History of Germany - Celts and Germanic Tribes

Germany is a country of cultural and religious contrasts. Regional differences in culture, language and traditions arose from the historical division of the country into many small states. Such differences have been further accentuated by the recent experience of generations of Germans who, until 1990 grew up under two conflicting social systems: capitalism and communism.

In the first Millenium BC the basis of the Rhine, Danube and Main rivers were settled by Celts, who had been largely displaced by Germanic tribes by the 2nd Century BC. In the 1st Century BC the Roman legions waged wars with the Germans and conquered the territories west of the Rhine.

The settlements they founded there later developed into towns like Trier, Mainz, Cologne and Xanten. The Romans made numerous attempts to conquer the eastern regions between the Rhine and the Elbe rivers. They eventually reached the Elbe at the end of the 1st Century BC but the Germans, under the leadership of Arminius, also known as Germanus, defeated the Roman armies in the Teutoburg Forest in AD9, and so ended their presence in the region.

A series of fortifications or ‘limes’ built in the 2nd Century along the course of the Danube and the Rhine, divided the region into two: ‘Germania Romania’, the Roman province and ‘Germania Libra’, free Germany.

The free German tribes, notably the Goths, often entered into alliances with the Romans. In the 5th Century, however they took advantage of Rome’s weakness to appropriate parts of the empire for themselves.