"… und ist der jammer nit zu beschreiben": Geschlechterbeziehungen und Überlebensstrategien in der Lagergesellschaft des Dreißigjährigen Krieges

This book chapter on "Gender Relations and Survival Strategies in the Camp Society of the Thirty Years' War" (1618-1648) in the edited volume Landsknechte, Soldatenfrauen und Nationalkrieger: Militär, Krieg und Geschlechterordnung im historischen Wandel (Lansquenets, Soldiers' Wives and National Warriors: Military, War and Gender Order in Historical Change) explores the social conditions and survival strategies of mercenaries and their female partners in the armies of the Thirty Years' War. It shows that their partnership was a crucial precondition for their suvival. Women formed a large part of the baggage train of the armies of this conflict, which often reached a size that matched the armies themselves. Pillaging was part of the economy of survival of the soldiers couple, which of course had dramatic consequences for the civilians in the cities and the countryside and was related to violence of all kinds.