Episodes

  • Ep. 22 (184) – A German Messalina? Barbara of Celje

    Ep. 22 (184) – A German Messalina? Barbara of Celje
    Aug 13 2025
    Barbara ist geil und ruchlos is the title of a 17th century description of emperor Sigismund’s second wife, Barbara of Celje and it goes on as follows:“Barbara, was a German Messalina, a woman of insatiable lust; so nefarious / that she had no god / nor angel nor devil / nor heaven nor hell/that she believed in.When her handmaidens fasted and prayed / she scolded them / that they tortured their bodies / to worship a fictitious god.Instead she admonished them / in her good Sardanapalian way / that they should in every way enjoy the pleasures of this life / because after this there is no other to be hoped for.This godless harlot / sought paradise on this foul earth in doglike lust / although she was already close to 60 years of age.” End quote.But this is not where it ends. The Irish writer Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu described her end, in an abandoned church in Styria thus:“The features, though a hundred and fifty years had passed since her funeral, were tinted with the warmth of life. Her eyes were open; no cadaverous smell exhaled from the coffin. The two medical men, one officially present, the other on the part of the promoter of the inquiry, attested the marvelous fact, that there was a faint but appreciable respiration, and a corresponding action of the heart. The limbs were perfectly flexible, the flesh elastic; and the leaden coffin floated with blood, in which to a depth of seven inches, the body lay immersed. Here then were all the admitted signs and proofs of vampirism. The body, therefore, in accordance with the ancient practice, was raised, and a sharp stake driven through the heart of the vampire, who uttered a piercing shriek at the moment, in all respects as might escape from a living person in the last agony. Then the head was struck off, and a torrent of blood flowed from the severed neck. The body and head were next placed on a pile of wood, and reduced to ashes, which were thrown upon the river and borne away, and that territory has never since been plagued by the visits of a vampire.“Excellent – HotGPod has its first sexually charged lesbian vampire…I suggest we take a bite at the reality of that story.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.comIf you wish to support the show go to: Support • History of the Germans PodcastFacebook: @HOTGPod Threads: @history_of_the_germans_podcastBluesky: @hotgpod.bsky.socialInstagram: history_of_the_germansTwitter: @germanshistoryTo make it easier for you to share the podcast, I have created separate playlists for some of the seasons that are set up as individual podcasts. they have the exact same episodes as in the History of the Germans, but they may be a helpful device for those who want to concentrate on only one season. So far I have:The Ottonians Salian Emperors and Investiture ControversyFredrick Barbarossa and Early HohenstaufenFrederick II Stupor MundiSaxony and Eastward ExpansionThe Hanseatic LeagueThe Teutonic KnightsThe Holy Roman Empire 1250-1356The Reformation before the Reformation
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    32 mins
  • Ep. 21 (183) – The Aftermath of a Revolution - The consequences of the Hussite Wars 1419-1434

    Ep. 21 (183) – The Aftermath of a Revolution - The consequences of the Hussite Wars 1419-1434
    Aug 6 2025

    This week we bring the series about the reformation before the reformation to an end. It is time to take stock. What changes did 20 years of opposition to the established church and 15 years of war bring to Bohemia? How did Jan Hus, Jan Želivský, Wenceslas Koranda and Petr Chelčický influence Luther, Calvin, Zwingli, Müntzer and von Hutten? How did Zizka’s reform impact the Swiss mercenaries and the German Landsknechte?

    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

    If you wish to support the show go to: Support • History of the Germans Podcast

    Facebook: @HOTGPod

    Threads: @history_of_the_germans_podcast

    Bluesky: @hotgpod.bsky.social

    Instagram: history_of_the_germans

    Twitter: @germanshistory

    To make it easier for you to share the podcast, I have created separate playlists for some of the seasons that are set up as individual podcasts. they have the exact same episodes as in the History of the Germans, but they may be a helpful device for those who want to concentrate on only one season.

    So far I have:

    The Ottonians

    Salian Emperors and Investiture Controversy

    Fredrick Barbarossa and Early Hohenstaufen

    Frederick II Stupor Mundi

    Saxony and Eastward Expansion

    The Hanseatic League

    The Teutonic Knights

    The Holy Roman Empire 1250-1356

    The Reformation before the Reformation
    Show More Show Less
    30 mins
  • Ep. 20 (182) – The Return of the King

    Ep. 20 (182) – The Return of the King
    Jul 30 2025

    We have a tendency to overlook the history of the smaller European nations even though they do quite often provide the laboratory where one could have seen the sign of things to come or calamities that could be avoided. One of these nations is Czechia, where events took place that could, should or did impact the History of the Germans, in 1989, in 1968, in 1938, in 1618 and in 1419-1437. Today we will talk about the very last one on this list, the moment when a complete confessional split was prevented, something Martin Luther, emperor Charles V and pope Leo X so disastrously failed to manage a hundred years later.

    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

    If you wish to support the show go to: Support • History of the Germans Podcast

    Facebook: @HOTGPod

    Threads: @history_of_the_germans_podcast

    Bluesky: @hotgpod.bsky.social

    Instagram: history_of_the_germans

    Twitter: @germanshistory

    To make it easier for you to share the podcast, I have created separate playlists for some of the seasons that are set up as individual podcasts. they have the exact same episodes as in the History of the Germans, but they may be a helpful device for those who want to concentrate on only one season.

    So far I have:

    The Ottonians

    Salian Emperors and Investiture Controversy

    Fredrick Barbarossa and Early Hohenstaufen

    Frederick II Stupor Mundi

    Saxony and Eastward Expansion

    The Hanseatic League

    The Teutonic Knights

    The Holy Roman Empire 1250-1356

    The Reformation before the Reformation
    Show More Show Less
    37 mins
  • Ep. 19 (181) – Zizka’s Drum

    Ep. 19 (181) – Zizka’s Drum
    Jul 23 2025
    “And anyone who would not want to keep and truly fulfil the above written pieces and articles, and would not want to help protect and defend them; such a one, without regard to person, we will not suffer amongst us and in this army fighting with God’s help, nor on the castles and in the fortresses, nor in the cities and in the towns, walled or open, nor in the villages and hamlets, no place excepted or exempted. But all persons we will everywhere admonish, advise, push, and urge toward this goodness with the help of our Lord God”.That is how the Statutes and Military Ordinance of Jan Zizka’s New Brotherhood sum up their mission. And by Jove, you do not want to be one of those who are admonished, advised, pushed and urged by this new model army. Which leaves the question, who are those who do not “keep the written articles”, and – spoiler alert -they are not just the Catholics.From now on the “raging torrent of the revolution disgorges its quantum of corpses”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.comIf you wish to support the show go to: Support • History of the Germans PodcastFacebook: @HOTGPod Threads: @history_of_the_germans_podcastBluesky: @hotgpod.bsky.socialInstagram: history_of_the_germansTwitter: @germanshistoryTo make it easier for you to share the podcast, I have created separate playlists for some of the seasons that are set up as individual podcasts. they have the exact same episodes as in the History of the Germans, but they may be a helpful device for those who want to concentrate on only one season. So far I have:The Ottonians Salian Emperors and Investiture ControversyFredrick Barbarossa and Early HohenstaufenFrederick II Stupor MundiSaxony and Eastward ExpansionThe Hanseatic LeagueThe Teutonic KnightsThe Holy Roman Empire 1250-1356The Reformation before the Reformation
    Show More Show Less
    37 mins
  • Ep. 18 (180) – Nude Dissenters and Blind Innovators - The Adamites and the Battle of Kutna Hora

    Ep. 18 (180) – Nude Dissenters and Blind Innovators - The Adamites and the Battle of Kutna Hora
    Jul 16 2025

    The Czech language has been a severe impediment to my storytelling this season and you may have noticed that I often avoid to name places and people, instead I talk about a major baron or a medium sized city. There are however two Czech words I have no difficult pronouncing, Howitzer and Pistol. Which may tell you what we will be talking about today, the battle of Kutna Hora, when a blind general saw an escape route that change the world irrevocably.

    But on the way there we will hear about an accelerating spiral of brutality and attempts at reconciliation, about austere dress and debauched dancing in the woods. This is another one of these episodes that has it all, and some.

    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

    If you wish to support the show go to: Support • History of the Germans Podcast

    Facebook: @HOTGPod

    Threads: @history_of_the_germans_podcast

    Bluesky: @hotgpod.bsky.social

    Instagram: history_of_the_germans

    Twitter: @germanshistory

    To make it easier for you to share the podcast, I have created separate playlists for some of the seasons that are set up as individual podcasts. they have the exact same episodes as in the History of the Germans, but they may be a helpful device for those who want to concentrate on only one season.

    So far I have:

    The Ottonians

    Salian Emperors and Investiture Controversy

    Fredrick Barbarossa and Early Hohenstaufen

    Frederick II Stupor Mundi

    Saxony and Eastward Expansion

    The Hanseatic League

    The Teutonic Knights

    The Holy Roman Empire 1250-1356

    The Reformation before the Reformation
    Show More Show Less
    36 mins
  • Ep. 17 (179) – Meanwhile in the Empire

    Ep. 17 (179) – Meanwhile in the Empire
    Jul 9 2025

    Sigismund, king of the Romans, king of Hungary and recently crowned king of Bohemia is not doing too well. Despite his long list of glittering titles he is stuck in the town of Kutna Hora, the revolutionaries who had taken Prague, built strongholds, have created a completely new army for a completely new form of warfare and were taking over more and more of his ancestral kingdom.

    When one of his most strategic positions, the castle of Vyšehrad comes under siege, he had to take his forces into another battle with the Hussites, which will set off a string of events that will bring what every true supporter of the Holy Roman empire must have been craving – taxes.

    Come and find out

    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

    If you wish to support the show go to: Support • History of the Germans Podcast

    Facebook: @HOTGPod

    Threads: @history_of_the_germans_podcast

    Bluesky: @hotgpod.bsky.social

    Instagram: history_of_the_germans

    Twitter: @germanshistory

    To make it easier for you to share the podcast, I have created separate playlists for some of the seasons that are set up as individual podcasts. they have the exact same episodes as in the History of the Germans, but they may be a helpful device for those who want to concentrate on only one season.

    So far I have:

    The Ottonians

    Salian Emperors and Investiture Controversy

    Fredrick Barbarossa and Early Hohenstaufen

    Frederick II Stupor Mundi

    Saxony and Eastward Expansion

    The Hanseatic League

    The Teutonic Knights

    The Holy Roman Empire 1250-1356

    The Reformation before the Reformation
    Show More Show Less
    43 mins
  • Ep. 16 (178) – No Hill to Die On - From Tabor to Vitkov

    Ep. 16 (178) – No Hill to Die On - From Tabor to Vitkov
    Jul 2 2025

    “It is we the followers of master Jan Hus, who are obeying the law of God, we who are the true followers of Christ. Thus therefore, who oppose us, oppress us, kill us, are themselves heretics, trying to thwart the will of God. Out of this deep, passionate conviction was born the determination not to yield, not to surrender, but to challenge if need be, all the forces of the religious and political order which had dominated medieval europe for nearly a thousand years, to fight it out against odds the like of which have seldom been seen in history”

    So it is written in the “Very Pretty Chronicle of the life of John Zizka” which tells the not so very pretty story of the war against the Hussites that is now heating up. Sigismund musters his crusading army in Silesia whilst the radical Hussites take to the hills and then take a hill.

    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

    If you wish to support the show go to: Support • History of the Germans Podcast

    Facebook: @HOTGPod

    Threads: @history_of_the_germans_podcast

    Bluesky: @hotgpod.bsky.social

    Instagram: history_of_the_germans

    Twitter: @germanshistory

    To make it easier for you to share the podcast, I have created separate playlists for some of the seasons that are set up as individual podcasts. they have the exact same episodes as in the History of the Germans, but they may be a helpful device for those who want to concentrate on only one season.

    So far I have:

    The Ottonians

    Salian Emperors and Investiture Controversy

    Fredrick Barbarossa and Early Hohenstaufen

    Frederick II Stupor Mundi

    Saxony and Eastward Expansion

    The Hanseatic League

    The Teutonic Knights

    The Holy Roman Empire 1250-1356

    The Reformation before the Reformation
    Show More Show Less
    37 mins
  • Ep. 15 (177) - The Day after the End of Days

    Ep. 15 (177) - The Day after the End of Days
    Jun 25 2025
    “To our great shame and sorrow, we must acknowledge how our brethren have been cleverly seduced by Satan, and how they have departed from Holy Scriptures in strange and unheard-of ideas and acts. When Satan first came to them it was not with an open face, as the devil, but in the shining garb of voluntary poverty, [..], and in the zealous work of preaching to and serving the people and in giving them the Body and Holy Blood of God. And [..] a great many people flocked to them.Then the devil came to them clothed in other garb, in the prophets and the Old Testament, and from these they sought to confect the imminent Day of Judgement, saying that they were angels who had to eliminate the scandals of Christ’s kingdom, and that they were to judge the world. And so they committed many killings and impoverished many people; but they did not judge the world according to their words, for the predicted time has elapsed with which they terrified the people, telling them strange things.” End quote.Strange things indeed were happening in Bohemia. Peter Chelcicky whose words you just heard reported how the radical Hussites had called the End of Days for February 14th, 1420. But when that day came, and instead of all the enemies of the faith lying dead with their noses pointing skywards, royalist forces surrounded the radical Hussites in the city of Pilzen. Now the end really seemed nigh, but cometh the time, cometh the man, even if the man is a one-eyed, gruff ex-Highwayman.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.comIf you wish to support the show go to: Support • History of the Germans PodcastFacebook: @HOTGPod Threads: @history_of_the_germans_podcastBluesky: @hotgpod.bsky.socialInstagram: history_of_the_germansTwitter: @germanshistoryTo make it easier for you to share the podcast, I have created separate playlists for some of the seasons that are set up as individual podcasts. they have the exact same episodes as in the History of the Germans, but they may be a helpful device for those who want to concentrate on only one season. So far I have:The Ottonians Salian Emperors and Investiture ControversyFredrick Barbarossa and Early HohenstaufenFrederick II Stupor MundiSaxony and Eastward ExpansionThe Hanseatic LeagueThe Teutonic KnightsThe Holy Roman Empire 1250-1356The Reformation before the Reformation
    Show More Show Less
    34 mins