In War, There Is Neither Fortune nor a Star

... was the title of a one-day colloquium at the Hotel Stadt Breisach on the city's Münsterberg. Already occupied by the Romans as a strategic landmark, many rulers later disputed this rock, particularly during wars between Germany and France.

The coat of arms of Breisach's rulers throughout the centuries
 are painted on the wall of the town hall (©Flominator/Wikipedia)

At the time of the Holy German Empire, Fort Breisach was described as the key to entering German territory. The fortified city and its inhabitants, in particular, suffered during the Thirty Years' War.

Fortification of Breisach on the Rhine under French rule (©Bertram Jenisch)

In the wake of the 500th anniversary of the outbreak of the traumatic war, Breisach was the "suitable" place for a colloquium on forts, entrenchments, and battlefields during this sinister era of German history. Although Red Baron covered the period extensively, he still learned a lot of details.

Initially, the war spared the southwest of the Holy Roman Empire, for the Dukedom of Württemberg, worked as a protective shield for the Habsburg territories located further west on the two banks of the Rhine river. Duke John Frederick was a member of the Protestant Union standing against the Catholic League. Still, after the defeat of the Union at the Battle of Wimpfen on May 6, 1622, where he lost his youngest brother, the Duke concluded a non-aggression treaty with the Habsburg emperor.

In the countryside, the impact of the Battle of Wimpfen is still visible (©Rudolf Landauer)

This favorable political situation ended abruptly on March 6, 1629, when Emperor Ferdinand II decreed the Edict of Restitution, demanding the return of territories that had come under Protestant rule after the Treaty of Passau in 1552. This involved more than one-third of Württemberg's areas that once had belonged to monasteries and bishops. When Catholic troops invaded Germany's southwest to force implementation of the edict, Duke Eberhard III fled to Protestant Strasbourg, and only Fort Hohentwiel in Württemberg resisted the Catholic assault.

The Spanish Road (©Miguelazo/Wikipedia)

In 1635 Catholic France entered the war supporting the Protestants against the Habsburgs. One of their first war goals was cutting the Camino de los Tercios españoles, the road on which Spanish foot soldiers marched from northern Italy to Flanders in 60 days, feeding the war between the Protestant Netherlands and the Spanish Habsburgs. By cutting these Spanish supplies, France gained passages into the Empire, in particular following the fall of Breisach, the key to the Reich.

Red Baron also learned that one of the reasons Emperor Ferdinand III ceded the German-speaking Alsace to France in the Peace Treaty of Westphalia was that he did not want the French to have a seat and a vote at the Imperial Diet. On the other hand, occupying the German territories of Verden and Pomerania, the Swedes had that right.

The Battle of Wittstock (©Sabine Eickhoff)

The audience learned that modern forensic techniques were applied when a common grave was discovered containing 131 skeletons of soldiers killed in the Battle of Wittstock 100 kilometers north of Berlin some years ago. On October 10, 1636, a combined Swedish-Scottish army decisively defeated the Catholic imperial troops. The latter were seconded by forces of Protestant Saxon Elector John George I, the initiator of a German peace, i.e., the 1635 Peace of Prague, to dislodge foreign troops from German territory.

Man is man’s death (©Stefan Mäder)

Smashed skulls and damaged bones partly destroyed by bullets were the causes of death. Examination of teeth determined the age of the men who measured between 160 to 182 centimeters, where the median age was 24 years. DNA analyses of bone material confirmed the predominant Scottish and Swedish origin of the men killed in action. In fact, a battle was a rare activity for soldiers in the Thirty Years' War compared with marching and digging trenches. Subsequently, most of the skeletons show heavy osteoarthrosis. Effects of earlier wounds with bone damage and chronic illnesses (syphilis) were also diagnosed, i.e., the general health of those buried was terrible. Artifacts, except for bullets, were rarely found, so it is assumed that the men, stripped of any clothing and equipment items, were buried naked. Rest in peace!

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