Why go
A little context helps connect what you see in Berlin, along the Rhine, and in older southern towns. Today's republic emerged from centuries of smaller states, then the upheavals of empire, dictatorship, division, and reunification. That history explains why regional identities and twentieth-century memorials matter on the same trip.
The full story
Germany's present borders are recent compared with the places inside them. German territories belonged to the Holy Roman Empire for centuries, while rulers, cities, and religious traditions differed widely from region to region. The Protestant Reformation took hold in northern German areas in the sixteenth century. A unified German Empire was founded only in 1871, under Prussian leadership. The empire ended after the First World War. The democratic Weimar Republic was followed in 1933 by Nazi dictatorship, which brought persecution, the Holocaust, and the Second World War. After Germany's defeat in 1945, occupation and the Cold War produced two states: the Federal Republic in the west and the German Democratic Republic in the east. The Berlin Wall became the most visible symbol of their division. It fell in 1989, and reunification followed in 1990. Keep this sequence in mind as you move between imperial buildings, memorials, and the former border in Berlin. It also helps explain why the same country presents such different local traditions and built landscapes.