With the Prague lintel in May 1618 begins the Thirty Years' War and thus the last major religious war in Europe. It expands into a conflagration, in which almost all former European
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With the Prague lintel in May 1618 begins the Thirty Years' War and thus the last major religious war in Europe. It expands into a conflagration, in which almost all former European powers are involved. Only when millions of people have died and half the continent is devastated, Europe's Catholics and Protestants in the Peace of Westphalia can agree on a new order of coexistence. Why the struggle for the right denomination could lead to such a carnage is hard to understand today. Hard to imagine the hardships and misery that the war brought over the country. The film tells five people how they experienced and suffered the Thirty Years' War. All have really lived, left traces and testimonies and were both victims and perpetrators. The mercenary Peter Hagendorf from Zerbst, who sometimes works in one and the other army, the nun Klara Staiger, who tries to save her monastery, the farmer Marta Küzinger, who secretly lives her Lutheran faith, the banker Hans de Witte, who as a Calvinist finances the Catholics, and the Jesuit preacher Jeremias Drexel, whom the war finally disgusts. These "eyewitness accounts" from the past are contrasted with impressions of a journey through today's German-speaking Europe. Are there any traces of the conflict of yesteryear? What about faith today? Renowned experts such as the political scientist Herfried Münkler or the historians Georg Schmidt and Christoph Kampmann analyze the antagonism of those days and ask if the Thirty Years' War can teach us something about the wars of our time. The docudrama on the Thirty Years' War by Stefan Ludwig is therefore not only due to a historical date, but also links the European tragedy of 400 years ago to the conflicts and crises today. Film by Stefan Ludwig
