Günther, Klesch, Láni und die anderen. Zur Typologie der ungarischen Exulanten des 17. Jahrhunderts

• Authors: Kowalská Eva

Title variants

EN

Günther, Klesch, Láni and Others: A Typology of Hungarian Émigrés in the 17th Century

• Languages of publication: DE

Abstracts

EN

Thanks to the fact that ius emigrandi was accepted in early modern Europe, hundreds of thousands of people experienced exile, hoping to find better living conditions in their new country. However, the confrontation of expectation and reality frequently became a source of conflict in the context of émigré communities. Even simple coexistence in another society complicated and exarcebated the integration of the émigrés. Collective experience with suffering undoubtedly contributed to the maintenance of their identity even when living in an environment related to their confession and favourably inclined. A vivid example of this kind of exile was the emigration of the Hungarian Lutheran and frequently even Calvinist (reformed) intellectual elite in the course of the 1670s which in some respects differed from other waves of confessional exile of the early modern age. From the beginning of the seventeenth century Hungary had considerable experience with persons who declared themselves victims of religious persecution. Hungary became a refuge for Protestants thrown out of the Austrian and Czech lands of the Habsburg monarchy. However, that situation did not last very long. Hungary did not turn into a country whose political system would permanently secure the problem-free existence not only of émigrés, but even of Protestants in general. In spite of laws which modified the free practice of the protestant confessions (1608, expanded 1647), at the beginning of the 1660s intensive re-catholicisation began to be implemented, peaking with an attempt to eliminate Protestants from society and with a ban on the public pursuance of the protestant confessions. In the course of court cases from 1673–1674 hundreds of preachers and teachers had to submit to internal emigration or leave for foreign exile. They included Daniel Klesch, Andreas Günther and Georg Láni, who could serve as examples of exile diversely perceived and experienced. All three found refuge in Germany, wrote about and analysed the situation of the preceding period of persecution in Hungary, and tried to acquire a public in Germany for the issue of the Hungarian émigrés. However, their mutual conflicts regarding the guilt of individual leading personalities of Hungarian Lutheranism for unfavourable developments showed up the deep divisions in opinion and made their acceptance in their host country difficult.

Keywords

EN

exile; Hungary; Germany; Re-Catholisation

Discipline

• HISTORY: HISTORY

• Publisher: Institute of Philosophy, Czech Academy of Sciences
• Journal: Acta Comeniana (International review of Comenius studies and early modern intellectual history)
• Year: 2007
• Volume: 20-21
• Pages: 49-64

Contributors

author

Kowalská Eva

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