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History of the GermansFrom the Middle Ages to Reunification in weekly chronological 20-30 min episodes Author: Dirk Hoffmann-Becking
A narrative history of the German people from the Middle Ages to Reunification in 1991. Episodes are 25-35 min long and drop on Thursday mornings. "A great many things keep happening, some good, some bad". Gregory of Tours (539-594) HotGPod is now entering its 9th season. So far we have covered: Ottonian Emperors (# 1- 21) - Henry the Fowler (#1) - Otto I (#2-8) - Otto II (#9-11) - Otto II (#11-14) - Henry II (#15-17) - Germany in 1000 (#18-21) Salian Emperors(#22-42) - Konrad II (#22- 25) - Henry III (#26-29) - Henry IV/Canossa (#30-39) - Henry V (#40-42) - Concordat of Worms (#42) Early Hohenstaufen (#43-69) - Lothar III (#43-46) - Konrad III (#47-49) - Frederick Barbarossa (#50-69) Late Hohenstaufen (#70-94) - Henry VI (#70-72) - Philipp of Swabia (#73-74) - Otto IV (#74-75) - Frederick II (#75-90) - Epilogue (#91-94) Eastern Expansion (#95-108) The Hanseatic League (#109-127) The Teutonic Knights (#128-137) The Interregnum and the early Habsburgs (#138 ff - Rudolf von Habsburg (#139-141) - Adolf von Nassau (#142) - Albrecht von Habsburg (#143) - Heinrich VII (#144-148) - Ludwig the Bavarian (#149-153) - Karl IV (#154-163) The Reformation before the Reformation - Wenceslaus the Lazy (#165) - The Western Schism (#166/167) - The Ottomans (#168) - Sigismund (#169-#184 The Empire in the 15th Century - Mainz & Hessen #186 - Printing #187-#188 - Universities #190 - Wittelsbachs #189, #196-#199 - Baden, Wuerrtemberg, Augsburg, Fugger (#191-195) - Maps & Arms (#201-#202) The Fall and Rise of the House of Habsburg - Early habsburgs (#203-#207) - Albrecht II (#208) -Freidrich III (#209- Language: en Genres: Education, History, Language Learning Contact email: Get it Feed URL: Get it iTunes ID: Get it Trailer: |
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Where To Go in Germany - Part 2
Episode 222
Wednesday, 31 December, 2025
One of the legacies of the Holy roman empire is that Germany does not have just one place where everything happens, where politicians, entrepreneurs, bankers, artists, and actors travel on the same underground trains and eat at the same restaurants. Berlin is the capital with its political class of members of the Bundestag, journalists and lobbyist and at the same time a major gathering place for artists, musicians and thespians of all stripes and home to many tech startups. But the bankers are in Frankfurt, the headquarters of the major companies are in Stuttgart, Munich, Düsseldorf and spread around everywhere. Several of the major publishing houses are in Hamburg, the private TV stations in Munich, but none of these places have a monopoly on any of these activities. There are banks headquartered in Munich and major corporates in Frankfurt, there is great theater in Düsseldorf, Dresden and Schwerin, there are world leading companies headquartered in tiny towns like Künzelsau.And that cuts through to the major cultural sites. Though the quip that there were 365 states in the Holy Roman empire is vastly exaggerated, there were once a hundred capital cities, from splendid Dresden to tiny Hohenzollern-Hechingen, each with its princely residence, cathedral, grand monastery and theater. The great artists either travelled from court to court, leaving behind their works here or there, or stayed in one of the free imperial cities, operating large workshops.Therefore what you cannot do in Germany is to go to one city and see all the major treasures the country has “collected” over the centuries, as you can do in the Louvre or the British Museum and the National Gallery. In Germany you have to move around, see one thing at the time, always in the knowledge that its significant counterpart is a few hundred miles north, south, east or west of you. This is one of the legacies of the medieval empire that Germany has in common with Italy.And hence we are going through each of the Bundesländer trying to pick out one absolute must-see and one place where you are likely to encounter fewer people. And as we have covered 9 Bundesländer up to Mecklenburg-Vorpommern already, the next location we will have to get to is Nordrhein-Westfalen, Germany’s most populous state.
