Does someone outside Europe know the french cartoons of Uderzo & Goscinny, "Asterix und Obelix"? -
(yes we know - Americans are sometimes (in most cases) strangely unaware of European culture)
.. there was a little single village in the north-west of Gallia (France) that resisted the Roman Empire & could never be conquered, as long as Asterix & Obelix lived & as long as Miraculix, the Druid stirred the strange magic brew, that made the village Gallians under Majestix invulnerable..
No - I don't want to talk about this cartoon! - But also here in Germany & in real life there is one little town, called Augsburg, that has one public holiday more than the rest of the country. Augsburg is situated in Bavaria (the southern part of Germany, that had once been an independent own monarchie with own kings (like King Ludwig, who built 'Neu Schwanstein') in contrary to the northern Prussia). - Bavaria is especially in the south very catholic & so has anyway more legal (catholic) holidays than the northern states of Germany. But Augsburg in Bavaria has still one more - since about 350 years!
During the Religion wars that raged in Germany in the 17th century for 30 long years, after Luther wrote his theses & the split to rome-ruled catholicism was born with the evangelistic branch of Christendom, where Adolf the Swede & some German Sovereigns fought against the Romish allies like France & some other German Sovereigns - after these 30 years all the country lay wasted & destructed & the catholic & the evangelic side made peace - but it was in peace between Sovereigns. Who cared about the beliefs of the subjects.
So it was agreed upon, that every Sovereign could choose freely his religious confession. That was a mighty progress in that time, but naturally eluded the free will of the subjects. - They had to believe, what their Sovereign believed. - A lot of migration of the 'other confessionist' followed - even the ancestors of my own grandma were refugees caused by their evangelic confession from catholic Austria.
But one single town in all the tohuwabohu of the confession war assignments, made an agreement in the contract of the 'Westfälischer Frieden" in the year 1648, that everybody in Augsburg could have his own confession. So it was the only town in Germany & probably Europe of that time, where people could have their own religion without being percesuted.
And this holiday is since that called Friedens-Fest (feast of peace) - but only in Augsburg.
