CULTURE, SOCIETY AND POLITICS IN THE
GERMAN-SPEAKING COUNTRIES- IRE214
Fall 2018 Session 3: Germany
Maya Hadar
 Martin Luther’s protestant reformation
 Germans' classical philosophers
 Hegel’s
 Kant
 The German Dialects
Germany
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Pre- Reformation state
 Weariness of dependence on the Church and
the constraints it enforced
 Growing human confidence vs. “original sin”
 Better educated, urban populace was more
critical of the Church than rural peasantry
 Renaissance monarchs were growing impatient
with the power of the Church
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Pre- Reformation state
 Society was more humanistic and secular
 Growing individualism
Late Renaissance => complaints:
 Clergy and pop had become too political
 Corruption
 These unpopular practices weakened the
church, and people began calling for reform
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Critic on the Catholic Church
 Corruption- The Church raised money through
practices such as simony and selling
indulgences/pardons
 An indulgence provided a relaxation of
penalties for sins people had committed
 Advantages of Buying Indulgences => Go
Directly to Heaven, avoid Purgatory/shorter
time there
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Calls for Reform
 John Wycliffe (1330-1384)
 Questioned the authority of the pope
 Jan Hus (1370-1415)
 Criticized the vast wealth of the Church
 Desiderius Erasmus (1469-1536)
 Disputed corruption in the Church
 Calls on the church to make changes led to a
reform movement of western Christianity => the
Reformation
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Martin Luther
 Born in Germany (1483)
 Attended University at Erfurt
 After surviving a violent storm,
vowed to become a monk
 Doctorate in theology (1512)
 Professor of Biblical studies, sermons
and commentaries in Wittenberg
(1513-1518)
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Martin Luther
 Credited with starting the
reformation but he never wanted to
leave the Catholic church
 After excommunication he departed
further from the church’s teachings
(marries Katharina von Bora in
1527)
 Died in 1546
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Ninety five Theses
 Luther criticized Church practices (selling
indulgences) and urged an inner church
debate concerning the true path to
salvation
 October 31, 1517 => Luther nailed a
list of ‘complaints’ to the church door in
Wittenberg (a public act). These became
known as the Ninety-Five Theses
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Excommunication
 Pope Leo X demanded that
Luther recant 41 of his NinetyFive
Theses
 Charles V (Holy Roman
Emperor) ordered Luther to
recant his writings => was
brought before the Diet of
Worms (assembly) to answer
charges of heresy
 January 1521=> Luther was
expelled from the Catholic
Church
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Lutheranism
 Rejected the authority of Church
councils and the pope
 Anyone can have a direct
relationship with God (not
necessarily via priests)
 Salvation comes only through
faith in Christ
Luther translated the Bible into German
so that Europeans could read it for the first time
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Lutheranism
 Primacy of the Bible as the sole
religious authority (not interpreted
by priests/the pope)
 People can read and understand
the Bible themselves
Luther translated the Bible into German
so that Europeans could read it for the first time
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A New Church
 Luther urged reform in the Catholic
Church, but eventually broke away from
the church
 Luther soon had many followers,
including several German princes =>
Millions of people sided with Luther
against the Roman Catholic Church
 Lutherans began to organize a new
Christian denomination
Saint Bartholomew’s
Day massacre
 13
The Printing Press
 Invention of movable type was invented
in 1450 by Johann Gutenberg
 Manufacture of paper becomes easier
and cheaper
 Luther’s ideas spread quickly with the
help of the printing press
 Copies of Luther’s speeches and essays
were widely distributed
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The Reformation spreads
 William Tyndale (1494-1536)
 English professor
 Believed that everyone should be able to read
and interpret the Bible
 Translate the Bible into English, had to flee
England (he angered the clergy) but continued
to send Bibles to his home country
Following Luther’s footsteps, other reformers broke away from the Catholic
Church to form churches of their own:
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The Reformation spreads
 John Calvin
 French theologian, pastor and reformer in
Geneva during the Protestant Reformation
 Believed in predestination (God knew who
would be saved even before they were born
and nothing that people did during their lives
would change it)
 Yet, it was important to live a good life and
obey God’s laws
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 Henry VIII
 Wanted to get remarried so he could have a
son/heir
 The pope (Roman Catholic church) refused
Henry’s request so he left the Catholic Church
and created his own church
 The Church of England/Anglican Church, was
similar to the Catholic Church, but opened the
door for other churches to form
The Reformation spreads
 17
 Word “Protestant” is first used for
dissenting German princes who met
at the Diet of Speyer in 1529
 Protestant ideals appealed to the
urban and the literate:
 Family at the center of human life
 Roles of wives + mothers
sanctified
The Reformation spreads
 18
The Catholic Reformation
 Catholic reformers wanted to win back support for the Catholic
Church from people who had turned away from it =>
Counter reformation
 They responded to the specified criticism in different ways:
 The formation of new orders
 Missionaries
 An effort to reform the Catholic Church from within
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The Catholic Reformation
 The formation of new orders:
 The Society of Jesus/the Jesuits => a religious order created by
Ignatius of Loyola in Spain
 Aimed to serve the pope and the church
 Their activities included:
 Combating Protestantism through education (Teaching Catholic
education to boys)
 Propagation of Catholic faith among non-Catholics
 Fight Protestantism
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The Catholic Reformation
 The formation of new orders:
 The Ursuline order =>
 Originated in 1535 in Italy, established by Angela
Mercini In 1635
 Believed that Catholic education was the key to
strengthening the Catholic Church and limited the
impact of Protestant teachings
 Taught girls
 St. Ursula, a virgin from early Christianity chosen as
patron
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 Missionaries
 Stop the spread of protest
teaching
 Spread Catholic teachings
around the world
(Missionaries baptized
millions of people in Africa
and Asia)
 Win back Protestants
The Catholic Reformation
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 An effort to reform the Catholic Church from within
 The Catholic Reformation or Counter reformation
 The Council of Trent =>
The Catholic Reformation
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 (1545-1563)
 Meetings of Catholic leaders
aimed to clarify church
teachings that had been
criticized
The Council of Trent
 The council restated the importance of the
clergy interpreting the Bible
 The council ordered the bishops to live in
the areas where their churches were
located
 The council endorsed Catholic teaching
and instituted reform of Catholic practice
(the selling of indulgences was banned)
The Council of Trent:
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The Council of Trent
 The council played a key
role in revitalizing the
Catholic church in Europe
 A clear distinction was
created between Catholic
and Protestant beliefs and
practices as the idea of
Luther, Calvin and other
reformation leaders are
rejected
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Effects of the Reformation
 Religious conflicts spread within Europe
and the Americas as religious wars broke
out between Protestants and Catholics
 Whereas in 1500s, nearly all of Europe
was Catholic, by 1600 northern Europe
(England, Scotland, Norway, Sweden)
became mostly protestant
 The Reformation induced political, religious and cultural conflicts:
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 27
Effects of the Reformation
 In the Holy Roman Empire, each prince chose the religion for his territory
=> a patchwork of different kingdoms, some Protestant, some Catholic
 In the Americas, the areas settled by Catholics remained Catholic
whereas the 13 additional colonies were mostly Protestant
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 Disagreements about religion and violence often
went hand in hand
 Sometimes the disagreements were political, but
mostly religious
Effects of the Reformation
 Local protestant churches and towns
began to govern themselves, and the
national government had to share power
 The sharing of power between local
governments and a strong central
government is called federalism
 On an individual level, people began to
think more for themselves and to
investigate on their own
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Religious Wars in the Holy Roman Empire
 Major violence began when several
Protestants threw two Catholic officials
out of a window in Prague
 The king decided to close all the
Protestant churches => the Thirty
Years’ War- a series of wars that
involved many of the European countries
 As the war grew, the king had to ask
other countries to come to his aid
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Religious Wars in the Holy Roman Empire
 After thirty years of fighting =>
 The Treaty of Westphalia/Peace of
Westphalia: a series of peace treaties
signed between May and October 1648
in the Westphalian cities of Osnabrück
and Münster, largely ending the European
wars of religion
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Religious Wars in the Holy Roman Empire
 Allowed rulers to decide whether their
countries would be Catholic/Protestant
 The states of Germany became
independent with no single rule, ending
the Holy Roman Empire
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In conclusion
 Unsatisfied with the Roman Catholic Church, religious reformers broke
away to form their own churches.
 Luther urged reform with the Catholic Church, but was out casted
 Luther’s intellectual stand triggered social and political unrest of 16th
century
 The Spread of Luther’s Ideas was eased by the reform in print + support
of the upper class => opened the flood gates to religious/political turmoil
 Zwingli in Switzerland
 Anabaptists elsewhere in Germany
 End of Religious Unity and Universality in the West
7.9.1
7.9.2
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German Classical Philosophers
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 German classical Philosophers (Kant, Fichte, Hegel, Schelling, Feuerbach etc.)
highly contributed to the development of philosophical thought in modern
timesGerman
Classical Philosophers
“Classical philosophy”: the highest level of its representatives and importance of philosophical issues.
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Contribution:
Reformulation of
philosophical
issues that were
not resolved by
rationalism/empiri
sm
Innovation:
- Humans don’t live in the natural
world but in the world of culture
- Rational-theoretical
understanding of the
phenomena of mind and reality
Features:
Systematic and
coherent explanation of
the world, based on the
natural order and
harmony of the world,
but open for rational
understanding
Immanuel Kant
 German philosopher (1724-1804)
 Considered the most influential thinker of the
Enlightenment era and one of the greatest Western
philosophers of all times
 His works, especially those on epistemology (theory
of knowledge), aesthetics and ethics had a
profound influence on later philosophers
 Made an important contribution to the rise of
modern science
 Main contribution => liberation from theology
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Georg Wilhelm Friederich Hegel
 1770-1831, grew up in Stuttgart
 Studied theology (shared a dorm with Schelling: a
German idealist philosopher)
 Taught at Jena and Berlin Universities
 Absolute idealist inspired by Christian insights
 Developed a dialectical scheme that
emphasized the progress of history and of ideas
from thesis to antithesis and thence to a synthesis
 Incorporated the logical, natural, human, and the
divine in the scheme
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 Main idea of Hegel’s ontology => thinking is
equivalent to being
 The mind does not immediately grasp the objects of
the world. Knowledge falls into 2 categories:
 things that are unique to the individual
 things that are needed for universal understanding
 The philosophical system is comprised of three parts:
 Logic- the domain of “pure thought” (before subject
and object). Reason as the substance
 Nature
 Spirit
Hegel’s Philosophy
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 The basis of the world is an idealistic start “absolute
idea”, which is in the process of development and
formation
 The development of ideas is a dialectical process
(dialectical reasoning), based on the struggle of
contradictions
 Dialectical reasoning is a 3 stages process:
 Thesis => Antithesis => Synthesis
Hegel’s Philosophy
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 Art (thesis) - an individual project of the Absolute
idea
 Religion (antithesis of art)- an absolute idea disclosed
to humans by god in the form of revelation
 Philosophy (synthesis of art and religion)- higher
knowledge, full disclosure of all truth.
 Through the activity of their consciousness, humans are
able to understand the principles of the spirit and
give higher meaning for natural and social progress
Hegel’s Philosophy
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The German Dialects
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Dialect/Standard Dialect
 More than just an accent- a particular form of a language which is
peculiar to a specific region or social group
 A complete system of verbal communication (oral/signed, but not
necessarily written), with its own vocabulary and grammar
 A standard dialect is one that is supported by institutions (government
recognition). For example Standard British English, Standard American
English)
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 English dialects often differ from standard English mainly in terms of
regional accents
 German dialects are much more sharply differentiated from standard
German (in terms of vocabulary, grammar, phonology and
pronunciation)
 Different words are used to describe dialects in German (die
Mundart/der Dialekt)
 “Platt” is the colloquial term for Low and Middle German varieties
German dialects
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German dialects
 German is a pluricentric language:
 Having several national varieties
 The mother tongue of 94 million people in Germany, Austria & Liechtenstein
 63.7% of Switzerland’s 7.1 million inhabitants speak German as their
first language
 It is an official language in Belgium and South Tyrol (Italy)
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German language continuum
 In Germany and Austria, there are relatively fluid boundaries
between three different types of speech:
1) Standard German (Hochsprache)
2) Colloquial German (Umgangssprache)
3) Dialects
 Many dialect words have become part of the colloquial usage/written
language (moin, servus (greetings), schnacken (to chat) zocken
(gambling), malochen (hard work)
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Standard German
 Only in 1871when Germany was unified steps were taken to impose
uniformity of spelling and standardization of language (English 1755)
 Standard German is used in formal situations (in court of law), or when
one speaker is in a position of authority over the other in a speech act
 It is the type of German which children were expected to produce at
school and which is described in grammar books and dictionaries
 It is very often the form of German that carries the highest prestige
Colloquial German (Umgangssprache)
 Colloquial German is midway on the continuum between standard
German and dialect
 It ranges from forms close to the traditional dialect to forms which, in
an English-speaking context, would be called informal standard
 It represents the everyday speech of a majority of German-speakers
in the 20th century (and not standard German!)
Colloquial German (Umgangssprache)
Examples:
 Bock haben (Lust haben)- ‘feel like’ … => Da habe ich überhaupt
keinen Bock drauf (I absolutely do not want to do that)
 Die Nase voll haben- discontent => Ich habe die Nase voll von der
lauten Musik (I’m sick of the loud music)
 “Chillen”, to hang out => Nach der Arbeit muss ich erstmal chillen.
(After work I will have to chill first.)
 The rise of colloquial German has its origins in dialect speakers who did
not follow the standard use by the educated middle classes
 In order to linguistically identify with their social group, they used
relaxed forms of the standard
 The rise of both standard and colloquial German put dialects under
threat => dying out as standard German was adopted by schools &
institutions
 The media spreads the usage of standard German, now also of
colloquial German
The rise of colloquial German
Dialect map of Germany
 The dialect map of the German-speaking
countries can be split into three:
 Low German (Niederdeutsch) spoken in the
Lowlands in North Germany
 Middle German (Mitteldeutsch)
 Upper German (Oberdeutsch) spoken in south
Germany, Austria and Switzerland
 All three dialect areas contributed to the
formation of modern standard German
Which dialects are the “purest”?
 The dialects that are nearest to Standard German from a written
standpoint are those in the south and the centre of the country
 This is because the standardisation of German was hugely influenced by
Martin Luther
 For his translation of the Bible, he took the chancery language of
Meißen (Saxony) as his basis
 He chose a central dialect “dass mich beide Ober- und Niederländer
verstehen mögen”
 Pronunciation wise, modern “standard” German is closest to the north
German dialect (esp. Braunschweig, Hannover)
1970s – “Die Dialektwelle”
 In the 1970s, dialects enjoyed a new wave of popularity
(Dialektwelle), particularly among authors and the middle-class
 As the Green movement grew, dialects were seen as representing local
traditions and expressing regional identity: Sprache der Nähe
 A language of human closeness underpinning a friendly community
Dialect prestige – hot or not?
 Some dialects are more loved than others:
 In a 1998 survey (Allensbach survey), the most popular dialect was found to
be Bairisch (37%), North German Plattdeutsch was next (32%)
 The Allensbach survey concluded that dialects were gaining a more positive
image, having lost “viel von ihrem Image von provinzieller Enge und
Unbildung”
 Only 12% of people never used their dialect
Unpopular dialects: Saxon
 The 1998 Allensbach survey also concluded that Sächsisch was by far
the most unpopular dialect (50% disliked)
 Partly since the unpopular GDR leader Walter Ulbricht spoke with a strong
Saxon accent
 Second most unpopular dialect was Berlinisch (24%), then Bairisch (19%)
Next Session...
 German history
 WWI
 WWII
 German split and unification
 ...
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Next Session...
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Thank You For Your Attention!