History of the Germans from the Middle Ages to Reunification

n spring 1518 Martin Luther assured Pope Leo X that he was a dutiful son of the Church. But was he still one? The 95 Theses were the perfect opening salvo: provocative, popular and, crucially, not obviously heretical. Archbishop Albrecht’s own theologians in Mainz refused to condemn them and passed the problem on to Rome. Then Luther did something new: he wrote the Sermon on Indulgences and Grace in punchy German for ordinary readers. It became an early bestseller and helped create a mass market for public debate in print. Tetzel’s Dominicans hit back with counter-theses, which Wittenberg students promptly burned. Leo X tried to deal with it inside the Augustinian order, but at Heidelberg Luther’s brothers cheered him instead. There he set out his theology of the cross and denied that fallen humans can earn salvation by their own free will. After a defiant sermon on excommunication, Rome turned to the papal theologian Prierias, whose verdict was simple: whoever questions the pope is a heretic. A summons to…

What if the most famous story of the Reformation has some massive holes? Was Tetzel really a snake oil salesman? Was Albrecht of Brandenburg and the Fuggers really after the indulgence contracts? Were the Germans been ripped off by the papacy more than anyone else? Who could believe that there is still room for new perspectives on this event? ★ Support this podcast ★

The House of Habsburg once ruled Spain, Benelux, Austria, Hungary, Czechia, most of Italy, at times Portugal and all of Latin America, the Philippines and of course, the Holy Roman Empire. Most histories of the Habsburgs start out with Maximilian I, his marriage alliances that brought together this empire. But he was not the first Habsburg emperor, and by no means the first Habsburg ruler of the Holy Roman Empire. Their history goes back to the 13th century when they almost established their dynasty on the throne, had it not been for John Parricida murdering his uncle. In this show we follow the dramatic events that saw this dynasty rising and then falling hard, its struggles to recover, the feats and forgeries, the victories and terrible defeats that shaped this family and its lore. We take the story from Rudolf of Habsburgs’ ascent to the throne in 1273 to the election of Charles V in 1519. ★ Support this podcast ★

The Habsburg dynasty, originating from Radobot’s castle in 11th-century Switzerland, rose from obscurity to European prominence. In 1273 Rudolf of Habsburg was elected King of the Romans. Far from the later myth of a poor, humble count, Rudolf was wealthy, shrewd, and ruthless. He expanded his family’s holdings through inheritance, war, and diplomacy, eventually securing Austria and Styria after defeating Ottokar II of Bohemia—an acquisition that became the dynasty’s heartland. Rudolf’s hopes to found a hereditary imperial dynasty failed, and his son Albrecht I was murdered in 1308. For decades, the Habsburgs teetered on decline. Friedrich “the Handsome” briefly contended for the throne but left little mark. His brother Albrecht II “the Wise” revived the family, gaining Carinthia and Carniola in 1335 and shifting focus to Austria. Near extinction due to lack of heirs, the dynasty was saved when Albrecht’s wife Joan miraculously bore sons, including Rudolf IV, who would secure the Habsburg future. The music…

Rudolf IV of Habsburg (1339–1365), son of Albrecht “the Wise,” reigned as Duke of Austria for just seven years but left a lasting mark. Born when the dynasty seemed close to extinction, Rudolf secured Austria’s survival and prestige. Politically, he sought to elevate Vienna by founding the University of Vienna (1365) and beginning construction of St. Stephen’s Cathedral. Though he fulfilled his father's ambition to gain the Tyrol, the family fell behind their rivals, namely the Luxemburgs. Rudolf’s most audacious act was the Privilegium Maius, a set of forged charters claiming ancient Roman emperors had granted Austria near-sovereign status, primogeniture, and the unique title of Archduke. Though denounced by Petrarch as absurd, the documents shaped Habsburg identity for centuries and underpinned later power. By creating myths of divine and heroic origins, Rudolf forged a sense of Habsburg exceptionalism. Though dying young without heirs, he truly was “the Founder.” The music for the show is Flute Sonata in…

On July 9th, 1386 in a field near the Sempach lake., the armies of archduke Leopold of Austria line up against the forces of the city of Lucerne and the men of Uri, Schwyz and Nidwalden Much of what hads been told about this batte, the backstory of the Swiss Confederation and the objectives of the Habsburgs have been drenched in myth. Myths that are in the main debunked. That being said, the story is still dramatic and hugely important. The music for the show is Flute Sonata in E-flat major, H.545 by Carl Phillip Emmanuel Bach (or some claim it as BWV 1031 Johann Sebastian Bach) performed and arranged by Michel Rondeau under Common Creative Licence 3.0. As always: Homepage with maps, photos, transcripts and blog: www.historyofthegermans.com If you wish to support the show go to: Support • History of the Germans Podcast For do it yourself merchandise go to: Merchandise • History of the Germans Podcast Facebook: @HOTGPod Threads: @history_of_the_germans_podcast Bluesky: @hotgpod.bsky.social Instagram:…

Success for a princely family in the Late Middle Ages has a lot to do with reproductive luck. Not having any offspring, in particular no male offspring is a bit of a knockout. But having too many sons that could be a major issue too. And in 1386 the Habsburgs struggled with exactly that problem. Their territory was already divided between an Albertine and a Leopoldine line. But then Leopold had four sons, bringing the number of archdukes of Austria to six, which is five too many. In this episode we will discuss how they managed to muck it up quite bad, in fact so bad, one of their number had to fall to his knees before the emperor, not once, not twice, but three times… Albertiner - Albrecht III (1349-1395) o Albrecht IV (1377-1404) § Albrecht V (II) (1397-1439) · Ladislaus Postumus (1440-1457) Leopoldiner - Leopold III (1351-1386) o Wilhelm (1370-1406) o Leopold IV (1371-1411) o Ernst der Eiserne (1377-1424) § Friedrich V (III) (1415-1494) § Albrecht VI (1418-1463) o Friedrich IV (1382-1439) § Siegismund der…

“The Habsburgs ruled half of Europe with a chin that entered the room five minutes before they did,” is one of those witticisms that made the 19th century so amusing. But by then the Habsburg jaw had long receded. It had its heyday in the 16th and 17th century when people in Spain called out to the future emperor Charles V: “Your majesty, shut your mouth! The flies of this country are very insolent.” And when they looked at his later descendant, king Charles II who was probably the worst affected, they said, he was “more Habsburg than human”. But where is the Habsburg Jaw from? The view repeated again and again in history books is that it came from Cymburga of Masovia, the wife of duke Ernst the Iron, but was she really responsible? Or was it something quite different that caused that deformation, and what has it to do with the prostration of duke Friedrich IV before emperor Sigismund in 1415? That is what we are looking at in this episode. The music for the show is Flute Sonata in E-flat major, H.545 by…

Last week we saw the family slowly climbing out of the hole that Friedrich IV of the Tyrol had dug them. But despite all these consolidation efforts, the family was still in the second league of European princely families. Then, just 25 years after Ernst the Iron married down into minor Polish royalty, his first cousin once removed, Albrecht V became King of Hungary, King of the Romans and King of Bohemia, all in one single year, 1438. How was that possible? Here is friend of the podcast, Eneas Silvio Piccolomini summarizing events: quote Albrecht grew up and married Elizabeth, daughter of King Sigismund. She was a very beautiful woman, who lived with him most virtuously. After the Bohemians had turned to heresy and terrorised all their neighbours with wars, he alone, with great strength, protected Moravia and Austria, and the damage he inflicted upon the Bohemians was not less than the damage he took from them. He was always in arms and, like the Bohemians, used waggon formations in battle. Making his…

Today we – and the Habsburgs – stride back on to the grand stage of European politics. Not with a titan of history or monarch whose long and fruitful reign resonates across the centuries, but with Friedrich III, better known as the Reichserzschlafmütze - the imperial arch sleepy head, Or perhaps more fittingly the imperial arch dawdler. He ruled from 1440 to 1493, a total of 53 years - the longest reign of any Holy (or unholy) Roman Emperors (bar Constantine VIII). And yet, is also the most derided of reigns. In 1878 the Historian Georg Voigt sneered: “He was not remotely capable of handling such far-reaching politics, leaving Bohemia to its own devices, the Hungarian throne dispute to the helpless queen dowager, Austria to the arrogant dynasts, and the mercenary and robber bands.” “His light, simple hair, his long face with little movement, and his sedate gait betrayed a sluggish, deliberate nature, to which any enthusiasm, indeed any excitement, was alien. His love of peace has been endlessly mocked, but…

Our journey today will take us away from the emperor Friedrich III who will spend most of the episode holed up in his castle at Wiener Neustadt, fretting and gardening. Instead we look at the dramatic life of his younger cousin, Ladislaus Postumus, king of Hungary, king of Bohemia and Archduke of Austria. This will take us back to Prague and its complex religious politics, to Vienna where the people fall for the alluring promises of a populist and to Hungary where one of the greatest generals of the age squares up against Mehmet II, the conqueror of Constantinople. The music for the show is Flute Sonata in E-flat major, H.545 by Carl Phillip Emmanuel Bach (or some claim it as BWV 1031 Johann Sebastian Bach) performed and arranged by Michel Rondeau under Common Creative Licence 3.0. As always: Homepage with maps, photos, transcripts and blog: www.historyofthegermans.com If you wish to support the show go to: Support • History of the Germans Podcast For do it yourself merchandise go to: Merchandise • History…

It is November 1462 and the emperor Friedrich III and his young family are huddling together in the cellars of the Hofburg. The citizens of Vienna are shooting cannonballs into the 13th century castle, the walls are crumbling and any moment now the angry crowds may break in. Outside, supporting the insurrection stood his own brother, calling on him to give up. Two crowns he has already lost and a third is about to be knocked off his head as the imperial princes had ganged up on him. Friedrich III was a man who firmly believed in ancient laws and traditions and was profoundly ill suited for a world where, as Picciolomini wrote in the last sentence of his history of the emperor Friedrich III quote: “We are of the opinion that empires are won by weapons, not by legal means!” Friedrich III and with him the Habsburgs hit rock bottom, but how and why exactly he ended up there, and w hat that tells us about the profound changes during this period of history is what we are going to explore in this episode. The music…

Today we will talk a lot about Matthias Corvinus, the legendary renaissance king of Hungary whose library outshone that of the Medici in Florence and whose standing army was one of the greatest – and most expensive - military forces in 15th century Europe. Why are we talking about a Hungarian ruler in a series about the Habsburgs? Trust me, there is a good reason beyond it being a fascinating life story. The music for the show is Flute Sonata in E-flat major, H.545 by Carl Phillip Emmanuel Bach (or some claim it as BWV 1031 Johann Sebastian Bach) performed and arranged by Michel Rondeau under Common Creative Licence 3.0. As always: Homepage with maps, photos, transcripts and blog: www.historyofthegermans.com If you wish to support the show go to: Support • History of the Germans Podcast For do it yourself merchandise go to: Merchandise • History of the Germans Podcast Facebook: @HOTGPod Threads: @history_of_the_germans_podcast Bluesky: @hotgpod.bsky.social Instagram: history_of_the_germans Twitter:…

How long can an emperor not be an emperor. The official record stands at 25 years, that is how long Friedrich III had stayed out of the core areas of the Holy Roman Empire. That meant 25 ears of Imperial Diets without the presence of an Emperor, 25 years of stasis on the challenges of the time, the reform of the empire and the defense against the Ottoman expansion. But sometime in the late 1460s the apathic emperor Friedrich III, dubbed the Imperial Arch Sleepy head awakes and does what he had never done before, something. And that something turned into a lot of things, some related toimperial reform, but the most significant something for European history was a marriage, well, an engagement for now, followed by a flight down the river Mosel away from the intended father of the bride. Yes, it is that famous marriage, just not in the way you may have thought it happened. The music for the show is Flute Sonata in E-flat major, H.545 by Carl Phillip Emmanuel Bach (or some claim it as BWV 1031 Johann Sebastian…

The venerable city of Neuss between Cologne and Düsseldorf was founded in 16 BC as a Roman army camp, making it one of the oldest in Germany. Its history is marked by the usual mix of feuds with its archepiscopal overlord and the establishment of a trading and pilgrimage hub. Despite its Roman remains, the impressive church of St. Quirinius, and proximity to where I grew up, Neuss may never have appeared on the History of the Germans Podcast, had it not sustained a 10 month long siege in 1474/1475. A siege, even a brutal and prolonged one is not sufficiently unusual to be included in the show. But this one merits almost a whole episode. Tales of the heroic defense of a small town on the Rhine against an overbearing foe intent on wiping out their way of life, coalesced the empire in a way it had not come together since the days of Frederick Barbarossa. A watershed was crossed, under the leadership of an emperor who was more surprised than anyone to be put at the head of the resistance. And that is not all, in…

The rise of the Habsburgs to world domination pivots on one crucial moment, the marriage of Maximilian of Habsburg to Mary of Burgundy, the daughter of Charles the Bold, last of the Grand Dukes of the West. The usual story is that young Maximilian one day walked down the aisle of some splendid cathedral and was handed the richest principality in Europe on an jewel-encrusted golden platter by the father of the bride. All he then had to do was lie down and think of the Habsburg-Burgundian empire. That is not quite what happened. When Maximilian arrived in Ghent in August 1477, his father-in-law lay dead in a ditch in Lorraine and large sways of ducal authority and income had gone. Within less than 3 years, 1474 to 1477 Charles the Bold had frittered away the mythical wealth of the Burgundian dukes. And not just that. These years between 1474 and 1477 helped turn the medieval empire into the Holy Roman Empire of the German Nation. So please allow me to do this episode, even though very, very few of the…

What is it like to grow up the son of the emperor? For most of the rulers of the Holy Roman Empire we have covered so far, no idea. There are scarce reports about the way the princes grew up, safe for tales like the emperor Ludwig the Bavarian being kidnapped by his pet monkey. But now, as the Late Middle Ages make way for the Renaissance, we can see the boy who would be king at play, being fed by his nursemaid and pretending to be a knight at a tournament. And even better, this emperor is Maximilian, the last Knight, one of the most iconic rulers of his time. Come along as we descend into the delights and terrors of his epic childhood, complete with mythmaking in drawings and woodcuts. The music for the show is Flute Sonata in E-flat major, H.545 by Carl Phillip Emmanuel Bach (or some claim it as BWV 1031 Johann Sebastian Bach) performed and arranged by Michel Rondeau under Common Creative Licence 3.0. As always: Homepage with maps, photos, transcripts and blog: www.historyofthegermans.com If you wish to…

How often have you heard this phrase “Let others wage war; you, happy Austria, marry". It goes back to a whole string of marriages, first Maximilian of Habsburg married the heiress of the duchy of Burgundy, then his son married the heiress of Spain and finally his grandson married the heiress of Hungary and Bohemia. And bish bash bosh, an empire is created in the horizontal. That is nice and neat but not exactly true. Sure the marriages happened, but not in the way at least I have been told. There was a lot more drama and a lot more agency than you think. For a whole six months Maximilian, the Last Knight in his shining armour, left Marie of Burgundy to fend off invasions, revolutions and conspiracies on her own. She was imprisoned, her ministers were hanged and she was told marriage to a 7-year old hunchback was her only wayout. How she managed through that and found herself in the very first truly passionate marriage we have heard about in the History of the Germans Podcast, well, that is what we are…

By 1477 the rules of war that had been enshrined in the laws of chivalry are gone. The contest between the French and the Habsburgs over the inheritance of the Grand Dukes of the West gives us a foretaste of the things to come. This war isn’t just fought between the opposing armies lining up for the decisive battle, but include wholesale starving out of the population, funding local uprisings and using propaganda and bribery to incite rebellions on the enemy’s homefront. No one in 15th century Northern Europe is better at this new game than the industrious spider, king Louis XI of France. But a plucky 18-year old Austrian duke who had arrived in Ghent with not much more than the clothes on his back, abundant energy and a budding military genius gave him a run for his huge amounts of money, until tragedy struck. Lots of deception, drama and devastation today…. The music for the show is Flute Sonata in E-flat major, H.545 by Carl Phillip Emmanuel Bach (or some claim it as BWV 1031 Johann Sebastian Bach)…

The words High and Late Middle Ages conjures up images of fog rising up over a field where knights in shining armor are trading blows with double handed swords, mighty bishops overseeing the construction of monumental cathedrals and peasants toiling on the land as serfs. The reason we see it that way goes back to the chivalric literature that celebrated the aristocratic lifestyle where tournaments and poetry mattered more than the humdrum world of business. But let’s just take a look back at the High Middle Ages, the time of Richard the Lionheart, Saint Louis and Frederick Barbarossa. Who controlled access to the great endeavor of the time, the conquest of the Holy Land? Who re-opened up the connections to the wider world, from Novgorod to India and China? Who were the most ferocious fighters who neither expected norgranted any quarter? Who had all the money? These were the great cities of Italy, of Flanders, of Picardie and Provence and of the Holy Roman Empire. Verona under the Della Scala in the 14th…

In this episode the 15-year long war over the Burgundian succession will come to its end. You may have thought it was done last time, but no. The revolutionary spirit of the Flemish cities is not yet broken and their most audacious move is still to come. And this time they are not going up against an archduke and regent, but against a newly elected king of the Romans. Maximilian of Habsburg’s experience in Burgundy swung between moments of utter delight and happiness and depths of death, destruction and despair. It shaped this young duke who arrived aged 18 full of dreams of chivalry and left, aged 31 an battle hardened general with a clear view of where he wanted to take the empire. Get ready for the ultimate roller coaster. The music for the show is Flute Sonata in E-flat major, H.545 by Carl Phillip Emmanuel Bach (or some claim it as BWV 1031 Johann Sebastian Bach) performed and arranged by Michel Rondeau under Common Creative Licence 3.0. As always: Homepage with maps, photos, transcripts and blog:…

After 13 years of fighting in the Low Countries, Maximilian, the newly elected king of the Roman, returns home to a rammed full inbox. There is his cousin, the dissolute count Sigismund of Tyrol who is about to sell out the family fortune to the dukes of Bavaria. The king of Hungary is still occupying Vienna – and there is a new heiress out on the market, Anne of Brittanny. Some of the issues he tackles together with his now seriously elderly father, the emperor Friedrich III, others are very much his own tasks. In the process Friedrich creates a structurally new political entity, the Swabian League, Maximilian builds a relationship with Jakob Fugger, the money man who will grease the cogs of the Habsburg empire, and once again they fight, one battle after another. And despite tremendous success, this period from 1489 to 1493, ends with some epic humiliation, not in war, but in love. “No man on earth has ever been disgraced as I have been at the hands of the French” is how he summarised it. Come along and…

The world is a-changing. Maximilian I may still dream of the medieval universal empire where he will lead Christendom in an epic crusade to expel the Turks from the European mainland, even reconquering Jerusalem. Meanwhile his main adversary, king Charles VIII of France unleashed the fury of war in Italy, kicking off a struggle that would last for 50 years and replaced the medieval world of popes and emperors with a system based on the balance of powers. In the near term, this expedition to conquer the kingdom of Naples triggered not only the outbreak of Syphilis, but also the double marriage between Habsburg and Spain that Maximilian did not want, but ended up being the second of the three marriages that created an empire. Lots to get through, none of it boring.. The music for the show is Flute Sonata in E-flat major, H.545 by Carl Phillip Emmanuel Bach (or some claim it as BWV 1031 Johann Sebastian Bach) performed and arranged by Michel Rondeau under Common Creative Licence 3.0. As always: Homepage with…

We are now 7 episodes into the action-packed life of emperor Maximilian and he is only 35 years old. We still have another 24 years to go and they will be again full of wars, outlandish schemes, including one where he wants to make himself pope and of course marriages that create an empire. But if you look into German history schoolbooks, the thing that Maximilian is most famous for is what we will discuss today, the Imperial reforms that start in earnest in 1495 and will go through some iterations, before being largely completed in 1555. Of the 1495 reforms, the Ewige Landfrieden is the most impactful. And it begins as follows quote: “..from this moment on, no person of whatever rank, status, or condition shall make war on others, or rob, declare feud with, invade, or besiege them, or help anyone else to do so in person or through servitors; or violently occupy any castle, town, market, fortress, village, farmstead, or hamlet, or seize them illegally against another's will, or damage them with fire or in…

I am afraid today’s episode is not your usual swordplay and skullduggery. What we are looking at today is the Reichstag as it operated throughout the Holy Roman Empire from 1495 to 1803. Sounds a bit like dour constitutional law, but bear with me. We will look at a couple of classic tropes, like, whether the empire consisted of more than 300 sovereign states who could do whatever they wanted, whether the Reichstag was a talking shop hat never did anything except stopping the emperor from becoming a proper monarch. And, as usual, we will talk about money and printing, and why German politician speeches are invariably long on fact and short on rhetoric. The music for the show is Flute Sonata in E-flat major, H.545 by Carl Phillip Emmanuel Bach (or some claim it as BWV 1031 Johann Sebastian Bach) performed and arranged by Michel Rondeau under Common Creative Licence 3.0. As always: Homepage with maps, photos, transcripts and blog: www.historyofthegermans.com If you wish to support the show go to: Support •…

Let me start today’s episode with some outrageous national stereotypes. If an Englishman is disappointed with the way the affairs of state are conducted, he writes a letter to his member of Parliament. A Frenchman in that same situation rents a tractor and dumps manure outside the Palais d’Elysee. A German threatens to file a lawsuit with the constitutional court, the Bundesverfassungsgericht. Where did the Germans pick up the belief that courts and the law will protect them against government overreach? Sure, 19th and early 20th century judges had on occasion stood up to the Kaiser’s administration and the Grundgesetz, the liberal constitution of 1949, had become a cornerstone of our national identity following the comprehensive loss of moral standing. But there is also a long strain that goes back to the Holy Roman Empire and the two imperial courts, the Reichskammergericht and the Reichshofrat. These courts have a bad reputation, not only because Johan Wolfgang von Goethe saw it fit to ridicule his former…

Prof Duncan Hardy is one of the leading experts in the history of the Holy Roman Empire and one of his main topics is the Imperial reform of 1495, making him the ideal guest for our show. In his first book, Associative Political Culture in the Holy Roman Empire he tries to define what the Holy Roman Empire was a question we will almost certainly spend quite some time discussing today. His forthcoming book, which he had so kindly sent me an advance copy, should be familiar to you all, since I do use it as a source for the show. It is titled Law, Society and Political Culture in Late Medieval and Reformation Germany and contains a large number of edited and translated primary sources illustrating German history circa 1350 to 1550. As a special treat, listeners to the Hstory of the Germans can order the book at Manchester University press with a 30% discount. The discount code is mentioned at the end of teh interview, so listen out. You can order ithere: Manchester University Press - Law, society and political…

Europe's political landscape is shifting fundamentally. No longer are wars fought between kings and their vassals, and emperors against popes - it is all about the balance of power. and this balaance is firmly out of whack. The largest, richest and most populous part of Europe, the empire that still formally included Italy, the Low Countries, the Swiss Confederation, Bohemia and Burgundy, was also its politically weakest entity, whilst the kings of France leveraged their smaller but more coherent state into European dominance. The struggle between France and its neighbours with england looking on was to become the dominant political pattern of Western European politics for 250 or arguable 350 years. Maximilian has a Grand Plan that could have nipped these centuries of death and destruction in the bud. But he did not... Karl Marx once said that history repeates itself twice, first as tragedy and then as farce. he was wrong on many (not all) things. This one repeats not twice but ten, if not dozens of times,…

Why are the Swiss called the Swiss? After all, Schwyz in only of 26 cantons, and not one of the largest ones. How did the proud and prosperous citizens of Zurich or Berne, mighty city states in their own right, decide they wanted to be named after a mountainous region largely inhabited by peasants tending to their gorgeous brown cattle, the Braunvieh. They even called their national airline Swissair, until my former colleagues at McKinsey let the air out of that one. So, why Swiss? The answer goes back to today’s topic, a war that the Swiss call the Schwabenkreig or Swabian War. This war played a massive role in Swiss historiography, and its main battles at the Caven and at Dornach was mentioned in the same breath as Morgarten and Sempach. It was seen as the moment when Switzerland de facto exited the Holy Roman Empire and began ploughing its own furrow in European history. Meanwhile in Germany, this war that we called the Schweizerkreig or Swiss War is largely forgotten amongst the hundreds of other…

If there was one group that consistently thwarted Maximilian’s grand plans for world domination, it was the princes of the Holy Roman Empire. He had given in to their demands for Imperial Reform, had granted the Reichstag far reaching powers, had established the Reichskammergericht as a law court independent of imperial authority and had announced the much longed for ban on feuding. But did the princes, counts, knights and cities hold up their end of the bargain and paid him taxes to raise the armies needed to defend the borders of the empire – well you bet. They left him hanging before Livorno, they collected berries instead of fighting in the Swiss war, and – spoiler alert – they will not raise a little finger to help Ludovioco il Moro to regain his duchy of Milan, even though Milan had been an imperial fief since the days of Charlemagne and Otto the Great. No money, no soldiers, nothing. The music for the show is Flute Sonata in E-flat major, H.545 by Carl Phillip Emmanuel Bach (or some claim it as BWV…

“Bella gerant alii, tu felix Austria nube" – ‘Let others wage war; thou, happy Austria, marry’ is one of the few terms that almost anyone with a cursory interest in European history knows, only rivalled by the Voltaire quote thou shall not utter in my presence ever. It evokes the image of a handsome alpine boy full of charm and apple strudel wooing some princess into peacefully handing over the richest lands is Europe. And this narrative of peaceful transition to a benign dynasty is another one of the great propaganda successes of the house of Habsburg. The saying was attributed to Matthias Corvinus, the king of Hungary who had once occupied Vienna, then to the humanist Ulrich von Hutten, but first evidence of its use dates back to 1654, more than 150 years after the famous marriages that made an empire. From 1680 it was read out at Habsburg weddings to emphasise the peaceful nature of its rulers. It definitely did not originate in the days of Maximilian I when all these dynastic alliances were formed and…

Another Thursday and another episode dealing with another epic fail of our hero, Maximilian I. But despite a military campaign that once again failed for all the usual reasons, no money, no strategy, no luck, this time he is rescued not by a marriage or imperial princes suddenly inflicted with an unlikely case of backbone, but by his daughter, Margaret, archduchess of Austria, dowager duchess of Savoy and governor of the Netherlands. In an age that featured a number of impressive women, from Caterina Sforza to Elisabeth I, Margaret may be lesser known, but could easily hold her own amongst such illustrious company. She brought together an alliance that rescued her father’s lands, re-established imperial power in Northern Italy and brought the mighty republic of Venice almost to collapse. And then did it again, again and once more. Meanwhile her father first made himself emperor in the least impressive ceremony ever, before throwing his hat in the ring to become – tat, tat, taa – the pope. ★ Support this…

You have almost certainly seen the image in today’s episode artwork before. It is a family portrait showing Maximilian, his first wife Marie of Burgundy, his son, Philip the Handsome and three children. When Bernhard Strigel painted this image in around the year 1516, Philip the Handsome was already dead for 10 years and Marie of Burgundy had gone more than 30 years before. Then there are the inscriptions over the heads of these well-known and easily identifiable figures. There is a lot of Habsburg chin on show here. But they do not describe Maximilian as emperor, but as Cleophas, blood brother of Joseph, husband of the divine Virgin Mary, Marie of Burgundy is Mary Cleophas, sister of the Virgin Mary, and Philip the Handsome as James the Lesser, apostle and son of the other two. Two of the three little boys are named as Joseph the Just and Simon the Zealot, the cousin of the lord. Who are these saints? Well they do appear in the bible, so they are real, but in very minor roles. One of them was even rejected…

These last dozen or so episodes we have examined the genesis of two of the three major strategic preoccupations of the Habsburg empire, the rivalry with the French kings and the relationship with the imperial princes. Today we will look at the build-up of the third major strategic challenge to the rulers of the Holy Roman Empire, the Ottomans. One can argue, and many have, that the threat of an Ottoman invasion in the 1520s and 1530s prevented the emperor Charles V from clamping down on the protestants in the empire. By the time the border had been stabilised and the Habsburgs could focus again on the religious and political changes in the German lands, it was too late to reverse events. There is an element of irony here that I will refrain from elaborating on. When Constantinople fell in 1453, the Christian nations of Western Europe assumed that they could regain the ancient capital of Byzantium and even Jerusalem if only they were united under the crusading banner. By the time Suleiman the Magnificent…

The last decade of emperor Maximilian’s reign was overshadowed by all three challenges to the emerging Habsburg empire gaining strength. The Ottoman empire was piling on resources by taking over Syria, Lebanon and Egypt. A vigorous new king of France, Francois I was turning the tide in the incessant Italian wars into his favor. And finally the greatest of threats to the dynasty emerged as the Prince Electors were contemplating to raise that self-same Francois I to the imperial title. In this episode we will look at how the prematurely aged and exhausted emperor tried to shield his grandsons Charles and Ferdinand from the ton of bricks that was coming down on them. And we will look at his last days and legacy. Clocking in at 18 episodes, Maximilian did achieve one of his objectives in life, outpacing the great emperor Frederick Barbarossa. Let’s find out whether he did this only in terms of number of HotGPod episodes, or in other ways too. The music for the show is Flute Sonata in E-flat major, H.545 by Carl…

Maximilian I died on January 12th, 1519. But his likeness is everywhere. None of his predecessors left behind as many depictions of their life, from being fed by his nurse as a toddler to the Totenbild, the picture of the emperor in death, stripped of all his paraphernalia, even his teeth broken out. If you search in google for the most reproduced image of a Holy Roman Emperor, two come up, the portrait of Maximilian that Albrecht Dürer produced in Augsburg in 1518, as shown on last weeks episode artwork and Titian’s equestrian portrait of Charles V after the battle of Mühlberg, which in turn is a composition that goes back to several equestrian portraits of Maximilian I. Basically, Maximilian I is the most visually present Holy Roman emperor of them all. And that is not by chance. As he said on several occasions, quote: "Whoever does not provide for his commemoration during his lifetime has no commemoration after his death and is forgotten with the sound of the bell that rings at his burial" The music for…

Born during a ball in Ghent on 24 February 1500, Charles of Habsburg would grow up to rule an empire stretching from the Philippines to Prague and from Lima to Lauwersoog. But who was the man behind one of history's most powerful titles — and how did an unremarkable teenager come to be elected Holy Roman Emperor? In this episode, we explore the remarkable — and often dysfunctional — upbringing of Charles V. Raised like an orphan in the Burgundian Netherlands while his mother Joanna of Castile was confined at Tordesillas, Charles was shaped by two very different mentors: the theologian Adrian of Utrecht, who introduced him to Erasmus and laid the groundwork for his complex relationship with the Reformation, and William de Croy, Lord of Chièvres, who drilled into him the discipline of statecraft. We examine how Charles' worldview was rooted in Burgundian chivalric tradition, why his advisors kept him politically cautious in his early reign, and how the death of his grandfather Maximilian I in 1519 forced him…

In 1521 four men dominated Europe. They were all in their twenties: King Henry VIII of England, born 1491, King Francois I of France, born 1494, Suleiman the Magnificent, Ottoman Sultan, born that same year, 1494 and the youngest of them, Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor, King of Spain, Sicily, Naples and Sardinia, lord of the Netherlands, duke of Austria and Count of Tyrol. How the world had changed. In the days of Charles’ predecessor, the emperor Maximilian, European politics was a impenetrable maze of alliances and enmities involving roughly a dozen mid-sized powers trying to get a leg up on each other. Now we are down to four guys, dancing a political Ceilidh, all elegantly dressed, swiftly moving and swapping partners at every turn. In this episode we are going to look at the first rounds of Gay Gordons and Dashing White Sergeants up to the point where Charles V gets a lock on Francois I at the Battle of Pavia in 1525 The music for the show is Flute Sonata in E-flat major, H.545 by Carl Phillip Emmanuel…

We are coming closer to the end of our series on the Fall and Rise of the House of Habsburg. We have seen the reconsolidation of Austria, the acquisition of Burgundy, the inheritance of Spain and today, we will look at the last stages of the Italian wars. This conflict, kicked off by king Charles VIII in 1494 had given “rise to changes of dominions, subversion of kingdoms, desolation of countries, destruction of cities and the cruellest massacres, but also new fashions, new customs, new and bloody ways of waging warfare, and diseases which had been unknown to that time”. Many players of this game had exited stage left and it was now just France and the Habsburgs in various alliances with the remaining Italian powers, who fought for control. The War of the League of Cognac, 1526 to 1530 was when brutality reached its zenith with the Sacco di Roma, the Sack of Rome that brought back the specter of the Vandals. A lot of drama to get through. The music for the show is Flute Sonata in E-flat major, H.545 by Carl…

Today we celebrate the topping out of the Habsburg empire. By the middle of the 16th century it reached its furthest extent as a political entity ruled by one man. Over the last 42 episodes we have seen this family of minor counts playing their game of snakes and ladders until they had amassed lordships over Austria, the Netherlands, Spain and large parts of Italy. Today we look at how they finally got hold of the last bits, Bohemia and Hungary. The story features a dutiful younger brother, the most cruel execution I have ever heard of, a foolish duke and an even more foolish king, the collapse of a kingdom, a love story and the reason for the incessant Habsburg inbreeding. I hope that will be enough to fill the last episode of this season. The music for the show is Flute Sonata in E-flat major, H.545 by Carl Phillip Emmanuel Bach (or some claim it as BWV 1031 Johann Sebastian Bach) performed and arranged by Michel Rondeau under Common Creative Licence 3.0. As always: Homepage with maps, photos, transcripts…

In this episode we will look at the first 35 years of Martin Luther’s life, from his birth in 1483 to a moment sometime between 1512 and 1519 when he achieved his great theological breakthrough. This is a crucial period in the history of the Reformation, a time when Luther struggled with what he called his “Anfechtungen”. Anfechtungen is one of these untranslatable German words like Schadenfreude and Gemütlichkeit. It is something more than a trial or tribulation, more of an existential assault on faith itself — an overwhelming, often visceral experience of doubt, terror, and despair before God, in which the sinner feels utterly exposed to divine judgment and abandoned by grace. Sounds quite painful. It was these “Anfechtungen” that brought about the cornerstone of his creed, that salvation is to be obtained through faith alone. It is the story how Protestantism is born in the head of just one man. ★ Support this podcast ★

On 31 October 1517, an Augustinian monk carried 95 theses through the streets of Wittenberg — whether to nail them to the castle church door, post them by letter, or send them to the printers remains disputed. Within two months they had spread across the Empire and beyond and the world was never the same again... In this first episode of the new season we look at the world Martin Luther grew up in, what common people like him experienced in life - mostly godawful things - and how that shaped their worldview and religious leanings. We will talk about onion-shaped societies, ancient prophecies of an age of bliss, the importance of mass even if no-one gets communion, the benefits of purgatory, pilgrimages and lots more... For video, go to https://youtu.be/kocPaQrcMyc The music for the show is Flute Sonata in E-flat major, H.545 by Carl Phillip Emmanuel Bach (or some claim it as BWV 1031 Johann Sebastian Bach) performed and arranged by Michel Rondeau under Common Creative Licence 3.0. As always: Homepage with…

When it comes to events from German history that left a mark on the world, most minds turn towards the 19th and 20th century. But there is at least one, arguably two periods that can claim to have had equally lasting impact. One is the Investiture Controversy that we discussed in Season 2, and the other is what we will learn about now, the Reformation! ★ Support this podcast ★

One of the legacies of the Holy roman empire is that Germany does not have just one place where everything happens, where politicians, entrepreneurs, bankers, artists, and actors travel on the same underground trains and eat at the same restaurants. Berlin is the capital with its political class of members of the Bundestag, journalists and lobbyist and at the same time a major gathering place for artists, musicians and thespians of all stripes and home to many tech startups. But the bankers are in Frankfurt, the headquarters of the major companies are in Stuttgart, Munich, Düsseldorf and spread around everywhere. Several of the major publishing houses are in Hamburg, the private TV stations in Munich, but none of these places have a monopoly on any of these activities. There are banks headquartered in Munich and major corporates in Frankfurt, there is great theater in Düsseldorf, Dresden and Schwerin, there are world leading companies headquartered in tiny towns like Künzelsau. And that cuts through to the…

As you are still awaiting your presents, mine has already arrived, which is the chance to make this show. Despite all my occasional moaning and groaning about how much work it is, I have never enjoyed anything as much this. Who could have imagined that digging through often dusty books and articles and trying to put together an interesting and compelling narrative together for a discerning audience was that much fun. And the reason I can do all this is you, the listeners and patrons of the History of the Germans Podcast. So thank you, thank you and thank you. Now let’s get to your Christmas present. I had promised you 5 to 10 places I particularly love and that are not on the standard itinerary for a trip to Germany. But when I shortlisted the places I particularly like, I noticed a bit of a pattern. They were all within a limited range, basically near places I had lived or that have some link to my family. That is human, but not exactly helpful. Because if you want to go to Germany and for some inexplicable…

In 1550 Spanish court records show that the Augsburg armorer Kolman Helmschmied was paid an advance of 2,000 ducats for a full armour for king Philipp II. The final price for this piece was 3,000 ducats. At the same time Raphael could charge at max 170 ducats for an altarpiece. Even the Renaissances’ best paid artist, Michelangelo received just 3,000 gold florins for the painting of the ceiling of the Sistine chapel. Armour, along with tapestries, were the most valuable artworks of the 15th and 16th century. That was just one set of armour made for the most powerful monarch of the time. But what about the thousands of soldiers he commanded, did they have armour? Oh yes they did. Not quite as sophisticated and certainly not as decorated, but they did. And where did these thousands of helmets and breast and back plates come from? From the same places where their prince’s fancy metalwork came from, from Nürnberg and Augsburg. Their swords came from Passau and Solingen and their firearms from Suhl. How come…

When you enter the great hall of the Thomas Jefferson building at the Library of Congress in Washington, the first exhibit you will be facing is their Gutenberg Bible. And it is one of the finest Gutenberg bibles around, one of only three surviving pristine copies on vellum. This was the kind of bible that was so expensive to produce, it bankrupted Gutenberg. When the Library of Congress bought it in 1930, they paid $375,000, roughly $7.5m in today’s money. But this is not the most expensive piece in the library’s collection. That would a work by two Germans, Martin Waldseemüller and Matthias Ringmann. And it is not even a book, but a map. Not a small map, it is 2.3m or 91 inches wide and 1.3m or 50 inches tall. And this map, printed in 1507 claimed to be: A DESCRIPTION OF THE WHOLE WORLD ON BOTH A GLOBE AND A FLAT SURFACE WITH THE INSERTION OF THOSE LANDS UNKNOWN TO PTOLEMY DISCOVERED BY RECENT MEN And the authors wrote that the three continents known since antiquity, Europe, Africa and Asis, quote "have in…

When two brothers, Ernst and Albrecht of Saxony divided up their enormous inheritance that comprised Thuringia, Meissen and the electorate of Sachsen-Wittenberg, they not only undermined their power base as the de facto #2 amongst the imperial principalities and planted the seed for a conflict that would play a key role in the Reformation but they also laid the foundations for the modern Länder of Thuringia and Saxony. And this division was not driven by the usual family feud but came after 20 years of largely harmonious government and a shared childhood trauma. Why they took, or had to take this fateful step, is what we will discuss today. The music for the show is Flute Sonata in E-flat major, H.545 by Carl Phillip Emmanuel Bach (or some claim it as BWV 1031 Johann Sebastian Bach) performed and arranged by Michel Rondeau under Common Creative Licence 3.0. As always: Homepage with maps, photos, transcripts and blog: www.historyofthegermans.com If you wish to support the show go to: Support • History of the…

So, why did Holland really leave the empire? Was it because the valiant and tragic countess Jacqueline was “hunted down from one land to the other, all of them mine”. Was it a story of misogyny, betrayal, incompetence and ruthless power politics. Yes, it was. But it was a also a story of economic and climate change and one that links into the herring trade of the Hanseatic League, the decline of Teutonic Knights and even into the Hussite Revolt, topics that seem distant, but mattered. This week we focus on this, the latter part of the story The music for the show is Flute Sonata in E-flat major, H.545 by Carl Phillip Emmanuel Bach (or some claim it as BWV 1031 Johann Sebastian Bach) performed and arranged by Michel Rondeau under Common Creative Licence 3.0. As always: Homepage with maps, photos, transcripts and blog: www.historyofthegermans.com If you wish to support the show go to: Support • History of the Germans Podcast For do it yourself merchandise go to: Merchandise • History of the Germans Podcast…

Today begins a two part series about how the Low Countries, modern day Belgium, Netherlands and Luxemburg shifted out of the Holy Empire. These lands, with the exception of Flanders, had been part of the empire for hundreds of years, ever since Henry the Fowler acquired Lothringia for East Francia in 925 – not by conquest but through diplomacy – as was his way. There are two ways to tell the story of the split away from the empire, one is about the dynastic machinations, the marriages, poisonings and inability to produce male heirs, the other one is about economics and the rising power of the cities. This, the first episode will look at the dynastic story, the pot luck and cunning plans that laid the groundworks for the entity that became known as the Low Countries to emerge, whilst the next one will look at the economic realities that thwarted the ambitions of one of the most remarkable women in late medieval history, Jacqueline of Bavaria, countess of Holland, Seeland and Hainault, and why that was…