Germany and the Empire

Abstract

Thomas Murner derided as naive the contention of Jakob Wimpfeling that Alsace had always been both geographically and politically 'German' since the days of the Roman Empire. Throughout the fifteenth century the 'German tongue' stamp a linguistic community set apart from foreign speakers. The campaigns against the Hussites were launched as European crusades with papal sanction, but their military organisations and financial burden drew members of the Empire into closer and more frequent consultation. The dualism of the Empire is reflected in the two issues which remained running sores throughout the century. They are the need for the kings to establish a dynastic power base strong enough to enable them to rule effectively as emperors; and the concern of members of the Reich to establish public order and the rule of law within Germany. In the consolidation of the greater secular principalities fifteenth-century Germany displayed the constitutional and political features which elsewhere in Europe marked the emergence of nation-states.