MAGDEBURG
History
History I
Sightseeing I
Practical I Hotels in Magdeburg
The town was one of the oldest emporia of the German trade for the
Wends who dwelt on the right bank of the Elbe. In
805 it is first
mentioned in history. In 806 Charlemagne built a fortress on the eastern
bank of the river opposite Magdeburg. The oldest church is also credited
to the epoch. Magdeburg first played an important part in the history of
Germany during the reign of Otto the Great (936-73). His consort Editha
had a particular love for the town and often lived there. The emperor
also continually returned to it. On 21 September, 937, Otto founded a
Benedictine monastery at Magdeburg, which was dedicated to Sts. Peter,
Maurice, and the Holy Innocents. The first abbots and monks came from
St. Maximin's at Trier. Later on Otto conceived the plan of establishing
an archbishopric at Magdeburg, thus making it a missionary centre for
the Wends on the eastern bank of the Elbe. He succeeded in carrying out
his idea after various changes and difficulties. The glory of the
archbishopric increased rapidly, the town also became more important.
The city of Magdeburg obtained from the
archbishops a charter that was the model for hundreds of medieval town
charters in Germany, Austria, Bohemia, and Poland. Under this Magdeburg
Law a town governed itself through an elected council, had its own
courts of justice, and was exempt from all duties except the payment of
rent to the prince of the land. Magdeburg prospered and became one of
the chief members of the Hanseatic League. It accepted (1524) the
Reformation, joined (1531) the Schmalkaldic League, and continued its
resistance against Emperor Charles V until its fall (1551) to Maurice of
Saxony. The archbishops were converted to Protestantism, and the family,
members of the house of Brandenburg, ruled the archbishopric as
administrators. The Magdeburg Centuries, the first comprehensive history
of Protestantism, was edited there in the late 16th cent.
During the Thirty Years War the imperial
forces laid siege to Magdeburg in 1630. On May 20, 1631, the imperial
troops under Tilly and Pappenheim stormed the city and put the garrison
to the sword. Fires mysteriously broke out in various quarters, and by
the following day virtually the entire city had burned down. Roughly
25,000 persons (about 85% of the city’s population) perished in the
conflagration and the sacking. The sack of Magdeburg produced an immense
impression and caused the Protestant princes to conclude a closer
alliance. The city was rebuilt and its
trade
revived after the Peace of Westphalia (1648), which transferred both the
city and the archbishopric (which was secularized and made a duchy) to
the electorate of Brandenburg. From the late 17th cent. Magdeburg was an
important Prussian fortress. The city was severely damaged in World War
II.
Historic landmarks of Magdeburg
include
an 11th-century Romanesque church and the 13th-century cathedral. The
city is the birthplace of Otto von Guericke (1602–86), the physicist and
inventor of the Magdeburg hemispheres (which demonstrate air pressure);
the composer G. P. Telemann (1681–1767); and Baron von Steuben
(1730–94), the Prussian general who fought in the American Revolutionary
War.
(picture : Russell
Sturgis Collection, Washington University Archives, St. Louis Missouri.)
