In August 1518, Pope Leo X wrote to Frederick the Wise, Elector of Saxony, and demanded that he hand over “a son of iniquity”, Brother Martin Luther. A few weeks later Luther was on the road to Augsburg to face Cardinal Cajetan. It was arguably the most dangerous moment of his life, more dangerous even than Worms.

This episode follows how Luther got there and how close he came to the stake:

• Fame: four groups (imperial reformers, humanists, friars and ordinary readers) each saw their own Luther.
• Foes: the Dominicans, Johannes Eck, Luther’s old Erfurt teachers and, finally, the full weight of the Roman Church.
• Friends: Melanchthon, Karlstadt, Cranach and Spalatin.
• The Fat Marmot: a portrait of Frederick the Wise, the cautious, pious and remarkably peaceable prince who held Luther’s fate in his hands.
• Augsburg: Luther’s meetings with Cajetan, one of the sharpest theologians of his age, and how they ended in shouting.
• Flight: Luther’s escape through a gate in the city wall at night, and his discovery that Rome had condemned him before he was ever heard.
• The final hour: a farewell dinner in Wittenberg on 1 December 1518, and two letters from the Elector that changed the course of the Reformation.

Further reading

• Armin Kohnle, Friedrich der Weise (2024)
• Roland H. Bainton, Here I Stand: A Life of Martin Luther

Support the show: History of the Germans is advertising-free thanks to listeners like you. Become a member at historyofthegermans.com/support.

 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 Rome followed, and a lone friar now faced the full weight of the papacy. 

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?

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.

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 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: @germanshistory

To 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 Ottonians

Salian Emperors and Investiture Controversy

Fredrick Barbarossa and Early Hohenstaufen

Frederick II Stupor Mundi

Saxony and Eastward Expansion

The Hanseatic League

The Teutonic Knights

The Holy Roman Empire 1250-1356

The Reformation before the Reformation

The Empire in the 15th century

The Fall and Rise of the Habsburgs

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!

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 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: @germanshistory

To 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 Ottonians

Salian Emperors and Investiture Controversy

Fredrick Barbarossa and Early Hohenstaufen

Frederick II Stupor Mundi

Saxony and Eastward Expansion

The Hanseatic League

The Teutonic Knights

The Holy Roman Empire 1250-1356

The Reformation before the Reformation

The Empire in the 15th century

The Fall and Rise of the Habsburgs

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 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: @germanshistory

To 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 Ottonians

Salian Emperors and Investiture Controversy

Fredrick Barbarossa and Early Hohenstaufen

Frederick II Stupor Mundi

Saxony and Eastward Expansion

The Hanseatic League

The Teutonic Knights

The Holy Roman Empire 1250-1356

The Reformation before the Reformation

The Empire in the 15th century

The Fall and Rise of the Habsburgs

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 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: @germanshistory

To 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 Ottonians

Salian Emperors and Investiture Controversy

Fredrick Barbarossa and Early Hohenstaufen

Frederick II Stupor Mundi

Saxony and Eastward Expansion

The Hanseatic League

The Teutonic Knights

The Holy Roman Empire 1250-1356

The Reformation before the Reformation

The Empire in the 15th century

The Fall and Rise of the Habsburgs

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 to step up and fight for the imperial crown against the formidable Francis I of France.

We also cover the extraordinary financial muscle of banker Jakob Fugger, the crucial diplomatic role of Margaret of Austria, and how a brief stop in Dover to visit Henry VIII helped prevent a Franco-English alliance that could have derailed everything at the Field of Cloth of Gold.

Topics covered in this episode:

• Charles V's childhood in Mechelen and his education under Adrian of Utrecht and Lord Chièvres
• The Burgundian chivalric culture that shaped his worldview
• The death of Maximilian I and the scramble for the imperial election of 1519
• The role of the Fugger banking dynasty in funding Charles' election campaign
• The Field of Cloth of Gold and Habsburg diplomacy with Henry VIII
• The coronation at Aachen in October 1520 and what it meant for the future of the Holy Roman Empire

Plus: an update on upcoming episodes and a summer break announcement.

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 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: @germanshistory

To 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 Ottonians

Salian Emperors and Investiture Controversy

Fredrick Barbarossa and Early Hohenstaufen

Frederick II Stupor Mundi

Saxony and Eastward Expansion

The Hanseatic League

The Teutonic Knights

The Holy Roman Empire 1250-1356

The Reformation before the Reformation

The Empire in the 15th century

The Fall and Rise of the Habsburgs