9 Arminius defeats Romans
The defeat of three Roman legions in the Teutoberg Forest by Arminius, establishes the Rhine as a natural boundary of the Roman empire

781 Alcuin takes job at Aachen
Charlemagne, meeting the English scholar Alcuin on a visit to Italy, invites him to become head of the palace school in Aachen

796 Alcuin moves to Tours
Alcuin leaves the palace school at Aachen to become abbot of the monastery of Tours

1250 Tannhäuser among the Minnesinger
Tannhäuser is one of the Minnesinger, the German equivalents of the French troubadours

1397 Germany develops harpsichord
The keyboard of the organ is adapted in Germany to strings, thus providing the harpsichord - first mentioned in a manuscript of this year

1400 Master singers compete in German towns
Guilds of singers and song-writers develop in German towns, calling themselves Meistersinger, or master singers

1631 Swedes victorious at Breitenfeld
Gustavus II and the Swedish army win a conclusive victory over the imperial forces at Breitenfeld

1632 Swedish king dies in cavalry charge
The Swedish army wins another convincing victory at Lützen, but Gustavus II dies leading a cavalry charge

1634 Passion play in Oberammergau
A Passion play is performed for the first time at Oberammergau, in the spirit of the Counter-Reformation

1704 Marlborough wins at Blenheim
The duke of Marlborough wins a major victory over the French at Blenheim, capturing twenty-four battalions and four regiments

1720 Bach's Little Keyboard Book
Johann Sebastian Bach compiles the Little Keyboard Book a set of pieces to teach his eldest son, Wilhelm Friedemann Bach

1721 Bach writes Brandenburg Concertos
Johann Sebastian Bach writes the six Brandenburg Concertos for his employer at the court of Köthen

1722 The Well-Tempered Clavier
J.S. Bach publishes The Well-Tempered Clavier, a collection of 24 Preludes and Fugues

1727 St Matthew Passion
J.S. Bach conducts the first performance of his St Matthew Passion in the St Thomas's church in Leipzig

1741 Goldberg Variations
J.S. Bach publishes his set of Goldberg Variations, supposedly written for performance by the young harpsichordist Johann Gottlieb Goldberg

1744 2nd part of Well-Tempered Clavier
J.S. Bach publishes another set of 24 Preludes and Fugues, as an addition to his previous Well-Tempered Clavier

1749 Mass in B Minor
Shortly before his death (in 1750) J.S. Bach completes his Mass in B Minor, worked on over many years

1759 Frederick the Great not invincible
Frederick the Great suffers his first major defeat, by a Russian and Austrian army at Kunersdorf

1762 England has its own Bach
Johann Sebastian Bach's youngest son, Johann Christian, moves to London and becomes known as the English Bach

1774 Storm and stress
Goethe's play Götz von Berlichingen, a definitive work of Sturm und Drang (Storm and Stress), has its premiere in Berlin

1782 Schiller sensation
Friedrich von Schiller's youthful and anarchic play The Robbers causes a sensation when performed in Mannheim

1782 Beethoven's Dressler Variations
12-year-old Ludwig van Beethoven publishes his first composition, Piano Variations on a March by Dressler

1792 Beethoven to study with Haydn
Beethoven leaves Bonn and goes to Vienna to study composition with Haydn

1794 Goethe and Schiller in Weimar
Goethe and Schiller become friends, and together create the movement known as Weimar classicism

1804 Beethoven disgusted with Napoleon
Beethoven changes the dedication of his third symphony on hearing that his hero, Napoleon, has made himself an emperor

1813 Napoleon defeated at Leipzig
The allies inflict a heavy defeat on Napoleon at Leipzig, in the so-called Battle of the Nations

1826 Mendelsohn's first Midsummer Night's Dream
17-year-old Felix Mendelssohn composes an overture to A Midsummer Night's Dream, amplifed with huge success eighteen years later

1829 Mendelssohn revives St Matthew's Passion
After a century of neglect, the 20-year-old Felix Mendelssohn conducts an influential revival in Berlin of J.S. Bach's St Matthew Passion

1829 Mendelssohn visits Hebrides
German composer Felix Mendelssohn visits the Hebrides and see's Fingal's Cave, later the theme of his Hebrides Overture

1832 Schumann's Papillons
Robert Schumann's first published composition is Papillons ('Butterflies'), twelve short dance pieces for piano

1840 Schumann's Frauenliebe und -Leben
Robert Schumann composes the song cycle Frauenliebe und -Leben ('Woman's Love and Life')

1840 Schumann marries Clara
Robert Schumann marries the pianist Clara Wieck, daughter of his first teacher

1843 Mendelssohn's final Midsummer Night's Dream
Mendelssohn's overture to A Midsummer Night's Dream, amplified now with incidental music, is greeted as a masterpiece at a performance of the play in Potsdam

1851 Wagner writes anti-semitic tract
Richard Wagner writes an anti-semitic tract, Jewishness in Music

1854 Schumann attempts suicide
Robert Schumann throws himself into the Rhine, in an attempt to commit suicide, and spends the last two years of his life in an asylum

1869 Brahms' German Requiem
Johannes Brahms' German Requiem, setting passages from Luther's translation of the Bible, has its first complete performance in Leipzig

1870 Wagner marries Liszt's daughter
Richard Wagner marries Cosima, the daughter of the Hungarian composer Franz Liszt

1876 Brahms's first symphony
Johannes Brahms' first symphony has its premiere in Karlsruhe

1880 Academic Festival Overture
Johannes Brahms' Academic Festival Overture is performed first at Breslau university, which has conferred on him an honorary Ph.D.

1889 Strauss's Don Juan
The tone poem Don Juan, by the 25-year-old Richard Strauss, has a passionately mixed response at its premiere in Weimar

1910 Mahler's 'Symphony of a Thousand'
Gustav Mahler conducts in Munich the first performance of his Eighth Symphony, subsequently known as the 'Symphony of a Thousand'

1911 Hoffmansthal's Everyman
Hugo von Hofmannsthal adapts the English medieval morality play Everyman ('Jedermann') for performance in Salzburg

1911 Das Lied von der Erde
Bruno Walter conducts in Munich the first performance of Mahler's Das Lied von der Erde, a few months after the composer's death

1915 July 30 Flame thrower used in action
The Germans make their first effective use of a new weapon, the flame thrower, in an attack on the British in the second batte of Ypres

1916  May 31 Rival fleets clash off Jutland
The German and British fleets clash off Jutland, in a hard-fought but inconclusive encounter

1917 Klemperer is music director at Cologne
Otto Klemperer starts a seven-year spell as music director of Cologne opera, and begins to acquire an international reputation

1922 Furtwängler conducts in Berlin
The German conductor Wilhelm Furtwängler is appointed to the Berlin Philharmonic, and spends most of the rest of his life with the orchestra

1923 Hindemith's Das Marienleben
Paul Hindemith sets Rainer Maria Rilke's song-cycle Das Marienleben

1927 First collaboration between Brecht and Weill
Bertolt Brecht and Kurt Weill write Mahagonny Songspiel for the Baden-Baden music festival

1928 Threepenny Opera
The Threepenny Opera, by Bertolt Brecht and Kurt Weill, opens to great acclaim in Berlin

1930 The Blue Angel
Joseph von Sternberg directs Marlene Dietrich in the film The Blue Angel, shot in both German and English, making her an immediate international star

1933 Testament of Dr Mabuse
Fritz Lang's film The Testament of Dr Mabuse is banned in Germany because of implicit criticism of Nazi thugs

1933 Schoenberg leaves Germany
Arnold Schoenberg leaves his teaching post in Germany, now under Nazi control, and in 1934 settles in Los Angeles

1934 Riefenstahl films Nuremberg rally
German photographer Leni Riefenstahl glorifies Hitler and the Nuremberg rally in her film Triumph of the Will

1934 Korngold goes to Hollywood
Erich Korngold, one of Austria's most admired composers, moves to Hollywood

1935 Weill moves to USA
The German composer Kurt Weill moves to New York, where he writes Broadway musicals

1936 Carmina Burana
Carl Orff's cantata Carmina Burana has its premiere in Frankfurt

1946 Furtwängler acquitted of collaboration
German conductor Wilhelm Furtwängler is acquitted of the charge of collaborating with the Nazis

1947 Brecht's Galileo
Bertolt Brecht's play The Life of Galileo has its premiere in Los Angeles with Charles Laughton in the lead

1948 Four Last Songs completed
Richard Strauss completes his Four Last Songs in the year before his death

1949 Berliner Ensemble
Bertolt Brecht establishes a new theatrical company, the Berliner Ensemble, in East Germany

1950 Four Last Songs
Kirsten Flagstad sings the posthumous premiere, in London, of Richard Strauss's Four Last Songs

1956 Stockhausen's Song of the Children
Karlheinz Stockhausen's Song of the Children combines electronic sounds and the human voice

1957 Stockhausen's Gruppen
German composer Karlheinz Stockhausen uses three separate orchestras to achieve acoustic space in Gruppen

1968 Stockhausen's Stimmung
Karlheinz Stockhausen's Stimmung ('Tuning') employs six unaccompanied voices for 75 minutes

1977 Three Acts of Recognition
German author Botho Strauss's play Three Acts of Recognition wins him an international audience