Chapter II: The Palatinate,--(german Pfalz)

Palatinate as an Independent State of Germany.--Erection of
the Electorate.--Division of the Palatinate.--France Takes
a Portion.--Its Restoration to Germany.--Present Rhine
Palatinate.--Ancestors of the Pennsylvania Germans.--Exodus of
German Palatines to Pennsylvania.--The Rhine Palatinate the
Battleground of all Europe.

The Palatinate was formerly an independent state of Germany, and consisted of two separate territorial divisions, respectively called the Upper, or Bavarian Palatinate, and the Lower, or Rhine Palatinate. The Bavarian Palatinate now forms the northern part of the kingdom of Bavaria. The Lower, or Rhine Palatinate was situated on both sides of the Rhine, bounded by Wurtemberg and Baden on the east; Baden and Lorraine on the south; Alsace and Lorraine on the west. It extended north as far as the cities of Treves and Mainz.

In the twelfth century the Palatinate was erected into a hereditary monarchy, as already stated, which was ruled by electors of the old German empire, until about the middle of the seventeenth century, when the two territories were divided, and the Upper Palatinate became united with Bavaria; while the Rhine Palatinate continued in the possession of the original dynasty. During the eighteenth century, the two districts were again united under the elector Charles Theodore, who afterwards also became king of Bavaria.

During the French Revolution, France took possession of that part of the Palatinate on the west bank of the Rhine, but after the fall of Napoleon in 1815, that part was again restored to Germany. Prussia and Hesse-Darmstadt received a part, but the greater part fell to Bavaria. This part constitutes the present Rhine Palatinate, as is shown on the map of Germany, and is bounded by the Rhine on the east; Prussia and Hesse-Darmstadt on the north; Alsace-Lorraine on the south and west. It forms a _Regierungsbezirk_ of Bavaria, with Speyer for its capital.

After 1801, the Rhine Palatinate ceased to exist as an independent state, and its territory was divided under the terms of the Treaty of Luneville, by which Napoleon dictated, that the Rhine should thenceforth be the frontier of France. By the terms of that treaty, the territory comprising the Rhine Palatinate was divided between Hesse-Darmstadt, Baden, Leinigen-Dachsburg, Nassau; France taking all west of the Rhine. This partition of the Palatinate remains undisturbed at this day, with the exception of that part which fell to France, which was transferred back again to Germany, after Napoleon’s downfall, as stated.

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There is nothing in all German history, which possesses a greater interest, than the story of the Rhine Pfalz. In that beautiful country dwelt the ancestors of the Pennsylvania Germans two centuries ago, before persecution drove them from it. A journey through the valley of the Upper Rhine at the present day will suggest the inquiry, why a people should wish to leave so fair an estate. Nowhere has nature been more lavish in bestowing its bounties, than in that fair land. There, are to be seen, the most highly cultivated fields; vine-clad hills; enchanting scenery; ruined castles, that tell of a once feudal dignity and glory. The valley of the Rhine is indeed “the garden of Germany,” if not of all Europe. The causes however which led to the enormous emigration from the charming Rhine nigh unto two hundred years ago were irresistable. They are written in fire and blood.

For more than a thousand years, reaching far back into the earliest times, the Rhine was the prize for which the Romans, Gauls and the Germans contended. There is no region of country on the globe, of equal extent, that has witnessed so many sanguinary conflicts as the Palatinate of the Rhine. It is there where the Romans struggled for more than five centuries to subdue the fierce German tribes, only to leave them unconquered at the end of that time. After the Romans withdrew, the Palatinate continued to be the battlefield of rival races and of nations. The many strategic points along the stream made it always a rich prize to be coveted by European nations when at war with each other, which was nearly all the time. No matter what nations were engaged in war the scene of their conflict was almost invariably transferred to the Upper Rhine country.

From no nation did the Rhine provinces suffer more, than from the French. The battles of the incessant wars of the French monarchs, were almost invariably fought in the region of the Rhine. As late as the Franco-German war, if it had not been for the promptness with which the German troops marched to the frontier, where they met the French army: defeated it, and drove it back upon French territory, the operations of that war would have once more taken place in the Rhine country.

The crimes committed in the Palatinate, in consequence of religious intolerance, fanaticism, and political persecution, are unparalleled in the history of human savagery. They make the blackest pages in the history of the whole world.

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The German Palatines, at an early day, embraced the tenets of the Reformation; so did the people of most of the other German states. This exercise of freedom of thought in matters pertaining to religion, soon brought them in collision with the German emperors, who continued to adhere to the Roman Catholic faith. The See of Rome determined to crush out heresy everywhere, and judging from subsequent events, it would seem as if the Palatines had been selected as the special victims upon whom to inflict the fullest vengeance of the Catholic princes. The latter manifested the greatest zeal, in seconding the injunctions of the papal authority. The religious contentions followed soon after Martin Luther’s protestation against the Church of Rome, and they continued for more than one hundred years. They were waged with a cruelty and ferocity compared to which the crimes of the Turks in later years against the Christian Armenians pale into a mere shadow.

During the Thirty Years’ War the Palatinate was frequently ravaged by contending armies. Both the Protestants and Catholics, in South Germany, were among the first to take up arms in defense of their religion, which made the Palatinate the theatre of war at once, and it continued the scene of many of its most important conflicts until peace came at the end of thirty years. Even when the war was transferred for a time to Bohemia and elsewhere, the Palatinate did not get a respite, for it was then invaded by a Spanish army under Spinola in 1620, and again in 1645 the armies under Turenne and Conde, invaded the Palatinate and each time it was devastated.

When peace came at last with the Treaty of Westphalia, by which Protestantism was saved to Germany, but at a fearful cost, the Palatines retired from the contest, believing that their persecutions had now come to an end. The war left them in a frightfully impoverished condition. Their land had been turned into a desert, their substance wasted, a great part of the population had been destroyed, while those who were left, had declined morally and mentally to such an extent, as to require very many years for them, as well as of all Germany to recover from the demoralization, as the result of the Thirty Years’ War.

With the end of the war, the Protestant Palatines gained religious freedom; it was no longer sought to compel them to worship God at the point of the sword, in violation of the dictates of their conscience. But there was not yet peace for them. Their persecutions were not yet to end. The echoes of the clashing of arms of the Thirty Years’ War had scarcely ceased, when the tramp of the invader was again heard, and it was not long before the unfortunate Palatines learned, that the worst cruelties were yet to be inflicted upon them.