German campaign (Napoleonic Wars)
Encyclopedia
The German Campaign was the campaign which ended the War of the Sixth Coalition
, itself part of the Napoleonic Wars
. It took place in Germany during Napoleon's retreat from Russia
. In Germany itself it became known as the Befreiungskriege (Wars of Liberation) or Freiheitskriege (Wars of Freedom) - both terms were used at the time, both by liberals and nationalists in terms of a unified and democratic Germany and by conservatives after the Bourbon Restoration
to mean freeing Europe from French hegemony
and occupation. It is also known as the europäischen Befreiungskriege (European Wars of Liberation), to distinguish it from the 1808 Spanish Uprising
.
, Johann Gottlieb Fichte
, Ernst Moritz Arndt
, Friedrich Ludwig Jahn
and Theodor Körner
had been criticising the Napoleonic occupation of Germany. They advocated limitations to the dynastic princes of Germany and a joint effort by all Germans to eject the French. From 1810 Arndt and Jahn asked high-ranking figures in Prussian society again and again to prepare such an uprising. Jahn himself organised the German League and made a major contribution to the founding of the Lützow Free Corps
. These forerunners took part in the outbreak of hostilities in Germany, both by serving in the armed forces and by backing the Coalition forces through their writings.
. This was the decisive factor in the outbreak of the German Campaign the following year.
Even before the German Campaign broke out in earnest, there were uprisings against the French troops occupying Germany - these had broken out from 1806 onwards in Hesse
and in 1809 in the Tyrol
, the latter led by Andreas Hofer
. These uprisings intensified in the same year under Wilhelm von Dörnberg
, the initiator and commander-in-chief of the Hessischen uprising, and Major Ferdinand von Schill
.
On 17 March 1813 - the day Alexander I of Russia
arrived in the Hoflager of Frederick William III of Prussia
- Prussia declared war on France. On 20 March 1813 the Schlesische privilegierte Zeitung newspaper published Frederick's speech entitled An Mein Volk
, delivered on 17 March and calling for a war of liberation. In addition to newly-formed Prussian units such as the Landwehr
and Landsturm
, the initial fighting was undertaken by volunteers such as German volunteer troops and Jäger
and Free Corps (such as the Lützow Free Corps
) and the soldiers of Russia and (from summer 1813 onwards) Sweden under Crown Prince Charles John
(the former French marshal Bernadotte) and Austria under field marshal Schwarzenberg. Already busy with maintaining naval supremacy and fighting the Peninsular War
, Great Britain did not take any direct part in the German campaign, though it sent subsidies to support it.
Via the Trachenberg Plan, the ministers of Prussia, Russia and Sweden agreed to pursue a single allied strategy against Napoleon. The high point of this strategy was the Battle of Leipzig
in October 1813, which ended in Napoleon's defeat. The Confederation of the Rhine
, an alliance of west German rulers allied to France, had already lost battles against the Allies in Bavaria and Saxony and after the defeat at Leipzig dissolved completely. This completely broke Napoleon's power to the east of the river Rhine. The German campaign's final phase took place in the early months of 1814, coinciding with the Duke of Wellington
's march up through southern France and ending in Napoleon's abdication and the Treaty of Paris
.
' (Franzosenzeit) in Germany and caused the Prussian reforms
, which had far-reaching political and social consequences. The popular image of the campaign in Germany was shaped by the cultural memory of its veterans, especially the many students who volunteered to fight in the Lutzow Free Corps and other units who later rose to high positions in the military and political spheres. A new boom in remembrance of the war occurred in 1913, on the centenary of its outbreak.
War of the Sixth Coalition
In the War of the Sixth Coalition , a coalition of Austria, Prussia, Russia, the United Kingdom, Portugal, Sweden, Spain and a number of German States finally defeated France and drove Napoleon Bonaparte into exile on Elba. After Napoleon's disastrous invasion of Russia, the continental powers...
, itself part of the Napoleonic Wars
Napoleonic Wars
The Napoleonic Wars were a series of wars declared against Napoleon's French Empire by opposing coalitions that ran from 1803 to 1815. As a continuation of the wars sparked by the French Revolution of 1789, they revolutionised European armies and played out on an unprecedented scale, mainly due to...
. It took place in Germany during Napoleon's retreat from Russia
French invasion of Russia
The French invasion of Russia of 1812 was a turning point in the Napoleonic Wars. It reduced the French and allied invasion forces to a tiny fraction of their initial strength and triggered a major shift in European politics as it dramatically weakened French hegemony in Europe...
. In Germany itself it became known as the Befreiungskriege (Wars of Liberation) or Freiheitskriege (Wars of Freedom) - both terms were used at the time, both by liberals and nationalists in terms of a unified and democratic Germany and by conservatives after the Bourbon Restoration
Bourbon Restoration
The Bourbon Restoration is the name given to the period following the successive events of the French Revolution , the end of the First Republic , and then the forcible end of the First French Empire under Napoleon – when a coalition of European powers restored by arms the monarchy to the...
to mean freeing Europe from French hegemony
Hegemony
Hegemony is an indirect form of imperial dominance in which the hegemon rules sub-ordinate states by the implied means of power rather than direct military force. In Ancient Greece , hegemony denoted the politico–military dominance of a city-state over other city-states...
and occupation. It is also known as the europäischen Befreiungskriege (European Wars of Liberation), to distinguish it from the 1808 Spanish Uprising
Peninsular War
The Peninsular War was a war between France and the allied powers of Spain, the United Kingdom, and Portugal for control of the Iberian Peninsula during the Napoleonic Wars. The war began when French and Spanish armies crossed Spain and invaded Portugal in 1807. Then, in 1808, France turned on its...
.
Context
Since 1806 writers and intellectuals such as Johann Philipp PalmJohann Philipp Palm
Johann Philipp Palm or Johannes Philipp Palm was a German bookseller executed during the Napoleonic Wars.He was born at Schorndorf in Württemberg...
, Johann Gottlieb Fichte
Johann Gottlieb Fichte
Johann Gottlieb Fichte was a German philosopher. He was one of the founding figures of the philosophical movement known as German idealism, a movement that developed from the theoretical and ethical writings of Immanuel Kant...
, Ernst Moritz Arndt
Ernst Moritz Arndt
Ernst Moritz Arndt was a German nationalistic and antisemitic author and poet. Early in his life, he fought for the abolition of serfdom, later against Napoleonic dominance over Germany, and had to flee to Sweden for some time due to his anti-French positions...
, Friedrich Ludwig Jahn
Friedrich Ludwig Jahn
Friedrich Ludwig Jahn was a German gymnastics educator and nationalist. He is commonly known as Turnvater Jahn, roughly meaning "father of gymnastics" Jahn.- Life :...
and Theodor Körner
Theodor Körner (author)
Karl Theodor Körner was a German poet and soldier. After some time in Vienna, where he wrote some light comedies and other works, he became a soldier and joined the German uprising against Napoleon...
had been criticising the Napoleonic occupation of Germany. They advocated limitations to the dynastic princes of Germany and a joint effort by all Germans to eject the French. From 1810 Arndt and Jahn asked high-ranking figures in Prussian society again and again to prepare such an uprising. Jahn himself organised the German League and made a major contribution to the founding of the Lützow Free Corps
Lützow Free Corps
Lützow Free Corps was a voluntary force of the Prussian army during the Napoleonic Wars. It was named after its commander, Ludwig Adolf Wilhelm von Lützow. They were also widely known as "Lützower Jäger" or "Schwarze Jäger" .-Origins:...
. These forerunners took part in the outbreak of hostilities in Germany, both by serving in the armed forces and by backing the Coalition forces through their writings.
Course
After the devastating defeat of Napoleon's Grande Armée in Russia in 1812, Ludwig Yorck von Wartenburg - the general in command of the Grande Armée's German auxiliaries (Hilfskorps) - declared a ceasefire with the Russians on 30 December 1812 via the Convention of TauroggenConvention of Tauroggen
The Convention of Tauroggen was a truce signed 30 December 1812 at Tauroggen , between Generalleutnant Ludwig Yorck von Wartenburg on behalf of his Prussian troops, and by General Hans Karl von Diebitsch of the Russian Army...
. This was the decisive factor in the outbreak of the German Campaign the following year.
Even before the German Campaign broke out in earnest, there were uprisings against the French troops occupying Germany - these had broken out from 1806 onwards in Hesse
Hesse
Hesse or Hessia is both a cultural region of Germany and the name of an individual German state.* The cultural region of Hesse includes both the State of Hesse and the area known as Rhenish Hesse in the neighbouring Rhineland-Palatinate state...
and in 1809 in the Tyrol
County of Tyrol
The County of Tyrol, Princely County from 1504, was a State of the Holy Roman Empire, from 1814 a province of the Austrian Empire and from 1867 a Cisleithanian crown land of Austria-Hungary...
, the latter led by Andreas Hofer
Andreas Hofer
Andreas Hofer was a Tirolean innkeeper and patriot. He was the leader of a rebellion against Napoleon's forces....
. These uprisings intensified in the same year under Wilhelm von Dörnberg
Wilhelm von Dörnberg
Wilhelm Caspar Ferdinand Freiherr von Dörnberg was a German general. He was also known as 'Aufstandsdörnberg' or 'Uprising Dörnberg', for his part in the German campaign of the Napoleonic Wars...
, the initiator and commander-in-chief of the Hessischen uprising, and Major Ferdinand von Schill
Ferdinand von Schill
Ferdinand Baptista von Schill was a Prussian officer who revolted unsuccessfully against French domination in May 1809.-Life:...
.
On 17 March 1813 - the day Alexander I of Russia
Alexander I of Russia
Alexander I of Russia , served as Emperor of Russia from 23 March 1801 to 1 December 1825 and the first Russian King of Poland from 1815 to 1825. He was also the first Russian Grand Duke of Finland and Lithuania....
arrived in the Hoflager of Frederick William III of Prussia
Frederick William III of Prussia
Frederick William III was king of Prussia from 1797 to 1840. He was in personal union the sovereign prince of the Principality of Neuchâtel .-Early life:...
- Prussia declared war on France. On 20 March 1813 the Schlesische privilegierte Zeitung newspaper published Frederick's speech entitled An Mein Volk
An Mein Volk
The proclamation An Mein Volk was issued by Frederick William III of Prussia on 17 March 1813 in Breslau . Addressed to his subjects, Preußen und Deutsche , it appealed for their support in the struggle against Napoleon...
, delivered on 17 March and calling for a war of liberation. In addition to newly-formed Prussian units such as the Landwehr
Landwehr
Landwehr, or Landeswehr, is a German language term used in referring to certain national armies, or militias found in nineteenth- and early twentieth-century Europe. In different context it refers to large scale, low strength fortifications...
and Landsturm
Landsturm
German-speaking countries used the word Landsturm to refer to third-class infantry or militias.- 1813 :King Frederick William III of Prussia established the Prussian Landsturm as irregular military forces on 21 April 1813 by royal edict – the decree appeared in the preussische Gesetzesammlung...
, the initial fighting was undertaken by volunteers such as German volunteer troops and Jäger
Jäger (military)
Jäger is a term that was adopted in the Enlightenment era in German-speaking states and others influenced by German military practice to describe a kind of light infantry, and it has continued in that use since then....
and Free Corps (such as the Lützow Free Corps
Lützow Free Corps
Lützow Free Corps was a voluntary force of the Prussian army during the Napoleonic Wars. It was named after its commander, Ludwig Adolf Wilhelm von Lützow. They were also widely known as "Lützower Jäger" or "Schwarze Jäger" .-Origins:...
) and the soldiers of Russia and (from summer 1813 onwards) Sweden under Crown Prince Charles John
Charles XIV John of Sweden
Charles XIV & III John, also Carl John, Swedish and Norwegian: Karl Johan was King of Sweden and King of Norway from 1818 until his death...
(the former French marshal Bernadotte) and Austria under field marshal Schwarzenberg. Already busy with maintaining naval supremacy and fighting the Peninsular War
Peninsular War
The Peninsular War was a war between France and the allied powers of Spain, the United Kingdom, and Portugal for control of the Iberian Peninsula during the Napoleonic Wars. The war began when French and Spanish armies crossed Spain and invaded Portugal in 1807. Then, in 1808, France turned on its...
, Great Britain did not take any direct part in the German campaign, though it sent subsidies to support it.
Via the Trachenberg Plan, the ministers of Prussia, Russia and Sweden agreed to pursue a single allied strategy against Napoleon. The high point of this strategy was the Battle of Leipzig
Battle of Leipzig
The Battle of Leipzig or Battle of the Nations, on 16–19 October 1813, was fought by the coalition armies of Russia, Prussia, Austria and Sweden against the French army of Napoleon. Napoleon's army also contained Polish and Italian troops as well as Germans from the Confederation of the Rhine...
in October 1813, which ended in Napoleon's defeat. The Confederation of the Rhine
Confederation of the Rhine
The Confederation of the Rhine was a confederation of client states of the First French Empire. It was formed initially from 16 German states by Napoleon after he defeated Austria's Francis II and Russia's Alexander I in the Battle of Austerlitz. The Treaty of Pressburg, in effect, led to the...
, an alliance of west German rulers allied to France, had already lost battles against the Allies in Bavaria and Saxony and after the defeat at Leipzig dissolved completely. This completely broke Napoleon's power to the east of the river Rhine. The German campaign's final phase took place in the early months of 1814, coinciding with the Duke of Wellington
Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of Wellington
Field Marshal Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of Wellington, KG, GCB, GCH, PC, FRS , was an Irish-born British soldier and statesman, and one of the leading military and political figures of the 19th century...
's march up through southern France and ending in Napoleon's abdication and the Treaty of Paris
Treaty of Paris (1814)
The Treaty of Paris, signed on 30 May 1814, ended the war between France and the Sixth Coalition, part of the Napoleonic Wars, following an armistice signed on 23 May between Charles, Count of Artois, and the allies...
.
Results
The campaign ended the 'French periodFrench period
In north European and German historiography, the French period was a late 19th century term for the era between 1794 and 1815, during which most of Europe were directly or indirectly under French rule or within the French sphere of influence...
' (Franzosenzeit) in Germany and caused the Prussian reforms
Prussian reforms
The Prussian reforms were a series of constitutional, administrative, social and economic reforms of the kingdom of Prussia. They are sometimes known as the Stein-Hardenberg Reforms after Karl Freiherr vom Stein and Karl August Fürst von Hardenberg, their main instigators...
, which had far-reaching political and social consequences. The popular image of the campaign in Germany was shaped by the cultural memory of its veterans, especially the many students who volunteered to fight in the Lutzow Free Corps and other units who later rose to high positions in the military and political spheres. A new boom in remembrance of the war occurred in 1913, on the centenary of its outbreak.
In German
- Lars Beißwenger: Der Befreiungskrieg von 1813. In: Josef J. Schmid (Hrsg.): Waterloo – 18. Juni 1815. Vorgeschichte, Verlauf und Folgen einer europäischen Schlacht Verlag nova & vetera, Bonn 2008, ISBN 978-3-936741-55-1, (Studia academica historica 1), S. 85–142.
- Christopher ClarkChristopher ClarkChristopher M. Clark is an Australian historian working in England. He was educated at Sydney Grammar School, the University of Sydney and the Freie Universität Berlin.-Life:...
: Preußen. Aufstieg und Niedergang. 1600 - 1947. 6. Auflage. DVA, München 2007, ISBN 978-3-421-05392-3. - Ewald Grothe: Befreiungskriege. In: Friedrich Jaeger (Hrsg.): Enzyklopädie der Neuzeit. Band 1: Abendland - Beleuchtung. Metzler, Stuttgart u. a. 2005, ISBN 3-476-01991-8, Sp. 1139–1146.
- Karen Hagemann: „Mannlicher Muth und Teutsche Ehre“. Nation, Militär und Geschlecht zur Zeit der antinapoleonischen Kriege Preußens. Schöningh, Paderborn u. a. 2002, ISBN 3-506-74477-1, (Krieg in der Geschichte 8), (Zugleich: Berlin, Techn. Univ., Habilschrift, 2000).
- Heinz Helmert, Hans-Jürgen Usczek: Europäische Befreiungskriege 1808-1814/15. Militärischer Verlauf. Militärverlag der Deutschen Demokratischen Republik, Belin 1976, (Kleine Militärgeschichte: Kriege).
- Eckart Kleßmann (Hrsg.): Die Befreiungskriege in Augenzeugenberichten. Lizenzausgabe. Ungekürzte Ausgabe. Deutscher Taschenbuch-Verlag, München 1973, ISBN 3-423-00912-8, (dtv 912 Augenzeugenberichte).
- Horst Kohl: Blüchers Zug von Auerstedt bis Ratkau und Lübecks Schreckenstage (1806). Quellenberichte. Neuauflage der Erstausgabe von 1912. Bearbeitet von Carola Herbst. Godewind Verlag, Wismar 2006, ISBN 3-938347-16-3.
- Märsche und Balladen aus den Freiheitskriegen 1813-1815. Studios Berlin-BRIO-Musikverlag, Berlin 2009, (CD).
- Golo MannGolo MannGolo Mann , born Angelus Gottfried Thomas Mann, was a popular German historian, essayist and writer. He was the third child of the novelist Thomas Mann and his wife Katia Mann.-Life:...
: Die Geschichte des 19. und 20. Jahrhundert. Hamburg 1966. - Carl Mönckeberg: Hamburg unter dem Drucke der Franzosen 1806-1814. Historische Denkwürdigkeiten. Reprint der Ausgabe Hamburg, Nolte, 1864. Godewind Verlag, Wismar 2006, ISBN 3-938347-66-X.
- Hermann Müller-Bohn: Die Deutschen Befreiungskriege 1806-1815. Erstes Buch: Unter französischem Joche. Veränderte Neuauflage. Bearbeitet von Hans J. Herbst. Godewind Verlag, Wismar 2006, ISBN 3-939198-77-3.
- Ute Planert: Der Mythos vom Befreiungskrieg. Frankreichs Kriege und der deutsche Süden. Alltag – Wahrnehmung – Deutung 1792-1841. Schöningh, Paderborn u. a. 2007, ISBN 978-3-506-75662-6, (Krieg in der Geschichte 33), (Zugleich: Tübingen, Univ., Habilschrift, 2003/04).
External links
- Bogdanovich Modest I. (1863) (in Russian). History of the War in 1813 for the independence of Germany (История войны 1813 года за независимость Германии) at Runivers.ru in DjVuDjVuDjVu is a computer file format designed primarily to store scanned documents, especially those containing a combination of text, line drawings, and photographs. It uses technologies such as image layer separation of text and background/images, progressive loading, arithmetic coding, and lossy...
and PDF formats Collection of historical eBooks about the War of the Sixth Coalition Befreiungskriege on BAM-Portal »Leipzigs Drangsale« on EPOCHE NAPOLEON Complete online facsimile of a diary of 1813 Die Eiserne Zeit – picture gallery on the German Campaign Battle of Leipzig Online literature on the German campaign 1806=15 Zur Hundertjahrfeier 1813-1913. Raphael Tuck's postcard series 932