Die Magdeburgische Hochzeit by Gertrud Von LeFort

Die Magdeburgische Hochzeit Reviews

• 
  Fonch

  Ladies and gentlemen the first thing is to apologize to you although my friend Professor (and brilliant writer) Manuel Alfonseca
  https://www.goodreads.com/author/show... (I take this opportunity to recommend his books, and his Articles of Divulciencia that are both in Spanish, as in English) always refers to a phrase of a character of John Ford played by John Wayne in particular the phrase is "do not apologize Mr. Pennel ", however I have to, because this is not what I promised you. You know my initial idea was to write a balance sheet of my 2021 readings. In fact, although I rehearse it in the review of"Corona de Ángeles" (book by the same author whose book I am going to talk about today)
  https://www.goodreads.com/review/show... you know that I take the opportunity to comment on my summer readings, and this year I planned to do the same, but with the readings of the whole year, previously I would like to tell you some things, that happened to me in the Christmas holidays, some things that I would like to ask the Magi, and in fact you could help me in one of them, and finally talk about some books that I have planned, or I would like to read this year. Of course I will write this balance
  https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/5..., but first I have to write other reviews, and as I know that the first review is very relevant I have decided to start by writing my impressions of a novel"The Magdeburg Wedding" that I thought was going to be favorite to become the best non-fiction book of this year, and that it was going to succeed last year's winner"With what Authority?"by Robert Hugh Benson (book that I highly recommend)
  https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1... but as a Spanish saying goes"Who enters Pope leaves Cardinal" and that is what has happened in this case. A book that I expected I expected to get five stars has been left with (3,5). I have put four stars on it, so as not to lower the average too much, and because the user Pater Edmund likes it very much. Let's face it, this book cost me a lot. I thought I couldn't get it, and that's why I was so eager to read it.
  There were several factors that led me to think that this work was going to sweep. The first thing was the subject that dealt with a transcendental episode that marks the turning point of one of the most important and decisive moments of humanity the War of the 30 years. In fact, although the political resolutions of the Westphalia-Orsnabruck Peace Treaty were not maintained, the hegemony of the opponents of the House of Habsburg did not last long. In fact, from the political point of view the political effects of the War of the Spanish Succession (not of Secession, as the Catalan separatists mistakenly believe, although they took land from us, which did not correspond to the European powers) were more lasting with the Treaty of Utrecht and Rastatt, which are the beginning of English hegemony, and then from 1945 the American. That is why from a political point of view the War of the Spanish Succession is more important than the War of the 30 years. After all, neither France nor Sweden maintained for long the world dominance they achieved with an unworthy war, and an even more ignominious peace. After all, as my admired Juan Manuel de Prada says
  https://www.goodreads.com/author/show... " A peace without justice is not peace" and it is one of the most immoral peaces that has ever been, but it is the one that marks the beginning of modernity. Before continuing I must say one thing the editorial I read is not Spanish, but Chilean. I think, that this book was not published in Spain, however, it was perfectly understood, and there were not so many differences from the Spanish of the mother country with the Chilean. Specifically, the publisher that translated it was called Zigzag. Before starting with the novel the publisher had the good detail (in my opinion it was a success) to include a prologue by a professor of History at the Catholic University of Chile named Dr. Ricardo Krebs, and that for me has undoubtedly been the best of the book, where he explains the beginning, and the development of the War of the 30 years until the event that Gertrud von Le Fort tells, and that it is the turning point of the 30 Years' War, and it will decide its end. Krebs comes to one of the aspects, and allows us to see only the tip of the iceberg. For Krebs, and I agree with him Westphalia Orsnabruck embodies the replacement of Catholicism by a new religion, which is not Protestantism, which apparently with the help of a Catholic power rose to victory by arms. All in all, the big winner is states and secular policies. That is, the state embodies the new religion. I agree with this analysis of the great Chilean historian, which he has exposed in this prologue, but the consequence of all this is the triumph of modernity, and of modern secularism. This marks the weakening of religion, and the advent of false religions that try to replace God. Without Westphalia-Ornsnabruck there would have been no modernity, and history would have followed a totally different path. It was the triumph of evil over good and neither Protestants nor Catholics were happy with the final result. Of course what can be understood is that Germany was the big loser, because it lost the opportunity to achieve German unification several centuries earlier. Because the Habsburgs remade themselves, and they were able to do great things, such as practically turning the Ottoman Empire into a dying man, and returning freedom to the lands conquered by Islam, although unfortunately the reconquest of Byzantium was not achieved.
  We must understand that, although it is not the beginning of atheism, it was already swarming around. In fact, freethinkers, and atheist philosophers are already beginning to emerge in France, but this cruel war is what marks the hatred of the common man for religion, and which led modern man to think that wars of religion were terrible. Despite the fact that the bloodiest sections of this conflict were not religiously motivated, but political. At the end the war of 30 years has four periods, depending on the entry into competition of the contenders the first purely national that concludes with the Catholic victory in the battle of the White Mountain in which my country had an important work, the second period is known as the Danish period and concludes with the victory of the Catholic troops against the Denmark of Christian IV, who had come to the defense of the Protestants (as will be seen by the Princes who began this war by throwing the two imperial representatives into the defenestration of Prague, and illegally crowned a usurper Frederick V of the Palatinate, against the legitimate Emperor Ferdinand II. What the Princes sought was to guarantee their independence from the Emperor, which is why the German union desired since the time of Emperor Maximilian I and Charles V is delayed. What the Princes sought to maintain this status quo was to internationalize the conflict, even if this meant the entry of foreign troops, who would be dedicated to massacring the civilian population, because it is worth remembering one thing. The Spaniards, and Croats having blood ties with the German imperial house were not foreigners, and the Croats, despite their cruelty belonged to the empire so they were not foreigners, but Danes, Swedes, and French, if they were). The third period called the Swedish period takes place because Richelieu who in his memorandum, which was a political program sought the greatness of France at all costs. What led him to three points the destruction of the Huguenot heresy (Calvinists), the subjugation of the Levantine nobility, and third, and this is what concerns us is the elevation of France against foreign powers. What it means is that France must be the leading world power, and for this it must crush the Habsburgs, even if it implies betrayal of the common religion, and support what Lavisse called
  https://www.goodreads.com/author/show... the policies of national selfishness. Of course Richelieu was not the first to design this policy. Perhaps we should go back to Louis XI, or to Francis I, in fact, his predecessor in office following the wishes of Louis XIII (for me certainly the real culprit, since Luynes, and Richelieu were nothing more than the tools of this King who could not carry out his ambitious plans, but surrounded himself with people who could. Quite possibly the hatred of his mother Maria de Mediccis was the catalyst for continuing with this political line. France from the death of Henry IV found itself in a state of anarchy unable to maintain order, and dominated by ambitious adventurers such as Concini, or Eleonora Galigai, and was on the verge of destruction. Quite possibly a revolution, or a failed state would have occurred if Louis XIII, and Luynes had not begun to design these measures. Some are just, and nothing should be said against the destruction of the Huguenots, although progressives, and historians today would have liked an alliance of both to destroy the Catholic powers, and destroy Christianity all in the name of tolerance, but thanks to Providence France only sought its own aggrandizement and this was to end Calvinism, and dominate the Nobles. In this last task he only achieved a momentary success, since these same nobles would be the ones who with their irresponsible measures would bring the monster of the Revolution (1789),
  https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/4... that perhaps would not have taken place if instead of defeating the Bourbons the Wars of Religion of the sixteenth century it had been the members of the House of Guise who they would have won. From that moment the Bourbons always had their capital Paris as a hostile city. The Fronde cannot be understood without this factor.) We have already seen in this digression why France carried out this policy. So it should come as no surprise that Richelieu offered Gustavo Adolfo Vasa a great soldier, but with symptoms of madness in his family. To understand the history of Sweden, and the situation of Catholics there I recommend my review of karina Mansdotter's novel, or"Queen for a Day" by Mika Waltari where she talked about these issues.
  https://www.goodreads.com/review/show... I also highly recommend Goodreads users to read my review of"Characters of the Reformation" by Hilaire Belloc
  https://www.goodreads.com/review/show... where we are told what I am going to reveal now to the Goodreads user that Richelieu promised two gold chests to the triumphant Swedish monarch who had undertaken brilliant campaigns against the Polish kings, and against the tsar. This is to tell you that the Swedish collaboration was not due to idealism, nor to tolerance, nor to fighting for a noble cause. In this campaign Sweden demonstrated the importance of a national army and achieved undisputed triumphs in Lech, Breitenfeld, and in Lutzen, which although it ended in Swedish victory ended with the death of GustavUs Adolphus II, and finally the Swedish period ends with the Catholic victory of Nordlingen, where without its great boss the Spaniards demonstrate our superiority over the Swedes. Proving that they were not the best army in the world. This triggered the longest part of the war the French period that was already a round robin, and in which you see a change of jacket Denmark, and Prussia sided with the emperor, and France, Sweden and other powers fought against the empire favoring arms to the French, as Sweden went more in the slipstream. Which forced Ferdinand III who did not have the ideals of his father to seek peace, and also not to help the Hispanic monarchy in its fight against France, which lengthens the Thirty Years' War, or rather is the Franco-Spanish War an epilogue of the 30 Years' War, which will culminate in the Peace of the Pyrenees and the birth of modern secularism, and the subordination to national policies in the face of religious interests.
  First of all I must comment, that I am going to translate this criticism into both English and German (the author is German, and it is convenient that the Germans know her story, and know how to accept it without hatred, and without a spirit of revenge, and more in these times where there is a crisis of the humanities), and I will also translate it into Polish, because of the great affection I feel for this country, and because of the large number of Polish users who are my friends. Although I will not always be able to do so, since my reviews are very long, and it takes me a long time to write them, and I need time to comment on each book I read.
  If you have had the patience to swallow my bored, very long historical digression, I thank you, and congratulate you for your patience. Now you will be able to understand why what Gertrud von Le Fort tells us in this novel is so important not only for the history of Germany, but for the history of the world. For me, and this I must say, this event in history should have had a much greater historiographical impact, and Catholics should have given it greater value. Eye, that also the War of the 30 years marks the birth of ecumenism I already said that there were people who did not like that this will end up as a distribution of French, and Swedes, and they realized that the two great losers of the conflict had been religion, and the Germans themselves. That is why, driven by Leibniz
  https://www.goodreads.com/author/show..., and by Abbot Oliva, an attempt at rapprochement between Protestants and Catholics was born. Very laudable, but despite good intentions neither side ended up accepting it. I tell this, because it helps us to understand the end of Gertrud von Le Fort's novel.
  I have already told you that I expected much more from this book. In my opinion without being bad this novel (which it is not) is below other previous works, which I had read to Gertrud von Le Fort. Specifically his wonderful"The last of the cadalso"
  https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1... that will inspire"The dialogue of Carmelites" by Georges Bernanos
  https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/2...
  https://www.goodreads.com/author/show... (in my opinion the epistolary novel, since it is narrated in the form of a letter is far superior to the play of the French writer). Of course it was his duology of Veronica that after long years of searching I finally managed to obtain, and read what led me to think that Gertrud von Le Fort would write the masterpiece, and the best fiction novel of this year. However, without being a failure, we must talk about a relative disappointment, since much more was expected of this novel. Anyway it will not be the last book, that I read to Gertrud von Lefort since I would like to read him"Pope in the Ghetto"
  https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/3... which is about the story of Pier Leoni, and how this person descends from people who professed Judaism he became antipope Anacletus II. So this won't be her last chance, and I hope she lives up to what I expect from her.
  
• 
  Pater Edmund

  Extraordinary and exasperating, beautiful and frustrating; the 30 Years War sub specie aeternitatis.