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The Territorial Evolution Of GERMANY
Mar 31, 2025
Sign up for a 14-day free trial and enjoy all the amazing features MyHeritage has to offer. If you decide to continue your subscription, you’ll get a 50% discount: https://bit.ly/GeneralKnowledge_MH In this video I talk about the territorial evolution of Germany! From Prussia, to the North German Confederation, the German Empire, and all the way to modern times. Video about the German Colonial Empire: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1ihl6SsY7V4 Follow me on Twitter: https://twitter.com/GKonYoutube Become a member on Patreon & get exclusive content! https://www.patreon.com/generalknowledge Special mention to my Patrons: Richard Hartzell, The Wanton Dogfish, Edward DeCook, Jeseenya, Steve the Goat, Yeti, Elizabeth Per, Wilhelm Cedervall, William Hartley, Roland Kreuzer, Borton Short, Chet TheMan, Hendrick Fantes, Ilja Nieuwland, Juan Rodriguez, Kalvin Saccal, Lastmatix, Rogaine Ablar, Rpgkillerspace, Ryan Keith, Ryan McMurry, Tom. Join the Discord Server: https://discord.com/invite/f4neAVWZfF Business Contact: [email protected] Thanks for watching, remember to subscribe to catch future videos!
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0:00
Germany. Today, Germany looks like this, with its borders creating this almost round shape
0:08
But Germany didn't always look like this, and throughout history, its borders changed a lot
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From a small territory in Prussia to a large German empire, an even larger conquered territory
0:18
during World War II, and then further reductions after that. For the sake of this video, we're going
0:23
to focus on European borders, ignoring Germany's colonial possessions. I made a whole other video
0:28
about the German colonial empire if you're interested in that. So let's get started and
0:32
figure out how Germany evolved into the territory it has today, how it came under its control
0:37
and how they lost some of the lands they had at times, including the one the German state
0:42
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1:41
Now, back to the video. Beginning precisely from the start, the German people have existed in what is today Germany
1:47
for a long time. When Julius Caesar was conquering Gaul, he referred, and according to some people even named
1:53
the territory Germania, after the Germani people who lived there. But the current German state has
1:58
its origin later on, although still a long time ago. One can argue that the origin for the German
2:03
state is Prussia, because as we will see ahead, the entire German state evolved from what was
2:09
eventually created as a Prussian state. Western Prussia is a region in central eastern Europe
2:15
today a part of Poland, but its role as the origin of Germany begins in around the 13th century
2:21
Between 1217 and 1274, the Prussian crusade took place. It was a conquest launched by Christians
2:28
primarily led by the Teutonic Order knights, with the purpose of conquering and Christianizing the
2:33
old Prussians, which were pagan. By the end of it, the Teutonic Knights established control over
2:37
the region, establishing a monastic state, eventually erasing the Prussian language, culture, and pre-Christian religion, with most Prussians leaving the area
2:46
It's interesting that the region that led to the creation of the most prominent German state
2:51
was named after the people who it was taken from. The Teotonic monastic state was mostly Germanized through immigration from Central and Western Germany
3:01
After losing a war against Poland, the imposed Second Peace of Thorn in 1466
3:06
split Prussia into the Western Royal Prussia, becoming a province of Poland
3:11
and the eastern part, called the Duchy of Prussia. But soon enough, the duchy would return to German
3:16
rule, at least kind of. In 1618, the Duchy of Prussia united with the Margraviate slash electorate
3:23
of Brandenburg. The reason for the union was simply dynastic, they were ruled by different
3:28
people within the same dynasty the house of Ohenzollern And so in 1618 when Albert Frederick the ruler of Polish Prussia died the electors of Brandenburg inherited the Prussian Duchy but it still remained under Polish sovereignty for a while only in 1657 did
3:45
they move away from the Poles. In exchange for military aid in the Second Northern War
3:49
the Polish king granted the Ohenzollern dynasty full sovereignty in the Duchy of Prussia. So
3:55
now they entirely ruled both of these territories, Brandenburg plus all its small possessions in
4:00
other areas, and Prussia. Through this map, we can see the growth of Brandenburg-Prussia
4:04
acquiring key territories such as Magdeburg, East and West Pomerania, and then part of Poland
4:10
as we will see ahead. After this, almost 50 years later, in 1701, the man who would become Prussia's
4:16
first king, Frederick I, decided he wanted to make Prussia a kingdom. The issue was that he was an
4:22
elector of the Holy Roman Empire, and within the HRE, no one could call himself a king except the
4:28
Emperor and the King of Bohemia. But Frederick was smart and he figured out two different ways
4:34
to make this happen. First, only Brandenburg was a part of the HRE territory. Prussia in its
4:39
entirety was not. And second, the Holy Roman Empire, at the time Leopold I, was in dire need
4:45
of assistance in a war, the War of Spanish Succession. And so, negotiating with him
4:50
Frederick was able to gain his approval to raise Prussia to a kingdom in exchange for a contingent
4:55
of 8,000 men to fight alongside the emperor in this war. And also in exchange of a key detail
5:02
Frederick would call himself king in Prussia instead of king of Prussia. After this
5:08
most monarchs in Europe and princes of the HRE followed and recognized Prussia as a new kingdom
5:14
in Europe. From this moment onwards, the 18th century was a century of territorial expansion
5:19
for Prussia through extinguished dynasties, offers of protection, or sometimes plain conquest
5:25
through war, the Prussian kingdom was able to expand its territory. The conquest of Silesia
5:30
is an example of this. Prussia's military prowess was soon proved, as many European powers
5:35
frowned upon their expansion. Between 1740 and 1762, Prussia fought precisely the Silesian Wars
5:43
against Austria, France, Russia, and Sweden at the same time, only counting on Great Britain
5:49
which wasn't a continental power, and Hanover as its allies. And still, they were able to hold
5:55
their ground. The victory against Austria at the Battle of Burckersdorf led them to victory in this
6:00
war, fully establishing Prussia as one of Europe's great powers. After this, the collapse of Poland
6:06
Lithuania and its partition among Prussia, Austria and Russia further expanded the territory
6:12
of the Prussian Kingdom. During the Napoleonic Wars, in the course of the War of the Second
6:16
Coalition, Napoleon Bonaparte urged Prussia to occupy the continental British dominions. In 1801
6:22
24,000 Prussian soldiers invaded, surprising Hanover, which surrendered without a fight. On August 6th of 1806, the Holy Roman Empire was dissolved as a result of Napoleon's victories
6:33
over Austria, and so, Prussia was now fully sovereign over its traditionally German territories
6:39
as well. Prussia eventually fought against Napoleon and lost, temporarily losing much
6:43
of its territory, which it then regained after Napoleon's definitive defeat. Their reward for
6:47
their part in France's defeat came at the Congress of Vienna, according to which it regained
6:52
most of its pre-1806 territory with some exceptions in Poland, but in compensation
6:58
they gained parts of Saxony and much of Westphalia and Rhineland in western Germany. As a consequence
7:02
of revolutions in 1848, a set of other principalities were also annexed by the Prussians
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And this allows us to understand how from the very first conquest of the Prussia region by the
7:13
Teutonic Order to its union with Brandenburg the then newly formed Kingdom of Prussia was able to further expand its territorial reach and influence throughout Germany Now Prussia rule wasn
7:23
only limited to the east and fully encompassed the width of the German territory. Prussia stretched
7:29
uninterrupted from the Niemann River in the east to the Elbe River in the west and possessed a
7:35
chain of disconnected territories as we can see on this map. This left Prussia as the only great
7:40
power with a predominantly German-speaking population and put it on the path to lead
7:44
the road towards a full unification of the German people into one single nation. Prussia took the
7:50
leadership of the movement for national unification. Its chief minister, Otto von Bismarck, was the
7:55
architect of this process, which was carried out with the help of the Prussian army. In fact
8:00
Prussia's power was so large that it went to war with Austria again over the control of two small
8:06
Danish duchies, Schleswig and Olstein. Emerging victorious in 1866, Prussia created the North
8:11
German Confederation, creating essentially what was a federal state in all of northern German
8:16
territories, encompassing what was already Prussia, Schleswig-Olstein itself, and many other small principalities or duchies. Four years later, in 1870, a dispute over a new king for
8:27
Spain, again, escalated into the Franco-Prussian War. Because of it, the south German states of
8:32
Baden, Ester-Darmstadt, Württemberg, and Bavaria joined the Confederation, which was then transformed
8:38
into the German Empire, as was written in its constitution at the time. With this, the modern
8:43
concept of a united German state was created, and the territory of Germany grew immensely
8:48
annexing all of the southern provinces of what we today know as Germany. The Confederation had
8:53
nearly 30 million inhabitants, of whom 80% lived in Prussia, which again goes to demonstrate the
8:59
importance the depression state had in the origin and creation of the German state through its
9:04
expansion. After this moment and up to World War I, territorial changes in the German empire were
9:09
very few. In 1871, they won Alsace-Lorraine from France and in 1890, Britain ceded Eligoland to
9:16
Germany, a small island which they still controlled and which was given to the German
9:19
empire through the Eligoland-Zanzibar Treaty. In return, Germany recognized British authority over Zanzibar. And then we arrive at the 20th century and more modern times. In World War I
9:30
being defeated, Germany lost much of its territory. But what's interesting is that being victorious
9:35
against Russia, or at least being able to reach a peace treaty due to the Russian Revolution
9:39
Germany could have actually won a vast amount of land. Through the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk
9:44
a separate peace treaty between Bolshevik Russia and the Central Powers, Russia, among other
9:49
territorial concessions ceded Germany egemony over Lithuania, Latvia, and Estonia. These three
9:54
countries in the Baltic were meant to become German vassal states, effectively puppet states
9:59
under the German Empire, which could eventually be incorporated within it. But the Central Powers
10:04
and the German Empire eventually lost the war against the Entente in the West. And so
10:08
while Russia still lost some of its territories, the Baltic nations did not become German puppets
10:13
and Germany itself was forced to lose some of its land through the Treaty of Versailles
10:18
Leaving out colonial losses, which were total for Germany, here is the territory they lost as a result of their defeat
10:25
Alsace-Lorraine was the first to go, being returned to France after 48 years of German rule
10:29
Northern Schleswig went to Denmark. Poland was created through Russian territory, and German Posen and West Prussia were given to the renewed Polish as well
10:37
Upper Silesia was given to Czechoslovakia, also newly created after the collapse of the Austro-Hungarian Empire
10:42
Iupen Malmody was given to Belgium. Danzig was made a free city under League of Nations rule
10:47
Memole was given to Lithuania and the SAR area was put under a 15 League of Nations mandate after which a vote took place where locals decided whether they wanted to belong to France or Germany with over 90 choosing to return to the Germans The German Empire came to an end and a new Republic of Weimar Germany was created
11:06
But instability was always present, and the rise of certain political forces tried and
11:11
succeeded to rally the German people in an effort to, among other terrible things, regain
11:16
their lost territory. After remilitarizing the Rhineland and recovering the Tsar, Germany annexed the country of Austria
11:22
through what became known as Anschluss. This was another clear breach of the Treaty of Versailles
11:27
under which Germany agreed to respect the existence of an independent Austria. Then came
11:32
the occupation of the Sudetenland, and after that, making a mockery out of the previous concession
11:37
of the Allies, Germany fully invaded the rest of Czechoslovakia. Within it, Czechia was fully
11:43
annexed, while Slovakia made a puppet state. By late 1938, they recovered Memel from Lithuania
11:49
and this concluded Germany's new territorial acquisitions through peace, or at least not an
11:54
all-out open war. One year later, in 1939, they declared war on Poland and World War II began
12:00
Throughout the early stages of the conflict, Germany invaded and occupied all of Poland
12:05
the three Baltic nations, some of Russia, Denmark, Norway, Belgium, Luxembourg, the Netherlands
12:10
and France, fully occupying the north and creating a puppet regime in the south. Whatever Germany's
12:15
plan for these territories after the war was, it did not come to fruition, and a full annexation of
12:20
the territories did not take place, only wartime occupation. With their defeat and the end of World
12:25
War II, Germany was further reduced, even more than it had been at the end of World War I
12:29
The eastern territories were lost to Poland, and a new Polish border was established at the
12:34
other Nase line, named after the two rivers. Belgium acquired seven small territories
12:39
most of which were later returned to Germany in 1956, some at the exchange of a monetary payment
12:44
The same thing happened with the Netherlands. As for the rest of the territory, it became divided
12:49
into East and West Germany, one under the control of the Soviet Union and the other of the Allied
12:53
forces, eventually transformed into the Federal Republic of Germany in the West, reasonably
12:58
independent despite Western influence in the Democratic Republic of Germany in the East
13:02
very much under Soviet influence and control. Berlin, despite being within East Germany
13:07
was also divided into two according to the same logic. In 1990, Germany reunited with both sides
13:13
gathering into one, creating the German Federal Republic as we know it today, and making its
13:18
borders look like this. So, that is the history of the territorial evolution of Germany. How it
13:24
began as a small monastic Teutonic duchy in the east, becoming secularized by losing a war against
13:30
Poland, uniting with Brandenburg due to somewhat random dynastic and family tree reasons, but
13:35
putting the territory in control of a ruling dynasty, which step by step was able to take
13:40
further control of its sovereignty, making Prussia into a kingdom, establishing it as a
13:44
major power in Europe and expanding its territory and influence to such an extent that it was able
13:50
to unify all German states around it, creating a large German empire, with further attempts
13:55
to expand it even more, but with both of them being vastly unsuccessful due to serious military
14:00
defeats, not only stopping Germany from further expanding, but actually causing it to become
14:04
smaller than what they were at the time. But still, even though they lost Poland, part of Denmark
14:09
and other territories, the vast majority of German people are today united in a single German state
14:15
something that was perhaps unthinkable to those early Teutonic knights. A tremendous growth from
14:20
that small duchy to a very large and important country today, much of which due to this territorial
14:25
evolution. Thanks so much for watching this video, subscribe if you want
14:29
and I will see you next time for more general knowledge
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