31.05.2016 Jun.-Prof. Dr. Claudia Jarzebowski (Freie Universität Berlin)
„[...] mit weib und kinderlein wider von der statt nach hauß getzogen.“ Kinder und ihre Erfahrungen im Dreißigjährigen Krieg.
18-20 Uhr in GA 03/49

The military and society, war and everyday life were closely related in the early modern period. Months of billeting, looting, forced recruitment and the destruction of crops, fields and villages often had catastrophic consequences for the population. Children experienced war events "on the ground" in a specific way, often developing unexpected survival strategies in view of the dissolving social order. Both experiences and survival strategies of children are discussed, supplemented by questions of the child's perception of violence and its conditions, as they emerge from personal testimonies to the Thirty Years' War (1618-1648)

21.06.2016 Prof. em. Dr. Heide Wunder (Universität Kassel)
Im Exil: Ankommen und bleiben – oder zurückkehren? Adlige Glaubensflüchtlinge im Dreißigjährigen Krieg
18-20 Uhr in GABF 04/516

In the course of the re-Catholicization of the Austrian hereditary lands, the predominantly Protestant population was faced with the choice of converting or of leaving the “fatherland”. Many thousands of Protestants of all classes went to Protestant territories and imperial cities in search of a place for undisturbed practice of their faith. The experiences “in exile” with aristocratic exiles - unlike citizens and farmers - can be summarized in a multitude of personal testimonies that address the problems of acceptance, the (economic) requirements for securing a new existence and the difficult decisions about future life prospects - stay or return and convert - document in detail. The spectrum of options for action, not least the different consequences for men and women, are examined using the example of the von Hohenfeld family in Upper Austria.