Hello and welcome to the History of the Germans, Episode 68, Germany in the year

1200, The Cities.

I'm afraid, despite the very long title, this is going to be a short one.

The UK is in the midst of a heat wave and saw the history of the German's headquarters

moved to the seaside, a place not conducive to historical research. Plus, we're setting off on holiday

on Wednesday. So, just a quick run-through of the German cities. In recognition of this

under-delivery, I will not do the full-length Patreon plea today, just if you guys want to become

patrons of the show, you guys want to become patrons

of the show, you know where to find it.

And if not, check the show notes.

Let's go straight in.

Last week we looked at the foundation of one of these new cities, specifically Freiburg.

These new foundations were a main feature of Germany.

Numbers of cities rose from 150 in the 10th century to nearly 3,000 by 1320.

After 1320 and specifically after the Black Death, the number of cities stagnated, and pre-modern

urbanization was pretty much complete, apart from the about 200 added by 1800, mainly

as princely residences, garrison towns or refugee settlements.

In the high middle ages, about 20% of the German population lived in towns or cities,

raising to 25% by about 1800.

That's a much lower number than the great urbanized landscapes of Flanders, where 40 to 50%

were already living in these large centres like Ghent or Bruges.

Urbanisation was constrained by the problem of feeding so many people.

...