German History Part I - The pre-christian Germans, Free People who fought Imperialism
Many people think of Germans as people who love Order and Authority. However early records show that the Germans lived in a quite decentralized and liberal society in the pre-christian time. They even had a high degree of democracy through assemblies of free men, similarly to early Greek democracy. The German word for assembly (Tagung) is actually derived from these old days.
In 200 BC - 500 CE German tribes and the roman empire had countless battles, finally ending with the death of the roman empire. It was the inspiration for Asterix and Obelix, since the all mighty roman empire was not capable of dealing with some wild tribes. Looking deeper into the battles you will see that it is the old story of guerrilla warfare and home advantage that plagues invasives empires throughout history.
One of the Roman methods to fight Germany was cultural and religious warfare. Northern Tribes were painted as wild animals - Barbarians. The Practice of Northern Religion was forbidden by law. In the German Religion women are the bearer of magic, which lead to the infamous witch-hunts. The Romans also tried to make Latin the only valid language, this is still visible in latin languages like spanish, italian, french and even english. They are essentially weird dialects of latin.
The whole story of the North Religion with Thor, Loki and Ragnarok is quite interesting, but I am honestly no expert on it @nacktepoesie can tell you more about it I think, but from what I interpreted so far it is at its core promoting the rebellion against authority and therefore quite different to the christian doctrine of trusting somewhat blindly in an all mighty god. Odin, the Godfather, gets killed in Ragnarok after all.
It was quite interesting to read that the sentiment of "what you do behind closed doors is your own damn business" was already found in recordings of early German society. A sentiment that helped us stay out of the whole transgender fiasco that is plaguing Canada. In Germany you can have any sexual desire you want as long as you don't rub it in peoples faces.
I also like that it seems women had a different position in society than , but were also respected and influential being not only spiritual advisors (fortune tellers), but also healers. Marriage had to be consensual and in the case of a divorce there was a predetermined set of assets the women would get (~30% of the households total wealth).
It is fair to say that the Romans won in the end since the Monarchy that was established in Germany and Europe afterwards was tightly bound to Christianity and often saw itself as a successor to the Roman Empire (see Holy Roman Empire of German Nations). But even then a lot of the decentralized nature of Germany prevailed until very recently, but I will come to the time of 500 AD -1700 AD another day.
sources:
https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Germanische_Religion
https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Germanen
https://www.amazon.de/Liebe-vorchristlichen-Germanen-Gustav-Neckel-ebook/dp/B00GW8DI8U
"I interpreted so far it is at its core promoting the rebellion against authority and therefore quite different to the christian doctrine of trusting somewhat blindly in an all mighty god. "
I don't really think that true of Christianity... of course kings and popes tried to spin it that way, but the book, as well as Jesus are very clear not only of the nature of freedom, but also of a secular state and how men do not inherit the authority of God.
"Render unto Caesar the things that are Caesar's, and unto God the things that are God's"
"As it is written, There is none righteous, no, not one: there is none that understandeth, there is none that seeketh after God."
But this doesn't stop kings and emperors from insisting that their authority comes from God, don't get me wrong.
The spin on it that popes and kings used is still quite present. Even back then people did not take everything written in the bible as literal facts. Many saw the natural system of leaders and states as something given/represented by God.
You can for example see a modern yet old interpretation of God if you watch Ben Shapiro and even Anarchistic Deists like @dwinblood have talked about the natural occurance of leaders "without rules or elections" which is quite reminiscent of the old pro-Monarchist (like Hegel).
https://steemit.com/anarchy/@dwinblood/the-difference-between-a-leader-and-a-ruler
"The spin on it that popes and kings used is still quite present."
Yes that fact pains me to no end. Going even deeper than Ben Shapiro (I'm disappointed to see how much influence he has too), it's attached to the Ayn Rand garbage that says if a person has money they MUST be good people.
Money's like the de facto Charisma to people today. It's Divine right. 'Greed, for the lack of a better word, is good'
Movie is really great, but I am all out of bubblegum ;)
You will see some greed on Steem, but after all they are just people like you and me trying to survive.
But what really annoys me about Ben, and I know this is a little off topic, is that he definitely has a huge Christian following, but he says verbatim: 'you can be rich and a good person'. Jesus is very clear on that being not true.
I'm loath the use the term 'not real x', but that makes you not a real Christian. The core-most tenant of Christianity is a rejection of worldly possessions, and love of the poor, if you don't have that, you're not a Christian!
But who really follows their own scruples anymore.
Very interesting @thatgermandude
done upvote me
https://steemit.com/photography/@schatengarg/i-ll-make-a-digital-panting-of-ur-pic