Krieg ohne Konfession

Abstract

This contribution describes the social practice of ‘foraging’ as a narrative in autobiographical texts from the Thirty Years War. The term euphemistically denotes the illegal provision of soldiers with supplies and loot – often as a replacement for outstanding pay. Those who practised foraging generally did not respect religious confessional boundaries. Presumably it was this indiscretion which led to the war not being portrayed as a confessional conflict in the texts examined. In this context, the war seems to be entirely non-confessional.