Lazareva A.V. Religious schism and “German”  patriotism. On the question of the  confessional opposition’s role in the  German duchies during the Thirty  year’s war (1618–1848)

Abstract: The article examines the questions concerning the religious rupture in Germany and its influence on the formation of the German national idea in the period of the Thirty years’ war (1618–1648). The intellectual life of the Holy Roman empire of the German nation from the second decade of the 17th century was significantly determined by the Thirty years’ war. The German intellectuals, mostly authors and publicists, were the first to raise through their works the subject of the necessity for German unity and love for one’s homeland, without the traditional division into Catholics and Protestants developed from the 16th century. For the German duchies, divided by confessional allegiances, this became a novel challenge. The article is based on a wide range of sources, mainly from the publicist and literary genres from the middle and second half of the 17th century. The originality of this research is in its analysis of the genesis of the German national idea through the prism of the confessional uniqueness of the German territorial duchies. The sources used by the author, in the first place publicist material and literature, in itself also presents the originality of this research. Despite the fact that among the intellectual elite there were representatives of different religious views, it was the authors and publicist who presented a unique example of confessional tolerance. This narrow stratum of German society became the messenger of mental changes and the announcer of transition from confessional doctrines to the new notions of “state interests”, weaved with the formation of the early Modern national conceptions.

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