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PODCAST

History of the Germans

Dirk Hoffmann-Becking

A narrative history of the German people from the Middle Ages to Reunification in 1991. Episodes are 25-35 min long and drop on Thursday mornings. "A great many things keep happening, some good, some bad". Gregory of Tours (539-594) So far we have covered: Ottonian Emperors (# 1- 21) - Henry the Fowler (#1) - Otto I (#2-8) - Otto II (#9-11) - Otto II (#11-14) - Henry II (#15-17) - Germany in 1000 (#18-21) Salian Emperors(#22-42) - Konrad II (#22- 25) - Henry III (#26-29) - Henry IV/Canossa

history

All Episodes

27:32

Episode 84 - The Art of Hunting with Birds

History of the Germans ·

2022/11/24

This is a whole episode about a book, a book called "De Arte Veneri cum Avibus" the Art of Hunting with Birds. Hunting books are similar to books about fishing, riveting for those who do it, crushingly boring to those who do not.But this book is not about hunting in the same way as the The Old Man and the Sea is about fishing. But this book is not about hunting, it is about nature about the beginnings of science and the awakening of the critical mind. It is about someone who acts and thinks very

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32:37

Episode 83 - The Court of Frederick II

History of the Germans ·

2022/11/17

Near the town of Andria in Puglia rising from a rock that makes it visible for miles stands entirely on its own a stone structure we call the Castel del Monte. Its ground plan is unique, and like many other of the Emperor's buildings it was probably sketched by Frederick himself: a regular octagon of yellowish limestone; its smooth perfectly-fitting blocks showing no joins and producing the effect of a monolith : at each of the eight corners a squat octagonal tower the height of the wall; two

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24:08

Episode 82 - The Constitution of the Realm

History of the Germans ·

2022/11/10

What do you do once you have condemned your eldest son and heir to life imprisonment? Exactly, you have a party, or more precisely you have two parties. But as always with Frederick II, these are not just knees-up for entertainment, but elaborately staged political events. The first is a wedding, the second a grand get-together of the whole realm and then there is a third, a funeral of a kind you would not have expected from our rational, seemingly agnostic hero. Lots to unpack as always…A website

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35:27

Episode 81 - The King in Brackets

History of the Germans ·

2022/11/03

If you have only listened to the last 5 episodes or so, you may be wondering whether this is really the History of the Germans or whether you have accidentally stumbled into A History of Italy minus the eloquence and humour of Mike Corradi. So today we will leave the shores of the Mediterranean to travel up north, though not with a train of mules carrying gold and silver, camels, dromedaries, leopards and apes as Fredrick II did in 1235. The reason for that journey was nowhere near as joyous as the

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35:05

Episode 80: A different kind of Emperor

History of the Germans ·

2022/10/27

A medieval ruler that has a Muslim fighting force at his back and call and who negotiates Jerusalem out of the hands of the Sultan of Egypt is not what you expected when you began listening to the History of the Germans Podcast. I am afraid you aint seen nuttin yet! This week we come to what was long believed to be his masterpiece, the Constitutions of Melfi. Even if It isn’t the creation of a modern state in the 13th century as Kantorowicz had believed there is still something fundamentally

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26:54

Episode 79 - Return to Sicily

History of the Germans ·

2022/10/20

This week we look in a bit more detail how Frederick II regained his beloved kingdom of Sicily. For 30 years after the death of the last Hauteville king in 1190 the institutions of that kingdom had been eroded, the crown estate squandered, and powerful local forces had been riding roughshod over the royal administration. Fredrick will bring this land back under his firm control. That is however not your usual return of the king story, because the way he does it is no longer typically medieval…..As

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46:12

Episode 78 – A Crusade without Crusaders (rerecorded)

History of the Germans ·

2022/10/06

This is a story I was looking forward to telling for quite some time. It has everything – crossed wires, stubbornness and vitriol as well as diplomacy, cultural awareness and stunning success. It is the story of the crusade of Frederick II, that has no parallel, for one because Frederick did undertake it whilst banned by the pope and further, because he brought Jerusalem back under Christian control for one last time, without a shot being fired. The latter had not been achieved since the Frist

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30:02

Episode 77 - A Nail in the Coffin

History of the Germans ·

2022/09/29

This week we take a look at the reign of Frederick II in Germany from 1212 to 1220. Most of what he did was putting a nail in an actual coffin whilst also putting the metaphorical nail into the carcass of imperial rule in Germany. And was that such a bad thing? What happens when the emperor just hands out what is left of the royal demesne? Cathedrals go up, princes hold splendid courts and none of them think about disturbing the peace in Italy. If you are the king of Sicily, that is a near perfect

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24:00

Episode 76 – From Urchin to Emperor

History of the Germans ·

2022/09/22

This week we will go back 20 years and pick up the other strain of our history of the Hohenstaufen. The last three episodes we focused on events in Germany and the struggle between Philipp of Swabia and Otto IV. Today we take a closer look at the early years of Frederick II, before he cameup to Germany and took over. Little is known but much has been written about the youth of emperor Frederick II, not only because it was exceedingly turbulent, but also because it forged a man who burst on the

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35:50

Episode 75 – Wet Pants and other Miracles

History of the Germans ·

2022/09/15

Otto IV, scion of one of the oldest and most aristocratic families in the world had achieved what so many of his ancestors have craved, ruling the empire. This week we will follow him to his coronation and the sequence of errors that will leave him back home in Brunswick, alone and forgotten. At the same time his nemesis, the child of Pulle, the impoverished 15-year-old king of Sicily and son of emperor Henry VI, young Frederick II rises to the imperial crown on a wing and some very potent prayer.As

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32:00

Episode 74 - A Breaking of Oaths

History of the Germans ·

2022/09/08

The kingdom is in turmoil. Two pretenders fight for supremacy. On the one side, Philipp of Swabia, son of the emperor Barbarossa, brother of Emperor Henry VI. and head of the House of Hohenstaufen. In the opposite corner stands Otto IV., son of Henry the Lion, protégé of king Richard the Lionheart and preferred candidate of pope Innocent III. protagonists are the imperial princes who play the two kings against each other for their personal gain, swearing fealty one day and breaking it the next. It

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30:43

Episode 73 - One Pope, Three Emperors

History of the Germans ·

2022/09/01

This week we will see the reverse of 1046 when there was one emperor choosing between three popes. Today, we have one Pope, given the choice between three emperors. How could that happen? Last time we looked we had Henry VI. at the peak of his reign, being king of Sicily, having pushed through the inheritability of the imperial title and de-facto encircled the pope militarily. But now, just 2 years later the picture is reversed. There is a reason the wheel of fortune is one of the favourite subjects

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29:50

Episode 72 - Clouds on the Horizon

History of the Germans ·

2022/08/24

This week we will watch Henry VI’s attempts to make the papacy comfortable with the fact that their neighbour to the south is now the same as their neighbour to the North. Pope Celestin may see it as encirclement by a family whose track record as sons of mother church had been to say it politely, a bit patchy. But Henry VI thinks there is a way to make this work.Let’s see…As always, this episode has a dedicated website with the transcript and maps, pictures and additional comments to read along. It

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27:50

Episode 71 - To Catch a King

History of the Germans ·

2022/08/14

There is one story from the Middle Ages that most people know, the imprisonment and ransom of King Richard the Lionheart of England. The chivalric knight and hero of the Third Crusade is cowardly set upon by a gallery of villains, his brother, John Lackland, the King of France, Phillippe Auguste and the moneygrabbing emperor Henry VI, ably asssited by duke Leopold of Austria. We will look at this story from Henry VI. perspective which make Richard look a lot less compelling.And we throw in one more

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32:20

Episode 70 - From Father to Son

History of the Germans ·

2022/08/07

When Barbarossa drowns in the river Saleph in 1190 the crown transfers to his eldest surviving son, Henry, known to History as Henry VI.This is the first time since the accession to personal rule of Emperor Henry III in 1039 that the imperial crown moves from father to grown up son without a glitch. In the previous 150 years, the passing of an emperor had been a dramatic event where all the cards were dealt anew. Just remember, Henry IV came to the throne as a child, Henry V by rebellion against his

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26:36

Episode 69 - Germany in 1200 Medieval Faith

History of the Germans ·

2022/07/28

Way back when, in Episode 30 we identified three drivers of the Investiture Controversy. These were: the conflict between the emperor and the princes, the conflict of the emperor with the popes and the rise and rise of piety amongst the lay people. These last 38 episodes we did talk at length about the how the princes established their own territorial lordships against the imperial central power and man did we talk about the conflict between popes and emperors.But that third element we only touched

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15:29

Episode 68 - Germany in 1200 - The Cities

History of the Germans ·

2022/07/21

This week we take a tour of how cities in germany worked around 12oo with a brief detour to look at what happened later and how they differ from Italian and French cities.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 byMichel RondeauunderCommon Creative Licence 3.0.As always:Homepage with maps, photos, transcripts and blog:www.historyofthegermans.comFacebook: @HOTGPodTwitter:

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25:28

Episode 67 Germany in the Year 1200 - The Peasants

History of the Germans ·

2022/07/14

This is about the peasants, no kings, emperors, popes, bishops at all. Ok one brother of a duke at the end because I simply cannot help myself. But yes, peasants. What was the life of a peasant in Germany in around 1200 really like? How much do we actually know about their living conditions? Did it differ much from country to country? The correct answer to all of these is – we are not really sure. These sections of the podcast are always the hardest ones. Following some king or emperor around is

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34:38

Episode 66 - The Myths of Barbarossa

History of the Germans ·

2022/07/07

We have just spent 15 episodes talking about the life and times of the actual Frederick Barbarossa. Exciting as his life was, his afterlife is almost as interesting. Don’t panic I will not go on for 15 episodes talking about the perception of the great emperor. Just give me 30 minutes and I promise it is worth it. As always, this episode has a dedicated website with the transcript and maps, pictures and additional comments to read along. It is to be found athttps://historyofthegermans.com/66-2/The

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58:17

Empires of the Normans with Dr. Levi Roach

History of the Germans ·

2022/06/30

We had the great pleasure to interview Dr. Levi Roach, Prize-winning author and Associate Professor at the University of Exeter about his new book, The Empires of the Normans..We have encountered the Normans many times in the History of the Germans. This is the chance to get the whole story.It is a tale of ambitious adventures and fierce freebooters, of fortunes made and fortunes lost. The Normans made their influence felt across all of western Europe and the Mediterranean, from the British Isles to

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