
A German history starting in the Middle Ages when the emperors fought an epic struggle with the papacy to the Reformation, the great 18th century of Kant, Goethe, Gauss, the rise of Prussia and the horrors of the Nazi regime. We will end with the post-war period of moral and physical rebuilding. As Gregory of Tours (539-594) said: “A great many things keep happening, some good, some bad” .
The year is 919 AD and things are not going well. The mighty empire of Charlemagne has splintered into a multitude of puny kingdoms. Its feeble rulers are being pushed around by their formidable barons. The frontiers are breached. In the north the Vikings and Danes are ransacking towns and villages along the coasts and even deep inland. In the east the Slavs are burning Hamburg. And in the south the most terrifying of them all, the Magyars, a steppe tribe like the Huns and the Mongols, are marauding all the way from Bavaria to Northern Spain.
Cometh the time, cometh the man/woman?
The music for the show is Flute Sonata in E-flat major, H.545 by Carl Phillip Emmanuel Bach (or some claim it as BWV 1031 Johann Sebastian Bach) performed and arranged by Michel Rondeau under Common Creative Licence 3.0.
Homepage with maps, photos, transcripts and blog: http://www.historyofthegermans.com
Facebook: @HOTGPod
Twitter: @germanshistory
Instagram: history_of_the_germans
Reddit: u/historyofthegermans
Patroon: https://www.patreon.com/Historyofthegermans?fan_landing=true


Most Recent Season – The Hanseatic League

xxxA German history starting in the Middle Ages when the emperors fought an epic struggle with the papacy to the Reformation, the great 18th century of Kant, Goethe, Gauss, the rise of Prussia and the horrors of the Nazi regime. We will end with the post-war period of moral and physical rebuilding. As Gregory of Tours (539-594) said: “A great many things keep happening, some good, some bad” .
Professor Carsten Jahnke, one of the leading historians on the Hanse has kindly granted us an interview where we discuss how the Hanse network functioned and how the perception of the Hanse has changed dramatically over the last 200 years, a story that almost as interesting as the history of the Hanse itself.
As listeners of the last season of the History of the Germans might have noticed, I have been relying heavily extensively on Carsten Jahnke’s work. many of the episodes discussing the economic structure and the way money transfers worked in the network are based on his research. So if you liked those episodes, you will certanly enjoy this interview. Listen in!
And here are some links to research Carsten recommends for those of you who want to follow up further:
Christian Manger,
Behind the scenes: Urban secretaries as managers of legal and diplomatic conflicts in the Baltic region, c.1470–1540:
https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/03044181.2022.2098528
Carsten Jahnke,
Von Mandeln, Narde, Curcuma und Kümmel. Herkunft, Handel und Verbrauch von „exotischen“ Gewürzen und Lebensmitteln im nördlichen Europa, in: Die Ausgrabungen im Lübecker Gründungsviertel II. Archäoparasitologie, Handelsgeschichte, Paläopathologie und Anthropologie, ed. by Dirk Rieger, Lübeck 2022, s. 131-164
Carsten Jahnke,
Hansische Kaufleute und deren Religiosität ausserhalb ihrer Heimat, i: Zapiski Historyczne, Tom LXXXIV, Rok 2019, Zeszyt 1, s. 7-41.
There is also a lecture Cartsen gave at the German Historical institute in London on teh perception history:
https://www.ghil.ac.uk/publications/podcasts/the-hanseatic-league-as-a-national-project
The music for the show is Flute Sonata in E-flat major, H.545 by Carl Phillip Emmanuel Bach (or some claim it as BWV 1031 Johann Sebastian Bach) performed and arranged by Michel Rondeau under Common Creative Licence 3.0.
As always:
Homepage with maps, photos, transcripts and blog: www.historyofthegermans.com
Facebook: @HOTGPod
Twitter: @germanshistory
Instagram: history_of_the_germans
Reddit: u/historyofthegermans

