If you go and drive about two hours northeast of Frankfurt....you come to the city of Magdeburg. Population today? Around 240,00 folks. It is the second-largest city of Saxony-Anhalt (one of the German sixteen states).
So there is this little known story over Magdeburg....that it's been physically destroyed twice in it's history. The history piece of WW II bombings? Most people know this history. There wasn't that much left in 1945.
But the second story is rarely ever told.
When you go back to the 1630 period.....the Thirty Years War was underway. The city was figured to have around 30,000 to 35,000 people before the war started.
Because of a series of understandings, misunderstandings, and demands.....a siege started up in the early spring of 1631. It might be well to note that they weren't exactly really that positive about the Catholic Church.
When the dust and smoke finally cleared, it's figured that just about every resident of the city ended up dead (either through starvation, disease, or execution). In 1632, a Census was held and the town population was figured to be 449 folks. Most of the houses....burnt to the ground. Folks will argue over the dead number....but they generally say a minimum of 25,000 were killed in the little 'war' that occurred. The rest probably just walked away.
Historians for the most part say that the town remained just a collection of rubble and stones for at least a hundred years.
If the attack had been averted? My humble guess is that by the early 1900s....this would have been one of the top five major cities of Germany, and easily having over 750,000 residents.
The odd thing is that this story comes up in the mass murder category when Germans go over history events. The deaths of 30,000 folks.....another layer of German history.
No comments:
Post a Comment