Page "Magdeburg" Paragraph 12

In 1631, during the Thirty Years ' War, imperial troops under Johann Tserclaes, Count of Tilly, stormed the city and committed a massacre, killing about 20, 000 inhabitants and burning the town in the sack of Magdeburg.

The city had withstood a first siege in 1629 by Albrecht von Wallenstein.

After the war, a population of only 400 remained.

According to the Peace of Westphalia ( 1648 ), Magdeburg was assigned to Brandenburg-Prussia after the death of the current administrator, August of Saxe-Weissenfels, as the semi-autonomous Duchy of Magdeburg ; this occurred in 1680.