Post 2: Early German History and the Influence of Outsiders

What I found most interesting in the second chapter of the Schulze text was the development of “German” as a culture and historical nationality, and how those were developed in large part not by the Germans themselves but by European historians on their behalf. Coming from a relatively new nation, history classes for me always had a degree of certitude involved (whether founded or not is up for debate, but still); we know what we say we know about American history because there is, for most topics, a definitive history and record of many past events.

I found it surprising, then, that the history of “Germany” as a unified culture is actually rather spotty, and far sparser than I would have suspected. Schulze mentions on page 32 that many of the regions of the Empire were German in name only, and that even the languages spoken throughout the area were vastly different from town to town, and between city dwellers and their rural counterparts. It seems likely that much of this stemmed from the fact that “Germany” at the top of the 15^th century was actually still the Holy Roman Empire, a title with far grander historical origins than most any other European nation. This close bond with the Catholic church would more than likely explain the passion to which 16^th century Germans such as Luther and Calvin took to reforming their faith—after all, such a close tie is hard to ignore.

At the start of the 15th century The Holy Roman Empire consisted primarily of what we now consider Germany and other nearby nations, such as Austria and Luxembourg. After going through 12 years of history classes in the USA, I can say with conviction that I had no idea that Germany was ever a part of the Holy Roman Empire in any capacity, not to mention the entirety of it. Whether this is due to an oversight on the part of educators or perhaps is an effect of Tacitus' revived text remains to be seen. 

Holy Roman Empire 1211-1430. Digital image. Copies of Maps for German History. Boston College, n.d. Web. 31 Aug. 2014. <http://www.bc.edu/bc_org/avp/cas/his/CoreArt/maps/HRE_1211-1400.jpg>.

At the same time, however, it puzzles me that Germans of the time of Poggio Bracciolini’s humanist scholarship would be so easily impressed upon, seemingly forgetting much of their own history for the sake of mistaken nationalism. When Bracciolini and other western European scholars asserted that Germans as a people were of one ancient culture that had survived through antiquity (p. 47), the Germans of the time dropped their individual histories en masse in favor of this new narrative, one that would prioritize the group over the individual. I suppose the strengths of this history, more global power and respect from other peoples, would have seemed to outweigh the weaknesses; there is a lot to be said about a grand, sweeping history that glorifies the storyteller and increases one’s own rank in the current political climate (I’m talking to you, Americans).

Poggio Bracciolini, a Roman scholar of the humanist movement, revived and translated many historical documents that were otherwise doomed to be forgotten in history. It is no surprise, then, that when he published Tacitus's "Germania," the general public had never heard of it or its descriptions of ancient Germans. Being the only text of its kind, "Germania" became the de facto German history, despite the fact that it was more than likely exaggerated to fit the moral narrative of its author. One must wonder whether Bracciolini realized just how powerful his edition of the manuscript would be, or whether he saw Tacitus' publication as merely another ancient text worth saving for posterity.

Gianfrancesco Poggio Bracciolini. Digital image. Poggio Bracciolini. Wikipedia, n.d. Web. 1 Sept. 2014.

What I found most interesting about all of this was the fact that the Germans of the period allowed their story to be told, and heavily influenced, by outsiders. What caused these people to have such power over the minds of Germans? Perhaps it was the lack of German universities, or the small size of German cities, or even the desire to have a unified historical narrative. In any case, the introduction of Germania as a place inhabited by “uncorrupted, loyal, brave, and plain-living” (p. 49) people was an image of historical Germany that pervades to this day.

WC: 478 (not including captions)