Holy Roman Empire

by Friedrich Heer

The Holy Roman Empire, a relic of a lost age, dominated Europe for 1,000 years, from the time of Charlemagne until its final `demolition' by Napoleon. This study, over thirty years old and now reprinted again, charts the fluctuating fortunes of the Empire's dynasties, the Ottonians, Salians and Habsburgs, and their constant struggle to assert their inherited authority over Italy, Rome and the Papacy. Half of the study focuses on the post-medieval years.

Genres: History, Germany, Nonfiction, Medieval History, Medieval, European History

308 pages, Paperback

First published November 6, 1995

About the author

The historian Friedrich Heer was born in Vienna in 1916. He received a PhD at the University in Vienna in 1938. Even as a student he came into conflict with pan-German thinking historians as a staunch opponent of National Socialism.

Friedrich Heer was arrested for the first time on 11 March 1938 by the Austrian Nazis. He founded a small Catholic resistance group and sought to amalgamate into one organized band the Christians, Communists and Trades Unionists against the Nazis, and as a soldier later came into contact with the resistance group "Soldatenrat".

From 1946 to 1961 Friedrich Heer was the editor of the weekly magazine Die Furche [The Furrow] and in 1961 he was appointed chief literacy to the Vienna Burgtheater. He taught at the University of Vienna. The majority of his books have been translated into several languages.

In 1967 Friedrich Heer became the first winner of the Martin Buber-Franz Rosenzweig Medal, awarded by a group of fourty-four German societies for Christian and Jewish understanding, for his achievement with God's First Love.

Friedrich Heer died in Vienna in 1983.

Reviews

[Brandin Stoy · Rating 4 out of 5]

A very thorough and in depth study of the Holy Roman Empire. It can be somewhat difficult to follow the authors train of thought at times as he will jump around in the timeline, sometimes seemingly at random. He also will use the names of various European monarchs without specifying which one he is talking about, which can lead to confusion as the monarchs of the times tended to share names.

[Richard Thomas · Rating 5 out of 5]

Although not Holy nor Roman and probably not an empire per se, this is a grand account of a magnificent European institution. I first read it for my undergraduate history course and I remain impressed on a second reading a little back.

[Truls Ljungström · Rating 5 out of 5]

Framförallt medeltidskapitlen av denna är intressanta. Boken som helhet är bra.

[MeiMeiSam · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book might seem to be tortuous to read but it is a meaning ful stuuf for those who have the leisure for reading. I like this book as it gives much information which I have never encountered. I have never known anything about the history of medieval age and The Holy Roman Empire.
The competition among various royal families and the promiscuous relationship between the members of those royal families had led to the situation of war like situation on the Historical stage that affected the whole course of developement of humanity both in morality and ethincs. This is quite true we also could see the weakness of personality among these peole who were under the fettered situation of politics and marriage.
It seems people were grouped under a certain predicate ordained by the consciousness of God who had ordained everything in the flow of History which is to shape the characteristics of Humanity. From the information of this exponential history book, we can trace some roles of lineages of our ancestral dominating characteristics which have shaoed our behaviourism of the socieies nowadays.
Without reading this book, I would have never been inspired by an idea that humanist activities are in a web. The web is the webbing which has made up the varius routines to run a society and also the routine lives of humanity. The hidden hand has its wizard to manipulate over the whole humanity's fate to reach the future.History course has its water drops pervading among thevery dep corner of the whole human race that is by spreading the idea of great thought through the medium of humane contact and wars. By means of Politics, people are grouped into various casts and they perform their daily tasks. tasking is thus, in revers, contrals over the fate of whole hu,am race within its sphere of survival. Survival means everything and everything means survival. The phrase is important for whole human race to have known that politics has the power to control the life of Humanity and its importance is revealled as our daily routine taskings.

[Stacy Rogers · Rating 4 out of 5]

Solid history of the empire, it seemed like the book was written shortly after World War 2. He connected many historical events to the present day.

[Alex Helling · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book provides an overview of the whole history of the Holy Roman Empire (HRE); a thousand years from 800 to 1806. The book therefore covers Germany but also current day Austria and the Czech Republic, as well as for varying lengths of time Switzerland, the Netherlands, Belgium, parts of France, Italy, and Poland.

My main motivation for reading this is how little I can find on the HRE in the middle ages in English and my brother happened to have this book. This then is the focus of my review. Other states such as England and France during this period moved towards becoming proto-nations during this period. Yet Germany went the other way, I was hoping to find a bit about why. Heer has about 150 pages on this period. Though as this accounts for 700 years of history it is not exactly an in-depth analysis!

Unfortunately, I did not really find what I was hoping for. Much of this part of the book’s focus was on relations with the Pope. It was not adequately explained why this should be considered so important – though it was clearly an age of much greater faith than our own. We did get hints of the answer to my question about the development, or otherwise, of the nation; the diversity of the HRE, a failure to build up a core demesne, the elective element of the monarchy, but not a focused analysis.

There are odd judgements about priorities; we get pages about obscure theology, but a period of 23 years without an Emperor (or King) are breezed over in 8 lines! I would have liked to have learnt a bit more about the machinations that resulted in it going to Rudolf of Hapsburg. As the first in his dynasty to become King, and since the Hapsburgs later become so dominant in the HRE this would seem to be of some interest. But clearly not!

My final gripe is about how dated it is. And particularly that there are several statements that I would consider to be borderline racist – probably OK in 1967, but slightly odd that they were not expunged when reprinted in 2002.

[Caesar Warrington · Rating 5 out of 5]

Along with Viscount James Bryce's work, this is essential reading for anyone deeply interested in the history of Medieval Germany and Central Europe.

[James · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good overview on a complex and ever evolving institution.