[The following is an excerpt of a memoir by Asmus Teufel, a master linen weaver in the city of Münden, in the duchy of Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel, a Dutch ally in the Thirty Years’ War. He is writing specifically about being in the city as it was besieged by the forces of the Catholic League, commanded by General Johann Tserclaes, Count von Tilly.]
[…]
In the days of the siege there was an increasing firing of large cannons from several places where they had batteries, and they killed many. On Tuesday [there were] 748 shots, including 200 exploding shells, horrible fireballs, which I recorded with my own hand. Then came the assault and the slaughter with halberds [spearlike pole weapons with axelike blades], and neither young nor old, not even the child in its mother’s womb, was spared. The truly blind, crippled, and dumb were cut down, even eight preachers who had fled to the city from the villages. One of them was from Hemeln, Johannes Deppe, who was cut down in front of my window. In sum every kind of person they encountered had to die.
And although some people wanted to save their lives with money, and gave up hundreds, even thousands, [of florins], the bloody murderers took the money from them, but then others came, who received nothing, and they cut them down. It’s easy to imagine how they [the attackers] dealt with the womenfolk, many of whom they took back to their camp with them.
You can imagine what a wailing and screaming there was up at the castle, where they threw the living and dead from the roof and out of the windows, even mothers with their children, so that in the trench behind the moat there was later more than enough evidence. They also cut people down, so that their blood flowed down the steps [of the castle], and at present there is still blood to see on the walls and on the tapestries.
[…]
…And though one hoped that the great misery and slaughter would now have an end, on the third day thereafter it started again anew. Tilly ordered that his powder also be stored in the tower where the city stored its powder. And presumably some was thereby spilled. Maybe the guards who stood their ignited it with their torches, and it ran under the door inside and blew up. The church next to the tower and many houses were flattened, and many [were] damaged, so that the remainders of doors and walls lay in big piles here and there. The murderers thought that the residents had dug a mine and maliciously detonated it, and the slaughter started again anew.
What we endured then for such a long time, and had to suffer from them [the enemy], is unfortunately more than well enough known to God and us. And if anybody had experienced this catastrophe and would complain of his suffering, where would he find the tongue, feather, or paper to describe it?
Source:
Medick, Hans, and Benjamin Marschke. “Battle and Massacre: Experiences of Mass Violence and Death.” Experiencing the Thirty Years War: A Brief History with Documents. Boston: Bedford/St. Martin's, 2013. 127-29. Print.
Original Source Listed:
Asmus Teufel, manuscript, Stadtarchiv Hannoversh-Münden, A 2/2001 Nr. 688 – M 1/Sch 2/21.
Further Reading:
Fürstentum Braunschweig-Wolfenbüttel (The Principality of Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel)
Katholische Liga / Liga Catholica (German Catholic League)
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