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What is a human being? A finely tuned machine that perishes once the heart stops beating? Or is there a divine spark in mankind? Will our soul still be there when our bodies fall dead to the ground? In 1767, a book dealt with this very question – and it became the most widely-read book in Germany at that time.

Luther wasn’t the only German critic of the church. Ulrich von Hutten also voiced criticism, however not in the form of academic papers, but with a sharp quill and in form of elegant Latin poetry that no one had mastered like he did.

At the end of the 18th century, the German states increasingly took over the organisation of the education of midwives with the help of doctors. A manual published with the intention of helping women in case there was no doctor present bears witness to this development.

When princes collected coins, they mostly did this for one of two reasons: to enhance prestige or because they were passionate collectors. Anton Günther II, Count of Schwarzburg-Sondershausen-Arnstadt, did it for both reasons. Nevertheless, he sold his spectacular collection to Gotha.

When Lessing brought his Nathan the Wise to the stage, the public immediately knew who the model for his main character was: the philosopher Moses Mendelssohn, the most famous German Jew at the time. A Karlsruhe publisher seized the opportunity and printed a pirated edition of his works.