Discover

The 'Massacre of Verden' () was an alleged massacre of Saxons in 782 near the present town of Verden in Lower Saxony, Germany, ordered by Charlemagne during the Saxon Wars.

Contents

History

Controversy

Legacy

See also

External link

History

Some 4,500 Saxon leaders are said to have been beheaded for practicing their indigenous paganism after having officially, albeit under duress, converted to Christianity and undergone baptism. The river Aller was said to have been flowing red with their blood. Charlemagne's motives were to demonstrate his overlordship and the severity of punishment for rebellion.
Today, the veracity of this event is questioned in some quarters: there may have been a misspelling in the original source by which the Latin ''delocabat'' (meaning ''exiled'' or ''displaced'') erroneously became ''decollabat'' (meaning ''beheaded''). Archaeological evidence for the massacre has not been found, although the bodies of the slain could have been buried elsewhere by their next-of-kin.
Whether there was a massacre or merely a mass banishment, the effect was that the Saxons lost virtually their entire tribal leadership and were henceforth largely governed by Frankish counts installed by Charlemagne. The Saxon leader, Duke Widukind, had escaped to his in-laws in Denmark, but soon returned, submitted to Charlemagne, and accepted conversion.

Controversy

The first challenge to the historical records of the massacre was apparently published by Karl Bauer in 1937 in his ''Die Quellen für das sogenannte Blutbad von Verden'' (Münster, 1937). Since then, this view has been repeatedly endorsed by ecclesiastical circles who wish to see Charlemagne's role in the conversion of the Saxons to Christianity without blemish.

Legacy

In 1935, occultic Nazi Germany assembled the ''Sachsenhain'' (''Saxon Grove''), consisting of about 1,000 large stones in Verden, to commemorate the event.
The site today belongs to the youth organization of the Protestant Church and is accessible to the public.

See also

★ Blood Court

External link

★ Verden memorial site