Aside from its scientific importance, the experiment served to prove the recovery of the city of Magdeburg, which a mere two decades earlier had undergone the terrible Sack of Magdeburg - considered the worst atrocity of the Thirty Years' War - when 20,000 of its inhabitants were massacred, and only 4,000 remained at the end of the war in 1648. Otto von Guericke was concerned with both aspects of the experiment, in his double capacity as a leading scientist and as the Mayor of Magdeburg who worked tirelessly to restore the city's fortunes.