Editing History of Germany (section)

==Early modern Germany==
{{Main|Early Modern history of Germany|18th century history of Germany}}
{{for|subdivisions and political structure|List of states in the Holy Roman Empire}}

===Social changes===
[[File:Durer-Triumphal Arch-military.jpg|thumb|Detail of [[Albrecht Dürer]]'s [[Triumphal Arch (woodcut)|''Arch of Honour'']], 1515, printed 1517–1518 (The Metropolitan Museum of Art). The scene shows "a new coordinated professional military, which features large-scale infantry, complemented by traditional cavalry, but now supplemented with a newer military weapon resource, portable artillery".<ref>{{Cite web |last=Silver |first=Larry |title=Albrecht Dürer, The Triumphal Arch or Arch of Honor – Smarthistory |url=https://smarthistory.org/albrecht-durer-the-triumphal-arch |access-date=3 March 2022 |website=smarthistory.org}}</ref>]]

The early-modern European society gradually developed after the disasters of the 14th century as religious obedience and political loyalties declined in the wake of the [[Black Death|Great Plague]], the [[Western Schism|schism]] of the Church and prolonged dynastic wars. The rise of the [[Free imperial city|cities]] and the emergence of the new [[Burgher (title)|burgher]] class eroded the societal, legal and economic order of feudalism.<ref name="Rothstein1995">{{Cite book |first=Stanley |last=William Rothstein |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=g0W8-Xsg_ssC&pg=PA9 |title=Class, Culture, and Race in American Schools: A Handbook |publisher=Greenwood Publishing Group |date=1995 |isbn=978-0-3132-9102-9 |page=9}}</ref>

[[File:Hans Conrad Sichelbein Stifterbild Familie Gossenbrot img02.jpg|thumb|upright|left|[[Georg Gossembrot]], who by 1500 was Emperor Maximilian I's most important financier and also personal friend. Having become a target of envy, he died in 1502, likely poisoned.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Wiesflecker |first=Hermann |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=rddVAAAAYAAJ |title=Österreich, Reich und Europa 1502 – 1504 |date=2004 |publisher=Böhlau |isbn=978-3-2057-7305-4 |page=694 |language=de |access-date=18 January 2022}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last=Häberlein |first=Mark |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=YmnlZ8hR1cYC&pg=PT59 |title=The Fuggers of Augsburg: Pursuing Wealth and Honor in Renaissance Germany |date=29 June 2012 |publisher=University of Virginia Press |isbn=978-0-8139-3258-3 |page=59 |language=en |access-date=18 January 2022}}</ref>]]
The commercial enterprises of the mercantile elites in the quickly developing cities in South Germany (such as [[Augsburg]] and [[Nuremberg]]), with the most prominent families being the [[Georg Gossembrot|Gossembrots]], [[Fugger]]s (the wealthiest family in Europe during the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries<ref>{{Cite book |last1=Belt |first1=Forest H. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=WQzsAAAAMAAJ |title=The ABC-CLIO World History Companion to Capitalism |last2=Allen |first2=Larry |date=1998 |publisher=ABC-CLIO |isbn=978-0-8743-6944-1 |page=134 |language=en |access-date=4 March 2022}}</ref>), [[Welser family|Welsers]], [[Hochstetter family|Hochstetters]], Imholts, generated unprecedented financial means. As financiers to both the leading ecclesiastical and secular rulers, these families fundamentally influenced the political affairs in the empire during the fifteenth and sixteenth century.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Meinrad |first=Kohler, Alfred; Arnold-Öttl, Herta; Ammann, Gert; Caramelle, Franz; Gürtler, Eleonore; Pizzinini |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=IQJCDAAAQBAJ&pg=PT143 |title=Tiroler Ausstellungsstrassen: Maximilian I |date=2016 |publisher=Museum With No Frontiers, MWNF (Museum Ohne Grenzen) |isbn=978-3-9029-6603-2 |page=143 |language=de |access-date=18 January 2022}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last=Nolan |first=Cathal J. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=1h9zzSH-NmwC&pg=PA332 |title=The Age of Wars of Religion, 1000-1650: An Encyclopedia of Global Warfare and Civilization |date=2006 |publisher=Greenwood Publishing Group |isbn=978-0-3133-3733-8 |page=332 |language=en |access-date=3 March 2022}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last=Clough |first=S. B. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=xQNaAAAAYAAJ |title=European History in a World Perspective: Early modern times |date=1975 |publisher=Heath |isbn=978-0-6698-5555-5 |page=479 |language=en |access-date=3 March 2022}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news |first=Daniel |last=Eckert |date=6 June 2016 |title=So wurde Fugger zum reichsten Menschen der Geschichte |work=Die Welt |publisher=Welt |url=https://www.welt.de/wirtschaft/article155974825/So-wurde-Fugger-zum-reichsten-Menschen-der-Geschichte.html |access-date=18 March 2019}}</ref> The increasingly money based economy also provoked social discontent among knights and peasants and predatory "robber knights" became common.<ref>{{Cite web |first=David |last=Schwope |title=The Death of the Knight: Changes in Military Weaponry during the Tudor Period |url=https://www.hsu.edu/academicforum/2003-2004/2003-4AFTheDeathof%20the%20Knight.pdf |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151128214545/http://www.hsu.edu/academicforum/2003-2004/2003-4AFTheDeathof%20the%20Knight.pdf |archive-date=28 November 2015 |access-date=18 March 2019 |publisher=Academic Forum}}</ref>

From 1438 the [[Habsburg]] dynasty, who had acquired control in the south-eastern empire over the Duchy of Austria, [[Kingdom of Bohemia|Bohemia]] and [[Kingdom of Hungary|Hungary]] after the death of King [[Louis II of Hungary and Bohemia|Louis II]] in 1526, managed to permanently occupy the position of the Holy Roman Emperor until 1806 (with the exception of the years between 1742 and 1745).

Some Europe-wide revolutions were born in the Empire: the combination of the [[Kaiserliche Reichspost|first modern postal system]] established by [[Maximilian I, Holy Roman Emperor|Maximilian]] (with the management under the [[Thurn und Taxis|Taxis family]]) with the printing system invented by Gutenberg produced a communication revolution{{Sfn|Stollberg-Rilinger|2021|pp=46, 47}}{{Sfn|Wilson|2016|p=ii}}<ref>{{Cite book |last=Metzig |first=Gregor |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=MiyXDQAAQBAJ&pg=PA98 |title=Kommunikation und Konfrontation: Diplomatie und Gesandtschaftswesen Kaiser Maximilians I. (1486–1519) |date=21 November 2016 |publisher=Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co KG |isbn=978-3-1104-5673-8 |pages=98, 99 |language=de |access-date=15 February 2022}}</ref> – the Empire's decentralized nature made censorship difficult and this combined with the new communication system to facilitate free expression, thus elevating cultural life. The system also helped the authorities to disseminate orders and policies, boosted the Empire's coherence in general, and helped reformers like Luther to broadcast their views and communicate with each other effectively, thus contributing to the religious Reformation.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Monro |first=Alexander |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=-Y6mCQAAQBAJ&pg=PA239 |title=The Paper Trail: An Unexpected History of a Revolutionary Invention |date=22 March 2016 |publisher=Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group |isbn=978-0-3079-6230-0 |page=239 |language=en |access-date=2 March 2022}}</ref>{{Sfn|Wilson|2016|pp=ii, 260, 266, 277, 419}}{{Sfn|Stollberg-Rilinger|2021|pp=46–53}}

Maximilian's [[Maximilian I, Holy Roman Emperor#Military innovation, chivalry, and equipment|military reforms]], especially his development of the [[Landsknecht]]e, caused a military revolution that broke the back of the knight class<ref>{{Cite book |last=Axelrod |first=Alan |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=lX9ZDwAAQBAJ&pg=PT124 |title=Mercenaries: A Guide to Private Armies and Private Military Companies |date=2013 |publisher=CQ Press |isbn=978-1-4833-6467-4 |page=124 |access-date=20 September 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210926204224/https://books.google.com/books?id=lX9ZDwAAQBAJ&pg=PT124 |archive-date=26 September 2021 |url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{Cite episode |title=Die letzten ihrer Art |series=Die Welt der Ritter |last=Kersken |first=Uwe |network=Zweites Deutsches Fernsehen(zdf) |date=2014}}</ref> and spread all over Europe shortly after his death.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Kleinschmidt |first=Harald |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=vWEiAQAAIAAJ |title=Ruling the Waves: Emperor Maximilian I, the Search for Islands and the Transformation of the European World Picture c. 1500 |date=2008 |publisher=Antiquariaat Forum |isbn=978-9-0619-4020-3 |page=162 |access-date=3 March 2022}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal |last=Brunner |first=Jean-Claude |date=2012 |title=Historical Introduction |journal=Medieval Warfare |volume=2 |issue=3, "The revival of infantry tactics in the Late Middle Ages" |pages=6–9 |jstor=48578016}}</ref>

===Imperial reform===
{{Main|Imperial Reform}}
[[File:Germania by Jorg Kolderer.jpg|thumb|upright=1.35|Personification of the Reich as [[Germania (personification)|Germania]], a figure reinvented by Maximilian and his humanists,{{Sfn|Wilson|2016|p=2}} by [[:de:Jörg Kölderer|Jörg Kölderer]], 1512. The "German woman", wearing her hair loose and a crown, sitting on the Imperial throne, corresponds both to the self-image of Maximilian I as King of Germany and the formula ''Holy Roman Empire of the German Nation'' (omitting other nations). While usually depicted during the Middle Age as subordinate to both imperial power and Italia or Gallia, she now takes central stage in Maximilian's [[Triumphal Procession]], being carried in front of [[c:File:Roma in Maximilian'sTriumphal Procession.jpg|Roma]].<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Strieder |first1=Peter |title=Zur Entstehungsgeschichte von Dürers Ehrenpforte für Kaiser Maximilian |journal=Anzeiger des Germanischen Nationalmuseums |date=8 May 2017 |pages=128–142 Seiten |doi=10.11588/azgnm.1954.0.38143 }}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last=Hirschi |first=Caspar |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=4_v4iySQgnsC&pg=PA45 |title=The Origins of Nationalism: An Alternative History from Ancient Rome to Early Modern Germany |date=8 December 2011 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |isbn=978-1-1395-0230-6 |page=45 |language=en |access-date=7 February 2022}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last=Brandt |first=Bettina |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=jJLM607h6jsC&pg=PA37 |title=Germania und ihre Söhne: Repräsentationen von Nation, Geschlecht und Politik in der Moderne |date=2010 |publisher=Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht |isbn=978-3-5253-6710-0 |page=37 |language=de |access-date=8 February 2022}}</ref>]]

During his reign from 1493 to 1519, [[Maximilian I, Holy Roman Emperor|Maximilian I]], in a combined effort with the Estates (who sometimes acted as opponents and sometimes as cooperators to him), his officials and his humanists, [[Imperial Reform|reformed]] the empire. A dual system of Supreme Courts (the ''[[Reichskammergericht]]'' and the [[Aulic Council|''Reichshofrat'']]) was established (with the ''Reichshofrat'' playing a more efficient role during the Early Modern period),{{Sfn|Stollberg-Rilinger|2021|p=52}} together with the formalized Reception of Roman Law;<ref>{{Cite book |last=Lee |first=Daniel |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=3jfcCwAAQBAJ&pg=PA243 |title=Popular Sovereignty in Early Modern Constitutional Thought |date=19 February 2016 |publisher=Oxford University Press |isbn=978-0-1910-6244-5 |page=243 |language=en |access-date=20 November 2021}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last=Thornhill |first=Chris |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=3JuU_MfVTbAC&pg=PA12 |title=German Political Philosophy: The Metaphysics of Law |date=24 January 2007 |publisher=Routledge |isbn=978-1-1343-8280-4 |page=12 |language=en |access-date=20 November 2021}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last=Haivry |first=Ofir |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=KNvFDgAAQBAJ&pg=PA118 |title=John Selden and the Western Political Tradition |date=29 June 2017 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |isbn=978-1-1070-1134-2 |page=118 |language=en |access-date=20 November 2021}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last=Mousourakis |first=George |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=n6tBDgAAQBAJ&pg=PT435 |title=The Historical and Institutional Context of Roman Law |date=2 March 2017 |publisher=Routledge |isbn=978-1-3518-8840-0 |page=435 |language=en |access-date=20 November 2021}}</ref> the [[Imperial Diet (Holy Roman Empire)|Imperial Diet]] (''Reichstag'') became the all-important political forum and the supreme legal and constitutional institution, which would act as a guarantee for the preservation of the Empire in the long run;<ref>{{Cite book |last=Neuhaus |first=Helmut |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=z9PnBQAAQBAJ&pg=PT48 |title=Das Reich in der Frühen Neuzeit |date=1 October 2010 |publisher=Walter de Gruyter |isbn=978-3-4867-0179-1 |page=48 |language=de |access-date=14 February 2022}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last=Brendle |first=Franz |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=MBxoAAAAMAAJ |title=Dynastie, Reich und Reformation: die württembergischen Herzöge Ulrich und Christoph, die Habsburger und Frankreich |date=1998 |publisher=W. Kohlhammer |isbn=978-3-1701-5563-3 |page=54 |language=de |access-date=14 February 2022}}</ref> a Permanent Land Piece (''Ewiger Landfriede'') was declared in 1495 with regional leagues and unions providing the supporting structure, together with the creation of the ''Reichskreise'' (''Imperial Circles'', which would serve the purpose of organize imperial armies, collect taxes and enforce orders of the imperial institutions);<ref>{{Cite book |last=Treichel |first=Eckhardt |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=n9iRCwAAQBAJ&pg=PT1549 |title=Organisation und innere Ausgestaltung des Deutschen Bundes 1815–1819 |date=14 December 2015 |publisher=Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co KG |isbn=978-3-1104-2400-3 |page=1549 |language=en |access-date=14 February 2022}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last=Putten |first=Jasper Cornelis van |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=sSk_DwAAQBAJ&pg=PA256 |title=Networked Nation: Mapping German Cities in Sebastian Münster's "Cosmographia" |date=6 November 2017 |publisher=BRILL |isbn=978-9-0043-5396-1 |page=256 |language=en |access-date=14 February 2022}}</ref>{{Sfn|Whaley|2011|pp=76, 77}} the Imperial and Court Chanceries were combined to become the decisive government institution;{{Sfn|Müller|2003|p=298}}{{Sfn|Brady|2009|p=111}} the [[Landsknecht]]e that Maximilian created became a form of imperial army;{{Sfn|Whaley|2011|p=74}} a national political culture began to emerge;{{Sfn|Whaley|2011|p=115}}<ref>{{Cite web |last=Whaley |first=Joachim |title=Whaley on Silver, "Marketing Maximilian: the Visual Ideology of a Holy Roman Emperor" H-German H-Net |url=https://networks.h-net.org/node/35008/reviews/45722/whaley-silver-marketing-maximilian-visual-ideology-holy-roman-emperor |access-date=3 March 2022 |website=networks.h-net.org}}</ref> and the German language began to attain an unified form.<ref>{{Cite book |last1=Tennant |first1=Elaine C. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=JdIDcGyUcN4C&pg=PA3 |title=The Habsburg Chancery Language in Perspective, Volume 114 |last2=Johnson |first2=Carroll B. |date=1985 |publisher=University of California Press |isbn=978-0-5200-9694-3 |pages=1, 3, 9 |access-date=21 September 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210927161255/https://books.google.com/books?id=JdIDcGyUcN4C&pg=PA3 |archive-date=27 September 2021 |url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal |last1=Wiesinger |first1=Peter |title=Zwei Varietäten der deutschen Schriftsprache durch Konfessionalisierung im 16. und 17. Jahrhundert |journal=Jahrbuch für Germanistische Sprachgeschichte |date=16 August 2018 |volume=9 |issue=1 |pages=213–234 |doi=10.1515/jbgsg-2018-0014 |s2cid=186566355 }}</ref> The political structure remained incomplete and piecemeal though, mainly due to the failure of the Common Penny (an imperial tax) that the Estates resisted.{{Sfn|Stollberg-Rilinger|2021|p=52}}{{Efn|"By no means all the Imperial Estates, for example, participated in the ''Reichstag''. Not every vassal of the emperor, even in the German lands, participated in the emerging political system from the start. In the period around 1500 what might be described as the political nation was largely confined to the south, to the old Hohenstaufen core territories south of the Main and the Saale, to the areas between Alsace in the west and the Austrian duchies in the east, where the Habsburgs had extended their territories and around them, their clientele.", pg. 39.{{Sfn|Whaley|2011|pp=12, 39, 40, 50, 72, 80}}}} Through many compromises between emperor and estates though, a flexible, future-oriented problem-solving mechanism for the Empire was formed, together with a monarchy through which the emperor shared power with the Estates.{{Sfn|Stollberg-Rilinger|2021|p=47}}{{Efn|"[...] it is a tribute to his success that what emerged by the end of his reign was not an oligarchy of princes but a strengthened monarchy", pg. 75; "The Reich emerged from the reforms of 1495 and 1500 as a polity in which the emperor and the Estates coexisted, but also competed, in uneasy equilibrium", pg. 95.{{Sfn|Whaley|2011|p=27, 75}}}} Whether the Reform also equated to a (successful or unsuccessful) nation building process remains a debate.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Friedeburg |first=Robert von |url=https://www.hsozkult.de/publicationreview/id/reb-17379 |title=Germany and the Holy Roman Empire |date=2012 |publisher=Oxford University Press |isbn=978-0-1987-3101-6 |access-date=26 February 2022}}</ref>

The addition ''Nationis Germanicæ'' (of German Nation) to the emperor's title appeared first in the 15th century: in a 1486 law decreed by Frederick III and in 1512 in reference to the Imperial Diet in Cologne by Maximilian I. In 1525, the Heilbronn reform plan – the most advanced document of the [[German Peasants' War]] (''Deutscher Bauernkrieg'') – referred to the ''Reich'' as ''von Teutscher Nation'' (of German nation). During the fifteen century, the term "German nation" had witness a rise in use due to the growth of a "community of interests". The Estates also increasingly distinguished between their German Reich and the wider, "universal" Reich.{{Sfn|Whaley|2011|p=17, 73}}

===Protestant Reformation===
[[File:Map of the Imperial Circles (1512)-en.png|thumb|left|The empire in 1512]]

In order to manage their ever growing expenses, the [[Renaissance Papacy|Renaissance Popes]] of the 15th and early 16th century promoted the excessive sale of [[indulgence]]s and offices and titles of the Roman Curia.

In 1517, the monk [[Martin Luther]] published a pamphlet with [[95 Theses]] that he posted in the town square of [[Wittenberg]] and handed copies of to feudal lords. Whether he nailed them to a church door at Wittenberg remains unclear. The list detailed 95 assertions, he argued, represented corrupt practice of the Christian faith and misconduct within the Catholic Church. Although perhaps not Luther's chief concern, he received popular support for his condemnation of the sale of [[indulgences]] and clerical offices, the pope's and higher clergy's abuse of power and his doubts of the very idea of the institution of the Church and the papacy.<ref name="ski">{{Cite web |first1=Jeremiah |last1=Dittmar |first2=Skipper |last2=Seabold |title=Media, Markets and Institutional Change: Evidence from the Protestant Reformation |url=http://cep.lse.ac.uk/pubs/download/dp1367.pdf |access-date=19 March 2019 |publisher=CEP}}</ref>

[[File:Luther at the Diet of Worms.jpg|thumb|[[Martin Luther]] confronting [[Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor|emperor Charles V]] at the [[Diet of Worms]], painting by [[Anton von Werner]]]]
The Protestant [[Reformation]] was the first successful challenge to the Catholic Church and began in 1521 as Luther was outlawed at the [[Diet of Worms]] after his refusal to repent. The ideas of the reformation spread rapidly, as the new technology of the modern printing press ensured cheap mass copies and distribution of the theses and helped by the [[Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor|Emperor Charles V]]'s wars with France and the [[Ottoman Empire|Turks]].<ref name=ski/> Hiding in the [[Wartburg Castle]], Luther translated the Bible into German, thereby greatly contributing to the establishment of the modern German language. This is highlighted by the fact that Luther spoke only a local dialect of minor importance during that time. After the publication of his Bible, his dialect suppressed others and constitutes to a great extent what is now modern German. With the [[Protestation at Speyer|protestation]] of the Lutheran princes at the [[Imperial Diet (Holy Roman Empire)|Imperial Diet]] of [[Second Diet of Speyer|Speyer]] in 1529 and the acceptance and adoption of the Lutheran [[Augsburg Confession]] by the Lutheran princes beginning in 1530, the separate Lutheran church was established.<ref>John Lotherington, ''The German Reformation'' (2014)</ref>

The [[German Peasants' War]], which began in the southwest in [[Alsace]] and [[Swabia]] and spread further east into [[Franconia]], [[Thuringia]] and Austria, was a series of economic and religious revolts of the rural lower classes, encouraged by the rhetoric of various radical religious reformers and Anabaptists against the ruling feudal lords. Although occasionally assisted by war-experienced noblemen like [[Götz von Berlichingen]] and [[Florian Geyer]] (in Franconia) and the theologian [[Thomas Müntzer]] (in Thuringia), the peasant forces lacked military structure, skill, logistics and equipment and as many as 100,000 insurgents were eventually defeated and massacred by the territorial princes.<ref>Michael G. Baylor, ''The German Reformation and the Peasants' War: A Brief History with Documents'' (2012)</ref>

The Catholic [[Counter-Reformation]], initiated in 1545 at the [[Council of Trent]] was spearheaded by the scholarly religious [[Society of Jesus|Jesuit order]], that was founded just five years prior by several clerics around [[Ignatius of Loyola]]. Its intent was to challenge and contain the Protestant Reformation via apologetic and polemical writings and decrees, ecclesiastical reconfiguration, wars and imperial political maneuverings. In 1547, emperor Charles V defeated the [[Schmalkaldic League]], a military alliance of Protestant rulers.<ref>John Lotherington, ''The Counter-Reformation'' (2015)</ref> The 1555 [[Peace of Augsburg]] decreed the recognition of the Lutheran Faith and religious division of the empire. It also stipulated the ruler's right to determine the official confession in his principality (''[[Cuius regio, eius religio]]''). The Counter-Reformation eventually failed to reintegrate the central and northern German Lutheran states. In 1608/1609 the [[Protestant Union]] and the [[Catholic League (German)|Catholic League]] were formed.

=== Thirty Years' War, 1618–1648 ===
{{Main|Thirty Years' War}}
[[File:Bevölkerkungsrückgang im HRRDN nach dem Dreißigjährigen Krieg.PNG|thumb|left|Population decline in the empire as a consequence of the [[Thirty Years' War]]]]

The 1618 to 1648 [[Thirty Years' War]], that took place almost exclusively in the Holy Roman Empire has its origins, which remain widely debated, in the unsolved and recurring conflicts of the Catholic and Protestant factions. The Catholic emperor [[Ferdinand II, Holy Roman Emperor|Ferdinand II]] attempted to achieve the religious and political unity of the empire, while the opposing Protestant Union forces were determined to defend their religious rights. The religious motive served as the universal justification for the various territorial and foreign princes, who over the course of several stages joined either of the two warring parties in order to gain land and power.{{Sfn|Adams|1997|pp=138–191}}<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Wilson |first=Peter H. |date=June 2008 |title=The Causes of the Thirty Years War 1618–1648 |journal=The English Historical Review |publisher=Oxford University Press |volume=CXXIII |issue=502 |pages=554–586 |doi=10.1093/ehr/cen160}}</ref>

The conflict was sparked by the [[Bohemian Revolt|revolt of the Protestant nobility of Bohemia]] against emperor [[Matthias, Holy Roman Emperor|Matthias]]' succession policies. After imperial triumph at the [[Battle of White Mountain]] and a short-lived peace, the war grew to become a political European conflict by the intervention of [[Christian IV of Denmark|King Christian IV of Denmark]] from 1625 to 1630, [[Gustavus Adolphus of Sweden]] from 1630 to 1648 and France under [[Cardinal Richelieu]] from 1635 to 1648. The conflict increasingly evolved into a struggle between the French House of Bourbon and the House of Habsburg for predominance in Europe, for which the central German territories of the empire served as the battleground.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Wilson |first=Peter H. |title=The Thirty Years War: Europe's Tragedy |date=2009}}</ref>

The war ranks among the most catastrophic in history as three decades of constant warfare and destruction had left the land devastated. Marauding armies incessantly pillaged the countryside, seized and levied heavy taxes on cities and indiscriminately plundered the food stocks of the peasantry. There were also the countless bands of murderous outlaws, sick, homeless, disrupted people and invalid soldiery. Overall social and economic disruption caused a dramatic decline in population as a result of pandemic murder and random rape and killings, endemic infectious diseases, crop failures, famine, declining birth rates, wanton burglary, witch-hunts and the emigration of terrified people. Estimates vary between a 38% drop from 16 million people in 1618 to 10 million by 1650 and a mere 20% drop from 20 million to 16 million. The [[Altmark]] and [[History of Württemberg|Württemberg]] regions were especially hard hit, where it took generations to fully recover.{{Sfn|Adams|1997|pp=138–191}}<ref>Geoffrey Parker, ''The Thirty Years' War'' (1997) p. 178 has 15–20% decline; Tryntje Helfferich, ''The Thirty Years' War: A Documentary History'' (2009) p. xix, estimates a 25% decline. Wilson (2009) pp. 780–795 reviews the estimates.</ref>

The war was the last major religious struggle in mainland Europe and ended in 1648 with the [[Peace of Westphalia]]. It resulted in increased autonomy for the constituent states of the Holy Roman Empire, limiting the power of the emperor. Most of [[Alsace]] was ceded to France, [[Western Pomerania]] and [[Bremen-Verden]] were given to Sweden as Imperial fiefs, and the Netherlands officially left the Empire.<ref>{{Cite book |first=Joachim |last=Whaley |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=UiFWYsG-t7UC |title=Germany and the Holy Roman Empire: Volume I: Maximilian I to the Peace of Westphalia, 1493–1648 |publisher=Oxford University Press |location=Oxford |date=2012 |isbn=978-0-1987-3101-6 |pages=623–631}}</ref>

===Culture and literacy===
[[Image:Lutherbibel.jpg|thumb|right|[[Modern High German]] translation of the [[Christian Bible]] by the Protestant reformer [[Martin Luther]] (1534).<ref name="Lobenstein-Reichmann">{{cite book |doi=10.1093/acrefore/9780199340378.013.382 |chapter=Martin Luther, Bible Translation, and the German Language |title=Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Religion |date=2017 |last1=Lobenstein-Reichmann |first1=Anja |isbn=978-0-19-934037-8 }}</ref> The widespread popularity of the [[Luther Bible|Bible translated into High German by Luther]] helped establish modern Standard High German.<ref name="Lobenstein-Reichmann"/>]]

The population of Germany reached about twenty million people by the mid-16th century, the great majority of whom were peasant farmers.{{Sfn|Holborn|1959|p=37}}

The Protestant [[Reformation]] was a triumph for [[literacy]] and the new [[printing press]].<ref name="Cameron">{{Cite book |first=Euan |last=Cameron |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=_6a3kgsbkBIC |title=The European Reformation |date=1 March 2012 |publisher=Oxford University Press |location=Oxford |isbn=978-0-1995-4785-2}}{{Page needed|date=March 2015}}</ref>{{Efn|In the end, while the Reformation emphasis on Protestants reading the Scriptures was one factor in the development of literacy, the impact of printing itself, the wider availability of printed works at a cheaper price, and the increasing focus on education and learning as key factors in obtaining a lucrative post, were also significant contributory factors.<ref name="Pettegree543">Pettegree ''Reformation World'' p.&nbsp;543</ref>}}<ref name="Rubin270">Rubin, "Printing and Protestants" Review of Economics and Statistics pp. 270–286</ref><ref name=":1">{{Cite web |title=Media, Markets and Institutional Change: Evidence from the Protestant Reformation |url=http://cep.lse.ac.uk/pubs/download/dp1367.pdf |url-status=live |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20221009/http://cep.lse.ac.uk/pubs/download/dp1367.pdf |archive-date=2022-10-09}}</ref> [[Luther Bible|Luther's translation of the Bible into High German]] (the [[New Testament]] was published in 1522; the [[Old Testament]] was published in parts and completed in 1534) was a decisive impulse for the increase of literacy in [[Germany in the early modern period|early modern Germany]],<ref name="Lobenstein-Reichmann"/> and stimulated printing and distribution of religious books and pamphlets. From 1517 onward religious pamphlets flooded Germany and much of Europe. The Reformation instigated a media revolution as by 1530 over 10,000 individual works are published with a total of ten million copies. Luther strengthened his attacks on Rome by depicting a "good" against "bad" church. It soon became clear that print could be used for propaganda in the Reformation for particular agendas. Reform writers used pre-Reformation styles, clichés, and stereotypes and changed items as needed for their own purposes.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Edwards |first=Mark U. Jr. |title=Printing, Propaganda, and Martin Luther |date=1994}}</ref> Especially effective were Luther's ''Small Catechism'', for use of parents teaching their children, and ''Larger Catechism,'' for pastors.<ref>See texts at [http://www.projectwittenberg.org/pub/resources/text/wittenberg/wittenberg-luther.html#sw-hymn Project Wittenberg: "Selected Hymns of Martin Luther"]</ref> Using the German vernacular they expressed the Apostles' Creed in simpler, more personal, Trinitarian language. Illustrations in the newly translated Bible and in many tracts popularized Luther's ideas. [[Lucas Cranach the Elder]], the painter patronized by the electors of Wittenberg, was a close friend of Luther, and illustrated Luther's theology for a popular audience. He dramatized Luther's views on the relationship between the Old and New Testaments, while remaining mindful of Luther's careful distinctions about proper and improper uses of visual imagery.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Weimer |first=Christoph |date=2004 |title=Luther and Cranach on Justification in Word and Image |journal=[[Lutheran Quarterly]] |volume=18 |issue=4 |pages=387–405}}</ref>

[[Luther Bible|Luther's translation of the Bible into High German]] was also decisive for the [[German language]] and its evolution from [[Early New High German]] to Modern Standard German.<ref name="Lobenstein-Reichmann"/> The publication of Luther's Bible was a decisive moment in the spread of literacy in [[Germany in the early modern period|early modern Germany]],<ref name="Lobenstein-Reichmann"/> and promoted the development of non-local forms of language and exposed all speakers to forms of German from outside their own area.<ref>{{cite journal |first1=Birgit |last1=Stolt |title=Luther's Translation of the Bible |journal=Lutheran Quarterly |volume=28 |issue=4 |date=2014 |pages=373–400 }}</ref>

===Science===
[[File:Albrecht Dürer - The Northern Hemisphere of the Celestial Globe - WGA7195.jpg|thumb|upright|The Northern Hemisphere of the Celestial Globe created by Albrecht Dürer]]
Notable late fifteenth to early eighteenth-century [[polymath]]s include: [[Johannes Trithemius]], one of the founder of modern cryptography, founder of [[steganography]], as well as [[bibliography]] and literary studies as branches of knowledge;<ref>{{Cite book |last=Holden |first=Joshua |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=N3SYDwAAQBAJ&pg=PA56 |title=The Mathematics of Secrets: Cryptography from Caesar Ciphers to Digital Encryption |date=2 October 2018 |publisher=Princeton University Press |isbn=978-0-6911-8331-2 |language=en |access-date=20 February 2022}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last1=Rodriquez |first1=Mercedes Garcia-Arenal |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=VYSQWmuaLLgC&pg=PA383 |title=The Orient in Spain: Converted Muslims, the Forged Lead Books of Granada, and the Rise of Orientalism |last2=Mediano |first2=Fernando Rodríguez |date=15 April 2013 |publisher=BRILL |isbn=978-9-0042-5029-1 |page=383 |language=en |access-date=20 February 2022}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last=Zambelli |first=Paola |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Tp6PhNsz43EC&pg=PA251 |title=White Magic, Black Magic in the European Renaissance |date=2007 |publisher=BRILL |isbn=978-9-0041-6098-9 |page=251 |language=en |access-date=20 February 2022}}</ref> [[Conrad Celtes]], the first and foremost German cartographic writer and "the greatest lyric genius and certainly the greatest organizer and popularizer of German Humanism";<ref>{{Cite book |last=Eire |first=Carlos M. N. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=R3g8DAAAQBAJ&pg=PA223 |title=Reformations: The Early Modern World, 1450–1650 |date=28 June 2016 |publisher=Yale University Press |isbn=978-0-3002-2068-1 |page=223 |language=en |access-date=6 January 2022}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last=Kallendorf |first=Craig W. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=HqrdIi7DZRcC&pg=PA174 |title=A Companion to the Classical Tradition |date=15 April 2008 |publisher=John Wiley & Sons |isbn=978-1-4051-7202-8 |page=174 |language=en |access-date=6 January 2022}}</ref><ref name="GermanicReview">{{Cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=BIzjO6GiGeIC |title=The Germanic Review |date=1951 |publisher=Heldref Publications |page=148 |language=en |access-date=6 January 2022}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last=Piechocki |first=Katharina N. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Y6A5EAAAQBAJ&pg=PA26 |title=Cartographic Humanism: The Making of Early Modern Europe |date=13 September 2021 |publisher=University of Chicago Press |isbn=978-0-2268-1681-4 |page=26 |language=en |access-date=6 January 2022}}</ref> [[Athanasius Kircher]], described by Fletcher as "a founder figure of various disciplines—of geology (certainly vulcanology), musicology (as a surveyor of musical forms), museum curatorship, Coptology, to name a few—and might be claimed today as the first theorist of gravity and a long-term originator of the moving pictures (with his magic lantern shows). Through his many enthusiasms, moreover, he was the conduit of others' pursuits in the rapidly widening horizon of knowledge that marks the later Renaissance.";<ref>{{Cite book |last=Fletcher |first=John Edward |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=QeR5DwAAQBAJ&pg=PR21 |title=A Study of the Life and Works of Athanasius Kircher, 'Germanus Incredibilis': With a Selection of his Unpublished Correspondence and an Annotated Translation of his Autobiography |date=26 August 2011 |publisher=BRILL |isbn=978-9-0042-1632-7 |page=21 |language=en |access-date=4 March 2022}}</ref> and [[Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz]], one of the greatest, if not the greatest "Universal genius", of all times.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Johnson |first=Claes |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=dTjpb329P-4C&pg=PA68 |title=Many Minds Relativity |date=2011 |publisher=Claes Johnson |page=68 |language=en |access-date=4 March 2022}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last=Blumenau |first=Ralph |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Yq-7BAAAQBAJ&pg=PA236 |title=Philosophy and Living |date=30 April 2014 |publisher=Andrews UK Limited |isbn=978-1-8454-0649-3 |page=236 |language=en |access-date=4 March 2022}}</ref>

Cartography developed strongly, with the center being Nuremberg, at the beginning of the sixteenth century. [[Martin Waldseemüller]] and [[Matthias Ringmann]]'s ''[[Waldseemüller map|Universalis Cosmographia]]'' and the 1513 edition of ''Geography'' marked the climax of a cartography revolution.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Kleinschmidt |first=Harald |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=JlwDcFHzds0C&pg=PA260 |title=Understanding the Middle Ages: The Transformation of Ideas and Attitudes in the Medieval World |date=2000 |publisher=Boydell & Brewer |isbn=978-0-8511-5770-2 |language=en |access-date=29 October 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211029084854/https://books.google.com/books?id=JlwDcFHzds0C&pg=PA260 |archive-date=29 October 2021 |url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last=Cortesão |first=Armando |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=gg8-AQAAIAAJ |title=History of Portuguese Cartography |date=1969 |publisher=Junta de Investigações do Ultramar |page=124 |language=en |access-date=13 November 2021}}</ref> The emperor himself dabbled in cartography.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Buisseret |first=David |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=zYSSDdDRr-cC&pg=PA54 |title=The Mapmakers' Quest: Depicting New Worlds in Renaissance Europe |date=22 May 2003 |publisher=Oxford University Press |location=Oxford |isbn=978-0-1915-0090-9 |page=54 |language=en |access-date=8 November 2021}}</ref>

In 1515, [[Johannes Stabius]] (court astronomer under Maximilian I), [[Albrecht Dürer]] and the astronomer [[:de:Konrad Heinfogel|Konrad Heinfogel]] produced the first planispheres of both southern and northerns hemispheres, also the first printed celestial maps. These maps prompted the revival of interest in the field of uranometry throughout Europe.{{Sfn|Noflatscher|2011|p=245}}<ref>{{Cite book |last1=Lachièze-Rey |first1=Marc |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=0ZFXiNn62ZEC&pg=PA86 |title=Celestial Treasury: From the Music of the Spheres to the Conquest of Space |last2=Luminet |first2=Jean-Pierre |last3=France |first3=Bibliothèque nationale de |date=16 July 2001 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |isbn=978-0-5218-0040-2 |page=86 |language=en |access-date=7 November 2021}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last=Nothaft |first=C. Philipp E. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=dz5MDwAAQBAJ&pg=PA278 |title=Scandalous Error: Calendar Reform and Calendrical Astronomy in Medieval Europe |date=9 February 2018 |publisher=Oxford University Press |isbn=978-0-1925-2018-0 |page=278 |language=en |access-date=7 November 2021}}</ref>{{Sfn|Hayton|2015|p=92}}

Astronomer [[Johannes Kepler]] from [[Weil der Stadt]] was one of the pioneering minds of empirical and rational research. Through rigorous application of the principles of the [[Scientific method]] he construed his [[Kepler's laws of planetary motion|laws of planetary motion]]. His ideas influenced contemporary Italian scientist [[Galileo Galilei]] and provided fundamental mechanical principles for [[Isaac Newton]]'s theory of [[Newton's law of universal gravitation|universal gravitation]].<ref>Stillman Drake, "Copernicanism in Bruno, Kepler, and Galileo." ''Vistas in Astronomy'' 17 (1975): 177–192 [http://eccoprogram.it/wp-content/uploads/DRAKE-1975-Copernicanism-in-Bruno-Kepler-and-Galileo.pdf online] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211015170120/http://eccoprogram.it/wp-content/uploads/DRAKE-1975-Copernicanism-in-Bruno-Kepler-and-Galileo.pdf |date=15 October 2021 }}.</ref>

{{Gallery
|title= Scientists, scholars and artists of the Early modern period in Germany
|align=center
|width=130
|File:JKepler.jpg|[[Johannes Kepler]], one of the founders and fathers of modern [[astronomy]], the [[scientific method]], [[Natural science|natural]] and [[modern science]]<ref>{{cite web | url=https://www.dpma.de/english/our_office/publications/milestones/greatinventors/johanneskepler/index.html | title=DPMA &#124; Johannes Kepler }}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |url=https://www.nasa.gov/kepler/education/johannes |title=Johannes Kepler: His Life, His Laws and Times &#124; NASA |access-date=1 September 2023 |archive-date=24 June 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210624003856/https://www.nasa.gov/kepler/education/johannes/ |url-status=dead }}</ref><ref>{{cite web | url=https://micro.magnet.fsu.edu/optics/timeline/people/kepler.html | title=Molecular Expressions: Science, Optics and You – Timeline – Johannes Kepler }}</ref>
|File:Anselmus-van-Hulle-Hommes-illustres MG 0539.tif|[[Otto von Guericke]], scientist, inventor and politician, famous for demonstrating the power of atmospheric pressure with the [[Magdeburg hemispheres]]
|File:1636 Elisabeth of Bohemia.jpg|[[Elisabeth of the Palatinate]], philosopher, critic of [[René Descartes]]' dualistic metaphysics
|File:Hans Jakob Christoffel von Grimmelshausen.jpeg|[[Hans Jakob Christoffel von Grimmelshausen]], author of the novel ''[[Simplicius Simplicissimus]]''
|File:Athanasius Kircher (cropped).jpg|[[Athanasius Kircher]], polymath
|File:Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz, Bernhard Christoph Francke.jpg|[[Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz]], philosopher and mathematician
|File:Tschirnhaus.jpg|[[Ehrenfried Walther von Tschirnhaus]], mathematician, physicist, physician, philosopher, co-inventor of European porcelain
}}

===Colonies===
German Colonies in the Americas existed because the [[Free Imperial Cities]] of [[Augsburg]] and [[Free Imperial City of Nuremberg|Nuremberg]] got colonial rights in the [[Venezuela Province|Province of Venezuela]] or North of South America in return for debts owed by the [[Holy Roman Empire]] [[Emperor Charles V|Charles V]], who was also King of Spain. In 1528, Charles V issued a charter by which the [[Welser family]] possessed the rights to explore, rule and colonize the area, also with the motivation of searching for the legendary golden city of [[El Dorado]]. Their principal colony was [[Klein-Venedig]]. A never realized colonial project was [[Hanauish-Indies]] intended by [[Friedrich Casimir, Count of Hanau-Lichtenberg]] as a fief of the [[Dutch West India Company]]. The project failed due to a lack of funds and the outbreak of the [[Franco-Dutch War]] in 1672.