Thorsten Engler was a down-time German farmer who had lived near Amberg in the Upper Palatinate, until his village was destroyed in the war. By the end of 1633, he was in Magdeburg, where he was working at Quentin Underwood's coal gas-and-coke plant. He had recently been promoted from repairman to night shift foreman after the previous foreman had died of influenza. However, he had been rushed into the job without adequate training, and did not really understand why some things had to be done the way they were. This was significant because, thanks to the influenza outbreak, several people on the shift were doing jobs they had not been trained for, and did not really understand.