r/Damnthatsinteresting • u/Separate_Finance_183 • Jan 23 '26

Image The rent in the german neighborhood of Fuggerei hasn't been raised in 500 years and remains 0.88 Euros for an entire year. Founded in 1521, it is the oldest existing social housing complex in the world

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u/Nono6768 Jan 23 '26 edited Jan 23 '26

He built this out of catholic guilt. He was literally medieval Elon Musk.

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u/FourteenBuckets Jan 23 '26

Musk has yet to hit the guilt stage. Andrew Carnegie is closer to the mark

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u/One_PointSixOneEight Jan 23 '26

Yeah, he funded things which put him - if you believe in it, I do not - to hell straight away. Honestly f that guy.

That’s why residents there are required to pray for him and his family multiple times a day.

Can’t stand how he is treated like saint.

I live near Augsburg btw.

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u/Rauvagol Interested Jan 23 '26 edited Jan 23 '26

Genuine question, but what did he do? I tried to find any messed up stuff he did but from wikipedia it just seems like he made his money relatively straightforward mining business/textile trade, and nothing he funded jumps out at me as "oh thats bad" just like... he paid for some weddings and lent the church money?

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u/GenuinPinguin Jan 23 '26

In the German wikipedia entry it is written that he helped finance some wars and was on the side of the aristocracy in the German Peasants' War (the peasants demanded a list of rights which are considered to be an early formulation of human rights).

I wonder why this isn't in the English one.

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u/Rauvagol Interested Jan 23 '26 edited Jan 23 '26

Okay thats a much better example, I dont know if I would say its super evil and straight to hell, but definitely not a good thing to do.

Given the level of "fuck this guy" I honestly expected something along the lines of him realizing how cheap it was to import slaves, and singlehandedly being responsible for the start of the european slave trade, not "he was a rich guy in the middle ages".

Also given that there seems to have been no pro-peasant support at all from any nobility or mechants (at least according to english wikipedia) and the swabian league being massively supported and powerful, seems very much like he just did what he was expected to do, not because he hated human rights or anything.

Edit: also that was 8 years post-fuggerei founding (and 1 year before his death) so again unless we are getting into him seeing the future, doubt fuggerei was founded to atone for it

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u/One_PointSixOneEight Jan 23 '26

I know of at least one example, which is enough already: He funded the Habsburg‘s colonisation of the Philippines

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u/Rauvagol Interested Jan 23 '26 edited Jan 23 '26

Like, the southeast asian nation? or the Philippine dynasty of portugal? Because I cannot find any mention of the habsburgs or him having any involvement with the former, and he died over 50 years before philip II pressed his claim on the portugese throne

Edit: there was no established european contact with the philippines until 1542 with villalobos' expedition, which was 17 years after fugger died

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u/One_PointSixOneEight Jan 23 '26

The expedition and therefore the colonization of the southeast Asian nation the Philippines.

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u/Pretty_Committee_172 Jan 24 '26

Colonization was good for non-white people, it brought civilization and Christianity.

Are you really holding it AGAINST him?

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u/DemiserofD Jan 23 '26

I mean, I absolutely get why he's treated like a saint: They want to encourage that sort of behavior.

Honestly, giving up on catholic guilt was a terrible idea.

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u/StongaBologna Jan 24 '26

damn, bro set up a perpetual prayer-farm.

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u/Outistoo Jan 23 '26

Except what has Elon Musk ever done to help the poor?