Skip to content
VitrineVitrine
Sign in

Magdalene Sibylle of Brandenburg-Bayreuth

Bayreuth, 27 Oct 1612 – Dresden, 20 Mar 1687

10 facts3 sources

Facts and their sources

A life in time

  1. 27 Oct 1612

    Born in Bayreuth

  2. 1642–1647

    3 children are born

  3. 20 Mar 1687

    Dies in Dresden, aged 74

Family

See the tree

Parents

Partner

Children · 3

During her lifetime

She lived through 8 decades. Pick one to hear and see what it was like around Bayreuth.

General history, not a record about the family: each item says where it comes from.

The 1610s · Magdalene is born in Bayreuth

In the news1618–1648

Destruction of the Thirty Years' War

The Thirty Years' War, lasting from 1618 to 1648, caused a demographic catastrophe where roughly one-third of urban residents and two-fifths of the rural population perished. Soldiers and camp followers frequently destroyed crops and seized food, leading to widespread famine and forcing villagers to abandon their land.

At the table

Daily porridge served as the staple meal

Porridge was the primary daily meal, often cooked in large batches and reheated, leading to a tough consistency. Ordinary families ate it by reaching into a shared bowl with their hands.

What people wore

Standardized Outfits for the Poor

Charity donations in Nuremberg provided the poor with a standardized annual outfit, including a black woollen coat, waistcoat, stockings, hat, white linen shirt, and shoes, which remained unchanged for centuries.

Getting around

Frequent settlements provided support for travelers

Travelers on foot or with pack animals often relied on a network of paths where rural settlements were frequently spaced within a 10-kilometer distance of each other.

Work

Common roles included farmers and servants

Most people were village farmers, ranging from those owning enough land to sustain a family to smallholders who relied on additional wage labor, spinning, or weaving to survive. Others worked as life-cycle servants, such as farmhands and maids, who lived with an employer and provided labor in exchange for bed and board.

Music

Music in Homes and Religious Devotion

During the early seventeenth century, music was an integral part of home life, with keyboard tablatures enabling people to play compositions like dances or sacred works on instruments such as the organ, harpsichord, or clavichord. Meanwhile, religious life featured cradle devotions at Christmas, where music was played while rocking a cradle representing the Christ child.

Daily life

Shared living spaces under one roof

Rural families often lived in timber-framed houses under the same roof as their livestock, sharing space with multiple generations and servants. Living areas were often dark and smoky due to open hearths without chimneys, with light provided by small windows or simple peep-holes.