German empire: Did you mean...?

The Maginot Line was an extensive series of fortifications built by France through the 1930s to protect its eastern borders from German attack. Stretching for over 200 miles (322 km), and including massive gun emplacements and extensive underground...

Trade and commerce were essential components of the success and expansion of the Byzantine Empire. Trade was carried out by ship over vast distances, although for safety, most sailing vessels were restricted to the better weather conditions...

The armistice that ended the First World War (1914-18) on the Western Front was signed between Germany and the Allies on 11 November 1918. The guns fell silent at 11:00 a.m. that day. The Allies, who included Britain, France, and the United...

The Sassanian Empire (224-651) was the greatest expression of Persian culture in the ancient world. It was consciously modeled on the earlier Achaemenid Empire (c. 550-330 BCE) which established Persian supremacy in the region and developed...

D-Day was the first day of Operation Overlord, the Allied attack on German-occupied Western Europe, which began on the beaches of Normandy, France, on 6 June 1944. Primarily US, British, and Canadian troops, with naval and air support, attacked...

A May 1940 photograph showing a German Panzer II (foreground) and Panzer I (rear) operating on the Western Front during the Second World War (939-45). (German Federal Archives)

A 1916 photograph of a German trench on the Western Front during the First World War (1914-18). (German Federal Archives)

An early-20th-century painting by Wilhelm Kuhnert depicting German-led African Askari troops at the Battle of Mahenge during the Maji-Maji Rebellion (1905-7) against colonial rule in German East Africa.

A photograph showing German army engineers building a bridge across the Dnieper near Kiev (Kyiv) during Operation Barbarossa, the attack by Adolf Hitler (1889-1945) on the USSR from June to December 1941. (German Federal Archives)

A July 1941 photograph showing a German Panzer IV tank and other vehicles near Smolensk during Operation Barbarossa in the Second World War (1939-45). (German Federal Archives)