Deferegger and Dürrnberg exiles
The Deferegger and Dürrnberg exiles belonged to the so-called Salzburg Protestants , but were expelled from the Salzburg territory by Max Gandolf von Kuenburg at the end of the 17th century because of their Lutheran creed. The expulsion of the other Salzburg Augsburg denomination mainly took place under Prince Archbishop Leopold Anton Graf von Firmian in 1731/32.
history
The outer Defereggental in what is now East Tyrol also belonged to the Salzburg dominion . The Lutheran doctrine found a not inconsiderable number of followers here as early as the 16th century, but they were able to remain relatively unnoticed by state and church authorities until the 17th century. A search of suspicious houses ordered in 1666 also yielded no results.
Persecution and expulsion
In 1681 Martin Veldner was summoned for interrogation by Wolfgang Adam Lasser , the governor of Windisch-Matrei , and expelled from the country in 1683 due to his clearly Lutheran confession. Having become aware of this incident, the archbishopric sent two Capuchins with the task of searching for further supporters of the Reformation and, if necessary, persuading them to return to the Roman Catholic Church . Their reports show that around half of the around 1,400 inhabitants of the Defereggental valley were Lutheran. The Salzburg authorities thereupon ordered a mass expulsion, which the Austrian government, which was responsible for the rest of Tyrol and thus for the inner Defereggental, joined. These deportation orders contained various additional orders: for example, the emigration had to take place immediately and not within three years, and the children of the deportees were to be left behind and entrusted to the care of the Roman Catholic Church - both requirements which clearly contradicted the provisions of the Peace of Westphalia . Protestant fathers who intended to hide their children in the face of this decree were also to be sold as galley slaves , as were those who secretly returned after deportation to take away their property.
Protest of the Corpus Evangelicorum and imperial mandate
These orders and threats led the Corpus Evangelicorum - including Friedrich Wilhelm von Brandenburg - to protest sharply. The evangelical princes accused the archbishop's authorities of Salzburg, among other things, of breaking the Peace of Westphalia . These arguments lasted five years. It was not until September 6, 1690 that the emperor intervened in the debate and decreed that the Deferegger Protestants, including their children and their property, should be granted free retirement. What was granted to the Lutheran residents of the Defereggental was denied to the miners from the Dürrnberge near Hallein . They had to leave their children behind. Your belongings have been confiscated by the authorities.
Statistics and other developments
According to official statistics, the number of expellees from Defereggental was 621 adults and 289 children. Around 100 more exiles came from the Dürrnberg area. The displaced eventually found a new home in Franconia and Swabia , especially in the Duchy of Württemberg . Almost 50 years later there was another, even larger, emigration of Protestants from Dürrnberg .
literature
- Alois Dissertori: The Emigration of Deferegger Protestants 1666–1725 . 3rd edition, 2008 (1st edition 1964).
- G. Mecenseffy: Article Defregger and Dürrnberger Exulanten. In: RGG . Vol. II, Tübingen 1958, pp. 55f.
- P. Passler: The Lutheran Movement in Defereggentale. In: Yearbook of the Society for Protestantism in Austria . Vol. 49, 1928, pp. 1-107.
- Eberhard Fritz: Christian charity or economic calculation? Problems with the admission of Salzburg exiles to the Duchy of Württemberg . In: Leaves for Württemberg Church History . 110/2010, pp. 241-263.
- Gabriel Singer / Walter Mauerhofer: Loss of Home, The Story of the Displaced Defereggers, 2017