Ep. 211: Friedrich III (1440-1493) – Hitting Rock Bottom
History of the Germans
Dirk Hoffmann-Becking
4.9 • 550 Ratings
🗓️ 23 October 2025
⏱️ 37 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
It is November 1462 and the emperor Friedrich III and his young family are huddling together in the cellars of the Hofburg. The citizens of Vienna are shooting cannonballs into the 13th century castle, the walls are crumbling and any moment now the angry crowds may break in. Outside, supporting the insurrection stood his own brother, calling on him to give up.
Two crowns he has already lost and a third is about to be knocked off his head as the imperial princes had ganged up on him. Friedrich III was a man who firmly believed in ancient laws and traditions and was profoundly ill suited for a world where, as Picciolomini wrote in the last sentence of his history of the emperor Friedrich III quote: “We are of the opinion that empires are won by weapons, not by legal means!”
Friedrich III and with him the Habsburgs hit rock bottom, but how and why exactly he ended up there, and w hat that tells us about the profound changes during this period of history is what we are going to explore in this episode.
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.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Hello and welcome to the history of the Germans. |
| 0:07.0 | Episode 211, Hitting Rock Bottom, which is also episode 10 of season 11 the fall and rise of the House of Habsburg. |
| 0:16.0 | It is November 1462. |
| 0:20.0 | The Emperor, Friddy III, and his young family are huddling together in the |
| 0:25.2 | cellars of the Hofburg. The citizens of Vienna are shooting cannonballs into the 13th |
| 0:32.0 | century castle. The walls are crumbling and any now, the angry crowds may break in. |
| 0:40.3 | Outside, supporting the insurrection, is his own brother, calling on him to give up. |
| 0:48.2 | Two crowns he's already lost, and the third is about to be knocked off his head, as the imperial |
| 0:52.9 | princes had ganged up on him. |
| 0:55.0 | Friedrich III was a man who firmly believed in ancient laws and traditions, |
| 1:00.0 | and he was profoundly ill-suited for a world, as Piccolominy wrote in the last sentence of his history of the Emperor Friedrich III, |
| 1:08.0 | quote, |
| 1:10.0 | We are of the opinion that empires are won by weapons, not by legal means. |
| 1:18.8 | Friedrich III and with him the Habsburgs had hit rock bottom. |
| 1:25.2 | But how and why exactly he ended up there and what that tells us about the profound |
| 1:31.2 | changes during this period of history is what we're going to explore in this episode. |
| 1:38.0 | But before we start, I would like to touch on something completely different. I recently |
| 1:42.1 | came across a Facebook post from someone claiming to have |
| 1:45.1 | discovered an idiot-proof way to win on YouTube. His method? Find the five most popular videos, |
| 1:53.3 | transcribe them and then ask ChatGPT to create a new script from the results. Apart from the |
| 1:59.6 | obvious copyright issues, it made me wonder why anyone would want to do that. |
| 2:04.6 | This is clearly not a creative endeavor of any kind. Whoever does that does not want to convey any |
... |
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