Louis the German was King of East Francia for nearly three decades in the 9th Century.

He was born in 806 at Frankfurt am Main. His father was Louis the Pious, son of the great Charlemagne. Louis grew up at the court of his famous grandfather, who died in 814, passing on his lands to his son. A division three years later gave young Louis, then only 11, the rule over the Duchy of Bavaria. He quickly learned to fight and engaged in campaigns against forces from Bulgaria.

Louis married Emma of Altdorf (also known as Hemma) in 827. They had seven children, five of whom lived into adulthood: Hildegard (828), Carloman (829), Imgard (830), Louis the Younger (835), and Charles the Fat (839).

Louis the Pious had three sons. The other two were Charles (known as Charles the Bald) and Lothair. When King Louis had divided his kingdom among his three sons, so that they should share in the rule, he had also named his oldest son, Lothair, as co-emperor and overlord of his brothers. When Louis died in 840, Lothair claimed the entirety of the three brothers' lands as his own. Charles and Louis the German declared war on Lothair, and a civil war ensued.

The two brothers defeated their usurper sibling at the Battle of Fontenoy in June 841, with both sides losing large numbers of men. The struggle continued. The following year, the three brothers agreed to negotiate an end to the fighting. It wasn't until the following August that the Treaty of Verdun was finished. Out of this Louis gained the Kingdom of East Francia, which included much land to the east of the Rhine River. His lands included Bavaria, Franconia, and Saxony. Regensburg, in Bavaria, was the center of Louis' rule.

Louis was not content with ruling East Francia and wanted more. Beginning in 853, he tried several times to gain control of West Francia, then ruled by Charles the Bald. Louis had some initial success after an invasion in 858 but could not maintain his progress and agreed to a truce two years later.

Charles and Louis teamed up in staking a claim for their brother Lothair's lands, after he died in 855. They ended up dividing his lands between them, in the 870 Treaty of Mersen.

Louis staved off attacks from the north and the east but couldn't keep his own sons from rebelling, giving Bavaria to his son Carloman, Saxony and Thuringia to Louis the Younger, and Swabia to Charles the Fat. The king made a play for the overall Carolingian throne but was thwarted by his surviving brother and once again antagonist, Charles the Bald.

Louis the German died on Aug. 28, 876, in his Frankfurt palace. He was in the midst of new war planning. His son Louis the Younger succeeded him as ruler of East Francia, fending off an attack from Charles the Bald in the process.