Shows / The History of Germany: Kingdoms, War, and Rebuilding Europe — Fexingo History
The History of Germany: Kingdoms, War, and Rebuilding Europe — Fexingo History
From the Holy Roman Empire's fragmented principalities to the modern Federal Republic, Germany's story is a crucible of European history. Lucas and Luna guide listeners through over a millennium of transformation: the rise of the Ottonian dynasty, the Reformation sparked by Martin Luther, the Thirty Years' War that devastated the land, the unification under Otto von Bismarck in 1871, the catastrophic world wars, the Weimar Republic's cultural flowering, the Nazi regime's horrors, the division…
Episodes
The History of Germany: Kingdoms, War, and Rebuilding Europe — Fexingo HistoryThe Teutonic Order: Crusaders, Prussia, and a State
In this episode, Lucas and Luna explore the Teutonic Order, the crusading order that carved out a state in the Baltic and shaped German history for centuries…
- The History of Germany: Kingdoms, War, and Rebuilding Europe — Fexingo History
The Wartburg: Luther's Translation Fortress
In this episode, Lucas and Luna explore the Wartburg castle in Thuringia, where Martin Luther, under the alias Junker Jörg, translated the New Testament into…
- The History of Germany: Kingdoms, War, and Rebuilding Europe — Fexingo History
Margarete Schütte-Lihotzky: The Frankfurt Kitchen Architect
In this episode, Lucas and Luna look at the Frankfurt Kitchen, designed by Margarete Schütte-Lihotzky in 1926, and how it became a symbol of modernist…
- The History of Germany: Kingdoms, War, and Rebuilding Europe — Fexingo History
The Leipzig Debate: Luther's Fiery Trial
In 1519, Martin Luther faced his toughest challenge yet at the Leipzig Debate, a public confrontation that would redefine the Reformation. Joined by the…
- The History of Germany: Kingdoms, War, and Rebuilding Europe — Fexingo History
The Potsdam Conference: How Germany Was Redrawn
In the summer of 1945, as the smoke cleared over a shattered Europe, Harry Truman, Winston Churchill, and Joseph Stalin met in a suburb of Berlin to decide the…
- The History of Germany: Kingdoms, War, and Rebuilding Europe — Fexingo History
Crafting the Cold War: Berlin's Bauhaus Legacy
In 1949, the Bauhaus was officially dissolved, but its legacy would shape a divided Berlin in surprising ways. This episode goes beyond the school's…
- The History of Germany: Kingdoms, War, and Rebuilding Europe — Fexingo History
Bauhaus Women: Art and Design's Overlooked Pioneers
In this episode, Lucas and Luna explore the overlooked contributions of women at the Bauhaus, the influential German art school founded by Walter Gropius in…
- The History of Germany: Kingdoms, War, and Rebuilding Europe — Fexingo History
Bauhaus at 100: The Factory That Remade German Art
In this episode, Lucas and Luna explore the Bauhaus, the revolutionary art school founded in Weimar in 1919 by Walter Gropius. They trace its journey from the…
- The History of Germany: Kingdoms, War, and Rebuilding Europe — Fexingo History
The Hanseatic Shipyards: How Lübeck Forged Europe's Trade
After the Hanseatic League's rise, how did its ships actually get built? This episode takes you to the medieval shipyards of Lübeck, where a skilled…
- The History of Germany: Kingdoms, War, and Rebuilding Europe — Fexingo History
The Hanseatic League: Germany's Medieval Trade Empire
Before the German nation existed, a loose network of merchant cities dominated the Baltic and North Seas for over 400 years. In this episode, Lucas and Luna…
- The History of Germany: Kingdoms, War, and Rebuilding Europe — Fexingo History
The Aachen Chapel: Charlemagne's Octagon and the Birth of an Empire
In this episode, Lucas and Luna step inside the Palatine Chapel at Aachen, the octagonal heart of Charlemagne's empire. Built around 800 CE, this stunning…
- The History of Germany: Kingdoms, War, and Rebuilding Europe — Fexingo History
The Bauhaus Legacy: From Weimar to Modern Germany
In this episode of The History of Germany, Lucas and Luna explore how the Bauhaus movement, founded by Walter Gropius in 1919, reshaped not just art and…
- The History of Germany: Kingdoms, War, and Rebuilding Europe — Fexingo History
Bauhaus at 100: The Factory That Remade German Art
In 1919, in the chaotic aftermath of World War I, a small art school in Weimar opened its doors with a radical promise: to erase the line between artist and…
- The History of Germany: Kingdoms, War, and Rebuilding Europe — Fexingo History
The Berlin Airlift's Candy Bomber: A Sweet Revolution
When the Soviets blockaded West Berlin in 1948, the city was cut off from food, coal, and hope. But the Allies answered with an unprecedented airlift — and one…
- The History of Germany: Kingdoms, War, and Rebuilding Europe — Fexingo History
The Berlin Secession: Art Rebels of the Kaiser's Era
In 1898, a group of artists in Berlin broke away from the official academy to form the Berlin Secession. Their battles with the Prussian establishment, led by…
- The History of Germany: Kingdoms, War, and Rebuilding Europe — Fexingo History
The Lechfeld Legacy: Otto's Europe and the Making of a Nation
In 955, on a plain near Augsburg, Otto the Great crushed the Magyar horsemen who had terrorized Europe for decades. But the Battle of Lechfeld was more than a…
- The History of Germany: Kingdoms, War, and Rebuilding Europe — Fexingo History
Bismarck's Social Laws: Germany's First Welfare State
In this episode, Lucas and Luna delve into the surprising origins of the modern welfare state in Otto von Bismarck's Germany. Beyond his iron-fisted…
- The History of Germany: Kingdoms, War, and Rebuilding Europe — Fexingo History
The Congress of Vienna: How Europe Redrew Germany
In the aftermath of Napoleon's defeat, Europe's statesmen gathered in Vienna to redraw the map. This episode focuses on how the Congress of Vienna…
- The History of Germany: Kingdoms, War, and Rebuilding Europe — Fexingo History
The Peace of Prague: How a Treaty Split Germany
In 1635, the Peace of Prague ended the Swedish phase of the Thirty Years' War but left the Holy Roman Empire fractured. This episode explores how Emperor…
- The History of Germany: Kingdoms, War, and Rebuilding Europe — Fexingo History
The Berlin Wall Falls: A City's Night of Joy and Chaos
On the night of November 9, 1989, the Berlin Wall — the most infamous symbol of the Cold War — crumbled. But the story of that night is far more chaotic and…
- The History of Germany: Kingdoms, War, and Rebuilding Europe — Fexingo History
The Reichstag Fire: How a Blaze Sealed Hitler's Power
On the night of February 27, 1933, a fire tore through the Reichstag building in Berlin. Within hours, Hitler had a decree that suspended civil liberties, and…
- The History of Germany: Kingdoms, War, and Rebuilding Europe — Fexingo History
The Battle of Lechfeld: How Otto the Great Stopped the Magyars
In 955, on a field near Augsburg, Otto the Great faced the nomadic Magyar raiders who had terrorized Europe for decades. The Battle of Lechfeld was a turning…
- The History of Germany: Kingdoms, War, and Rebuilding Europe — Fexingo History
The Berlin Palace: Humboldt Forum and Germany's Identity
This episode moves beyond the stones and scaffolding of Berlin's reconstructed city palace to ask what it means to rebuild a symbol. Lucas and Luna trace…
- The History of Germany: Kingdoms, War, and Rebuilding Europe — Fexingo History
The Berlin Airlift: Breaking the Blockade
When the Soviets cut off West Berlin in June 1948, the city faced starvation. This episode follows the American and British response—Operation Vittles—as…
- The History of Germany: Kingdoms, War, and Rebuilding Europe — Fexingo History
The Battle of Teutoburg Forest: Rome's Greatest Defeat
In 9 CE, three Roman legions under Publius Quinctilius Varus were ambushed and annihilated in the dense, muddy forests of northern Germany. The victor was…
- The History of Germany: Kingdoms, War, and Rebuilding Europe — Fexingo History
Charlemagne's Coronation: The Birth of a German Empire
In this episode of The History of Germany, Lucas and Luna explore the pivotal moment when Charlemagne was crowned Emperor on Christmas Day in 800, an event…
- The History of Germany: Kingdoms, War, and Rebuilding Europe — Fexingo History
The Nibelungenlied: Germany's Epic Medieval Poem
In this episode, Lucas and Luna explore the Nibelungenlied, the Middle High German epic that has shaped German identity for centuries. Written around 1200 by…
- The History of Germany: Kingdoms, War, and Rebuilding Europe — Fexingo History
The Hanseatic League: Germany's Medieval Trade Empire
Before Bismarck, before the Reich, a different kind of German power ruled the Baltic and North Seas: the Hanseatic League. This episode explores how a loose…
- The History of Germany: Kingdoms, War, and Rebuilding Europe — Fexingo History
Metternich's German Confederation: Order After Napoleon
After the Battle of Leipzig and Napoleon's fall, Europe's leaders gathered at the Congress of Vienna to redraw the map. In this episode, Lucas and…
- The History of Germany: Kingdoms, War, and Rebuilding Europe — Fexingo History
The Walk to Canossa: Henry IV and the Investiture Controversy
In January 1077, King Henry IV of Germany stood barefoot in the snow outside the castle of Canossa, waiting for Pope Gregory VII to lift his excommunication…
- The History of Germany: Kingdoms, War, and Rebuilding Europe — Fexingo History
The Diet of Worms: Martin Luther's Stand That Remade Germany
In 1521, a single monk stood before the most powerful ruler in Europe and refused to back down. This episode takes you to the Diet of Worms, where Martin…
- The History of Germany: Kingdoms, War, and Rebuilding Europe — Fexingo History
Sedan and the Fall of Napoleon III: The Franco-Prussian War
In this episode, Lucas and Luna dive into the Franco-Prussian War of 1870–71, focusing on the decisive Battle of Sedan and the fall of Napoleon III. They…
- The History of Germany: Kingdoms, War, and Rebuilding Europe — Fexingo History
1848 Revolutions in Germany: The Frankfurt Parliament
In this episode, Lucas and Luna explore the German Revolutions of 1848-49, a pivotal moment when liberal and nationalist forces challenged the conservative…
- The History of Germany: Kingdoms, War, and Rebuilding Europe — Fexingo History
The Proclamation of the German Empire at Versailles
On January 18, 1871, in the Hall of Mirrors at the Palace of Versailles, the German Empire was formally proclaimed. This episode explores the political…
- The History of Germany: Kingdoms, War, and Rebuilding Europe — Fexingo History
The German Revolution of 1918: The Fall of the Kaiser
In 1918, as World War I ended, Germany erupted in revolution. Sailors mutinied in Kiel, workers and soldiers formed councils across the country, and within…
- The History of Germany: Kingdoms, War, and Rebuilding Europe — Fexingo History
The Zollverein: How a Customs Union United Germany
In Episode 182, Lucas and Luna explore the Zollverein, the 19th-century customs union that dismantled internal tariffs across German states long before…
- The History of Germany: Kingdoms, War, and Rebuilding Europe — Fexingo History
The Peace of Westphalia: How the Thirty Years' War Remade Germany
In 1648, after three decades of brutal conflict that killed perhaps a third of the population in German lands, the Peace of Westphalia brought an end to the…
- The History of Germany: Kingdoms, War, and Rebuilding Europe — Fexingo History
Frederick the Great: The Miracle of Rossbach
In 1757, Prussia seemed doomed. Surrounded by France, Austria, Russia, and Sweden in the Seven Years' War, King Frederick II — known as Frederick the…
- The History of Germany: Kingdoms, War, and Rebuilding Europe — Fexingo History
The Weimar Constitution: Germany's First Democracy
In the chaotic months after World War One, Germany's first democracy was born in a small Thuringian town. The Weimar Constitution was revolutionary —…
- The History of Germany: Kingdoms, War, and Rebuilding Europe — Fexingo History
The Berlin Palace: Humboldt Forum and Germany's Identity
This episode explores the contentious reconstruction of the Berlin Palace, now the Humboldt Forum, as a lens for understanding German identity, memory, and the…
- The History of Germany: Kingdoms, War, and Rebuilding Europe — Fexingo History
Bismarck and the Battle of Düppel: The War That Forged Germany
In this episode, Lucas and Luna revisit the Second Schleswig War of 1864, zeroing in on the pivotal Battle of Düppel. They explore how Prussian engineers…
- The History of Germany: Kingdoms, War, and Rebuilding Europe — Fexingo History
The Wannsee Conference: A Quiet Villa, a Horrible Plan
In January 1942, fifteen men met in a villa on the shore of Berlin's Wannsee lake. They weren't soldiers. They were bureaucrats — lawyers…
- The History of Germany: Kingdoms, War, and Rebuilding Europe — Fexingo History
Bismarck's Welfare State: The Model That Endures
In this episode of The History of Germany, Lucas and Luna explore Otto von Bismarck's revolutionary welfare state — the world's first system of…
- The History of Germany: Kingdoms, War, and Rebuilding Europe — Fexingo History
Bismarck's Social Insurance: The German Welfare State
In 1881, Kaiser Wilhelm I proclaimed a new era for Germany—one of state-sponsored social welfare. But was it compassion or calculation? This episode unpacks…
- The History of Germany: Kingdoms, War, and Rebuilding Europe — Fexingo History
The Battle of Leipzig: Germany's Völkerschlacht That Changed Europe
In October 1813, the largest battle in European history before the twentieth century unfolded around the Saxon city of Leipzig. Over four days, more than half…
- The History of Germany: Kingdoms, War, and Rebuilding Europe — Fexingo History
Bismarck's Colonial Gambit: Germany's African Empire
In this episode of The History of Germany: Kingdoms, War, and Rebuilding Europe, Lucas and Luna explore Otto von Bismarck's reluctant entry into…
- The History of Germany: Kingdoms, War, and Rebuilding Europe — Fexingo History
Bismarck's Constitution: How Germany Was Engineered
In 1871, Otto von Bismarck didn't just unite Germany — he designed a constitution that balanced monarchy, federalism, and a revolutionary universal male…
- The History of Germany: Kingdoms, War, and Rebuilding Europe — Fexingo History
Bismarck and the Battle of Düppel: The War That Forged Germany
In this episode of The History of Germany, Lucas and Luna step back from Bismarck's political maneuvering to examine the battle that made his unification…
- The History of Germany: Kingdoms, War, and Rebuilding Europe — Fexingo History
Bismarck's Kulturkampf: Germany's 19th-Century Culture War
In this episode, Lucas and Luna dive into Otto von Bismarck's 'Kulturkampf' — the 1870s conflict between the Prussian state and the Catholic…
- The History of Germany: Kingdoms, War, and Rebuilding Europe — Fexingo History
The Congress of Vienna: Redrawing Europe After Napoleon
In 1814–1815, after two decades of revolutionary and Napoleonic wars, European diplomats gathered in Vienna to reshape the continent. This episode focuses on…
- The History of Germany: Kingdoms, War, and Rebuilding Europe — Fexingo History
The Berlin Wall: From Construction to Fall
In this episode of The History of Germany, Lucas and Luna explore the Berlin Wall — not just its construction in 1961 and its fall in 1989, but the…
- The History of Germany: Kingdoms, War, and Rebuilding Europe — Fexingo History
The Berlin Airlift: How Candy Bombers Saved a City
In 1948, the Soviet Union blockaded West Berlin, cutting off food and fuel to over two million people. The Western Allies responded with the Berlin Airlift, a…
- The History of Germany: Kingdoms, War, and Rebuilding Europe — Fexingo History
Walther Rathenau: The Weimar Republic's Assassinated Visionary
In this episode, Lucas and Luna delve into the life and death of Walther Rathenau, the German-Jewish industrialist and foreign minister whose assassination in…
- The History of Germany: Kingdoms, War, and Rebuilding Europe — Fexingo History
Bismarck's Legacy: The Reichstag Fire and Nazi Power
In February 1933, a fire gutted the German Reichstag building. The Nazi regime blamed communists, invoked emergency powers, and dismantled civil liberties…
- The History of Germany: Kingdoms, War, and Rebuilding Europe — Fexingo History
Bismarck's Anti-Socialist Laws: Cracking Down on the SPD
In this episode of The History of Germany, Lucas and Luna explore a tense chapter in Otto von Bismarck's chancellorship: the Anti-Socialist Laws…
- The History of Germany: Kingdoms, War, and Rebuilding Europe — Fexingo History
The Night of the Long Knives: Hitler's Purge of the SA
In this episode, Lucas and Luna delve into the Night of the Long Knives, Hitler's bloody purge of the SA leadership in June 1934. They explore the…
- The History of Germany: Kingdoms, War, and Rebuilding Europe — Fexingo History
The Night of the Long Knives: Hitler's Purge of the SA
In June 1934, Adolf Hitler ordered the murder of his own paramilitary leaders, the SA, in a bloody purge that cemented his power and terrified the German…
- The History of Germany: Kingdoms, War, and Rebuilding Europe — Fexingo History
The Eulenburg Affair: Scandal That Shook Bismarck's Germany
In the late 1880s, Germany was rocked by a series of trials that exposed a circle of powerful men accused of homosexuality and treason. The Eulenburg Affair…
- The History of Germany: Kingdoms, War, and Rebuilding Europe — Fexingo History
Bismarck's Social Insurance: The German Welfare State
In this episode of The History of Germany, Lucas and Luna explore Otto von Bismarck's unexpected introduction of the world's first modern social…
- The History of Germany: Kingdoms, War, and Rebuilding Europe — Fexingo History
The Iron Chancellor: Bismarck's Road to German Unification
In this episode, Lucas and Luna explore the political genius of Otto von Bismarck, the Iron Chancellor who forged a unified German Empire through a combination…