On October 24, 2023, the Westphalian Peace Treaty of 1648 – the first international peace congress in modern Europe – celebrates its 375th anniversary. To mark the occasion, the LWL Medienzentrum für Westfalen, with the support of the LWL-Kulturstiftung and the Stiftung Westfalen-Initiative, has produced an animated film that will be released on YouTube on the anniversary date. The short film “Pax Westphalica” places the historical events in the time of the Thirty Years‘ War, but focuses primarily on the peace negotiations, during which the hostilities continued unabated.

The animated film tells the historical events in a vivid and fast-paced way in a running time of around six minutes and thus provides access to the topic. “Pax Westphalica” focuses on the warring parties involved, disputes during the negotiations and the absolute need for a peace agreement. However, the film also juxtaposes the difficult peace negotiations with the suffering of the civilian population through the fictional protagonist Anna. It also highlights the significance of the Peace of Westphalia for the history of Europe: after the bloody turmoil of the Thirty Years‘ War, which began in 1618 as a religious war and developed into a territorial war, it was the first international congress at which almost all European powers were represented.