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The Massacre of Verden was an event during the Saxon Wars where the
Frankish Frankish may refer to: * Franks, a Germanic tribe and their culture ** Frankish language or its modern descendants, Franconian languages * Francia, a post-Roman state in France and Germany * East Francia, the successor state to Francia in Germany ...
king
Charlemagne Charlemagne ( , ) or Charles the Great ( la, Carolus Magnus; german: Karl der Große; 2 April 747 – 28 January 814), a member of the Carolingian dynasty, was King of the Franks from 768, King of the Lombards from 774, and the first ...
ordered the death of 4,500
Saxons The Saxons ( la, Saxones, german: Sachsen, ang, Seaxan, osx, Sahson, nds, Sassen, nl, Saksen) were a group of Germanic * * * * peoples whose name was given in the early Middle Ages to a large country (Old Saxony, la, Saxonia) near the Nor ...
in October 782. Charlemagne claimed suzerainty over Saxony and in 772 destroyed the Irminsul, an important object in Saxon paganism, during his intermittent thirty-year campaign to Christianize the Saxons. The massacre occurred in Verden in what is now
Lower Saxony Lower Saxony (german: Niedersachsen ; nds, Neddersassen; stq, Läichsaksen) is a German state (') in northwestern Germany. It is the second-largest state by land area, with , and fourth-largest in population (8 million in 2021) among the 16 ...
,
Germany Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwe ...
. The event is attested in contemporary Frankish sources, including the ''
Royal Frankish Annals The ''Royal Frankish Annals'' (Latin: ''Annales regni Francorum''), also called the ''Annales Laurissenses maiores'' ('Greater Lorsch Annals'), are a series of annals composed in Latin in the Carolingian Francia, recording year-by-year the state ...
''. Beginning in the 1870s, some scholars have attempted to exonerate Charlemagne of the massacre by way of a proposed manuscript error but these attempts have since been generally rejected. While the figure of 4,500 victims has generally been accepted, some scholars regard it as an exaggeration.


Sources

An entry for the year 782 in the first version of the ''
Royal Frankish Annals The ''Royal Frankish Annals'' (Latin: ''Annales regni Francorum''), also called the ''Annales Laurissenses maiores'' ('Greater Lorsch Annals'), are a series of annals composed in Latin in the Carolingian Francia, recording year-by-year the state ...
'' (''Annales Regni Francorum'') records a Saxon rebellion, followed by a Saxon victory in the battle of the Süntel before Charlemagne arrived and put down the rebellion. Charlemagne ordered the execution of 4,500 Saxons near the confluence of the Aller and the
Weser The Weser () is a river of Lower Saxony in north-west Germany. It begins at Hannoversch Münden through the confluence of the Werra and Fulda. It passes through the Hanseatic city of Bremen. Its mouth is further north against the ports o ...
, in what is now Verden. Regarding the massacre, the entry reads:
:When he heard this, the Lord King Charles rushed to the place with all the Franks that he could gather on short notice and advanced to where the Aller flows into the Weser. Then all the Saxons came together again, submitted to the authority of the Lord King, and surrendered the evildoers who were chiefly responsible for this revolt to be put to death—four thousand and five hundred of them. This sentence was carried out. Widukind was not among them since he had fled to ''Nordmannia'' enmark When he had finished this business, the Lord King returned to Francia.Scholz (1970), p. 61.
The '' Annales qui dicuntur Einhardi'' (Annals of Einhard), which are a revised version of the ''Royal Frankish Annals'' and not a completely independent source, give a different account of the battle of the Süntel, recording that Charlemagne lost two envoys, four counts, and around twenty nobles in a Frankish defeat. The reviser agrees about the punishment meted out on the Saxon rebels, and adds some details, such as that the Saxons blamed
Widukind Widukind, also known as Wittekind, was a leader of the Saxons and the chief opponent of the Frankish king Charlemagne during the Saxon Wars from 777 to 785. Charlemagne ultimately prevailed, organized Saxony as a Frankish province, massacred th ...
, that the number 4,500 was a minimum and that the executions took place in a single day: A short notice under the same year in the '' Annales Laubacenses'' (Annals of Lobbes) and the related '' Annales sancti Amandi'' (Annals of Saint-Amand) reads: "The rebellious Saxons killed many Franks; and Charles, avinggathered the Saxons together, ordered them beheaded" (''Saxones rebellantes plurimos Francos interfecerunt; et Karlus, congregatos Saxones, iussit eos decollare''). For the year 782, the '' Annales Sangallenses Baluzii'' are more cryptic: "this year the Lord King Charles killed many Saxons" (''hoc anno domnus rex Karolus plures de Saxonis interfecit'').


Scholarship

Historian Alessandro Barbero says that, regarding Charlemagne, the massacre "produced perhaps the greatest stain on his reputation". In his survey on scholarship regarding Charlemagne, Barbero comments on attempts at exonerating Charlemagne and his forces from the massacre:
Several historians have attempted to lessen Charles's responsibility for the massacre, by stressing that until a few months earlier the king thought he had pacified the country, the Saxon nobles had sworn allegiance, and many of them had been appointed counts. Thus the rebellion constituted an act of treason punishable by death, the same penalty that the extremely harsh Saxon law imposed with great facility, even for the most insignificant of crimes. Others have attempted to twist the accounts provided by sources, arguing that the Saxons were killed in battle and not massacred in cold blood, or even that the verb ''decollare'' (to decapitate) was a copyist's error in place of ''delocare'' (to relocate), so the prisoners were deported. None of these attempts has proved credible.Barbero (2004), pp. 46–47.
He continues: "the most likely inspiration for the mass execution of Verden was the Bible", Charlemagne desiring "to act like a true King of Israel", citing the biblical tale of the total extermination of the
Amalekites Amalek (; he, עֲמָלֵק, , ar, عماليق ) was a nation described in the Hebrew Bible as a staunch enemy of the Israelites. The name "Amalek" can refer to the nation's founder, a grandson of Esau; his descendants, the Amalekites; or th ...
and the conquest of the Moabites by
David David (; , "beloved one") (traditional spelling), , ''Dāwūd''; grc-koi, Δαυΐδ, Dauíd; la, Davidus, David; gez , ዳዊት, ''Dawit''; xcl, Դաւիթ, ''Dawitʿ''; cu, Давíдъ, ''Davidŭ''; possibly meaning "beloved one". w ...
. Barbero further points out that a few years later, a royal chronicler, commenting on Charlemagne's treatment of the Saxons, records that "either they were defeated or subjected to the Christian religion or completely swept away."
Roger Collins Roger J. H. Collins (born September 2, 1949) is an English medievalist, currently an honorary fellow in history at the University of Edinburgh. Collins studied at the University of Oxford ( Queen's and Saint Cross Colleges) under Peter Bro ...
identifies the victims of the massacre as all Saxons held to have participated in the battle of the Süntel. Charlemagne may have found his precedent for mass execution in the
Council of Cannstatt The Council of Cannstatt, also referred to as the blood court at Cannstatt (''Blutgericht zu Cannstatt''), was a council meeting at Cannstatt, now a part of Stuttgart, in 746 that took place as a result of an invitation by the Mayor of the Palace o ...
of 745/6, whereat his uncle Carloman executed numerous leading Alemannic noblemen. The German historian Martin Lintzel argued that the figure of 4,500 was an exaggeration, partly based on the theory of
Hans Delbrück Hans Gottlieb Leopold Delbrück (; 11 November 1848 – 14 July 1929) was a German historian. Delbrück was one of the first modern military historians, basing his method of research on the critical examination of ancient sources, using auxiliary ...
regarding the small size of early medieval armies. On the other hand, Bernard Bachrach argues that the 4,500 captured warriors were but a small fraction of the able-bodied men in the region. The annalist's figure of 4,500, he notes, is generally accepted by scholars. He puts it at less than the entire Saxon army that fought at the Süntel, and suggests that Widukind's personal retinue probably also escaped capture. The medievalist
Henry Mayr-Harting Henry Maria Robert Egmont Mayr-Harting (born 6 April 1936) is a British medieval ecclesiastical historian. From 1997 to 2003, he was Regius Professor of Ecclesiastical History at the University of Oxford and a lay canon of Christ Church, Oxford. ...
argues that since "reputation was of the highest importance to the warrior element of a heroic-age society" the massacre of Verden, whatever its actual scope, would have backfired on Charlemagne:
On the reputational side during Charlemagne's wars, the Saxons' greatest ''gain'' will undoubtedly have been the blood bath of Verden in 783 'sic'' If but one tenth of the 4500 warriors said to have been slaughtered actually fell under the Frankish swords, think what a series of laments for fallen warriors, what a ''
Gododdin The Gododdin () were a Brittonic people of north-eastern Britannia, the area known as the Hen Ogledd or Old North (modern south-east Scotland and north-east England), in the sub-Roman period. Descendants of the Votadini, they are best known ...
'', what a subsequent celebration of reputation by poets, that would have made possible!
He further argues that the Saxons were probably unable to mount another serious revolt for several years after Verden, since they had to wait for a new generation of young men to reach fighting age. Matthias Becher, in his biography of Charlemagne, suggests that a much smaller number of executions accompanied deportations in the year 782. Carole Cusack interprets the method of execution as hanging rather than beheading. The '' Capitulatio de partibus Saxoniae'', a law code promulgated by Charlemagne, has traditionally been dated to 782–85, in response to Widukind's rebellion. More recently, Yitzhak Hen has suggested a later date (c. 795), based on the influence of Islamic theology of '' jihad'' through the Spaniard
Theodulf of Orléans Theodulf of Orléans (Saragossa, Spain, 750(/60) – 18 December 821) was a writer, poet and the Bishop of Orléans (c. 798 to 818) during the reign of Charlemagne and Louis the Pious. He was a key member of the Carolingian Renaissance and an im ...
. This theory has not found wide acceptance. Janet L. Nelson calls the massacre "exemplary legal vengeance for the deaths of harlemagne's ministersand their men in the Süntel Hills". According to her, even if the Frankish leaders at the Süntel were at fault for the disaster, as the ''Annales qui dicuntur Einhardi'' imply, Charlemagne as their lord, according to the standards of the time, owed them vengeance. Nelson says that the method of mass execution—''decollatio'', beheading—was also chosen for its symbolic value, for it was the Roman penalty for traitors and oath-breakers.


Legacy

The massacre became particularly significant and controversial among
German nationalists German nationalism () is an ideological notion that promotes the unity of Germans and German-speakers into one unified nation state. German nationalism also emphasizes and takes pride in the patriotism and national identity of Germans as one ...
in the late 19th and early 20th centuries and in
Nazi Germany Nazi Germany (lit. "National Socialist State"), ' (lit. "Nazi State") for short; also ' (lit. "National Socialist Germany") (officially known as the German Reich from 1933 until 1943, and the Greater German Reich from 1943 to 1945) was ...
. In 1935, landscape architect Wilhelm Hübotter designed a memorial, known as the ''Sachsenhain'' ("Saxon Grove"), that was built at a possible site of the massacre. This site functioned for a period as a meeting place for the
Schutzstaffel The ''Schutzstaffel'' (SS; also stylized as ''ᛋᛋ'' with Armanen runes; ; "Protection Squadron") was a major paramilitary organization under Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party in Nazi Germany, and later throughout German-occupied Europe duri ...
. Popular discussion of the massacre made Charlemagne a controversial figure in Nazi Germany until his official "rehabilitation" by
Adolf Hitler Adolf Hitler (; 20 April 188930 April 1945) was an Austrian-born German politician who was dictator of Nazi Germany, Germany from 1933 until Death of Adolf Hitler, his death in 1945. Adolf Hitler's rise to power, He rose to power as the le ...
and Joseph Goebbels, after which Charlemagne was officially presented in a positive manner in Nazi Germany.


Assessments before 1933

In the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, historians generally approved of the executions of Verden, as displays of piety. During the Enlightenment this changed.
Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz Gottfried Wilhelm (von) Leibniz . ( – 14 November 1716) was a German polymath active as a mathematician, philosopher, scientist and diplomat. He is one of the most prominent figures in both the history of philosophy and the history of math ...
was one of the first to suggest that Verden cast a shadow over Charlemagne's legacy.
Voltaire François-Marie Arouet (; 21 November 169430 May 1778) was a French Enlightenment writer, historian, and philosopher. Known by his ''nom de plume'' M. de Voltaire (; also ; ), he was famous for his wit, and his criticism of Christianity—es ...
considered the king a "thousandfold murderer", with Verden the centrepiece of his barbarism. According to Barbero, the incident would be little more than a footnote in scholarship were it not for controversy in German circles due to nationalistic sentiment before and during the Nazi era in Germany. The controversy over the massacre was linked to disputes among German nationalists about the image of Charlemagne. Some Germans saw the victims of the massacre as defenders of Germany's traditional beliefs, resisting the foreign religion of Christianity. Wilhelm Teudt mentions the site of the massacre in his 1929 book ''Germanische Heiligtümer'' ('Germanic Shrines'). Some Christian nationalists linked Charlemagne with the humiliation of French domination after
World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...
, especially the occupation of the Rhineland.Gadberry (2004), pp. 156–66. Of the first generation of German historians after 1871 to defend Charlemagne,
Louis Halphen Louis Sigismond Isaac Halphen (4 February 1880, Paris – 7 October 1950, Paris) was a French medieval specialist and the author of many important books over a long career. He was noteworthy as the editor of a modern edition of the famous classic E ...
considered their efforts a failure.


Nazi Germany

Hermann Gauch,
Heinrich Himmler Heinrich Luitpold Himmler (; 7 October 1900 – 23 May 1945) was of the (Protection Squadron; SS), and a leading member of the Nazi Party of Germany. Himmler was one of the most powerful men in Nazi Germany and a main architect of th ...
's adjutant for culture, took the view that Charlemagneknown in German as Karl the Great (german: Karl der Große)should be officially renamed "Karl the Slaughterer" because of the massacre. He advocated a memorial to the victims.
Alfred Rosenberg Alfred Ernst Rosenberg ( – 16 October 1946) was a Baltic German Nazi theorist and ideologue. Rosenberg was first introduced to Adolf Hitler by Dietrich Eckart and he held several important posts in the Nazi government. He was the head o ...
also stated that the Saxon leader
Widukind Widukind, also known as Wittekind, was a leader of the Saxons and the chief opponent of the Frankish king Charlemagne during the Saxon Wars from 777 to 785. Charlemagne ultimately prevailed, organized Saxony as a Frankish province, massacred th ...
, not Karl, should be called "the Great". In
Nazi Germany Nazi Germany (lit. "National Socialist State"), ' (lit. "Nazi State") for short; also ' (lit. "National Socialist Germany") (officially known as the German Reich from 1933 until 1943, and the Greater German Reich from 1943 to 1945) was ...
, the massacre became a major topic of debate. In 1934, two plays about Widukind were performed. The first, ''Der Sieger'' (''The Victor'') by Friedrich Forster, portrayed Charlemagne as brutal but his goal, Christianization of the pagan Saxons, as necessary. Reception was mixed. The second, ''Wittekind'', by Edmund Kiß, was more controversial for its criticism of Christianity. The play resulted in serious disturbances and was stopped after just two performances. Described by one historian as "little more than an extended anti-Catholic rant", the plot depicted Charlemagne as a murderous tyrant and Verden as "attempted genocide plotted by the Church." In 1935, landscape architect Wilhelm Hübotter was commissioned to build the ''Sachsenhain'' (German 'Grove of the Saxons') in Verden, a monument to commemorate the massacre consisting of 4,500 large stones. The monument was used as both a memorial to the event and as a meeting place for the ''
Schutzstaffel The ''Schutzstaffel'' (SS; also stylized as ''ᛋᛋ'' with Armanen runes; ; "Protection Squadron") was a major paramilitary organization under Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party in Nazi Germany, and later throughout German-occupied Europe duri ...
''.Wolschke-Bulmahn (2001), pp. 283–84. The memorial was inscribed to "Baptism-Resistant Germans Massacred by Karl, the Slaughterer of the Saxons". In the same year the annual celebration of Charlemagne in Aachen, where he is buried, was cancelled and replaced by a lecture on "Karl the Great, Saxon Butcher." The attacks on Charlemagne as ''Sachsenschlächter'' (slaughterer of the Saxons) and a tool of the Church and the Papacy were led by Alfred Rosenberg. In 1935, seven professional historians fought back with the volume ''Karl der Große oder Charlemagne?'' The issue was settled by
Adolf Hitler Adolf Hitler (; 20 April 188930 April 1945) was an Austrian-born German politician who was dictator of Nazi Germany, Germany from 1933 until Death of Adolf Hitler, his death in 1945. Adolf Hitler's rise to power, He rose to power as the le ...
himself, who privately pressured Rosenberg to cease his public condemnations, and by propagandist Joseph Goebbels, who began to issue positive statements about Charlemagne. In 1936, the Nazi historian Heinrich Dannenbauer could refer to Charlemagne's "rehabilitation". A memorial site, '' Widukindgedächtnisstätte'', was inaugurated at
Engen Engen (延元) was a Japanese era of the Southern Court during the Era of Northern and Southern Courts after Kenmu and before Kōkoku, lasting from February 1336 to April 1340.Nussbaum, Louis-Frédéric. (2005). "''Engen''" i ''Japan encyclop ...
in 1939.Lambert (2007), pp. 534–38. In 1942, the Nazi regime celebrated the 1200th anniversary of Charlemagne's birth. The historian Ahasver von Brandt referred to it as the "official rehabilitation" (''amtliche Rehabilitierung''), although Goebbels acknowledged in private that many people were confused by the about-face of National Socialism. A ''
Sicherheitsdienst ' (, ''Security Service''), full title ' (Security Service of the '' Reichsführer-SS''), or SD, was the intelligence agency of the SS and the Nazi Party in Nazi Germany. Established in 1931, the SD was the first Nazi intelligence organization ...
'' report of 9 April 1942 noted that:
There were many voices to be heard saying that only a few years ago one had counted as an unreliable National Socialist had one left Karl der Große with so much as a single unblemished feature and not spoken also in tones of loathing of the "slaughterer of Saxons" and "pope's and bishops' lacky". Many people pose the question as to who in the Party it had been back then who had authorised this derogatory slogan, and from what quarter this completely different evaluation was coming now.
Goebbels's opinion was that it was best for state propaganda on historical matters to align with popular opinion, and thus with and not against Charlemagne. As an example of Charlemagne's post-1935 rehabilitation in Nazi Germany, in 1944 the 33rd Waffen Grenadier Division of the SS ''Charlemagne'', a body of French volunteers, was named after the "pan-European Germanic hero" instead of after
Joan of Arc Joan of Arc (french: link=yes, Jeanne d'Arc, translit= �an daʁk} ; 1412 – 30 May 1431) is a patron saint of France, honored as a defender of the French nation for her role in the siege of Orléans and her insistence on the coronat ...
.Forbes (2010), pp. 132–33.


Notes


References

* Bachrach, Bernard Stanley (2001). ''Early Carolingian Warfare: Prelude to Empire''. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press. *Bachrach, Bernard Stanley (2013). ''Charlemagne's Early Campaigns (768–777): A Diplomatic and Military Analysis''. Leiden: Brill. * Barbero, Alessandro (2004). ''Charlemagne: Father of a Continent''. University of California Press. *Becher, Matthias (2003). ''Charlemagne''. Yale University Press. * Collins, Roger (1998). ''Charlemagne''. Toronto: University of Toronto Press. *Cusack, Carole (2011)
"Pagan Saxon Resistance to Charlemagne's Mission: 'Indigenous' Religion and 'World' Religion in the Early Middle Ages"
''The Pomegranate'', 13 (1): 33–51. *Davis, Jennifer R. (2015). ''Charlemagne's Practice of Empire''. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. *Forbes, Robert (2010). ''For Europe: The French Volunteers of the Waffen-SS''. Stackpole Books. *Gadberry, Glen W. (2004). "An 'Ancient German Rediscovered' The Nazi Widukind Plays of Forster and Kiß". ''Essays on Twentieth-Century German Drama and Theater: An American Reception, 1977–1999''. Peter Lang. * Gauch, Sigfrid (2002). ''Traces of My Father''. Northwestern University Press. * Halphen, Louis (1919). "Études critiques sur l'histoire de Charlemagne, V: la conquête de Saxe". ''Revue Historique'', 130 (2): 252–78. * Hen, Yitzhak (2006). "Charlemagne's Jihad". ''Viator'' 37: 33–51. *Hengst, K (1980). "Die Urbs Karoli und das Blutbad zu Verden in den Quellen zur Sachsenmission (775–785)". ''Theologie und Glaube'', 70: 283–99. *Lambert, Peter (2007). "Heroisation and Demonisation in the Third Reich: The Consensus-building Value of a Nazi Pantheon of Heroes". ''Totalitarian Movements & Political Religions'', 8, 3: 523–46. *Lintzel, Martin (1938). "Die Vorgänge in Verden im Jahre 782". ''Niedersachs. Jahrbuch'', 15: 1–37. * Mayr-Harting, Henry (1996). "Charlemagne, the Saxons, and the Imperial Coronation of 800". ''The English Historical Review'', 111 (444): 1113–33. * McKitterick, Rosamond (2008). ''Charlemagne: The Formation of a European Identity''. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. * Nelson, Janet L. (2013). "Religion and Politics in the Reign of Charlemagne". ''Religion and Politics in the Middle Ages: Germany and England by Comparison'', pp. 17–30. Ludger Körntgen and Dominik Wassenhoven, eds. Berlin: De Gruyter. *
Reuter, Timothy Timothy Alan Reuter (25 January 1947 – 14 October 2002), grandson of the former mayor of Berlin Ernst Reuter, was a German-British historian who specialized in the study of medieval Germany, particularly the social, military and ecclesiastical i ...
(1991). ''Germany in the Early Middle Ages, c. 800–1056''. London: Longman. * Robinson, James Harvey (1904). ''Readings in European History, Volume I: From the Breaking Up of the Roman Empire to the Protestant Revolt''. Boston: Atheneum Press. *Scholz, Bernard Walter (1970). ''Carolingian Chronicles: Royal Frankish Annals and Nithard's Histories''. University of Michigan Press. *Strobl, Gerwin (2007). ''The Swastika and the Stage: German Theatre and Society, 1933–1945''. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. *Wolschke-Bulmahn, Joachim (2001). "The Landscape Design of the Bergen-Belsen Concentration Camp Memorial". ''Places of Commemoration: Search for Identity and Landscape Design''. Dumbarton Oaks. {{DEFAULTSORT:Massacre Of Verden 782 780s conflicts 8th-century massacres Germanic paganism History of Lower Saxony 8th century in Germany Massacres in Germany 8th century in Francia Persecution of Pagans