page_title: Salzburg Protestants
section_title: Emigration to Prussia
hierarchical_section_title: Salzburg Protestants / Final expulsion in 1731 / Emigration to Prussia
caption_attribution_description: Welcome of the Salzburg emigrees in Prussia
context_page_description: The Salzburg Protestants were Protestant refugees who had lived in the Catholic Archbishopric of Salzburg until the 18th century. In a series of persecutions ending in 1731, over 20,000 Protestants were expelled from their homeland by the Prince-Archbishops. Their expulsion from Salzburg triggered protests from the Protestant states within the Holy Roman Empire and criticism across the rest of the Protestant world, and the King in Prussia offered to resettle them in his territory. The majority of the Salzburg Protestants accepted the Prussian offer and traveled the length of Germany to reach their new homes in Prussian Lithuania. The rest scattered to other Protestant states in Europe and the British colonies in America.
context_section_description: King Frederick William I in Prussia saw an opportunity to resettle the Salzburg Protestants in his East Prussian territories, which had been depopulated by an outbreak of plague some years before. On February 2, 1732, the King issued a Patent of Invitation, declaring the Salzburg Protestants to be Prussian subjects traveling under his protection. Prussian commissioners were sent to Salzburg to arrange for transportation. Upon arrival in Prussia, the Salzburgers would be given free land, supplies, and a period of tax exemption, as laid out in the 1724 proclamation of colonization. However, the Patent did not mention the three-year grace period, as the king wished to complete the population transfer as quickly as possible. Anticipating the arrival of the Salzburgers, Frederick William expelled Mennonites already living in the area who refused military service. The king also threatened to retaliate against Catholics living in Prussia if the Salzburgers were mistreated.
  Emperor Charles VI, who needed the support of the Protestant states to secure the Austrian succession, wrote a personal letter to von Firmian, asking him to comply with the Peace of Augsburg by allowing the Protestants to leave under reasonable terms and even to remain for three years if they wished. Diplomatic pressure was also exerted on the Habsburg emperor by the Netherlands and Great Britain. However, the British were reluctant to press too hard, lest the Austrians respond by demanding better treatment for Catholics in Ireland.
  Between April and August 1732, over 20,000 Protestants left Salzburg for Prussia, traveling in twenty-six columns of about 800 emigrants each. The Salzburg Protestants were assessed an emigration tax of 10% of their belongings, which they paid upon departure. Among these assets was about 800,000 Prussian thalers in cash. The emigrants were received by Prussian commissioners, who supplied them with travel money. The migration became a spectacle in the Protestant towns of Germany, whose residents plied the Salzburgers with food and money as they passed through. Several hundred Salzburgers died in the trek across Germany.
  The first Salzburg Protestants reached Königsberg on May 28, 1732. About 16,000 to 17,000 arrived in East Prussia, where they were settled in the Lithuania Minor region, mainly in the area of Gumbinnen (present-day Gusev, Kaliningrad Oblast). King Frederick William I personally greeted the first group of immigrants and sang Protestant hymns with them.
caption: King Friedrich Wilhelm I welcoming the Salzburgers to Prussia
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