“Mohr und Trompeter”: Blackness and Social Status in Early Modern Germany

2019 ◽  
Vol 72 (3) ◽  
pp. 613-663 ◽  
Author(s):  
Arne Spohr
Keyword(s):  
Roman Empire ◽  
Case Studies ◽  
Legal Status ◽  
Physical Violence ◽  
German Society ◽  
Social Position ◽  
Holy Roman Empire ◽  
Fully Integrated ◽  
Modern Germany ◽  
History Of

By the end of the seventeenth century, black trumpeters and kettledrummers were employed at many courts of the Holy Roman Empire as symbols of princely magnificence. Their legal and social position within the court hierarchy, and within German society as a whole, has been debated among historians. According to a commonly held view, black performers who had been bought on the international slave market were considered legally free and fully integrated into German society once they had completed a two-year apprenticeship and entered court service. Membership in the Imperial Trumpeters' and Kettledrummers' Guild (requiring proof of free birth) is usually cited as evidence of their free legal status, social integration into German society, and privileged position at court. Drawing on insights from social, religious, and legal history, history of race, and music sociology, my article reevaluates the notion of the frictionless integration of black trumpeters and drummers into Germany's estate-based society by focusing on two case studies: Christian Real (fl. 1643–74) and Christian Gottlieb (fl. 1675–90). As my study of their little-known yet well-documented careers demonstrates, the social position of these black trumpeters was far more fragile than that of their white colleagues. The tension between their blackness, associated with their previous slave status, and their visible roles as court trumpeters associated with princely power sometimes led to conflict and even physical violence. Both case studies suggest that black trumpeters and drummers were more susceptible to discrimination and violence whenever they moved out of the courtly sphere in which they were privileged and protected.

Introduction

2012 ◽  
Author(s):  
Helmut Walser Smith
Keyword(s):  
Roman Empire ◽  
Sixteenth Century ◽  
German Society ◽  
Holy Roman Empire ◽  
German History ◽  
Modern Germany ◽  
The Everyday ◽  
German Nation ◽  
History Of ◽  
The Impact

This book departs in significant ways from previous histories of modern Germany. The book also represents a novel attempt to place German history in a deeper international and transnational setting than has hitherto been the case. This is the second important departure, and is, in this sense, that national histories and ‘area studies’ need to take fuller account of changes occurring in the wider world. There have also been a number of attempts to emphasize the history of the everyday, or to underscore the impact of war on German society. The book makes nation-state sovereignty into a decisive marker as well as a problem of modern German history. A concept of the German nation reaches at least to the early sixteenth century, when the Holy Roman Empire officially added the appellation ‘of the German Nation’. This article chronicles the history of Germany from the eighteenth century to the twentieth century.

Monasticism in Early Modern Germany

2020 ◽  
pp. 461-470
Author(s):  
Edeltraud Klueting
Keyword(s):  
Roman Empire ◽  
French Revolution ◽  
Holy Roman Empire ◽  
Left Bank ◽  
Modern Germany ◽  
The Enlightenment ◽  
The Reformation ◽  
German Speaking ◽  
History Of ◽  
The Right

The chapter addresses the history of monasticism in the German-speaking territories of the Holy Roman Empire from the sixteenth through the nineteenth centuries. Whether the Reformation movement unleashed by Martin Luther represented a continuation of late medieval monastic reforms or, rather, an abrupt departure from them, is a contentious issue. In the Catholic parts of Germany, after the Council of Trent, monasteries became significant agents in the renewal of the Church, especially in the areas of education and social and charitable activity. On the other hand, the Enlightenment, with its narrow conception of utility, called into question the very basis of monastic life, and hence the right of monasteries to exist. The fallout of the French Revolution and the French occupation of the left bank of the Rhine led to a great wave of monastic dissolutions. It was only under the influence of German Romanticism that monasticism experienced another revival.

The Protestant Power of Attorney of 1531: A Legalistic History of the Early Reformation in Germany

2019 ◽  
pp. 201-224
Author(s):  
Sara Ludin
Keyword(s):  
Roman Empire ◽  
Legal Status ◽  
Ad Hoc ◽  
Public Law ◽  
Holy Roman Empire ◽  
Power Of Attorney ◽  
Case File ◽  
History Of ◽  
Case Files ◽  
Wrong Place

This essay takes a close look at the "power of attorney" document drafted in 1531 by a group of German princes and cities in which they appoint two lawyers to represent them collectively in all disputes in which "one or more of us is sued on account of our holy faith, religion, ceremonies, and what attaches to them." In the 1530s and '40s, this power of attorney was invoked in dozens of civil and public law disputes that had arisen from local reformations-concerning church property, jurisdiction, and the land-peace. Many regard the case files of these highly politicized Reformation cases as the "wrong place" to look for law. This essay illustrates that even in the most apparently formalistic and legalistic documents of a case file, such as the power of attorney, we can identify moments of juridical experimentation that operated as unexpected proxies or even prerequisites for larger constitutional questions of status and recognition. In particular, the study shows that long before the Protestants, as a group, and Lutheranism, as a confession, were given legal status in the Holy Roman Empire in 1555, the "protesting estates" had achieved ad hoc legal legibility in the shuffle of courtroom disputes.

scholarly journals Brittany: Pay d’États and Don Gratuit (1648–1652)

2021 ◽  
pp. 159-187
Author(s):  
Christel Annemieke Romein
Keyword(s):  
Roman Empire ◽  
Seventeenth Century ◽  
Legal Status ◽  
Holy Roman Empire ◽  
History Of

AbstractI start this chapter by introducing the history of Brittany which was independent until 1492 when it became linked to France, and 1532 it became a French pays d’état. Brittany itself did not have any direct experiences with warfare during the mid-seventeenth century, and hence this chapter shows how a particularist province reacted to tax-requests, without the immediate threat of warfare. Nonetheless, taxation had to be paid in order to finance warfare with Spain and the Holy Roman Empire. Central to this chapter is how the nobility responded to these requests. The noblemen strove to uphold their legal status, and heavy taxations could jeopardise their income. Hence, the records of the Breton assemblies do give much information about the tax-negotiations that went on and the underlying noble privileges and conflicts. Especially between 1648 and 1652, when Brittany found itself close to bankruptcy and needed to curtail their expenditure. The used terminology does give away information about the threatened autonomy and means to protect privileges.

scholarly journals VISUALIZING GERMANNESS THROUGH COSTUMES IN THE SIXTEENTH CENTURY

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-32
Author(s):  
FREDERICK G. CROFTS
Keyword(s):  
Roman Empire ◽  
Sixteenth Century ◽  
Holy Roman Empire ◽  
Production Networks ◽  
Continuity And Change ◽  
Political Landscape ◽  
History Of ◽  
Scholarly Discourse ◽  
Material Exchange

ABSTRACT Examining the understudied collection of costume images from Heidelberg Calvinist, lawyer, and church councillor Marcus zum Lamm's (1544–1606) ‘treasury’ of images, the Thesaurus Picturarum, this article intervenes in the historiography on sixteenth-century German national imaginaries, emphasizing the import of costume books and manuscript alba for national self-fashioning. By bringing late sixteenth-century ethnographic costume image collections into scholarly discourse on the variegated ways of conceiving and visualizing Germany and Germanness over the century, this article sheds new light on a complex narrative of continuity and change in the history of German nationhood and identity. Using zum Lamm's images as a case-study, this article stresses the importance of incorporating costume image collections into a nexus of patriotic genres, including works of topographical-historical, natural philosophical, ethnographic, cartographic, cosmographic, and genealogical interest. Furthermore, it calls for historians working on sixteenth-century costume books and alba to look deeper into the meanings of such images and collections in the specific contexts of their production; networks of knowledge and material exchange; and – in the German context – the political landscape of territorialization, confessionalization, and dynastic ambition in the Holy Roman Empire between the Peace of Augsburg and the Thirty Years War (1555–1618).

Baron Alexander Stroganov’s Mission to Vienna (1761): Dynastic Policy and Symbolic Communication

2021 ◽  
pp. 117
Author(s):  
Olga Khavanova
Keyword(s):  
Roman Empire ◽  
Holy Roman Empire ◽  
Symbolic Communication ◽  
Bilateral Relations ◽  
History Of ◽  
Personal Qualities ◽  
European Education ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
Francis I

The article is based on the materials from Russian and Austrian archives and devoted to lesser-known circumstances of the preparation and course of the 1761 diplomatic mission of Baron A.S. Stroganov to Vienna on the occasion of the wedding of the heir to the throne, Archduke Joseph, with Isabella of Parma. The embassy is considered in the context of symbolic communication through ceremonial gestures between St. Petersburg and Vienna. It emphasised the particularly friendly nature of the relationship between the two dynasties and two courts, not only united by a bilateral treaty and membership in the anti-Prussian alliance during the Seven Years War but also symbolically related as godparents. A.S. Stroganov was a young aristocrat without proper experience in the field of diplomacy and of the modest court rank of Kammer-Junker. The appointment was explained by his kinship with Chancellor M.I. Vorontsov whose daughter Anna officially accompanied her husband on the trip. The imperial ambassador to St. Petersburg Count Nicolaus Esterházy spared no effort to smooth over the awkwardness and find benevolent patrons for the young couple in Vienna. European education and the exceptional personal qualities of the ambassador allowed A. Stroganov to fulfil the commission with honour and receive the title of a Count of the Holy Roman Empire from Emperor Francis I as a reward. The embassy became the last page in the history of relations between St. Petersburg and Vienna on the eve of the break of bilateral relations and Russia’s withdrawal from the Seven Years War in 1762.

scholarly journals Grafen von Krabaten

2021 ◽  
Vol 17 (1) ◽  
pp. 203-228
Author(s):  
Robert Kurelić
Keyword(s):  
Roman Empire ◽  
Dominant Role ◽  
Holy Roman Empire ◽  
German Language ◽  
Late Medieval ◽  
The Family ◽  
History Of

The counts of Krk were one of the most prestigious and most powerful noble families in late medieval Croatia, with a dominant role attained under Nicholas IV who received the last name Frankapani from Pope Martin V in 1430. Soon after his death German language sources began to refer to the family as Grafen von Krabaten or Counts of Croatia, a somewhat peculiar designation considering that there were other prominent families such as the counts of Krbava who also maintained contacts within the Holy Roman Empire. This paper traces the development of the term von Krabaten from 1440 until the election of Ferdinand I Habsburg as king of Croatia, showing how it was used throughout the century and may have been an indication of the respect and status achieved by the Frankapani under Nicholas IV and his sons. The term is also explored as a helping tool for further research into the history of the family using sources that have hitherto been overlooked or neglected.

Martin Luther in the Age of Confessionalization

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jens Wolff
Keyword(s):  
Roman Empire ◽  
Identity Politics ◽  
Public Discourse ◽  
Holy Roman Empire ◽  
Unintended Effects ◽  
Black And White ◽  
Before And After ◽  
History Of ◽  
The Many ◽  
The One

Luther was a point of reference in all three of the confessional cultures during the confessional age, though this was not something he had intended. His theological “self-fashioning” was not meant to secure, canonize, or stabilize his own works or his biography. Rather, he believed, and was convinced, that the hidden God rules in a strange way. He hides himself in the course of the world and realizes what we would have liked to realizes. Apart from this theological viewpoint, historiographic differentiation is needed: Luther had different impacts on each of the three confessions. Furthermore, one also has to differentiate between a deep impact and the unintended effects of Luther’s thinking. Luther was an extremely polarizing figure. From the beginning, he underwent a heroization and a diabolization by his contemporaries. Apart from this black-and-white reception of his person, it was, and still is, extremely difficult to analyze Luther, his work and medial effects. Historians have always been fixated on Luther: he was the one and only founder of Protestantism. His biography became a stereotype of writing and was an important element of Protestant (or anti-Protestant) identity politics. For some Protestants, his biography became identical with the history of salvation (Heilsgeschichte). For his enemies, his biography was identical with the history of the devil. In all historical fields, one has to differentiate between the different groups and people who protected or attacked Luther or shared his ideas. The history of Luther can only be written as a shared history with conflict and concordances: the so-called Anabaptists, for example, shared Luther’s antihierarchical ideal of Christian community, although on the other hand “they” were strongly opposed toward his theology and person. Luther or example, had conflicts with the humanists and with Erasmus especially; he argued about the Lord’s Supper with Zwingli, he criticized the Fuggers because of their financial transactions in an early capitalist society; and, last but not least, he was in conflict with the Roman Church. The legitimization of different pictures of Luther always depends upon the perspectives of the posterity: either Luther was intolerant against spiritualists, Anabaptists, or peasants who were willing to resort to violence; or he was defended by humanists like Sebastian Castellio for defending religious tolerance. During his lifetime Luther was an extremely polarizing figure. Hundreds of pro-Lutheran and polemical anti-Lutheran leaflets or texts were published. The many literary forms of parody, satire, caricature, the grotesque, and the absurd were cultivated during the confessional age. Luther’s biography was often used by Lutheran theologians as an instrument of heroization and identity politics in public discourse. Historically, one can differentiate between the time before and after Luther. The political and religious unity of the Holy Roman Empire was strongly disturbed, if not broken, through the Reformation. The end of the Universalist dreams of universal powers like theology and politics (pope and emperor) were some of the central preconditions for political, cultural, and theological differentiation of Europe. Religious differentiation was one of the unintended effects of theology and the interpretation of the scripture. Decades after Luther’s death, the Holy Roman Empire slowly and surprisingly turned into a poly-, multi- and interconfessional society.

On the rise and Decline of the Monarchical Principle: Constitutional Vicissitudes in Spain and Germany

2010 ◽  
Vol 6 (2) ◽  
pp. 268-292
Author(s):  
Lucas Prakke
Keyword(s):  
Roman Empire ◽  
State Formation ◽  
Holy Roman Empire ◽  
Nation State ◽  
Charles V ◽  
War Of Independence ◽  
History Of ◽  
New Ideas ◽  
Nation State Formation ◽  
Constitutional Monarchy

Nation-state formation – Holy Roman Empire – Dissolution and realignment – Spain, fragmented – Reconquista – Charles V – Wars of succession – Centralisation under house of Bourbon – Napoleon – Spanish war of independence – History of the Cortes – Constitution of Cádiz – Weakness of Spanish Constitutionalism – German Confederation – Monarchical principle in Vienna Final Act – Old and new ideas of sovereignty – Metternich and fear of revolution – March revolution – Bismarckian empire as constitutional monarchy – Degeneration of the Reich – Exit the Kings – Enter Juan Carlos

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