Experiencing the Thirty Years War A Brief History with Documents

One of the most momentous and destructive wars in European history, the Thirty Years War has long been studied for its diplomatic, political, and military consequences. Yet the actual participants in this religiously motivated, seemingly endless conflict have largely been ignored. Hans Medick and Benjamin Marschke reveal the Thirty Years War from the perspective of those who lived it. Their introduction provides important insights into the roiling religious and political landscape from which the war emerged, as well as a thoughtful examination of the war's stages and enduring significance. An unprecedented collection of personal accounts, many of them translated for the first time into English, combine with visual sources to convey directly to students the experience of early modern warfare. Incisive document headnotes, maps and illustrations, a chronology, questions to consider, and a bibliography enrich students' understanding of this fateful war.

Hans Medick (D.Habil., University of Goettingen) is retired professor of modern history at the University of Erfurt. An internationally renowned scholar who helped to create the field of historical anthropology, Medick has published widely on the history of early modern Europe and on the connections between large historical events and personal experience. He is the author of many books, includingWeaving and Surviving at Laichingen 1700-1900: Local History as General History and he is co-editor of, with Benigna von Krusenstjern, Between Everyday Life and Catastrophe: The Thirty Years War from Up Close, and, with Claudia Ulbrich and Angelika Schaser, Ego Document and Personhood: Transcultural Perspectives.  Benjamin Marschke (Ph.D., University of California, Los Angeles) is associate professor of history at Humboldt State University. A specialist in early modern German history, Marschke has contributed to numerous publications and is the author of Absolutely Pietist: Patronage, Factionalism, and State-Building in the Early Eighteenth-Century Prussian Army Chaplaincy and co-editor of The Holy Roman Empire, Reconsidered.

Foreword

Preface

List of Maps and Illustrations

A Note About the Texts and Translations

PART ONE. INTRODUCTION: THE THIRTY YEARS WAR IN EXPERIENCE AND MEMORY

The Causes of the Thirty Years War

The Course of the Thirty Years War

The Significance of the Thirty Years War

PART TWO. THE DOCUMENTS

1. Sense of Crisis, Sense of Time

Tensions and Preparations Before the War

1. The Protestant Union, 1608

2. The Catholic League, 1609

1618: Spectacular Action and Ominous Signs

3. Wilhelm, Count von Slavata, The Defenestration of Prague, 1618

4. Hans Heberle, The Comet of 1618 as a Sign of the Times and Bad Omen, 1618

5. The Siege and Capture of Pilsen, and the Comet, 1618

2. A Religious War?

Confessional Politics

6. The Religious Peace of Augsburg, 1555

7. The Edict of Restitution, 1629

8. Johann Daniel Friese, A Childhood Memory of the Edict of Restitution

9. Melchior Khlesl, The Edict of Restitution as Seen by a Pragmatic Catholic Hardliner

Religious Violence and Confessional Identities

10. Bartholomaus Dietwar, Forced Conversion and Book Burning, 1630, 1631

11. Hans Krafft, The Seizure of the Cathedral in Erfurt by Protestants, 1634

12. Maurus Friesenegger, Desacralization and Its Limits, 1632

13. Liborius Wagner, A Catholic Martyr, 1631

14. The Nurtingen Blood Bible, 1634

3. Soldiers and Civilians: Confrontations and Relations

Friction and Conflict

15. Friedrich Flade, The Military Occupation of Olmutz, 1642-1643

16. Martin Bštzinger, Torture: Swedish Cocktail and Waterboarding, 1640

17. Volkmar Happe, Violence Between Peasants and Soldiers, 1627

18. Peter Hagendorf, Peasant Violence Against Soldiers, and Its Retribution, 1641

19. Augustin GŸntzer, Quartering Soldiers: A Household Under Stress, 1633

20. Christoph Brandis, Gains and Losses: Quartering and Occupation, 1636

Rape and Violence Against Women

21. Christoph Brandis, A Case of Rape, 1636

22. Christian Lehmann, Hounding Civilians, 1638

23. Peter Hagendorf, A Soldiers Various Ways of Dealing with Women, 1634-1641

24. Maria Anna Junius, Fear of Rape, Management of Relations, and Sweet Pacifications, 1632

The Hardships of Separation

25. Margaret, the Mosbachers Maid, Letter to Her Dearest Brother, 1625

26. Anna Immick from Allendorf, Letter to the Soldier Balthasar Wahs, 1625

27. Barbara Cautzner from Witzenhausen, Letter to Her Dear Husband, 1625

28. Michael Krafft, Letter to Anna N., 1625

4. War Nourishes War: Contributions, Robbery, and Plunder

29. Johann Georg Maul, The Burden of Contributions on a City and on a Household, 1637

30. Thomas Schmidt, Contribution Arrangement for the City of Wernigerode, 1626

31. Johann Georg Pforr, Paying Contributions and Tolerating Jews, 1636-1639

32. A Complaint from Three Jewish Heads of Household, 1624

33. Peter Hagendorf, A Soldiers Fortune. Everyday Life and Surviving the War, 1627-1631

34. Volkmar Happe, Lupus Lupo Lupus, 1639

5. Scourges of War: Plague, Starvation, and Cannibalism

35. Johann Daniel Minck, The Plague as the Scourge of God, 1635

36. William Crowne, War, Plague, Devastation, and Danger: Traveling in Germany During the Thirty Years War, 1636

37. Maurus Frisenegger, Hungry Peasants, Starving Soldiers, 1633-34

38. Michael Lebhardt Plebanus, Report on Cannibalism in Agawang, with Kaspar Zeiller, Response to Plebanus, 1635

6. Battle and Massacre: Experiences of Mass Violence and Death

Typical Armed Conflict

39. Asmus Teufel, The Siege and Capture of Munden, 1626

40. Volkmar Happe, An Attack on the City of Sondershausen, 1640

The Sack of Magdeburg

41. Peter Hagendorf, The Siege, Assault, and Destruction of Magdeburg, 1631

42. Johann Daniel Friese, Magdeburg: The Massacre Viewed from Within, 1631

43. Christian II of Anhalt-Bernburg, The Catastrophe of Magdeburg: A Local View, 1631

The Battle of Lutzen

44. Albrecht von Wallenstein, Request for Reinforcements Before the Battle of Lutzen, 1632

45. Albrecht von Wallenstein, A Battle Like No One Had Ever Seen or Heard, 1632

46. Zacharias von Quetz, Retrospective Account of a Participant in the Battle of Lutzen, 1632

7. Celebrity, Media, and Death: The Cases of Gustav Adolph and Wallenstein

Gustav Adolphs Death in Battle

47. Victorious Before Death, in Death, and After Death, 1632

48. The Immortal Gustav Adolph, 1633

49. The Protestant Veneration of Gustav Adolph, as Seen from the Catholic Side, 1633

Wallensteins Assassination

50. Regular Weekly News, Report of Wallensteins Death, 1634

51. A Parody of an Epitaph for Wallenstein, 1634

52. Wallensteins Death as Treacherous Murder, 1634

8. Peace Proclaimed and Peace Perceived

The Peace of Prague

53. The Peace of Prague, 1635

54. Volckmar Happe, Skepticism About the Recent Peace of Prague, 1635

55. Johann Georg Pforr, Perceptions of the Peace of Prague, 1635

56. Johann Peter Lotichius, The Relativization of Historical Truths as a Result of the War, 1647

The Peace of Westphalia

57. The Peace of Westphalia, 1648

58. The Messenger Bearing News of Peace, 1648

59. Caspar Preis, Peace, but Not the End of the Consequences of War, 1648-1649

60. Hans Heberle, An Uneasy Peace and Its Aftermath, 1648-1650

61. The Experience of War, Anxiety Regarding the Future, and the Will to Reconstruct, 1647

Appendixes

A Chronology of the Thirty Years War

Questions for Consideration

Selected Bibliography