The atrocities of the Thirty Years’ War (1618-1648) had long and deeply engraved on the memories of the following generations through tradition. Dr. Elmar Weiß points in his book ?? Wenkheim ?? A Franconian village in the course of its history? point out that although the files relating to the village of Wenkheim are very sketchy, the few documents are sufficient to get an idea of what happened there. It was not until the horrors of World War 1 and 2 that this knowledge faded. The war, which began as a religious war and later expanded into a struggle for power by several major European powers, resulted in constant attacks, arson, murder and manslaughter, combined with diseases, epidemics and famine, which affected the Welzbachtal.
Numerous troop passes
At the beginning of the 1720s, there were numerous military movements, initially by Spanish and Frankish soldiers, and looting was the order of the day. Requests for damages with the evangelical rule in Wertheim remained unsuccessful or even worsened the already unfortunate situation. To make matters worse in Wenkheim was the fact that the local rights between the Löwenstein rule in Wertheim and the prince-bishops in Würzburg were not clearly clarified. The majority of the Wenkheimers were Protestant, but the Catholics in the minority had numerous ecclesiastical properties.
When the Protestant Swedes under King Gustav II Adolf entered the war at the end of 1631, the evangelical residents drew hope. But at first things turned out differently. The Swedes occupied Würzburg, but at the same time the imperial Catholic army, led by their general Tilly, moved into the Taubertal. Troops were also quartered in Wenkheim and Brunntal. In the old writings it is stated that four regiments of Count Piccolomini also caused great damage in the fields.
Decimated by the plague
Fortunately, the troops did not meet face to face. The superior Swedes did not know that the imperial troops were now very decimated by the plague and other diseases. Tilly and his troops withdrew to Bavaria in the direction of Rothenburg oT because of his recognized weakness.
According to an existing document, Dr. Elmar Weiss in the Wenkheimer Buch, the Swedes who moved to Wenkheim would have done badly there, and part of the village was also sacked. It is also reported that the Swedes are said to have behaved badly later on. The slightest evil was that they were having a good time in the rectory at the Pfarrwein. The rectory was in a sorry state. A Jewish fellow citizen of Wenkheim is from Swedish baggage servants. was stabbed at Tauberbischofsheim.
Growing brutality
The Swedish phase of the war continues to be characterized by increasing brutality by the Soldateska, including the German troops allied with the Swedes. No consideration was given to the respective denomination. In a report by Friedrich Appel from July 1632, it says that the soldiers live pretty badly every day, drive away cattle, beat people, drag away everything useful, hack windows and tables.
The Swedes set up camp in Gewann on the hill after Neubrunn in 1631. In 1634 they withdrew again. The Wenkheimers then experienced more troops moving through and billeting. Even after the Peace of Westphalia in 1648, there was no end to this. In 1673, the French General Turrenne passed through the area and shelled Wenkheim Castle, which then burned down.
After the Swedish camp in the direction of Neubrunn was closed, the Wenkheim farmers started plowing the fields there again. A lot of rubbish came to light, including horseshoes or parts of them. Some horseshoes were taken home and kept. When, following the land consolidation in 1959, the cultivated areas became larger and tractors were equipped with plows that went deeper into the ground, surprisingly more horseshoes and other tools of war came to light again. The farrier Gerhard Fertig, born in 1925, hung up some of it in his workshop and even wrote it on it.
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