Almost 500 years ago, the Schmalkaldic religious war raged between Catholics and Protestants in southern and Central Germany. At Lauingen in Bavaria, archaeologists have now discovered graves from the Danube camp of Emperor Karl V against the Schmalkaldische Bund for the first time, which confirmed the course documented in a painting of this war. Coins from the graves also correctly date the event into the 16th century.
In the so-called Schmalkaldic War, the Roman Catholic Emperor Karl V. between 1546 and 1547 in southern and Central Germany fought against the Schmalkaldische Bund- an alliance of Protestant sovereigns and cities in the Holy Roman Empire, led by the Saxon Elector Johann Friedrich and the Hessian landgrave Philipp. The imperial campaign along the former Donau-Nord-Straße through the area occupied by the Schmalkaldenern took place in 1546. The army of the Habsburg emperor was initially inferior, but was then reinforced in September 1546 by troops from the general Maximilian von Egmond on the side of the Habsburg house. As a result, they managed to recapture the Bavarian areas and cities occupied by the Protestants relatively quickly.
Bones and grave inserts indicate imperial soldiers
In October 1946, the Catholic army near Lauingen was said to have been stationed in today’s Bavaria, where the city recaptured it on October 13th. It represents the painting “Army camp of Karl V near Lauingen”, which was painted by Matthias Gerung in 1551 and is owned by the city of Lauingen. The picture shows the moment when the city council had to pay homage to the emperor in his army camp. Now archaeologists from the Bavarian State Office for the Preservation of Monuments (BLFD) have found evidence of this army camp for the first time. To the east of Lauingen they found five graves from the emperor’s army camp in 2024.
Analyzes of the bones showed that the dead were young men. Changes to their shin bones indicate a strong overload of the legs – possibly an indication of the historically documented long marches of the imperial troops. Accordingly, the bones probably come from the Catholic soldiers. In addition, there were four small silver coins in the graves and the closure of a boot with hooks and eyelets. This boot is also shown on the painting of Gerung. The coins date from the 16th century, as could be found on the basis of the embossing.
Evidence for the place and time of the Danube train
Usually there are no coins or remains of shoes in graves from this time, as the state office explains. But the rare finds from Lauingen now allow both a dating and localization of events in the Schmalkaldian war. “The age of the coins suggests that the burials are directly related to the short period of the Schmalkaldic War between October and November 1546,” says Johann Friedrich Tolksdorf from the BLFD.
Source: Bavarian State Office for the Preservation of Monuments (BLFD)