Short answers, pulled from the story.
Renaissance humanism reached Germany and northern Europe well after it had already taken hold in Italy, and can be dated from the invention of the printing press around 1450. Its flourishing period ran from the close of the 15th century until about 1520, when it was absorbed by the Reformation. In the Netherlands, its influence lasted longer, until arguably around 1550.
Northern humanism centered on universities and schools rather than princely courts, and Germany had no patrons comparable to the Renaissance popes or the Medici. German scholars focused on studying Greek and Hebrew to reach the Old and New Testaments, rather than pursuing the classics for their own sake as Italian humanists did.
The leading Northern humanists included Rudolph Agricola, Reuchlin and Erasmus. Other notable figures were Jacob Wimpheling, Sebastian Brant, Mutianus Rufus and John Trithemius, alongside reformers Martin Luther and Philip Melanchthon, whose work helped lead the movement toward the Protestant Reformation.
The printing press, invented around 1450, is the point from which Northern humanism is typically dated. Germany contributed the printing press to the world, described as the most important agent in intellectual history since the invention of the alphabet, and cities such as Nuremberg, Strasbourg, Basel and Augsburg became its most prosperous printing centers.
Older universities including Vienna (1365), Heidelberg (1386), Cologne (1388), Erfurt (1392), Würzburg (1402), Leipzig (1409) and Rostock (1419) predated the movement. New universities founded during its rise included Basel (1459), Ingolstadt (1472), Tübingen, Mainz (1477) and Wittenberg (1502), the last of which gained worldwide influence through professors Martin Luther and Philip Melanchthon.
German painters Albrecht Dürer (1471-1528), Lucas Cranach the Elder (1472-1553) and Hans Holbein the Younger (1497-1543) were drawn toward the Reformation. Cranach painted portraits of Martin Luther and Philip Melanchthon after settling in Wittenberg, and Holbein illustrated Protestant books and painted portraits of Erasmus and Melanchthon.