Dreißigjähriger Krieg

Dreißigjähriger Krieg, a war waged in Germany from 1618 to 1648 which was the culmination of the Counter-Reformation (see Gegenreformation). The prime objective of the Emperor Ferdinand II, in conjunction with the Catholic League (see Katholische Liga), was the restoration of the Catholic faith in all dominions of the Empire, a task in which he failed. The war was not, however, a purely religious war, for political, dynastic, and national interests and attitudes also determined its course, and caused the involvement of most European powers, resulting in a decisive shift of the European power structure. The Empire ceased to exist as a political force and was henceforth identified with Austria. The territorial division of Germany was radically altered in the peace settlement, while German princes continued to rule absolutely in a particularist system consisting of some 200 independent states and sees. Of these Austria, Bavaria, Saxony, and Brandenburg (the future Prussia) were the most powerful states. The political link with Rome inherent in the medieval title of the ‘Holy Roman Empire’ (see Deutsches Reich, Altes) was at most a personal one of individual princes. Socially the protracted war developed into a serious disaster. The population of Germany was almost halved and the enormous task of economic reconstruction depended on the initiative of the princes. The devastation of the war had equally serious cultural consequences, which made themselves felt for at least a century.

The war developed in four phases:

(1) 1618-25. Hostilities were first set in motion by the Bohemian revolt of 1618 (see Majestätsbrief), directed against Habsburg supremacy and achieving the deposition of Archduke Ferdinand (see Ferdinand II), hereditary King of Bohemia. Reverting to their traditional elective system, the Bohemians chose as their king the young Calvinist Friedrich V von der Pfalz, leader of the Protestant Union (see Protestantische Union) and son-in-law of James I of England. He had the support of Charles Emmanuel of Savoy, who desired a lessening of Habsburg prestige. The Catholic League provided the main support for the Emperor Matthias and his heir Ferdinand. On 8 November 1620 the Bohemians under Christian of Anhalt were defeated by the League led by General Tilly in the battle of the White Mountain (see Weissen Berge, Schlacht am). Friedrich, henceforth derisively known as the ‘Winter King’, fled from Bohemia. The success of Ferdinand, emperor since 1619, alarmed other powers, and by 1625 England, Denmark, and part of North Germany had become allied against the Emperor, the Catholic League, and Spain. To meet the military challenge Ferdinand appointed Albrecht von Wallenstein general with an army of some 20, 000 men.
(2) 1625-30. During this period Wallenstein dominated the war. By 1628 he had overrun practically the whole of North Germany and the Danish possessions on the mainland. Only Stralsund successfully resisted his siege. On 12 May 1629 Christian IV of Denmark submitted to the Peace of Lübeck. But Ferdinand, encouraged by success, rejected moderation and issued the Edict of Restitution (Restitutionsedikt) according to which all ecclesiastical estates secularized since the Peace of Augsburg (see Augsburger Religionsfriede, 1555) were to be restored to the Church. But the Catholic League, headed by Maximilian I of Bavaria (see Maximilian I, Kurfürst) and jealous of Wallenstein, urged Ferdinand at the Diet at Regensburg (1630) to dismiss him. Ferdinand gave in to this demand, although he stood no chance of applying the Edict without Wallenstein's aid.
(3) 1630-4. Wallenstein's dismissal benefited the Swedish king, Gustavus Adolphus, who took the lead in the Protestant cause with the backing of France and England. He was not welcome on German soil, but the sack of Magdeburg by Tilly in 1631 demanded decisive action. Georg Wilhelm of Brandenburg was forced into an alliance with Gustavus Adolphus, who was now subsidized by the United Provinces (Holland) as well as France. Hesse asked for Swedish help, and, under the threat of Tilly's advance into Saxony, Johann Georg, the Saxon Elector, was forced to abandon his policy of neutrality. He, too, joined forces with Gustavus Adolphus. Tilly was defeated at Breitenfeld near Leipzig (17 September 1631). Gustavus Adolphus carried his campaign to defeat the forces of the League further south. In the battle at Rain (15 April 1632) Tilly was mortally wounded, and soon afterwards Munich was occupied by the Swedes. Simultaneously Johann Georg of Saxony entered Prague. Driven by desperation, Ferdinand recalled Wallenstein, who was defeated by the Swedish armies at Lützen (16 November 1632), though Gustavus Adolphus was killed. His chancellor, Axel Oxenstierna, became the new Swedish leader. Wallenstein thereupon opened peace negotiations with him and with Johann Georg. But the threat of his power led Spain and Maximilian to bring pressure on Ferdinand to dismiss Wallenstein a second time. He was condemned for treason, and on 25 February 1634 he was assassinated at Eger (now Cheb). Ferdinand recovered South Germany; in the Peace of Prague Saxony and the majority of the other Protestant powers came to an agreement to liberate Germany from foreign troops. Ferdinand at last abandoned the Edict of Restitution.
(4) 1635-48. The efforts for peace, however, were frustrated by Cardinal Richelieu, whose intervention as an ally of Sweden gave the war new impetus. By becoming, in 1633, a party to the League of Heilbronn (see Heilbronner Bund) Richelieu had already entered German politics. When the Protestant forces suffered defeat at Nördlingen (6 September 1634) the Emperor enjoyed a rare hour of triumph, but the defeated Germans were at the mercy of Richelieu, who secured the assistance of the League of Heilbronn and Bernhard von Sachsen-Weimar to fight against Spain. With the French declaration of war against Spain (19 May 1635) the religious war was finally over.

The last phase was on the one hand a war between two dynasties, the House of Bourbon against the House of Habsburg, in which France aimed at the acquisition of Alsace and Lorraine; and on the other a war between Sweden and the Empire, Sweden likewise aiming at territorial aggrandizement in the Baltic provinces.

After Bernhard von Sachsen-Weimar had captured Breisach in 1638 Richelieu was close to his aim, for, with Bernhard's death in the following year, his army passed entirely into French hands. Richelieu's policy was carried on successfully after his death in 1642 by Mazarin. Bavaria suffered the greatest devastation in the closing stages of the war, in which French and Swedish forces combined in their march towards the Danube to capture Donauwörth and Zusmarshausen (17 May 1648). In 1642 Friedrich Wilhelm of Brandenburg, the Great Elector, and in 1645 Johann Georg of Saxony, concluded a treaty of neutrality with Sweden. Negotiations for peace had been in preparation since 1642 and conducted at Münster and Osnabrück since 1644. It was due to the initiative of Queen Christina of Sweden and the French successes in Bavaria that the Peace of Westphalia (see Westfälischer Friede) was signed on 24 October 1648. It was not until the mid-fifties that the last foreign troops left.

Literature concerning the Thirty Years War includes the novel of a contemporary, Grimmelshausen's Der abenteuerliche Simplicissimus, F. Schiller's study Geschichte des Dreißigjährigen Kriegs and his trilogy Wallenstein, Grillparzer's play Ein Bruderzwist in Habsburg, A. Stifter's Novelle Der Hochwald, the novel Der deutsche Krieg by H. Laube, C. F. Meyer's Novelle Gustav Adolfs Page, the novel Der große Krieg in Deutschland by Ricarda Huch, B. Brecht's play Mutter Courage und ihre Kinder, and Das Treffen in Telgte by G. Grass.