Fossils discovered in what is now Germany indicate that the area was home to primitive human beings as early as 500,000 years ago. The Neanderthal people, who lived throughout Europe between about 130,000 and 35,000 years ago, are named for a fossil that was discovered in Germany's Neander Valley, near Dusseldorf.

But the history of the German people really began sometime after 1000 B.C., when warlike tribes began to migrate from northern Europe into what is now Germany. These tribes wandered the area and lived by hunting and farming. In the 100's B.C., they moved south to the Rhine and Danube rivers, the northern frontiers of the Roman Empire. The Romans called the tribes Germani, though that was the name of only one tribe. Other tribes included the Cimbri, Franks, Goths, and Vandals. The Romans called the land of the tribes Germania.

In A.D. 9, the Romans tried to conquer the tribes, but Germanic warriors crushed the Roman armies in a decisive battle at the Teutoburg Forest. The Romans built a wall, called the limes, between the Rhine and Danube rivers to protect their lands to the south from attacks. By the late A.D. 300's, Roman power had begun to collapse. In the 400's, Germanic tribes moved south, plundered Rome, and eventually broke up the western portion of the empire into tribal kingdoms. The kingdom of the Franks became the largest and most important.