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 ociety in the late Middle Ages was increasingly challenged by the emerging forces of mercantilism and commercial capitalism. The authority of the church was being eroded, and its abuse of privilege and power was a focus of much discontent. For many it seemed that the church had departed from the early spirit and ideals of Christianity.
Criticism of the late medieval church was often aimed at Monastic Establishments: A monk and his mistress are held in stocks for passersby to jeer at.
People began seeking outside of the traditional church for new ways to live a more pious Christian life.
In 1517 Martin Luther posted his Ninety-Five Theses on a church door in Wittenberg, confronting the Church with its corruption in respect to the Doctrine of Indulgences. With this act he unleashed the forces of the Reformation, the Counter Reformation, the triumph of Protestantism in Northern Europe, and an era of unprecedented religious and political turmoil that were to bring an end to the Middle Ages. The bloody Wars of Religion were to last almost 100 years, ending finally in Germany with the Thirty Years War. Concluded with the Peace of Westphalia signed in Muenster in 1648, this devastating war had taken countless lives and caused untold suffering. It also acted as a powerful stimulus for modernization and the creation of the absolutist state.
Detail from a painting of the oathtaking of the Peace of Westphalia by Gerard Terborch (1617-1681)
And so the Modern era was born, with new institutions and laws being created to meet the needs of the early nation-states.
Radical Protestant leader John Calvin (1509-1564) had already set new precedents in political theory, developing models of organization based upon biblical principles for both church and civil authorities. He considered the law to be an indispensible tool in ensuring that the people lived a pious Christian life. In Geneva, at the invititation of Protestant City officials, he created and imposed a strict and uncompromising moral code upon the populace. He forbade dancing, gambling, drinking and swearing; church attendance was compulsory, and enforcement of the so-called blue-laws was vigorous and punishment severe.
His theories were to become the basis of political society in Modern Europe.
Throughout Catholic and Protestant Europe the effect of the Reformation and the new political environment was for an increase in the regulation of public and private life, but nowhere more so than in Germany. Laws were being enacted on economic activity, professional ethics, religion, medicine, social services, sexual behaviour and begging.
Pagan beliefs, some of which had come to be associated with the practice of witchcraft, became the subject of wide-spread persecution during the perilous times of the Wars of Religion, and often that persecution continued into the peace that followed.
16th Century miniature showing witchburning, a practice that became widespread in an era of change and psychological uncertainty
Near Luegde at the town of Lemgo, the Mayor Hermann Cothmann condemned countless innocents, mainly women, to be burned at the stake in the 1660's and 1670's. Fortunately, the Osterraederlauf survived the hysteria and oppressive piety of the times, and the efforts of various civil and church officials to suppress the practice appear to have gone unheeded by the local populace.
Records show that on April 21, 1743, the General Vicar of Wiedenbruck visited the Mayor, Wolfgang Barkhausen, and the town-council of Luegde to forbid the Osterraederlauf. He gave as his reason that the custom was a sin, and damaging to the people. There are no records to indicate that anyone was ever punished for disobeying the vicar's edict, and we can assume it was ignored rather than obeyed.
An engraving contrasting pious church-goers with boisterous villagers indulging in drink, food and amorous pursuits
 Another unsuccessful attempt at prohibition, this time by the Bishop of Paderborn, Wilhelm Anton von Asseburg, is recorded on April 12, 1781. The Bishop is remembered for his "puritanical" attitudes, having attempted to forbid the consumption of coffee in his diocese, and for the banning of all manner of folk celebrations and processions. His edict, declared at Schloss Neuhaus, reads
"that at several places in our diocese an ancient custom is in use, burning on the holy Easter Sunday evening a so-called Easter-fire, which is causing diverse excesses. We declare this Easter-fire to be forbidden, including the serious order that anyone who is burning such a fire, and also anyone who bought or made the straw or wood will be punished with a fine of five Taler."
As before, the people of Luegde ignored the prohibition, life continuing in the country-side and traditional villages much as it had, despite the growing power of centralization and economic change. The Osterraederlauf was to go unchanged for almost another hundred years until the relentless momentum of the Industrial Revoltion was to prove irresistable.
Railway building began in Germany in 1835, and was to be the most extensive network in continental Europe
The railway had arrived in Luegde, and in 1872 its tracks were to block the path of one of the Osterraeder paths down the southern slopes of the Kirchberg. Again in 1902, another of the three original Osterraeder paths was blocked by the progress of railway-building; this time the Osterraederlauf from the northern Kirchberg was eliminated. From 1902 until the present day the Osterraeder have run only from the Osterberg.
Despite the encroachments of technological progress the Osterraeder continued to run as they always had until 1933, when the Nazis were to to pervert the custom for their own propaganda purposes.
  
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