Dietrich von Falkenberg

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Dietrich von Falkenberg (* late 1580 in Herstelle ; † 10 May July / 20 May  1631 greg. In Magdeburg ) was Swedish colonel and military commander of Magdeburg during the siege of 1631 .

Life

Falkenberg was born as the son of Christoph von Falkenberg († 1590), the Corveyer Drosten zu Blankenau , on the Weser .

He first entered the service of Hesse and was counsel for Landgrave Moritz von Hessen-Kassel . In 1615 he was sent to Sweden by the landgrave , where he entered the Swedish service. However, he remained in constant correspondence with the landgrave and informed him about the situation in Sweden. He won the trust of the Swedish King Gustav II Adolf of Sweden and was appointed court marshal .

Worked in Magdeburg 1630/31

Gustav Adolf sent Falkenberg in autumn 1630 as a commander in Magdeburg, which was allied with Sweden in the ongoing Thirty Years' War .

Disguised as a skipper, Falkenberg arrived in Magdeburg in November 1630. He handed the council his credentials in which Gustav Adolf Magdeburg promised protection from the hostile Catholic imperial troops.

Falkenberg took over the fortress command and prepared the city defense. New troops were recruited, the suburbs fortified and external defenses built. However, Falkenberg lacked troops and funds. The support in the population was rather cautious, as the majority were already tired of the war. However, there was also a pro-Swedish party dominated mainly by fanatical Lutheran clergy.

Enemy troops had been lying under Pappenheim in front of the city since the end of November . In March 1631, further strong enemy formations joined under Tilly , enclosed the city and began the siege. The external works such as Trutz Pappenheim , Magdeburger Succurs and Trutz Tilly were in enemy hands after a short time.

The call for negotiations with the emperor was loud among the citizens. However, Falkenberg succeeded, with the support of the clergy, in preventing such efforts.

On April 21 and April 23, on Falkenberg's orders, the suburbs of Neustadt (in the north of the city) and Sudenburg (in the south of the city) were cleared and destroyed. After Tilly and his troops had crossed to the left side of the Elbe, these suburbs with their small number of Magdeburg troops could not be held. The ruins were occupied by the enemy and the siege intensified. There was a shortage of powder in Magdeburg.

On April 24, Tilly wrote three letters to Falkenberg and the council to hand over the town. In coordination with Falkenberg, the council expressed its wish on April 30th to start negotiations with the Hanseatic cities and the electors of Saxony and Brandenburg . Tilly was asked to issue the emissaries with the necessary passports. At first Tilly agreed, but later moved away from it.

There was a heavy bombardment of the city.

On May 18, Tilly again called for surrender. The citizens of the city were called together in the houses of the neighborhood lords to deliberate on negotiations. The Swedish party spoke out against negotiations. It was hoped that Swedish troops would approach. The council met on the afternoon of May 19th. It was decided to start negotiations. Falkenberg was informed of this. He asked the ruling mayor not to act yet, but to convene the council again the next morning, May 20th, at 4:00 a.m., to discuss the negotiations with Tilly.

In this so-called council meeting, the city authorities spoke out in favor of surrender. Falkenberg held against it and announced that Swedish troops would soon arrive. After a speech by Falkenberg, which had already lasted an hour, the approach of the enemy to assault the city was reported. Falkenberg continued his speech. After the tower keeper of the Johanniskirche blew the storm, the councilman Otto Gerike left the meeting to see the state of affairs for himself. Already in the Fischerstrasse he met plundering hostile Croats . He returned to the council and announced the enemy's entry into the city.

Falkenberg rode to Lieutenant Colonel Trost's regiment and led them into battle. At one point they managed to repel the enemy. Falkenberg was finally fatally hit by a bullet at the Hohe Pforte.

The city of Magdeburg was almost completely destroyed, especially when fires broke out. Most of the population died. It has been murdered , raped , looted and burned in the most cruel ways .

In later historical research, it was occasionally assumed that Falkenberg had caused fires to start in order to leave the important city of Magdeburg to the strongly superior enemy only as a ruin.

The city of Magdeburg named a street ( Falkenbergstraße ) after Dietrich von Falkenberg .

His cousin Moritz von Falkenberg, fighting as a cuirassier officer on the imperial side, dealt the first fatal shot in the back of the Swedish King Gustav Adolf in the Battle of Lützen in 1632, immediately before he himself was shot.

literature

Web links

Remarks

  1. ↑ a b Hans-Christian Huf, p. 151
  2. ↑ cf. on this Karl Wittich The Destruction of Magdeburg in 1631 (Berlin 1870)
  3. ^ Moritz von Falkenberg shoots the Swedish king Gustav Adolf
personal data
SURNAME Falkenberg, Dietrich von
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Swedish colonel and military commander of Magdeburg
DATE OF BIRTH 1580
PLACE OF BIRTH Manufacture
DATE OF DEATH May 20, 1631
Place of death Magdeburg