Printing and the Reformation

In short: Around 1450 Johannes Gutenberg invented printing with movable metal type in Mainz. That made books cheap and sped the spread of knowledge and ideas, including Martin Luther’s Reformation.

In more detail: In 1517 Luther published his 95 Theses against the sale of indulgences. The printing press spread them quickly across Europe.

In detail

• Gutenberg Bible: Printed around 1455, one of the first major printed works.
• Consequences: More readers, literacy, science, newspapers and pamphlets.
• Reformation: Luther translated the Bible into German (New Testament 1522) and thus shaped written German.
• Split: Protestant churches arose alongside the Catholic one.
• Peasants’ War and wars of religion: Conflicts followed up to the Thirty Years’ War (1618–1648).
• Peace of Augsburg (1555): “Whose realm, his religion” (aufklaerung-und-franzoesische-revolution).