"When the father is a papist, he takes his sons to mass, the mother takes her daughters to church. There is no real love, or they think little of religion..."

Religiously mixed marriages in the early modern period (17th/18th century) were undesirable from the point of view of the authorities, churches and families, but they could rarely be prevented. Conflicts over religious freedom and conversion, the scope of paternal authority and the religious upbringing of children seemed inevitable and presented married couples and families with major challenges.

Using the example of mixed marriages, pupils are given a direct insight into the tense network of relationships between everyday culture across religions and gender relations, official denominational policy, freedom of faith and compulsion of conscience. Starting from the experiential space of the family, the religious conflicts of the early modern period become tangible from a completely new perspective.

In this workshop, students work with various sources that provide insight into the dynamics of religious conflicts in families whose members belonged to different religions. Central to this are questions of religious and denominational identity and religious practices in everyday life. What fuelled the conflicts in mixed marriages? What role did the family and social environment play? How did the state and church react? Under what conditions could such religiously mixed marriages function? By analysing court records, witness statements, complaints and laws, pupils can understand the complex requirements of mixed marriages in everyday life. They also gain an impression of how early modern society reacted to religious conflicts and how the conditions for peaceful religious coexistence were constantly renegotiated.