When we look at the movements of the Germanna ancestors, or at the general migration patterns in the Germanic areas, we see that it peaked in the Seventeenth Century (the 1600's). Of course, the most significant event of the Seventeenth Century was the Thirty Years War, from 1618 to 1648. Why was the migration so heavy in the Seventeenth Century?
One reason, but not the dominant reason, was religious. As a result of the war, there were realignments of the religious patterns. This was the most noticeable in Austria, where Protestantism was the dominant religion in 1600. By the end of the war, the official religion of the state was Catholicism. The Austrian Kaiser decreed that those who did not wish to be Catholics had to leave, and many Austrians did leave. Though the religious question was significant, it was not the major factor in the resettlement of people.
A more powerful factor was the economic destruction caused by the war. Vast areas were left underpopulated, with empty fields, barns, and houses. Now a ruler’s income depends, to a large measure, on the number of people paying taxes. With a reduced population, his income declined. To build up his tax collections, he invited people to move into his area and offered them land. Some regions had a surplus of people and the invitation to relocate to less populous areas was well received.
These appeals were well received in Switzerland which had suffered little during the war due their neutrality. Many Swiss Reformed members and Anabaptists took advantage of the chance to secure a better economic base. In the case of the Anabaptists, there was a strong pressure by the Swiss state and the Swiss Reformed Church to expel the Anabaptists. Thus, we find Anabaptists such as Hans Herr living on the Unterbiegelhof farm which abuts on the back of the Wagenbach farm where the Utz family and the Folg family lived.
Another relocation factor was the need for specific skills. Some German areas were low lying and swampy. Some rulers sought people who were knowledgeable about draining and diking lands to reduce the water level to make productive fields.
The lands in southwest Germany, in Wuerttemberg, Baden, and The Palatinate, were repopulated. By 1700 the vacant land between villages had become the bone of contention between adjacent villages as the expanding families needed land for their children. Another factor, war, entered the considerations of the inhabitants by 1700.
William Penn had been recruiting Germans for his lands in Pennsylvania since 1680. Excepting for one small group which formed Germantown (now in Philadelphia), there had been no emigration to the English colonies. By 1709, there many good reasons for emigration to America, but little had taken place. Why? (10 Nov 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.