Middle Ages; this led to advances in medieval military technology.
With the use of sieges as the primary means of middle age warfare, there were changes in military technology that facilitated fighting this differing kind of warfare. That being said, advances in technology did not mean that old technology became immediately obsolete. One such advance was the trebuchet, but other smaller advancements were made as well. There were advancements such as new helmets called Spangenhelme as well as some Carolingian developments in weapon production. With the subsequent development in armor, there came advancements in handheld weaponry to deal with these developments. For example, swords became thinner and pointed on the tip in order to penetrate between gaps in plate armor. Crossbows as well became more commonly used in the defense of castles during siege warfare. In order to attack castles, the Springald was created to launch spears in succession, but was mainly used outside of Germany. Stirrups were developed which was integral in the use of shock combat during the Middle Ages. The creation of greaves was important in protecting the shins.
In Germany, Baronets were known as (Ritter) or Knights. These were a title of nobility bestowed on people by the local lord. Following this, the title of Ritter was generally passed in a hereditary fashion until the end of the noble line. After which, the title and its holdings would revert to the lord to give out to someone else. Ritter's were considered the elite of the German military as their entire goal was to practice for war. They did this by competing in tournaments to keep themselves practiced. A Ritter would be considered of this lowest nobility but were considered the primary means of defense for many lords. All knights were nobility but not all nobles were knights. The nobility were not a military class, but quite contrarily avoided military conflict on the basis of their immense wealth. As well, knights would have been more likely to ravage the countryside in order to get a country to submit to their authority, rather than seek open battle to prove their point.
Fortifications in Medieval Germany were built similarly to those of the Roman style, with the caveat of stone-built castles. Forts were generally well constructed and effective against attack. There were several kinds of fortifications such as the moat and bailey, earthworks, hill-forts, Urban forts, town walls, and fortified residences. Moat and bailey, the most common castles before the use of stonework's, proved ineffective against Viking invaders. In Germany, in 1200 there were only 12 towns with walls, and 9 of them were originally Roman walls. Later, crusaders built their own types of fortifications called crusader castles, meant to be used in defense of a strategic objective for Christendom. Mostly, the defense of territory gained in conquest against Muslims in the Holy Land. However, it's possible some could have been built in the Prussian Crusade in the 13th century. This all changed with the influence of gunpowder weapons as used during sieges.
The tactics of the Middle Ages varied greatly. A large amount of tactics were still based on Roman ideas. Such as the use of training, regimentation, and the phalanx. Medieval commanders may have been educated or read in Vegetius' De Re Militari which would have provided the bases for battle tactics. In historiography, Charles Oman believes that cavalry entirely dominated the battlefield of the Middle Ages, but others contend that the infantry continued to play the most vital role even through the early modern age. One example of tactics and strategy is the use of secrecy in Henry II in 1004 against Bohemians, which gave Henry the element of surprise so that he was successful in his campaign. Another strategy, employed primarily by knights, was to ravage the countryside and force people to submit when they run out of supplies. The vast majority of these tactics were learned from Roman times in surviving works.
In the year 800, Charlemagne is crowned Holy Roman Emperor including his dominions in Germany which he gained through military conquest of Saxon tribes. Through the ninth Century, after the death of Charlemagne in 814, the empire was split in the Treaty of Verdun in 843. This created the kingdoms of France, Germany, and Lombardy.
Following the Treaty of Verdun, in 870 there was the Treaty of Meerssen. This treaty replaced the treaty of Verdun and split the empire again. The Kingdom of East Francia (Germany) continued to exist under the conditions of this treaty. However, within 10 years this led to further conflict between German and French Kings.
In July 907, an army of Germans faced off against Hungarians in the Battle of Pressburg. The result was a decisive Hungarian victory in which the Hungarians were able to pillage what is today modern eastern Germany. The following year in 908, the Hungarians scored another victory at the Battle of Eisenach and continued to ravage the German countryside and demand tribute from local lords. This trend was reversed with the First Battle of Lechfeld in 910 when the army led by Otto I. defeated the Hungarian invaders.
From 919–36, the Germanic peoples (Franks, Saxons, Swaben and Bavarians) were united under Henry the Fowler, then Duke of Saxony, who took the title of King. For the first time, the term Kingdom of the Germans ("Regnum Teutonicorum") was applied to East Francia.
The Treaty of Bonn was signed in 921 between Charles III of France and Henry I of Germany. They established the Rhine River as the border and neutral territory of their kingdoms. The treaty was ultimately a failure and led to tensions and military conflict between the kingdoms.
In 933, Henry the Fowler met with an assembly in which they expressed their desire to renew their war with the Magyars (Hungarians). The Magyars attempted to catch the Saxons by surprise, but ultimately failed when they split their army in two. This resulted in Henry destroying both army sections with his superior weapons and training. The name of this conflict was known as the Battle of Riade.
Henry I and his son Otto I inherited their administrative qualities from their Carolingian ancestors and thus were able to field armies much larger than medieval military historiography believed was capable at that time. The efficiency of military organization in tenth-century Germany was much higher than believable. This can be seen in the number of sieges, which would require extensive logistics, that were conducted during the century. Otto I and his subsequent descendants were tasked with defending the military borders to the east of modern-day Germany. Their enemies were primarily Slavic and roaming Steppe peoples.
In 953-954 Otto the Great was forced to fight his sons Conrad the Red and Luidolf in a civil war in modern-day Germany. The war was fought over old Roman fortifications such as Mainz and Regensburg. In the subsequent year, during which the Ottonian kingdom would've been weaker, the Magyars invaded with the objective of besieging cities in search of booty. The number of forts and their organization also pointed to extensive work done by the first kings of Germany during the 10th century during the Middle Ages.
In 955, the Magyars were decisively defeated at the second battle of Lechfeld by Otto the Great, ending the threat from the Eurasian steppes for four centuries. In 962, partly on the strength of this victory, Otto invaded Italy on his way to Rome and was crowned the first Emperor of the Holy Roman Empire by the pope.
The War of the Three Henries was fought between 977–978. The war was a short lived rebellion by three German princes, all of which were named Henry, against Emperor Otto II. The three Henries were, Bishop Henry I of Augsburg, Henry the Wrangler, and duke Henry I the Younger. Shortly after the end of the rebellion of the three Henries, Otto fought a brief war with King Lothair of France, who invaded Lotharingia and attacked the imperial city of Aachen with 20,000 men. Otto was forced to flee to Dortmund where he created an effective response. He then counter-invaded France and laid siege to Paris but was forced to withdraw during the winter months. He then turned to defeating the rebellious princes, which he did by besieging Passau where the rebels had gathered. Otto took Passau and punished the three princes for their insurrection.
Text from the Wikipedia article “German Unification Wars”, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.