Böhmische Exulanten in Dittelsdorf

Abstract

Using the example of Dittelsdorf (10 km east of Herrnhut), the article describes the situation in which a village in Saxon Upper Lusatia found itself at the end of the Thirty Years’ War and the significance for such a village of the arrival of religious refugees from Bohemia. Using the available sources, the article investigates the origin, number and composition of the exiles that came to Dittelsdorf. Written evidence of property purchases makes it possible to understand the exiles’ contribution to the rebuilding of the village in the decades after the end of the war and, with the aid of genealogical research, which families stayed in their new place of residence.