Siege of Magdeburg (1630–1631)

Sack of Magdeburg
Part of Thirty Years' War
Engraving 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 was the destruction of the Protestant city of Magdeburg on 20 May 1631 by the Imperial Army and the forces of the Catholic League. Also called Magdeburg Wedding (German: Magdeburger Hochzeit) or Magdeburg's Sacrifice (Magdeburgs Opfergang), the incident is considered the worst massacre of the Thirty Years' War. Magdeburg, then one of the largest cities in Germany and about the size of Cologne or Hamburg, never recovered from the disaster.

The citizens of Magdeburg had turned Protestant already in 1524 and joined the Schmalkaldic League against the religious policies of the Catholic emperor Charles V in 1531. During the Schmalkaldic War of 1546/47, the Lower Saxon city became a refuge for Protestant scholars, which earned it the epithet "Lord's Chancellery" (Herrgotts Kanzlei), but also an Imperial ban that lasted until 1562. The citizens openly refused to acknowledge Emperor Charles' Augsburg Interim and were besieged by Imperial troops under Elector Maurice of Saxony in 1550/51.

The Thirty Years' War had been raging for a dozen years by the time that the imperial city of Magdeburg once again rose up against the Imperial authority. 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 Protestant princes of 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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