The Rhine – Two Thousand Years of German History Along the River
Last weekend, I was at one of the southernmost points of Germany. The weather was warm and summery, autumn seemed to be still weeks away, although in northern Germany it has already been knocking at the door with all its might for some time. There was no sign of wind, rain, drizzle, or cold – the people were friendly and open-minded. No one looks at you strangely when you start a conversation at a gas station. Everyone wishes you a good day or a good journey. So Germany can be like this, too. For me, it is still hard to believe. As a woman from Hamburg, I am not used to this. And then there was something else that made me think: the Rhine. Crystal clear, it is fed by Lake Constance, fish and mussels live in it, the water flows with constancy. As someone from northern Germany, I can only partly understand the fascination it has for my fellow Germans; as a historian, it is different!
Hardly any other river in Europe is as closely connected with the history of Germany as the Rhine. It was a border and a transport route, a trade route and a battlefield, a political dividing line and a cultural connection. Some of the oldest cities in Germany emerged along its banks. The Romans built camps and fortresses here, Frankish kings made the region the center of their empire, medieval princes controlled castles and customs duties. Napoleon shifted the political map of Europe along its banks. In the nineteenth century, the Rhine finally became one of the great symbols of the German national idea.
But: Germany as we know it today is considerably younger than the history of the Rhine, and therefore the river is actually not particularly suitable to be regarded as a national natural monument. When the Romans came to the Rhine more than 2,000 years ago, there was no Germany yet. Nor was there one when Karl der Große (Charlemagne (748–814)) ruled over large parts of Central Europe. And when people spoke of the “German Rhine” in the nineteenth century, this was already the result of a long political and cultural development.
The Rhine Before Germany
People lived along the Rhine long before the Romans. Celts settled in the region, as did various Germanic tribal groups. The Rhine was by no means an impermeable border. People crossed it, traded, and were in contact with one another. This changed fundamentally in the first century BC. Between 58 and 50 BC, Julius Caesar waged the Gallic War. Caesar also reached the Rhine and, in 55 BC, had a large Rhine bridge built for the first time in order to enable his troops to cross. The bridge was very probably somewhere between what are today Andernach and Koblenz, more precisely, the area around Neuwied is often discussed. He himself, of course, did not give a modern geographical location. Caesar described the bridge as a crossing over the Rhine from which he marched into the territory of the Ubii. The exact location has not been definitively established. A few decades later, the rulers of the Roman Empire began to permanently incorporate the Rhine into their military and political order. Under the Roman emperor Augustus (63 BC–AD 14), the Rhine region became the starting point for further Roman conquests, and the river thus became one of the great borders of the Roman Empire. But it was not simply a border. It became military infrastructure.
Mainz: From Legionary Camp to Roman Metropolis
One example is the city of Mainz. The Romans reached the Rhine near Mainz around 38 BC. Between 13 and 12 BC, they built a large legionary camp on the hill of what is today the Kästrich. The place was called Mogontiacum, after a Celtic deity named Mogon. Mainz is strategically excellently located: this is where the Main flows into the Rhine, and from here Roman troops could operate both northwards and eastwards. A civilian settlement developed around the military camp. Merchants, craftsmen, and families followed the soldiers. A military site became a city. A permanent bridge already connected Mainz in AD 27 with the fortress area on the right bank of the Rhine at what is now Mainz-Kastel. In the first century, a huge theater was also built, with space for approximately 10,000 spectators. After the turmoil of the Year of the Four Emperors in AD 69/70, the legionary camp was rebuilt in stone. Mainz was now not simply a city on the Rhine: it was one of the most important military and political centers of the Roman frontier.
The Rhine Becomes a Border
Over the course of the first century AD, Roman rule along the Rhine became increasingly stable. However, the attempt to move the border even further east ultimately failed. The Varusschlacht (the Battle of the Teutoburg Forest) in AD 9 in what is now northwestern Germany was particularly consequential. Three Roman legions under Publius Quinctilius Varus were destroyed by a Germanic alliance under Arminius. Rome largely abandoned its plans for permanent expansion east of the Rhine. The Rhine thus finally became a central border between the Roman world and the Germanic territories. This border, however, remained permeable. Roman merchants traveled to Germania, Germanic groups came into the Empire, soldiers were recruited from different parts of Europe. The Rhine separated two political spheres, but it connected their people.
From the Roman Empire to the Franks
In the third century, the Roman Rhine frontier came increasingly under pressure. Germanic groups crossed the Rhine again and again. Cities were fortified. In Mainz, a stone city wall was built around AD 250. In the fourth century, the situation became more severe. In AD 406, Vandals, Suebi, and Alans crossed the Rhine. Roman rule in the territories on the left bank of the Rhine collapsed over the following decades.
In the fifth century, Roman rule along the Rhine came to an end. But with this, the Rhine did not disappear from European history. A new era was now beginning: the Franks expanded and took over large parts of the former Roman territories. Centuries later, the political entity that would eventually develop into France and Germany would emerge, among other things, from this Frankish world. The Rhine continued to be right in the middle of these developments.
The Middle Ages: The Rhine as a Trade Route
For in the Middle Ages, the Rhine became one of the most important arteries of transportation in Europe. Mainz became increasingly important as an archbishopric and political center. A city such as Koblenz, for example, was located at the strategically important confluence of the Rhine and Moselle. Castles and customs stations were built along the river. Anyone transporting goods on the Rhine had to pay duties at various places. The castles of the Middle Rhine were therefore not merely romantic residences of knights. They were part of a system of rule, control, and economic power. The Rhine was a source of income; whoever controlled it had power and influence. Emperor Napoleon (1769–1821) knew this as well centuries later.
Napoleon Changes the Rhine
The French Revolution of 1789 changed the political order of Europe. In 1792, the war between revolutionary France and its opponents began. French troops occupied territories on the left bank of the Rhine. With the Peace of Campo Formio in 1797 and later the Peace of Lunéville in 1801, French rule on the left bank of the Rhine was largely recognized. In 1806, the Holy Roman Empire of the German Nation finally collapsed. For many people, the Rhine now became a symbol of a painful political change. From this perception, a new idea emerged in the nineteenth century, because the Rhine now acquired a significance that went far beyond its geographical location. Germany still did not exist as a nation-state, but through a growing German national consciousness, the Rhine became one of the most important symbols.
A German River?
When France again asserted claims and influence along the Rhine in the nineteenth century, the river became a national question. The Rhine was now no longer supposed to be merely a river; it was supposed to be German. In 1840, French demands were voiced again, and on the German side, this triggered fierce reactions. During this time, Max Schneckenburger wrote his patriotic Die Wacht am Rhein (“The Watch on the Rhine”). Over the years, the Rhine became a symbol of a threatened German nation – even though there was still no German nation-state.
This only changed in 1871 with the founding of the German Empire after the Franco-Prussian War of 1870/71. On January 18, 1871, Wilhelm I was proclaimed German Emperor in the Hall of Mirrors at Versailles. The Rhine was now largely within a German nation-state. What had for centuries been a political border, a transport route, and a contested region became part of the new empire. But this by no means meant that its history as a political border was over.
Wars and Occupation
In the First World War (1914–1918), the Rhine once again played an important strategic role. After the war, the Rhineland was demilitarized by the Treaty of Versailles of 1919 and partially occupied by Allied troops. The occupation of the Rhineland became an important issue in German politics during the interwar period. In 1923, separatist movements emerged in the Rhineland. In Koblenz, the extremely short-lived “Rhenish Republic” was proclaimed in October 1923. In 1936, Adolf Hitler (1889–1945) had German troops march into the demilitarized Rhineland. The move was a turning point and a break with the post-war order of 1919. Only a few years later, the Rhine once again became a theater of war. After the German invasion of Poland on September 1, 1939, Great Britain and France declared war on Germany. From 1944/45 onwards, the Rhineland became a theater of fighting between German and Allied troops. Especially during the advance of the Western Allies into Germany, heavy fighting took place. The Rhine eventually became one of the decisive natural obstacles on the way of the Allies into German territory. In 1945, however, the Allied troops advanced across the Rhine. One of the best-known bridges was the Ludendorff Bridge at Remagen, which was captured by American troops on March 7, 1945, and is regarded as the first intact permanent Allied crossing over the Rhine.
From a Border River to a European River
After 1945, the political significance of the Rhine began to change once again. Germany and France, which for centuries had repeatedly stood opposed to each other as so-called hereditary enemies, now became partners. European integration made borders increasingly permeable. The Rhine was now no longer primarily a border between two hostile power blocs. It became a river within an increasingly united Europe. And yet, somehow, it still remains something else: the river of the Romans, the river of the Franks, the river of medieval merchants, emperors, and prince-electors. A river of castles and customs duties, of wars and nationalism. The Rhine does not tell the story of a Germany that had always existed. It tells the story of how Germany developed in the first place. The Rhine itself has hardly changed. The water still flows from south to north.
What has changed are the people on its banks and the meanings they give to it.
