Hello and welcome to the history of the Germans, the prologue Part 2.

So first up, thanks a lot for coming along for this, the second part of our high-speed race through the first thousand years of German history.

In this episode I will try to get us all the way to Pippin the Short in 755,

so I apologize for sacrificing some really great stories on the altar of speed.

Last week, we left off with Odoacer,

the highest ranking officer in the army of Emperor Romulus Augustus

bringing the Roman Western Empire to its inglorious end.

There was no heroic stand, just a frightened 16-year-old handing over the insignia of his rank.

And then, not much is happening.

The fact that the Roman Emperor was replaced by a German who calls himself

king that could not have made much of a difference to the people on the ground. It is not that with

the official start of the Dark Ages, the aqueduct just fell over and the Roman road suddenly closed

down. I mean, even more intangible things like the Roman law continue to apply to most people.

The new Germanic law code strangely applied only to the members of the respective tribes.

So though Odoasa's palace coup did not change much on the ground in Italy, it did confirm the

breakup of the Western Empire. You may remember that Britain's been lost long time ago, but Gaul, which was still part of the

empire, was now really run by Franks and Burgundians. And the empire south of the Alps was run by

derivations of Goths, namely the Visi Goths in Spain, the Vandals in North Africa, and, you know,

after Odoasa, who lasted only a few years, the Ostrogoths in Italy.

As I said, the slide into the Dark Ages from the end of the Roman Empire did not come with a bang.

It was more like seeping water through the walls and timbers that were gradually rotting away the structure.

The old senatorial elite did not disappear at all. I mean, Gregory

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