Keywords: Criminals, Beggars and Vagrants, Plague, Journeymen, Jews, Gypsies The fortress-like walls that surrounded European cities built in the Middle Ages such as Nuremberg, which was protected by a double wall and trench, symbolised the dangers that lurked beyond (Strauss, 1976, p. 12). The wilderness in sixteenth-century Germany was associated with all things uncivilised and… Continue reading Socially Marginalised People and their Control of Movement during Sixteenth-Century Germany
Keywords: Nationalism, anti-Roman, Humanists, Conrad Celtis, Protestant Reformation Updated 1 June 2022 ‘Germany’ vs The Holy Roman EmpireContention surrounds the use of ‘Germany’ during the sixteenth century at a time when the German state did not exist but was instead a part of the Holy Roman Empire. While the German state did not exist during… Continue reading Rise of Nationalism and the Othering of Perceived Outsiders in Sixteenth-Century Germany
Keywords: Reformation, Religious Wars, Protestant Schmalkaldic League, Lucas Cranach the Younger, Johann Friedrich I When Martin Luther died in 1546, the Lutheran electors, princes and dukes took the role of the defenders of the reformed Church. They were depicted as knights fighting against the papal beasts from Rome. The papacy were depicted as monstrous beasts… Continue reading Protestant Princes against the Papal Beasts from Rome
Keywords: werewolves, Thirty Years’ War, soldiers, greed, human-animal hybrids Times of war had been shown to increase the rate of wolf attacks as wolves became attracted to the corpses left on the battlefield. This would have led to wolves becoming habituated with humans, becoming less fearful and more likely to attack as episodes in recent… Continue reading Soldiers as the Metaphorical Beasts of War during the Thirty Years’ War
Keywords: Colonisation, Bartolomé de Las Casas, Amerigo Vespucci, Native Americans, Spanish With the European ‘discovery’ of the New World, it became advantageous to see the less developed Native Americans as akin to animals to justify their colonisation and enslavement. Spiritual conquest was used to help facilitate physical colonisation, therefore, missionaries soon followed conquistadores. Spanish missionaries… Continue reading The Human-Animal Debate in the Colonisation of Native Americans
Dana K Rehn 