The Thirty Years War - Evidence of Life with Violence

The Thirty Years War - Testimonies to Living with Violence is a book by Hans Medick that was published by Wallstein Verlag in Göttingen in 2018 . The subject of the book is the everyday life of the little man during the Thirty Years' War , presented from the perspective of individuals. The time was marked by violence and fear, which is impressively documented by all kinds of personal and contemporary testimonies. The book belongs to the genre of micro-history.

History of origin

The genesis of the book goes back to the biographical experiences of the author as well as a multitude of research efforts and collegial connections over many years, as well as the tireless support of his wife Doris, who accompanied the work as a literary and cultural scientist and to whom the book is ultimately dedicated is. As a toddler after a British air raid, Hans Medick saw numerous burned bodies lying between the rubble of houses, which made a lasting impression on him and what he would later associate with violence in the war (Epilogue, pp. 423–424).

structure

After the introduction, which explains "The Near and Far of the Thirty Years' War ", the book is divided into eight Roman chapters. The arch spans from I. Beginnings and consequences of the Prague window lintel of 1618 to II. Religions in War, III. Everyday war, IV. "Scourges" of war, V. Siege, massacre, battle, VI. Media and war, VII. The long road to peace, up to VIII. Feast and bonfire. Each of these eight chapters has numerous subtitles. Initially, Medick summarizes the historical background in broad outlines. He follows these up with numerous contemporary testimonies of the most varied kinds. Excerpts from diaries, court records, courtly news, newspaper clippings, sayings, official decrees, Bible entries, sermons, songs, etc. Introductory texts as well as contemporary testimonies are supplemented and clarified by a large number of footnotes. The reader gets a first-hand, detailed and impressive insight into the most diverse situations in which people had to eke out their lives back then.

content

introduction

A great war can also be represented on the basis of small events, episodes and fragments of perception. Not the big battles and the politics of rulers should come into play here, but everyday life with its countless violent events and the relentless attempts to survive. Contemporary self-testimonies and contemporary testimonies are analytical and representational starting points of a documentary micro-history , which prove a different overall representation of the Thirty Years War. It is shown how the worlds of the military perpetrators and the civilian victims overlap in various ways in everyday war life. The former lived on the constant use of force and coercion, the latter under the constant threat of the military. The billeting of the military in civilian households meant that the Thirty Years' War was not only one of the great battles, but also took place to a large extent “at home” among the common people. "Why", asks the author, "is this historical landscape so alive today in the 400th year of the beginning of this 'Great War in Germany' (Ricarda Huch)?" The answer to this question, which the reader can ask, can be found in this book.

I. Beginnings. The Prague lintel of 1618

The lintel in Prague was the “warlike beginning of a fatal chain of events of violence” (page 25), due to differences between the Catholic Habsburg Emperor Matthias and the Protestant Bohemian imperial estates. The latter defended their rights to religious freedom , which the Catholic side should be restricted again. Two royal governors and their secretary were thrown out of a window of the chancellery in Prague Castle by protesting representatives of the Bohemian estates on May 23, 1618 . The "terrible Cometstern", a comet that stood in the sky for 30 days and was retrospectively viewed as a messenger for a thirty-year war, also seemed to be decisive and to announce the coming disaster . Political confusion and irrational processing of natural events are mixed in an impressive way.

II. Religions at War?

Calling the Thirty Years War the last major religious war in Europe is problematic for a number of reasons. It was more of an imperial constitutional war, "a conflict over the political and religious order in the Holy Roman Empire and in the Habsburg Monarchy ". Religious-denominational conflicts probably played a central role, for example the unresolved dispute over the interpretation of the Augsburg Religious Peace of 1555 . However, the power-political interests of all warring parties were just as important. Confessional affiliation mostly played a role neither with the members of the warring parties nor with the collection of contributions, whereby the Jews were generally subjected to greater financial burdens than the rest of the people, as a report by Councilor Johann Georg Pforr shows (p. 77 ff). Violence was not reserved for battles. The destruction of two bishop statues, which were supposed to contain relics, led to Protestant vandalism in Erfurt Cathedral. This was converted into a Lutheran house of worship on the occasion of a victory celebration. The Catholic university was re-established under the aegis of Protestants through the “God-given victory of Gustav Adolf”.

Augsburg , a predominantly Lutheran city, became the site of violent recatholicization . It was about "saving souls" for Catholicism. Just as important, however, was the regaining of former church property and former rulership rights.

Interestingly, the authorities on both the Catholic and Protestant sides are said to have put a stop to their supporters' fury of destruction after a certain period of time (p. 68).

III. The war in everyday life

In this chapter Medick explores the question of whether civilians were really only unwilling, passive and helpless victims of military violence, or whether there was not also a kind of coexistence, collaboration and situations of relaxation. Under what constraints did people of different social classes suffer; what leeway did they have available? How were the women involved in the events? The micro-historical approach conveys an inconsistent picture with a wide range of physical and social violence between the military and civilian population. Critical situations often arose when taking quarters. Sometimes, however, a win-win situation arose, with the military taking over the protection of the family in return for board and lodging.

IV. Scourges of War

The extreme spread of diseases, hunger, hardship and warlike misery was understood and preached above all by Protestant clergy as a just punishment and "discipline" of God for the sins of men. "Between and next to the war rod, God sent pestilence after us" announced the Lutheran pastor Johann Daniel Minck (p. 163). The greater part of the deaths in the Thirty Years' War are not due to military operations but to plague , typhus and starvation. Up to 1.8 million soldiers and, depending on the area, up to 60% of civilians died as a result of the war. The south was more affected than the north; this had the better economic resources (S 166/167).

The famine in 1634/35 was so great that people did not shrink from eating their dead loved ones. According to the report of the Catholic pastor Michael Lebhardt from the village of Agawang (near Augsburg), anthropophagy was not a metaphor, but a real, desperate survival practice that was described as "emergency cannibalism" (p. 173).

V. Siege, massacre, battle

The army units were up to 35,000 men strong. There were also escort hawsers (relatives, sutlers, etc.) of roughly the same size. The armies were a kind of wandering cities, cumbersome war machines, but not necessarily fighting machines, which had to operate mainly as "food search machines". The supply of food, the provision of accommodation for the soldiers and their relatives, the procurement of war material such as weapons, ammunition and horses were continuous challenges that pushed everyone involved, soldiers and civilians, to the limits of their capacity. We can therefore speak of an actual emaciation war.

Sieges could escalate into extreme forms of violence, massacres. Examples of this are the cities of Münden (1626) and Magdeburg (1631). In Münden, out of 2,600 people, at least 2,200 lost their lives, in Magdeburg half of the 40,000 inhabitants. Magdeburg, with the reputation of a faithful Protestant city, ran the risk of losing the nimbus of the "militant 'fortified town' of Protestant faith" (p. 209). The Catholic victory over Magdeburg, the "foundation and center of the war" was considered to be the "pivot of a possible denominational and political reconquest of the empire". The destruction of Magdeburg on May 20, 1631 triggered massive, previously unprecedented media reactions, which were reflected in hundreds of pamphlets, leaflet presentations, newspaper articles, songs and sermons. The analogization of Magdeburg to historical events such as the fall of Jerusalem , Babylon , Troy etc. gave the fall of the city the status of a world historical event. The recourse to historical examples offered the Protestants the possibility of making the "destruction of 'their' city appear as a self-sacrificing devotion to the whole cause of Protestantism" (p.

The Battle of Lützen on November 16, 1632 was considered a key event in the Thirty Years' War. Gustav Adolf, military leader and leading figure of Protestantism, died in this battle through heroic self-sacrifice, as he was later said to be. His opponent Wallenstein, strategist, tactician and military leader, was judged negatively by both Protestants and Catholics. One wondered whether he had taken part in the battle in a litter as a gout - and probably a syphilis . Archaeological investigations around 2011 lead from the death of the Swedish king to mass graves that reveal “entire trauma biographies” of the soldiers and, based on their injuries, “transitional moments between violence and death in the midst of battle” (p 229).

VI. Media and war

According to Johannes Burkhardt, the Thirty Years' War "gave the modern media revolution a second boost" after the 'main turning point' of the Reformation in the 16th century. In addition to the previously common oral, written and visual transmissions, which continued to be important, print media such as “leaflet journalism” and “pamphletism” were booming. Newspapers were partly handwritten and mainly sent to higher-ranking addressees. Printed sermons, especially funeral sermons, reached a national readership. Songs, melodies and song pamphlets about the war spread quickly and are now considered the first mass media of popular music (p 270). Frankfurt, with numerous publishers, printers, engravers, news agents and writers, was an important center of media activities. Johann von den Birghden estimated the role of his news organ for Gustaf Adolf as more important than if he had supported him with several regiments, an assessment that was also shared by the Catholic side. The press was responsible for reporting the facts; but it was also a weapon of war. Many postal newspapers have been accused of lying. The death of Gustav Adolf and his heroic deeds during his lifetime, as well as the death of Wallenstein, met with great public and private interest, which was extremely conducive to the emergence of the media. In contrast to the positive portrayal of Gustav Adolf's life and death, the death or the murder of Albrecht von Wallenstein had a "literary-political 'shadow effect'" into the 19th century. Wallenstein was seen as an actor who united politics, military and violence in an extraordinarily hard way.

VII. The long road to peace

Throughout the Thirty Years' War there were always smaller peace initiatives. Johannes Burkhardt (2018) asks: "Was the whole war of wars, as long as it was varied and varied, possibly also a major construction site for peace?" (P.319). The war should neither completely destroy the enemy nor should it lead to the solution of the denominational question as a 'holy war'. The war propaganda of all parties emphasized their own will for peace and justified war as a means to peace. The other side was always to blame for the continuation of the war and the breach of peace offers.

The Peace of Prague in 1635 led to a re-formation of alliances between Protestant Sweden and Catholic France. The “denominational reading of war” took a back seat to princely state power interests. The introduction of "normal years", in which points in time before and after the beginning of the war were determined after which conquests and changes in ownership were to be reversed, were an effective "medium for peace".

The Peace of Westphalia of October 24, 1648, "the greatest peace work of the early modern period" (S 325) was a further step towards the reconfiguration of the European powers. 110 embassies represented 16 European countries and met separately in Münster and Osnabrück, places that had been declared military-free zones. Linguistic communication was in German, Latin, Italian, Spanish and Dutch. The final version of the peace agreements was finally made in Latin.

Peace was seen as a politico-military necessity. However, it should not simply be a peace as "the mere end of the war", but one fought for an "honorable peace" which should not diminish one's own reputation (p. 331). During the peace effort, acts of war continued on all sides. The library and the world-famous chamber of art and curiosities of Emperor Rudolph II fell victim to one of the last great raids by the Swedes.

As the “core of peace”, the peace treaties of Münster and Osnabrück stipulate that the parties “perpetually forget and amnesty each other for everything that has been committed with hostile intent in any place and in any way since the beginning of the war [...] [ grant and that] insults, acts of violence, hostile acts, damage and expenses without regard to the person [...] should be completely offset against each other, so that everything [...] will be forever forgotten. " (S 341).

VIII. Feast and bonfire

This last chapter deals with making peace. On the Nuremberg execution day , which was not a single day but lasted from 1649 to 1650, the aftermath of the war was settled. In an “effective political-cultural self-presentation”, negotiations were held about “Satisfactions” (compensation payments for withdrawing troops) and “Restitutions” (return of occupied territories) (p. 393). In charge were the imperial chief envoy Ottavio Piccolomini and his Swedish counterpart Palatine Karl Gustav von Pfalz-Zweibrücken, both very experienced both in terms of war and politics (S 402). The political negotiations were framed by numerous lavish feasts. The opulent "Swedish Peace Supper" is particularly emphasized. . Ox, bread and wine were given to the poor. - The exuberant mood of the festival participants accumulated in a swap of high-ranking clothing for soldiers' clothing, which was customary at the time, and shooting around with handguns. Events of this kind show the great importance of violence even in such maneuvers, which are regarded as jokes.

The conclusion of the Nuremberg peace celebrations, to which women also had access, culminated in a play and a fireworks display of joy. The whole thing was staged as the grandiose finale and final point of the Thirty Years' War. Both feasts were visited by Sigmund von Birken, a well-known writer, and recorded in writing. He was the author of the sayings and the avant-garde peace ballet drama, which was not populated by Christian motifs, as would have been expected, but by motifs from antiquity, with violence again playing a dominant role.

The historian Bernd Roeck praised the Nuremberg peace celebrations as "the most complex stagings" and compared them with ethnological rituals of repentance. However, he did not make it clear how much the Nuremberg festivities were still attached to the language of violence and its practice. An "eternal peace" as the fundamental goal of reason, as postulated later in the Enlightenment by Emmanuel Kant, was not in sight after 1650.

Cognitive interests

• View of a great war not from the perspective of the rulers, but alternatively from the historical perspective of a documentary-analytical micro-history (contemporary testimonies, personal testimonies, media).
• Depiction of the everyday occurrence of violence, coercion, hunger and disease in every form, which plagued the life of both the military and the civilian population.
• Survival strategies of the population.
• Questioning how far the Thirty Years War was actually about religion.

Committed to historical anthropology, the author describes everyday violence and mass death up to cannibalism in the Thirty Years' War using numerous testimonies from himself and the times. Forced billeting of civilians, plague and hunger dominated the thinking, acting and behavior of the people. The book is of great interest not only to historians and microhistorians; Economic experts, sociologists, psychologists, theologians, archaeologists and even musicians receive important general insights into the war-torn world of the little man, as well as those belonging to their specialist area.

reception

The clear structure of the book by Hans Medick is generally emphasized. There are different assessments of whether he has achieved the “goal of an overall presentation” with his work. It is criticized that the literature of the last 12 years was hardly considered. In addition, the author's assertion about the dominance of power-political and dynastic considerations contradicts his statement that questions of denominational affiliation and religious beliefs were formative factors in the war.

A careful and extensively commented source collection of personal testimonials, chronicles, leaflets, newspaper notes, etc. not only gives deep insights into disturbing life records, but also conveys a picture of the media world, which was then booming. Overall, the book is attested to impressively documenting the uncertainty of expectations and the general fear of the people away from the great events of the war by means of short text excerpts.

output

• German original edition: Hans Medick: The Thirty Years' War - testimonies to life with violence. Wallstein Verlag, Göttingen 2018, ISBN 978-3-8353-3248-5 .

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Hans Medick The horrors of everyday war life - Wissenschaft.de. Retrieved August 23, 2019 . 
2. ↑ VIEWPOINTS - Review of: The Thirty Years War - Issue 19 (2019), No. 5. Accessed on August 23, 2019 . 
3. ↑ Hans Medick: "The Thirty Years War - Evidence of Life with Violence". In: Kulturbuchtipps.de. October 27, 2018, accessed August 23, 2019 .