December

December is the month of the winter solstice, Advent and Christmas. Christmas Day 800 was not only a day of religious celebration, but saw the Coronation of Charlemagne as Emperor by the Pope, in an attempt to establish him as heir to the Roman Emperors. Charlamagne’s Frankish empire was divided by his successors; the resulting polities formed the basis for modern-day France and Germany. The railway era began in Germany on 7 December 1835 with the opening of the line between Nuremberg and Fürth – a distance of just six kilometres – revolutionizing the extent to which, and the way in which, people travelled. The world’s first national social insurance scheme was established in Imperial Germany by Chancellor Otto von Bismarck on 1 December 1883, providing workers with statutory health insurance.