common term signifying total destruction, rape and pillaging for decades. The terms "Magdeburg justice", "Magdeburg mercy" and "Magdeburg quarter" also arose as a result of the sack, used originally by Protestants when executing Roman Catholics who begged for quarter. The massacre was forcefully described by Friedrich Schiller in his 1792 work History of the Thirty Years' War and perpetuated in a poem by Goethe. A scene of Brecht's play Mother Courage and Her Children, written in 1939, also refers to the event. Political consequences Administrator Christian William of Brandenburg was badly injured and taken prisoner. He later converted to Catholicism and was released. He received an annual sum of 12,000 thaler from the revenues of the archbishopric of Magdeburg under the Peace of Prague. After the sack, the archbishopric of Magdeburg went to Archduke Leopold Wilhelm of Austria, youngest son of emperor Ferdinand II, as the new Catholic Administrator. The Peace of Prague (1635) confirmed his rule over the city, but three years later, Swedish troops expelled the Habsburg army and restored Augustus of Wettin (first elected in 1628) as Administrator as of October 1638. Augustus finally took full control of Magdeburg in December 1642 after a neutrality treaty was concluded with the Swedish general Lennart Torstenson. He was then able to begin the reconstruction of the city. The Archbishopric of Magdeburg was secularized and ultimately fell to Brandenburg-Prussia upon Augustus' death in 1680. Notes References Sources Further reading External links Sack of Magdeburg on Filbrun Count of Tilly on History of War 1631 in the Holy Roman Empire Magdeburg Magdeburg 1631 Magdeburg 1631 History of Magdeburg Massacres in Germany Magdeburg Magdeburg Magdeburg, Sack of Catholic League (German) Crimes against humanity