Edict of Potsdam

Timeline

1. 1685Potsdam · BrandenburgAfter news of Louis XIV's revocation of the Edict of Nantes reached Brandenburg, the Great Elector Frederick William decided to issue a public edict inviting French refugees of the same Reformed faith, both to express religious solidarity and to replenish his war-ravaged lands with peasants, craftsmen, and officers.
2. 1685Potsdam, the elector's residence · PotsdamFrederick William issued the edict at Potsdam, promising French Reformed believers assistance along the journey, permission to settle, tax exemptions for a number of years, guild and occupational access, and the right to worship according to Reformed rites. These privileges did not extend to French Catholics.
3. 1685–1688Berlin and Magdeburg area · BrandenburgAbout twenty thousand Huguenots accepted the invitation and entered Brandenburg-Prussia, forming French-language chapels and artisan settlements in Berlin, Magdeburg, and elsewhere, bringing textile and luxury craftsmanship and military talent, becoming an important source of population for the reconstruction of the Hohenzollern lands.
4. 1688–1800Brandenburg-Prussia · BrandenburgSuccessive Hohenzollern rulers continued to confirm Huguenot privileges, and French-language chapels and textile workshops persisted in Berlin and elsewhere for a long time. By the late eighteenth century, most descendants of the refugees had Germanized and entered the officer corps and bureaucracy, and the edict as a special recruitment law was absorbed into the kingdom's general subject law.