Museum Lützen 1632
The battle of 6 November 1632 made Lützen a major stage of world history. The new Lützen 1632 Museum urges for peace with an impressive exhibit.
Relive history
Two armies, 40,000 soldiers, one king: the "Battle of Lützen" was one of the largest and bloodiest battles of the Thirty Years' War. About 8,000 men lost their lives together with the Swedish King Gustav II Adolf.
The Gustav Adolf Memorial has always honoured the Swedish king. Since autumn 2023 the adjacent Museum Lützen 1632 commemorates also also the thousands of dead soldiers. In addition to numerous historical artefacts, the museum offers its visitors an extraordinary highlight: the exhibition of an original mass grave with fallen soldiers from the battle.
47 out of 8,000
The mass grave was discovered in August 2011, the only one of the battle so far, and was first exhibited in Halle (Saale) and Vienna after being painstakingly recovered and prepared. The tomb, which is displayed vertically, measures three and a half by four and a half metres and weighs around 1.6 tonnes, is now the centrepiece of the museum.
Each of the 47 skeletons is just as shocking as the entirety of the senseless victims of a battle without a victor, thrown into and on top of each other. They make the Lützen 1632 Museum an impressive place of contemplation and reflection on the horrors of war.