Cover: Experiencing the Thirty Years War, 1st Edition by Hans Medick; Benjamin Marschke
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Experiencing the Thirty Years War

A Brief History with DocumentsFirst Edition ©2013 Hans Medick; Benjamin Marschke

One of the most momentous and destructive wars in European history, the Thirty Years War has long been studied for its diplomatic, political, and military consequences. Yet the actual participants in this religiously motivated, seemingly endless conflict have largely been ignored. Hans Medick and...

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ISBN:9781319241759

ISBN:9780312535056

Cover: Experiencing the Thirty Years War, 1st Edition by Hans Medick; Benjamin Marschke

One of the most momentous and destructive wars in European history, the Thirty Years War has long been studied for its diplomatic, political, and military consequences. Yet the actual participants in this religiously motivated, seemingly endless conflict have largely been ignored. Hans Medick and Benjamin Marschke reveal the Thirty Years War from the perspective of those who lived it. Their introduction provides important insights into the roiling religious and political landscape from which the war emerged, as well as a thoughtful examination of the wars stages and enduring significance. An unprecedented collection of personal accounts, many of them translated for the first time into English, combine with visual sources to convey directly to students the experience of early modern warfare. Incisive document headnotes, maps and illustrations, a chronology, questions to consider, and a bibliography enrich students understanding of this fateful war.

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New to This Edition

"This book is a remarkable piece of work. It takes on issues at the very forefront of research and makes them accessible and important. I would have anyone interested in the Thirty Years War start here."

— Theodore Rabb, Princeton University

"This volume provides a rich collection of primary sources complete with valuable background and introductions. It distinguishes itself from other sourcebooks by treating a wide variety of wartime experiences and very different aspects of the war. The richness of the material and the range of selections put this collection in a category by itself."

— Sigrun Haude, University of Cincinnati

"This volumes thematic approach — the war up close — is extremely promising. By bringing the experience of early modern warfare and of religiously motivated civil conflict into stark view, it will be both engaging and valuable pedagogically."

— Randolph Head, University of California, Riverside

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Table of Contents

Foreword

Preface

List of Maps and Illustrations

A Note About the Texts and Translations

PART ONE. INTRODUCTION: THE THIRTY YEARS WAR IN EXPERIENCE AND MEMORY

     The Causes of the Thirty Years War

     The Course of the Thirty Years War

     The Significance of the Thirty Years War

PART TWO. THE DOCUMENTS

1. Sense of Crisis, Sense of Time

     Tensions and Preparations Before the War

     1. The Protestant Union, 1608

     2. The Catholic League, 1609

     1618: Spectacular Action and Ominous Signs

     3. Wilhelm, Count von Slavata, The Defenestration of Prague, 1618

     4. Hans Heberle, The Comet of 1618 as a Sign of the Times and Bad Omen, 1618

     5. The Siege and Capture of Pilsen, and the Comet, 1618

2. A Religious War?

     Confessional Politics

     6. The Religious Peace of Augsburg, 1555

     7. The Edict of Restitution, 1629

     8. Johann Daniel Friese, A Childhood Memory of the Edict of Restitution

     9. Melchior Khlesl, The Edict of Restitution as Seen by a Pragmatic Catholic Hardliner

     Religious Violence and Confessional Identities

     10. Bartholomaus Dietwar, Forced Conversion and Book Burning, 1630, 1631

     11. Hans Krafft, The Seizure of the Cathedral in Erfurt by Protestants, 1634

     12. Maurus Friesenegger, Desacralization and Its Limits, 1632

     13. Liborius Wagner, A Catholic Martyr, 1631

     14. The "Nurtingen Blood Bible," 1634

3. Soldiers and Civilians: Confrontations and Relations

     Friction and Conflict

     15. Friedrich Flade, The Military Occupation of Olmutz, 1642-1643

     16. Martin Bštzinger, Torture: Swedish Cocktail and Waterboarding, 1640

     17. Volkmar Happe, Violence Between Peasants and Soldiers, 1627

     18. Peter Hagendorf, Peasant Violence Against Soldiers, and Its Retribution, 1641

     19. Augustin GŸntzer, Quartering Soldiers: A Household Under Stress, 1633

     20. Christoph Brandis, Gains and Losses: Quartering and Occupation, 1636

     Rape and Violence Against Women

     21. Christoph Brandis, A Case of Rape, 1636

     22. Christian Lehmann, Hounding Civilians, 1638

     23. Peter Hagendorf, A Soldiers Various Ways of Dealing with Women, 1634-1641

     24. Maria Anna Junius, Fear of Rape, Management of Relations, and Sweet Pacifications, 1632

     The Hardships of Separation

     25. Margaret, the Mosbachers Maid, Letter to Her Dearest Brother, 1625

     26. Anna Immick from Allendorf, Letter to the Soldier Balthasar Wahs, 1625

     27. Barbara Cautzner from Witzenhausen, Letter to Her Dear Husband, 1625

     28. Michael Krafft, Letter to Anna N., 1625

4. War Nourishes War: "Contributions," Robbery, and Plunder

     29. Johann Georg Maul, The Burden of Contributions on a City and on a Household, 1637

     30. Thomas Schmidt, Contribution Arrangement for the City of Wernigerode, 1626

     31. Johann Georg Pforr, Paying "Contributions" and Tolerating Jews, 1636-1639

     32. A Complaint from Three Jewish Heads of Household, 1624

     33. Peter Hagendorf, A Soldiers Fortune. Everyday Life and Surviving the War, 1627-1631

     34. Volkmar Happe, Lupus Lupo Lupus, 1639

5. Scourges of War: Plague, Starvation, and Cannibalism

     35. Johann Daniel Minck, The Plague as the Scourge of God, 1635

     36. William Crowne, War, Plague, Devastation, and Danger: Traveling in Germany During the Thirty Years War, 1636

     37. Maurus Frisenegger, Hungry Peasants, Starving Soldiers, 1633-34

     38. Michael Lebhardt Plebanus, Report on Cannibalism in Agawang, with Kaspar Zeiller, Response to Plebanus, 1635

6. Battle and Massacre: Experiences of Mass Violence and Death

     Typical Armed Conflict

     39. Asmus Teufel, The Siege and Capture of Munden, 1626

     40. Volkmar Happe, An Attack on the City of Sondershausen, 1640

     The Sack of Magdeburg

     41. Peter Hagendorf, The Siege, Assault, and Destruction of Magdeburg, 1631

     42. Johann Daniel Friese, Magdeburg: The Massacre Viewed from Within, 1631

     43. Christian II of Anhalt-Bernburg, The Catastrophe of Magdeburg: A Local View, 1631

     The Battle of Lutzen

     44. Albrecht von Wallenstein, Request for Reinforcements Before the Battle of Lutzen, 1632

     45. Albrecht von Wallenstein, A Battle Like No One Had Ever Seen or Heard, 1632

     46. Zacharias von Quetz, Retrospective Account of a Participant in the Battle of Lutzen, 1632

7. Celebrity, Media, and Death: The Cases of Gustav Adolph and Wallenstein

     Gustav Adolphs Death in Battle

     47. "Victorious Before Death, in Death, and After Death," 1632

     48. The Immortal Gustav Adolph, 1633

     49. The Protestant Veneration of Gustav Adolph, as Seen from the Catholic Side, 1633

     Wallensteins Assassination

     50. Regular Weekly News, Report of Wallensteins Death, 1634

     51. A Parody of an Epitaph for Wallenstein, 1634

     52. Wallensteins Death as Treacherous Murder, 1634

8. Peace Proclaimed and Peace Perceived

     The Peace of Prague

     53. The Peace of Prague, 1635

     54. Volckmar Happe, Skepticism About the Recent Peace of Prague, 1635

     55. Johann Georg Pforr, Perceptions of the Peace of Prague, 1635

     56. Johann Peter Lotichius, The Relativization of Historical Truths as a Result of the War, 1647

     The Peace of Westphalia

     57. The Peace of Westphalia, 1648

     58. The Messenger Bearing News of Peace, 1648

     59. Caspar Preis, Peace, but Not the End of the Consequences of War, 1648-1649

     60. Hans Heberle, An Uneasy Peace and Its Aftermath, 1648-1650

     61. The Experience of War, Anxiety Regarding the Future, and the Will to Reconstruct, 1647

Appendixes

     A Chronology of the Thirty Years War

     Questions for Consideration

     Selected Bibliography

Headshot of Hans Medick

Hans Medick

Hans Medick (D.Habil., University of Goettingen) is retired professor of modern history at the University of Erfurt. An internationally renowned scholar who helped to create the field of historical anthropology, Medick has published widely on the history of early modern Europe and on the connections between large historical events and personal experience. He is the author of many books, includingWeaving and Surviving at Laichingen 1700-1900: Local History as General History and he is co-editor of, with Benigna von Krusenstjern, Between Everyday Life and Catastrophe: The Thirty Years War from Up Close, and, with Claudia Ulbrich and Angelika Schaser, Ego Document and Personhood: Transcultural Perspectives.

Headshot of Benjamin Marschke

Benjamin Marschke

Benjamin Marschke (Ph.D., University of California, Los Angeles) is associate professor of history at Humboldt State University. A specialist in early modern German history, Marschke has contributed to numerous publications and is the author of Absolutely Pietist: Patronage, Factionalism, and State-Building in the Early Eighteenth-Century Prussian Army Chaplaincy and co-editor of The Holy Roman Empire, Reconsidered.