ELI5: Explain Like I'm 5

Family tree of German monarchs

Imagine you have a really big family, with grandparents, great-grandparents, cousins, uncles, and aunts. Now imagine that this family is the rulers of a whole country called Germany. Just like in your family, the rulers of Germany have a family tree too!

At the very top of this family tree, you have the very first ruler of Germany, which was a king named Charlemagne. He lived over a thousand years ago and was the ancestor of many other kings and queens who ruled Germany over the years.

Charlemagne had a son named Louis the Pious, who became the next king of Germany. Louis also had many children, one of whom was named Charles the Bald. Charles became king after his father and had three sons of his own: Louis the German, Charles the Fat, and Lothair.

These three brothers fought over who would become the next king of the Germans after their father's death, and they eventually divided the whole country into three parts. Louis the German took the eastern part, Charles the Fat took the western part, and Lothair got the middle!

From this point on, the family tree of German monarchs gets pretty complicated. Different kings and queens ruled over different parts of Germany at various times, and they all had their own families and descendants.

Some of the most famous German monarchs were the Hohenzollern family, who ruled over the country from the 15th century up until the end of World War I. The most famous member of this family was probably Kaiser Wilhelm II, who was in charge of Germany during the First World War.

Overall, the family tree of German monarchs is a really long and complicated one, but it's also really interesting to learn about all the different rulers and their stories!