Capitulation of Wittenberg

The Wittenberg surrender, on May 19, 1547 ended the Smalcald War, which was decided at the Battle of Miihlberg of 24 April 1547. It was signed in the imperial camp Charles V near the electoral Vorwerk Bleesern before Wittenberg. As a result, the Albertine line of the Wettin family received the Saxon Electorate of the Ernestinians. The areas around Wittenberg Zwickau and also went over to the Albertine line.

In the Smalcald War sat the Catholic Emperor Charles V., allied with the Protestant Duke Moritz of Saxony, among other things, against the Saxon Elector John Frederick I, who had to approve the permanent transfer of the Saxon Elector in the Albertine. Frederick of Saxony had to cede his territories east of the Saale to Moritz.

Moritz was able to use the income of the Saxon Electorate and the territorial expansion of its sphere of influence politically. Together with other opposition German princes and in alliance with the French king Henry II and Ferdinand, the brother of the emperor, he managed to bring the Emperor Charles V in 1552 to the signing of the Treaty of Passau. Thus Protestantism was formally recognized in Germany, even if the Emperor is not intended to keep the contract.

The Wittenberg surrender the territorial circumcision of Ernestine territories on the small states west of the Saale was an important starting point for the shape of the present-day state of Thuringia.