Coping With Life during the Thirty Years’ War (1618–1648) by Sigrun Haude (review)

Abstract

Stimulated by pertinent anniversaries, researchers have reexamined the history of the Thirty Years’ War in recent years. A noteworthy aspect has been the widespread focus on individual suffering. Sigrun Haude’s study of personal experiences and coping strategies during the great central European cataclysm of the seventeenth century fits in perfectly with this scholarly reorientation. Having analyzed the confessional era in central Europe in several previous books, Haude came well-prepared for her task. In her current study, she explores how people tried to survive the Thirty Years’ War; on what resources they drew to endure violence, hunger, loss, and disease; and how they tried to make sense of a conflict that appeared ever more meaningless (6). To answer these questions, she primarily turns to well-known contemporary diaries, which she complements with archival sources from southern German archives. Haude centers her investigation on Bavaria and Franconia, which provides for both regional proximity and denominational variation, as Bavaria was strictly Catholic, whereas significant parts of Franconia were Lutheran. The core of the study draws on personal accounts by members of the clergy. These sources might be described as ego-documents, but Haude considers this term insufficient because the texts are strongly colored by their social context and thus reflect more than an individual perspective. Most important for the study are the testimonies provided by the Augustine prioress Clara Staiger, the Benedictine abbots Maurus Friesenegger and Veit Höser, the Dominican nun Maria Anna Junius, and the Lutheran pastor Bartholomäus Dietwar. These personal accounts show a complex web of experiences. Most universally, they express fear. Life had lost all stability—people lived in constant expectation of violence, dislocation, hunger, and poverty. Local governments tried to ameliorate these consequences of war but to little avail. In fact, troops sent to protect the populace were just as likely to commit violence or cause starvation as the invading armies they were supposed to repel. The ravages of war deepened the need for protection not only in military terms but also in spiritual terms. With regard to the latter, the religious remedies offered by the churches frequently proved insufficient, which increased the demand for more unorthodox measures commonly denoted as magic. Another source of resilience was humor, which several protagonists were able to muster even during the most challenging periods. Finally, some of the authors also describe the possibility of respectful interactions and exchanges between supposed enemies. Oftentimes it