Count Tilly, a Bavarian, commanded
the army of the Catholic League during the first half of The
Thirty Years War. On May 20, 1631, he and Count Pappenheim stormed
Magdeburg, a prominent city in north central Germany that dated back
to at least the 9th century. The Protestant city was weakened by being
under siege from imperial forces of the Holy Roman Empire since the
previous year.
Tilly’s army was so enraged at the lengthy resistance provided by the
Magdeburgers that they put the garrisons of the city to the sword. They
then sacked Magdeburg and massacred the population despite Tilly’s efforts
to stop them. Fires mysteriously broke out in various quarters and by
the following day virtually the entire city had burned down. Twenty-five
thousand people (85% of the population!) perished in the conflagration
and the sacking. Those remaining were driven into the already-devastated
countryside.
A Personal Account of the Destruction of Magdeburg
“…General Pappenheim collected a number of his people on the ramparts
by the New Town and brought them from there into the streets of the
city. Fires were kindled in different quarters; then indeed it was
all over with the city, and further resistance was useless. Nevertheless
some of the soldiers and citizens did try to make a stand here and
there, but the imperial troops kept bringing on more and more forces
– cavalry, too – to help them, and finally they got the Krockenthor
open and let in the whole imperial army and the forces of the Catholic
League – Hungarians, Croats, Poles, Walloons, Italians, Spaniards,
French.
Thus it came about that the city and all its inhabitants fell into
the hands of the enemy, whose violence and cruelty were due in part
to their common hatred of the adherents of the Augsburg Confession,
and in part to their being embittered by the chain shot which had
been fired at them and by the derision and insults that the Magdeburgers
had heaped upon them from the ramparts.
Then was there naught but beating and burning, plundering, torture,
rape and murder. Most especially was every enemy bent on securing
much booty. When a marauding party entered a house, if its master
had anything to give he might thereby purchase respite and protection
for himself and his family till the next man, who also wanted something
should come along. It was only when everything had been brought forth
and there was nothing left to give that the real trouble commenced.
Then, what with blows and threats of shooting, stabbing and hanging,
the poor people were so terrified that if they had had anything left
they would have brought it forth if it had been buried in the earth
or hidden away.
In this frenzied rage, the great and splendid city that had stood
like a fair princess in the land was now, in its hour of direst need
and unutterable distress and woe, given over to flames, and thousands
of innocent men, women and children, in the midst of a horrible din
of heartrending shrieks and cries, were tortured and put to death
in so cruel and shameful a manner that no words would suffice to describe,
not no tears to bewail it…
Thus in a single day this noble and famous city, the pride of the
whole country, went up in fire and smoke; and the remnant of its citizens,
with their wives and children, were taken prisoners and driven away
by the enemy with a noise of weeping and wailing that could be heard
from afar, while the cinders and ashes from the town were carried
by the wind to Wanzleben, Egeln, and still more distant places…
In addition to all this, quantities of sumptuous and irreplaceable
house furnishings and movable property of all kinds, such as books,
manuscripts, painting, memorials of all sorts,…which money could not
buy, were either burned or carried away by the soldiers as booty.
The most magnificent garments, hangings, silk stuffs, gold and silver
lace, linen of all sorts, and other household goods were bought by
the army sutlers for a mere song and peddled about by the cart load
all through the archbishopric of Magdeburg and in Anhalt and Brunswick.
Gold chains and rings, jewels and every kind of gold and silver utensils
were to be bought from the common soldiers for a tenth of their real
value…”
