Hello and welcome to the History of the Germans, the podcast that does what it says on the 10.

My name is Dirk and I will try to take you all the way from the early Middle Ages to reunification in 1990

in weekly 35 to 40 minute episodes, they usually appear on Thursdays.

Now the 200th episode of the History of the Germans podcast is just dropped, which sounds terrifying,

even more so to myself. But it shouldn't be. You do not need to listen to all the 200 episodes

for it to make sense, even though they're quite good actually.

The show is therefore broken down into so far 10 seasons.

Each season should be more or less standalone, so you can go and listen to any one of them

and skip all the others.

Now let me tell you what each of these seasons is about. The seasons 1, 2, 3 and 4 tell the story of the early and the high Middle Ages, the time when the empire was indeed, holy, Roman and an empire.

It deals with events like the Battle on the Lechfeld, the investiture controversy, the dramatic victories and then even more dramatic

defeats of the Emperor Frederick Barbarossa in Italy, and the life of Frederick II,

the wonder of the world, and probably the most intriguing figure of the whole of the Middle

Ages.

All that is interspersed with some thoughts on the economy, science, theology, art, architecture and or

mythology, which is that stuff about birds.

Seasons 5, 6 and 7 at start around episode 95, talk about what happened in the north and

the east of the empire.

Because you have to remember, German history is not a linear storyline as English

or French history. As the imperial power had focused more and more on Italy and then almost

disappeared, the Germans north of the mine and east of the Rhine had to forge their own path.

So in season five, we talk about the largest movement of populations that happened between the

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