Many Americans have never heard of the Thirty Years’ War (1618–1648). A nasty religious war, it devastated Germany, then one of Europe’s richest regions. Perhaps the worst of its many atrocities was the 1631 Sack of Magdeburg. Tragically, 20,000 of its 25,000 inhabitants died.
The novel is set during Magdeburg’s siege and assault. Le Fort pairs a wedding scheduled in the city with the metaphorical “wedding” between the Protestant city and Catholic forces. The Imperial commander, Johann Tserclaes, Count of Tilly, wants to consummate that wedding by conquering Magdeburg.
The bride, Erdmuth Plögen, is engaged to Willigis Ahlemann. Both are Magdeburg natives from long established families. But on Plögen’s Maiden Day, the day before her wedding, Ahlemann is called out of the city to take a message to Tilly to negotiate Magdeburg’s surrender to the Imperials. The departure sets in motion a train of events with a disastrous conclusion.
The city negotiated an alliance with Gustavus Adolphus, King of Sweden and the Protestant champion. The solidly Lutheran town was once a Catholic Archbishopric within the Holy Roman Empire. But the new emperor, Otto, requires all his towns to convert to Catholicism, which Magdeburg’s citizens oppose. Adolphus is distant and Tilly is near. The town council decides to yield and refuse entry to Commandant Dietrich von Falkenberg, sent by Adolphus to lead the city’s garrison.
Falkenberg sneaks into the city. There he meets Plögen, wandering aimlessly after being stood up on her wedding day. She takes him to the Ratthaus (city hall) where Falkenberg rallies the Lutheran townsfolk to force the city council to re-ally with Adolphus. When Ahlemann returns to Magdeburg, he discovers the change and that his mission has failed. Worse, Plögen rejects him, convinced that when Adolphus arrives Falkenberg will marry her.
Falkenberg knows Adolphus can’t reach Magdeburg before Tilly takes it. His duty is to hold Magdeburg as long as possible, to delay Tilly from taking the city. Falkenberg encourages Plögen’s misconception, using that to keep the town willing to continue the resistance without surrender.
A brilliantly-written, sensitive novel, it was originally written during Hitler’s rule. The novel examines the evil done when ends justify the means, by both sides in this case. With historical and religious references that are obscure today, this edition has a new introduction and is footnoted to explain the references.
