Evangelikų ištrėmimas iš Zalcburgo ir jų priėmimas bei apgyvendinimas Prūsijoje

LTDar XVIII a. Zalcburgo arkivyskupas Firmianas savo įtakos zonoje siekė įtvirtinti kontrreformaciją. Nesulaukęs valstiečių paramos, 1731-1732 m. jis maždaug 20 000 vietos gyventojų jėga privertė palikti Zalcburgo arkivyskupiją. Pirmiausia tai užprotestavo Imperijos evangeliškieji luomai. Tuomet Prūsijos karalius Frydrichas Vilhelmas I pakvietė iš tėvynės išvarytus zalcburgiečius atvykti į jo karalystę. Apie 16 000 išvarytųjų kvietimą priėmė ir, stebint visuomenei, per Berlyną atvyko į vėliau Rytų Prūsija pavadintą kraštą. XVIII a. pr. dėl bado ir ypač Didžiojo maro buvusi Prūsijos hercogystė neteko maždaug trečdalio gyventojų, o ypač nukentėjo rytinė šalies dalis. Karaliui Frydrichui Vilhelmui I, vykdančiam šalies ištuštėjusių teritorijų apgyvendinimo programą, galimybė priimti tėvynės netekusius zalcburgiečius buvo tarsi Dievo dovana. Apgyvendinti jų atskirais kaimais - ypač šalies šiaurės rytuose - galimybės nebebuvo, todėl jie įkurdinti šalia kitų, anksčiau atvykusių, kolonistų. Organizaciniu požiūriu jie vis dėlto sudarė koloniją („Colonie“), kurioje dar ilgai buvo puoselėjamas bendruomeniškumo jausmas, kol XIX a. pab. jų palikuonys asimiliavosi su vietiniais gyventojais, perimdami ir jų tarmę.

ENFrom the beginning of the Reformation to the 18th c, the peasants of the Evangelical Lutheran faith, especially those who lived in the mountainous region of the Archdiocese of Salzburg, managed to resist the persecution of their rulers of the Roman Catholic faith, i.e. Salzburg Archbishops. However, Firmian, who became the new Archbishop in 1727, started implementing his ambition to introduce counter-Reformation in his area at any cost. All the missions of his or his associates or their attempts to make the peasants change their minds failed. The news of the Evangelical persecution spread throughout the Empire and even lead to the dissatisfaction of the Emperor of the Catholic faith, as he depended on the favour of the Evangelical stratum of the country. The Archbishop started the deportation of the Evangelicals from the country. In the late autumn of 1731, over 4,000 of the "non-established", i.e. people who did not own land, were forced to leave their own country, even though they had no idea where to go. Another approximately 16,000 peasants were given somewhat more time to try to sell their farms. In most cases, they managed to do that a bit later, with the help of the Prussian state. The said measures of the Archbishop of Salzburg in the Empire primarily caused the protests of its Evangelical strata. As early as in February of 1732, when the landless had left the country, King Friedrich Wilhelm I sent the invitations to the deportees to come to his kingdom. At the time, nobody in Berlin knew how many people would accept the invitation. Even after several months, no restrictions were imposed, and all the peasants, including those who left the country for the reasons of faith later, were accepted.Eventually, as many as 16,000 people, observed by the public and led by the King's representative, travelled via Berlin to the prospective East Prussia. The land, the former Duchy of Prussia, in the 18th с had lost one third of the population due to the famine and especially the Great Plague that had stricken the eastern part of the country especially hard. For King Friedrich Wilhelm I, who was implementing the programme of repopulation of the deserted areas of his country, the opportunity to accomodate the Salzburgers deprived of their homeland was like a gift from God. It was impossible any more to accomodate them in individual villages, especially in the north-eastern part of the country, therefore, they were accomodated in the neighbourhood of other earlier arrived colonists. The examples of several villages in the parish of Tollmingkehmen illustrate the accomodation of Salzburger families next to other peasants and the settling down of the majority of them. Although there was no possibility to accomodate the immigrants from Salzburg in groups, in terms of organization, they still formed a colony in which they cherished the sense of unity and community for a long time, until their descendants turned into East Prussians in the late 19th с and adopted the dialect of the local population.