Wesel and the Dutch revolt: The influence of religious refugees on a German city, 1544--1612

This dissertation examines the influence of refugees from the Low Countries on Wesel, a German city on the lower Rhine, between 1544 and 1612. At its peak during the early 1570s, Wesel hosted seven to eight thousand refugees, making up around forty percent of the city's total population. These Calvinist refugees had fled their homes in the Low Countries due to the religious persecution and violence associated with the Dutch revolt. This study analyzes the impact of these refugees on the economic, religious and political life of Wesel. From an economic perspective, the skilled weavers arriving during the 1540s and 1550s transformed the city's moribund economy. The production of "new draperies" opened up the export market and the fees and taxes associated with cloth production filled the city's coffers. Moreover, refugee merchants arriving after 1566 tied the city's economy into an international trading network through their ties with the Netherlands. By looking at the role of the Calvinist refugees on the city's confessional situation, this study reveals limitations to the concept of "confessionalization". Unlike most Protestant German cities, Wesel had only become Lutheran in 1540. The arrival of the first Reformed Church refugees four years later challenged the city's Lutheran identity. Attempts by Wesel's ruling elites to integrate the refugees into the Lutheran church ended in failure. Instead, Calvinism spread among native citizens with a key role played by the city's Philippist or Humanist influenced clergy. From an international perspective, printers in Wesel played a major role in the development of Protestantism in England and the Netherlands. Finally, this study traces the growing importance of refugees to the political culture of the city. From the mid 1570s, refugees who had become citizens began to move from religious offices within the Reformed Church consistory and classis into elected positions within the municipal government. Within the context of the changing relationship between the territorial city and its prince, the study reveals Dutch political influences. The election of a refugee mayor in 1599 and the merging of the refugees' consistory with the official city church in 1612 symbolically illustrate how Wesel turned Dutch.