Quote from Rhein-Neckarzeitung.
"At the beginning of the Thirty Years' War, the infamous Dutch mercenary leader Johann T'Serclaes Count of Tilly, assisted by Spanish troops, assassinated and pillaged by the Protestant Palatinate of Elector Friedrich V, the" Winter King. " Catholic League "Heidelberg, he took in early April 1622 Neckargemünd.
In an old chronicle from Wolfgang Borgmeyer's bookshelf it says: "And to force Heydelberg through hunger and want, he devastated everything around the city, let Leymen, Rohrbach, Wißloch, Sintzheim and Hilspach take (...) and beat down everything On this occasion he invited the little town of Neckargemuend on the 4th of April, but the crew did not want to surrender so quickly, he conquered it on April 5 with a storming hand, and had the garrison, burger, wife, and child slain without mercy, and plunder everything. "
Borgmeyer is especially shocked by the brutal actions of General Tilly. The historian quotes: "When everything had strangled, Tilly should have asked his soldiers if there was no one left." Then one of his soldiers answered him: two small children, whom he could not kill because they laughed at him He had her brought to the market and stabbed. "
After Neckargemünd had been conquered, Tilly moved on April 6, 1622 against the Dilsberg. Today, the "Tillystein" in Neckargemünd still reminds of the shelling of the festivities. However, when trying to seize Dilsberg, the general met with fierce resistance. Governor Bartholomew Schmid said he wanted to "fight back on the last drop of blood". What succeeded for him and his men: The Dilsberg finally capitulated only after the conquest of Heidelberg by the Catholic troops, which was sealed on September 19, 1622. "