Wittenberg surrender

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Territory changes in Saxony and Thuringia after the Wittenberg surrender

The Wittenberg surrender on May 19, 1547 ended the Schmalkaldic War , which was decided in the Battle of Mühlberg on April 24, 1547. It was signed in the imperial camp of Charles V in front of Wittenberg. As a result, the Albertine line of the Wettins received the Saxon electoral dignity from the Ernestines . The areas around Wittenberg and Zwickau also went over to the Albertine line. The Ernestine Vogtland and a small area around Platten in the Ore Mountains also went to the Bohemian Crown .

In the Schmalkaldic War, the Catholic Emperor Charles V, allied with the Protestant Duke Moritz von Sachsen , prevailed against the Saxon Elector Johann Friedrich I , who had to agree to the permanent transfer of the Saxon electorate to the Albertines. Johann Friedrich had to cede his territories east of the Saale to Moritz von Sachsen.

Moritz was able to use the gain of the Saxon electoral dignity and the territorial expansion of his sphere of influence politically. Together with other opposition German princes and in alliance with the French King Heinrich II and with Ferdinand , the Emperor's brother, he succeeded in getting Emperor Charles V to sign the Passau Treaty in 1552 . Protestantism was thus formally recognized in Germany, even if the emperor did not intend to keep the treaty.

In 1554, the territories ceded by the Ernestines to the Albertines were partially reversed by the Naumburg Treaty .

The Wittenberg surrender with the territorial circumcision of the Ernestine territories was an important starting point for the shape of today's state of Thuringia .

See also

literature

  • Wieland Held : 1547 - The battle near Mühlberg / Elbe. Decision on the way to the Albertine Electorate of Saxony. Sax-Verlag, Beucha 1997, ISBN 3-930076-43-8 .
  • Klaus Schulte-van Pol: “A common war against all Protestants”. The battle near Mühlberg. In: The time . April 25, 1997 ( online version ).

Web links