Ep. 234: The Charisma of Emperor Maximilian (1493-1519)
History of the Germans
Dirk Hoffmann-Becking
4.9 • 550 Ratings
🗓️ 23 April 2026
⏱️ 37 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Maximilian I died on January 12th, 1519. But his likeness is everywhere. None of his predecessors left behind as many depictions of their life, from being fed by his nurse as a toddler to the Totenbild, the picture of the emperor in death, stripped of all his paraphernalia, even his teeth broken out.
If you search in google for the most reproduced image of a Holy Roman Emperor, two come up, the portrait of Maximilian that Albrecht Dürer produced in Augsburg in 1518, as shown on last weeks episode artwork and Titian’s equestrian portrait of Charles V after the battle of Mühlberg, which in turn is a composition that goes back to several equestrian portraits of Maximilian I.
Basically, Maximilian I is the most visually present Holy Roman emperor of them all. And that is not by chance. As he said on several occasions, quote:
"Whoever does not provide for his commemoration during his lifetime has no commemoration after his death and is forgotten with the sound of the bell that rings at his burial"
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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Salian Emperors and Investiture Controversy
Fredrick Barbarossa and Early Hohenstaufen
The Holy Roman Empire 1250-1356
The Reformation before the Reformation
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Hello and welcome to the History of the Germans, Abs 2.34, the Charisma of Emperor |
| 0:12.2 | Maximilian. |
| 0:14.8 | Maximilian I died on January 12, 1519, but his likeness is still everywhere. None of his predecessors had left behind as many |
| 0:24.7 | depictions of their life, from being fed by his nurse as a toddler, to the Totenbuilt, the picture |
| 0:31.4 | of the emperor in death, stripped of all his paraphernalia, even his teeth broken out. |
| 0:38.0 | If you search in Google for the most reproduced image of a Holy Roman Emperor, two come |
| 0:43.4 | up, the portrait of Maximilian that Albrecht Durer produced in Augsburg in 1518, |
| 0:49.5 | that was the one that was shown in last week's episode artwork, and Titian's equestrian portrait of Charles |
| 0:55.6 | V after the Battle of Milberg, which in turn is a composition that goes back to several |
| 1:01.3 | equestrian portraits of Maximilian I. Basically, Maximilian I is the most visually present |
| 1:07.7 | holy Roman emperor of them all. And that is not by chance. As he said on several |
| 1:13.9 | occasions, quote, whoever does not provide for his commemoration during his lifetime has no |
| 1:20.4 | commemoration after his death and is forgotten with the sound of the bell that rings at his burial, |
| 1:26.1 | end quote. The celebration of his memoria, his remembrance, was a major preoccupation of the |
| 1:33.2 | emperor. |
| 1:34.4 | It is the kind of thing many of his contemporaries worried about a lot, too. |
| 1:39.1 | And the way they tried to leave an indelible mark on their nation's consciousness was |
| 1:43.7 | through buildings. |
| 1:45.5 | His French contemporaries, starting with Charles VIII, but really culminating with |
| 1:49.9 | Francois I, built castle after castle in the valley of the Loire. |
| 1:55.0 | Hombois was Charles the 8th. |
| 1:57.0 | Louis XIV, the 12th built the castle at Blois, and the jewels in the crown, Shenanso, |
... |
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