Prussian Socialism Episode 50: The Ostsiedlung: Medieval German Conquest and Settlement in the Baltic, Bohemia and the Balkans

About this episode

The episode explores the Ostsiedlung, a significant yet overlooked movement of German settlement in Eastern Europe during the medieval period.

From the drippy forests of Thuringia to the lake-riddled swampland of Lithuania... The lolling hills of Silesia to the harsh, alpine peaks of Transylvania... Central Europe was invaded, peopled and organized from the West. Between 1150 and 1400 German farmers, merchants, warriors and holymen flooded across the Elbe and down the Danube in the first great European age of exploration. There they encountered Slavs, Hungarians, and Balts... peoples sometimes thirsty for Western tech and trade, sometimes eager to defend their ways of life and national honor. This great folk-movement, the Ostsiedlung (Settling of the East), is almost unknown in the English-speaking world. The standard textbooks might make passing mention of "German immigrants", but nowhere in English will you find a comprehensive and fair treatment of this immense and history-shaping venture. Nowhere, that is, except on Prussian Socialism... join Greg Conte in this lecture as he uncovers the Ostsiedlung. From the Teutonic Knights and the Siebenbürgen Saxons to the last doomed days of Kurland and Bohemia 1945... was it a peaceful movement dedicated to agricultural progress, the spread of Christianity and the organizing…

People in this episode

Host: Greg Conte

Topics covered

• German conquest
• settlement
• medieval history
• Ostsiedlung
• Slavic peoples
• cultural exchange
• national honor

Keywords

• Ostsiedlung
• German immigrants
• medieval conquest
• Slavs
• Hungarians
• Baltic
• cultural exchange
• Teutonic Knights
• Silesia
• Bohemia

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: Teutonic Knights, Siebenbürgen Saxons

Places: Thuringia, Lithuania, Silesia, Transylvania, Central Europe, Kurland, Bohemia

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