History 332 – German History – September 3, 2004 

RENAISSANCE & REFORMATION GERMANY 

I.                  Review:

A.      There WAS no “medieval Germany”!

B.      German-speaking Central Europe did develop a “medieval” culture much like the rest of Europe between, say, 500 – 1500.

C.       At the same time, medieval Central Europe was quite different from, say, medieval England or France.  

II.               THE RENAISSANCE (1300 – 1500)

A.      Definition:  In Europe, the RENAISSANCE was an extraordinary epoch cultural revival and innovation.  The RENAISSANCE:

·          Began in ITALY

·          Began as a REBIRTH (“Renaissance”) of interest in Ancient Greece & Rome, which were seen as a kind of “counter-culture” to Medieval Christianity

·          Focused intently on HUMAN issues – politics, economics, and human history (hence the term “Renaissance Humanism”)

·          Sparked radical changes in the visual arts – which increasingly focused on human concerns, or divine concerns expressed humanly

·          With its stress on education, prepared the way for the extraordinary explosion of knowledge about the physical world, called the SCIENTIFIC REVOLUTION 

B.      Italy was the Home of the Renaissance

C.       England, France, Spain each participated in the 1300s, 1400s, 1500s Renaissance culture.

D.      Was there a “German Renaissance”?  

III.           Schulze, “TRANSITIONS” (1400 – 1648)  

1.   How big was the HRE in 1400?  

2.       In 1400, did Switzerland belong to the HRE?  

3.       What was the “Golden Bull” of 1356?  

4.       Who were the “prince-electors”?  

5.       Which dynasty provided most of the Holy Roman Emperors?  

6.       When was the great era of town building in Central Europe?  What did this phenomenon imply?  

7.       How many territories & cities made up the HRE?  

8.       Most Central Europeans were Christians, at least in name; what role did non-Christians, especially Jews, play in Central Europe?  

9.       How does Schulze describe the on-going “colonization” process in eastern Europe?  

10.     A West/East division was already notable in Central Europe by 1400 – what was the difference between the regions?  

11.      Who counted as a “citizen” in Central Europe?  

12.     How badly did the famous “Black Plague” of the 1300s hit Central Europe?  

13.     Medieval Central Europe was strictly divided between a tiny noble elite and a great mass of peasants.  The economy was designed to pump what little wealth there was upward from the mass of peasants to the nobles.  Did this system produce a peaceful society?  

14.     What were the “Bundschuh uprisings?”  

15.     The Renaissance meant more interest in things “human;” as humans got interested in themselves, they began trying to define themselves (“we’re this … you’re that”).  The term “NATION” appeared.  A key question – who made up the NATION in central Europe around 1400?  

16.     Who was the Holy Roman Emperor Charles V?  

17.     A key point: Who, in the 1500s, used the term “nation”?  Did “nation” mean the Holy Roman Empire? Did it mean Catholic Church?  

18.     What was the importance of the rediscovery of Tacitus’ Germania?  

19.     Schulze says that there was no “Medieval Germany.”  So when do some Central Europeans begin to think of themselves as members of the “German nation”?  

IV.              The German Renaissance  

A.      Politics – Emperor Charles V & the last effort to build a truly international Holy Roman Empire  

Note: Emperor Charles V (1500 – 1558) was THE dominant politician during the German Renaissance. Born into the HABSBURG dynasty in 1500, Charles (“Karl,” “Carlos”) was actually born in Ghent, in what is today Belgium – in those days, the “Low Countries,” Belgium and the Netherlands, belonged to the Habsburgs.   Charles was the offspring of a remarkable series of marriages.   The Duke of Austria – and Holy Roman Emperor, Maximilian I (Charles’s grandfather) had married Mary of Burgundy.  Thus, Maximilian was Duke of Austria, Holy Roman Emperor, and (through his wife) Duke of Burgundy (Burgundy has ceased to exist – it included a whole swath of lands between France and Germany which first appeared back with the Treaty of Verdun).  Burgundy owned what today is the Netherlands, so Maximilian and Mary were rulers of Austria, the Holy Roman Empire, Burgundy, and the Netherlands.    Emperor Maximilian and Empress Mary had a son, Philip.  They were determined that Philip would also make a good marriage – so they married him off to Joanna, the (crazy) daughter of Ferdinand and Isabella of Spain.   SO: Philip and Joanna inherited: ·          Austria ·          The Holy Roman Empire ·          Burgundy ·          The Netherlands (modern Belgium and Netherlands) ·          AND SPAIN!  (and its vast new world empire!)   Philip and Joanna had a son – Charles.   In 1516 – at age 16, Charles became King Carlos VI of Spain and Duke of Austria.  In 1519 – at age 19, he was elected Holy Roman Emperor, taking (confusingly) the title Emperor Charles V.  No one in European history – at least since the Romans – had ever ruled such a vast part of the continent.    Charles V was essentially a romantic.  He dreamed of leading a vast Christian Empire, which included every sort of nationality – Spaniards, Burgundians, Belgians, Dutch, Germans, Austrians, and so on.     But alas for him, his dream shattered.   France, led by King Francis I, emerged as an arch-rival.  Then the Pope Leo X made it clear that he mistrusted Emperor Charles, and the ancient tension between Pope and Holy Roman Emperor broke out again.  In a huge irony, Emperor Charles, the self-proclaimed champion of Catholic Christianity, sent an army to attack the Pope in Rome. (If you go to Rome, and tour the Vatican Museum, you can still see the names of Charles soldiers scratched into some of the world’s greatest artworks).   Then, worst of all, religious conflict exploded in Germany.  In 1517, two years before Charles was elected Holy Roman Emperor, Luther began his rebellion against Rome.  As Emperor, Charles tried to patch things up.  When that failed, Charles tried to suppress the Protestants, but that failed too.   Exhausted by 1556, Charles gave up the throne and retired to a Spanish monastery, where he died in 1558. A failure? Yes, but a failure remembered as one of the last European politicians to try to think as a “European,” and not just as a Spaniard, or Dutchman, or German.

 B.      The Arts – A German Renaissance

See: http://www.ibiblio.org/wm/paint/glo/renaissance/de.html

1.  Mathias Grunewald

2. Lucas Cranach the Elder

3. Albrecht Altdorfer

4. Hans Holdbein, the Younger

5. Albrect Dürer

 

 

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