MARTHA KRUG GENTHE, Associate Editor (Bull. of the Amer. Geogr. Soc.) The place of origin of the Germans is doubtful and even the theory, based on similarities of language, that they formed part of one great Indo-European race is no longer tenable. One race may readily impose its language on an other, as the Germans on their Slavic neighbors.
Quite early we find German tribes in con flict with the Romans. Marius (in 101-02 Lc.) gained victories over bands of Cimbrians and Teutons that had penetrated to Provence and Northern Italy. C.msar, after a struggle with the German Ariovistus, established the Rhine as a Roman boundary. Augustus undertook an invasion of Germany and his stepsons, Tiberius and Drusus — also, later, the son of Drusus, Germanicus — penetrated far into the land and built camps and fortifications, of which the remains are still to be seen. But the Cheruscan Arminius (or Hermann) at the head of a coalition of tribes defeated the Ro man general Varus in the Teutoburg Forest (9 A.D.) and liberated Germany. Augustus began the Limes or great fortified wall which, under his successors, was extended across the whole frontier. The Germans were not always un friendly and a considerable trade sprang up.
From being, in the days of 'Fawns, a great number of semi-nomad tribes, the Germans coalesced into larger bodies called "stems' or «nations,» among which the chief were the Goths, Vandals, Saxons, Burgundians and Franks (q.v.). The Goths were the first to accept Christianity —in the Arian form, indeed —and were represented by their own bishop at the council of Nicea. Throughout the 3d and 4th centuries the Germans made themselves more and more felt in the affairs of the Roman Empire, and thousands were allowed to settle on Roman soil. The advent of the wild hordes of the Huns (q.v.), who first crossed the Volga about 375 A.D., started the ((wandering of the nations* and brought about the disintegration of the Western Empire and the rise of new kingdoms. Of these the only one that proved permanent was the kingdom of the Franks. Its survival is ascribed to the facts that it never lost touch with Germany, and that it adopted the Roman Catholic form of Christianity, thus finding support in the clergy of its conquered provinces.
Under the Merovingian Clovis and his sons an end was put to the remnant of Roman rule in Gaul. Provinces were wrested from the Visigoths (q.v.) to the south ; while, to the east
the Allemanians (q.v.) and Burgundians (q.v.) were subjugated. Though she race of the Merovingians (q.v.) steadily degenerated, the affairs of the new kingdom were well adminis tered by the chief officials, the mayors of the palace, who contrived to make their own posi tion hereditary and who handled the kings like puppets. Several mayors in turn distinguished themselves by quelling revolts, hut the most brilliant achievement of all was the driving back of the Saracens by Charles Martel (q.v.). The battle near Poictiers (732 A.D.) was one of the world's great combats. The Saracen war is notable, too, as marking the beginning of the feudal system (q.v.). The first fiefs were lands of the Church, confiscated and parceled out by Charles Martel with the understanding that the persons thus-favored should provide themselves with horses and perform military service.
Pepin, son of Charles Martel, put an end to the fiction of Merovingian kingship (752 A.D.) by imprisoning the last of the line and causing himself to be proclaimed king. This he did with the sanction of Pope Zacchary, who declared the Frankish crown hereditary, anointed Pepin's sons and pronounced a curse on those who should choose a king from any other line. Charles, known as •the great?' then brought the work of consolidating the kingdom to its culmi nation. He conquered the last free German tribes, notably the Saxons, with whom he warred for 30 years. He interfered in Italy, overthrowing the Lombard kingdom, and he conquered the wild Avars in the present Austria. He came forward as the champion of Pope Leo III, who had traveled to Germany to ask aid against a faction of the Romans. Charles con ducted a sort of trial over the Pope's enemies, finally banishing them from Rome. Leo, in re turn, surprised Charles as he knelt in Saint Peter's by crowning him as successor to the old Roman emperors (800 A.D.). Charles, who had already subdivided the greater part of Ger many into administrative districts, now cen tralized the government still more by requiring a new oath of allegiance and by sending out envoys with power to examine into the actions of all officials. It was a flourishing period not only politically, but also in learning, literature and art. Unfortunately Charles's son, Lou's the Pious, proved unequal to the task of governing.