Leipzig Convention
On February 26, 1631, a conference of the Protestant imperial estates, initiated by Johann Georg I , Elector of Saxony, began in Leipzig . In the conference the previous course and the possibilities for termination of for more than 10 years running was war discussed. This conference was called the Leipzig Convention . The Protestant imperial estates that signed the declaration of the Leipzig Convention between March 28 and April 4, 1631, are known as the Leipzig Confederation .
prehistory
Emperor Ferdinand II had issued the edict of restitution on March 6, 1629 . The central statement of the Edict of Restitution was that any removal and alienation of Catholic church property was not lawful according to the Passau Treaty of 1552. This would have meant that the original owners would have to get their now secularized goods back. Refusal of restitution should be outlawed. Two archbishoprics, eleven bishoprics, over 500 monasteries and numerous other church properties were affected by the edict of restitution. The Habsburgs intended to consolidate their power in the empire by taking back the northern German bishoprics and to push back the Danish and Dutch influence in northern Germany.
In Central Germany, the implementation of the edict would have meant the return of the property of the Archdiocese of Magdeburg and the Diocese of Halberstadt . The property of the dioceses of Merseburg , Naumburg and Zeitz should be left to the Elector of Saxony due to political considerations.
The Protestant imperial princes feared losing their de facto existing independence and, moreover, a return of the church property would have called the existence of many smaller rulers into question and the upheaval in property relations would have endangered the order in the empire enormously. The Protestant imperial estates rose up against the edict of restitution immediately and even the commander-in-chief of the imperial army, Wallenstein , rejected the edict of restitution as politically unreasonable. It was clear to him that the Protestants would never accept the edict and thus it was foreseeable that the edict would strengthen the opposing Protestant coalitions and the danger of an unpredictable prolongation of the war existed.
On July 6, 1630, the King of Sweden Gustav II Adolf landed on Usedom with 13,000 men. The invasion of the Swedes threatened the Brandenburg ownership claims on Pomerania and therefore the Calvinist Elector Georg Wilhelm von Brandenburg hoped for the support of the Saxon Elector Johann Georg. As a Lutheran, the Saxon elector was not ready to support the Brandenburg elector. He continued to pursue his irreconcilable religious policy towards the reformed creed and remained with his tolerant attitude towards the Catholic doctrine. As early as 1620, he was not ready to give military support to the Calvinist Bohemian King Friedrich von der Pfalz in the battle of the White Mountain against the Habsburgs and the Catholic League . As a reward for his friendly attitude towards the emperor, the emperor had compensated him for his war expenses and given him the pledge for the Upper Lusatia and Lower Lusatia . Therefore, the Lausitz and Silesia were spared from the bloody recatholization of Bohemia carried out by the emperor.
Goals of the Leipzig Convention
During the Regensburg Electoral Congress of 1630, the Emperor asked the Elector of Saxony to exchange both Lausitzes for the Duchy of Mecklenburg of the disgraced Wallenstein . With the exchange, the Saxon elector would have been directly exposed to the attacks of the Swedish king and would therefore have needed an alliance with the emperor, which would have resulted in considerable conflicts with the Protestant imperial princes. The demanded return of both Lusatians also contradicted the territorial policy pursued by Johann Georg in Central Germany. In addition, the Saxon elector saw his property in the secularized dioceses and the Saxon claims to the administration of the Archdiocese of Magdeburg at risk. So a new, comprehensive strategy, supported by all Protestants, was required to defend against the emperor's demands with clear and unequivocal words. Was with elector in the preparation of a convention of all Protestant princes Georg Wilhelm also Brandenburg involved.
From February to April 1631 the Electors of Saxony and Brandenburg met with Wilhelm and Bernhard of Saxe-Weimar , Johann Casimir of Saxe-Coburg , Johann Philipp of Saxe-Altenburg , Wilhelm of Hessen-Kassel , Christian of Brandenburg-Bayreuth , and others 160 Protestant princes and imperial estates at the Leipzig Convention. On March 28, 1631, a declaration to withdraw the Edict of Restitution was passed, which had the character of an ultimate declaration of war.
The participants in the Leipzig Convention declared the edict of restitution to be the root of constant unrest in the empire, and described the edict as disregard of the imperial legal provisions of the Augsburg religious peace . and called on Ferdinand II to withdraw the edict. The declaration of the Leipzig Convention, also known as the Leipzig Manifesto , was made by representatives of the Princes of Anhalt, Baden, Braunschweig-Lüneburg and Mecklenburg, by representatives of the cities of Lübeck, Frankfurt am Main, Mühlhausen, Nordhausen, Nuremberg and Strasbourg, signed by the Protestant abbess of Quedlinburg as well as by many small Protestant nobles and small independent towns. The former Elector Palatinate, Friedrich V, the Duke of Pomerania, Bogislaw XIV. , And the city of Magdeburg did not sign the Leipzig Manifesto and instead declared their loyalty to the Swedish King Gustav II Adolf .
On April 4, 1631, Johann Georg I sent the Leipzig Manifesto to the Emperor. With the declaration of the Protestant imperial estates, the Saxon elector hoped to maintain a strong negotiating position with Ferdinand II. He also intended to set up a third party which, on the one hand, opposed the centralization efforts of Ferdinand II, and, on the other hand, stopped the Swedish advance under Gustav II Adolf. The Leipzig Convention therefore decided to raise an army of 40,000 men, commanded by Hans Georg von Arnim . The army was to serve exclusively defensive purposes and was to be set up and maintained by the respective imperial circles . The elector of Saxony was to take over the supreme command and coordination.
The Leipzig Convention called on the Catholic imperial estates to joint peace negotiations. The Catholic imperial estates, however, did not react to the proposals of the Protestant imperial estates. The emperor also ignored the offer of the Elector of Saxony and the Elector of Brandenburg to give him military support against armies outside the empire after the restitution edict was withdrawn. A refusal by the emperor would mean that only he as emperor would be responsible for the consequences, because after the intervention of the Swedes neutrality would no longer be possible and the Protestants would not be ready to allow themselves to be rubbed off between the Swedes and the emperor. After the emperor did not respond, the Protestant princes of the Leipzig Confederation stood against the emperor on April 21, 1631
Consequences of the Leipzig Convention
The Swedish King Gustav II Adolf, who posed as a fighter for the German Protestants, responded to the policy of the Leipzig Convention with the storming of the Brandenburg fortresses Küstrin and Frankfurt in April 1631. Both cities were plundered and pillaged by Swedish troops for days, although there predominantly Protestant citizens lived.
The emperor responded to the resistance of the Leipzig Confederation and the advance of the Swedes with the siege, conquest and sacking of Magdeburg in May 1631. On September 4, 1631, the imperial troops under Johann T'Serclaes von Tilly advanced into Saxony and sacked the city of Merseburg . Two days later Tilly moved in front of Leipzig and shelled the trade fair city. This forced the Saxon elector to give up his previous policy of neutrality.
The commander in chief of the Saxon army, Hans Georg von Arnim , finally convinced Johann Georg I to enter into an alliance with the Swedes. On September 11, 1631 the Swedish-Saxon treaty of alliance was signed in Coswig and on September 17, 1631 the allied Swedes and Saxons defeated the army of the Catholic League in the battle of Breitenfeld .
Due to the course of the war in 1631, the resolutions of the Leipzig Convention were irrelevant. However, in the Peace of Prague on May 30, 1635 between the Emperor, the Catholic League and Electoral Saxony, Johann Georg I managed to suspend the Edict of Restitution until 1675. In addition, the two Lausitzes were transferred to the Electorate of Saxony.
During the negotiations on the Peace of Westphalia of 1648, the withdrawal of the edict of restitution no longer had to be discussed.
The failure of the Leipzig Convention's policy meant that Saxony was a constant theater of war in the 1630s and 1640s. Saxony was devastated by the imperial and Swedish Soldateska, its population reduced by half to 400,000 people by the end of the war. The last Swedish troops did not leave Saxony until June 30, 1650.
literature
- Friedemann Needy : "Pocket Lexicon Thirty Years' War". Piper Verlag GmbH, Munich October 1998, ISBN 3-492-22668-X .
- CV Wedgwood; "The 30 Years War" ; List Verlag Munich Leipzig; 10th edition 1998; ISBN 3-471-79210-4
- Rudolf Kötzschke / Hellmut Kretzschmar ; "Saxon History" ; Weltbild Verlag; Augsburg 1995; ISBN 3-89350-705-1
- Karl Czok and Rainer Groß; "The Electorate, the Saxon-Polish Union and the State Reform (1547 - 1789)" in "History of Saxony" ; edited by Karl Czok; Hermann Böhlaus successor; Weimar 1989; ISBN 3-7400-0062-7
- Dieter Walz; "Death came as a Saxon - Historic battlefields of the Thirty Years' War in the Leipzig region" ; Passage-Verlag Leipzig; 1st edition 1994; ISBN 3-9803465-2-8
- Wilfried Mehl; "Gustav II Adolf of Sweden, the Thirty Years War and its effects on the region" ; Competitive work; 4th Ur-Krostitzer Annual Ring 2007
Individual evidence
- ↑ CV Wedgewood: The 30 Years War . Cormoran Verlag, Munich 1999, ISBN 3-517-09017-4 , p. 246f