History of the Germans
Recent Episodes
Ep.207 Of Land and Lip – How the Habsburgs got their Chin
“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 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.comIf you wish to support the show go to: Support • History of the Germans PodcastFacebook: @HOTGPod Threads: @history_of_the_germans_podcastBluesky: @hotgpod.bsky.socialInstagram: history_of_the_germansTwitter: @germanshistoryTo make it easier for you to share the podcast, I have created separate playlists for some of the seasons that are set up as individual podcasts. they have the exact same episodes as in the History of the Germans, but they may be a helpful device for those who want to concentrate on only one season. So far I have:The OttoniansSalian Emperors and Investiture ControversyFredrick Barbarossa and Early HohenstaufenFrederick II Stupor MundiSaxony and Eastward ExpansionThe Hanseatic LeagueThe Teutonic KnightsThe Holy Roman Empire 1250-1356
Guest Episode: A History of Italy on "A German Priest and a New Emperor"
Hello and welcome friends of the History of the Germans Podcast.This week I will again showcase an independent history podcast I really like and listen to. And just to avoid any misunderstandings, I do this not for commercial reasons. This is literally so that you can find other great shows and well, I can have a break. Today’s show is one you probably already know since I mention it regularly, Mike Corradi’s A History of Italy. Mike is funny, thorough and something I struggle with enormously, concise. And this recent episode is a prime example. He runs through half of our coming season and half of the season thereafter in 20 minutes. I enjoyed that and I hope it gives you a foretaste of what is to come here and what you can find at A History of Italy.A History of Italy – A podcast on the history of the Italian peninsula from the fall of the Western Roman Empire to the presentAnd so, without further ado Mike’s episode 189: “A German Priest and a New Emperor”. 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.comIf you wish to support the show go to: Support • History of the Germans PodcastFacebook: @HOTGPod Threads: @history_of_the_germans_podcastBluesky: @hotgpod.bsky.socialInstagram: history_of_the_germansTwitter: @germanshistoryTo make it easier for you to share the podcast, I have created separate playlists for some of the seasons that are set up as individual podcasts. they have the exact same episodes as in the History of the Germans, but they may be a helpful device for those who want to concentrate on only one season. So far I have:The OttoniansSalian Emperors and Investiture ControversyFredrick Barbarossa and Early HohenstaufenFrederick II Stupor MundiSaxony and Eastward ExpansionThe Hanseatic LeagueThe Teutonic Knights
Ep. 201 – Mapping the World, or how Germans invented America
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 BOTHA GLOBE AND A FLAT SURFACE WITH THE INSERTIONOF THOSE LANDS UNKNOWN TO PTOLEMYDISCOVERED BY RECENT MENAnd the authors wrote that the three continents known since antiquity, Europe, Africa and Asis, quote "have in fact now been more widely explored, and a fourth part has been discovered by Amerigo Vespucci (as will be heard in what follows). Since both Asia and Africa received their names from women, I do not see why anyone should rightly prevent this [new part] from being called Amerigen—the land of Amerigo, as it were—or America, after its discoverer, Americus, a man of perceptive character." End quote. This fourth part, they said was “surrounded on all sides by the ocean”. And indeed, in the left lower corner we find a fourth continent, a thin, stretched thing, with few place names and a western shore that hints at the Peruvian bulge, unmistakably, South America and then to north of it a very indistinguishable blob of land.This map, proudly displayed as America’s Birth Certificate, is full of the most intriguing mysteries. How did Waldseemüller and Ringmann know that the Americas had a western shore, when it was only in 1513, 6 years later, that a European first glanced the Pacific? How did the name America stick though Amerigo Vespucci had neverled an expedition, not even commanded a ship? But most of all, why was this first map of America drawn not by a Spanish or Portuguese navigator, but by two Germans in the employ of the duke of Lorraine, working in St. Die, which is as far away from the sea as one can get in Western Europe. And then, more generally, what did the Germans have to do with the discoveries, the maps and globes that told the world about them? That is what we will explore in this episode.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.comIf you wish to support the show go to: Support • History of the Germans PodcastFacebook: @HOTGPod Threads: @history_of_the_germans_podcastBluesky: @hotgpod.bsky.socialInstagram:
Ep. 197 – The Landshuter Hochzeit – Love and War in Bavaria (Part 2)
On November 14th and 15th 1475 one of the grandest events in the history of the Holy Roman Empire took place, the Landshuter Hochzeit, the nuptials of Georg, the Rich, son of Ludwig, the Rich and grandson of Heinrich, the Rich, all of them dukes of Bayern-Landshut, and Hedwig, the daughter of king Kasimir IV of Poland and Lithuania. The event attracted 10,000 guests, amongst them the Counts Palatine on the Rhine, the Dukes of Württemberg, the archduke Maximilian of Austria and the emperor Friedrich III himself. It lasted several days during which the eminent invitees as well as the citizens of Landshut ate, drank, danced and watched an endless row of tournaments, plays and musical performances.The fame of these festivities reverberated through the ages, so that in the 19th century the burghers of the town decided to stage the event again, initially annually and nowadays every 4 years. The reenactment involves over 2,000 participants, and culminates in a procession through the city, complete with bridal carriage, musicians and Landsknechte, all in splendid historical costumes.Which leaves us with more questions than answers. How come the most powerful ruler of central Europe, Kasimir King of Poland and Grand Duke of Lithuania married one of his precious daughters to the son of the ruler of half a duchy, hundreds of miles from his capital; secondly, how such a duke became so rich he could afford to stage an event that counted amongst the grandest weddings of this already very ostentatious century; and lastly, why Landshut is today a gorgeous, but only medium sized country town, and by no means the beating heart of Bavarian commerce, culture and politics. That is what we are going to explore in this episode.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.comIf you wish to support the show go to: Support • History of the Germans PodcastFacebook: @HOTGPod Threads: @history_of_the_germans_podcastBluesky: @hotgpod.bsky.socialInstagram: history_of_the_germansTwitter: @germanshistoryTo make it easier for you to share the podcast, I have created separate playlists for some of the seasons that are set up as individual podcasts. they have the exact same episodes as in the History of the Germans, but they may be a helpful device for those who want to concentrate on only one season. So far I have:The OttoniansSalian Emperors and Investiture Controversy