The Effects of the Thirty Years' War on Germany

Before the twentieth century, there was overwhelming agreement among historians that the Thirty Years’ War had disastrous effects on Germany. This view of the German ‘catastrophe’ originated in seventeenth-century Brandenburg, and was passed on to Prussia and the Second Reich. Gustav Freytag (1816–95) expressed the general consensus of opinion about this cataclysmic period of German history: ‘When the war ended there was little remaining of the great nation.’ ¹ During the present century, however, the view that the Thirty Years’ War was totally destructive has come in for some questioning, although most historians continued to see it as having contributed much to German decline. The most advanced advocate of a revised view has been 8. H. Steinberg, who argued that the war's evil reputation was greatly exaggerated by the ‘original atrocity propaganda emanating from Berlin’ ² to enhance the authority of the Great Elector and to provide justification for his measures. The real impact of the war, Steinberg believed, has to be seen in perspective; the struggle was not concerned primarily with the future of Germany, and its impact on Germany has been overstated, particularly since the economy and prosperity of the German cities were already in decline before the main period of the war.