# Der Lutheraner_St. Louis Missouri_1849 01 09_S73
# AI translation — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

Der Lutheraner.

"God's Word and Luther's doctrine pass away now and nevermore."

Published by the German Evangelical Lutheran Synod of Missouri, Ohio and other States.

Edited by C. F. W. Walther.

Volume 5.  St. Louis, Mo., January 9, 1849.  No. 10.

Terms: Der Lutheraner appears once every two weeks at the yearly subscription price of One Dollar for subscribers living at a distance, who are to pay the same in advance and bear the postage. — In St. Louis each single number is sold for 5 cents. Only those letters which contain communications for the paper are to be addressed to the editor; all others, however, which contain business matters, orders, cancellations, money, etc., are to be sent to this place under the address: Mr. F. W. Barthel, care of C. F. W. Walther, St. Louis, Mo.

(Communicated.)

Yet another Scene of Sorrow from the Thirty Years' War, namely the Destruction of Magdeburg, but also, in that very event, a Memorial of Divine Help to a Preacher.

A recent historian relates the destruction of Magdeburg thus:

Gustavus Adolphus did not venture with his small force at once into the interior of a country where only enemies and distrustful or weak friends awaited him. He sought at first only to gain a firm footing in Pomerania and Mecklenburg, in order to cover his rear for his further undertakings. Duke Bogislaw of Pomerania he compelled to take his side, and the imperial garrisons he drove back on every side, or took them prisoner in the towns. He used the winter for this purpose, had all his soldiers clothed in furs, and stormed one town after another across the frozen marshes and moats. — Gustavus would gladly have relied on the German princes alone, but these did not come to meet him, and hindered his every step. In bitter ill humor Gustavus said to Duke Albrecht of Mecklenburg, who had come with him, and who, stirred up by Saxony, still wavered even now whether he had not better seek the Emperor's favor: "My journey is directed to Magdeburg, to relieve it, not for my own sake, but for the best of the Evangelicals. If no one will stand by me, I shall march straight back from here, fortify myself in my own places, offer the Emperor a treaty and go again to Stockholm. I know the Emperor will enter into a treaty such as I desire. But at the last day you Evangelicals will be accused that you would do nothing for the Gospel; and you will probably be repaid for it even here."

The Electors of Brandenburg and Saxony knew how much it must matter to the Emperor as well as to the Swedes to ally themselves with them, but they wavered as to whom they should side with, partly from uncertainty who would remain victor, partly from self-interest, in order to draw advantages from both parties. They tried to set up a middle power between the two and for that reason held a princes' diet at Leipzig, where, however, they could not resolve upon any vigorous action. — Thus most difficult and tedious negotiations began, and Magdeburg was lost in the meantime.

Gustavus' outposts drove all the imperial garrisons out of Pomerania, Mecklenburg and soon also out of a part of the Mark. The fugitives avenged themselves by a cruelty against the inhabitants which increased from year to year among the soldiery of this war. At that time, among other things, the imperial Colonel Götz had the town of Pasewalk plundered on his departure, whereby not only was everything robbed and destroyed, but the inhabitants also were partly killed, partly forced by every imaginable torture to reveal their hidden money. With the women the soldiers practiced every wantonness, and bound the fairest to their horses, in order to sell them in the camp. Little children they tormented to death in various ways, in order to amuse themselves at the sight of it, etc. So also the commandants shut up in the fortified towns avenged themselves on the unhappy inhabitants, Colonel Perusi in Greifswald and Hatzfeld in Rostock, by a thousand villainies. The latter was stabbed down by Lieutenant Jakob Marmeyer, in order to deliver the citizens from this monster, but he had to die for it on the rack amid unheard-of tortures.

In vain did Gustavus Adolphus entreat the Elector of Saxony most urgently to ally himself with him before Magdeburg should fall. The Elector shared the hatred of all princes against the free cities, and for that very reason only waited until Magdeburg fell. — Gustavus Adolphus sent to the city his Colonel Falkenberg as commandant, a very brave man, who slipped through the enemy disguised as a boatman. The princes of Hesse and Weimar, to be sure, wished to rescue the city, but Tilly's superior force frightened them back. This general shut up Magdeburg as closely as possible and, in spite of the desperate resistance, took one after another all the outworks. In the night before the 10th of May, 1631, the imperial party among the citizens made a great uproar and demanded surrender. Falkenberg hastened at 4 o'clock in the morning to the town hall. He, the administrator, and all the courageous among the citizens opposed the surrender. But while thus all attention was directed to the town hall, and in this early morning hour no attack was expected, Pappenheim (of his own accord, without orders from Tilly), who, as formerly at Maastricht, had purposely chosen this unusual hour for the assault, crept up quietly and secretly climbed the walls at a place where the sentinel was asleep and the rest of the garrison was just occupied with an hour of prayer, and had not got the muskets (which in those days still had to be fired with matches) ready quickly enough. The rest of the imperialists followed the first at once upon ladders, and their irresistible stream was already rolling through the streets while they were still wrangling in the town hall. As soon as Falkenberg became aware of the danger, he threw himself against it, but a shot laid him on the ground. The brave captain of the citizens, Schmidt, met the same death. The administrator was taken prisoner and severely maltreated in body. Without leader or plan the citizens nevertheless defended themselves in almost all the streets, until the superior force of the 40,000 imperialists, who all forced their way in together, overwhelmed them. Now began a dreadful murdering, strangling, ravishing and plundering in all the houses. The raging soldiery, like a band of devils let loose, threw themselves upon the defenseless and spared neither age nor sex. Some officers begged Tilly to put a stop to the atrocities, but he bade them come again in an hour. Meanwhile the most dreadful thing happened. Almost all the men were put to death, the preachers Pormann and Ritter before their altars; 20 women threw themselves of their own accord into the Elbe, others into wells, the most of them into the