Dreißigjährige

Dreißigjährige is a German term that can refer to two main things. As a noun the plural die Dreißigjährigen denotes people who are thirty years old (singular: der Dreißigjährige for a man, die Dreißigjährige for a woman; plural: die Dreißigjährigen). In this sense it is used in demographic or sociological contexts.

More commonly, the term appears in the name of a major historical event: Der Dreißigjährige Krieg, the Thirty Years’ War. This conflict affected much of Central Europe and lasted from 1618 to 1648 within the Holy Roman Empire. It began as a religious and political crisis among German princes and evolved into a broader war involving major European powers, including Sweden, France, and Spain. The war caused extensive destruction, famine, and disease and had a profound demographic and economic impact on the German-speaking regions and beyond.

The conflict ended with the Peace of Westphalia in 1648, which reshaped the political order of Europe. It recognized state sovereignty to a greater extent, redefined territorial boundaries, and contributed to the decline of imperial central authority in the region. The term Dreißigjährige is thus encountered both in genealogical or sociological discussions about people of a certain age and in historical writing about one of Europe’s most consequential wars.