!!!Dreißigjähriger Krieg

Thirty Years' War: a conflict involving religious groups, Estates and 
states waged in Germany and Bohemia from 1618 to 1648. Austrian 
territories were affected from 1618 to 1620, from 1645 to 1646 and in 
1647. The conflict, which began in 1608/09 between the Protestant 
Union and the Catholic League was one of the underlying causes, the 
uprising of the Bohemian Estates against the Habsburgs being the 
immediate cause. Four phases of the war can be distinguished:

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a) The Bohemian War 1618-1620: On May 23, 1618, members of the 
Protestant Estates of Bohemia threw the imperial regents and their 
secretary out of the windows of Prague Castle (the "Defenestration of 
Prague"). In the autumn the Protestants began a campaign against 
Austria, which was repeated the following year. After the death of 
Emperor Matthias on March 20, 1619, Archduke Ferdinand of Styria, 
who from 1617 was also King of Bohemia, became his successor. Part of 
the Protestant Estates of Upper Austria and Lower Austria joined the 
Bohemian Estates, although these deposed Ferdinand II and elected 
Friedrich V, the Elector Palatine, as the new king of Bohemia. 
With the help of the Catholic League, Ferdinand's troops were 
victorious at the Battle of the White Mountain near Prague on 
November 8, 1620, and thus ended the uprising. They also drove 
back the troops of Behlen Gábor, who were approaching from 
Transylvania. The consequences were severe: a large number of 
dispossessions in Bohemia, Moravia and in parts of Austria, large 
estates were given to the members of the nobility who were loyal to 
the emperor, continuation of the Counter-Reformation and the 
introduction of Absolutism.

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b) The Lower-Saxony / Danish War 1625-1629: After the army of the 
Catholic League under Count J. T.  Tilly had devastated the Palatinate 
and after the right to elect the Emperor had been transferred to 
Bavaria in 1623, Tilly's army was joined by a mercenary imperial army 
under the command of A. von  Wallenstein. Together they invaded 
northern Germany, which prompted the Danish King Christian IV to 
enter the war. After a series of defeats and the Peace of Luebeck of 
May 12, 1629, Denmark was forced to abstain from any intervention 
in the Empire. According to the Edict of Restitution of March 6, 
1629, the Protestants were to return all church property that had been 
taken since 1552. In 1630 the Electors forced Ferdinand II to dismiss 
Wallenstein.

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c) Swedish War 1630-1635: In 1630, King Gustav II Adolf of Sweden 
landed in Northern Germany to break Imperial control of the Baltic 
region, and in 1632 reached Augsburg and Munich, threatening the 
Habsburg lands. Wallenstein now was re-appointed as commander of the 
imperial army. He drove back the Swedes, and Gustav Adolf died on 
November 16, 1632 in the Battle of Luetzen. However, Wallenstein, 
who had been negotiating with the enemy, was assassinated on the order 
of the Emperor in Eger (today Cheb, Czech Republic) on 
February 25, 1634. After the victory of the Imperial and Spanish 
armies at Noerdlingen on September 6, 1634, the Peace of Prague was 
agreed on May 30, 1635, which included the revocation of the 
Edict of Restitution by the Emperor.

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d) Franco-Swedish War 1635-1648: In this phase, state interests 
predominated over confessional issues, but no side was victorious. In 
the years 1645/1646, the Swedes invaded the northern part of Lower 
Austria, getting as far as the vicinity of Vienna, and also occupied 
part of Vorarlberg in 1647. The war ended where it had begun, in 
Bohemia. On October 24, 1648, Ferdinand III signed the Peace 
of Westphalia - in Muenster with France, and in Osnabrueck with 
Sweden.

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For the Habsburg lands south of the Danube the war did not bring any 
losses, and even brought some economic gains. The Habsburgs 
subsequently concentrated on the development of their lands, brought 
the Counter Reformation to its conclusion and laid the basis for the 
rise of the Baroque period.

!Literature
G. Schormann, Der Dreissigjaehrige Krieg, 1985; K. Gutkas, 
Niederoesterreich im Dreissgjaehrigen Krieg, 1987.


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