In 1878 workmen building the Speicherstadt, the magnificent city of warehouses in the harbour of Hamburg made a gruesome discovery. In the mud of the Grasbrook, an island at the entrance of the medieval harbour of Hamburg emerged two piles of wood connected by a wooden bar. An ancient beacon guiding ships. What made it so special was what was nailed on to the bar, human skulls. Whoever these men were, they had been decapitated and their heads displayed as a warning. One of these skulls was quick...
Aug 31, 2023•45 min•Ep 118•Transcript available on Metacast The Hanseatic League undergoes a fundamental transformation in the second half of the 14th century. It turned from a guild of merchants trading across the Baltic and the North Sea into an alliance of trading cities. An alliance that has proven that it can fight and win wars against major territorial powers. That sits quite uncomfortably with the existing European rulers who wonder what to do with this alien inside their body politic. The Hanse had acquired a wide range of trading privileges in t...
Aug 24, 2023•35 min•Ep 117•Transcript available on Metacast The Hanseatic League is first and foremost an organisation driven by commerce and commerce rarely sees the necessity of war. But in 1360 the organisation that had only just transitioned from a community of merchants to an alliance of cities found itself in gridlock with Waldemar Atterdag, Waldemar Dawn, king of Denmark. Waldemar’s objective throughout his 35-year reign was to rebuild the kingdom of Denmark that had virtually disintegrated under his predecessors. And for that he needed money. Tha...
Aug 17, 2023•34 min•Ep 116•Transcript available on Metacast By the end of the 13th century the key foundations of the Hanseatic League are laid. The trade routes that connect the Baltic to Western Europe are largely under the control of merchants who had come from Northern Germany and settled along the Baltic shore. Four great Kontors in Novgorord, Bergen, Bruges and London have been set up. The cities that make up the League, from Tallin to Cologne have gained city laws, built their walls and selected their city councils. We are now entering the Calamit...
Aug 10, 2023•37 min•Ep 115•Transcript available on Metacast If like many of you, you are listening to this podcast on your morning or evening commute and you happen to live in London, you may be one of the 20 million souls going through Cannon Street Station every year. Few of them will be aware that under their feet lay the vestiges of the great Hanseatic Kontor in London that goes back to 1176. If people know about the Steelyard, it is mainly through the portraits of merchants painted by Holbein between 1532 and 1536 at a time when the Kontor had only ...
Jul 27, 2023•21 min•Ep 114•Transcript available on Metacast Today we will talk about the Bryggen, the famous Hanseatic Kontor or trading post in Bergen in western Norway. Bergen itself was never a member of the Hanseatic League, but like The St. Peter’s yard in Novgorod, the steelyard in London and the Kontor of Bruges, the Bryggen in Bergen was a key element of the Hanseatic trading network. The trade in stockfish from Bergen was never on the same scale as the herring trade off Scania or the trade in beeswax and furs from Novgorod, but it was an importa...
Jul 20, 2023•34 min•Ep 113•Transcript available on Metacast This week we will kick off with the string of cities along the Baltic Coast from Lübeck up to Königsberg (modern day Kaliningrad). Who founded them and why? And why so many? Who were the people who came to live there, how did they organise themselves and most importantly, what did they produce and what did they trade? We will dwell on the most splendid of those, Gdansk or Danzig in German, the one city in the Baltic that could give Lübeck a run for its money, a place that developed as six separa...
Jul 13, 2023•39 min•Ep 112•Transcript available on Metacast “on its eastern side the sea breaks through and cuts off the western side of Skaane; and this sea commonly yields each year an abundant haul to the nets of the fishers. Indeed, the whole sound is apt to be so thronged with fish that any craft which strikes on them is with difficulty got off by hard rowing, and the prize is captured no longer by tackle, but by simple use of the hands .” So writes the the late 12th century Danish chronicler Saxo Grammaticus about Zealand, the island he believed to...
Jul 06, 2023•30 min•Ep 111•Transcript available on Metacast “In the monastery of Segeberg there was a man of worthy life, and with venerable gray hair, Meinhard by name, a priest of the Order of Saint Augustine. He came to Livonia with a band of merchants simply for the sake of Christ and only to preach. For German merchants, bound together through familiarity with the Livonians, were accustomed to go to Livonia, frequently sailing up the Daugava River.” So begins the chronicle of Henry of Livonia, a German missionary who tells about the foundation of th...
Jun 29, 2023•29 min•Ep 110•Transcript available on Metacast If I put the word Hanseatic into Google Search I get as result number 4 “Hanseatic King’s Lynn -Visit West Norfolk”. I can say with absolute confidence that there is not a single German individual, place or organisation that a small town in England would choose to not just associate with but incorporate itself into its history, safe for the Hanseatic League. They may play Zedoch the Priest at the coronation but that is because both Handel and Price Charles are considered English with German root...
Jun 22, 2023•38 min•Ep 109•Transcript available on Metacast These last few episodes you may have wondered how all this hangs together. This week we will try to resolve this question. What we will talk about is how the great stem duchy of Saxony fell apart. And there are two stories about that. One is the story of Henry the Lion and his fall in 1180. That story has been repeated over and over again and put into a context of rivalry between the Welf and the Hohenstaufen, between Guelfs and Ghibellines. It makes for a great story of betrayal and revenge. Bu...
Jun 08, 2023•33 min•Ep 108•Transcript available on Metacast If you ever come to Dresden, and if you like art, architecture and history, you very much should, you may want to turn into Augustusstrasse right by the Residenzschloss. What you fnd there is the largest porcelain artwork in the world, 102 metres long and made from 23,000 Meissen porcelain tiles. This is the “Fürstenzug”, the procession of princes. It was made to celebrate 800 years of the House of Wettin who ruled over what we now know as the land of Saxony. It portrays 35 margraves, electors, ...
Jun 01, 2023•35 min•Ep 107•Transcript available on Metacast This week we continue our walkabout of the major centres of power in the North of Germany that emerged during the 12th and 13th century. We talked about Holstein and Lübeck and now it is time to talk about the march of Brandenburg which means we need to talk about a character that had bit part roles on the podcast for quite some time, Albrecht the Bear. He was one of the longest lasting protagonists in the story of the German Middle Ages, playing a role in the reigns of Henry V, Lothar III, Konr...
May 25, 2023•30 min•Ep 106•Transcript available on Metacast This week we will look at one of the great mysteries of German medieval history, how Lübeck could become the second largest City in the Holy Roman empire within just 100 years from its foundation. Lübeck lies on a small river, the Trave that goes into a small Sea, the Baltic. Not only is the Baltic comparatively small, the peoples who live on its shores are no slouches. They have been famed for travelling as far south as Constantinople and as far north as Greenland for centuries. So how did the ...
May 18, 2023•33 min•Ep 105•Transcript available on Metacast In today’s episode we finally get closer to the history of the Hanseatic League. We will take a look at some of the fundamental changes in the Saxon policy towards the east that were ushered in during the reign of Lothar of Supplinburg and shaped events for a long period thereafter. It is in these decades that the Saxon magnates will realise that raiding and plundering of the lands east of the Elbe is no longer the financially most attractive option. A great organised migration from the overpopu...
May 11, 2023•32 min•Ep 104•Transcript available on Metacast This week we talk about what happens after the fight for independence is won. As had happened countless times before in history, precious freedoms gained in bloody struggles can be lost easily in the subsequent peace, not to the old adversary, but to new, homegrown usurpers. That is at least one way of telling the story, the other being, that every major political upheaval is followed by a period of consolidation that embeds the gains made and truncates the excesses that appeared during the revo...
May 04, 2023•38 min•Ep 103•Transcript available on Metacast This week we will hit the arguably most important set of events in medieval German history often summarised under the banner of the Investiture Controversy. The Investment Controversy came about through a confluence of three major strains, the rise in piety in the wake of improving economic conditions, the establishment of the papacy as a power separate and superior to temporal rulers and thirdly, the opposition of the German magnates against centralising tendency of the emperors, led by the Sax...
Apr 20, 2023•29 min•Ep 102•Transcript available on Metacast This week we will follow the history of two men who could not be more different. On one side is Gottschalk, leader of the pagan Abodrites, who first comes to prominence as a brutal raider killing Saxons all across Holstein in revenge for his father’s killing. The other is Adalbert, son of a count, brother of the count palatinate of Saxony, friend and confidant of Henry III, a man who refused the offer of becoming pope for his ambition to convert all of Scandinavia and the Baltic. These two men f...
Apr 13, 2023•28 min•Ep 101•Transcript available on Metacast As we go through the story of the Saxon Stem duchy in the 10th and 11th century, two or maybe three main strains of the story emerge, the gradually drifting away of Saxony from the empire, the relationship between Saxons and Wends and the antagonism between the archbishop of Hamburg and the magnates. As for the first part of the storyline, the conflict between Saxons and the empire we are now hitting the hot stage. I did cover that already a long time ago in Episode 31 “The (second) Saxon War”. ...
Apr 06, 2023•23 min•Ep 100•Transcript available on Metacast This week we stumble into the next imperial succession where the Saxons are again standing on the side lines. On paper the new guy, Konrad II was a man after their own heart, fearsome warrior untroubled by bookish learning, but he was also a sponsor of the church. His son, Henry III was even more so, and there are many reasons why the Saxon magnates did not like the ecclesiastical princes. And it is not just about them greedily gobbling up lands and privileges, but they are also hitting them whe...
Mar 30, 2023•30 min•Ep 99•Transcript available on Metacast This week we are talking about the rift that is opening up between the Saxons and the Empire. For 80 years Saxony had been the centre of imperial power and the Ottonians had been supportive of the Saxon nobles’ policy vis-à-vis the Wends and Poland. All that Is about to change. The new emperor Henry II, though a direct descendant of Henry the Fowler, was no Saxon. For three generations his family had been dukes of Bavaria and all that exposure to the despised southerners had rubbed off. The Saxo...
Mar 23, 2023•28 min•Ep 98•Transcript available on Metacast Now that we know the lay of the land it is time for action, and quite some action it will be. The Wends, the pagan Slavic peoples living east of the Elbe who found themselves ever more squeezed by their now Christian neighbours wake up one morning to find their oppressors fatally weakened. Events 2000 km south of Brandenburg create the once in a century opportunity to throw off the yoke of the Saxons. The newly built churches go up in flames and their tormentors flee back across the Elbe. Any pl...
Mar 16, 2023•30 min•Ep 97•Transcript available on Metacast This week we are still getting our bearings. Last week we saw the emergence of the Stem duchy of Saxony and the Eastern marches. This week we take a look at the most important neighbours to the East and North, the Bohemians, the Poles and the Danes. It is right around this time, the middle of the 10th century that these coalesce into political entities. As always none of this happens smoothly, so expect all sorts of battles and betrayals, including a legion of thieves… The music for the show is ...
Mar 09, 2023•34 min•Ep 96•Transcript available on Metacast I have to start with an admission. I promised you a History of the Germans but I am afraid there is no such thing. All I can give you is the histories of the German people. The last 94 episodes you have heard one of the histories of the Germans, the one about the mighty emperors and their political, military and spiritual struggle with the papacy. It is a great story, and it was fun to tell it. But today we kick off another of the histories, the history of the North of Germany, the part that loo...
Mar 02, 2023•37 min•Ep 95•Transcript available on Metacast Here we are. 2 years of the History of the Germans Podcast. 93 main episodes and 102 when we count bonus episodes, interviews and the like. That makes 3,223 minutes or 2d, 5h and 43minutes of recorded history. At the last count you have downloaded 914,413 episodes which means if you had all listened to all of the episodes, you would have spent a cumulative 20,000 days listening to me! Wow! It is only fair that I listen to you for once! And that is what this episode is all about. Thank you all fo...
Feb 09, 2023•40 min•Ep 94•Transcript available on Metacast On July 7th, 1285, a sunny day in the city of Wetzlar, a day’s ride north of Frankfurt acrid smoke rises from a mighty pyre built up just outside its walls. The pyre was for an emperor, or at least a man who claimed to be the emperor Fredrick II. This man had shown up in the Rhineland, gathered followers, set up a court and sent letters to prince and cities across the realm. Envoys had come from Italy to find out whether the Stupor Mundi had indeed returned. King Rudolf of Habsburg had to turn u...
Feb 02, 2023•35 min•Ep 93•Transcript available on Metacast The popes have won the 200-year fight with the emperors, first the Salians and then the Hohenstaufen. A total war that ended in total victory. The imperial family of the Henrys of Waiblingen has been annihilated either in battle, through illness or at a last resort by execution. The empire is reduced from dominating power in Europe to coordinating mechanism for the princes. How could anyone deny that, to use the words of pope Boniface VIII, “it is altogether necessary for salvation for every hum...
Jan 26, 2023•36 min•Ep 92•Transcript available on Metacast When Frederick II died in 1250 there were four legitimate male descendants of the emperor, his son Konrad IV, elected king of the Romans, his son Henry, a mere six years old, but from most noble blood, his son Manfred from his relationship with Bianca Lancia who had married on her deathbed. And there was a grandson, the child of his unlucky oldest son Henry (VII). 18 years later when this episode ends, the House of Hohenstaufen will be wiped from the face of the earth. Lets find out how that cou...
Jan 19, 2023•33 min•Ep 91•Transcript available on Metacast This week things will indeed be falling apart. The never-ending war is exactly what it is, a never ending, unwinnable war against an enemy that hides on the other side of the Alps and cannot be attacked. Money is running seriously low, and Frederick II is getting concerned about the loyalty of his closest associates. And those he will lose, one due to the vagaries of war, the other through a bout of paranoia. The music for the show is Flute Sonata in E-flat major, H.545 by Carl Phillip Emmanuel ...
Jan 12, 2023•30 min•Ep 90•Transcript available on Metacast This week the epic struggle between empire and papacy goes into its final stretch. The pope has fled to Lyon. There he calls a church council which Frederick is now unable to forestall. Pope Innocent IV deposes Frederick, and – for the first time in history – calls a crusade, not against the Muslims, not against pagans, not against heretics or Greek orthodox rulers, but against a Latin Christian monarch who for years had tried to find an amicable solution to what was a political, not a religious...
Jan 05, 2023•31 min•Ep 89•Transcript available on Metacast 
