The German Question, Part Sixteen

The Germans have been affected by religious strife more than some other European peoples. The reason for this is simple, Germans themselves have been very divided in their denominational choices. This is a very complex and important part of German history, and I want to try to keep it simple, although I may fail in that attempt, but we'll see.....

Over the centuries leading up to the 1500s, the Church* had become corrupted in the views of a number of average citizens. Money flowed to the Church and to its representatives throughout Christendom, often in exchange for forgiveness of sins, real or perceived. While other matters of the Church came into question, like what the balance should be between Church and secular governance, the upheaval that came was centered around the question, "how much money does one need to save their soul?" Ever so gradually concern for the individual had been rising throughout Europe, and this in the face of the feudal system that had been in place, where local rulers dominated the landscape, and individuals were relegated to serving the interests of these rulers. These rulers were often tied to the Church, and indeed, the Church itself had rulers who literally controlled portions of territory in the German inhabited, or ruled, areas.

Undoubtedly many of the criticisms of the Church had been around for quite some time, but with Gutenberg  popularizing movable type, the written word spread far and wide, and in German, not just the Latin of the Church, and some average people actually wanted to learn how to read so they could discover more about life and the world to which they had been thus far exposed. Those who could read spread the word to those not so fortunate. While there were numerous leaders of the Reformation,** Martin Luther,*** a Christian monk and theologian from a German area called "Saxony" ("Sachsen" in German),**** challenged Church practices and published his famous "95 Theses" (in 1517) to lay out his ideas on reform. Two very important ideas of Luther were: each person can achieve salvation without the aid (intercession) of some Church representative, and second, that the German princes^ should reduce Papal authority in Germany. Luther's ideas spread throughout Germany and he was eventually ex-communicated by the pope and he and his teachings were outlawed by the German emperor, Karl V (Charles V), who backed the Papacy. Many of the German princes, however, backed Luther (as did much of the public), and indeed he was provided sanctuary and out-and-out protection by Prince Frederick of Saxony. "Lutheranism," as it came to be called, gained large followings in much of northeastern and central Germany, something that persists to this very day.

Luther's ideas stirred the general public, which wanted social reforms to help alleviate their depressed conditions.^^ Reformers far more radical than Luther incited the public, and this led to the "Peasant War of 1524/25" (Bauernkrieg, in German),^^^ which essentially was a rebellion, mainly in the southern and southwestern German lands, and which was finally suppressed by the nobles, with the SUPPORT of Luther.

To be continued.... (A Word History is below the notes)

* The "Church" now meaning the Christian element based in Rome and ruled by the Papacy, as there was the Eastern Christian Church by this time, too.

** "The Reformation" came to be a term used to describe the movement to "reform" the Church and it is the same term in German, although the pronunciation is as if, "ray-for-maw-tsee- own." It is a Latin-based word, but the specific religious meaning came via Martin Luther.

*** For those interested in words/names, it seems the family name had previously been spelled "Luder." As I've noted in other articles, "d" and "t" in the Germanic languages was/is often interchangeable, so to speak, and the change in spelling to the "th" didn't change much, as German does not have the "th" pronunciation of English, but pronounces such as "t;" thus the name in German is pronounced like "looter," a pronunciation which might well please some "anti-looters" ... I mean anti-Luthers. 

**** Since the end of World War Two, Luther's part of Saxony has been part of the German state called "Sachsen-Anhalt," although the separate state, "Sachsen," also still exists, and to confuse matters even more, another state, Lower Saxony (Niedersachsen), also exists.

^ Local and regional German rulers carried a wide variety of titles (for example: kings, princes, archdukes), but they were collectively known as "the German princes," regardless of their technical titles.

^^ For example, many people wanted certain waterways and hunting areas controlled as "public areas," rather than by private owners who could extract huge payments for the right to use the areas.

^^^ "Peasant" does not have the same "unflattering" meaning in German as it does in English; at least, in American English. English speakers use the word "farmer" in much the same way as German speakers use "peasant" ("Bauer," which can be translated as "farmer" too), and if you call farmers "peasants" in English, it will likely be considered an insult by many, perhaps all.

WORD HISTORY:
Way-This goes back to Indo European "wegh," which had the notion of "movement, travel, ride." The Old Germanic offshoot was "wegaz," which meant "path, road, course," and then later produced Old English "weg," with the same meanings. The "g" sound died out at some point in the Middle Ages, leaving modern English with "way," just as happened with "daeg," which became modern "day." The other Germanic languages have: German and Dutch both have "weg" ("Weg," in German, as all German nouns are capitalized), Low German has "Weg/Weeg," West Frisian "wei," Norwegian "vei," Danish "vej," Swedish "väg;" and Icelandic "vegur," all with the same basic meanings as their English relative.