Fletcher, Banister; Fletcher, Banister: A history of architecture for the student, craftsman, and amateur: being a comparative view of the historical styles from the earliest period (London, 1896)

GERMAN RENAISSANCE.

i. INFLUENCES.

i. Geographical.—Refer to pp. 126 and 177.

ii. Geological.—The absence of stone, in the great
alluvial plains of North Germany, influenced largely the
architecture of the period; moulded and cut brickwork is
used in every variety, the general scale of the detail is
small, and surface patterns are formed in raised work. (See
remarks on German Gothic, p. 177.)

iii. Climate.—See under Romanesque (p. 126) and
Gothic (p. 177).

iv. Religion.—Martin Luther (1517-1546) attacks the
practical abuses of certain doctrines of the Church, and
brings about a revolution in the religious life of Germany
(see below). Luther’s translation of the Bible into High
Dutch causes the latter to become the received tongue of
Germans.

In architecture little of great interest is produced. Old
churches, with all their fittings, continued to be used, but
the prominence given to preaching brought in galleries and
congregational planning.

v. Social and Political.—The country consisted of
a number of small kingdoms or principalities, each with its
own capital and government. This prevented any national
effort as in France, which was under one united head. In
the latter part of the sixteenth century, Heidelberg was the
centre of “ Humanism,” and the chief reformed seat of
learning in Germany.

We must also take account of the Thirty Years’ War,
ended by the Peace of Westphalia in 1648.

vi. Historical.—Charles V. succeeds to all the posses-