The Salzburg Protestants are Driven out of Austria and Settle in Prussia in the Year 1732 (1734)

In 1731, the Archbishop of Salzburg, Leopold Anton Eleutherius Reichsfreiherr von Firmian (r. 1727-1744), expelled some 20,000 Lutheran Protestants from his territory, blatant proof that confessional conflicts continued long after the Peace of Westphalia. Forced to seek refuge in other German principalities, many of them accepted an invitation by Frederick William I of Prussia (r. 1713-1740), a Protestant Calvinist, to settle in East Prussia, which had been depopulated by the plague and the Northern War in the early 1700s. Between April and July 1732, the Salzburg Protestants made their way to Prussia in twenty-six groups, each of which included approximately 800 people. The upper portion of the engraving shows one group of expellees leaving Salzburg; the caption is taken from Pslams 4: “But know that the Lord hath set apart him that is godly for himself.” The lower scene shows some of the Salzburg emigrants in their new home, Prussian St. Johannesburg or “New Salzburg.” Copperplate engraving by unknown artist, 1732.

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