Printing the Image of the House of Habsburg

Transcript

Hello and Welcome to the History of the Germans, Episode 234 – The Charisma of Emperor Maximilian (1493-1519)

Maximilian I died on January 12^th, 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 celebration of his memoria, his remembrance, was a major preoccupation for the emperor. It is the kind of thing, many of his contemporaries worried about a lot too. The way they tried to leave an indelible mark on their nation’s consciousness was through buildings.

His French contemporaries, starting with Charles VIII but really culminating with Francois I built castle after castle in the valley of the Loire. Amboise was Charles VIII, Louis XII built Blois, and the  jewels in the crown, Chenonceau, Chambord, and further afield Fontainebleau the dreams made stone of Francois I. Grand buildings to memorise great, and even not so great leaders became a French obsession that gave us Versailles, the Arc de Triomphe and the Centre Pompidou.

Maximilian’s ally and sometimes friend Henry VIII tried to match Francois on the field of Cloth of Gold and his palaces at Whitehall, Nonsuch and later Hampton Court.

The will to turn memory into tangible objects is what gave us the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel, the Stanze of Raffael, the Palazzo del Te and Camara degli Sposi in Mantua, Michelangelo’s David and the frescoes of the doge’s palace recounting victory after victory.

The most recognisable construction that Maximilian left behind that is still standing, is the Goldene Dachl in Innsbruck, a highly decorated balcony on the side of his imperial palace where he could watch tournaments and festivities. The other was the Wappenturm, a tower decorated with 54 coats of arms of territories Maximilian I did or hoped to rule at some point. Both of these were and are attractive landmarks, but not exactly the Mona Lisa.

But do not let yourself be fooled by this. Maximilian had a great eye for art and artists and employed Albrecht Dürer, Hans Burgkmair, Albrecht Altdorfer, Veit Stoss and dozens more. But instead of asking them to produce grand buildings that he could neither afford nor transport, his focus was on works that could be replicated and displayed all across his far flung empire. Works on paper, works that could be printed and sent to everyone in his realm or even beyond.

Some of these works we have already encountered. There is the History of Friedrich III and Maximilian that Joseph Grünpeck put together. Grünpeck was a secretary at the court of Maximilian, as well as a popular writer and the founder of a Latin school in his hometown of Regensburg. This book tells the story of Friedrich III and Maximilian up to 1505, the  end of the War of the Landshut Succession. This work, written in Latin is a case of more or less accurate historiography, of course flattering, but a fairly usual product of the times. The illustrations however were drafts produced by a young artist from Grünpeck’s hometown of Regensburg, Albrecht Altdorfer. These were meant as sketches for later woodcuts that could be included in a printed version of the book. As it happened, the project dragged on until Maximilian’s death and was abandoned and only rediscovered in the 19^th century.

Whilst Grünpeck was still working on his History, Maximilian had shifted his focus to a similar project, the Weisskunig. Like the History, it was meant as a guide for Maximilian’s successors, specifically Charles and Ferdinand who were growing up far away, Charles in the Low Countries and Ferdinand in Spain. The idea was to impart the knowledge and virtues needed to be a successful ruler. And it might be that the fictionalised account in the Weisskunig was a better way to drive this story than the rather checkered set of events that marked the reigns of Friedrich III and Maximilian. In the Weisskunig, Maximilian appears as an insufferable swot who excels at every form of learning before turning into the world’s most successful military genius despite the constant betrayal by his rivals, the kings he usually referenced by a confusing set of colours and heraldic symbols.

That being said, the Weisskunig gives us a great insight into Maximilian’s character and worldview. There are the usual allusions to Arthurian legend and the emphasis on chivalric ideals that was the mainstay of aristocratic education since the High Middle Ages, but then there is a lot of focus on science and technology. The young prince was to learn about mathematics, astronomy, the production of armour and artillery and good administration.  

For the Weisskunig, the project progressed further than the History. Over 250 individual woodcuts were created and the text, much of it dictated by Maximilian himself, was nearly completed in 1519. However, it did not progress to a final edit and it took until 1775 before it was finally published.

A similar fate befell the Freydal, the tournament and party book Maximilian had first conceived in 1502. I absolutely love the beautiful coloured drawings of knights hitting each other hard over their heads with deadly weapons and then party hard in the evenings. It is quite romantic that these images showed Maximilian trying to prove his worth to Mary of Burgundy in all kinds of playfighting, when the love of his life was well over 30 years dead by the time they were made. Again, the manuscript dictated by Maximilian and the images weren’t published until 1880 and there is an amazing edition as a coffee table book by Taschen made in 2019 that my lovely wife gave me for Christmas.

How were these books supposed to be used? I envisage a more intimate environment. In case of the History and the Weisskunig, the intended main audience were Maximilian’s grandchildren, specifically Charles and Ferdinand. You can imagine a tutor reading the Weisskunig to Charles and urging him to learn about military tactics and administrative reforms, as well as gaining the moral fibre to live a good life. These were books intended to educate future princes and rulers in what is important to fulfil their destiny. Maximilian may have wanted for them to pass through the generations, and maybe also spread across to the other leading families in the empire.

That is what happened with the Theuerdank, the only one of the books in this vein that was published. In this long poem Maximilian casts himself as an itinerant knight, once again trying to earn the hand of his beloved Mary. This one has fewer illustrations, 111 in total, but by the same artists that worked on the Weisskunig, Hans Burgkmair and Leonhard Beck. The first print run was in 1517, a lavish version on vellum that Maximilian sent round to his friends and important German allies. But in 1519 he authorised a much larger print run on paper, and after his death multiple unauthorised copies circulated.

Today the Theuerdank is most famous for popularising Fraktur, the typical German typeface. Whilst elsewhere in the world older typefaces that mimicked the writing of medieval scholars were replaced with Roman Script or antiqua, in Germany Fraktur as developed under Maximilian I was used well into the 20^th century, although only for German language texts. This typeface has gone out of fashion almost completely, except for traditional brands and extreme right wing propaganda. Which by the way is another misapprehension, since it was the Nazi’s who in 1941 ordered the replacement of Fraktur in official documents by modern Antiqua-based typefaces.

The impact of the Theuerdank goes well beyond the typeface. The term that is most associated with Maximilian I is “the Last Knight”. This notion of Maximilian as the last manifestation of an ancient chivalric culture has a lot to do with the way he presents himself in the Theuerdank. He is the hero who deals with the various threats he is exposed to with wisdom and determination. And many of these threats are rather mundane like the household traps or hunting accidents his enemies set up for him. Hence, despite his exalted status as a romantic hero, he is also relatable to the reading public. And though it comes in the guise of a 14^th century rhymed chivalric romance it is also modern in the sense that the lady of his quest is not passive, but the one who demands him to come to her and defend her kingdom, very much like Marie of Burgundy had done.

And if you look at the images, Theuerdank appears in the same kind of armour as Burgkmair had depicted Maximilian in the classic 1508 image on occasion of his elevation to the imperial title and in his design for an equestrian statue. This image has a complementary picture in a St. George again in similar garb and armour. Gradually the two figures, the emperor and the saint fuse into one. Unsurprisingly, some artists took the idea one further. Daniel Hopfer was the first to depict Maximilian as St. George himself and a 1522 limestone relief shows Maximilian as St. George with dragon underfoot. Such direct associations between a donor and a saint, in particular an important saint were actually quite rare. There is Lorenzo the Magnificent being shown as one of the three Magi but that was in the private chapel of the Palazzo Medici Riccardi not in a public space. Usually princes were shown as secular figures like Alexander the Great, as donors alongside the saints or maybe as Kings David or Salomon, but I cannot think of a case where a donor had himself painted as the patron saint of chivalry. If you can think of one, let e know.

I could go on about Maximilian and St, George. For instance, he commissioned a printed prayerbook for his chivalric order of St. George that contains designs by Albrecht Dürer that then reappear in one of his most famous woodcuts, Knight, Death and the Devil.

But I guess you get my drift. All these woodcuts and books created this image of Maximilian as a brave knight, a powerful killing machine tamed by the love of his lady who directs his strength to the protection of widows and orphans and the defence of Christendom; which leads straight to the recurring theme of the crusade we discussed last week.

But like Maximilian himself, his image is not just about the glorification of the lost chivalric age. Maximilian was at the same time a military innovator who tried to keep his forces at the forefront of the latest technological developments.

One artefact that shows this in simplistic clarity is the “Zeugbuch” an inventory of the imperial armoury in Innsbruck. Hundreds of pages depicting cannon, howitzers, arquebuses, serpents, culverins, falcons, siege guns and, and ,and.

This book was never published and was never intended to be published. Assuming it was an accurate listing of the weapons in the imperial armouries, it would have been classified information. What he may have used it for was to convince allies or potential allies to come along on his madcap adventures. He would have shown them pages from the book and given his thorough understanding of the strategic and tactical value of each piece, he could also explain how they are produced, where and how many he could have made within what time frame. In other words, it was a political tool that could be immensely powerful. He might have picked up the idea for such a device from his youth when Charles the Bold showed him his military instruction manual that likely contained images of his fabled armouries.

Whilst this material was kept under lock and key, Maximilian’s artists produced and distributed woodcuts depicting his wars in great detail. There have been woodcuts for almost every single battle we mentioned in the last 18 episodes. To put that into context, for all the previous emperors and kings of the Romans, such images are extremely rare. The wars of Henry VI in Sicily are probably the most detailed depictions and Villani provides illustrations for key events in the life of Frederick II. But nothing as prolific or detailed had been produced before, let alone printed and distributed.

And in these images the focus is on the forces that actually won the battles, the infantry with their pikes as well as the artillery. There is no doubting that the days when men on horseback won wars was over. Moreover, there are images of Maximilian chatting with his Landsknechte, they appear in processions and as we heard, when Maximilian marched into Ghent, he marched on foot with his men.

So much for the Last Knight. What he was trying to do with this apparent contradiction was to transport the positive things of the past, the chivalric code of honour and the obligation to protect the helpless into the world of modern warfare. How that looked in reality – well consult the previous 18 episodes. What we are talking about today is the image Maximilian created not the reality. And that image is both The Last Knight and The Father of the Landsknechte.

Maximilian started seriously considering the way he would be remembered in his early forties, around 1500. And as his physical body began to deteriorate and he had seen his son perish in Spain, the process went into overdrive. All these various projects were pursued in parallel, artists working on several books at the same time, woodcuts, texts and ideas were shifted between one and the other.

Around 1512 Maximilian devised his most ambitious publication scheme yet – die Ehrenpforte or Arch of Honour. This wasn’t a book, but a gigantic woodcut measuring approximately 12 by 10 feet, 3.5 by 3 meters and made up of 36 sheets. These sheets were to be cut up and pieced together and then attached to a flat surface, a board or a wall. The Metropolitan Museum in New York owns a complete set from the first edition 1517/18 and has created a digital image of an assembled Arch of Honour. If you go to the episode webpage, you can see the image and a link to the Met.

I am not sure it is beautiful, but it is definitely impressive. The starting point of the design was a Roman triumphal arch, like the Arch of Titus on the Forum in Rome. But it became soon obvious that such a structure was not able to contain all the complex narratives Maximilian and his team of humanist scholars were aiming for. So the arch morphed into more of a gigantic tower that was simultaneously tall and wide, with three gates at its base.

The idea was that these sheets would be sent out to the princes and cities of the empire as well as foreign dignitaries who would then set aside a space in their palace or city hall where it could be displayed to the court or the city council.

What the admiring public would be able to see on the arch of honour are all the reasons why Maximilian was the rightful emperor.

On the furthest left side you have the line of his predecessors going back to the roman emperors via Odoacer, Theoderic, the Hohenstaufen, Salian and Ottonian emperors. Meanwhile on the furthest right hand side you have the contemporary princes and kings allied and related to Maximilian, which include Ferdinand of Aragorn, Wladislaw of Hungary, Sigismund of Poland, Eric of Denmark, the full complement of Prince electors, but also other princely supporters like Duke Eric of Brunswick. Then there are four columns that break up the wall where the saints of the House of Habsburg are displayed. Moving further towards the centre, we have 24 woodcuts, 12 on either side, showing key events in the life of Maximilian I, all his major battles as well as the three important marriages, his own to Marie of Burgundy, Philip and Joanna and the Hungarian double wedding.

And then in the very centre, above the gate of honour is the family tree of the House of Habsburg as imagined or designed by the court historian Stabius and framed by the coats of arms of all the territories the family ruled or thought it ruled.

This family tree of the august house of Habsburg is shown to go back to Troy. But there is a big difference here to the traditional Troy narrative. Most other European monarchs and emperors traced their lineage back to Troy in line with Virgil, aka from Aeneas to Romulus, Julius Caesar, Constantine, Charlemagne and then up. Maximilian does claim a relation to this line, but they are shown on the further left side. His family tree goes back to the son of the Trojan hero Hector who made his way to Pannonia aka Hungary. His descendants then defeated the Sicambrians, never heard of those guys, who are apparently precursors of the early Franks. And then the Franks in turn took over Gaul.

The individual names are kept a bit fuzzy on account of these guys all having been heathens. so that the line really starts with Clovis and then meanders up to Clothar, Childebert, Theodebert to the somewhat less well known Otbert the honourable, Bobo the strong, Rothar the gentle and Ethelbert the warlike. After a bunch of Hunfrieds, Luitgarts and Gunthrams we hit some actual Habsburgs in the form of Radebot and Werner who we met way back in episode 203. From there it is a lot more realistic and also the depictions become larger, giving prominence to Friedrich III, his wife Eleanor of Portugal, Philip the Handsome and his wife and children and atop of all of it, Maximilian himself with his two wives, his beloved Marie of Burgundy and the not so cherished Bianca Maria Sforza.

This is the most striking element of this whole construct. Because what he, and the team of humanists and artists he employed are doing here is rebasing the legitimacy of the emperor Maximilian. All his predecessors have based their authority on the line of medieval and roman emperors going all the way back to Julius Caesar. And sure, Maximilian does that too, but they are not in the centre, they are coming up on the side. Which means they are less important, in fact as important as their counterparts on the opposite side, the friends and relations of the emperor, going down from Ferdinand of Aragorn, Sigismund of Poland and Wladislaw of Hungary down to the electors and selected princely cousins.

No, Maximilian describes his legitimacy as coming predominantly from being a member of the Habsburg family, the house of Austria. And moreover, this authority, though originating from Troy like that of the emperors from Augustus to Frederick Barbarossa, his line came up through central Europe, through Hungary and Germany, not through the Mediterranean and Rome. It is a very deliberate setting aside of key imperial traditions and exchanging them for a dynastic idea, the idea that the Habsburgs have been masters of Central Europe since forever and that their destiny is set against the Romanised French in the West and the Muslims in the East.

Now, before we bring it all together, there is one last image, the top of the tower, where we see Maximilian seated in some sort of Mansard window set in the grand cupola. There he sits holding a staff with a snake curled around it and wearing a crown that has – and there is no other word to describe it – has a bird nesting inside it. Then there are a bull, a lion, a rooster, a crane, falcon, dog and some naked human feet unconnected to a body.

That traces back to – I am not making this up – ancient Egypt. These attributes relate Maximilian to Hermes Trismegistus, who, if you have been a very keen listeners, you may remember from episode 188. This figure was a combination of the Greek god Hermes and the Egyptian god Thoth and had written down all the wisdom of the world that god had passed on to Adam just before these two fell out over dietary habits. These wisdoms, also known as the prophecies of the Sibyls was an extremely popular text in the renaissance. Gutenberg had printed them and the famous floor of the cathedral of Siena puts Hermes Trismegistus at its centre.

There is a whole host of what is called hermetic literature that interprets and adds to these texts. The fundamental idea behind them is that all knowledge and religion stems from one source and is deeply connected. Ancient philosophers like Zoroaster and Plato were just forerunners of Christianity, which Hermes Trismegistus had foretold. That concept included ideas about astrology and alchemy, in particular the philosopher’s stone. The term hermetically sealed comes from a technique developed by alchemists seeking the philosopher’s stone based on these writings.

All this stuff turned out to have been fake and were revealed as such in 1614 and consequently largely forgotten, except by nerds like us.

But in 1515 when Maximilian and his team conceived the Arch of Honour it was pretty much mainstream. And by placing himself atop of everything as Hermes Trismegistus, he completes his narrative. And that narrative says that he is, in order of significance: the successor of the ancient emperors, supported by the kings and princes of Europe, blessed by the family saints, the victor in dozens of battles and master of marriage diplomacy, the descendant of the august house of Habsburg that ruled central europe since the dawn of days and the wisest of men who holds the strings of knowledge that pulls the world together.

Modesty was not a virtue that featured much on the Arch of Honour. But as my Grandfather used to say, Bescheidenheit ist eine Zier, doch weiter kommt man ohne ihr, which roughly translates as “A modest man is usually admired — if people ever hear of him”.

And have people heard of the emperor Maximilian. His massive publication drive did imprint his image, or more precisely, the image he wanted us to see, in the collective memory.

But it did go beyond the memory of Maximilian as an individual. It shaped the perception of the Habsburg dynasty all the way to its end.

Max Weber, and I am sure you guys have been wondering when I will release him into the narrative, Max Weber, the founder of modern sociology argues in his famous speech about “Politics as a Vocation”[1], quote:

“As a matter of principle there are in fact three intrinsic justifications underpinning the basic legitimacy of any political dominion.

First is the authority of an “eternal yesterday.” This type of authority is based on conventions which possess validity through habitual attitudes toward keeping sanctified customs. [..]

But in addition [secondly], there is authority which is based on a special personal spiritual gift(charisma), and which is reflected in a personal dedication to, and a personal trust in revelation, heroism, or other traits characteristic of A Leader{..]

Finally, there is the authority of effective dominion based on “legality,” the belief in the validity of legal statutes which is justified by rational rules, professional competence, [..and ] modern “civil servants” End quote.

Basically according to Weber, authority as a basis of legitimate power can come from three sources, tradition, the law and personal charisma.

If we look at Maximilian I, we can see the vast deficits he had to deal with right from the beginning. Let’s start with tradition. The Habsburg empire that emerged under his grandsons Charles and Ferdinand was a new entity. Sure, the individual components, Austria, Tyrol, the grand duchy of Burgundy, Aragon, Castile, Bohemia, Hungary and of course the Holy Roman Empire all had long individual traditions of rulership. But they were all different. Some were elective monarchies, some had automatic succession from father to son, others allowed female succession. As for Maximilian himself, his inherited authority was limited to Austria and Tirol, for all the rest, namely the empire and the Low Countries, his authority was derived from election or guardianship. In Hungary and Bohemia he had only very limited influence based on the 1491 treaty and in Spain, none at all.

Even more limited was his ability to derive authority based on the law. As regards the reign of Maximilian I, things varied dramatically from one territory to the other. The grand dukes of Burgundy had established one of the most sophisticated bureaucracies, system of law courts and tax authorities in Europe. But that system was almost completely abolished when Marie of Burgundy had to grant the Great Privilege to the Estates general after her father’s death. It took decades of work, in particular by Philip the Handsome and Margaret of Austria to rebuild this structure. As for the Austrian lands, Maximilian did establish a modern treasury and administration for his family estates with its headquarters in Innsbruck. As for the Holy Roman Empire, as we have discussed in episodes 223 to 226, the imperial reforms left the sovereign with very limited influence.

Given Maximilian could not rely much on tradition and even less on the institutions, in particular not on those of the Holy Roman Empire, at least by Weber’s definition, he drove hard for charisma, the personal appeal of him as an individual.

That is where the Theuerdank and the Weisskunig as well as the various depictions of his battles and marriage diplomacy come in. He convinced his audience a least posthumously that he was the last Knight, the reincarnation of St. George, out on a quest for decency and love. And at the same time a man of science, a military leader who embraced new technologies and established the new, ultimately most powerful fighting force in Europe, the Landsknechte.

Some of these perceptions began to percolate across the German lands during his lifetime, but the big publication push came towards the end of his life in 1517/18 and therefore too late to endow him with actual authority. But much of it rubbed off on his successors. The Landsknechte reached their peak at the battle of Pavia in 1525, i.e, under Charles V.  When Titian painted Charles V at the battle of Mühlberg in 1548 that image has strong references back to the equestrian portraits of Hans Burgkmair.

But that is not where it ends. The most enduring component is that central panel of the Arch of Honour, the Habsburg Family tree. The territories this dynasty ruled over the centuries have no language in common, different cultures and traditions of rulership, they are not even geographically coherent. All they have in common is the fact they are ruled by the same person or close family unit. By effectively inventing this genealogy of the Habsburgs going back, not to Rome and the Charlemagne, but to a central European narrative set against that tradition, or in more tangible terms, set against France, he created the mortar that held the empire together. It is of course all made up, but it held.

Maximilian’s successors inherited and continued to build on his charisma and invented traditions. His grandson Ferdinand completed Maximilians cenotaph in Innsbruck where again the Habsburg ancestors real and imagined and now male and female take centre stage much larger than the Roman emperors and even the saints, whilst Maximilian, in knightly armor kneels before the altar and the panels below him tell of his wars and marriages.

 Up until today the Habsburgs are seen as a dynasty that is incredibly ancient and venerable, its monarchs benign rulers who continuously strove for peace and decency. The truth is, they are 13^th century upstarts who made up letters from Caesar and Nero, who fought incessant wars and cared very little for their subjects. O.k., on the latter point they may not have been much worse than others.

But still this narrative of the benign emperor and his ancient bloodline is what held the Austro-Hungarian empire together throughout the 19^th century despite the rising nationalist movements. These works on paper, much less awe-inspiring and recognizable than Versailles or the Winter Palace did a better job at keeping their creators in power than those did.  

As we have seen time and again, Maximilian was a traditionalist dreaming of being Lancelot, St. George and Godfrey of Boullion all wrapped into one but at the same time an innovator and disruptor who found ingenious ways to deploy the latest technologies for his purposes. However, a mere year after the first prints of the Arch of Honour had been distributed, someone else was using the printing press in an even more astute way for his political purposes, Martin Luther. His 95 theses had their first print run of 300 in 1517 and by 1520 there hundreds of thousands of his various pamphlets circulating.

Before we close we have to mention the Triumphal Procession, which like the Arch was project managed and partially designed by Albrecht Dürer. It has much the same themes as the Arch of Honor, though rather than reimagining a Roman triumphal arch into the Renaissance, this is a translation of a ROMAN triumph into the world of Maximilian. And it is even bigger, 54 metres long. And it even has the same pictures. Riders or Landsknechte hold up panels with the depictions of the great battles, the imperial family moves on triumphal carts and reenact their marriages. There is a cart full of musicians, a theme I simply do not have time to elaborate on here but also has lasting connection with the Habsburgs.

What I like to draw your attention to is the very end of the procession where you find the “People of Calicut”. Calicut is the Indian city of Kozhikode in the Indian state of Kerala. This was the main spice exporting hub  where Vasco da Gama visiteD. Hans Burgkmair’s imagination of the people of India bears no resemblance to contemporary Indian fashion, largely because he chose to depict them as half naked savages.

But the message here is clear. Even the people of far flung India we have never seen and who ride on elephants, were to be subjects of the Habsburg emperor. Though such an assertion was clearly preposterous when made about Maximilian who could barely protect the borders of his homeland, they took on a lot more credibility under his successor, Charles V. And it is Charles V who we will take a closer look at next episode, which will also be the last of this season. I hope you will join us again.

And in the meantime, do not forget that the History of the Germans only works and works advertising free if enough of you support the show by going to historyofthegermans.com/support and make a contribution. This is what Kim, Michael S. (G), Brian A., Tor H. Andrew G., William C.H. and Bloke in North Dorset have done and we should all thank them for their generosity.

References:

Larry Silver: Marketing Maximilian, Princeton University press, 2008

Hermann Wisflecker: Kaiser Maximilian I, 5BD, München, 1971-1981

Hans Burgkmair – People from Calicut, from “The Triumphal Procession of Emperor Maximilian” (Triumph Des Kaisers Maximilian I) – The Metropolitan Museum of Art

Die Ehrenpforte Kaiser Maximilians I. | Works | ALBERTINA Sammlungen Online

Dürer’s Monumental Arch of Honor | The Metropolitan Museum of Art

Maximilian <Römisch-Deutsches Reich, Kaiser, I.>; Schultz, Alwin [Editor]; Kunsthistorische Sammlungen des Allerhöchsten Kaiserhauses <Wien> [Editor]; Treitzsaurwein, Marx [Oth.]: Jahrbuch der Kunsthistorischen Sammlungen des Allerhöchsten Kaiserhauses (ab 1919 Jahrbuch der Kunsthistorischen Sammlungen in Wien): Der Weisskunig (Wien, 6.1888)

Die Geschichte Friedrichs III und Maximilians I : Joseph Grünpeck , Theodor Ilgen : Free Download, Borrow, and Streaming : Internet Archive

Saint George Slaying the Dragon | Cleveland Museum of Art

Zeugbuch Kaiser Maximilians I. – BSB Cod.icon. 222 | bavarikon

Der Wappenturm – Innsbruck erinnert sich

Stream The Met | Listen to The Last Knight: The Art, Armor, and Ambition of Maximilian I playlist online for free on SoundCloud

The Last Knight – Primer

(PDF) Politics as a Vocation by Max Weber, in “Weber’s Rationalism and Modern Society” edited and translated by Tony Waters and Dagmar Waters

Economy and Society: A New Translation on JSTOR

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[1] (PDF) Politics as a Vocation by Max Weber, in “Weber’s Rationalism and Modern Society” edited and translated by Tony Waters and Dagmar Waters