2,000-500 BC: Germanic tribes settled in what is now northern Germany, Denmark and southern Sweden
500 BC - 500 AD: Great Tribal Migrations (Völkerwanderung)
768-814: Empire under Charlemagne
919: Fall of Carolingian Empire
Starting 1000: Germany--a patchwork of independent duchies and kingdoms
1250-1500 Hanseatic League
1440: Invention of the printing press by Gutenberg
1534: Luther's translation of the Bible into East Middle German
13th-20th century: Austrian Habsburg dynasty
1945-1949 World War II