History of Germany - Documentary

deutschland in english we refer to this nation as Germany a name given to the region by the Romans who called the lands east of the Rhine Guerra Manya Germania the history of Germany is not necessarily the history of a single nation but of a people administering German nations a situation which is not only one of the ancient past but even one which the German people have faced in our modern age this nation's history is fascinating impressive and profound however much of it is overshadowed by more recent events while the events of the first and especially the second world wars with Germany at the center of both are a major historical importance we must also discuss the hundreds in fact thousands of years of German history prior to these events to understand what Germany is in the big picture of things in this documentary we're going to do just that today here on fire of learning we're going to explore the history of Germany from its earliest beginnings to the modern age the land we know as Germany was first inhabited by modern humans around 35,000 years ago the Germanic peoples however arrived in the area nearly 3,000 years ago as climate change prompted migration from their origins southward from modern Scandinavia and northern Germany it is around this time that the Germanic languages and cultures began to become distinct from the people farther north as they moved they encountered and bordered other peoples such as the Celts Slavs Baltic peoples and Scythian --zz much of what we know of these early people and their lives prior to Roman contact comes to us from archeology linguistic analysis and even genetic testing written records of the peoples of northern Europe in ancient times are scarce the earliest few written accounts are fragments left from the fascinating yet mysterious man known as pytheas amis alia a Greek explorer in the 3rd century BC more detailed descriptions come to us from the Romans who ever expanding inevitably came into more direct contact very direct contact one of the first main interactions between the Germanic tribes and the Romans was the Cambrian War of 113 to 101 BC sparked as tribes from modern Germany known as the Cimbri tutto neighs and Umbro knees moved further south as their land farther north had become less hospitable they would be defeated but this would only mark the beginning of a long intense relationship between Rome and the German tribes the first to refer the Germans as the geta money was Julius Caesar though this classification was more about geography than an actual analysis of the people's living in the region who those shared a number of similarities were rather diverse linguistically and culturally and far from unified they in fact were often at war with each other those in Gaul were the Celts those across the Rhine River were the Germans he described them largely as barbarians they were a people who lacked towns and cities and who depended on primitive subsistence agriculture often leading very difficult lives in comparison to the Romans they followed a form of paganism which was similar to others in Western Europe at the time specifically to Norse mythology with an emphasis on nature and the natural forces around them they worshipped gods such as money to Woden sooner and Frigg you were likely more familiar with these gods by the days named after them Mona dog two's dog Wooden's dog thinners dog free dog they litter spread to England after the fall of Rome via the anglo-saxons Tacitus later added to the Roman understanding describing the Germans as a large people with reddish hair and piercing blue eyes referring to the 50 or so Germanic tribes inhabiting the region at the time at times relations between the Romans and the Germans were peaceful and cooperative trade intermarriage and other interactions took place at other times there was a brutal warfare under Augustus Caesar the Romans would actually attempt to expand into guerre Manya the area however was a much harder region to enter and subdue it in Gaul needs thick forested and marshy landscape were very foreign to the Italian Romans and heightened their fears of the barbarians savages they thought were living within them lack of roads and major towns made the logistics a nightmare for a large Roman army as they moved eastward the Romans would begin encroaching on the Germans further they would build settlements such as Colonia and aqua granny which would become cities like Cologne and Aachen or a Lee Chapelle the Romans attempted to quickly subdue the Garmany placing taxes on them confiscating their weapons replacing their old legal systems and essentially taking some of them particularly the sons of noblemen as hostages these boys were raised in Rome as Romans largely with the hopes that they would return to guerre manya loyal to and cooperative with Rome in the end though this process would come to a backfire on the Romans one of these romanized germans was a man named Arminius known in German as Herman Arminius was taken and put into the Roman army being the son of a true skin chief during a campaign into his homeland under quintilius Varis he would later defect to his native side and use his knowledge of the roman army to ambush and defeat them in September of 980 the Roman army was ambushed by Arminius and an army of United German tribes near calque Reza and one is remembered as a battle of Teutoburg forest around 20,000 Romans were brutally decimated by the dramatic troops in one of the most significant battles in Roman history if not the most significant for the Germans this was a great victory Arminius was hailed as a great warrior and in the eyes of some is Germany's first hero for the Romans this was a horrible disaster they withdrew their designs of the province of Magna Garr manya preventing not only the romanization of germany but even beyond Arminius would continue to lead perhaps envisioning himself as a future king of all the air money but he was murdered by political rivals before as such a thing as a united German nation could come to fruition and germani are returned to the disunited state of his end prior to these events the main cause of this the concept of guerre manya was a Roman invention existing in the minds of Romans but not in the hearts of the many different peoples living in the region at least not yet this would not be the end of the story of Romano German relations far from it in fact in the 2nd and 3rd century AD has Rome started showing signs of decay the Germanic tribes began coalescing and expanding these tribes would have a significant impact not only on Germany and in fact not only on Europe but the entire Roman Empire the Goths vandals franks alemanni Macke Romani very Angles Saxons Lombards and so forth the Goths would be the most troublesome to the Romans of these groups raiding pillaging and destabilizing many parts of the Empire in the 4th century as the Huns began moving westward pressure was placed on the Germanic peoples and they too were forced to move westward as the Huns spilled into the borders of modern Germany the Romans significantly weakened at this point lack the power to stop the massive waves of people crossing their borders and settling in her territories and instead attempted to integrate them much of the army in fact would later come to be comprised in a majority by Germanic soldiers the intention was for these foreigners to be romanized in many ways they were in the 4th century the ones in Rome were Christianized and were introduced to the advances of Roman society 350 ad the Bible was translated into the Gothic language not exactly German there was no German yet but it is an ancient relative of German and even English which perhaps you can see in this comparison of text the Germanic peoples who left behind their homeland were adapting but they would not fully assimilate into the Roman Empire rather they would replace it as the Roman Empire fell many of its successor states were formed by or were taken over by rulers from the Germanic tribes these kingdoms would arise in many places even as far as North Africa some of these kingdoms would disappear the majority would not become germanized but rather the German rulers assimilated into the native population but some such as the anglo-saxon dominance in modern England would be more permanent having a lasting effect on the language and ethnic identity of the people on the island though never truly under Roman rule and outside the main conflicts caused by their kin hermana itself was still directly impacted by the fall of the Roman Empire in the coming centuries it would be thrown into conflict with Rome successors dates from these conflicts however would rise further uniformity and cohesion among the Germans though considered a dark age for many reasons the early medieval ages were a time in which we may find the roots of modern Europe along with its cultures languages and ethnic identities Germany is no exception to this while the east of the modern nation was at this time inhabited by Slavs in the west and south Franks Friesians Bavarians saxons alemanni and thir indians were slowly becoming more recognizably germans the Franks are of considerable importance they would unify the tribe and extend beyond modern Germany power was beginning his center around the Franks and former Gaul under Clovis the first of the Merovingian dynasty who became king of the franks in a 481 Clovis began to expand his domain with force and two lands held by the last bastions of Romans and other Germanic tribes by 5:08 his empire extended throughout a large share of modern Germany France and the Low Countries it was in this year that he made the decision to convert his kingdom to Catholicism beginning large-scale conversion of the people's formerly outside the Christian Roman Empire when Clovis died around 512 ad his kingdom was divided among his four sons in accordance with Frankish tradition this process of the vision of lands among the sons of the Frankish rulers would impede the unified growth of their domain and the emergence of something like a true nation-state or even a true Kingdom in a more modern sense for quite some time and in fact much of the situation of early medieval Germany is defined by this practice which is called portable inheritance as opposed to primogeniture where the first foreign child gets about everything sometimes these rulers would work cohesively as they were expected to the intention was after all to create separate domains of one larger kingdom but other times saw crippling civil wars the Franks would continue pushing into Germany but infighting would continue in the kingdom would eventually be divided into three regions Neustria Austria and burgundy with modern Germany belonging mostly to Austria along with conflict between themselves they were also constantly involved in Wars with foreigners including the westward banning Slavs and a VARs depending on the circumstances and the frankish domains at the time the Germans would rule with more or less autonomy paganism was still common in Germany itself especially among the majority of the country outside Frankish rule and there was yet to be a written German language apart from the aforementioned gothic which was being forgotten in favor of Latin in 613 cloade Torah the second of Neustria reunited the Franks and established what is called the mayor of the palace to help with administration of the kingdom in effect a kind of Prime Minister Germany would continue throughout this period at the center of a Dark Age the German people's were caught in a power struggle between many competing forces on the continent but were still united somewhat by a common culture in similar languages by the 8th century the Merovingians had become effectively puppet kings the men with the real power were the mayors of the palace in 718 Charles Martel secured this position Charles the hammer as his name meant an old French is remembered most famously for his victory at the Battle of Tor where he defeated the Muslim Lu my odds preventing nations such as France or even Germany from Islamic takeover however Charles would struggle not only with Muslims but Germans as well before that battle which took place in 732 he was involved in war against Bavarians Saxons allemande Ian Friesians from 718 to 730 the Bavarians were often independent minded and uncooperative not something that would change anytime soon and the Saxons were pagans who frequently raided Frankish territory in 751 the Vale was officially taken off by Martel successor with the support of the Pope Charles Martel's son Pepin the short deposed the last Merovingian Kings childerik the third with the end of the Merovingians came a new dynasty the Carolingians Pepin would rule for 10 years his most major contribution which would have a permanent effect on Europe was the donation of Pepin which was essentially a land grant to the Pope which would be known as the papal States however it would be his son who laid the foundations for much of modern Europe including the German nations and he's remembered for no less than this achievement often called potty rope I the father of Europe he's referred to as Charles the great Karl DeRosa or Charlemagne Charles United both halves of the Frankish Empire in 771 when his brother carlomon died of natural causes almost immediately he set his sights on expanding into Germany where he would come into contact with one of his greatest foes the Restless pagan Saxons led by rulers such as one called V Duke end which meant forest child back then that implied something fierce more like a wolf as opposed to you know freedom flower child in 772 Charlemagne invaded Saxony subjugating one of the many tribes and desecrating pagan religious monuments such as a hollow tree known as ear monsoon which the Saxons believed held up a sky Charlemagne did not stay long turning his attention to Italy specifically toward the troubles of lombards descendants of German invaders with a name meaning long beards who were agitating the Pope and Italy nevertheless things weren't quite so finished in Saxony in fact war would continue for thirty years until 804 the primary reason for this was paganism but also the fractured structure of Saxon society they were not unified in the various groups acted independently and had to be subdued individually when Charlemagne was distracted by other conflicts especially they tended to revolt attacking Frankish soldiers priests and churches the Franks would respond bitterly in one incident in Verdun and 780 to Charlemagne ordered that 4,500 people be beheaded for a rebellion even by his contemporaries this act was seen as excessive brutality as he subdued the Saxons Hina's missionaries and forced Christianity on them harshly the penalty for refusing baptism was death and 785 V tokens surrendered and willingly agreed to be baptized the other Saxons fought on Charlemagne continued to expand eastward into other parts of Germany as well and even beyond in 788 he went to war with the Bavarians he would then expand further eastward from there fighting the a VARs and Slavs after years of conquests and conversions on Christmas Day in 800 AD Charlemagne was crowned emperor of the Romans by Pope Leo the 3rd this was the beginning of something that would outlive him for a little over a thousand years it was not just a pompous title as time went on some historians would consider Charlemagne to be the first Holy Roman Emperor that is not agreed upon some consider out of the first whom we will talk about soon to be the first true ruler a century later because Charlemagne was not actually the ruler of the Holy Roman Empire in a sense that it would later take the term holy would not be added until a few hundred years later but the intention was for Charlemagne's empire to be viewed as the reincarnation of Rome although admittedly heinous subjects tended to prefer their Frankish identity as time goes on the Holy Roman Empire would not really live up to any of its names as we shall see the intention of Pope Leo the 3rd was to be the spiritual leader of the Christian world and Charlemagne the secular and for the Emperor and Pope to work in tandem ruling over a new Rome the intended mutually beneficial relationship here however would eventually become a source of conflict this event also caused dispute with the Byzantines and not for the last time who were fairly offended by the notion of Charlemagne calling himself emperor of Rome when they considered themselves the Romans remember of course that the Roman Empire only fell in the West the East or the Byzantines had continued and were still standing strong Pope Leo wasn't concerned by this the Byzantine head of state at the time was a woman so he felt that the title was vacant attention between east and west would not quickly disappear in fact it would carry on until the death of Byzantium itself following his coronation Charlemagne would continue to expand his domain in total his empire would encompass almost all of Western and Central Europe and even beyond Charlemagne was not only a man of the sword however he oversaw a number of intellectual achievements that have led to his reign being referred to as the Carolingian Renaissance Charlemagne died in 84 tene ad the Empire he constructed form the basis for a rebirth of Europe he had intended to divide his kingdom up among his sons a practice so firmly rooted in tradition that not even he would break it but only one Louie or Ludwig would outlive him while that may seem as though having one heir would hold the empire together Louie the pious would not rule as strongly as his father had and would often have to struggle to keep the empire together against an array of enemies assembling from outside his empire and even against his own sons Louie was not a harsh ruler but he was quite simply not the right man for the times in fact he is said to have wanted to have been a priest rather than member he died in 840 AD after a series of external and internal Wars he had tried to leave the Empire to his eldest son to prevent the collapse of Christian Europe but his other sons rebelled successfully against this decision two years following the Battle of Fontenoy in 841 the kingdom was divided into three with a treaty of their Doon Charles the bald would rule the western portion Letarte the lands in the center and Ludvig the lands in the east specifically the regions east of the Rhine and north of Italy Bavaria Franconia Saxony and Swabia this event is considered a very significant milestone in German history east and west Frankia now with different languages and cultures would be basically permanently severed and were on a path to develop into separate nations france and germany Ludvig would later receive the old roman title guerre monica's which meant conqueror of the germans Ludvig is promptly known as Louie the German or Ludvig their Deutsche and German or lieu defeat the mites in check at this time as the German identity was in a very important stage of coming together the peoples of Europe disagreed on what exactly to call this variety of people with similar cultures and languages this issue was never really resolved and today there remains a variety of names for Germany in different languages which are seemingly unrelated this Treaty of their doom while it provided stability would not end the conflict between the three brothers permanently and fighting would continue on and off in fact after Charlemagne Germany's history for the next few centuries will be marked by constant conflict Germany or East Frankia would be surrounded by rivals at various times fighting Norse Vikings the Slavs which would later include groups such as the Moravians and polish the Magyars now on Ludwig's doorstep the northern Italians the Saracens or Muslims the Byzantines and the West Franks or later the French to name the main ones arguably East Frankie is biggest enemy though was itself divisions among family would constantly fracture and divide the land threatening its very existence for centuries it was not long before the kingdom of Middle Frankia will be broken apart it was the least stable of the three and had even less cohesion than that of early France and early Germany which though facing division had at least similar languages and ethnic groups many different ones were forming in an awkwardly formed territory now encompassing the Netherlands down to Italy the territory of Lorraine however between modern france and germany is a corruption of Lotharingia and this region still carries a name of lotar which is more obvious in a modern German name not ringin Ludvig and Charles eventually sees Lorraine and divided it in a Treaty of Merson this would not solidly dispute over the region though in fact it would be a constant cause of conflict for over a millennium Ludvig the German died in 876 and as you probably expect at this point his kingdom was divided among his sons Ludvig the younger carlomon and Karl who would sometime later be known as Karl they're Ditka or in English Charles de fête who actually briefly reunited Charlemagne's empire and became Holy Roman Emperor not so much because he was a great Conqueror but because every other heir in Germany in France had died Carl would be the last to rule over a united Frankish Empire in the 1860s the Magyars had finally reached East Frankia raiding a territory mercilessly and centering their power not far away in the modern nation of Hungary which the Magyars would later be responsible for founding much of Karl's reign was spent dealing with them as well as Vikings whose raids by now reached the city of Aachen in which Charlemagne had centered much of his empire and where his palace was built as well as Paris and the Rhineland things were not going well for Carla his rule was brief his life long struggled with sickness and epilepsy made ruling over an uncooperative Empire difficult and he was deposed by his nephew Arnold in 887 Arnold would not be able to claim the entire kingdom however and the Frankish Empire split apart this time permanently the divides between the two halves were too great to see oh by now Arnold merely retained the German Arry of the country east Frankia importantly Arnold did not merely take the throne he was elected by the nobility to be king the concept of electing leaders in Germany dated back to ancient times and as we shall see did not disappear any time soon Arnold's reign would be marked by unsuccessful wars with the Slavs Vikings Moravians and Magyars he died in 899 and was succeeded by his six-year-old son Ludvig the child who would only live to the age of 20 throughout - Ludwig's reign every corner of journey was ravaged by the Magyar horsemen furthermore the dukes of the various regions or duchies of east Frankia asserted more independence threatening to break the kingdom apart ludovic the child died in the year in 911 as he last Carolingian king the germans had to focus on their own affairs and elected a king from outside the Carolingian line rather than respect Charles's simple king of france's claim to the throne one such a fair was the Magyars who were a more major threat to the Germans than the Vikings which France was focused on Conrad Duke of Thuringia was elected to be their king the election of rulers was resurfacing as a common trend and that is here where we began to see the complex political structure of what would be called the Holy Roman Empire arise although Conrad did not receive the title of Emperor Rome that had gone to rulers in Italy at this point becoming essentially a reward the Pope gave out to any ruler who would help him Conrad though King and name did not have much authority over the Dukes who made him King and he would struggle to assert his authority throughout his reign often fighting both his subjects and foreigners alike he was more like a Grand Duke than King this power struggle between the monarch and Nobles of his semi-autonomous States that put him there would be another feature which would mark the Holy Roman Empire's existence in the long run Conrad would actually be severely wounded fighting the rebellious Bavarians and on his deathbed he proposed to his brother that Heinrich the Duke of Saxony should be the next king Heinrich was an enemy of Conrad but Conrad knew he was the man that could hold the nation together Conrad died in 1918 and the nobles appeared to agree with him electing Heinrich as her next king a few months later Heinrich known as Heinrich there fuller or Henry the Fowler after his hobby of falconry was the first native German to be king of Germany beginning the Saxon Tennessee the threat of the Magyars was an immediate concern of Heinrich upon his rise to power though initially facing the feet against them he eventually had a stroke of luck defeating the Magyars and taking the son of their leader prisoner in exchange for the Magyar prince's release he demanded 10 years of peace the brief ceasefire allowed Heinrich the opportunity to continue war with the Slavs trained his infantry and build fortifications around his domain in 932 when the Magyars returned he defeated them at the Battle of Reata dealing a major blow to them Heinrich was a great ruler militarily but he never consolidated power politically in a forum about the rule either Germany persisted as a kind of Confederation of semi-autonomous duchies over which he had limited power nevertheless he had strengthened and protected the nation as a whole he died 936 AD his son was elected that year importantly Heinrich did not divide his domain among his sons despite an opportunity to do so leaving it all intact to his successor his son Otto would reign for nearly 40 years in that time his achievements in building the German nation and the Holy Roman Empire would earn him the title the great otto was ambitious and bold essentially viewing himself as no less than the successor of Charlemagne his reign was marked naturally early on by conflict with his younger brother and the other German Nobles and furthermore he was involved in the regular Wars with Slavs Vikings and French however as time went on Otto actually began to break out of this continuous cycle that caused this disorder he defeated his rivals and then began to try to transform the structure of the German nation of the time by centering power on the monarchy he would replace rebellious Dukes and Nobles with those loyal to him commonly relatives and intentionally overruled the authorities of all the others signifying that loyalty to and cooperation with a monarch was the way forward he ruled from horseback often touring his domain for half the year he would endeavor to control the church and use it as a means to strengthen his rule by the nine 50s he had settled many of his domestic troubles and began to expand outward one of his prime interest was Italy where the widowed queen of northern Italy a delayed call to Otto for help after beringar ii had usurped her husband's throne Otto crossed the Alps in 951 where he took the city of javea he would in turn marry Adelaide his second wife this second marriage angered Otto's son from his first wife Leah Dahl especially when she bore him a son who threatened Leah dog succession outraged he would rebel against his father in 9:53 alongside other frustrated Nobles the rebellion spiraled out of control and the situation was exacerbated when the Magyars moved into the Varia leah dog would later become cooperative with the Magyars it was not long before the situation began to threaten Otto's reign itself but it would be abruptly ended in 954 partially because so many Nobles felt that an alliance with the Magyars was excessive treachery otto at times a very merciful ruler forgave his son for all his crimes with the domestic situation finally stable Otto now turned his attention to the invading magyars in the spring of 955 war with the Magyar would resume but Otto would defeat them on multiple occasions throughout the year on August 10th the two sides were squaring up for a major battle the Battle of Lake Phelps Bergen avaria Otto had a force of around 8,000 men obtained from across Germany and Bohemia the Magyars levy had a force around twice the size of this despite this Otto had some favorable factors the battle was to take place on an aeroplane between two rivers the Magyars were not as accustomed to fighting pitched battles they were horse archers who preferred hit-and-run tactics despite the swarm of arrows that rained down on the German troops there were no match for Otto's heavy cavalry the predecessor of the medieval night they destroyed the Magyars in his battle dealing a fatal blow to them following this the Magyars gave up on the rating of Western Europe altogether that same year Otto would lead his forces to victory against the invading Slavs and pushed further into their territory his victories over the foreign pagan invaders led to many viewing him as the savior of Christendom things were beginning to go smoothly for him when and 9:58 trouble and Italy returned with beringar Otto intervened and by 962 he had taken much of northern Italy for himself effectively conjoining northern Italy and Germany that year the Pope would bestow upon him the same title which had been given to Charlemagne emperor of Rome thus as a result of this what would later be called the Holy Roman Empire began or continue it is debated but regardless this was the beginning of a new age for the kings of Germany as the first Reich with Otto as the first German to hold the title his empire throughout the centuries would be regarded not as an empire but as the Empire not a state within Christendom but the true Christian state almost immediately however conflicts between a pope and Emperor began and Otto had JA the 12th deposed and replaced this would temporarily help things but Otto would struggle with the papacy and Italy for the rest of his life and would even have to ruling from Rome at certain points to stabilize things Italy however would sell them in the Empire's history be happy under the rule of the Teutons and would always be distant to try to ease relations with the Byzantines who were again jealous of the title of emperor of Rome which he had taken Otto's youngest and sole surviving son and heir also named Otto at this time 16 would marry a Byzantine princess they'll follow the Emperor's niece who was at this time 12 Otto would died the following year and 973 otto ii became king immediately thereafter his position secured even before his father's death as the nobles elected him King with Otto the first breathing down their necks much of his reign was marked by domestic conflict which arose without his father there as well as war with the Danes French Arab Slavs and Byzantines but when he died suddenly at the age of 28 for malaria his young son who would be Otto 3rd was elected and crowned despite the issues facing the Empire and an attempted usurpation the crown would successfully pass through out of the 3rd when he was of age in 994 out of the third though Young was exceptionally bright and he envisioned himself as the true ruler of Christendom the one who would truly revive the Roman Empire in January of 1002 however at the age of 21 he died while suppressing rebellion in Italy of a strange sudden fever out of the 3rd had died unexpectedly without having been married and with no children whatever future he envisioned along with the stability that the atony ins and her subjects had brought to the Empire would now be challenged as multiple contenders bickered for the throne eventually his cousin Heinrich Duke of Bavaria would become king in a complicated and heated contention in which rivals once more went to war but he became heinrich ii in 1002 king of Italy in 1004 and Holy Roman Emperor in 1014 clearly much of his reign was spent trying to secure the authority that the atony ins had wielded he also spent time fighting Poland over the territory of Bohemia the modern-day chess Republic the independent-minded German nobles or princes weren't heartbroken to see a distracted wheat king on the throne Heinrich died in 1024 again with no heir this brought an end to the Otto nian dynasty and once more the German Nobles would have to choose a king they would choose conrad ii thus beginning the Saleen dynasty konrad like his predecessors spent much of his early reign travelling around his domain it may seem odd that a ruler would spend so little time in the capital city but at this time and for much of the time there was no capital city of the Holy Roman Empire the closest thing would have been the city of Aachen but effectively the capital of the empire was wherever the Emperor was in 1032 Conrad incorporated burgundy into his domain though gained diplomatically at the top the nation still had to be taken by force Burgundy along with the kingdoms of Germany and Italy would form the base of the Holy Roman Empire along with Bohemia although that is a different story the Holy Roman emperors though losing power slowly were still at the time perhaps the strongest men in Europe but their power would soon be challenged again as the seeds of an inevitable conflict planted as far back as Charlemagne begun to sprout a power struggle between the Emperor and Pope remembered as the investiture controversy as you recall the practice of using the church to keep a grasp over Germany in the whole empire dates back quite far in a country struggling with unity the church was a centralizing unified force bishops typically held similar power as the German princes up to this point positions of power within the Church of Germany weren't handed out by the Pope they were handed out by the Emperor's to ensure the church's loyalty to him at times the Emperor even felt he had the power to install or to pose Pope's and turn though the Pope was the sole person who could crown a king Holy Roman Emperor the notion that a German king or any secular Lord should have this power was challenged by the Gregorian reform movement this refers to a focus on reforms such as allowing the Pope to be elected by a College of Cardinals rather appointed by the Emperor and for the church to be responsible in handling the positions of its own officials the reforms began in 1056 not coincidentally at the same time of riot and conspiracy in Germany under the six-year-old king Heinrich the fourths the situation escalated in 1075 when pope gregory the seventh issued the dictators popeye asserting that the church was founded by god that the pope alone can depose or in state bishops and that he may even oppose emperors heinrich the fourth was not interested in complying with a list of rules that would undermine his power he sent the pope a letter making his intentions quite clear that he intended to remove him pope gregory though was prepared he soon announced that heinrich the fourth was no longer king and excommunicated him from the church heinrich prepare to move south that opposed a pope but he was prevented from doing so by native unrest his discontented subject slept at the opportunity to legally rebel against them and he was grounded by civil war with his subjects who had the support of the Pope fearing defeat in 1077 at the city of canosa in the famous walk to Canosa Heinrich marched barefoot in thin clothing through the snow to see the Pope where he waited and fasted for three days at the castle gates until Pope Gregory finally received him this act was humiliating to say the least Heinrich's predecessors could make or break a pope with a wave of their hands now here he was begging to one for his kingdom nevertheless Heinrich was forgiven and his excommunication was lifted his relationship with the Pope had been improved but the German nobles weren't so forgiving rather they had designs to continue the great Saxon revolt as it is called and elect a new king Rudolph von Rhine Feldon the revolt would continue and in 1080 things seemed to get worse when Pope Gregory took the side of Rudolph and excommunicated Heinrich again this time however Heinrich was prepared and he received a stroke of luck Rudolph would die that year the following year with the rebellion waning he invaded Rome as Heinrich marched further the Pope was forced to call on a new ally recruiting the Normans who had recently occupied southern Italy in 1084 they came to his rescue but when the populace of Rome are bolted against Norman occupation Norman's plundered and burned much of the city Pope Gregory had won their support but now Rome opposed him and he had to leave with the Normans to return south where he died a year later Heinrich thus elevated his choice for Pope Clement the third who crowned him Holy Roman Emperor this would not end the conflict however and in fact the conflict would not end until 11 22 when Heinrich son Heinrich the fifth who had often opposed his father in fact signs the Concordat of worms with Pope Calixtus a second the church had effectively won it's right to greater power and independence this conflict dealt a great blow to the Holy Roman Empire it saw the power of the papacy grow and the power of the Empire began to weaken as the nobility had resisted the power of the monarch for so long in Germany that contradicting him was commonplace the concept of separatism was greatly favored in northern Italy and to the west amid this chaos and insubordination the English and French were beginning to supplant the Empire's position as a leading power in Europe though the church had gained an upper hand and though the title of Holy Roman Emperor was still not an inherited title rather one granted solely by the Pope it would not be the end over the debate of who was ultimately more powerful Emperor or Pope as we get into this period of history I suppose I should preface the Holy Roman Empire to try to make it clearer to understand a lot of people find the history and structure of the Holy Roman Empire to be bizarre and confusing and if it seems that way it's essentially because it is even foreigners around it at the same time remarked that it was excessively complicated and confusing we of course saw the Otto nians trying to consolidate power around the monarchy and the salines held a good degree of power until the investiture controversy as well but this problem of a lack of centralized authority does not get much better over time in truth except for a few intervals it gets worse the Emperor's don't really wield true unchallenged authority over everyone they are in regular conflict with the nobility and other forces of power in the country like a church and cities and this feature kind of prevents it from unifying into a cohesive nation-state in France and England for example we can see clear centralization of power a clear chain of command cohesion among the organs of the nation it's not always perfect but it works that doesn't happen with the Holy Roman Empire it exists as a kind of loose union of microstates with too much autonomy to really get the nation off its feet and moving as a real Empire the microstates later have their own armies currencies laws that sort of thing and this is interesting because throughout the upcoming period of history Germany should have been a major power to rival France England Spain later on however a number of bizarre circumstances prevented the power within the country from being harnessed and that doesn't change until much later not to say that this was some sort of failed state however it was unusual but it did last for a thousand years which suggests that there is a method to the madness which we shall see as the Christian world came under threat by Islamic dominance of the Holy Land around the same time as the investiture controversy Germany finding itself greatly wounded by these events participated very little in the First Crusade rather it fell in a period of relative isolation in 1125 heinrich v died childless as the last ruler of the salient dynasty accordingly conrad of the Hohenstaufen dynasty eventually came to the throne after attempts to prevent him and an interregnum in 1152 Conrad's nephew Friedrich was elected King one of Friedreich's first acts was to begin campaigning in Italy subduing the independent-minded northern Italians the Milanese in particular eventually he reached Rome where he was crowned Holy Roman Emperor while in Italy friedrich would be given the name by which he is better known to this day red beard or an Italian Barbarossa shortly thereafter Barbarossa married Beatrice of Burgundy securing his rule over all three main components of the Empire once more on their wedding then gay aged in a ritual which today may seem unusual to us their marriage which was a greatly political event was consummated in front of many important figures and foreign representatives thankfully the details of this event were meticulously recorded which I shall now narrate to you Barbarossa would spend much of his rule struggling with Italy and the Pope Alexander the third this struggle in fact was to lead to the placement of holy in the term holy roman empire or sacrum and petty 'm romano in latin hi dais remissions reich in german the term holy was not meant to show fidelity to the pope rather it was added to show independence from him implying that the position of emperor was not some reward from the church it was a position handed by God directly to the Emperor without the Pope's involvement Barbarossa would campaign in Italy five times he had goals to extend control all the way to Sicily but in the end he was defeated by the Lombard League an alliance of many rebellious states of northern Italy as well as the Pope Venice Sicily and the Byzantines at the Battle of LAN Yano Barbarossa would also have to deal with power struggles at home as well his cousin Heinrich der Lubbe Henry the lion Duke of Bavaria and Saxony was an increasingly powerful individual in his territories he was keenly interested in founding cities and expanding his power one such city in Bavaria was a town called mention home of the monks today the city of Munich which remains as Bavaria's capital along with Bavaria and Saxony Heinrich the lion also pressed east into Slavic lands a holy mission to convert the Slavs and Baltic people's the last European pagans to Christianity also presented an opportunity for Germans of all social status to expand eastward into sparsely inhabited and undeveloped lands this expansion which would last for centuries is collectively referred to as a coelom the East settling the old seed lung would soon evolved into a lesser-known chapter of the Crusades one which prominently featured Germans and Germany the northern Crusades as well as Danes Swedes and poles hi erect the Lions power would increase the point of him being able to challenge Barbarossa even refusing to campaign with them in Italy Barbarossa viewing this his treachery stripped him of his titles and exiled him for some time to England this did not solve the lack of cohesion among his nation at home and abroad that he was facing however Barbarossa's last campaign would be the Third Crusade where he endeavoured to reclaim the Holy Land from the Muslim invaders in tandem with the French King Philip Augustus and the English King Richard the Lionheart before he could reach the Holy Land however in 1190 Barbarossa fell off his horse into a river where he drowned to death he was succeeded by his son Heinrich who became Heinrich the sixth he would rule for seven years during which time he expanded the empire all the way to Sicily territorial claim which concerned the Pope he died in 1197 his son Friedrich was only 3 at a time and the throne became disputed as two kings were elected heinrich the sixth brother philip the first and heinrich the lion's son otto the fourth civil war erupted and continued until friedrich a second came of age when he did he won the pope support by promising to let go of sicily and became undisputed king in 1215 he won the support of his Nobles by doing what his predecessors had struggled in vain against granted the nobility further rights and independence Friedrich is remembered as a rather bright in fact intellectual King Friedrich Nietzsche would later refer to him as the first European speaking of Sicily despite his promise to the Pope he did not release it he was actually able to form a strong effective centralised government there this anger the Pope furthermore Friedrich was crowned promising that he would embark on a crusade which he had thus far failed to do as well in fact his hesitation to embark on the fifth crusade is often cited as the reason for its failure friedrich would be excommunicated four times throughout his life and his struggles with the papacy even being called the Antichrist on one occasion by Pope Gregory the ninth Friedrich would embark on a crusade however to in fact the sixth crusade where he miraculously won Jerusalem by negotiation which the Pope hoping for a great battle wasn't happy about and of course the northern Crusades Friedrich had elevated Herman von salsa to be the Grand Master of the Teutonic order around 1210 the Teutonic Knights would be key to expanding into territories such as Livonia and crush' in fact they had been granted permission to rule over the pagan territories which they conquered the Teutonic orders rule over the territory of Prussia would lead to massive German migration and the Germanisation of the people there which would have long-term effects on German and European history Friedrichs reign became greatly unstable in the 12 40s as the papacy fought against them and engineered plots to overthrow him notably with an archbishop support of two different rival Kings Vilhelm of holland and henry respe meanwhile the Teutonic order was taking on the far reaches of the Mongol army and the middle of the struggle and 12:50 Friedrich died his son died only a few years later ending Hohenstaufen rule the Holy Roman Empire was effectively entering into its first great interregnum where no King was able to receive undisputed approval until 1272 though confusion and uncertainty would last longer than this in both the Empire and the papacy the power of the nobility and bishops only fed off this increasing their power in cementing their autonomy with each noble commonly building his own castle to cement his authority in this time period Germany is today one of the most castled regions in the world despite a major lack of central authority however the German Kingdom would continue and many of its endeavors including the push eastward which was less affected by home affairs amid this confusion and the vision arose a house which would come to be one of the most important in the Holy Roman Empire and one of the most influential houses in European history from the arch Duchy of Austria which has split off from avaria and a 12th century came the Hapsburgs the first Habsburg to be elected King was Rudolf the first though king of Germany he would not be Holy Roman Emperor the ecclesiastical and secular Prince's during this time were not interested in a leader they were interested in a servant and more resilient than ever towards the king's attempts to rule them accordingly this was not the Hapsburgs who rise to power it was only temporary foreshadowing as it would be sometime before they had a permanent hold on germany the hapsburgs lost power in Germany after Rudolf though he had established his family by making his sons the dukes of Austria and Styria the German electors fearing the power of the house the selected kings from different houses some of whom were chosen specifically because they lacked power and would be weak rulers from the surface this arrangement of things probably appears to have a greatly favored the princes however in turn the princes found themselves struggling to maintain rule over their domains and the nobility church knights and cities within them who often acted independently as well the cities in Germany in particular in his time period operated fairly independently they weren't exactly city-states like in Italy but they weren't always subservient to the surrounding country and oftentimes they banded together to promote their own interests one example of this is the Hanseatic League from the German word honza which means guilt which was both a trading and also a defensively administered by German merchants extending from London to Novgorod by the 15th century some of these cities became Imperial cities which were effectively as autonomous as other parts of the country Hinrich the seventh was crowned king in 1308 becoming Holy Roman Emperor in 1312 during his reign the Teutonic Knights capture the city of Gdansk or in German Danzig linking Germany and Prussia geographically Heinrich died a few years into his reign though and was succeeded by his son Ludvig the 4th and a contested election the Pope furthermore refused to acknowledge his claims but in 1338 the German electors agreed to the declaration of Renza in this declaration they stated that the right of the Emperor to rule was no longer dependent on the Pope's approval whomever the electors chose to be king would be king and with the title of king automatically came the title of Holy Roman Emperor or in German Kaiser from the Latin Kaiser or as we more commonly pronounce it Caesar this decision later paved the way for the golden bull of 1356 to be issued under Carl Forrest who was also King of Bohemia and a part of the house of Luxembourg beginning his reign as well as the reign of his house in 1346 the golden bull finally solidified and organised the process by which Emperor's would be elected the Emperor's would be elected by seven curved wood stone or prince-electors three of them were ecclesiastical the Archbishop of Mainz the Archbishop of Cologne and the Archbishop of Trier four were secular the King of Bohemia the count Palatine of the Rhine the Duke of Saxony vinton burg and the margrave of brandenburg the golden bull is at times referred to as the German Magna Carta these changes marked the beginning of a new identity for the Holy Roman Empire it would end or attempt to end constant civil wars caused by succession debates but in truth to a degree it was a significant milestone on the Empire's gradual path toward a Roven sea the Empire had lost its vision of being a universal Christian Empire the Emperor's were now dependent on the electors this would greatly impede its ability to project power beyond its own borders around the same time that these changes were occurring Germany was invaded by a new enemy the Black Death caused by three different strains of plague between 1347 and 1351 it would kill around half of Europe's population Germany was thankfully not hit quite as hard but it was still dealt a heavy blow by losing 20% of its population when Karl the fourth died his son once ass louse was elected in 1378 yet wenceslaus was deposed by the electors in 1,400 his behavior was seen as rather degenerate and his rural and effective but he did remain king of bohemia he was replaced by a Ruprecht the third as long as wenceslaus lived however Ruprecht reign was contested and domestic conflict was a feature throughout his reign on the verge of Civil War in 1410 Ruprecht died and though wenceslaus wanted the throne it would pass to his younger brother Sigismund Sigismund was a bright and energetic man and was in fact already king of hungary he had spent considerable campaigning against the Muslim Ottomans as the head of the order of the Dragon sigismund's early reign was marked by handling a large number of affairs he would go to war with the Venetians he would be very much involved in the Teutonic polish Wars interrupting to the northeast and he would help end the papal schism a dispute which had divided the church among three competing popes he would do this with his suggestion of the Council of Constance not the Council of Constance as well the matter of a Catholic priest named yon huis was addressed yon hoose was a bohemian or checked reformer who had wanted to change the behavior and practices in the Catholic Church in a time when a schism was deteriorating its image whose wasn't tolerated and he was burned at the stake in 1415 in Constance despite sigismund's vow of protection this would not end the discontent however rather it would enrage it as many checks and favorite whose and viewed him now as a martyr public unrest brewed in Bohemia which evolved into civil war in 1419 one SAS louse died and Sigismund came to the throne of bohemia as well declaring that he would drown all the host site heretics in 1421 the pope escalated the situation by calling a crusade against the host side checks the hood sites weren't pushovers the conflict that was emerging would last for years and they in fact took the fight to Germany Hungary and the Teutonic lands where they lied themselves with the Polish and a Polish Teutonic war of 1430 135 the who cites themselves however soon split into separate branches and the u.s. be more moderate of the two were victorious the war ended in 1434 with a mix of results neither side was really victorious the host sites were reincorporated into Bohemia but they were allowed to continue practicing some of their religious beliefs Sigismund died the following year his successor would be Friedrich a third from the House of Habsburg another house he Hohenzollerns had gained power in brandenburg-prussia with the compromise between the hood sites and Catholics more radical Church reform would be delayed by a century but it was coming reform which would rock Christianity and Europe to a core would be sparked under a German monk named Martin Luther in the next video we will see where all this leads and learn how Germany copes with the rise of Protestantism and later the beginnings of modern Europe we will explore the roles of the Austrian and Prussian empires Napoleon's Empire the unification of Germany the world wars and the modern nation of today I hope you've enjoyed this video if you'd like to stay up to date with Part two as well as to see other videos I've made such as these documentaries here on history and science and other upcoming videos I encourage you to check out fire of learning and subscribe to help support the costs of production fire of learning does take donations on patreon link to which you can find in the description the patreon was down for a little bit but it is now back up and I would like to take a moment to thank Chris Yates Jonathan Trillo and Mark Steffensen for their support also by the way we are now on Instagram so hey follow us there danke for watching

Channel: Fire Of Learning

Views: 1,361,596

Rating: 4.7891493 out of 5

Keywords: Germany, History, Documentary, Deutschland, Prussia, Austria, Bismark, Martin Luther, Frederick II, Barbarossa, Otto the great, Charlemagne, Hapsburgs, Hohenstaufens, Saliens, Frankish Empire, Ottonians, Holy Roman Empire, HRE, Heiliges Romisches Reich, Aachen, Medieval ages

Id: 0ZR9B2KIJBI

Length: 56min 57sec (3417 seconds)

Published: Mon Oct 22 2018

Reddit Comments

[u/jamesbritt]

More docos on Germany, please.

​

Danke.

[u/RamblingSimian]

Actually just part 1.