Sack of Magdeburg

Engraving of the Sack of Magdeburg by Matthäus Merian

Date	20 May 1631
Location	Magdeburg 52°08′N 11°37′E / 52.133°N 11.617°E / 52.133; 11.617Coordinates: 52°08′N 11°37′E / 52.133°N 11.617°E / 52.133; 11.617
Result	Destruction of the city

Belligerents

Holy Roman Empire

Catholic League

Magdeburg

Commanders and leaders

Gottfried Heinrich Graf zu Pappenheim

Johann Tserclaes, Count of Tilly

Dietrich von Falkenberg †

Christian Wilhelm von Brandenburg

Strength

24,000

2,400

Casualties and losses

300 killed
1,600 wounded

25,000 inhabitants

The Sack of Magdeburg (German: Magdeburgs Opfergang or German: Magdeburger Hochzeit) refers to the siege, the subsequent plundering, and the massacre of the inhabitants of the largely Protestant city of Magdeburg by the forces of the Holy Roman Empire and the Catholic League during the Thirty Years' War. The siege lasted from November 1630 until 20 May 1631.

The Thirty Years' War had been raging for a dozen years by the time that the imperial city of Magdeburg rose up against the Holy Roman emperor. The city's councillors had been emboldened by King Gustavus Adolphus's landing in Pomerania on 6 July 1630: the Swedish king was a Lutheran Christian, and many of Magdeburg's residents were convinced that he would aid them in their struggle against the Roman Catholic Habsburg emperor, Ferdinand II. Not all Evangelical rulers within the Holy Roman Empire had immediately embraced Adolphus, however; some believed his chief motive for entering the war was to take northern German ports, which would allow him to control commerce in the Baltic Sea. Yet the city of Magdeburg had additional good reason to ally itself with him: the Swedish army was one of the most efficient of the time, and Gustavus Adolphus did not rely on mercenaries as much as other rulers did. His army consisted primarily of his Swedish countrymen, but the armies of the Holy Roman emperor were a mix of Hungarians, Croats, Spaniards, Poles, Italians, Frenchmen, Germans, and others.

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