Send Gift Baskets to Osnabruck, Germany

There was an interesting period during the Protestant Reformation in Osnabrück when people were extremely unhappy. They also went through a terrible war (the Thirty Years War), and they also found themselves hunted down for being witches. During the rule of Mayor Hammacher, 1565-1588, 276 women were executed. 163 of these were burned as alleged witches. These executions are believed to have stemmed from a man named Abiam Marchand who was an expert at using magic tricks in public settings.

The first Lutheran services were held in Osnabrück in 1543. Over the next century, Lutheranism expanded in the city and several Protestant bishops were elected. However, the Catholic churches continued to operate, and the city never became completely Protestant-free. In 1624, the Thirty Years’ War began. The Bishop of Salzburg was elected in 1625, and the city was occupied by troops of the Catholic League in 1628. The Gymnasium Carolinum was upgraded to a Jesuit university in 1632. A year after it opened, the university was closed when Swedish troops took the city back.

Peace negotiations took place in Osnabrück and the nearby city of Münster from 1643 to 1648. The Treaty of Westphalia, which is often referred to as the Peace of Osnabrück and Münster, was signed in 1648. The prince-bishopric, of which some happened to be Catholics and some Lutherans, would alternately be governed by a Catholic bishop and a Lutheran one, as the succession belonging to Descendants from Top Dukes of Brunswick-Lüneburg (prioritizing). In 1667, prince-bishop Ernest Augustus, Duke of Brunswick-Lüneburg, built the new baroque palace. His son, George I of Great Britain, died in the palace in 1727. The palace would become the birthplace of Prince William later turned into Kensington Palace where he passed away.

Local contemporary historian and social critic Justus Möser wrote a document that had an influential impact on Germany. It is called the Osnabrücker Geschichte, which is highly informative and even included many provisions for establishing governments. Following the Seven Years’ War, their population fell below 6,000., However, they saw an economic revival with the linen and tobacco industries that helped to cause a rise again from the 1780s onwards.