2011/11/24 by Joachim Whaley · 1 citation
Arts and Humanities · #Reformation and Early Modern Christianity
paper · doi:10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198731016.003.0002
openalex publication_date 2011/11/24 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/04/05
This section takes a comprehensive view of the state of Germany around 1500. The origins and medieval development of the Reich and the titles of its Emperor are explained. It outlines the fluctuating frontiers of the Reich and surveys the 300–400 territories and some 2,000 further small territorial entities the Reich comprised. It also illuminates the development of the constitutional system of the Reich in the late fifteenth century and highlights the emergence of the Reichstag as a defining moment in the construction of the German Reich. Finally, the relationship between the Reich and the German nation is considered as it is reflected in the writings of humanist scholars around 1500: they created the framework for thinking about rights and liberties, identity and patriotism for the next three centuries.