Massacre of Verden
The Massacre of Verden was an event during the Saxon Wars where the Frankish king Charlemagne ordered the death of 4,500 Saxons 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, Germany. The event is attested in contemporary Frankish sources, including the "Royal Frankish Annals".

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.

The massacre became particularly significant and controversial among German nationalists in the late 19th and early 20th centuries and in Nazi Germany. 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. Popular discussion of the massacre made Charlemagne a controversial figure in Nazi Germany until his official "rehabilitation" by Adolf Hitler and Joseph Goebbels, after which Charlemagne was officially presented in a positive manner in Nazi Germany.
Q499909
Saxon Wars
EVE
Q43482
Frankish
MEDIA
Q3044
Charlemagne
PER
Q101985
Saxons
Concept
Q463573
suzerainty
Concept
Q76386
Irminsul
LOC
Q1122452
Saxon paganism
Concept
Q59532
Christianize
Concept
Q486551
Verden
LOC
Q1197
Lower Saxony
LOC
Q183
Germany
LOC
Q564409
Royal Frankish Annals
ORG
Q370744
German nationalists
Concept
Q7318
Nazi Germany
Concept
Q44687
Schutzstaffel
Concept
Q352
Adolf Hitler
PER
Q41749
Joseph Goebbels
PER
Q820211
Massacre of Verden
EVE
1870-01-01T00:00:00Z^^http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#dateTime
1870
DATE
1935-01-01T00:00:00Z^^http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#dateTime
1935
DATE
+19^^http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#decimal
19
NUMBER
+20^^http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#decimal
20
NUMBER
country
country
significant person