Editing Magdeburg (section)

===Early modern period===
{{further|Sack of Magdeburg|Otto von Guericke|Magdeburg hemispheres}}
The citizens constantly struggled against the archbishop, becoming nearly independent from him by the end of the 15th century. Around Easter 1497, the then twelve-year-old [[Martin Luther]] attended school in Magdeburg, where he was exposed to the teachings of the [[Brethren of the Common Life]]. In 1524, he was called to Magdeburg, where he preached and caused the city's defection from [[Roman Catholic Church|Roman Catholicism]]. The [[Protestant Reformation]] had quickly found adherents in the city, where Luther had been a schoolboy. Emperor [[Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor|Charles V]] repeatedly outlawed the unruly town, which had joined the [[League of Torgau]] and the [[Schmalkaldic League]].<ref name="Catholic"/>

As it had not accepted the [[Augsburg Interim]] decree (1548), the city, by the emperor's commands, was besieged (1550–1551) by [[Maurice, Elector of Saxony]], but it retained its independence. The rule of the archbishop was replaced by that of administrators belonging to Protestant dynasties. In the following years, Magdeburg gained a reputation as a stronghold of Protestantism and became the first major city to publish the writings of [[Martin Luther]]. In Magdeburg, [[Matthias Flacius]] and his companions wrote their anti-Catholic pamphlets and the ''[[Magdeburg Centuries]]'', in which they argued that the [[Roman Catholic Church]] had become the kingdom of the [[Antichrist]].<ref name="Catholic"/>

In 1629 the city withstood its first siege during the [[Thirty Years' War]], by [[Albrecht von Wallenstein]], a Protestant convert to Catholicism. However, in 1631, [[Holy Roman Empire|imperial]] troops under [[Johann Tserclaes, Count of Tilly]], [[sack of Magdeburg|stormed the city and massacred the inhabitants]], killing about 20,000 and burning the city.<ref>{{cite news |title=Religijski rat – "Ubili smo Boga u Magdeburgu!" |url=http://vojnapovijest.vecernji.hr/govorilo-se-ubili-smo-boga-u-magdeburgu-1055793 |publisher=[[Večernji list]] |date=28 January 2016|access-date=30 January 2016 |language=sh}}</ref>

After the war, a population of only 4,000 remained. Under the [[Peace of Westphalia]] (1648), Magdeburg was to be assigned to [[Brandenburg-Prussia]] after the death of the administrator [[August, Duke of Saxe-Weissenfels|August of Saxe-Weissenfels]], as the semi-autonomous [[Duchy of Magdeburg]]. This occurred in 1680.<ref name="Rathmann1806">{{cite book |author=Heinrich Rathmann |title=Geschichte der Stadt Magdeburg von ihrer ersten Entstehung an bis auf gegenwärtige Zeiten |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=TXkAAAAAcAAJ&pg=PA238 |year=1806 |publisher=Bey dem Buchhändler Johann Adam Creutz}}</ref><ref name="Rein2016">{{cite book |author=Nathan Rein |title=The Chancery of God: Protestant Print, Polemic and Propaganda against the Empire, Magdeburg 1546–1551 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=8ReoDQAAQBAJ&pg=PT32 |date=5 December 2016 |publisher=Taylor & Francis |isbn=978-1-351-89314-5 |pages=32–}}</ref><ref name="GehrtHund2019">{{cite book |author1=Daniel Gehrt |author2=Johannes Hund |author3=Stefan Michel |title=Bekennen und Bekenntnis im Kontext der Wittenberger Reformation |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=vtOFDwAAQBAJ&pg=PA118 |date=28 January 2019 |publisher=Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht |isbn=978-3-647-57095-2 |pages=118–}}</ref>

[[File:Magdeburg.jpg|thumb|[[Gaspar Schott]]'s sketch of [[Otto von Guericke]]'s [[Magdeburg hemispheres]] experiment]]
The city made an astonishingly quick recovery, due especially to the energy and dedication of its mayor [[Otto von Guericke]], who was also a noted scientist. Just six years after the end of the terribly destructive war, Magdeburg was the scene of the famous scientific experiment known as The ''[[Magdeburg hemispheres]]'' by which the existence of [[vacuum]] – hitherto [[Horror vacui (physics)|hotly debated]] – was empirically proven, with enormous implications for the later developments of physics.<ref>{{cite EB1911|wstitle= Guericke, Otto von |volume= 12 | page= 670 |quote=...he attempted the creation of a vacuum...}}</ref>

In the 1680s, communes of [[French people|French]] [[Huguenots]] and [[Walloons]] were founded in the city, which, as of 1700, constituted of 1,282 and 1,731 people, respectively.<ref>{{cite book|last=Muret|first=Eduard|title=Geschichte der Französischen Kolonie in Brandenburg-Preußen, unter besonderer Berücksichtigung der Berliner Gemeinde. Aus Veranlassung der Zweihundertjährigen Jubelfeier am 29. Oktober 1885|year=1885|location=Berlin|language=de|pages=237–245}}</ref>