Flesh and Spirit: Private Life in Early Modern Germany

by Steven E. Ozment

An intriguing study of life in Germany during the sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries draws on a rich variety of primary sources to describe the social and political climate of the period as well as the personal lives of individual citizens and their families.

As he did in his much praised and highly successful The Burgermeister's Daughter, Steven Ozment analyzes and weaves together primary sources to create a compelling account of German life in the sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries. From private papers and archives -- account books, letters, legal records, journals -- emerge fascinating stories rescued from history: the complicated courtship dance of two politically prominent families; the joy of parenthood for a middle-aged couple when, after losing their first nine infants, a child survives; the difficulty a widowed mother has restraining her eldest son's expenses as he studies in Italy; the challenges faced by a Lutheran pastor negotiating the Church's bitter factionalism; and a Protestant teenager coping in Catholic Louvain.

Genres: History, European History, Nonfiction, Historical

368 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1999

About the author

A specialist in early modern and modern Germany, the European family, and the Protestant Reformation., Steven Ozment was the McLean Professor of Ancient and Modern History emeritus at Harvard University.

Reviews

[Trevor · Rating 4 out of 5]

The people who were upset that A Mighty Fortress did not cover the *people* of Germany as much as it covered various political figures, artists, and philosophers should give this book a go. It is a wonderfully human look into life of the 16th century German family. Well, middle-to-upper class life, anyway. As always, Ozment was one of the top scholars of the English speaking world on the topic. It is worth a read.

[Kelly Buchanan · Rating 3 out of 5]

Inspired to read by last year's trip to Germany. A really interesting intimate history of a few families in 16th-century Germany, full of intriguing primary source documents illuminating the private lives of ordinary people in an extraordinary age. The Reformation and its aftermath provide a fascinating backdrop for these family stories which are organized by life's universal stages - early childhood, education, young adulthood, parenthood and professional life. Ozment has a gift for bridging the gap of years and showing us that, though times and sentiments were very different, the ways in which people are in many ways essentially alike across history.