Germany is a country in central and western Europe; its current capital is Berlin. Germany became a nation state in 1871. Before German unification, the German states were central to the Holy Roman Empire. Germany saw the rise of the Protestant Reformation in the sixteenth century, with Martin Luther nailing his 95 Theses to a church door in Wittenburg. Germany played major roles in World War I and World War II. After the defeat of the Nazi powers at the end of World War II, Germany was divided into West Germany and East Germany, notably by the Berlin Wall, which fell in 1989. Germany has a rich history of musicians, artists, and philosophers including Johann Sebastian Bach, Georg Friedrich Handel, Ludwig van Beethoven, Felix Mendelssohn, Johannes Brahms, Richard Wagner, Hans Holbein, Max Ernst, Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, Friedrich Schiller, Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel, and Karl Marx.