The Impact Of The Reformation On The Social Changes In The German Rural Areas

The Reformation has a far-reaching significance in the history of Germany.It is not only a revolution in the religious field but also a social revolution.The 95 Thesis of Luther was published 1517,marking the outbreak of the Reformation in Germany.The Reformation quickly spread in German cities and later spread to the rural areas.The spread of the Reformation in rural areas has had a major impact on the changes in the social structure of the entire rural community.Therefore,this article will take Brandenburg—Ansbach—Kulmbach as an example to analyze the development of the Reformation in German rural areas,and then to explore its impact on German rural society,and to re-examine how the German society underwent social transitions before and after the Reformation.The paper firstly analyzes the state-buildings of the late medieval and early modern Germany from the two levels of the Empire and the territorial states,and argues that it was the special political systems of the Empire that decided the outbreak and spreading ways of the Reformations in Germany.Then the paper mainly introduces the progresses of the outbreak of the Reformation and the spread of the Reformation to the Brandenburg—Ansbach—Kulmbach.The following part of the paper displays in detail how the Brandenburg—Ansbach—Kulmbach implemented the Reformations in the rural areas of their margrave and how the Reformations expanded in the rural areas.At last,the paper reveals the impacts of the Reformation on the rural society and the adaptations of the rural society to the influences of the Reformations from the two perspectives of rural society and rural church-systems,and as a result,the Reformation promoted the creation of the absolute monarchy in the principalities.