Despite the small size of its present-day territory, Georgia’s history is as diverse as its landscape and its people. Situated on the northern and eastern fringes of ancient cultural centres in the Near East and the Mediterranean, the region served as a point of contact and a contested border zone between the oldest advanced civilisations, whilst also acting as both a transit route and a place of refuge for peoples, cultures and religions. For millennia, external powers exerted a decisive influence on a region situated on the ‘periphery’ of their empires; yet, whenever external forces were weakened, the region repeatedly succeeded in establishing independent states.

Indigenous accounts can be found in historical works such as ‘The Lives of the Georgian Kings and Patriarchs’ (Tschovrebakartueltamepeta da pirveltagantamamata da natesavta) and ‘The Conversion of Georgia’ (Mokcevaj Kartlisaj). Here, Saint Nino is named as the convertor of Georgia. Around 337, she is said to have won King Mirian over to the Christian faith. Since that time, Christianity has been the state religion. The Georgian Orthodox Apostolic Church has been autocephalous since the 5th century. For political reasons, the Georgian Church was unable to take part in the Council of Chalcedon in 451. In 487, the Patriarchate of Antioch granted the Iberian Church self-government. In the 6th century, it sided with the Armenian Church, which rejected the teachings of Chalcedon (Catholicos Gabriel I attended the Synod of Dvin in 506). In 610, however, a schism occurred under Catholicos Kyrion I, and the Georgian Church recognised the Christological decrees of the Council of Chalcedon, which stated that Jesus united both a divine and a human nature within himself (Duophysitism). It is therefore counted amongst the Byzantine Churches. Since the 5th century, its primate has borne the title ‘Catholicos’.

In the mid-8th century, the bishops of Eastern Georgia were granted the right by the Patriarch of Antioch to consecrate their own primate. In the 9th or 10th century, the right to anoint with myrrh was granted. Finally, in the 10th century, the Western Georgian bishops, who until then had been subject to Constantinople, also joined the Catholicosate. By adopting the dual title of ‘Catholicos-Patriarch’ – which is still in use today – Melchisedek I (1012–1045, with interruptions) affirmed the independence of his Church.^[5] A characteristic symbol is the intertwined ‘vine cross of St Nino’ with its arms sloping downwards. Until the 18th century, religious texts were written in a distinct script (priestlyscript/Chuzuriim, as distinct from the secular ‘warriorscript’/Mchedruli).

From 642 onwards, Arabs entered the country, but attempts to convert the population to Islam remained largely unsuccessful. Smaller principalities emerged from Lasika and Iberia, including Kartli, Kakheti, Hereti, Tao-Klarjeti, Abkhazia and Egrisi, which were controlled by an emir in Tbilisi from 755 onwards. With the collapse of the Caliphate and the advance of the Crusaders into the Middle East at the beginning of the 11th century, Bagrat III (963–1014, king from 975) succeeded in uniting Eastern and Western Georgia, as well as the Abkhazian and Georgian branches of the Bagratids, into a single Kingdom of Georgia. His grandson, Bagrat IV, ascended the throne in Tbilisi in 1039, and his descendants ruled over parts of Georgia until 1801. Despite various incursions (including the advance of the Seljuks from the 11th century onwards) and foreign rule, a period of prosperity followed for Georgia until the 13th century. In 1089, King David IV ‘the Builder’ (1073–1125) ascended the throne, drove out the Seljuks, reformed the united kingdom and, amongst other things, commissioned the construction of the Academy of Gelati (1106) as the first university. Ecclesiastical literature and architecture were promoted, and the Church, with its monasteries (including those outside the Georgian Empire, such as the Iviron Monastery on Mount Athos and the Monastery of the Cross in Jerusalem) were given a central role in Georgia’s cultural development by David the Builder, who, in 1103, introduced a reform that ensured the intertwining of church and state. On the one hand, he placed the Church under the authority of the secular head of state, whilst at the same time obliging high-ranking clergy to take on important political offices. Whereas military figures had previously usually held the position of imperial chancellor, he now appointed the Bishop of Martwili to this office.

Under the reign of Queen Tamar (1184–1213), military campaigns reached as far as Persia and Byzantium (1204, foundation of the Empire of Trebizond), whilst she also implemented significant domestic reforms: State proclamations were issued only after consultation with the noble parliament, the Darbasi; at the local level, she established courts whose decisions could be appealed to a Supreme Court. Under her reign, the economy, the arts and culture flourished. The 11th–12th centuries went down in history as the ‘Georgian Renaissance’, though this came to an abrupt end with Tamar’s death. Over the following centuries, the Mongols, Ottomans and Persians were to demonstrate a keen interest in Georgia.

In 1243, Queen Rusudan was forced to officially recognise Mongol suzerainty. Following the death of Alexander I (1442), the last king of a united Georgia, the House of Bagratids split into three lines. One ruled over Kartli from Tbilisi, the second governed western Imereti, and the third was based in Kakheti in eastern Georgia. The rest of the country came under the control of princes or rulers who were partly self-appointed and partly long-established. The largest principalities were Abkhazia, Guria, Mingrelia, Samtskhe and Svaneti. When Constantinople was conquered by the Ottoman Empire in 1453, contact with the Christian states of Europe came to a virtual standstill. At the same time, a new line of conflict began to emerge in Asia Minor. Whilst one branch of the Turks was building up the Ottoman Empire, Persia regained its strength in 1501 under the rule of the Safavids, who were vying for possessions in the South Caucasus. Under the Treaty of Amasia (1555), the South Caucasus was divided between the two great powers; Western Georgia now came under the authority of the Sultan, whilst Eastern Georgia was subject to the Shah. Georgian princes became vassals or entered the service of the Ottomans or the Persians. Quite a few Georgians gained influence at the courts as military officers, whilst the non-Muslim sections of the population suffered greatly from conscription, rising tax burdens, shifting loyalties and countless power struggles amongst the local Georgian princes. Following the conclusion of a mutual assistance treaty between Imereti, Kartli and Kakheti in 1758, Eastern Georgia was finally united in 1762 as the Kingdom of Kartli-Kakheti under Erekle II.^[6]

Georgia’s princes sought an ally against the foreign rulers in Russia. Under the Treaty of Georgievsk of 1783, the royal house of Kartli-Kakheti in eastern Georgia placed itself under Russian ‘protectorate’, which led to its annexation in 1801. Initially still formally autonomous, Imereti followed in 1810, Guria in 1819, Svaneti in 1846, Mingrelia in 1857 and Abkhazia in 1864. As a result of the Russo-Ottoman War, Russia also annexed the territories of Kars and Batumi in 1878. This led to revolts and mass emigration among Muslim population groups.

In 1832, a conspiracy by the nobility against Russian policy – which in the Caucasus was manifested above all in the arbitrary rule of the military administration – failed, after the promise of equal Georgian participation in a civil administration had fallen through, and following the subordination of the Georgian Church to the Russian Orthodox Church in 1811 and the initiation of Russification. With the establishment of the Caucasian Governorate, Tbilisi rose to prominence as the ‘Paris of the East’ under Prince Mikhail Sergeyevich Vorontsov (in office 1844–1855). Vorontsov was responsible, amongst other things, for the first theatre in 1845, the first public library, and numerous educational institutions and learned societies. Tiflis became the multicultural, multi-ethnic and multi-religious centre of Russian governance in the Caucasus and was thus simultaneously the military, administrative and cultural heart of the region. The integration of local elites (including through the selective admission of the upper classes into the Russian nobility) was followed by partial modernisation as part of the ‘Great Reforms’, which were introduced in the governorates of the South Caucasus later and in a modified form compared with the central Russian regions: In October 1864, the ‘emancipation of the serfs’ took place in the Tiflis Governorate, in November 1865 in the Kutaisi Governorate, followed by Mingrelia in 1867, Abkhazia in 1870 and Svaneti in 1871. In 1867, a judicial reform came into force; from 1870, municipal self-government was introduced; and in 1874, universal conscription for non-Muslims was introduced.

At the same time, Georgian discontent grew during the second half of the 19th century. Alongside uprisings, an enlightenment movement initially took shape (Tergdaleulebi^[7] movement), which evolved into a proto-national political movement and was driven primarily by young nobles and members of the intelligentsia. Dimitri Qipiani (1814–1887), Gerasime Kikodze (1825–1996, ‘Bishop Gabriel’), Ilia Chavchavadze (1837–1907) and Akaki Zereteli (1840–1915) are regarded as leading figures in this process.^[8] The Georgian national movement developed from three currents: a first group (Pirvelidasi), which rallied around the slogan ‘Mamuli – Ena – Sarcmunoeba’ (Fatherland – Language – Faith) with Ilia Chavchavadze and Irakli Zereteli (1881–1959); a second group (Meoredasi) with Niko Nikoladze (1843–1928), Georgi Zereteli (1842–1900), Petr Umikashvili, centred on the journal *Droeba* (The Times) in the second half of the 1860s, which absorbed influences from Western liberalism and social utopianism; and a third group (Mesamedasi) comprising Noe Žordania (1868–1953), Nikoloz Chkheidze (1864–1926), Irakli Zereteli (1881–1959) and (until 1903) also Iosif Džugašvili/Stalin (1878–1953), which drew on the ideas of Russian and European social democracy (later the Mensheviks). The Menshevik Social Democratic Labour Party became the leading political force. Following the collapse of a Transcaucasian Federation, whose independence had been declared on 9 April 1918 but which was subject to pressure from Turkish territorial claims, the independence of the Democratic Republic of Georgia was proclaimed on 26 May 1918 with German support; however, it lasted only until the spring of 1921.

The number of Germans in Georgia^[11] is currently estimated at around 1,500 – excluding German citizens. In 1991, the association ‘Association of Germans in Georgia “Einung”’ was registered (2,000 members in 2018), which supports a German nursery and a youth theatre. Between 1991 and 2014, 1,683 people left Georgia for Germany.^[12]

Whilst travellers had also reported on “Georgia” in earlier centuries, German expeditions intensified particularly during the 19th century. Names such as Julius Klaproth (1783–1835), Moritz von Engelhardt (1779–1842), Friedrich Parrot (1792–1841), Karl Koch (1809–1879), Hermann Abich (1806–1886), Karl Hahn (1848–1925) and Gustav Radde (1831–1903) are representative of the tradition of German research into the Caucasus. Gustav Radde in particular, the founder of the Caucasian Museum in Tbilisi (built by Albert Salzmann), shaped the image of Georgia in Germany through his lecture tours, numerous publications and his role as a point of contact for many people interested in the Caucasus. Whilst traces of German architecture can still be seen today on the former Plekhanov Prospekt (now David Aghmaschenebeli Prospekt), a wide variety of professional groups shaped urban life in Tbilisi.^[13] Friedrich von Bodenstedt (1819–1892), who recorded the songs of Mirza Schaffy here (a ‘bestseller’ of the 19th century with over 160 editions) and wrote his account *The Caucasian Peoples and Their Struggle for Freedom *. The caricaturist Oskar Schmerling (1863–1938) had a profound influence not only on the Georgian school of drawing but also on Armenian and Azerbaijani satirical magazines.

Whilst the first ‘emigrant group’ had settled relatively happily in Georgia, the fate of those who followed was to be a dramatic one. Between April and August 1817, over 1,300 families responded to the call issued by the Koch brothers from Marbach and Schlüchtern; they set out from Ulm in 14 columns of between 230 and 290 people each, travelling via the Danube. Around 1,100 people perished during a 40-day quarantine near Ismail alone; numerous families abandoned their travel plans near Odessa and founded the colony of Hoffnungstal there. Others joined the undaunted travellers to continue their journey. As Ermolov reported to St Petersburg that the Russian administration in Tiflis was overwhelmed by mass immigration and was refusing to accept any more settlers, deputies appealed directly to the Tsar in Moscow/Moskva for special permission to continue their journey. With this permission, ten convoys, each comprising 50 families, travelled on in the spring via Kherson, Rostov and Mosdokin to the Georgian Governorate, arriving at its administrative centre between August and November 1818. In total, 486 families had thus arrived in the South Caucasus in 1817–18 in two ‘emigrant groups’, where, after Mariental, they established the colonies of Elizabettal (now Asureti, Tetritskaro district), Aleksandersdorf (then situated eight versts from Tiflis with 26 families; today known as Didube, part of the Chughureti district around the former Voronzov/Plekhanov Street), Petersdorf and Katharinenfeld. The latter had initially been established as ‘Ekaterinenfeld’ – like Helenendorf and Annenfeld in present-day Azerbaijan – near Elizavetpol’, but at the end of 1819, due to poor climatic conditions, the settlement was relocated to the Tiflis Governorate (now Bolnisi). A notable exception was the founding of New Tiflis, which brought together around 60 artisan families from all the colonies; it was established approximately two kilometres from the city centre at that time and was incorporated into the city in 1861 (now part of the Chughureti district). Over the following 100 years, the number of offshoots and new settlements in Georgia continued to rise.

Anyone from the ranks of the economic or intellectual and cultural elite who had not yet been affected by these ‘purges’ became, almost without exception, a victim in 1937–38. Even as late as the spring of 1938, the persecution on the basis of national characteristics intensified. In the decrees issued by the Politburo of the Central Committee of the Communist Party on 31 January and 23 March 1938, the activities of Poles, Lithuanians, Germans, Estonians, Finns, Greeks, Iranians, Chinese and Romanians – whether foreigners or Soviet citizens – in positions of responsibility and within the armaments industry were described as ‘abnormal’, and a ‘purge’ was ordered. Not only German skilled workers in industry and agriculture, but also scientists, teachers, clergy, artists and students were persecuted and murdered. Finally, the chapter concerning Georgian citizens of German nationality came to a tragic end when the ukase of 28 August 1941 on the dissolution of the Volga Republic was followed in September/October 1941 by analogous decisions for the Caucasus, which were subsequently implemented.^[20] On 21 September 1941, evictions began in the Krasnodar, Ordžonikidze and Stavropol’ regions, initially on the basis of Extraordinary Decree No. 698 of the State Defence Committee of the USSR, 129,776 people of German descent were forced to leave their homes and head for Central Asia. They were followed by Germans from North Ossetia: 2,415; Chechnya and Ingushetia: 819; Dagestan: 7,306; and Kalmykia: 5,843. This brought the total number of deportees from the North Caucasus to 192,692 men, women and children of German origin. In the South Caucasus, the expulsion took place on the basis of Decree No. 744 of the State Defence Committee dated 8 October 1941. The period for evacuation was set as 15–30 October 1941. “23,580 are to be resettled from Georgia, 22,741 from Azerbaijan, and 212 from Armenia”^[21] – the document stated. This added a further contingent totalling 46,533 Germans from the three South Caucasian republics, who within a few days lost their remaining assets and their rights as Soviet citizens. Transported via Baku and the Caspian Sea, and in livestock wagons via Krasnovodsk to Kazakhstan, they – insofar as they had survived – were forced to fight for their lives. Hunger, disease, forced labour for men and labour camps for women, as well as 12 years under the ‘commandant system’, left their mark on an entire generation. Thousands paid for this act of violence with their lives; to this day, the fates of the torn-apart families have not been fully clarified.^[22] In this, they shared the fate of other Caucasian peoples who were subjected to the excesses of extermination and expulsion under Stalin’s totalitarian regime.