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Christian Saalmann was baptized in the Lutheran Evangelical Reformed church as Reinhard
Gottfried Christian Saalmann, in the village of
Hoym, Anhalt-Sachsen (Saxony) ,
located in what is today, northeastern Germany. Hoym had been the capital of the
principality of Anhalt-Bernburg-Schaumburg-Hoym, a State in the Holy Roman Empire
from 1718 - 1812. Control had been passed from one Prince to another until Francis
II, the last Emperor, abdicated and dissolved the Empire in 1806 during the Napoleonic
Wars.
Democratic forces and popular liberalism gathered strength against the Royals and
fomented uprisings all across Europe. In 1848, a wave of revolution spread from
France to Germany to Poland and Hungary; social upheaval rocked societies.
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As Christian came of age in the late 1840's, battles were fought between German
duchies, Prussia, the German Confederation and Denmark for power and control, while
crop failures and epidemics led to further chaos, suffering and death.
In Dresden, the capital of the Kingdom of Saxony, the people took to the streets
asking King Frederick Augustus II to engage in electoral reform and social justice.
Frederick responded in 1849 by inviting Prussian troops to enter Saxony, to bolster
his forces and enforce his opposition to the implemention of a constitution.
Christian was twenty years old and liable for conscription into the Prussian Army.
The German States saw a sharp rise in emigration as tens of thousands fled
their homelands for safer, more beneficial shores.Next »
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