Sack of Magdeburg

Date: May 20, 1631 • Location: Magdeburg, Germany

This milestone marked the outbreak and beginning of this historic period, which spanned 1618–1648.

The city of Magdeburg in Germany is seized by forces of the Holy Roman Empire and most of its inhabitants massacred, in one of the bloodiest incidents of the Thirty Years' War.

Magdeburg is the capital and most populous city of the German state of Saxony-Anhalt. The city is on the Elbe river. The city was mentioned for the first time in a documentary record as "Magadoburg" in the Capitulary of Diedenhofen by Charlemagne in 805.