Westfälischer Friede

Westfälischer Friede, the peace treaty concluding the Thirty Years War (see Dreissigjähriger Krieg), was signed on 24 October 1648 after four years of negotiations, between the Holy Roman Empire (see Deutsches Reich, Altes) and France in Münster, and in Osnabrück between the Empire and Sweden. Among the numerous terms of the treaty the following may be mentioned:

France was confirmed in the possession of the bishoprics of Metz, Toul, and Verdun.

Austrian Alsace was ceded to France with Breisach, but without Strasburg.

Sweden received western Pomerania, which included the Oder estuary, and the strategically and economically important bishoprics of Bremen and Verden as imperial fiefs.

Of the principal German states Brandenburg received eastern Pomerania, the bishoprics of Halberstadt and Minden, and the promise of Magdeburg.

Brandenburg's possession of the duchies of Cleves, Mark, and Ravensberg was confirmed.

Saxony received Lusatia (Lausitz).

Maximilian I of Bavaria secured the hereditary succession of his dynasty (see Wittelsbach) and received the Upper Palatinate (Oberpfalz).

A new electoral vote (the eighth) was created for Karl Ludwig, son of the Elector Friedrich V of the Palatinate, who had been deprived of his electorate and territory in 1620. Lower (Rhenish) Palatinate was restored to his son.

As already agreed in the Peace of Prague (Prager Friede), all Roman Catholic possessions that had been Catholic on the first day of 1624 were to remain Catholic and, conversely, a similar proviso was applied to Protestant territory. The status of the predominantly Protestant north and the Catholic south was thus reaffirmed without major changes. A further modification of the terms of the Peace of Augsburg (see Augsburger Religionsfriede, 1555) was the recognition of Calvinism and the equal division of Protestant and Catholic interests in the Imperial Diet. Religious tolerance or otherwise in individual states remained in the hands of the princes and the principle cuius regio eius religio was maintained. The rights of the Emperor were severely curtailed. The princes obtained the right to conduct their own affairs at home as well as in their foreign policy and to make alliances with other German or foreign states as long as such an alliance was not directed against the Empire. The free cities (Reichsstädte) were granted rights corresponding to those of the princes.