Remembering Fear. The Fear of Violence and the Violence of Fear in Seventeenth-Century War Memories

Chapter fourteen remembering fear.the fear of violenCe and the violenCe of fear in seventeenth-Century war memories andreas bähr i in the summer of 1634 murdering and plundering swedish troops threatened the Catholic dominican convent Zum Heiligen Grab near bamberg.on 19 august, however, as we learn from the nun maria anna Junius, 'the swedish military that had been deployed across this area moved on in great haste and fear to schweinfurt'.the chronicler was amazed by this sudden decampment, 'since at that time, not a single one of the emperor's soldiers was around'.she could explain these happenings only as an act of god: 'i believe, our lord has struck them with fear and driven them away'.1 let us now move to vienna, 1683.for two months, the city had been 'frightened' by the 'turks'.2yet contemporary observers recount how, when the allied relief troops arrived at vienna, the ottoman forces, who had been so terrifying before, suddenly took fright and fled from their positions.again, the victors felt 'astonishment'; the enemy had taken flight even though its military situation had been far from precarious.authors could explain this behaviour only as the result of divine intervention.according to numerous broadsheets and eyewitness accounts, god had 'put a hare into the turks' breast' and fear into their heart; he had 'struck' them with a 'blindness' that not only prevented people from recognising 1 maria anna Junius, 'verzeignuß', published in 'bamberg im schweden-Kriege', ed

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  Susan Broomhall•Colonial Latin American Review•2022

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