Station: [14] Reception Edicts for Huguenots in Germany

Outside France, the rulers of Protestant countries were keeping close watch on the Huguenots' dire situation – and not just for reasons of charity. 
The Huguenots were seen as educated and hard-working. In Germany, the rulers hoped for an influx of well-trained artisans and soldiers, successful merchants, scientists and industrialists. Besides, many places needed hard workers to restore tracts of land that had fallen into disuse and once again make them productive. 
In Germany, electors and counts publicised numerous new edicts to attract the recent arrivals with generous privileges. These decrees provided the Huguenot refugees with guarantees of gratuitous civil rights, guild rights, their own courts and the right to freely practise their religion. 
There were also pledges of material and financial aid to enable the refugees to set up new businesses, and the farmers who had fled were to be given meadows and fields to cultivate without charge. 

The many privileges to be granted upon reception were printed on leaflets and secretly distributed in France. Informants were also dispatched to recruit Protestant merchants and industrialists.
Roughly 40,000 Huguenots followed the call to migrate to the German principalities. Around half travelled to Brandenburg-Prussia, the rest dispersed across other Protestant German territories. Some 3,800 religious refugees made their way here to the Landgraviate of Hessen-Kassel.
Their arrival didn't always proceed smoothly. Some local people resented the many privileges enjoyed by the French refugees. They felt disadvantaged, and German artisans were worried about the competition. In some places, violent clashes broke out as a result. When three houses overlooking the marketplace in Magdeburg went up in flames, the crowd yelled "Let the French burn!" as the fire brigade approached. 

Foto: © DHG