Sack of Magdeburg

The Sack of Magdeburg ( _de. Magdeburgs Opfergang or _de. Magdeburger Hochzeit) refers to the siege and subsequent plundering of Magdeburg by Roman Catholic troops during the Thirty Years' War. The siege lasted from November 1630 until 20 May 1631.

On the latter date, Gottfried Heinrich Graf zu Pappenheim, and Johann Tserclaes, Count of Tilly, attacked Magdeburg for its rich stores of goods. When the city was almost lost, the garrison mined various places and set others on fire. After the city fell the Imperial soldiers went out of control and started to the inhabitants and set fire to the city. Of the 30,000 citizens, only 5,000 survived. For fourteen days, charred bodies were carried to the Elbe River to be dumped to prevent disease.

The devastation was so great that "magdeburgization" became an oft-used term signifying total destruction, rape and pillaging for decades. The terms "Magdeburg justice", "Magdeburg mercy" and "Magdeburg quarter" also arose as a result of the Sack, used originally by Protestant forces when executing Catholics who begged for quarter.

References

*Firoozi, Edith, and Ira N. Klein. "Universal History of the World: The A+ge of Great Kings." Vol. 9. New York: Golden Press, 1966. pp. 738-739.
*von Schiller, Johann Christoph Friedrich. "The History of the Thirty Years' War." 1791. pp. 177-190.

See also

* Cathedral of Magdeburg

External links

* [http://exchristian.net/exchristian/2002/04/destruction-of-magdeburg.php Account of the sack of Magdeburg]