Peter Hagendorf

Who is Peter Hagendorf?

Peter Hagendorf was a German mercenary soldier in the Thirty Years' War. He wrote a diary which gives a unique historic record of the life in the contemporary army from the viewpoint of a simple Landsknecht.

His writings were found by chance in 1993 in the manuscript store of the Berlin State Library. The surviving part covers a range of 25 years between 1625 and 1649. The book was folded from 12 sheets of paper which he bought at the end of the war in 1648 to write a fair copy of his notes. The 192 pages tell of a 22,500 km long journey across Europe filled with battles in Italy, the German states, Spanish Netherlands and France. He took part in the Sack of Magdeburg. He details a life on the verge of death which includes his first wife and seven of his children.

The diary was anonymous. However the author had written down the dates and places of the birth his daughters and where his wife came from. As for one proof the diary says that his daughter Magreta was born on 3. November 1645 in Pappenheim and by chance the church register of that town had survived the war.