Latest / The History of Germany: Kingdoms, War, and Rebuilding Europe — Fexingo History / The Elbe Germanization: How Charlemagne Conquered the Saxons
Transcript
- Lucas: We've talked a lot about medieval Germany — the Hanseatic League, the Teutonic Order, the rise of Prussia. But I think to really understand how Germany came to be, we have to go back to a single, brutal episode: Charlemagne's conquest of the Saxons, starting in 772. Luna: That's before the Holy Roman Empire even existed, right? Like, early Frankish expansion. Lucas: Exactly. Charlemagne was king of the Franks, and he spent over thirty years — from 772 to 804 — subjugating the pagan Saxons who lived in what's now northwestern Germany. This wasn't just a land grab; it was a religious war. Charlemagne saw it as his duty to convert the Saxons to Christianity, by the sword if necessary. Lucas: The Saxons were a loose confederation of tribes — the Westphalians, the Eastphalians, the Angrians, and the Nordalbingians — and they had a sacred site called the Irminsul. Most scholars think it was a giant wooden pillar or tree trunk that they believed supported the heavens. Charlemagne's first major act was to destroy it in 772. Luna: So he went straight for their most important religious symbol. That's a direct challenge. Lucas: Absolutely. And the Saxons responded fiercely. There wasn't a single leader at first, but eventually a chieftain named Widukind emerged as the symbol of resistance. He led repeated uprisings, often while Charlemagne was campaigning elsewhere — in Italy, in Spain, against the Avars. Every time Charlemagne thought the Saxons were pacified, they'd rise again. Lucas: The most notorious incident came in 782. Charlemagne had issued a series of laws, the Capitulatio de partibus Saxoniae, which made pagan practices punishable by death. That year, the Saxons rebelled again, and a Frankish army was defeated at the Süntel Hills. Charlemagne was furious. He convened an assembly at Verden, on the Aller River, and allegedly executed 4,500 Saxon captives in a single day. Luna: Four thousand five hundred. That's staggering. Is the number reliable? Lucas: Our main source is the Royal Frankish Annals, which gives that number. Some modern historians are skeptical — it might be an exaggeration or a symbolic figure — but even if it's half that, it's still a massacre on a scale that was meant to terrorize. The site is still called the "Bloody Field" in local tradition. Lucas: After Verden, Widukind realized he couldn't win forever. In 785, he surrendered and agreed to be baptized, with Charlemagne himself acting as his godfather. That defused the rebellion for a while, but smaller uprisings continued for another two decades. Luna: So what made the Saxons finally submit? Was it just exhaustion? Lucas: Partly. But Charlemagne also changed his tactics. He instituted a systematic policy of forced relocation — deporting Saxon families to Frankish territory and settling loyal Franks in Saxon lands. He built fortresses and bishoprics, like the one at Paderborn. And he issued the Lex Saxonum, which codified Frankish law for Saxony: stiff fines for Christian offenses, and death for refusing baptism. Lucas: By 804, Charlemagne felt secure enough to deport the last resistant group, the Nordalbingians from the far north, and repopulate their lands. The Saxon Wars were over. The Saxons were now part of the Frankish Empire, and their territory became the Duchy of Saxony within the later Holy Roman Empire. Luna: So this is really the beginning of what we think of as Germany, isn't it? The fusion of Frankish and Saxon identities. Lucas: I think you can argue that. The Saxon Wars set a pattern: forced conversion, cultural erasure, and colonial settlement that would later be echoed in the Drang nach Osten — the eastward expansion of German-speaking peoples into Slavic lands. The same kind of rhetoric, the same kind of violence, just a few centuries later. Lucas: There's also a fascinating literary legacy. The epic poem "Heliand," written in Old Saxon around 830, recasts Jesus as a Saxon chieftain loyal to his warrior band. It's a sign that Christianization wasn't just top-down imposition — local traditions blended with the new faith. Luna: So the Saxons didn't completely lose their identity. Lucas: Not entirely. They became Christian, but they put their own stamp on it. And in the centuries that followed, Saxony became one of the most powerful duchies in the German kingdom. From Widukind's defeat to the rise of the Saxon emperors of the Ottonian dynasty, the story is one of transformation. Lucas: But the memory of that violence never fully faded. The Verden massacre, in particular, became a contested symbol — used by 19th-century German nationalists to celebrate Charlemagne as a unifier, and by anti-imperialists to condemn forced conversion. It's a reminder that the founding of Europe was often a bloody affair. Luna: It makes you wonder how different things might have been if the Saxons had held out longer. Lucas: It does. But they didn't, and the result was a unified Christian kingdom that became the heart of the Holy Roman Empire. I think that's worth remembering the next time we talk about German unification in the 19th century — the roots go deeper than Bismarck. Luna: Thanks, Lucas. That's a lot to think about. Lucas: My pleasure. Next time, we'll look at how that Saxon duchy evolved into the power that would challenge emperors — but that's for another episode.