Heinrich von Buenau

The Miracle of Vienna

In 1529 the Ottoman army had camped off Vienna and the city threatened to be conquered. With the fall of the Habsburg capital, the way to the Rhine would have been clear.
    That this did not happen is due to a strange circumstance. There was an unusual onset of winter with snowfall for the season (October), for which the Ottomans were not equipped. And so they withdrew without having achieved anything. What the Viennese regarded as an act of God and held corresponding thanksgiving services.


When the Ottomans reappeared at the gates of Vienna in 1683, they were surprised to discover that the Viennese had not remained inactive in the meantime and had developed their city into an almost impregnable fortress.
    But they didn't want to take things off again and so they started digging underground tunnels with the idea of blowing them up from there. When the Viennese got wind of this, they also began to dig tunnels to counter the danger. Which ended in a real showdown. The breakthrough into the Ottoman tunnel came just as the fuse was already laid on a huge explosive charge. At the last moment, the men succeeded in extinguishing it and averting a catastrophe.
   Things finally turned out well for the Viennese and the Christian Occident. A courier was secretly sent out with an urgent request for help and the Lorraine and Polish people, who had hitherto been passive, decided to rush to help the troubled Viennese. The attack of the Polish hordes of horsemen hit the safe Ottomans so unprepared that they were almost destroyed. And they didn't try again after that.

   Also this time many thanksgiving services were held, because the second salvation of Vienna was regarded as a renewed act of God. As a miracle, that speaks for itself. If the tunnel had been breached just a few seconds later, the story would have taken a completely different course.

All rights belong to its author. It was published on e-Stories.org by demand of Heinrich von Buenau.
Published on e-Stories.org on 07/21/2018.

 
 

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