https://nypost.com/2015/07/26/meet-historys-richest-man-who-...
I wonder if his name is the origin of the swearword...
I don't know the history and would love for someone to fill me in, but I'm just not convinced that you are right to downplay Luther's role.
https://www.twelvebooks.com/titles/patrick-wyman/the-verge/9...
Luther grew up in a mining community, where people where crass and confrontational. He had a frank, direct, and powerful rhetorical style that was forged in that environment. While he had several career options, a lightning strike made him get superstitious and become a monk. He was good at it. Take these 2 things - book smarts and an argumentative edge, and now a new twist enters the story...
The printing press!
The printers were in it to make money. His impact on history wasn't nailing a thing to a church door. The guy ran circles around the Church defenders because he replied quick, effectively, and he was the darling of the printers who controlled the medium.
It's not just about having the best argument, it's about fitting the format of the medium. Luther would deliver retorts in the space and time frame that the printers wanted. You can easily imagine how this would drown out the defenders of the Church (especially since it's salacious) and impact public opinion.
But that phase only lasted so-many years. Before long, the situation got out of his control, and that's kind of when you might say Protestantism started.
> The printing press!
Not quite so new. At the time Luther published his 95 Theses in 1517 the printing press with movable types has been around pretty much as long as the computer has been around for us in 2021: for three quarters of a century.
I really latched onto a point about Martin Luther - that his personality traits directly affected the course of events toward the Reformation as we know it.
History is probably a lot more chaotic than we give it credit for. Whenever an upheaval happens and the world gets turned upside down, we can always go back and trace structural trends in that direction. This fails to capture how many transformations failed to happen.
Printing was getting more affordable, but the printers themselves couldn't stop going out of business. The technology arc of lowering costs, but that doesn't map directly to profits and they just kept going bankrupt.
I'm really fascinated by the role of pamphlets. We keep talking about the press in the context of books, but Luther's legacy wasn't in publishing full-length books. This has come up again and again through history. In the 1600s, pamphlets played a role in the English revolution, and it did in the French Revolution as a whole universe of revolution presses sprung up. Were these like newspapers? Or was it some shorter and more targeted form of political hit piece?
Luther came out dropping rhetorical bombs. I get how reading stuff can radicalize you. I've felt that energy in my own life, but overwhelming volume of media we get combined with our longer life spans does some intellectual inoculation. I can only imagine the anger that could be stoked with the written word at that time. It's not a forgone conclusion, because most people are garbage at writing convincingly.
Some of Luther’s writing (good English translations, anyway) still feel electric. Even his Small Catechism, which is written simply and was legitimately intended for daily use in the home, contains self-examinations and positive formulations of the ten commandments which imply faithlessness on the part of bishops.
Yeah, that's electric.
That doesn't mean success, or those who succeed, aren't successful. Or don't serve as icons for the movements or initiatives they are known for.
There are many flaws with the Great Man theory of history. But reflexive rubbishing of it serves little use either.
Better is to have an understanding of what factors contributed to a breakthrough. And if that is chance, luck, timing, or a coincidental confluence of factors including emergent technologies, then yes, give those credit.
Real history is complex. It doesn't fit on postcards. Any less-than-comprehensive account is a map, not the territory.
Maps remain useful.
Revenue that exceeds the GDP of nations.
Walmart = $566 billion. Good enough for #25 among nations, larger than Nigeria or Thailand, just below Belgium and Poland.
Amazon = $443 billion. Equal to #30 among nations. Nearly identical to Israel or Norway, and ahead of the Philippines or Egypt.
Berkshire Hathaway = $365 billion. Equal to #40 among nations. Comparable to Singapore or Vietnam, just below Denmark.
Apple = $347 billion. Equal to #41 among nations. Larger than Pakistan, Finland, Chile and just below Bangladesh.
CVS = $278 billion. Equal to #48 among nations. Comparable to Czechia and larger than Portugal, New Zealand.
UnitedHeath = $270 billion. Equal to #49 among nations. Just below Romania or Colombia.
Google = $220 billion. Equal to #52 among nations. Comparable to Greece or Peru.
Microsoft = $168 billion. Equal to #56 among nations. Just below Hungary or Kazakhstan, ahead of Ukraine or Algeria.
Also keep in mind that revenue is not market value nor is it wealth/net worth.
Interesting thought, but I don’t think so. The F word predates Mr Fugger. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fuck#Early_usage
Is this legal? I mean the faith part...
The ruling party of Germany is expressly religious, the Christian Democratic Union. There's religious pluralism in Germany and all religions have the same benefits, but the idea of what those religions may do is not so intuitive from us in North America.
.. pretty sure you can set up religious sponsored/focused housing in NA as well
"The foundation deed specified that the housing complex was to exist “in perpetuity” and to be “further developed.” The philosophy behind it can be summarized as being to “provide assistance, not charity, to people in need so they can help themselves.” There are a total of nine foundations established by the Fugger family in Augsburg that have been in continuous existence since the 16th century. In addition to the Fuggerei, there are medical facilities, an infirmary, and a foundation to contribute to the salvation of the Fugger family, among others. According to an inscription on a tablet displayed at the Fuggerei, the Fugger family established the foundation to “reimburse God the money that he has generously bestowed upon the family.”
"Paupers or beggars are not eligible. A person that has been accepted for residence is required to say three daily prayers for the Fugger family"
https://blogs.loc.gov/law/2021/08/500-year-anniversary-of-th...
Its going for a long time: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fugger_family
And many foundations: https://www.fugger.de/en/foundations
I am sorry ...the business man in me...every time I see the word foundation I see only one thing. Only business vehicle where you are tax exempt... while at the same time still benefiting from the foundation assets.
"Forget about the Gates Foundation. The world’s biggest charity owns IKEA — which is not only devoted to interior design."
https://medium.com/@jurgeng/ikeas-tax-scheme-a-corporate-str...
Scientology has an IRS tax exemption in the US as another religion, but it seems in Germany the state has made their life quite difficult. Does German law provides for a clear specification of how to define a religion?
Probably not the most meaningful example as Scientology had to be pretty egregious to get disqualified.
Apparently members have stronger restrictions than those applied to persons who express extreme right views:
"Scientologists in Germany face specific political and economic restrictions. They are barred from membership in some major political parties, and businesses and other employers use so-called "sect filters" to expose a prospective business partner's or employee's association with the organization."
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scientology_in_Germany
I am just trying to check who are the committees who define what is an acceptable religion, how and under what legal framework.
(No major party allows membership in another party, except european sister parties in other countries, but it's possible, and some smaller parties allow it)
"In 2019, the Munich Labor court sided with the director of personnel of Haus der Kunst, a well-known artistic museum. He had been removed from his position after working for 22 years because it was discovered that he was a Scientologist. The case was settled and the director of personnel was paid 110,000 euro as severance and received a full pension. Many Germany courts also ruled the legitimacy of Scientology as a religion. In 2019, Ahmed Shaheed and Fernand de Varennes who were UN Special Rapporteurs on freedom of religion and on minority issues wrote to Germany that, "discriminating against those who profess a certain belief is illegal under international human rights law, irrespective of whether the belief is religious or merely philosophical or cultural."
but "pay for indulgences" is fine?
Scientology's founder has been quoted as saying: "You don't get rich writing science fiction. If you want to get rich, you start a religion.” German courts have argued that because of this (and the organization's behavior after he died) that it's actually a for-profit business organization masquerading as a religion.
EDIT: I probably should add that the US is rather extreme amongst nations worldwide in that it does tend to recognize personal conviction rather than only shared dogma/tradition as a form of 'religion'. It's unlikely but I could see the organization losing tax-exempt status. Even if this happened, the individuals couldn't be prohibited from practicing what they believe is a religion.
It's also worth pointing out that, unlike some other countries, the US doesn't really have a formal system for recognizing religious organizations. AFAIU, the closest thing we have is the IRS adjudicating in the first instance Federal tax exemption status. Otherwise, as a general matter, a religion is as a religion does, and it's usually up to agencies, municipalities, and ultimately courts to decide on a dispute-by-dispute basis whether an organization, group, or person is owed the benefit of some particular religious exception in law.
https://www.settle-in-berlin.com/stop-paying-german-church-t...
That is a stunning amount. I wonder how many Berlin based Startup Developers are having a second look at the salary receipt right now...
I think the way it is calculated (depending on the federal state your in): Gross salary -> income tax -> 8 to 9% of the income tax = church tax.
Five minutes at the local courthouse, 20 Euros or so, and it's effective next month.
Of course, during Corona it can be more difficult to get an appointment, and the fee can vary from state to state, but all in all it's easy to get out.
That is true in theory but not in practice. To be recognized you need to be organized as a Körperschaft öffentlichen Rechts which isn't exactly trivial. In practice the Catholic church and the "Evangelical church of Germany" (a confederation of various mostly independent parishes, mostly Lutheran) are the two big ones and everything else barely passes as a rounding error (e.g. there seems to be only one Muslim organization and while they reflect a sect mostly originating in Turkey, they're hardly the largest Muslim sect in Germany).
Also for example the two primary public broadcasting channels ARD and ZDF have a Catholic and Lutheran bias (although this mostly manifests in a handful of very short theological opinion pieces paid for by the respective churches and clergy of the two religious orientations being invited every time ethical concerns are discussed).
Saying "all religions have the same benefit" is a lot like saying all people are equally forbidden from sleeping under bridges regardless of their income. It's not exactly an equal playing field and a lot of the influence of the churches comes down to not just the number of registered members but also feudal property rights and pre-existing contracts (e.g. the Catholic church is one of the few entities that legitimately "owns" land in Germany whereas normally legal subjects are only granted "ownership" conditionally).
And let's not get into public sector institutions like hospitals and schools being operated by one of the two churches and personnel being subject to church labor laws while the majority of the operating costs (in some cases even 100%) are footed by the state.
We only call it pluralism because Martin Luther was successful. Much like our so-called federalism (because Germany was still a lose collection of functionally mostly independent states until around the time of the American Civil War) it's really more of an accident of history that we later rebranded as something desirable.
The Church was replaced by an irreligious state and that was it.
What Luther was specifically mad about was selling indulgences (certificates of forgivness for certain sins) to pay off Church debt.
Maybe it was his mother.
How canst thous speak thus?
> The founder of the family was Johann Fugger, a weaver at Graben, near the Swabian Free City of Augsburg. The last name was originally spelled "Fucker".
> The first recorded reference to the family comes when Johann's son, also named Johann (or Hans), moves to Augsburg in 1367, with the local tax register laconically noting Fucker advenit, "Fugger has arrived".
Strikes me as an excellent name for a Christian rock band.