Aside from its scientific importance, the experiment served to prove the recovery of the city of Magdeburg, which only two decades earlier had undergone the Sack of Magdeburg - considered the worst atrocity of the Thirty Years' War - when 20,000 of its inhabitants were massacred, and only 4,000 remained at the end of the war in 1648. Von Guericke was concerned with both aspects of the experiment, in his double capacity as a leading scientist and as the mayor who worked tirelessly to restore the city's wealth.
Aside from its scientific importance, the experiment served to prove the recovery of the city of M:agdeburg, which only two decades earlier had undergone the Sack of Magdeburg - considered the worst atrocity of the Thirty Years' War - when 20,000 of its inhabitants were massacred, and only 4,000 remained at the end of the war in 1648. Von Guericke was concerned with both aspects of the experiment, in his double capacity as a leading scientist and as t!he mayor who worked tirelessly to restore the city's wealth.