Peace at habenhausen

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The Peace of habenhausen (also: habenhauser Friede or Friede von habenhausen ) of 1666 is the historic peace treaty between the Kingdom of Sweden and the Free Hanseatic City of Bremen . He ended the Second Bremen-Swedish War .

prehistory

After the end of the Thirty Years War in 1648, the Kingdom of Sweden expanded steadily. It gained the areas of Finland and today's Estonia, parts of Norway and also northern Germany. In the Peace of Brömsebro it had acquired the Diocese of Bremen from Denmark - a claim that was confirmed by the Peace of Westphalia in 1648. In 1658 Sweden reached the climax of its territorial expansion with the Peace of Roskilde .

On the other hand, the city of Bremen only received documentary confirmation of the status of a Free Imperial City and thus independence from the diocese with the Linz diploma issued on June 1, 1646 . This document was not recognized by the Swedish side.

The Second Bremen-Swedish War

Carl Gustaf Wrangel (1613–1676)

In 1666 the 10,000-strong army under the leadership of Field Marshal Carl Gustav Wrangel reached Bremen. This city, which was strategically located on trade routes, was to be taken over for the Swedish crown (the ruling monarch Charles XI at the time ). As in previous years, Wrangel first tried negotiations. But these talks, like all previous ones, also failed.

In the summer, minor fighting broke out in the urban area for the first time. The attackers then withdrew and began to besiege the city. Wrangel's headquarters were now in a stately farmhouse (later referred to as the "Schwedenscheune") in habenhausen , a small village southeast of the city limits.

The approximately 6,000 defenders were well armed, and the protective structures had only been repaired two years earlier and were now among the most modern in Europe. Bremen also had strong allies - such as Denmark , Brandenburg-Prussia , the Duchy of Braunschweig-Lüneburg and Landgraviate Hessen-Kassel , who disliked the development of Swedish power - and who therefore sent a further 6,000 soldiers as reinforcements.

The peace treaty

Surprised by the sudden superiority and not prepared for a lengthy fight, Wrangel finally had to give up the siege. On November 15, 1666, Bremen and Sweden signed the Peace of habenhausen at Wrangel's headquarters. The compromise stipulated that Bremen renounced imperial immediacy until the end of the 17th century and could not participate in imperial days. In fact, that had no real significance for the city. This peace treaty put a severe damper on Swedish military policy, and it was widely seen as a victory for Bremen.

On July 8, 1667 , the city of Bremen paid homage to the Swedish crown. During the following week of festivities from July 9th to 13th, 1667 Wrangel was honored and honored in Bremen for his diplomatic skills and his “wise foresight”.

In 1668, Lieutenant Colonel Johann Georg von Bendeleben organized the Great Fireworks for Bremen to commemorate the Peace at habenhausen am Werder near the Weser and the moat near Bremen Neustadt .

Swedish barn

Commemorative plaque on a residential building that stands on the site of the former habenhauser Swedish barn.

The so-called Swedish barn stood as house number 15 in today's Schwedenstrasse , which bears this name in memory of what happened. The structure survived almost unscathed until the First World War . After a lightning strike, the Swedish barn finally had to be demolished in 1938 because it was dilapidated. Today there is a memorial stone on a neighboring property.

literature

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Hermann Frese: habenhausen . Edition Temmen , Bremen 1986: “The stately farmhouse in which the Swedish Commander-in-Chief Wrangel took his headquarters during the siege of Bremen was probably built around 1600. In 1890 a new building was built next to this building. After that, the farmer Hinrich Fohne only used the old half-timbered building as a barn. The Swedish barn was demolished in 1938. "
  2. ^ Peter Koster: Chronicle of the Imperial Free Imperial and Hanseatic City of Bremen 1600–1700 , Edition Temmen, Bremen 2004, ISBN 3-86108-687-5 , p. 267.

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