Category: German History

Depiction of the merciless, abominable, and gruesome animal: An English Translation

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Unknown Artist, Abbildung deß unbarmhertzigen abschewlichen grausam und grewlichen Thiers Welches in wenig Jahren den grösten Theil Teutschlandes erbärm und jämmerlichen verheeret außgezehret und verderbet (Depiction of the merciless, abominable, and gruesome animal, which within a few years ravaged, starved, and wasted the greatest part of Germany), c. 1630, place of publication unknown.Engraving, Sheet: 34.6… Continue reading Depiction of the merciless, abominable, and gruesome animal: An English Translation

Soldiers as the Metaphorical Beasts of War during the Thirty Years’ War

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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

The Human-Animal Debate in the Colonisation of Native Americans

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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

Representations of Monsters in German Renaissance Prints

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Keywords: Human-animal hybrids; Monstrous Races; Monstrous Births; Wild Man; Werewolves Representations of human-animal hybrids and the concept of shape-shifting in both literary sources and the visual arts captured the early modern European imagination. This is particularly evident in the prevalence of pictorial prints featuring these creatures dated in the late fifteenth and sixteenth centuries that… Continue reading Representations of Monsters in German Renaissance Prints

Rise of Nationalism and the Othering of Perceived Outsiders in Sixteenth-Century Germany

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Keywords: Nationalism, anti-Roman, Humanists, Conrad Celtis, Protestant Reformation Germany was increasingly referred to in nationalistic terms during the Renaissance by using phrases such as ‘we Germans’, ‘all of Germany’, and ‘common German fatherland’, even though German nationalism remained largely cultural rather than political until the nineteenth century.[i] The growing nationalistic sentiment during early modern Germany… Continue reading Rise of Nationalism and the Othering of Perceived Outsiders in Sixteenth-Century Germany