The memory of the uprising in the Oberland and the Sendlinger Murder Christmas of 1705 has never faded. Every year on Christmas Eve, for example, the “loyal sons of the Oberland” are commemorated at the lion monument in Waakirchen. As early as the 1830s, the dead of the uprising in the Kingdom of Bavaria were glorified as heroes who had sacrificed their lives for “Prince and Fatherland”. Former Prime Minister Edmund Stoiber still stylized the march of the rebels from the Oberland against the Habsburg oppressors as a “symbol of Bavarian self-confidence” 20 years ago.
History studies the events in a more differentiated way, the interpretations of the murderous Christmas change. In essence, it is about the question of whether the insurgents are to be seen as defenders of the homeland or as rebels. Against this background, the uprising of 1705 even touched the German Historians’ Day this time, which ended last Friday in Munich. The event was accompanied by a blog parade in which the Munich archives showed which struggles for interpretation had triggered some of the holdings. In this context, Roland Götz, deputy director of the archive and library of the Archdiocese of Munich and Freising, presented the research situation on Christmas Murder and focused on the parish death books.
The uprising of 1705 resulted from the War of the Spanish Succession, in which the Bavarian Elector Max Emanuel sided with France in vain, because Bavaria perished in the battles that followed against England and Austria. Imperial troops from Vienna occupied Bavaria and tormented the country with high taxes, billeting and forced recruitment. Uprisings soon broke out, and almost 3,000 men gathered in the Oberland. However, due to the inadequate armament, their zeal had little chance of success. The uprising culminated in a catastrophe on Christmas Day 1705: Imperial soldiers slaughtered almost 1,000 Oberlanders in front of the walls of Munich. Several leaders were executed.
As far as the interpretation of the events is concerned, research focuses particularly on the death books, says Götz. There the pastors brought in the dead from their parishes. These books are among the earliest sources to document the bloody event and reactions. A critical view from the church’s point of view would not come as a surprise, according to Götz. The Freising Prince-Bishop Johann Franz Eckher, as an independent imperial prince, had no reason to sympathize with the ambitions of the Bavarian elector. At the request of the imperial administration, on December 23, 1705 – and thus actually too late, as Götz notes – he had ordered in a circular that all pastors should warn their parishioners of a most damaging riot; this contradicts the owed obedience to the authorities and will “inevitably” result in God’s punishment.
Death register with the names of victims of the 1705 uprising.
(Photo: Hans Kratzer)
The sources that Götz evaluated do not paint a uniform picture. Simon Nagl, parish vicar von Reichersbeuern, criticized the rebels in his death book entry: “This year, on December 25th, the people named below ended very unhappily as far as the body was concerned, because they went to war with the imperial soldiers without any spiritual advice went to Sendling. “
In Helfendorf’s death register there is talk of the “rebellious Bavarian farmers” who fell victim to the “murder of the imperial family”. But she also regards beneficiary Michael Bayr as a victim of her own authority: “Most of them did not take up arms voluntarily, but were forced by officials who in turn were seduced by others.”
From Götz’s point of view, a remarkably weighing assessment comes from the pen of Lenggries parish vicar Elias Kaiser: “When the residents were oppressed by tax demands, looting and robbery, farmers – partly out of bitterness, partly out of desperation and at the same time out of love for the fatherland – were closed in droves overthrown by arms, including the peasants in the Oberland near Tölz, Aibling, etc. But fate looked at them with an evil eye; for most of them were cunningly surrounded by the enemy and some were cruelly slaughtered. “
Götz writes that in Waller’s death register the term “fatherland defender” (defensores patriae) is still cited as a distant self-designation for the ringleaders of the uprising. However, Kaiser had already recognized the farmers as a real motivation. The death book of Egern am Tegernsee goes even further, in the parish vicar Alphons Hueber, Benedictine of the Tegernsee Monastery, who, according to Götz, gives by far the most positive assessment of the uprising, which can be found in a death book of the Diocese of Freising. It stands in contrast to the official stance of his monastery, which was confronted with huge punitive demands from the imperial administration for alleged conspiracy. That is why it asserted that it had nothing to do with the matter.
The preliminary remark about the 31 dead in the parish is that in Sendling, “in addition to countless others from our parish Egern, about 30 are for the most just defense of our fatherland (which, oh pain, the imperial ones are almost completely suppressed and exhausted by highly unjust tax claims had) fallen completely innocent and were killed in various ways with barbaric mercilessness “. Pastor Hueber was one of the initiators of a votive picture, with which battle participants thanked Our Lady of Egern for their survival. It contains one of the most famous depictions of the uprising.
Götz also quotes the parish vicar Leonhard Buchberger, who, decades later, in 1786, noted in Gmund’s death book that “in the Battle of Sendling, the Landes-Defension-Army (Landes-Defension-Army) established by the peasantry were murdered three times by the enemy for their prince and fatherland been: From Gmund, Waakirchen and Schaftlach 60. From Egern, Tegernsee and Kreut 49. Summa 109 “. Remarkably early, says Götz, the phrase “for their prince and fatherland” appears here. This anticipates the interpretation of the death of the Sendling victims that has been prevalent since the 19th century. (Additional Information: www.amuc.hypotheses.org).