Schmalkalden
Schmalkalden names 2 different subjects across the 6 encyclopedias on this shelf. Each is set out below.
Schmalkalden LEAGUE OF, a defensive alliance concluded at Schmalkalden
Collier's New Encyclopedia (1921)
LEAGUE OF, a defensive alliance concluded at Schmalkalden, April 4, 1531, between nine Protestant princes and 11 imperial cities, with whom other princes and imperial cities subsequently made common cause. The Elector of Saxony and the Landgrave of Hesse were appointed chiefs of the league. The object of this formidable alliance, which included nearly all the Protestant States from Denmark to Switzerland, was the common defense of the religion and political freedom of the Protestants against the Emperor Charles V. and the Catholic states. The confederation was consolidated by the "Articles of Schmalkalden," drawn up by Luther at Wittenberg in 1536. A conflict was of course inevitable. In the war of Schmalkalden that ensued (1546), when the emperor got leisure to turn his attention to the matter, the strength of the Protestants was crippled and dissipated by jealousies, but especially by the defection of Duke Maurice of Saxony, so that in the battle of Mühlberg (April 24, 1547) the Elector of Saxony (the head of the elder branch of the Saxon house, Duke Maurice being the head of the younger branch), Philip of Hesse, and other Protestant chiefs were taken prisoners and their army routed. This caused the league to break up. The Protestant cause was, however, revived five years later by Duke Maurice, who had in the meantime been made elector instead of his unfortunate kinsman, and who, in 1552, returned to his old allegiance to Luther's teaching
Schmalkalden an old town of Hesse-Nassau
Collier's New Encyclopedia (1921)
an old town of Hesse-Nassau, Prussia; 19 miles S. W. of Gotha; surrounded with double walls; contains a castle, a town hall, in which the historic "articles" were signed; and carries on iron mining and hardware manufactures. It is the birthplace of Karl Wilhelm (1815-1873), composer of the music of "The Watch on the Rhine." SCHNEIDEMÜHL, a town in Prussia, Germany. It is situated in the province of Posen, 153 miles by railway N. E. of Berlin. It is a well-built town, with some interesting churches, a seminary for priests, hospitals and deaf and dumb asylum. The industries include glassmaking. Pop. about 27,500.
What Has Changed in the Last Century
Collier's placed Schmalkalden in the Prussian province of Hesse-Nassau in 1921; that province was dissolved in 1944, and after 1945 the town fell on the Soviet side of the line, becoming part of East Germany. From 1952 to 1990 it sat in the Bezirk Suhl of the GDR, and since reunification it has been in the German state of Thuringia, seat of the Schmalkalden-Meiningen district since 1994. The iron and hardware trades the article describes have largely given way to other work, and the town now hosts a university of applied sciences founded in 1991. The historical account of the League, its 1531 founding and the rout at Muehlberg in 1547, still stands as written; Luther's Schmalkald Articles of 1536 remain a confessional document of the Lutheran churches.
Written for this edition, 2026.