This week we will follow the history of two men who could not be more different. On one side is Gottschalk, leader of the pagan Abodrites, who first comes to prominence as a brutal raider killing Saxons all across Holstein in revenge for his father’s killing. The other is Adalbert, son of a count, brother of the count palatinate of Saxony, friend and confidant of Henry III, a man who refused the offer of becoming pope for his ambition to convert all of Scandinavia and the Baltic. These two men formed an alliance against the Saxon magnates in general and the Billungs, dukes of Saxony in particular.
It is a story of greed and violence, of Christian conversion and attempts to break out of strategic gridlock… 
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
Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/Historyofthegermans

Ep. 101 – Gottschalk and Adalbert - The emergence of the duchy of Mecklenburg

The podcast that does what it says on the tin: a narrative history of the German people that starts in the year 919 AD and  hopes to get all the way to 1991. Episodes are 25-35 min long and drop on Thursday mornings. 
As Gregory of Tours (539-594) said: "A great many things keep happening, some good, some bad".

HotGPod is now entering its 8th 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)

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A few months after emperor Henry VII had died in the Tuscan village of Buonconvento and before a successor had been elected, a young man, Ludwig, second son of the duke of Upper Bavaria made his name defeating a much larger Habsburg force. This success could not have come at a more opportune time as it propelled him into contention for the title of King of the Romas and ultimately, emperor.  His rule, constantly contested but lasting 33 years would become a major turning point in German, if not European history as it triggered the modern notion of the separation of church and state.   I know that I cannot always maintain a completely unbiased position in this podcast, but I rarely succumb to my personal bugbears. But this time I will have to expose you to one of my biggest, and that is the weird romanticization of Ludwig II of Bavaria, the mentally ill recluse who built the three kitsch palaces of Neuschwanstein, Herrenchiemsee and Linderhof in the deluded hope of resurrecting an absolutist regime in a kingdom he had sold to Prussia. Don’t get me wrong. The three palaces are worth visiting, if not for their somewhat morbid charm, but what irritates me is that this politically and artistically inconsequential monarch  overshadows the more interesting, more complex and more consequential Bavarian rulers, chief amongst them his namesake, Ludwig IV the Bavarian.  Let’s see whether HotGPod cannot right this misconception….. 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 Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/Historyofthegermans To make it easier for you to share the podcast, I have created separate playlists for some of the seasons that are set up as individual podcasts. they have the exact same episodes as in the History of the Germans, but they may be a helpful device for those who want to concentrate on only one season.  So far I have: The Ottonians  Salian Emperors and Investiture Controversy Fredrick Barbarossa and Early Hohenstaufen Frederick II Stupor Mundi Saxony and Eastward Expansion The Hanseatic League The Teutonic Knights <a...

Ep. 149 – The Real Ludwig of Bavaria

The year is 1312 and Henry VII is finally embarking on his journey to Rome that will bring about the first imperial coronation in almost a century and hence the formal end to the Interregnum, the time without emperors.  Becoming emperor is hard enough, but being emperor is even harder, as the first Luxemburger to ascend the throne of Charlemagne will find out. Hope for an end to the never ending civil wars in Italy lay buried under the rotting corpses before Brescia. Henry VII is no longer a unifying figure in Italy, just simply the leader of the Ghibelline faction. And as such he has to tackle the Guelphs led by the commune of Florence and king Robert of Naples. Doing that triggered a domino effect that not only left him dead but also reopened the ancient struggle between the pope and the emperor, now with a new “je ne sais quoi” mixed in. Sounds ominous – come along and find out.. Here is the link to Dan and Spencer's excellent podcast I mentioned: Podcast | Not So Quiet On The Western Front! (battleguide.co.uk) 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 Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/Historyofthegermans To make it easier for you to share the podcast, I have created separate playlists for some of the seasons that are set up as individual podcasts. they have the exact same episodes as in the History of the Germans, but they may be a helpful device for those who want to concentrate on only one season.  So far I have: The Ottonians  Salian Emperors and Investiture Controversy Fredrick Barbarossa and Early Hohenstaufen Frederick II Stupor Mundi Saxony and Eastward Expansion The Hanseatic League The Teutonic Knights The Holy Roman Empire 1250-1356 
 


Ep. 148 - Imperial Swansong – the End of Henry VII’s Campaign in Italy

Henry VII had gained control of most of Northern Italy in less than three months. It will take him 9 months to lose it all again. How did he go from bringer of peace and justice and all out saviour of Italy to brutal conqueror and godless tyrant? Let’s find out. 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 Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/Historyofthegermans To make it easier for you to share the podcast, I have created separate playlists for some of the seasons that are set up as individual podcasts. they have the exact same episodes as in the History of the Germans, but they may be a helpful device for those who want to concentrate on only one season.  So far I have: The Ottonians  Salian Emperors and Investiture Controversy Fredrick Barbarossa and Early Hohenstaufen Frederick II Stupor Mundi Saxony and Eastward Expansion The Hanseatic League The Teutonic Knights The Holy Roman Empire 1250-1356 
 


Ep. 147 – Brescia or Bust – Henry VII’s Big Mistake(s)

In the winter of 1310 the emperor elect Henry VII not yet 40 years of age and every inch a king appears in Italy. An Italy torn apart by incessant violence, between and within the cities. Allegedly it is a struggle between the pro-imperial Ghibellines and the pro-papal Guelphs, but 60 years after the last emperor had set foot on Italian soil and seven years after the pope has left for Avignon, these designations have become just names without meaning, monikers hiding the naked ambitions of the powerful families. The poet Dante Aligheri projects the hopes of many desperate exiles on Henry when he prays that “we, who for so long have passed our nights in the desert, shall behold the gladness for which we have longed, for Titan shall arise pacific, and justice, which had languished without sunshine at the end of the winter's solstice, shall grow green once more”. A lot to get done for our Luxemburg count and his army of 5,000 men. Certainty of death, small chance of success, what are we waiting for? Here is the link to Syrom‘s article:  https://generativeai.pub/knowledge-graph-extraction-visualization-with-local-llm-from-unstructured-text-a-history-example-94c63b366fed 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 Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/Historyofthegermans To make it easier for you to share the podcast, I have created separate playlists for some of the seasons that are set up as individual podcasts. they have the exact same episodes as in the History of the Germans, but they may be a helpful device for those who want to concentrate on only one season.  So far I have: The Ottonians  Salian Emperors and Investiture Controversy Fredrick Barbarossa and Early Hohenstaufen Frederick II Stupor Mundi Saxony and Eastward Expansion The Hanseatic League The Teutonic Knights The Holy Roman Empire 1250-1356 
 


Ep. 146 – The Return of the King – Henry VII’s Journey to Rome

Hello and welcome to, well an absence of an episode of the History of the Germans. This is just a short message to let you know that unfortunately there will not be an episode of the History of the Germans this week. It is all the fault of a guy called Rafael Miranda who runs the worlds best wine tasting at the Quinta de San Tiago over in Rede in the Douro valley in Portugal. No worries, normal service will resume next week. To explain what happened, let me briefly describe how the process to create a new episode for the History of the Germans works. Here are some of the Portuguese wineries I recommend: Quinta de S. Tiago The great Rafael Miranda and his estate at S. Tiago in Rede 281, 5040-494 Mesão Frio, Portugal) 

Ep. 101 – Gottschalk and Adalbert - The emergence of the duchy of Mecklenburg

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