1 Mariengroschen - Frederick Ulrich

Frederick Ulrich's reign over Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel was defined by the catastrophic passage of the Thirty Years' War through Lower Saxony. Imperial and then Swedish armies occupied, looted, and re-occupied the duchy repeatedly across this period, and the small silver Mariengroschen coinage bore the brunt of a monetary system under sustained military stress. The Kipper und Wipper crisis of 1619–1622 had already debased regional coinage across the Holy Roman Empire before this type was struck, making even modest silver issues relatively sound by contemporary standards.

Frederick Ulrich died in 1634 without a legitimate heir, ending the Wolfenbüttel line and triggering a succession dispute that restructured the Brunswick duchies entirely.