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The world is changing. There’s a feeling in the air that the blocs of the past are shattering, fragmenting. We’ve been through those times in the past. They’re very often bloody. Let me tell you about the Sack of Magdeburg, in the May of the Year of Our Lord, 1631 - THREAD /1 
I often make reference to the Thirty Years War and it’s hard not to, considering the utter ruin it caused. It wasn’t just the fighting - the conflict is thought to have led to the deaths of up to half the population of the German peoples, through starvation and plague. /2
As a conflict that raged for thirty years, there were twists and turns, lulls and frenzies, but what you need to know is this - at times, Catholic armies sought to bring back cities that had slipped out of their grasp by becoming Protestant, or allying with their enemies. /3
Magdeburg was, and is, located in the modern German state of Sachsen-Anhalt, in the north-east. In the 17th century, it was a Prince-Bishopric, meaning the bishop ruled over the city & surrounding countryside in *all* matters. Prior to 1631, it had a population around 30,000. /4
In the centuries leading up to the Thirty Year’s War, Magdeburg had been part of the Hanseatic League and very much a centre of trade and commerce. This was no backwater. In fact, it had (and has) the oldest Gothic cathedral in what is modern Germany. /5
Come the 1620s, the city, now Protestant, had allied itself with the Danish and the Swedes who were invading from the north, to push back against the armies of the Catholic League. This made it a target for taking back, especially after it refused a required tribute. /6
In March 1631, an army led by Johann Tserclaes, the Count of Tilly, began laying siege to the city. Repeatedly, the fortifications were attacked, and over the space of weeks, the rings around the city began to fall. /7
Come late May, the Catholic attackers had tired of waiting for the citizens of Magdeburg to surrender. Tragically, on the day they attacked, May 20, 1631, a delegation was being prepared to offer a capitulation. /8
On May 20, 1621, the heavy artillery of the Catholic League opened up on Magdeburg, shattering the walls, destroying buildings and killing those even undercover, as cannon fire crashed through wooden buildings. /9
A few hours into the bombardment, one of the gates of the city, the Kroecken Gate, gave way and troops were able to surge into the city. As they did, the defenders lit mines that they had set around the city, denying the enemy various resources. /10
Once into the city, the attackers were like men possessed. Remember, this is an age prior to human rights and conventions against unlawful conduct in war. Hell, many of those in the army had signed up because they would be able to plunder, steal, rape and pillage. /11
You also need to consider that these men were hungry, ill-provisioned and infuriated at the defiance of the defenders. It was the perfect conditions for atrocities and horrors to occur. /12
Soldiers went from house to house, demanding riches or they’d summarily execute the householders. Many didn’t even ask. Men, women and children were shot or chopped down where they lay. Some were skewered on pikes and left there as a grisly totem. /13
Fires were lit and added to the conflagration that was occurring across the city. It’s thought that some chose to burn alive than try their luck with the soldiers. Whatever could be destroyed was defaced, hammered and smashed. /14
As the flames engulfed the city, women and children were taken back to the Catholic camp for unspoken horrors. As night fell and the city burned, horrific, bloody festivities began. /15
The easiest way to articulate the scale of the destruction is this - on May 19, there were about 30,000 inhabitants of Magdeburg. Less than a fortnight later, there were only around 5,000. /16
Those that did survive the Sack of Magdeburg, as it was known, were those who took refuge in the cathedral. It took them a fortnight to find and dispose of the bodies in the River Elbe, an act itself that caused no end of disease and sickness. /17
For many, especially on the Protestant side, the Sack of Magdeburg became a by-word for horror and mindless violence. It was heavily used by Protestant forces during the conflict as a motivator to show no mercy - ‘Magdeburg Quarter’, or none, as the Catholics had shown. /18
Hundreds of years later, I’m horrified at what happened at Magdeburg on that May day. That 25,000 men, women and children could be murdered or be condemned to a horrible death in the space of less than a day in an age before mechanization speaks of truly brutal horrors. /19
It also speaks of the absurdity of wars over faith and creed. Many of the armies of the war were mercenaries with no real belief in the banner they carried. Far from the courts in which theological debates played out, it was ordinary people who were grist for the mill. /20
It’s a cliche to say that we’ve more in common than separates us, but when I cast my mind over events like the Sack of Magdeburg, I can’t help but think it’s a message that needs to be repeated over and over again - or else, we’ll continue to have Magdeburgs happen. /21
If you want to visit Magdeburg, the city’s Cultural History Museum has a number of artefacts from the era. /22 magdeburg-tourist.de/Start/Tourism-…
If you’d like to read a first hand account of what happened on May 20, 1631 at Magdeburg, you can here. /23 germanhistorydocs.ghi-dc.org/pdf/eng/85.Sac…
Thanks for reading along. /FIN
