1/2 Thaler Centenary of the Reformation

Magdeburg had particular cause to commemorate the Reformation centenary. The city had converted to Lutheranism in 1524 and spent the following decades in protracted legal and military conflict with its own archbishop over control of the see. By 1617, the struggle had been running nearly a century, making this issue something more than civic piety — it was a declaration of confessional identity at a moment when tensions across the Empire were approaching the breaking point. The Thirty Years' War would begin the following year.