Frankenburg Dice Game

The Frankenburg Dice Game (in German: Frankenburger Würfelspiel) in 1625 was the prelude to the Upper Austrian Peasants' War and took place against the historical background of the Counter-Reformation. The event took place in Haushamerfeld in Pfaffing, which at that time belonged to the county of Frankenburg. The name "dice game" originated in the 19th century. The dice in the local coat of arms Pfaffing symbolise this event.[1]

History
Memorial stone at the scene of the Frankenburg dice game

In 1620, at the beginning of the Thirty Years' War, Upper Austria was pledged by the Habsburgs to the Bavarian Duke Maximilian I for lack of its own financial resources for the war coffers. In the period that followed, Maximilian sent numerous tax officials as well as Catholic clergymen to Upper Austria to enforce the Counter-Reformation in accordance with the legal principle Cuius regio, eius religio.[2] When a Catholic priest was to be appointed in the Protestant parish of Frankenburg in May 1625, there was an armed uprising. The parish priest was chased away and the county's keeper was besieged in Frankenburg Castle. After being promised mercy, the rebels gave up the siege.

The Bavarian governor in the region above the Enns, Count Adam von Herberstorff, also promised mercy when he summoned all the male inhabitants of the county to Haushamerfeld, situated between Frankenburg and Vöcklamarkt, on 15 May to hold court over the rebels. A total of about 5,000 men were rounded up there, among them the 36 suspected ringleaders of the Frankenburg uprising. These were shielded by Bavarian soldiers and told by Herberstorff that they were sentenced to death. Herberstorff, however, had half of them "pardoned", for which he had the 36 concerned thrown dice for their lives in pairs.[1][3][4] 16 losers of the ensuing dice game were hanged, and two other losers were pardoned. A dying helper was later caught and also hanged so that a total of 17 men were judged.

This drastic punitive action did not have the effect Herberstorff had hoped for, but became the trigger for a carefully planned peasant uprising in Upper Austria that broke out in May 1626.[5][6]

Monument at the placed of the Frankenburg dice game

Cultural significance

Theatre play
  • Since 1925, this dramatic event has been re-enacted in a two-year cycle by over 400 amateur actors - among them numerous descendants of those convicted at the time. It has become one of the cultural and touristic attractions of Frankenburg am Hausruck market town.[7][8][9]
  • Commissioned by Joseph Goebbels, Eberhard Wolfgang Möller wrote the Frankenburg Dice Game, which premiered in 1936 as part of the programme accompanying the 1936 Summer Olympics. This Berlin "dice game", however, has nothing in common with the Frankenburg play except for the historical background.[10]

In fiction

Karl Itzinger: Das Blutgericht am Haushamerfeld. Das Blutgericht am Haushamerfeld. Aus der Leidens- und Heldenzeit des Landes ob der Enns. Novel, Leopold Stocker Verlag, Graz/Leipzig 1933. First published under the title Der Bauerntod. Heimatverlag Stocker, Graz 1925.

In literature
  • Georg Heilingsetzer: 1626. Der oberösterreichische Bauernkrieg. Oberösterreichische Heimatblätter. Sonderpublikation 2001, Linz 2001.
  • Hannes Leidinger: Geschichte der Erinnerung. Zur Rezeption des oberösterreichischen Bauernkriegs. In: Karl Vocelka, Rudolf Leeb, Andrea Scheichl (Hrsg.): Renaissance und Reformation, OÖ. Landesausstellung 2010. Linz 2010, S. 341–346.
  • Franz Isidor Proschko: Streifzüge im Gebiethe der Geschichte und Sage des Landes ob der Enns. In: Jahrbuch des Oberösterreichischen Musealvereines. Jahrgang 14, Linz 1854, S. 1–10 (gesamter Artikel S. 1–116, zobodat.at PDF).
  • Siegfried Haider: Die dunklen Seiten unserer Geschichte. In: Jahrbuch des Oberösterreichischen Musealvereines. Jahrgang 160, Linz 2015, S. 199–200

In cinema

Alfred Jungraithmayr: Frankenburger Würfelspiel. Dokumentarfilm. 98 Minuten. Deutschland 1988.

Sources
  1. "Wappen". Pfaffing (in Austrian German). Retrieved 2022-07-06.
  2. "The Frankenburg Dice Game | beyondarts App". beyondarts.at. Retrieved 2022-07-06.
  3. "Das Blutgericht von Frankenburg / Frankenburg Dice Game, hanged people. Verein Freie Schule Nr. 7. Im Zeichen der Religion s: E. Kutzer". www.mutargy.com. Retrieved 2022-07-06.
  4. "Höcknerhof in Frankenburg, Salzkammergut Region". www.farmholidays.com. Retrieved 2022-07-06.
  5. "WHKMLA : Upper Austria : Peasants' War, 1625-1626". www.zum.de. Retrieved 2022-07-06.
  6. "Einleitung - Forum OÖ Geschichte". www.ooegeschichte.at. Retrieved 2022-07-06.
  7. "Frankenburger Würfelspiel". www.aeiou.at. Retrieved 2022-07-06.
  8. "Frankenburger Würfelspiel". Austria-Forum (in German). Retrieved 2022-07-06.
  9. "Tour through the Hausruck". www.wels.at (in German). Retrieved 2022-07-06.
  10. London, John (2009). "The Swastika and the Stage: German Theatre and Society, 1933-1945 (review)". Comparative Drama. 43 (4): 524–528. doi:10.1353/cdr.0.0081. JSTOR 23038009. S2CID 191541431. Gale A218878434 Project MUSE 368881 ProQuest 211708419.
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