#3

Martin Luther changed German history and religious history in that matter with his bold stand against the Catholic Church.  Luther was one of the first people in history to stand up to the Pope and live to see another day. His writing of the 95 theses that pointed out the corruption in the church was heavily favored all throughout the German lands. Martin Luther gave the people vision to light on the other side, and he gave one man a figure to base his province around. Luther was one of the first people to ever use propaganda as a valid method to spread his word. Through his writings he would point out what he saw was wrong with the church, and he did all this with the help of the printing press. The printing press enabled Luther to spread his word fast and to a mass amount of people. In a sense the writings also made him a huge icon because of the way he wrote. He wrote with a lot of savvy and wit that the people loved. His writings were rude and harsh to the people he was calling out, this made him extremely popular with the public. The thing that fascinates me about Luther is that he never really understood how big he was to the people he influenced. It really showed when he showed up a Worms and people were shouting “Long Live Luther.” This completely contrasted what the Catholic officials thought of themselves and how the presented themselves. To the people Luther was no different then themselves, but in a Catholic officials eyes they were greater than the people they served. One of the most monumental things Luther did in his whole life though, was to translate the bible into German so his people could read it. This was Luther’s stamp on the world because his main point in how a good Christian should live his life was through scripture. Luther now enabled his people to be good Christians by enabling them to read the written text. The one thing Luther did not plan for was the revolts of peasants that sprang up because of the uplifting gesture that his text gave them. This is extremely interesting because Luther later wrote that the nobles should put down the revolts of the peasants and compared them to beasts. The peasants in a way misunderstood his text and took it as a literal reference to rise up from serfdom by force, instead Luther mean through scripture. Martin Luther shaped Germany through the reformation of the church, he stood up for what he believed in and came out on top.

This is a picture of the church in which Martin Luther nailed the 95 theses to the door and began his movement. It started here and spread across Germany through word and text. Luther used printing presses to spread the written word of the theses. 

The Holy Roman Empire at the time of Luther was around this size. He obviously lived in the German Empire which was relatively far from the Papal States. I felt like this was an advantage for Luther because it took longer for word to travel back and forth about his doings, and kept him out of trouble longer

http://youtu.be/dt5AJr0wls0

This is my last picture/video. Its just kind of interesting. Enjoy

#2

One thing that really caught my eye when reading through the first two chapters was how Germany or Germans came to get their name. “Germans” as Caesar called them were Nordic barbarians that settled in the failed sections of the Roman Empire. Caesar borrowed the name from the Gauls, which the term meant “savage people.” He also got the name from the area that they inhabited called Germania, which was the land beyond the Rhine and the Danube rivers. I also thought it was extremely interesting how many different German tribes had traveled to different parts of Europe and set up nations. This also connects a lot with early American history when Americans first colonized they set up their own states that in a sense governed them selves much like the Germans did. Also like the Germans when America was first founded it was founded as a conglomerate of rural farmers. In our readings it stated how Germans were known as farmers and very few lived in urban settings. This is what America was founded on and agriculture still plays a huge part in our economy today. Agriculture was such a huge part of German culture that there was a point in German history were their population was taking off so fast that the supply of food was less than the demand. When this happened the Black Death plague began to run through Europe and therefore knock a large amount of the population down. One of the main things that made a person even more susceptible to the disease was malnourishment. When farmers couldn’t keep up with demand for food; this opened the door for the disease to sweep through. This also stood out to me because of the drought we have endured this summer, and how it is going to affect our economy, food supply, and rural communities. 

I chose this picture because it is an example of how agriculture still plays a big role in Germany. In the picture the farmer is turning the corn he raised and is chopping it into silage. He will then feed this to his livestock. 

This picture is of Martin Luther who was easily one of the most influential persons in German history and religious history. He founded Protestant religion and stood up to a corrupt catholic church that was doing unholy things in his point of view. His morals and beliefs are still followed to this day. 

I used this picture to represent the Black Death plague that swept across Europe. It seemed extremely interesting to me from the reading on how that when farmers couldn't keep up with the demand for food that the Black Death became even more dangerous.