Edict of Potsdam

The Edict of Potsdam, also called Edict of Potsdam, was an edict of toleration, on 29 Oktoberjul. / November 8 1685greg. was adopted by the Great Elector Friedrich Wilhelm of Brandenburg. The Elector - in contrast to the Lutheran majority of Brandenburg itself Calvinist faith - offered his persecuted in France because of their religion Protestant co-religionists, the Huguenots, and safe office in Brandenburg. The refugees were granted, including exemption from taxes and customs duties, subsidies to business enterprises and payment of the pastor by the Principality of generous privileges.

Background of the edict was the revival of persecution of the Huguenots in France after the revocation of the Edict of Nantes tolerance by the Edict of Fontainebleau, which the French king Louis XIV had issued on 18 October 1685. The Edict of Potsdam came into being then under the theologian Jacques Abbadie decisive participation.

About 20,000 people responded to the offer of Brandenburg. The Edict of Potsdam was a major help to revive the economy of the destroyed in the Thirty Years' War, Brandenburg, and thus laid the foundation for the strengthening of Brandenburg-Prussia. Due to the Huguenots who settled in Berlin, the population grew by a third.

As with the inclusion of the expelled Jews from Austria in 1671 hoped Frederick William an economic boom suffering of the immigrants in the consequences of the Thirty Years' War, Brandenburg. This hope was fulfilled. The Huguenots in Brandenburg brought the state both an economic and spiritual recovery. Thus, in Berlin, the French school was already opened in 1689, the immigrants and established residents allowed a hitherto offered extensive training. Berlin became acting across a center of literature within Brandenburg -Prussia and across state lines.

At the recording of Huguenot refugees by Friedrich Wilhelm recalls a relief at the Geneva Reformation Wall.