13 - God's Warriors, Mercenaries, or Freedom Fighters? Politics, Warfare, and Religion in Schiller's Geschichte des Dreyßigjährigen Kriegs

Summary

In both the Thirty Years' War and today's war on terror, religion, finance, politics, and warfare are entangled in a combustible mix. This article analyzes Schiller's conceptualization of the nexus of religious and political factors in his Geschichte des Dreyßigjährigen Kriegs (History of the Thirty Years' War, 1791–92; 1802). Does Schiller portray religion from a secular perspective? If so, what are the challenges and benefits of portraying religiously motivated events through a secular lens? Finally, how does Schiller reconcile the representation of the horror of war with the notion of historical progress set out as a central concern in the introductory paragraphs of the text?

IN RECENT YEARS SCHOLARS OF WAR, such as Herfried Münkler, have drawn attention to the similarities between the Thirty Years' War and the wars of the late twentieth and early twenty-first centuries. As Münkler points out, both the Thirty Years' War and today's “war on terror” are long-lasting conflicts of varying intensity in which the importance of the “Entscheidungsschlacht” (decisive military encounter) recedes into the background. These wars do not produce quick victories but seek to exhaust the opponent and raise the cost of imposing one's political will; both the Thirty Years' War and the war on terror tend to erase the difference between military personnel and civilians, with civilian casualties outnumbering military ones; both rely on the use of professional soldiers for hire; and in both, nation states are joined by sub- and supranational organizations; finally, in both, religion, finance, politics, and warfare are entangled in a combustible mix.