THE PALATINATE,--(GERMAN PFALZ).
Palatinate as an Independent State of Germany.--Erection of
the Electorate.--Division of the Palatinate.--France Takes
a Portion.--Its Restoration to Germany.--Present Rhine
Palatinate.--Ancestors of the Pennsylvania Germans.--Exodus of
German Palatines to Pennsylvania.--The Rhine Palatinate the
Battleground of all Europe.
The Palatinate was formerly an independent state of Germany, and
consisted of two separate territorial divisions, respectively called
the Upper, or Bavarian Palatinate, and the Lower, or Rhine Palatinate.
The Bavarian Palatinate now forms the northern part of the kingdom of
Bavaria. The Lower, or Rhine Palatinate was situated on both sides
of the Rhine, bounded by Wurtemberg and Baden on the east; Baden and
Lorraine on the south; Alsace and Lorraine on the west. It extended
north as far as the cities of Treves and Mainz.
In the twelfth century the Palatinate was erected into a hereditary
monarchy, as already stated, which was ruled by electors of the old
German empire, until about the middle of the seventeenth century, when
the two territories were divided, and the Upper Palatinate became
united with Bavaria; while the Rhine Palatinate continued in the
possession of the original dynasty. During the eighteenth century, the
two districts were again united under the elector Charles Theodore, who
afterwards also became king of Bavaria.
During the French Revolution, France took possession of that part of
the Palatinate on the west bank of the Rhine, but after the fall of
Napoleon in 1815, that part was again restored to Germany. Prussia and
Hesse-Darmstadt received a part, but the greater part fell to Bavaria.
This part constitutes the present Rhine Palatinate, as is shown on the
map of Germany, and is bounded by the Rhine on the east; Prussia and
Hesse-Darmstadt on the north; Alsace-Lorraine on the south and west. It
forms a _Regierungsbezirk_ of Bavaria, with Speyer for its capital.
After 1801, the Rhine Palatinate ceased to exist as an independent
state, and its territory was divided under the terms of the Treaty
of Luneville, by which Napoleon dictated, that the Rhine should
thenceforth be the frontier of France. By the terms of that treaty,
the territory comprising the Rhine Palatinate was divided between
Hesse-Darmstadt, Baden, Leinigen-Dachsburg, Nassau; France taking all
west of the Rhine. This partition of the Palatinate remains undisturbed
at this day, with the exception of that part which fell to France,
which was transferred back again to Germany, after Napoleon’s downfall,
as stated.
* * * * *
There is nothing in all German history, which possesses a greater
interest, than the story of the Rhine Pfalz. In that beautiful country
dwelt the ancestors of the Pennsylvania Germans two centuries ago,
before persecution drove them from it. A journey through the valley
of the Upper Rhine at the present day will suggest the inquiry, why a
people should wish to leave so fair an estate. Nowhere has nature been
more lavish in bestowing its bounties, than in that fair land. There,
are to be seen, the most highly cultivated fields; vine-clad hills;
enchanting scenery; ruined castles, that tell of a once feudal dignity
and glory. The valley of the Rhine is indeed “the garden of Germany,”
if not of all Europe. The causes however which led to the enormous
emigration from the charming Rhine nigh unto two hundred years ago were
irresistable. They are written in fire and blood.
For more than a thousand years, reaching far back into the earliest
times, the Rhine was the prize for which the Romans, Gauls and the
Germans contended. There is no region of country on the globe, of
equal extent, that has witnessed so many sanguinary conflicts as the
Palatinate of the Rhine. It is there where the Romans struggled for
more than five centuries to subdue the fierce German tribes, only
to leave them unconquered at the end of that time. After the Romans
withdrew, the Palatinate continued to be the battlefield of rival
races and of nations. The many strategic points along the stream made
it always a rich prize to be coveted by European nations when at war
with each other, which was nearly all the time. No matter what nations
were engaged in war the scene of their conflict was almost invariably
transferred to the Upper Rhine country.
From no nation did the Rhine provinces suffer more, than from the
French. The battles of the incessant wars of the French monarchs, were
almost invariably fought in the region of the Rhine. As late as the
Franco-German war, if it had not been for the promptness with which the
German troops marched to the frontier, where they met the French army:
defeated it, and drove it back upon French territory, the operations of
that war would have once more taken place in the Rhine country.
The crimes committed in the Palatinate, in consequence of religious
intolerance, fanaticism, and political persecution, are unparalleled
in the history of human savagery. They make the blackest pages in the
history of the whole world.
* * * * *
The German Palatines, at an early day, embraced the tenets of the
Reformation; so did the people of most of the other German states.
This exercise of freedom of thought in matters pertaining to religion,
soon brought them in collision with the German emperors, who continued
to adhere to the Roman Catholic faith. The See of Rome determined to
crush out heresy everywhere, and judging from subsequent events, it
would seem as if the Palatines had been selected as the special victims
upon whom to inflict the fullest vengeance of the Catholic princes.
The latter manifested the greatest zeal, in seconding the injunctions
of the papal authority. The religious contentions followed soon after
Martin Luther’s protestation against the Church of Rome, and they
continued for more than one hundred years. They were waged with a
cruelty and ferocity compared to which the crimes of the Turks in later
years against the Christian Armenians pale into a mere shadow.
During the Thirty Years’ War the Palatinate was frequently ravaged
by contending armies. Both the Protestants and Catholics, in South
Germany, were among the first to take up arms in defense of their
religion, which made the Palatinate the theatre of war at once, and it
continued the scene of many of its most important conflicts until peace
came at the end of thirty years. Even when the war was transferred
for a time to Bohemia and elsewhere, the Palatinate did not get a
respite, for it was then invaded by a Spanish army under Spinola in
1620, and again in 1645 the armies under Turenne and Conde, invaded the
Palatinate and each time it was devastated.
When peace came at last with the Treaty of Westphalia, by which
Protestantism was saved to Germany, but at a fearful cost, the
Palatines retired from the contest, believing that their persecutions
had now come to an end. The war left them in a frightfully
impoverished condition. Their land had been turned into a desert,
their substance wasted, a great part of the population had been
destroyed, while those who were left, had declined morally and mentally
to such an extent, as to require very many years for them, as well as
of all Germany to recover from the demoralization, as the result of the
Thirty Years’ War.
With the end of the war, the Protestant Palatines gained religious
freedom; it was no longer sought to compel them to worship God at the
point of the sword, in violation of the dictates of their conscience.
But there was not yet peace for them. Their persecutions were not yet
to end. The echoes of the clashing of arms of the Thirty Years’ War had
scarcely ceased, when the tramp of the invader was again heard, and it
was not long before the unfortunate Palatines learned, that the worst
cruelties were yet to be inflicted upon them.