Snapphanar
Snapphanar ( Swedish - Danish Snaphaner , German sometimes Schnapphähne ) is the derogatory term for the indigenous irregulars who fought against the Swedish troops in Scania , Blekinge and Halland in the 17th century .
history
During the Danish-Swedish wars in the 17th century, armed resistance against the Swedish occupation troops formed among the population of the areas originally belonging to Denmark in what is now southern Sweden. In the Peace of Roskilde (February 26, 1658) Denmark-Norway had to cede the politically and culturally Danish landscapes of Schonen, Blekinge and Halland to Sweden, with which the Swedish King Charles X Gustav achieved one of his most important war aims. However, the local population opposed integration into the Swedish state association, sometimes massively.
The Snapphanar (singular Snapphane ) were largely autonomous guerrilla fighters within the resistance who carried out raids on Swedish troops on their own or in small units. Militarily, because of their local knowledge, the support of the population and their unscrupulousness, they were a serious opponent for the Swedish military, which they inflicted great losses.
Scena war
Especially from 1675 to 1679 there was a flare-up of the Snapphanar movement during the Skåne War , which brought Sweden into distress. On 26./27. In July 1676, insurgent farmers and irregulars in the so-called “ Loshult Coup” at the place of the same name lost the entire war chest of Charles XI. worth 50,000 Reichstalers in their hands. This consisted of about 250 wagons with valuable metal coins, the so-called copper slips .
composition
The Snapphanar's social structure and motivation were mixed. The groups consisted of local farmers who could not or did not want to meet the Swedish tax demands, escaped prisoners, local people who withdrew from service in the Swedish army, but also staunch Danish nationalists. Sometimes the line to armed banditry was fluid. The forests and caves of the region were places of refuge for the Snapphanar. Some of them were voluntarily supported by the population, some of them fed themselves through raids.
punishment
The Snapphanar were massively persecuted and severely punished by the Swedish authorities. Since the Snapphanar according to the law then friedlos were, they were usually without trial hung , rare beheaded . Often they were wheeled or staked to act as a deterrent . There are reports of numerous brutal executions and torture of rioters. In addition, there were reprisals by the Swedish military against the local civilian population for alleged or given support for the Snapphanar. The last execution took place in 1703 on a Snapphane in Röinge in the Hässleholm area, who had been hiding abroad for some time.
etymology
The name "Snapphanar" goes back to the Low German snaphane , which means " mugger ".
Accordingly, the Duden names the Middle High German word snap - street robbery (snapping) as the origin of the German word Schnapphahn .
Grimm's German Dictionary excludes the sometimes suspected reference to the snap lock :
“A relationship with the cock of the shotgun lock would be ... impossible, because at the time the word appeared, there was no such thing. when interpreting the word one will rather snap at the verb ... and at the subst. rooster in transference to a human being ... to think and to explain the word as a crude and not without humor designation of a snapping, prey-grabbing head guy "
Movie
Snapphanar is also the title of a film by the Swedish director Åke Ohberg from 1941, the fictional story of which is based on stories about the Snapphanar during the Scandinavian War. In 2006 the Swedish television company SVT produced a three-part drama series entitled Snapphanar on the same story (directed by Måns Mårlind , Björn Stein , book: Niklas Rockström , German title: The King's Rebel or Pact of Beasts 2 ).
literature
- Alf Åberg: Snapphanarna. Stockholm 1951.
- Alf Åberg: I snapphanebygd. Stockholm 1975.
- Alf Åberg: Kampen om Skåne under försvenskningstiden. Stockholm 1994.
- Stefanie Robl Matzen: The Swedish-Danish War 1643–45. In: Eva S. Fiebig, Jan Schlürmann (Hrsg.): Handbook on the North Elbian military history. Armies and wars in Schleswig, Holstein, Lauenburg, Eutin and Lübeck 1623–1863 / 67. Husum 2010, pp. 289-308.
- Jan Schlürmann: The Second Northern War 1655 / 57-1660. In: Eva S. Fiebig, Jan Schlürmann (Hrsg.): Handbook on the North Elbian military history. Armies and wars in Schleswig, Holstein, Lauenburg, Eutin and Lübeck 1623–1863 / 67. Husum 2010, pp. 327-346.
- Sten Skansjö: Skånes historia. Lund 1997.
- Sixten Svensson: Sanningen om snapphanelögnen. 2005.
Web links
- Legendary Snapphanar (Swedish)
- Snaphaner (Danish)
Individual evidence
- ^ Carl Grimberg : Svenska Folkets Underbara Öden. Karl XI: s och Karl XII: s Tid tom år 1709. P. A. Norstedts & Söners Förlag, Stockholm 1920, p. 170.
- ↑ Swedish article about legendary snap cocks ( Memento of the original from October 8, 2007 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ↑ Nordisk familjebok , Stockholm 1917, vol. 26, p. 98, in the article Snapphanekrig also starts from this etymology
