terrible story of German soldiers executing Belgian civilians, August 1914.

 terrible story of German soldiers executing Belgian civilians, August 1914.

Today 109 years ago, on August 25, 1914, the German Army began ravaging the Belgian city of Leuven, including its renowned university library.

On August 23, 1914, the Germans had carried out a particularly severe massacre in the Belgian town of Dinant, executing some 674 Belgian civilians by order of the local German commander.

On August 25, the Belgian Army delivered a sudden counter-attack, forcing the Germans to fall back to the city of Leuven. 

The retreat was disorganized and in the confusion which followed, the Germans claimed they had been assaulted by Belgian civilian free shooters from rooftops, which was illegal in war as per the 1907 Hague Convention.

At 8 PM, on August 25, 1914, a shooting reportedly broke out in the streets of Leuven between Belgian free shooters and German soldiers. 

In order to set an example, the Germans began breaking into civilian homes and ravaged Leuven over the course of the following 5 days.

Civilian homes were set ablaze and some 248 civilians of Leuven were killed in the onslaught, with another 10,000 becoming refugees. Men, who weren't beaten or shot in front of their families, were deported. Over 2,000 buildings were destroyed and large quantities of foodstuffs and industrial equipment were looted and taken back to Germany.

However, the sacking of Leuven would most of all be remembered for the deliberate burning of its historically and culturally significant university library, founded in 1426. 

Approximately 230,000 books were destroyed, including 950 Gothic and Renaissance manuscripts, a collection of 750 medieval manuscripts and more than 1,000 books printed prior to 1500 (incunabulas).

The sacking of Leuven and especially its library spawned international outcry and would sow the seeds for anti-German sentiments in neutral countries in the years to come.

In total, some 6,500 Belgian civilians (and 896 French) were executed by German authorities during the First World War, the far majority in 1914.

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