Winterwolf
05-21-2011, 02:01 AM
The sign of the Huguenots, in Germany also known as the "Hugenottenkreuz".
http://img215.imageshack.us/img215/1233/hugenottenkreuz.jpg
http://img852.imageshack.us/img852/5528/hugenottenkreuz2.jpg
Previous History
To understand the exodus of thousands of Huguenots from France, one needs to take a look at France first. The History of the Reformed Christians in this country is a checkered history of persecution, civil wars and toleration edicts.
In fact the Reformation in France, despite numerous government repressions, including burning of heretics, spread continuously.
In contrast to the German territories in which the Reformation was supported by some Protestant rulers, the Reformation movement in France happened against the resistance of the crown. Particularly southern France produced many Reformed churches.
It is estimated that up to 30% of the French people had turned away from the Roman Catholic Church. The excretion of a significant part of the aristocracy was turned into a religious discussion of power politics that threatened the cohesion of the French state quickly.
Eight religious wars, the first was heated-up by a massacre of Huguenot worshipers in Vassy, shaped the history of France in 1562 and 1593. With the constant exchange of victory and defeat, of tolerance edicts and terror, the war led to an escalation of violence on both sides.
Massacre of St. Bartholomew, the first pogrom of the early Modern Times
Through the marriage of the Huguenot Henry of Navarre and the sister of the French king, the Catholic Marguerite de Valois, a reconciliation between the two religious parties was sealed.
The king's mother, Catherine de Medici, and the Catholic duke of Guise, who staged the wedding, took advantage of the presence of many leading Protestants in Paris in a treacherous way, in order to smash the reformed party.
During the infamous night of Saint Bartholomew, on the 23/24. August 1572 thousands of Huguenots in Paris and other places were massacred. The victims also included the leader of the Huguenots, Admiral Gaspard de Coligny, and much of the Protestant aristocracy.
http://img560.imageshack.us/img560/2176/bartholomusnacht.jpg
http://img32.imageshack.us/img32/8930/bartholomaeusnacht.jpg
http://img153.imageshack.us/img153/1558/bartholomaeusnachtstahl.jpg
The Exodus
After the Edict of Fontainebleau in 1685 the reformed Christians in France, could practice their forbidden faith only at great risk. A small number survived as a so-called "Church of the Desert " (église du desert), mainly in the southern underground.
It is a wonder that the Reformed Church in France has survived to this day. Protestants in France today are but only 1.5% of the population.
Despite repeated prohibition, the largest mass migration in Europe in the early modern period took place.
The assets of the refugees was confiscated by the French State, the men threatened with lifelong forced labour on galleys and the women were placed in monasteries or thrown into prison.
The flood of refugees never ebbed and swelled significantly in times of special prosecutions, such as after the St. Bartholomew's Day or during the increasing repression in the 17th Century and especially after the repeal of the Edict of Nantes.
A large percentage of French Huguenots fled to Germany, estimates vary between 44.000 and 58.000. French Huguenots also escaped to the Protestant Netherlands (around 50.000), Britain (around 40.000), Switzerland (around 20.000) and some other countries, including the New World, especially the US, Canada and South Africa.
http://img864.imageshack.us/img864/2184/hugenottenflucht.jpg
In Germany
The decision on the inclusion of Huguenot religious refugees was not in the hands of the Catholic German emperor, but solely within the sovereign princes and free cities.
Most of the Huguenots fleeing to Germany settled in Brandenburg-Prussia (20.000), because Brandenburg-Prussia still suffered from the long time effects of the devastating 30 Years War (1618-48), when Germany had become the battle field for all significant European powers of that time due to religious reasons.
Prussia didn’t restrict immigration at all and took every French Huguenot it could get, because it still had many abandoned and decaying villages and lacked overall manpower
The most famous edict in Germany recording the integration of French Huguenots is the one of Great Elector Frederick William of Brandenburg in October 1685
http://img607.imageshack.us/img607/690/hugenotten.jpg
http://img696.imageshack.us/img696/9134/976empfangderhugenotten.jpg
http://img6.imageshack.us/img6/3458/879diehugenottentreffen.jpg
The second largest part of Huguenot refugees in overall Germany (38.000 excluding the 20.000 settling in Brandenburg-Prussia) settled in Hesse (around 3.800 in Hessen-Kassel and another 2.500 in the Rhine-Main area), but unlike Prussia Hesse restricted immigration only to the skilled craftsmen.
Of course there were lots of other places in Germany to which French Huguenots immigrated, f.e. Kurpfalz mit Zweibrücken 3.400, Franken 3.200, Württemberg 2.400 Hansestädte 1.500, Niedersachsen 1.500, Baden-Durlach 500, Kursachsen 250 and various other places.
http://img15.imageshack.us/img15/8774/ankunfthugenottenkarlsh.jpg
Overall French Huguenots helped Germany to recover from the effects of the 30 Years War and aided to rebuild the country in a significant way.
Many famous persons like authors, poets, scientists and architects in Germany were of Huguenot descent like f.e. Theodor Fontane, Friedrich de la Motte Fouqué, Francois Charles Achard or Jean de Bodt.
In many places the French Huguenots created their own villages, but as time passed by they intermarried and mixed with Germans heavily and therefore became completely assimilated.
The assimilation of the Huguenots descendants in Germany began early on and intensified in the late 18th Century and the first decades of the 19th Century. In many places, the French Reformed churches were often combined with the locally existing German Reformed churches.
There is a single village “Louisendorf” situated in Hesse, which managed to keep Huguenot traditions and old French language alive until 1990. It is an exception because most Huguenots intermarried and mixed with Germans quite early.
Of course not every bearer of a French surname in Germany is automatically a descendant of French-Protestant religious refugees.
That Protestant and Catholic soldiers across national borders changed the warlord and colours in the 17th Century in Europe was the rule. "Back then the sword was just as stateless as the arts," said Henri Tollin correctly.
And the French, who settled in decidedly Catholic territories and whose names appear even in Catholic church records were of course not Huguenots.
And even in the Protestant northern part of Germany sometimes French Catholics and French Protestants lived quite peacefully together, as the example of the Celle court may illustrate. There were around 90 catholic French servants in the court of Duke Georg Wilhelm of Brunswick-Lüneburg and his Huguenot wife Eléonore d'Desmi Olbreuse.
In the wake of the French Revolution many French also fled to Germany. However, these are not considered religious refugees, but - as Lutheran refugees from Salzburg - referred to as immigrants. Their descendants are of course not Huguenot descendants.
Today there isn’t a distinct French Huguenot ethnicity in Germany any more, but some surnames and their religious allegiance still reveal their ancestry. For example the current German Minister of Defence Lothar de Maizière or the Minister President of Hesse Volker Bouffier are descendants of French Huguenots. My girlfriend f.e. also happens to be a descendant of French Huguenots.
http://img215.imageshack.us/img215/1233/hugenottenkreuz.jpg
http://img852.imageshack.us/img852/5528/hugenottenkreuz2.jpg
Previous History
To understand the exodus of thousands of Huguenots from France, one needs to take a look at France first. The History of the Reformed Christians in this country is a checkered history of persecution, civil wars and toleration edicts.
In fact the Reformation in France, despite numerous government repressions, including burning of heretics, spread continuously.
In contrast to the German territories in which the Reformation was supported by some Protestant rulers, the Reformation movement in France happened against the resistance of the crown. Particularly southern France produced many Reformed churches.
It is estimated that up to 30% of the French people had turned away from the Roman Catholic Church. The excretion of a significant part of the aristocracy was turned into a religious discussion of power politics that threatened the cohesion of the French state quickly.
Eight religious wars, the first was heated-up by a massacre of Huguenot worshipers in Vassy, shaped the history of France in 1562 and 1593. With the constant exchange of victory and defeat, of tolerance edicts and terror, the war led to an escalation of violence on both sides.
Massacre of St. Bartholomew, the first pogrom of the early Modern Times
Through the marriage of the Huguenot Henry of Navarre and the sister of the French king, the Catholic Marguerite de Valois, a reconciliation between the two religious parties was sealed.
The king's mother, Catherine de Medici, and the Catholic duke of Guise, who staged the wedding, took advantage of the presence of many leading Protestants in Paris in a treacherous way, in order to smash the reformed party.
During the infamous night of Saint Bartholomew, on the 23/24. August 1572 thousands of Huguenots in Paris and other places were massacred. The victims also included the leader of the Huguenots, Admiral Gaspard de Coligny, and much of the Protestant aristocracy.
http://img560.imageshack.us/img560/2176/bartholomusnacht.jpg
http://img32.imageshack.us/img32/8930/bartholomaeusnacht.jpg
http://img153.imageshack.us/img153/1558/bartholomaeusnachtstahl.jpg
The Exodus
After the Edict of Fontainebleau in 1685 the reformed Christians in France, could practice their forbidden faith only at great risk. A small number survived as a so-called "Church of the Desert " (église du desert), mainly in the southern underground.
It is a wonder that the Reformed Church in France has survived to this day. Protestants in France today are but only 1.5% of the population.
Despite repeated prohibition, the largest mass migration in Europe in the early modern period took place.
The assets of the refugees was confiscated by the French State, the men threatened with lifelong forced labour on galleys and the women were placed in monasteries or thrown into prison.
The flood of refugees never ebbed and swelled significantly in times of special prosecutions, such as after the St. Bartholomew's Day or during the increasing repression in the 17th Century and especially after the repeal of the Edict of Nantes.
A large percentage of French Huguenots fled to Germany, estimates vary between 44.000 and 58.000. French Huguenots also escaped to the Protestant Netherlands (around 50.000), Britain (around 40.000), Switzerland (around 20.000) and some other countries, including the New World, especially the US, Canada and South Africa.
http://img864.imageshack.us/img864/2184/hugenottenflucht.jpg
In Germany
The decision on the inclusion of Huguenot religious refugees was not in the hands of the Catholic German emperor, but solely within the sovereign princes and free cities.
Most of the Huguenots fleeing to Germany settled in Brandenburg-Prussia (20.000), because Brandenburg-Prussia still suffered from the long time effects of the devastating 30 Years War (1618-48), when Germany had become the battle field for all significant European powers of that time due to religious reasons.
Prussia didn’t restrict immigration at all and took every French Huguenot it could get, because it still had many abandoned and decaying villages and lacked overall manpower
The most famous edict in Germany recording the integration of French Huguenots is the one of Great Elector Frederick William of Brandenburg in October 1685
http://img607.imageshack.us/img607/690/hugenotten.jpg
http://img696.imageshack.us/img696/9134/976empfangderhugenotten.jpg
http://img6.imageshack.us/img6/3458/879diehugenottentreffen.jpg
The second largest part of Huguenot refugees in overall Germany (38.000 excluding the 20.000 settling in Brandenburg-Prussia) settled in Hesse (around 3.800 in Hessen-Kassel and another 2.500 in the Rhine-Main area), but unlike Prussia Hesse restricted immigration only to the skilled craftsmen.
Of course there were lots of other places in Germany to which French Huguenots immigrated, f.e. Kurpfalz mit Zweibrücken 3.400, Franken 3.200, Württemberg 2.400 Hansestädte 1.500, Niedersachsen 1.500, Baden-Durlach 500, Kursachsen 250 and various other places.
http://img15.imageshack.us/img15/8774/ankunfthugenottenkarlsh.jpg
Overall French Huguenots helped Germany to recover from the effects of the 30 Years War and aided to rebuild the country in a significant way.
Many famous persons like authors, poets, scientists and architects in Germany were of Huguenot descent like f.e. Theodor Fontane, Friedrich de la Motte Fouqué, Francois Charles Achard or Jean de Bodt.
In many places the French Huguenots created their own villages, but as time passed by they intermarried and mixed with Germans heavily and therefore became completely assimilated.
The assimilation of the Huguenots descendants in Germany began early on and intensified in the late 18th Century and the first decades of the 19th Century. In many places, the French Reformed churches were often combined with the locally existing German Reformed churches.
There is a single village “Louisendorf” situated in Hesse, which managed to keep Huguenot traditions and old French language alive until 1990. It is an exception because most Huguenots intermarried and mixed with Germans quite early.
Of course not every bearer of a French surname in Germany is automatically a descendant of French-Protestant religious refugees.
That Protestant and Catholic soldiers across national borders changed the warlord and colours in the 17th Century in Europe was the rule. "Back then the sword was just as stateless as the arts," said Henri Tollin correctly.
And the French, who settled in decidedly Catholic territories and whose names appear even in Catholic church records were of course not Huguenots.
And even in the Protestant northern part of Germany sometimes French Catholics and French Protestants lived quite peacefully together, as the example of the Celle court may illustrate. There were around 90 catholic French servants in the court of Duke Georg Wilhelm of Brunswick-Lüneburg and his Huguenot wife Eléonore d'Desmi Olbreuse.
In the wake of the French Revolution many French also fled to Germany. However, these are not considered religious refugees, but - as Lutheran refugees from Salzburg - referred to as immigrants. Their descendants are of course not Huguenot descendants.
Today there isn’t a distinct French Huguenot ethnicity in Germany any more, but some surnames and their religious allegiance still reveal their ancestry. For example the current German Minister of Defence Lothar de Maizière or the Minister President of Hesse Volker Bouffier are descendants of French Huguenots. My girlfriend f.e. also happens to be a descendant of French Huguenots.