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In the Renaissance,
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people started keeping track of time.
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In 1510, precision mechanic Peter Henlein
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invented the pocket watch.
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It became a powerful tool.
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Merchants earned a fortune with it,
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while it helped seafarers with their navigation.
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(dramatic music)
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Shortly before, Columbus had discovered America,
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and the known world tripled in size.
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People began to understand the earth.
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An empire was created where the sun never set.
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(dramatic music)
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People owed all of this to the new portable time.
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Scholars were able to measure and calculate
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the course of the heavenly bodies.
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They discovered the mechanisms of planetary motion,
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and finally placed the sun at the heart of their system.
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It was a departure to the stars, at least in the mind.
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The invention of the pocket watch
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became the turbo charger of history.
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(dramatic music)
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Florence in 1504.
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Leonardo da Vinci
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was the lead character in an era
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that was to become known as the Renaissance,
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during which the best known painting of all time
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was to be created, the Mona Lisa,
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the mysterious beauty with the inimitable smile.
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It's probably a portrait of Lisa del Giocondo,
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the wife of a cloth and silk merchant from Florence.
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It's reported the Leonardo
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didn't complete the painting for years.
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The artist was always at odds with his works.
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He was never happy with them,
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and was always trying to improve them.
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Pope Leo X said of Leonardo,
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"This man will never achieve anything."
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How wrong he was.
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Leonardo was a polarizing figure.
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He was described as foppish, as excessively vain
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as a fashionista who stood by his homosexuality
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at a time when gay men were being burned at the stake.
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Leonardo da Vinci is considered
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the greatest polymath of all time.
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The star of the Renaissance was much more
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than just a painter.
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He was also an architect, an anatomist,
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a sculptor, lateral thinker, mathematician,
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inventor, and artist.
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But for the brilliant creator of the Mona Lisa,
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painting was maybe just a necessary evil.
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A mere 15 paintings are attributed to Leonard today,
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most have been lost because he was constantly experimenting
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with new paint mixes,
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many of which decomposed over time.
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He cared most about inventing more than about painting..
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(speaking in foreign language)
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When it comes to his inner working,
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Leonardo was a seeker and explorer,
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someone who was interested in new secrets
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more than a painter
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who would've had to nurture his craft
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laboriously every day, brush stroke after brush stroke.
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We know he spent days making minor corrections to a canvas,
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but he wasn't in front of the canvas all the time.
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Maybe he just painted to make a living.
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His painting were in great demand after all.
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They were extremely well done,
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at least those that were completed.
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Maybe he just painted to earn money
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so he had the freedom to pursue his scientific research.
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In the 15th century,
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Italy was ravaged by numerous local wars.
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In 1405, Venice defeated Padua,
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and Florence conquered Pisa.
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The Neapolitans attacked Rome in 1413.
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And 1440, Florence fought with Naples and Venice.
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The Italian cities had an insatiable
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appetite for each other.
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Their constant battles fueled progress however,
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war as a driver of art.
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(speaking in foreign language)
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War didn't just have negative effects
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in the Renaissance.
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It ensured that huge sums of money were mobilized
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through the Condottieri, the war contractors.
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They were often based in small places
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from where they waged the wars
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of the big players for good money.
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Money from Florence, Milan, Naples, Venice, and Rome
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flowed into smaller places.
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If you go to Italy and you take pleasure
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in the diverse appearances of these small towns,
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you get an idea of what it meant back then
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to worn iron into gold, and gold into art.
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Milan in 1485,
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Leonardo's employer was Ludovico Sforza
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who ruled the city state.
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In his application to Ludovico,
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Leonardo advertised himself as a military engineer
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and maker of weapons.
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He only mentioned at the end
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that he also knew about painting and sculpture.
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Ludovico was getting ready for war.
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He had great expansion plans.
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And so Leonardo built high-tech weapons for the Sforzas
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inspired by antiquity,
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he combined the idea of a closed chariot
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with the tortoise formation of the Roman legions,
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and armored vehicle with incredible fire power.
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However, it failed in practice because of a lack of energy.
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It was too heavy and the steam engine
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hadn't been invented yet.
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The Codex Atlanticus contains more than a thousand pages
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with sketches by Leonardo.
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He designed a perpetual motion machine,
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a gear box, and vehicles powered by springs
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like Henlein's pocket watch,
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but many of his imagination still cause us headaches today.
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Some consider his cog device to be a calculating machine.
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Critics say that interpretation goes much too far.
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In the Renaissance, there was no way
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of actually constructing this mechanical gear train.
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Leonardo knew that,
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and so he elevated himself onto a theoretical plain,
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and that was new.
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In 1495, Leonardo also showed himself
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to be a brilliant entertainer and master of ceremonies
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for the parties of the nobility.
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He presented a further invention at these parties,
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one that centuries later
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would be counted as one of his most spectacular,
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an automatic knight that could walk under its own power.
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Allegedly, it could even lift its elbows
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and moved its shoulders and wrists,
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a construction that generated great excitement
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at the court in Milan.
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But how did it work?
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The knight was moved by a complicated system
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of 13 pulleys, all hidden by the suit of armor.
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(applauding)
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Did the brilliant Leonardo invent a robot 600 years ago?
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Professor Uwe Schwiegelshohn
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runs the Robotics Research Institute
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in Dortmund in Germany.
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He specializes in autonomous robots
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that work without external control.
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They can take their own decision so to speak.
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He's familiar with Leonardo's prototype.
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(speaking in foreign language)
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Leonardo da Vinci
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recognized the mechanics of motion,
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maybe from his anatomical studies.
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And he tried to give artificial devices motion
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using pulleys.
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He didn't have the propulsion options we have today
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with electric motors.
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Mechanics wasn't developed in his day.
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It only truly flourished following Newton,
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and the materials Leonardo had available
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were quite rudimentary.
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Leonardo had no screws,
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no crankshafts or metal cogwheels,
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nor did he have a power unit,
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but he recognized the principle of the mechanical man.
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Attack of the now devils, RoboCup World Champion in 2016.
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These robotic footballers, roughly 50 centimeters tall,
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act autonomously.
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They size up their opponent and the ball.
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They plan their moves and sometimes they even score goals.
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Football is a complex game,
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and well suited as an experimental environment
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for the development of a new generation of robots.
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Research today requires a team, not an individual,
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never mind how brilliant.
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Modern success strategies are fundamentally different
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from how Leonardo worked.
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(speaking in foreign language)
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Leonardo had a university in his head.
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He wrote down the entire knowledge of his day.
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That's not possible with today's knowledge anymore.
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If we want technological and scientific progress today,
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we'd depend it on a number of people from different fields
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cooperating closely and working together
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to produce new results.
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But in order to collaborate with members
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of other faculties, it's necessary to at least understand
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the basics of the other fields.
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In order to build robots, it takes programmers,
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engineers, electronics engineers,
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and also experts in human anatomy
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and movement sequences.
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The robotic footballers are among the most advanced
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robotic developments,
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but the robotics field is still very far from creating
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a real R2D2.
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Leonardo amazed those around him,
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but he scared people too.
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His superiority threw up questions like,
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how did he do that?
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How can these people create something so outstanding?
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What made the greats of the Renaissance tick?
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Joachim Funke is a psychology professor from Heidelberg.
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He doesn't believe that the brains
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of the Renaissance's geniuses were any different.
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He isn't looking for an answer in the function
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and anatomy of the brain,
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but in the strategies of the scholarly artists.
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Funke is an expert in problem solving and creativity.
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(speaking in foreign language)
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Without knowledge,
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creativity wouldn't be conceivable,
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and to that, a broad spectrum of interests.
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His curiosity spanned many fields.
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He also paid close attention.
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From a psychological perspective, that's very important.
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Another factor would've been his competitiveness.
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Those around him accepted that he crossed boundaries.
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That was the spirit of the Renaissance.
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People weren't forced to believe anything anymore.
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They were able to find out how something works.
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That was a huge driving force.
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(gentle music)
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Creativity is a new arrangement of knowledge,
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knowledge that must already exist in the brain.
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The creative spark can ignite something
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that's already there,
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but a high degree of education alone isn't enough.
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Da Vinci was a natural thinker who explored new avenues.
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(speaking foreign language)
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Don't just always accept the same ideas
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and be around the same people.
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Listen to other opinions and world views.
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Take a different perspective.
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In the past, you had a court jester
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to tell you different opinions.
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That's still very helpful because you need a corrective
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and you should be challenged, and a jester can do that.
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You have to get up from your comfortable sofa
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and head out into new areas and try new things.
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If you want to be creative, you need to have courage.
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Leonardo's preference for mechanics
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was in line with the spirit of the time.
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Many multi talented people like him
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were looking for the engines that set humans,
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the earth and the universe in motion.
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Clockwork was mechanically
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the most elaborate thing on offer in Leonardo's time.
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In around 1505, Peter Henlein
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invented a portable watch.
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People started treating time as if they owned it.
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But those who earned money with time
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by loaning money for periods of time while charging interest
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were committing a mortal sin.
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Time belonged to God alone.
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(clock ticking)
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(speaking in foreign language)
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The prohibition on charging interest
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is in the Bible,
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and it's one of the really important biblical prohibitions,
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almost as important as thou shall not kill.
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That's because people believed that humans
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shouldn't profit from time,
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because time belonged to God.
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But in the middle ages and the Renaissance,
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the economy played a quite a different role.
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Money must circulate in the economy.
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And if the available of money and time is an advantage,
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then you can remunerate their worth.
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00:14:42,300 --> 00:14:45,780
As a result, there were more and more ways in practice
272
00:14:45,780 --> 00:14:48,680
of avoiding this ban on charging interest.
273
00:14:52,333 --> 00:14:55,140
The imperial decrees of the 16th century
274
00:14:55,140 --> 00:14:57,890
now also allowed Christian money lenders
275
00:14:57,890 --> 00:15:00,500
to charge interest on money loaned.
276
00:15:00,500 --> 00:15:02,190
The maximum was 5%.
277
00:15:03,200 --> 00:15:05,520
Up until then, the credit industry
278
00:15:05,520 --> 00:15:09,250
had been solely in the hands of Jewish money lenders.
279
00:15:09,250 --> 00:15:10,780
This now changed.
280
00:15:10,780 --> 00:15:12,220
While Martin Luther
281
00:15:12,220 --> 00:15:15,120
denounced the practice of charging interest,
282
00:15:15,120 --> 00:15:17,220
the Swiss reformer John Calvin
283
00:15:17,220 --> 00:15:18,870
had quite a different opinion.
284
00:15:21,900 --> 00:15:25,817
(speaking in foreign language)
285
00:15:27,886 --> 00:15:28,940
Calvin said,
286
00:15:28,940 --> 00:15:31,810
"One could see from one's economic success
287
00:15:31,810 --> 00:15:35,510
"whether one was predestined to salvation or damnation."
288
00:15:36,480 --> 00:15:38,390
That meant people didn't just sit around
289
00:15:38,390 --> 00:15:40,560
to see whether they would be chosen,
290
00:15:40,560 --> 00:15:42,510
they worked incredibly hard.
291
00:15:43,440 --> 00:15:45,440
The great sociologist Max Weber
292
00:15:45,440 --> 00:15:48,370
said that Calvanism was the father of capitalism.
293
00:15:50,090 --> 00:15:52,400
We know that other religious movements
294
00:15:52,400 --> 00:15:54,690
of the 16th and 17th centuries
295
00:15:54,690 --> 00:15:57,350
did just as much for the economy.
296
00:15:57,350 --> 00:15:58,841
It's a pretty theory,
297
00:15:58,841 --> 00:16:02,020
but it was the general forces of the society at the time,
298
00:16:02,020 --> 00:16:04,290
along with technical developments
299
00:16:04,290 --> 00:16:07,530
that led to the incredible economic boom.
300
00:16:11,920 --> 00:16:14,240
The city of Zurich started setting up
301
00:16:14,240 --> 00:16:18,190
official currency exchanges in 1419.
302
00:16:18,190 --> 00:16:19,970
The money changers tended to be
303
00:16:19,970 --> 00:16:22,520
gold smiths or master coiners,
304
00:16:22,520 --> 00:16:26,660
because they had to be able to tell the value of the coins,
305
00:16:26,660 --> 00:16:30,580
change currencies, but they also issued loans.
306
00:16:30,580 --> 00:16:34,350
Later, with its Zwinglian and Calvanist tradition,
307
00:16:34,350 --> 00:16:37,250
Switzerland became a banking pioneer,
308
00:16:37,250 --> 00:16:41,150
and affluence became a symbol of divine favor.
309
00:16:41,150 --> 00:16:44,210
Measuring time is still inseparably tied
310
00:16:44,210 --> 00:16:46,310
to exploring the heavens.
311
00:16:46,310 --> 00:16:48,480
The mind of Renaissance man
312
00:16:48,480 --> 00:16:50,620
left the small world behind
313
00:16:50,620 --> 00:16:52,860
and reached out for the stars.
314
00:16:52,860 --> 00:16:56,260
Many medieval clocks were astronomical clocks.
315
00:16:56,260 --> 00:16:58,300
The exact measurements of time
316
00:16:58,300 --> 00:17:00,810
is a necessary requirement for studying
317
00:17:00,810 --> 00:17:04,280
the movements of the sun, moon, and planets.
318
00:17:05,290 --> 00:17:07,250
It was the start of an age
319
00:17:07,250 --> 00:17:09,070
in which scholars, for the first time,
320
00:17:09,070 --> 00:17:10,570
bravely proclaimed
321
00:17:10,570 --> 00:17:13,920
that the church's world view was incorrect.
322
00:17:13,920 --> 00:17:16,610
The sun didn't revolve around the earth,
323
00:17:16,610 --> 00:17:19,840
and the earth was not the center of the universe.
324
00:17:21,090 --> 00:17:24,870
Frombork in Polland in around 1540,
325
00:17:24,870 --> 00:17:28,350
Nicolaus Copernicus was a canon of the cathedral,
326
00:17:28,350 --> 00:17:31,120
as well as a high-ranking government official
327
00:17:31,120 --> 00:17:33,180
and a polymath.
328
00:17:33,180 --> 00:17:35,480
He was a physician, had a law degree,
329
00:17:35,480 --> 00:17:37,440
and he was a mathematician,
330
00:17:37,440 --> 00:17:39,640
and he was also an economist
331
00:17:39,640 --> 00:17:43,440
who wrote a highly regarded work on the theory of money.
332
00:17:43,440 --> 00:17:46,120
But his personal passion was astronomy.
333
00:17:47,030 --> 00:17:50,380
His astronomical observations and calculations
334
00:17:50,380 --> 00:17:54,250
contracted the generally accepted model put forward
335
00:17:54,250 --> 00:17:57,330
by the ancient scholar Claudius Ptolemy,
336
00:17:57,330 --> 00:18:01,440
namely that the earth was at the center of the solar system.
337
00:18:01,440 --> 00:18:06,200
This geocentric world view was also taught by the church,
338
00:18:06,200 --> 00:18:08,130
but Copernicus saw the sun
339
00:18:08,130 --> 00:18:10,360
at the center of the solar system.
340
00:18:10,360 --> 00:18:13,630
Even though he spent 30 years working on his model,
341
00:18:13,630 --> 00:18:15,200
he didn't publish it.
342
00:18:15,200 --> 00:18:18,550
Friends and confidants, including high-ranking clerics,
343
00:18:18,550 --> 00:18:21,070
tried to persuade him to publish his work,
344
00:18:21,070 --> 00:18:22,720
but without success.
345
00:18:24,279 --> 00:18:27,910
(speaking in foreign language)
346
00:18:27,910 --> 00:18:29,090
Copernicus was scared
347
00:18:29,090 --> 00:18:30,650
of publishing his theory
348
00:18:30,650 --> 00:18:32,610
because he was frightened he would make himself
349
00:18:32,610 --> 00:18:34,220
a laughing stock.
350
00:18:34,220 --> 00:18:36,900
Educated people knew that the earth wasn't flat,
351
00:18:36,900 --> 00:18:38,620
that it was a sphere.
352
00:18:38,620 --> 00:18:40,600
With Copernicus's world view,
353
00:18:40,600 --> 00:18:43,090
this sphere was also moving.
354
00:18:43,090 --> 00:18:45,430
It's spun on its own axis,
355
00:18:45,430 --> 00:18:48,120
and it also traveled around the sun at high speed.
356
00:18:53,160 --> 00:18:55,650
People thought this would produce certain consequences,
357
00:18:55,650 --> 00:18:56,900
such as strong headwinds
358
00:18:56,900 --> 00:18:59,610
and objects falling over and things like that.
359
00:18:59,610 --> 00:19:02,040
And then there was a theological aspect
360
00:19:02,040 --> 00:19:04,310
that Martin Luther threw into the mix.
361
00:19:04,310 --> 00:19:07,350
He said to Copernicus that it was written in the Bible
362
00:19:07,350 --> 00:19:09,750
that the sun moved around the earth,
363
00:19:09,750 --> 00:19:13,460
and that scared Copernicus out of publishing.
364
00:19:16,420 --> 00:19:18,860
Martin Luther called him a fool.
365
00:19:18,860 --> 00:19:23,340
Copernicus's model was dismissed not so much as heretical,
366
00:19:23,340 --> 00:19:25,520
but more as fantastical.
367
00:19:25,520 --> 00:19:28,600
It wasn't until 70 years after his death
368
00:19:28,600 --> 00:19:33,030
that Galileo's observations provided convincing arguments,
369
00:19:33,030 --> 00:19:37,190
but the physical proofs had to wait for another 300 years.
370
00:19:39,790 --> 00:19:43,680
Nicolaus Copernicus supplied the astronomical model
371
00:19:43,680 --> 00:19:45,230
for our solar system,
372
00:19:45,230 --> 00:19:48,340
refuting the ancient scholar Ptolemy.
373
00:19:48,340 --> 00:19:51,150
And that in itself was revolutionary.
374
00:19:53,610 --> 00:19:56,840
The earth was removed from the center of the universe
375
00:19:56,840 --> 00:19:59,150
and classed as a simple planet
376
00:19:59,150 --> 00:20:01,920
that orbited the sun along with others.
377
00:20:06,090 --> 00:20:10,230
Copernicus saw how the stars moved in the night sky.
378
00:20:10,230 --> 00:20:12,090
He realized that this impression
379
00:20:12,090 --> 00:20:15,830
was the result of the earth's own rotation
380
00:20:15,830 --> 00:20:18,540
or the orbits went around the sun.
381
00:20:18,540 --> 00:20:21,870
Consequently, the actual center of the world
382
00:20:21,870 --> 00:20:23,790
had to be near the sun.
383
00:20:23,790 --> 00:20:27,690
Almost no other discover has had such a great significance
384
00:20:27,690 --> 00:20:29,060
on our time.
385
00:20:29,060 --> 00:20:30,880
Our departure to the stars
386
00:20:30,880 --> 00:20:34,520
started 500 years ago in a scholar study.
387
00:20:34,520 --> 00:20:37,620
Without Copernicus, without space flight,
388
00:20:37,620 --> 00:20:40,700
without satellite supported communication,
389
00:20:40,700 --> 00:20:43,440
our lives today would be very different.
390
00:20:44,512 --> 00:20:45,345
(speaking in foreign language)
391
00:20:45,345 --> 00:20:47,810
The calculations performed by Copernicus
392
00:20:47,810 --> 00:20:50,160
have real impacts on us today.
393
00:20:50,160 --> 00:20:52,510
We sent our spaceships into space
394
00:20:52,510 --> 00:20:54,450
knowing where the plants were.
395
00:20:54,450 --> 00:20:56,650
Had Ptolemy's world view been correct,
396
00:20:56,650 --> 00:20:58,510
we would've reach none of those planets,
397
00:20:58,510 --> 00:21:00,360
and it would all have been a waste.
398
00:21:02,650 --> 00:21:05,980
It wasn't until the Jacob's staff came along
399
00:21:05,980 --> 00:21:09,750
that it became possible to determine latitude at see
400
00:21:09,750 --> 00:21:12,690
using astronomical calculations,
401
00:21:12,690 --> 00:21:14,620
a breakthrough in seafaring.
402
00:21:14,620 --> 00:21:17,440
It made it possible to navigate on the high seas
403
00:21:17,440 --> 00:21:18,960
without landmarks.
404
00:21:22,710 --> 00:21:26,840
A further achievement came in the form of the ephemerides,
405
00:21:26,840 --> 00:21:28,720
astronomical tables,
406
00:21:28,720 --> 00:21:32,650
calculations by the German astronomer and mathematician
407
00:21:32,650 --> 00:21:36,260
Johannes Muller, known as Regiomontanus.
408
00:21:36,260 --> 00:21:39,980
For the years 1475 to 1506,
409
00:21:39,980 --> 00:21:44,090
his table set out the location of the celestial bodies.
410
00:21:44,090 --> 00:21:46,230
Together with the Jacob's staff,
411
00:21:46,230 --> 00:21:48,790
they guided sailors on their journeys.
412
00:21:53,272 --> 00:21:57,320
(speaking in foreign language)
413
00:21:57,320 --> 00:21:59,650
Regiomontanus made people
414
00:21:59,650 --> 00:22:02,030
aware of trigonometry.
415
00:22:02,030 --> 00:22:03,750
He published his own work,
416
00:22:03,750 --> 00:22:07,370
taking advantage of the new invention of printing.
417
00:22:07,370 --> 00:22:09,010
Trigonometric solutions
418
00:22:09,010 --> 00:22:12,520
occur constantly in every receiver,
419
00:22:12,520 --> 00:22:14,040
in a billion receivers.
420
00:22:19,140 --> 00:22:20,950
Without trigonometry,
421
00:22:20,950 --> 00:22:24,580
there would be no satellite navigation, no GPS.
422
00:22:26,130 --> 00:22:28,310
Europe is currently developing its own
423
00:22:28,310 --> 00:22:31,033
satellite supported navigation system
424
00:22:31,033 --> 00:22:32,550
called Galileo.
425
00:22:33,700 --> 00:22:37,230
But countries outside of Europe are also involved,
426
00:22:37,230 --> 00:22:38,670
China for example.
427
00:22:44,470 --> 00:22:47,240
The navigation system is intended to work
428
00:22:47,240 --> 00:22:50,410
independently of the American GPS
429
00:22:50,410 --> 00:22:54,100
but to be more precise, down to the nearest centimeter.
430
00:23:00,760 --> 00:23:03,000
(ringing)
431
00:23:03,000 --> 00:23:05,580
Be it the Jacob's staff or Galileo,
432
00:23:05,580 --> 00:23:10,060
the trigonometrical approach is the key to new routes.
433
00:23:10,060 --> 00:23:13,370
The search for new trade routes also drove explorers
434
00:23:13,370 --> 00:23:14,820
to new goals.
435
00:23:14,820 --> 00:23:19,320
Put in modern terms, they wanted to maximize their profits.
436
00:23:19,320 --> 00:23:22,184
The people of the Renaissance started thinking about
437
00:23:22,184 --> 00:23:25,100
completely new questions.
438
00:23:25,100 --> 00:23:29,130
What lies beyond the known world and how can I get there?
439
00:23:32,770 --> 00:23:35,220
Europe's merchants recognized that it was
440
00:23:35,220 --> 00:23:37,130
cheaper to bring large quantities
441
00:23:37,130 --> 00:23:39,730
of pepper, cinnamon, and silk to Europe
442
00:23:39,730 --> 00:23:41,940
via the Portuguese shipping routes
443
00:23:41,940 --> 00:23:44,580
than to transport them in smaller units
444
00:23:44,580 --> 00:23:48,080
on the overland route controlled by Venice.
445
00:23:48,080 --> 00:23:52,150
And with that, the Venetian spice monopoly collapsed.
446
00:23:52,150 --> 00:23:54,991
Many trading establishments of the Renaissance
447
00:23:54,991 --> 00:23:56,840
invested in shipping.
448
00:23:56,840 --> 00:24:00,480
Portugal and Spain became leading trading nations.
449
00:24:03,068 --> 00:24:06,985
(speaking in foreign language)
450
00:24:08,330 --> 00:24:10,470
Merchants wanted to get their hands on
451
00:24:10,470 --> 00:24:13,690
interesting luxurious and beautiful things
452
00:24:13,690 --> 00:24:16,250
and sell them for as much profit as possible.
453
00:24:17,460 --> 00:24:20,020
These things existed in the Mediterranean,
454
00:24:20,020 --> 00:24:22,890
but even more so in the far east.
455
00:24:22,890 --> 00:24:25,510
And so merchants along with Marco Polo
456
00:24:25,510 --> 00:24:28,740
set off to search for silk, and incense,
457
00:24:28,740 --> 00:24:31,240
and other luxurious fabrics.
458
00:24:31,240 --> 00:24:33,110
They traveled the world.
459
00:24:33,110 --> 00:24:36,150
They were followed by warriors and missionaries,
460
00:24:36,150 --> 00:24:39,830
and sometimes by artists, thinkers and explorers,
461
00:24:39,830 --> 00:24:41,920
so they all fueled each other,
462
00:24:41,920 --> 00:24:45,240
hoping to get beyond their own horizons.
463
00:24:49,010 --> 00:24:51,750
Lisbon in 1484.
464
00:24:51,750 --> 00:24:53,810
Maybe he was just hours away
465
00:24:53,810 --> 00:24:56,500
from his life's dream coming true,
466
00:24:56,500 --> 00:25:00,160
the 33-year-old Christopher Columbus had an audience
467
00:25:00,160 --> 00:25:02,510
with the Portuguese King John II.
468
00:25:03,690 --> 00:25:06,200
The professional seafarer from Genoa
469
00:25:06,200 --> 00:25:10,060
had profound knowledge of mathematics and cartography,
470
00:25:10,060 --> 00:25:12,770
and was a passionate defender of the idea
471
00:25:12,770 --> 00:25:15,550
of the ancient philosopher, Aristotle,
472
00:25:15,550 --> 00:25:19,280
who claimed that Asia could be reached in just a few days
473
00:25:19,280 --> 00:25:20,840
by a western route.
474
00:25:24,370 --> 00:25:27,920
The ancient scholars estimated that Europe and Asia
475
00:25:27,920 --> 00:25:31,570
made up roughly half of the earth's width.
476
00:25:31,570 --> 00:25:33,600
Columbus believe that Eurasia
477
00:25:33,600 --> 00:25:36,070
was much bigger than that even.
478
00:25:36,070 --> 00:25:38,820
In fact, Eurasia only makes up around
479
00:25:38,820 --> 00:25:41,220
a third of the earth's circumference.
480
00:25:43,860 --> 00:25:45,580
Columbus imagined the earth
481
00:25:45,580 --> 00:25:48,350
to be very much smaller than it really is,
482
00:25:48,350 --> 00:25:50,420
namely, half its size.
483
00:25:50,420 --> 00:25:53,940
He believed that the western route to China and India
484
00:25:53,940 --> 00:25:56,720
was 4,500 kilometers.
485
00:25:56,720 --> 00:26:00,450
A challenge for him and his crew, but doable.
486
00:26:00,450 --> 00:26:04,890
An actual fact, it's a journey of 20,000 kilometers.
487
00:26:04,890 --> 00:26:08,160
That went far beyond the capabilities of his time.
488
00:26:10,680 --> 00:26:13,700
Columbus therefore was taking on not only a risk,
489
00:26:13,700 --> 00:26:16,170
but one that he had miscalculated.
490
00:26:16,170 --> 00:26:19,310
King John's experts believed that he was mistaken
491
00:26:19,310 --> 00:26:21,900
and refused to give him financial support.
492
00:26:22,880 --> 00:26:25,050
He only got that eight years later
493
00:26:25,050 --> 00:26:27,550
from the Spanish King Ferdinand II.
494
00:26:30,710 --> 00:26:35,320
After six weeks at sea on the 12th of October 1492,
495
00:26:35,320 --> 00:26:37,470
Columbus reached the Bahamas.
496
00:26:37,470 --> 00:26:40,500
Then Cuba, and Hispaniola.
497
00:26:40,500 --> 00:26:44,370
He believed he had fond the western route to Asia.
498
00:26:44,370 --> 00:26:47,610
He thought Hispaniola was the Chinese coast.
499
00:26:48,610 --> 00:26:51,440
In his report, he promised the Spanish crown
500
00:26:51,440 --> 00:26:53,520
as much gold as it needed,
501
00:26:53,520 --> 00:26:56,110
and as many slaves as it asked for.
502
00:26:57,550 --> 00:26:59,632
Columbus discovered the New World
503
00:26:59,632 --> 00:27:02,580
and plunged it into catastrophe.
504
00:27:05,035 --> 00:27:09,140
(speaking in foreign language)
505
00:27:09,140 --> 00:27:11,780
Columbus was good at navigating ships
506
00:27:11,780 --> 00:27:13,450
through difficult waters,
507
00:27:13,450 --> 00:27:16,950
but he was a very poor manager.
508
00:27:16,950 --> 00:27:19,570
He wasn't able to keep his own men together.
509
00:27:19,570 --> 00:27:23,600
And ultimately, the Spanish crown took away his powers.
510
00:27:25,530 --> 00:27:28,830
America was already populated when he discovered it,
511
00:27:28,830 --> 00:27:32,800
so it wasn't a real discovery in that sense,
512
00:27:32,800 --> 00:27:36,967
but his arrival opened the door to unprecedented disasters.
513
00:27:39,130 --> 00:27:40,960
Millions of indigenous people
514
00:27:40,960 --> 00:27:43,040
died at the hands of the germs
515
00:27:43,040 --> 00:27:44,890
that the Europeans brought with them.
516
00:27:45,900 --> 00:27:47,160
They were interested in gold,
517
00:27:47,160 --> 00:27:50,300
and yet more gold, a little bit in God,
518
00:27:50,300 --> 00:27:51,930
but more so in spices.
519
00:27:53,080 --> 00:27:56,253
His travels opened the newly discovered lands,
520
00:27:56,253 --> 00:27:58,920
and that robbed the indigenous population
521
00:27:58,920 --> 00:28:01,940
of its good fortunes for a good long time.
522
00:28:06,890 --> 00:28:10,740
During his second trip to Hispaniola in 1493,
523
00:28:10,740 --> 00:28:13,110
Columbus found the fort he had built
524
00:28:13,110 --> 00:28:16,130
had been destroyed by the indigenous people.
525
00:28:16,130 --> 00:28:20,040
He immediately embarked on his revenge and never stopped.
526
00:28:21,569 --> 00:28:25,120
Bartolome de las Casas, who later became the defender
527
00:28:25,120 --> 00:28:28,810
of the rights of the indigenous population in the New World,
528
00:28:28,810 --> 00:28:32,980
described the inconceivable cruelty of the conquerors.
529
00:28:32,980 --> 00:28:36,240
On his arrival, there were between 400,000
530
00:28:36,240 --> 00:28:39,830
and a million people living on Hispaniola.
531
00:28:39,830 --> 00:28:44,150
By 1542, that figure had dropped to less than 200.
532
00:28:44,150 --> 00:28:46,278
It was the systematic extermination
533
00:28:46,278 --> 00:28:49,960
of the indigenous population, genocide.
534
00:28:51,327 --> 00:28:56,030
(speaking in foreign language)
535
00:28:56,030 --> 00:28:58,900
The only justification for colonization
536
00:28:58,900 --> 00:29:02,660
and for the slavery that was legitimized by the Papal Court
537
00:29:02,660 --> 00:29:04,854
came through missionary work.
538
00:29:04,854 --> 00:29:08,920
Unbelievers could be converted to Christianity.
539
00:29:08,920 --> 00:29:11,540
The problem was when they had converted,
540
00:29:11,540 --> 00:29:13,410
when they had been baptized,
541
00:29:13,410 --> 00:29:16,200
theY couldn't be enslaved anymore,
542
00:29:16,200 --> 00:29:18,730
but the slave trade was profitable.
543
00:29:18,730 --> 00:29:21,640
Their only justification was that they led people
544
00:29:21,640 --> 00:29:23,260
to the correct faith,
545
00:29:23,260 --> 00:29:25,640
thereby opening up paradise for them.
546
00:29:28,760 --> 00:29:31,240
Columbus believed until the day he died
547
00:29:31,240 --> 00:29:35,010
that he had found the sea route to the Chinese mainland.
548
00:29:35,010 --> 00:29:37,630
His discovery changed the world.
549
00:29:37,630 --> 00:29:40,290
The threshold nation Spain and Portugal
550
00:29:40,290 --> 00:29:42,830
became imperial super powers,
551
00:29:42,830 --> 00:29:47,430
but he was also the first in a line of cruel conquerors.
552
00:29:47,430 --> 00:29:50,680
What drove him, a lust for adventure,
553
00:29:50,680 --> 00:29:54,130
the promise of power, wealth, or fame?
554
00:29:56,966 --> 00:30:00,883
(speaking in foreign language)
555
00:30:02,347 --> 00:30:04,020
Columbus was definitely someone
556
00:30:04,020 --> 00:30:06,620
who wanted fame and fortune,
557
00:30:06,620 --> 00:30:09,150
but he was also a very devout person.
558
00:30:11,430 --> 00:30:14,740
He thought he helped countless individuals
559
00:30:14,740 --> 00:30:17,510
by bringing their souls to the Christian faith,
560
00:30:18,890 --> 00:30:22,330
at least there are many indications that he believed this.
561
00:30:25,050 --> 00:30:27,010
As was so often the case,
562
00:30:27,010 --> 00:30:29,500
the desire for profit and fame
563
00:30:29,500 --> 00:30:31,910
was mixed with medieval motivations.
564
00:30:35,897 --> 00:30:38,480
The Renaissance had two sides to it,
565
00:30:38,480 --> 00:30:40,720
and so too did Columbus.
566
00:30:47,180 --> 00:30:49,280
Emperor Charles V,
567
00:30:49,280 --> 00:30:51,720
thanks to the discoveries and discoverers,
568
00:30:51,720 --> 00:30:54,160
the sun never set on his empire.
569
00:30:55,640 --> 00:30:57,920
Besides large parts of Europe,
570
00:30:57,920 --> 00:31:00,210
it included colonial territories
571
00:31:00,210 --> 00:31:03,710
in North and South America and in Asia.
572
00:31:03,710 --> 00:31:06,260
When the sun set in Mexico City,
573
00:31:06,260 --> 00:31:09,480
it was already day in Manila in the Philippines.
574
00:31:13,030 --> 00:31:16,210
In 1530, he was crowned by the Pope.
575
00:31:16,210 --> 00:31:18,920
Already King Charles I of Spain,
576
00:31:18,920 --> 00:31:21,410
he now become Charles the V,
577
00:31:21,410 --> 00:31:23,220
Holy Roman Emperor.
578
00:31:24,760 --> 00:31:27,340
He saw himself as a universal monarch,
579
00:31:27,340 --> 00:31:30,570
defender of the faith, appointed by God.
580
00:31:30,570 --> 00:31:33,170
He issued several decrees in an attempt
581
00:31:33,170 --> 00:31:37,140
to counteract the enslavement of the indigenous population.
582
00:31:38,430 --> 00:31:42,100
In 1540, he even ordered their liberation,
583
00:31:42,100 --> 00:31:44,150
but the colonies were far away.
584
00:31:44,150 --> 00:31:48,420
And in the end, Charles's need for gold was too great.
585
00:31:48,420 --> 00:31:49,360
He failed.
586
00:31:53,722 --> 00:31:57,639
(speaking in foreign language)
587
00:31:59,320 --> 00:32:01,240
The last thing he might have seen
588
00:32:01,240 --> 00:32:02,920
is a painting by Titian
589
00:32:02,920 --> 00:32:05,030
that hung near his deathbed,
590
00:32:05,030 --> 00:32:08,730
but you can see him in the white gown a confessor, barefoot.
591
00:32:10,450 --> 00:32:13,910
He has put down the crown and the insignia of the emperor,
592
00:32:13,910 --> 00:32:16,050
and he's praying to the Holy Trinity.
593
00:32:17,440 --> 00:32:20,310
Maybe that's how he saw himself at the end of his life.
594
00:32:21,410 --> 00:32:22,790
In amongst that,
595
00:32:22,790 --> 00:32:25,480
the attempt to create a universal monarchy,
596
00:32:25,480 --> 00:32:28,020
not in a sense of a cruel dictatorship,
597
00:32:28,020 --> 00:32:30,120
but in the sense of supreme rule
598
00:32:30,120 --> 00:32:31,950
over all the Christian rulers.
599
00:32:32,930 --> 00:32:34,600
He failed across the board.
600
00:32:34,600 --> 00:32:36,830
In the end, he abdicated,
601
00:32:36,830 --> 00:32:40,550
but I think deep down we'll find a very devout person.
602
00:32:46,160 --> 00:32:47,330
Charles's empire
603
00:32:47,330 --> 00:32:49,870
was greedy for silver and gold.
604
00:32:49,870 --> 00:32:53,310
Between 1541 and 1560,
605
00:32:53,310 --> 00:32:55,330
67 tons of gold
606
00:32:55,330 --> 00:32:59,180
and 480 tons of silver reached Spain,
607
00:32:59,180 --> 00:33:01,450
triggering an economic crisis.
608
00:33:02,546 --> 00:33:06,463
(speaking in foreign language)
609
00:33:07,440 --> 00:33:09,690
Gold and silver were currencies
610
00:33:09,690 --> 00:33:11,520
that stored value,
611
00:33:11,520 --> 00:33:13,960
the only sensible medium of exchange.
612
00:33:15,320 --> 00:33:18,540
Then suddenly, the whole system was flooded.
613
00:33:18,540 --> 00:33:20,640
There were distortions and production.
614
00:33:20,640 --> 00:33:23,940
And suddenly your currency, gold and silver,
615
00:33:23,940 --> 00:33:26,050
dramatically declined in value.
616
00:33:29,090 --> 00:33:32,490
Expectations had to find their new level.
617
00:33:32,490 --> 00:33:35,260
That always happen when you have a shock to the system
618
00:33:35,260 --> 00:33:36,450
from the outside.
619
00:33:42,470 --> 00:33:43,560
In the Middle Ages,
620
00:33:43,560 --> 00:33:46,090
the Jews were the only people in Europe
621
00:33:46,090 --> 00:33:49,740
who were able to issue loans and charge interest.
622
00:33:49,740 --> 00:33:51,410
Jewish businessman controlled
623
00:33:51,410 --> 00:33:53,870
the international financial world.
624
00:33:53,870 --> 00:33:57,110
For that some of them saw them as profiteers
625
00:33:57,110 --> 00:33:58,830
and cursed them for it.
626
00:33:58,830 --> 00:34:02,870
Brutal pogroms took place in the Iberian Peninsula.
627
00:34:02,870 --> 00:34:06,980
The Jewish population was persecuted, killed, or expelled.
628
00:34:06,980 --> 00:34:09,240
The Jewish financial system collapsed
629
00:34:09,240 --> 00:34:13,150
and the European money market reoriented itself.
630
00:34:13,150 --> 00:34:14,810
In the middle of this development
631
00:34:14,810 --> 00:34:17,570
stood the small German town of Augsburg.
632
00:34:17,570 --> 00:34:20,600
It became the financial capital of the known world,
633
00:34:20,600 --> 00:34:23,330
the headquarters of the Fugger Empire.
634
00:34:23,330 --> 00:34:24,860
The Fugger family business,
635
00:34:24,860 --> 00:34:27,340
which grew to be a European-wide company
636
00:34:27,340 --> 00:34:30,930
in just a few decades went back to Jakob Fugger,
637
00:34:30,930 --> 00:34:33,110
Europe's most significant merchant,
638
00:34:33,110 --> 00:34:37,277
mining entrepreneur, and banker between 1495 and 1525.
639
00:34:40,200 --> 00:34:44,117
(speaking in foreign language)
640
00:34:47,135 --> 00:34:49,440
Jakob Fugger funded the state.
641
00:34:49,440 --> 00:34:51,680
The state gave him unique opportunities
642
00:34:51,680 --> 00:34:53,840
to use or exploit the land.
643
00:34:55,770 --> 00:34:58,030
On the other hand, Fugger himself
644
00:34:58,030 --> 00:35:00,100
didn't do anything by halves,
645
00:35:01,310 --> 00:35:03,600
invested a lot of money in estates
646
00:35:03,600 --> 00:35:06,500
that are still at the heart of the Fugger foundations.
647
00:35:10,949 --> 00:35:13,520
TheY used calculable risks to make money
648
00:35:13,520 --> 00:35:15,700
and he worked with those in power,
649
00:35:15,700 --> 00:35:20,010
but he also always invested in safe real estate.
650
00:35:20,010 --> 00:35:22,320
He always diversified his investments,
651
00:35:22,320 --> 00:35:24,710
and he had a good eye for what was doable,
652
00:35:24,710 --> 00:35:27,210
so he was very successful.
653
00:35:38,586 --> 00:35:39,760
Fugger, pious
654
00:35:39,760 --> 00:35:42,830
and one of the most powerful men of his day,
655
00:35:42,830 --> 00:35:45,800
wanted an aristocratic title.
656
00:35:45,800 --> 00:35:48,300
With one foot still in the Middle Ages,
657
00:35:48,300 --> 00:35:52,190
Fugger was nevertheless a manager with a modern spirit.
658
00:35:59,387 --> 00:36:03,304
(speaking in foreign language)
659
00:36:05,175 --> 00:36:09,140
Take Durer's famous portrait of Jakob Fugger.
660
00:36:09,140 --> 00:36:11,140
Put this man into a gray suit
661
00:36:11,140 --> 00:36:13,690
and take the gold cap off his head,
662
00:36:13,690 --> 00:36:15,250
and you've got a modern CEO.
663
00:36:16,484 --> 00:36:19,770
He was a tough and incredibly efficient manager.
664
00:36:19,770 --> 00:36:22,070
That's undoubtedly true,
665
00:36:22,070 --> 00:36:24,780
but he was also a contrite Christian.
666
00:36:25,900 --> 00:36:27,470
The best evidence for that
667
00:36:27,470 --> 00:36:30,150
is that he built a whole estate for the poor
668
00:36:30,150 --> 00:36:32,280
in his hometown of Augsburg,
669
00:36:32,280 --> 00:36:35,550
the Fuggerei of 1516.
670
00:36:35,550 --> 00:36:38,100
That's a rich successful businessman
671
00:36:38,100 --> 00:36:40,460
balancing his books with God,
672
00:36:40,460 --> 00:36:44,190
so he's investing in the well-being of his soul,
673
00:36:44,190 --> 00:36:46,800
and that plays a big role here too.
674
00:36:50,703 --> 00:36:53,290
Fugger was active around the world.
675
00:36:53,290 --> 00:36:56,380
He gave loans to princes and the church.
676
00:36:56,380 --> 00:36:59,440
And in return, he negotiated mining rights,
677
00:36:59,440 --> 00:37:02,250
trading privileges and estates.
678
00:37:02,250 --> 00:37:04,660
The income he received was much higher
679
00:37:04,660 --> 00:37:06,650
than the borrowing costs,
680
00:37:06,650 --> 00:37:09,070
another product of the Renaissance,
681
00:37:09,070 --> 00:37:10,690
a type of global player.
682
00:37:12,380 --> 00:37:15,930
But Fugger combined his entrepreneurial spirit
683
00:37:15,930 --> 00:37:17,770
with social commitment.
684
00:37:17,770 --> 00:37:21,490
In 1521, he paid for the Fuggerei,
685
00:37:21,490 --> 00:37:23,330
a Renaissance time capsule
686
00:37:23,330 --> 00:37:25,810
in the middle of Augsburg.
687
00:37:25,810 --> 00:37:29,430
The Fuggerei is the oldest social housing project
688
00:37:29,430 --> 00:37:30,600
in history,
689
00:37:30,600 --> 00:37:32,800
and it's still used as such.
690
00:37:32,800 --> 00:37:35,070
The 67 houses are now home
691
00:37:35,070 --> 00:37:38,690
to 150 Catholic residence of Augsburg.
692
00:37:38,690 --> 00:37:41,640
The entry conditions are still the same as they were
693
00:37:41,640 --> 00:37:43,410
in the 16th century.
694
00:37:43,410 --> 00:37:46,430
Anyone wanting to live in the Fuggerei
695
00:37:46,430 --> 00:37:48,810
has to be from Augsburg, a Catholic
696
00:37:48,810 --> 00:37:50,410
and of good reputation.
697
00:37:51,910 --> 00:37:54,480
And it's still maintained by the fortune
698
00:37:54,480 --> 00:37:57,030
managed by the Fugger Foundation,
699
00:37:57,030 --> 00:37:59,630
a financial instrument set up in the Renaissance
700
00:37:59,630 --> 00:38:02,270
and still in effect today.
701
00:38:02,270 --> 00:38:05,540
The annual rent also remains unchanged,
702
00:38:05,540 --> 00:38:09,440
one rhenish guilder, or 88 Euro cents.
703
00:38:09,440 --> 00:38:11,280
Compared with the living standards
704
00:38:11,280 --> 00:38:13,800
of most people of the Renaissance,
705
00:38:13,800 --> 00:38:17,967
the houses in the Fuggerei are positively luxurious.
706
00:38:27,570 --> 00:38:31,800
A home for an entire family with around 60 square meters,
707
00:38:31,800 --> 00:38:33,630
generous and bright,
708
00:38:33,630 --> 00:38:35,990
at least by Renaissance standards.
709
00:38:36,920 --> 00:38:39,388
In addition to the symbolic rent,
710
00:38:39,388 --> 00:38:41,580
Jakob Fugger placed another condition
711
00:38:41,580 --> 00:38:45,240
on the residence of the Fuggerei, regular prayer.
712
00:38:45,240 --> 00:38:49,510
Every day, they were to say one Our Father, one Creed,
713
00:38:49,510 --> 00:38:53,000
and one Hail Marry for Fugger, the founder,
714
00:38:53,000 --> 00:38:54,100
and his family.
715
00:39:01,030 --> 00:39:03,100
The prayers for him and his family
716
00:39:03,100 --> 00:39:05,500
paved his way to paradise.
717
00:39:05,500 --> 00:39:08,370
That's what people believed in the middle ages,
718
00:39:08,370 --> 00:39:11,450
another investment in the salvation of his soul
719
00:39:11,450 --> 00:39:14,360
was the construction of the Fugger Chapel,
720
00:39:14,360 --> 00:39:16,760
a burial place dynasty,
721
00:39:16,760 --> 00:39:21,240
and an immiscible statement of it's social significance.
722
00:39:21,240 --> 00:39:24,320
Jakob Fugger hired important artists.
723
00:39:24,320 --> 00:39:26,800
First and foremost, Albrecht Durer,
724
00:39:26,800 --> 00:39:29,500
who designed the tomb stones fir his brother's
725
00:39:29,500 --> 00:39:31,790
Georg and Ulrich Fugger.
726
00:39:36,373 --> 00:39:38,300
The Fugger Chapel in Saint Anne
727
00:39:38,300 --> 00:39:41,770
was the first church interior in Germany
728
00:39:41,770 --> 00:39:44,060
to be build in the Renaissance style.
729
00:39:44,060 --> 00:39:46,300
This is where Jakob and his brothers
730
00:39:46,300 --> 00:39:48,480
found their final resting place.
731
00:39:49,330 --> 00:39:52,330
This donation says a lot about Jakob,
732
00:39:52,330 --> 00:39:54,160
his commercial foresight,
733
00:39:54,160 --> 00:39:56,470
and his attitude in general.
734
00:39:56,470 --> 00:39:59,360
He must've believed that there was a financial solution
735
00:39:59,360 --> 00:40:02,870
to the salvation of the soul and the afterlife.
736
00:40:04,770 --> 00:40:09,330
Jakob Fugger, a pious Christian and a financial genius,
737
00:40:09,330 --> 00:40:11,770
and one of the richest men of his time.
738
00:40:13,580 --> 00:40:15,311
(speaking in foreign language)
739
00:40:15,311 --> 00:40:17,430
Fugger was incredibly rich.
740
00:40:17,430 --> 00:40:19,280
The gap was immense.
741
00:40:19,280 --> 00:40:21,480
If you think of the sum that Fugger
742
00:40:21,480 --> 00:40:23,210
and the consortium stumped up
743
00:40:23,210 --> 00:40:26,260
to fund the imperial election of Charles V,
744
00:40:26,260 --> 00:40:29,430
it was than 800,000 guilders.
745
00:40:29,430 --> 00:40:33,940
A craftsman would've had to work 32,000 years
746
00:40:33,940 --> 00:40:36,320
to earn that.
747
00:40:37,677 --> 00:40:40,770
Fugger also made money with a fear of hell.
748
00:40:40,770 --> 00:40:44,660
Its terrible torments were everywhere in Fugger's time.
749
00:40:44,660 --> 00:40:47,440
The church preach that punishments in hell
750
00:40:47,440 --> 00:40:50,450
could be lessened or even avoided entirely
751
00:40:50,450 --> 00:40:54,240
because it had been granted the divine powers to remit them.
752
00:40:55,430 --> 00:40:57,940
But this indulgence as it was called
753
00:40:57,940 --> 00:40:59,390
didn't come for free.
754
00:41:03,110 --> 00:41:07,120
The sale slogan of the Dominican friar Johann Tetzel,
755
00:41:07,120 --> 00:41:10,910
one of the most notorious sellers of indulgences, was
756
00:41:10,910 --> 00:41:14,030
"As soon as a coin in the box does ring,
757
00:41:14,030 --> 00:41:16,600
"the soul from purgatory does spring."
758
00:41:17,510 --> 00:41:22,050
He even sold indulgences for blasphemy and murder.
759
00:41:22,050 --> 00:41:24,090
In the autumn of 1511,
760
00:41:24,090 --> 00:41:28,257
the 28-year-old Augustinian friar Martin Luther was in Rome.
761
00:41:29,260 --> 00:41:31,360
He too was seeking indulgence.
762
00:41:31,360 --> 00:41:33,890
He climbed the holy stairs of the Lateran
763
00:41:33,890 --> 00:41:37,190
on his knees to achieve forgiveness for his sins
764
00:41:37,190 --> 00:41:40,820
and free his deceased relatives from purgatory.
765
00:41:42,080 --> 00:41:43,690
The Lateran palace,
766
00:41:43,690 --> 00:41:45,700
the official seat of the popes,
767
00:41:45,700 --> 00:41:48,330
a 16th century Renaissance building,
768
00:41:48,330 --> 00:41:51,070
built by Pope Sixtus V.
769
00:41:51,070 --> 00:41:53,380
The money-spinner of the Renaissance popes
770
00:41:53,380 --> 00:41:55,470
was the sale of indulgences.
771
00:41:56,340 --> 00:41:59,630
Between 1470 and 1530,
772
00:41:59,630 --> 00:42:01,430
six popes ruled Rome,
773
00:42:01,430 --> 00:42:04,510
who were later to go down collectively in history
774
00:42:04,510 --> 00:42:06,870
as the Renaissance popes.
775
00:42:06,870 --> 00:42:08,890
Their papacies were characterized
776
00:42:08,890 --> 00:42:11,880
by a previously unseen level of corruption,
777
00:42:11,880 --> 00:42:16,430
immorality, greed, and calamitous power politics,
778
00:42:16,430 --> 00:42:18,920
or so their critics say.
779
00:42:18,920 --> 00:42:22,630
Pope Alexander VI was particularly notorious.
780
00:42:22,630 --> 00:42:26,330
He celebrated orgies with well-known whores in the Vatican.
781
00:42:26,330 --> 00:42:28,770
Martin Luther labeled the Roman church
782
00:42:28,770 --> 00:42:30,530
as the whore of Babylon,
783
00:42:30,530 --> 00:42:33,280
and the holy city as a hot bed of sin.
784
00:42:34,449 --> 00:42:36,520
(speaking in foreign language)
785
00:42:36,520 --> 00:42:39,080
When we talk about the Renaissance popes,
786
00:42:39,080 --> 00:42:41,220
we often hear terrible stories,
787
00:42:41,220 --> 00:42:42,110
and you get the impression
788
00:42:42,110 --> 00:42:43,570
that they trigger the reformation
789
00:42:43,570 --> 00:42:45,740
with their immoral behavior,
790
00:42:45,740 --> 00:42:48,140
but that's a very one-sided story.
791
00:42:48,140 --> 00:42:49,440
They were modernizers.
792
00:42:49,440 --> 00:42:50,970
They were Renaissance men.
793
00:42:50,970 --> 00:42:53,770
They were princes who held court in line
794
00:42:53,770 --> 00:42:55,880
with the European standards at the time.
795
00:42:56,963 --> 00:43:00,010
(speaking in foreign language)
796
00:43:00,010 --> 00:43:03,400
In 1508, Pope Julius II
797
00:43:03,400 --> 00:43:07,370
commissioned the 33-year-old Michelangelo Buonarroti
798
00:43:07,370 --> 00:43:11,720
to cover the interior of the Sistine Chapel in frescoes,
799
00:43:11,720 --> 00:43:14,600
but Michelangelo didn't want the job.
800
00:43:14,600 --> 00:43:16,250
Painting wasn't his strength.
801
00:43:16,250 --> 00:43:20,010
He primarily saw himself as a sculptor, he said.
802
00:43:20,010 --> 00:43:23,010
But Julius, more a warrior than a man of God,
803
00:43:23,010 --> 00:43:24,690
asserted himself.
804
00:43:24,690 --> 00:43:27,760
Michelangelo asked for artistic freedom.
805
00:43:27,760 --> 00:43:30,050
"Do what you want," Julius replied.
806
00:43:30,050 --> 00:43:34,217
520 square meters of frescoes to be painted overhead,
807
00:43:35,270 --> 00:43:38,128
a tortuous work of epic proportions.
808
00:43:38,128 --> 00:43:40,711
(gentle music)
809
00:43:45,400 --> 00:43:48,600
The Frescoes in the vaulted ceiling of the Sistine Chapel
810
00:43:48,600 --> 00:43:50,720
and Leonardo's Mona Lisa
811
00:43:50,720 --> 00:43:53,720
are indisputably the most famous paintings
812
00:43:53,720 --> 00:43:58,300
of the Renaissance, if not the whole of art history.
813
00:43:58,300 --> 00:44:01,210
And the interpretation of the creation of Adam
814
00:44:01,210 --> 00:44:04,870
is the most reproduced work of art in the world,
815
00:44:04,870 --> 00:44:08,338
a god who overcomes people like a thunderstorm.
816
00:44:08,338 --> 00:44:11,338
(suspenseful music)
817
00:44:17,480 --> 00:44:21,750
And a last judgment that depicts the heavenly host
818
00:44:21,750 --> 00:44:24,860
naked like the gods of Mount Olympus.
819
00:44:24,860 --> 00:44:27,130
The brave work of the great man
820
00:44:27,130 --> 00:44:30,130
only made possible thanks to his papal patron.
821
00:44:32,918 --> 00:44:34,430
(speaking in foreign language)
822
00:44:34,430 --> 00:44:36,140
We wouldn't have Saint Peters,
823
00:44:36,140 --> 00:44:38,820
we wouldn't have all these wonderful arts in Rome,
824
00:44:38,820 --> 00:44:41,050
we wouldn't have many pieces of music
825
00:44:41,050 --> 00:44:43,980
if these Renaissance popes hadn't existed.
826
00:44:43,980 --> 00:44:45,980
Renaissance popes were ambivalent,
827
00:44:45,980 --> 00:44:47,600
like the whole of modernity.
828
00:44:47,600 --> 00:44:49,970
They have admirably good traits,
829
00:44:49,970 --> 00:44:51,960
and they also behave like princes,
830
00:44:51,960 --> 00:44:54,910
like Machiavelli, free and confident,
831
00:44:54,910 --> 00:44:58,700
and sometimes they put that church brief on the back burner
832
00:44:58,700 --> 00:45:00,730
or even forgot about it altogether.
833
00:45:03,663 --> 00:45:07,350
Pope Julius II, Il Terribele,
834
00:45:07,350 --> 00:45:09,490
that's what the Romans called him,
835
00:45:09,490 --> 00:45:13,170
the architect by his side, Donato Bramante,
836
00:45:13,170 --> 00:45:17,010
called maestro rovinante, master of destruction,
837
00:45:17,860 --> 00:45:20,800
this duo put their stamp on Rome.
838
00:45:20,800 --> 00:45:22,980
Julius had buildings torn down,
839
00:45:22,980 --> 00:45:26,070
squares enlarged, and roads rebuilt.
840
00:45:28,000 --> 00:45:30,240
Donate Bramante asserted himself
841
00:45:30,240 --> 00:45:32,000
as a hip architect in Rome
842
00:45:32,000 --> 00:45:34,860
with the cloister at Santa Maria della Pace,
843
00:45:34,860 --> 00:45:36,160
the Chiostro del Bramante.
844
00:45:37,950 --> 00:45:41,200
The client was Cardinal Oliviero Carafa,
845
00:45:41,200 --> 00:45:43,741
an influential prince of the church.
846
00:45:43,741 --> 00:45:46,741
(suspenseful music)
847
00:45:48,370 --> 00:45:52,260
Bramante came to fame with the Tempietto del Bramante,
848
00:45:52,260 --> 00:45:56,240
the little temple inspired by Roman round temples.
849
00:45:56,240 --> 00:46:00,407
It's considered a paradigm of high Renaissance architecture.
850
00:46:02,020 --> 00:46:04,460
Pope Julius II asserted himself
851
00:46:04,460 --> 00:46:07,220
against all the protest of his cardinals
852
00:46:07,220 --> 00:46:11,520
and had the venerable Basilica of Constantine demolished.
853
00:46:11,520 --> 00:46:14,480
He wanted to build the biggest church of Christendom
854
00:46:14,480 --> 00:46:16,820
in its place, Saint Peter's.
855
00:46:21,340 --> 00:46:23,290
Julius was a gigantomaniac.
856
00:46:24,340 --> 00:46:28,530
His basilica was also to house his monumental tomb,
857
00:46:28,530 --> 00:46:31,290
bigger than anything the world had ever seen,
858
00:46:31,290 --> 00:46:34,440
Saint Peter's as the mausoleum for Julius II.
859
00:46:35,383 --> 00:46:38,160
Donato Bramante got the commission,
860
00:46:38,160 --> 00:46:41,410
construction started in 1506.
861
00:46:43,420 --> 00:46:46,510
40 years were to pass before sculptor, painter,
862
00:46:46,510 --> 00:46:49,260
poet, and scientist Michelangelo
863
00:46:49,260 --> 00:46:53,190
became the architect and site manager of Saint Peter's.
864
00:46:57,320 --> 00:47:01,487
In 1547, the 72-year-old Michelangelo Buonarroti
865
00:47:02,530 --> 00:47:04,540
took over the supervision of Europe's
866
00:47:04,540 --> 00:47:06,110
largest building site.
867
00:47:07,890 --> 00:47:09,730
The dome of Saint Peters,
868
00:47:09,730 --> 00:47:13,897
the largest self-supporting masonry structure in the world .
869
00:47:14,770 --> 00:47:17,690
the dome with its ribs was his idea.
870
00:47:17,690 --> 00:47:21,857
Its construction was the pinnacle of his artistic career.
871
00:47:22,820 --> 00:47:26,300
His creative life lasted 70 years.
872
00:47:26,300 --> 00:47:28,610
He considered himself a sculptor,
873
00:47:28,610 --> 00:47:31,710
but he created epoch-making works
874
00:47:31,710 --> 00:47:34,240
as a painter and architect.
875
00:47:34,240 --> 00:47:38,740
He spent years in quarries, always searching for material.
876
00:47:38,740 --> 00:47:41,280
He literally moved mountains.
877
00:47:41,280 --> 00:47:44,020
Michelangelo lived through nine popes
878
00:47:44,020 --> 00:47:46,940
and worked until his final breath.
879
00:47:46,940 --> 00:47:51,450
He died at 89, a biblical age in his day.
880
00:47:51,450 --> 00:47:54,510
He was the last among the great scholarly artists
881
00:47:54,510 --> 00:47:56,190
of the Renaissance.
882
00:47:56,190 --> 00:47:57,490
The year of his death
883
00:47:57,490 --> 00:47:59,870
is considered by many art historians
884
00:47:59,870 --> 00:48:01,970
as the end of this era.
885
00:48:01,970 --> 00:48:06,137
Michelangelo died on the 18th of February, 1564.
886
00:48:07,184 --> 00:48:09,934
(dramatic music)
887
00:48:12,960 --> 00:48:15,720
But even this masterpiece of the Renaissance
888
00:48:15,720 --> 00:48:18,260
was funded by the fear Christians had
889
00:48:18,260 --> 00:48:20,440
of facing punishment in hell.
890
00:48:22,120 --> 00:48:25,370
It was Pope Leo X who supported the sale
891
00:48:25,370 --> 00:48:28,560
of indulgences to fund the new building.
892
00:48:32,180 --> 00:48:34,870
Martin Luther was appalled by the moral decline
893
00:48:34,870 --> 00:48:36,520
he encountered in Rome.
894
00:48:36,520 --> 00:48:40,220
His trip to Rome is seen as his key experience.
895
00:48:40,220 --> 00:48:42,340
Luther himself mentioned it regularly
896
00:48:42,340 --> 00:48:44,530
in later writings and speeches.
897
00:48:44,530 --> 00:48:47,680
He fulminated against the trade in indulgences,
898
00:48:47,680 --> 00:48:51,430
a trade which became synonymous with this moral decline
899
00:48:51,430 --> 00:48:54,200
with the greed of the church and its popes,
900
00:48:54,200 --> 00:48:56,200
and with the triggering of an event
901
00:48:56,200 --> 00:48:59,040
that would go down in history as the Reformation.
902
00:49:05,640 --> 00:49:08,700
A simple friar defied the emperor and the pope,
903
00:49:08,700 --> 00:49:10,080
and split the church.
904
00:49:10,080 --> 00:49:12,440
Not a revolutionary, but a reformer.
905
00:49:12,440 --> 00:49:14,870
Just two generations after Luther,
906
00:49:14,870 --> 00:49:16,730
Europe was shaken by a conflict
907
00:49:16,730 --> 00:49:19,520
more gruesome than any that had gone before,
908
00:49:19,520 --> 00:49:21,080
the 30 years war
909
00:49:21,080 --> 00:49:23,610
the fighting between Catholics and Protestants
910
00:49:23,610 --> 00:49:25,540
devastated the empire.
911
00:49:25,540 --> 00:49:27,850
Martin Luther castigated the practice
912
00:49:27,850 --> 00:49:32,490
of selling indulgences very publicly in Ninety-five Theses.
913
00:49:32,490 --> 00:49:35,010
In just a few months, Luther published more
914
00:49:35,010 --> 00:49:38,930
than 80 individual treatises and collections.
915
00:49:38,930 --> 00:49:41,380
There were more than 600 editions.
916
00:49:41,380 --> 00:49:43,400
Luther became a media star.
917
00:49:43,400 --> 00:49:46,880
Printing became the first mass medium of human kind.
918
00:49:49,655 --> 00:49:53,920
(speaking in foreign language)
919
00:49:53,920 --> 00:49:55,840
There wouldn't have been a reformation
920
00:49:55,840 --> 00:49:58,650
without the mass media of the 16th century.
921
00:49:59,810 --> 00:50:01,870
Martin Luther wrote thesis
922
00:50:01,870 --> 00:50:04,820
about a relatively abstruse theological problem,
923
00:50:04,820 --> 00:50:05,780
indulgences.
924
00:50:06,944 --> 00:50:10,230
But these thesis spread all over Southern Germany
925
00:50:10,230 --> 00:50:11,830
in just a few weeks.
926
00:50:11,830 --> 00:50:13,110
It was printing.
927
00:50:13,110 --> 00:50:15,120
It was fly sheets and pamphlets
928
00:50:15,120 --> 00:50:17,280
that spread all across the empire
929
00:50:17,280 --> 00:50:18,620
and mobilized people.
930
00:50:20,270 --> 00:50:22,490
People read and they read to others,
931
00:50:22,490 --> 00:50:26,080
and the issues were discussed with people who couldn't read.
932
00:50:31,230 --> 00:50:33,130
How do people work?
933
00:50:33,130 --> 00:50:34,600
What drives us?
934
00:50:34,600 --> 00:50:38,360
Questions that scholars were now able to discuss publicly,
935
00:50:38,360 --> 00:50:41,070
thanks to the new mass medium.
936
00:50:41,070 --> 00:50:44,520
Global communication started in the Renaissance.
937
00:50:44,520 --> 00:50:46,130
For the first time, it was possible
938
00:50:46,130 --> 00:50:49,380
for thousands of people to refer to the same contents
939
00:50:49,380 --> 00:50:51,030
at the same time.
940
00:50:51,030 --> 00:50:52,420
It was the first time
941
00:50:52,420 --> 00:50:55,050
the future could be depicted and planned
942
00:50:55,050 --> 00:50:57,080
in a realistic fashion.
943
00:50:57,080 --> 00:50:59,460
People understood what moved them.
944
00:50:59,460 --> 00:51:01,040
They copied themselves.
945
00:51:01,040 --> 00:51:03,750
The first machine man were created,
946
00:51:03,750 --> 00:51:05,540
an anticipation of a future
947
00:51:05,540 --> 00:51:07,890
in which robots play football.
948
00:51:07,890 --> 00:51:09,970
Within just a few generations,
949
00:51:09,970 --> 00:51:13,020
the known world tripled in size.
950
00:51:13,020 --> 00:51:15,310
Global transport and global trade
951
00:51:15,310 --> 00:51:18,840
became a reality for the first time in the Renaissance.
952
00:51:18,840 --> 00:51:22,460
The people didn't just travel their own planet.
953
00:51:22,460 --> 00:51:24,350
They also laid the ground work
954
00:51:24,350 --> 00:51:26,600
for trips to distant worlds
955
00:51:26,600 --> 00:51:29,240
and the exploration of the universe.
956
00:51:30,778 --> 00:51:32,270
(speaking in foreign language)
957
00:51:32,270 --> 00:51:33,490
The legacy of the Renaissance
958
00:51:33,490 --> 00:51:34,620
has never died.
959
00:51:34,620 --> 00:51:36,400
It has remained alive.
960
00:51:36,400 --> 00:51:38,400
I think we can say that the industrial revolution
961
00:51:38,400 --> 00:51:40,280
and therefore our modern world
962
00:51:40,280 --> 00:51:41,700
wouldn't have been possible
963
00:51:41,700 --> 00:51:44,040
without all the things that were invented
964
00:51:44,040 --> 00:51:45,620
in the Renaissance.
965
00:51:46,660 --> 00:51:48,850
At no other time in its history
966
00:51:48,850 --> 00:51:50,900
has human kind experienced
967
00:51:50,900 --> 00:51:53,580
a comparable boost in development.
968
00:51:53,580 --> 00:51:58,180
The Renaissance even beats our current fast-changing age.
969
00:51:58,180 --> 00:52:01,180
Never before was so much developed, invented,
970
00:52:01,180 --> 00:52:04,240
moved, changed, revolutionized,
971
00:52:04,240 --> 00:52:08,650
and rejected in such a short space of time,
972
00:52:08,650 --> 00:52:11,830
a development driven by people who mastered
973
00:52:11,830 --> 00:52:13,700
what was seemingly impossible,
974
00:52:13,700 --> 00:52:16,680
because they understood their world.
975
00:52:16,680 --> 00:52:20,220
The Renaissance is a plea against closed minds
976
00:52:20,220 --> 00:52:24,300
and a cult of experts for intellectual curiosity
977
00:52:24,300 --> 00:52:27,430
and the courage to take unusual paths.
978
00:52:27,430 --> 00:52:30,700
It's a story about people who didn't have faith
979
00:52:30,700 --> 00:52:34,360
but wanted to know and wouldn't accept limits.
980
00:52:34,360 --> 00:52:37,320
The Renaissance is our past
981
00:52:37,320 --> 00:52:39,048
and our future.
982
00:52:39,048 --> 00:52:41,631
(gentle music)
75686
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