Today’s Germanism in the English language is quite baffling to me: Schwedenschanze (pronounce: ‘shvay-den-shun-tsah, meaning Swedish entrenchment). Even historically, not every bulwark that is called a Schwedenschanze was even built by the Swedish. And as those structures that can be traced back to the Swedish, are all in Central Europe, and the British were pretty much on their own island turf at the same time, the influx of this term is pretty inexplainable. At least to me. But let me delve a bit more deeply.
When we hear entrenchment, most of us probably think of 20th century wars, most notably WW I. But warfare is, unfortunately, as old as mankind, and so are books about the “art of war”. In Europe, we still notice military structures from the Roman Empire. And as the Romans made it up into Germany, there are still remnants of old entrenchments, of the Limes (pronounce: ‘lee-mass, Latin for the Germanic border system with turrets, ditches, and palisades), and military roads. So, to come across a trench anywhere in Germany could mean that it is from the Roman times, from a German medieval fortification, or from – tadah! – the 17th century Swedish army.
What business did the Swedish have in Central Europe back in the day, though? Well, they were one of the parties of the Thirty Years’ War (imagine that length of time with just the very beginning of modern-day arms!). What started as a religious war between the Holy Roman Empire and the followers of the Reformation (think Luther, Calvin, Zwingli), became a war between the pre-eminent powers in Europe over territory, which were Spain, the Netherlands, Austria, and France. Among the French allies were the Swedish, and Germany – torn between Catholicism and Protestantism – was a field of contest. Thus, it became a battlefield for pretty much every nation involved (sometimes de-central is so much healthier), and the remnants the Swedish left in the German geography are Schwedenschanzen. The Swedish are also remembered for the Schwedentrunk (pronounce: ‘shvay-den-troonk, meaning Swedish drink), a torturing method involving the forced ingestion of dung via a funnel in order to extricate secrets and/or loot. But that’s neither here nor there.
Modern tourism still makes some money with the Swedish entrenchments called Schwedenschanze. One is pretty close to my former hometown, Stuttgart, near a Black Forest village called Zuflucht (pronounce approximately: ‘tsoo-flooh-t, meaning refuge). It was probably already derelict by the time the Swedish arrived in Germany – if they ever reached this remote corner. Today, there is a hotel near the hiking destination.
Another Schwedenschanze is in Austria, near the Czech border. Scroll to the second picture at the top on the website, and you get an impression of what it looks like. (The translation is faulty – they mix up entrenchment with the term ski jump, the same German word!!!). What with all the ditches in the Pacific Northwest, we might not even realize that this is historical ground!
But then, are we aware of all the history that is beneath our feet? Wherever we go, we might find remnants of an indigenous culture, arrow heads, carvings, petrographs … History is wherever humans roamed before us.
