Both armies lived off the land. People outside the few fortified cities desperately tried to hide in forests and swamps. The lucky ones were killed outright. The unlucky ones were tortured for fun or to reveal their 'treasures' or hitched up to wagons in the army train. All livestock was consumed. Houses, churches, and fields burned. Nobody dared to plant or harvest. War and starvation were followed by epidemics and the Plague. Three out of four people died this year, some 225,000 altogether.
Banér reported home: "In Mecklenburg ist nichts als Sand und Luft, alles bis auf den Erdboden verheert; Dörfer sind mit krepiertem Vieh besät, die Häuser voll toter Menschen, der Jammer ist nicht zu beschreiben." - Mecklenburg is nothing more than sand and air. Everything has been destroyed to the ground. Villages are littered with dead animals. The houses are full of dead people. The misery is hard to describe.
The country lay in "rusch un busch", in reeds and weeds. Survivors became the most precious commodities and were officially made subjects of the manor, slaves, in 1648.
Serfdom ended in 1820.