Ep. 187: Johannes Gutenberg’s Pressing Matters
History of the Germans
Dirk Hoffmann-Becking
4.9 • 550 Ratings
🗓️ 27 March 2025
⏱️ 44 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
This podcast is now well into its fourth year and I have established my process for research, script writing and recording. As for research, that usually means going to the London Library and bend down to the lowest shelf to dig up some age-old copy of a German language book that happens to be the one and only works that goes into the kind of detail on the topic at hand you guys have gotten used to.
Imagine my confusion when I started looking into Johannes Gutenberg and found not just a few books, but whole shelves of books in English, German, French, Italian and dozens more talking about even the most intricate details of the life and works of the inventor of the printing press.
Drowning in this avalanche of material, I realized that at a minimum this story requires two episodes, one about how Gutenberg came to achieve this breakthrough and then the impact his invention had on the world and on the Germans in particular.
Hence today’s episode is about the man and his invention, though about the man we know so very little….
And here is a video that helps understnding how the machine works: How a Gutenberg Printing Press Works
And a book recommendation: The Gutenberg revolution : the story of a genius and an invention that changed the world : Man, John, 1941- : Free Download, Borrow, and Streaming : Internet Archive
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
If you wish to support the show go to: Support • History of the Germans Podcast
For do it yourself merchandise go to: Merchandise • History of the Germans Podcast
Facebook: @HOTGPod
Threads: @history_of_the_germans_podcast
Bluesky: @hotgpod.bsky.social
Instagram: history_of_the_germans
Twitter: @germanshistory
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:
Salian Emperors and Investiture Controversy
Fredrick Barbarossa and Early Hohenstaufen
The Holy Roman Empire 1250-1356
The Reformation before the Reformation
Transcript
Click on a timestamp to play from that location
| 0:00.0 | Hello and welcome to the History of the Germans, Episode 187, Gutenberg's Pressing Matters, |
| 0:12.0 | which is also episode 3 of season 10, The Empire in the 15th century. |
| 0:17.0 | This podcast is now well into its fourth year, and I've established my process for research, |
| 0:23.3 | scriptwriting and recording. |
| 0:25.3 | And as for research, they usually means going to the London Library and bending down to the |
| 0:29.7 | lowest shelf to dig up some age-old copy of a German language book that happens to be the one |
| 0:35.0 | and only works, that goes into the kind of detail on the topic at |
| 0:39.2 | hand that you guys have gotten used to. Imagine my confusion when I started looking into |
| 0:45.5 | Johannes Gutenberg and I found out just a few books but whole shelves of books in English, German, |
| 0:51.1 | French, Italian and dozens more talking about even the most intricate |
| 0:55.5 | details of the life and works of the inventor of the printing press. |
| 1:00.7 | Drowning in this avalanche of material, I realized that at a minimum this story requires |
| 1:05.2 | two episodes, one about how Gutenberg came to achieve this breakthrough, and then the impact his invention |
| 1:11.5 | had on the world and on the Germans in particular. |
| 1:15.5 | Hence today's episode is about the man and his invention, though about the man we know |
| 1:20.9 | so very little. |
| 1:23.5 | But before we start, just another reminder that the history of the Germans is advertising |
| 1:28.3 | free and for good reason. |
| 1:30.7 | It does not take a genius to notice that the way we communicate as a society has changed. |
| 1:35.8 | We do spend a lot of time on electronic media of all kinds, not just social media, but |
| 1:40.1 | podcasts, streaming, YouTube, etc. |
| 1:43.5 | Most of this content is paid for by advertising. |
... |
Please login to see the full transcript.
Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from Dirk Hoffmann-Becking, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.
Generated transcripts are the property of Dirk Hoffmann-Becking and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.
Copyright © Tapesearch 2026.