Ep. 67: Germany in the Year 1200 - The Peasants

History of the Germans from the Middle Ages to Reunification

Dirk Hoffmann-Becking

History, Education, Society & Culture

4.9 • 551 Ratings

🗓️ 14 July 2022

⏱️ 25 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

This is about the peasants, no kings, emperors, popes, bishops at all. Ok one brother of a duke at the end because I simply cannot help myself. But yes, peasants. What was the life of a peasant in Germany in around 1200 really like? How much do we actually know about their living conditions? Did it differ much from country to country? The correct answer to all of these is – we are not really sure. These sections of the podcast are always the hardest ones. Following some king or emperor around is fairly straightforward. That s what the sources are focused on and you can compare them as well as the different interpretation and you get a half decent picture of what is likely to have happened. But nobody has written a chronicle about the poor Michel, sharecropper on the lands of the count of Pfullendorf. Let alone a second one from the perspective of the count. Still we try. As always, this episode has a dedicated website with the transcript and maps, pictures and additional comments to read along. It is to be found at https://historyofthegermans.com/67-2/ 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

Transcript

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0:00.0	Hello and welcome to the history of the Germans, episode 67.
0:09.0	Germany around 1200. The peasants.
0:12.0	Yes, you heard right. This is about the peasants. No kings, emperors, popes, bishops at all.
0:18.0	Okay, one brother of a duke at the very end of the podcast,
0:22.2	because I simply can't help myself. But, yes, peasants. What was the life of a peasant like in
0:27.5	Germany in round 1200? How much do we actually know about the living conditions? Did it differ
0:32.6	much from country to country? Correct answer to all of these is, well, we're not exactly sure. These sections of
0:39.9	the podcast are always the hardest ones. Following some king or emperor around is fairly straightforward.
0:45.6	That's what the sources are focused on, and you can compare them as well as the different
0:49.6	interpretations, and then you get a half-decent picture of what's likely to have happened.
0:58.0	But nobody has written a chronicle of what poor Michael, sharecropper on the lens of the Count of Fulendorf, been up to, let alone was there a second chronicler who
1:03.0	looked at the same thing from the perspective of the Count.
1:05.0	We have to look at the variety of sources that are usually aimed at describing something
1:09.0	entirely different, therefore.
1:16.0	Archaeology is also crucial, as is the Saxons-Spigel, a compilation of Germanic laws of the 12th century. And the bits in the middle are made up, I'm afraid. But before we start,
1:22.8	as always a reminder, the history of the Germans podcast is advertising free thanks to the generous support
1:28.3	from patrons. And you can become a patron too and enjoy exclusive bonus episodes and other
1:33.7	privileges from the price of a latte per month. All you have to do is sign up at patreon.com
1:40.1	slash history of the Germans or on my website, history of the Germans.com. You find all the links in the
1:46.3	show notes. And thanks a lot to all of you who have already signed up, especially to Prisker, Laura,
1:52.6	and Siemen. Seaman's the northern most listener of this podcast as far as I know. So if you think
1:58.3	you may be further north than northern Norway, let me know and you get a special mention.
	...

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