Robberies are the order of the day
The time of the thirty years' war was also a heavy burden for the small jura village of affalterthal, since it was strategically located on an old road from gobweinstein to grafenberg (nurnberg), and, what weighed even more heavily: the owners of the village, the lords of egloffstein, soon converted to the evangelical faith, which is why it often came to conflicts with the bishop of bamberg.
It was also the landed gentry who brought the swedes with king gustav adolf at the head into the country, in order to find help in the fight against the (catholic) emperor.
On 8. September 1629, in the course of the counter-reformation, 30 soldiers from forchheim and 50 armed men from the office of leyenfels entered affalterthal with the help of a bamberg constable in order to install the catholic pastor johann dietz, against the will of the people and the village owner of egloffstein.
Oath and revenge
They expelled the evangelical pastor, the chronicle continues, forcibly opened the church doors and loved to read a holy mass. The people of affalterthal were forced to return to the catholic faith by an oath that everyone had to take. Revenge was not long in coming.
On 29. October 1631 the bailiff wolf reufl von gobweinstein reports that friedrich von egloffstein has taken it upon himself to recruit horsemen, namely a whole company. Eight riders were accommodated in the inn in affalterthal, the others in private homes in bieberbach and affalterthal.
These have a "reftrager von etzdorf, who wanted to go to nurnberg with his basket, was attacked and robbed of his belongings; likewise they attacked the pastor helldorfer von wichsenstein, who wanted to go to moggast with his schoolmaster, robbed him of his horse, the silver goblet and the schoolmaster's clothes together with his coat.
Again and again robberies
Half a year later, the citizens of affalterthal, egloffstein and thuisbrunn, who had become protestant again, attacked imperial troops at the "egloffsteiner brucklein" and "butchered them down", as the then pastor of pottenstein reported. As punishment, the croats burned down the village of affalterthal in 1634 by order of the emperor. A year later, the bishopric of bamberg again had the upper hand and appointed a catholic pastor, who – a novelty – demonstrably undertook a pilgrimage from affalterthal to gobweinstein to the basilica of the trinity in 1635; apparently in the belief that this could finally convince the affalterthalers. It did not help. One year later, in 1636, affalterthal finally became evangelical.
How bad the times were can also be read in the description of the parish in affalterthal: in 1629 there was a storm "that the pebbles were washed down from the mountain". 1632 and 1633 "no tithe could be collected, because almost nobody stayed at home, due to the continuous warfare, especially since the war people had spoiled and ruined everything". 1641 has "mutual war people" prevented farmers from growing grain in the fields: "because the many fields, so war danger halben, and for lack of seed grain can not be built, or lie."
Obertrubach parish register
According to the obertrubach parish registers of 1634, there were the inhabitants of the village for months in dense forests and hollows, for fear of the war hordes. They fed on roots and bark and mixed sand with the cereals "to have at least a little more bread".
As if that was not bad enough, the plague arose from the lack of hygiene, which also killed many people. From 1632 to 1636, bavarian, swedish, saxon and austrian troops fought battles that ravaged the area and caused devastation, burnings, robbery and murder.
Probably in 1632 the castle in bieberbach was burned by the croatians. In 1647, shortly before the end of the war, two companies of horsemen of the imperial count buchheim's regiment lay in affalterthal and loved to be kept by the locals.
In 1647/48 swedes were also quartered in the area. They also levied substantial fines on the burghers. In 1648, decades of war ended with the westphalian peace of munster. It took decades for the country to recover from the war.
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