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Westphalian History
The German principalities were the last political divisions of Central Europe to adopt the feudal system whereby the lords controlled land, person, family and justice. The peasants were deprived of any personal rights in land and could be removed at the lord's will. However, in much of Westphalia the medieval form of land tenure changed very little and the peasants retained inheritable land rights. These peasants also carried on handicrafts producing textiles and metal wares which were marketed far beyond the local markets.
Wherever the feudal system was deeply entrenched, peasants were treated contemptuously by the urban classes and noblemen who considered peasants to be "wild, treacherous, and untamed." Some writers considered ". . . villages beyond redemption and agrarian existence as stupid" as late as the mid-nineteenth century.
However, quite the opposite was true in Westphalia because the feudal system did not become widespread there and citizens were freer.
The struggle over the control of the archbishopric of Cologne was a major determining factor in the struggle between Protestantism and Catholicism. By the mid-sixteenth century the archbishops of Cologne were unordained and they frequently married after retiring. One archbishop-elect, Gebbard Trucchsess, fell in love after his appointment and before ordination. Persuaded to become a Protestant, marry and retain his position, he met opposition from as far away as Spain.
Defeated in the war which followed, he and his wife were forced to flee to the Netherlands in 1584 and the Westphalian bishoprics remained Catholic for another generation.
The Thirty Years' War and the Peace of Westphalia in 1648 did not bring an end to religious persecution and intolerance. Catholicism was stronger and more aggressive the rest of the seventeenth century. In the early eighteenth century when John William of the Elector Palatine persecuted his Protestant subjects, Frederick I of Prussia threatened reprisals on his Westphalian Catholic subjects forcing John William to withdraw some of his edicts. John William's successor, Charles Philip, refused to let the Calvinists use the chief church of Heidelberg and otherwise harassed Protestants; Hanover, Hesse-Cassel and Prussia made reprisals on their Catholic subjects. Charles Philip sulkily gave way and moved his official residence from Heidelberg to Mannheim.
Napoleon created the Kingdom of Westphalia in 1807. It was composed of the principalities of the Duke of Westphalia, the Duke of Brunswick, the Elector of Hesse-Cassel, the King of Prussia, and portions of other bordering territories. He named his youngest brother, Prince Jerome, King of Westphalia in July 1807.
One of the first major administrative acts was to abolish the remnants of feudalism -- Jan. 23, 1908.19 As more strict laws were imposed, crime in Westphalia increased; the most common offense for avoiding military conscription to meet the quota of soldiers required for Napoleon's campaign The high police were the most disliked institution imposed by the French, interfering with and harassing citizens.
Religious tolerance was a foregone certainty under King Jerome since he was Catholic and his wife was Protestant. In addition, Jews were no longer subjected to special burdening taxes, confined, or excluded. The church became subordinate to the state and church attendance declined.
Napoleon introduced centralized government to the newly created Kingdom of Westphalia
Administered largely by the Prussian citizens of the new kingdom who had more experience in centralized government, the politica centralization was carried too far and became cunbersome and too expensive. Westphalians also had to be educated in business
A social "spin-off" of the French occupation improved life for all citizens. By 1810 thirty-thousand Westphalians had reluctantly submitted to vaccination which was compulsory for entry into universities, public schools and workshops.
Westphalia and Ruethen in the Nineteenth Century
The Congress of Vienna recreated where possible boundaries of the German principalities as they existed befi "The Great Revolution." A loose political organization The German Confederation -- was formed by those Gem principalities of the old Holy Roman Empire. However, the principality retained its autonomy and unity was still decades away.
The Industrial Revolution with its evolving middle c and the political and social changes of the next half cen would have seeped into Ruethen more slowly than the far more metropolitan cities and towns. The artisans and craftsmen of the area were probably the first to see their livelihood diminishing as factory-produced goods supplied the mar formerly exclusively theirs. The potato and grain famine 1846 and 1847 would have directly affected Ruethen. Or other hand, the Revolution of 1848 would not have had n effect on most towns as remote as Ruethen. As the economy changed, the young and unemployed moved to urban where the prospect of factory employment was their hope for livelihood. As the century progressed and the factory employed faced massive layoffs, emigration became the solution for the economic problems faced by many.
political evolution was swiftly changing Europe and men where tried to grasp the new ideas of liberalism, consconsern, nationalism and socialism.
Sometimes liberal political ideas expressed too openly compromised citizens and they be were jailed for actively participating in political activity posed a threat to their rulers; thus, emigration offered escape. In some instances, as stated by Fred Helle in an interview in 1904 , military conscription was the threat which prompted the decision to emigrate. Not to be overlooked as a further inducement to emigrate was the active recruitment of German men by American entrepreneurs to help build the rapidly expanding railroad system and to work in the burgeoning factories of the United States of America. The prospect of owning a business or a farm would have been of tremendous inducement, for ownership translated into "free citizen" in the German social order. Religious freedom in the USA also influenced many. It is doubtful that German citizens fully understood the political freedom practiced in the USA until they had lived as United States citizens for many years.
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