Editing History of Germany (section)

===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>