After our first trip to Austria in 2000, I attempted to learn more about the history of Austria. Finding detailed history in English is not easy, and so I resorted to some history written in German. Fortunately, Elke Hall came to my rescue and bailed me out. The following history should not be taken too exactly as it intended only to be a guide.
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About 1550, or thirty years after the start of the Reformation, Stefan von Zinzendorf, a German, was the first Protestant to visit the area. He is of the same family, but much earlier, as Count Zinzendorf of Moravian fame. The majority of the citizens in Austria became Protestants, especially around Gresten and the church in Gresten became Protestant. The rulers of Austria remained staunchly Catholic. A counter Reformation was launched under the guidance of Georg Scherer, a Jesuit, who adopted harsh measures. (Probably this was the occasion of the court trial of the pastor recently mentioned.) The counter Reformation, taxation, and other grievances propelled the farmers in Austria to launch a Farmer’s War. In 1597, the conflict between the farmers and the armies of the Emperor became intense, with perhaps 12,000 farmers involved.
Much of the leadership for the farmers came from Gresten. The war turned very badly for the farmers, and many were killed or executed. Today, on one of the farms outside Gresten, there is a beautiful chapel dedicated to the memory of those farmers. This chapel stands on the farm of one of the farmers who was executed.
Another period of unrest started with the Thirty Years's War in 1618, with much of the leadership on the "Catholic" side provided by the Austrian rulers. Within Austria, all churches became Catholic, though citizens could remain Lutheran. The reversion of the church in Gresten to the Catholics occurred about 1630.
At the end of the war in 1648, it took a few years to achieve stability, but, in the early 1650's, it was decreed that all citizens must either convert to Catholicism or leave the country. At this time some of the Plankenbuehlers left Austria to go to Mittelfranken (around Dietenhofen), since they start appearing in the church records there at that time.
The records from the time that the church in Gresten was Protestant have apparently been lost. So the church records only go back to about 1630 in Gresten. Reconstructing the families prior to this time is very difficult. Zimmerman and Cerny attempted to outline the structure of the Plankenbuehler family from the existing church records but they had to make some assumptions which proved not to be correct. Also, they were unable to provide any record that Matthias Blankenbuehler of Neuenbuerg was from Gresten.
(02 May 05)
We gratefully acknowledge the work of John Blankenbaker who published over 2,500 Germanna History Notes via the Germanna-L@rootsweb.com email list from 1997 to 2008. We are equally thankful to George Durman (Sgt. George) for hosting the list and republishing the notes via rootsweb.com.