On April 16, 1525 (Easter Sunday), during the German Peasants' War, the peasants attacked and destroyed the castle, which was already damaged from an earlier attack in 1504. They then proceeded to execute the nobleman who had been in command of both town and castle and who had treated the peasants very badly several times before. The execution was an unprecedented move and shocked and outraged the German nobility and clergy. They had the town destroyed several weeks later, on May 21, even though the townspeople had had nothing to do with the execution.