Hecker Uprising
Encyclopedia
Monarchy
A monarchy is a form of government in which the office of head of state is usually held until death or abdication and is often hereditary and includes a royal house. In some cases, the monarch is elected...
and establish a republic
Republic
A republic is a form of government in which the people, or some significant portion of them, have supreme control over the government and where offices of state are elected or chosen by elected people. In modern times, a common simplified definition of a republic is a government where the head of...
in the Grand Duchy of Baden
Grand Duchy of Baden
The Grand Duchy of Baden was a historical state in the southwest of Germany, on the east bank of the Rhine. It existed between 1806 and 1918.-History:...
. The main action of the uprising consisted of an armed civilian militia under the leadership of Friedrich Hecker moving from Konstanz
Konstanz
Konstanz is a university city with approximately 80,000 inhabitants located at the western end of Lake Constance in the south-west corner of Germany, bordering Switzerland. The city houses the University of Konstanz.-Location:...
in the direction of Karlsruhe
Karlsruhe
The City of Karlsruhe is a city in the southwest of Germany, in the state of Baden-Württemberg, located near the French-German border.Karlsruhe was founded in 1715 as Karlsruhe Palace, when Germany was a series of principalities and city states...
with the intention of joining with another armed group under the leadership of Georg Herwegh
Georg Herwegh
Georg Friedrich Rudolph Theodor Herwegh was a German revolutionary poet.-Biography:He was born in Stuttgart on 31 May 1817, the son of an innkeeper...
there to topple the government. The two groups were halted independently by the troops of the German Confederation
German Confederation
The German Confederation was the loose association of Central European states created by the Congress of Vienna in 1815 to coordinate the economies of separate German-speaking countries. It acted as a buffer between the powerful states of Austria and Prussia...
before they could combine forces. The Hecker Uprising was the first large uprising of the Baden Revolution and became, along with its leader, part of the national myth.
Background
In the Grand Duchy of Baden, which already had a relatively liberal constitution enacted under the politically moderate Grand Duke LeopoldLeopold, Grand Duke of Baden
Leopold I, Grand Duke of Baden succeeded in 1830 as the fourth Grand Duke of Baden....
, radical democratic ideas were strongly in vogue. The influence of the French February Revolution
February Revolution
The February Revolution of 1917 was the first of two revolutions in Russia in 1917. Centered around the then capital Petrograd in March . Its immediate result was the abdication of Tsar Nicholas II, the end of the Romanov dynasty, and the end of the Russian Empire...
, which had proclaimed the Second Republic
French Second Republic
The French Second Republic was the republican government of France between the 1848 Revolution and the coup by Louis-Napoléon Bonaparte which initiated the Second Empire. It officially adopted the motto Liberté, Égalité, Fraternité...
several weeks before, was stronger in Baden than anywhere in Germany.
The uprising is named after its leader, the 37-year-old lawyer from Mannheim
Mannheim
Mannheim is a city in southwestern Germany. With about 315,000 inhabitants, Mannheim is the second-largest city in the Bundesland of Baden-Württemberg, following the capital city of Stuttgart....
, Friedrich Hecker, who in 1848 was already the spokesman for the liberal-democratic opposition in the Second Chamber of the Baden Parliament.
Hecker, Herwegh, and Gustav Struve
Gustav Struve
Gustav Struve, known as Gustav von Struve until he gave up his title, , was a German politician, lawyer and publicist, and a revolutionary during the German revolution of 1848-1849 in Baden...
were well-known representatives of the Left in northern Baden. In the preparatory parliament of the March Revolution, however, they were in the minority with their radical, far reaching anti-monarchical ideas. The majority of the bourgeois liberal representatives of the revolution, who mostly came from the upper-middle class favored a constitutional monarchy
Constitutional monarchy
Constitutional monarchy is a form of government in which a monarch acts as head of state within the parameters of a constitution, whether it be a written, uncodified or blended constitution...
under a hereditary emperor, in which liberal reforms would be possible.
Hecker and Struve had taken part in the Frankfurt preliminary parliament from March 31 to April 4, 1848. In Frankfurt
Frankfurt
Frankfurt am Main , commonly known simply as Frankfurt, is the largest city in the German state of Hesse and the fifth-largest city in Germany, with a 2010 population of 688,249. The urban area had an estimated population of 2,300,000 in 2010...
, however, they had suffered both personal and political losses. Neither managed to be elected to the Fünfzigerausschuss, a committee of 50 chosen to bridge the period until the formation of a proper national parliament and their political ideas were not greeted positively. Disappointed, Hecker decided to advance the revolution in other ways, first in his native Baden.
Preparation
The city of KonstanzKonstanz
Konstanz is a university city with approximately 80,000 inhabitants located at the western end of Lake Constance in the south-west corner of Germany, bordering Switzerland. The city houses the University of Konstanz.-Location:...
on the edge of Lake Constance
Lake Constance
Lake Constance is a lake on the Rhine at the northern foot of the Alps, and consists of three bodies of water: the Obersee , the Untersee , and a connecting stretch of the Rhine, called the Seerhein.The lake is situated in Germany, Switzerland and Austria near the Alps...
seemed to Hecker a suitable as a starting point. The capital of the Lake Constance District
Bodenseekreis
Bodenseekreis is a district in the south-east of Baden-Württemberg, Germany. Neighboring districts are Konstanz, Sigmaringen, Ravensburg and Lindau...
was regarded as particularly receptive to liberal ideas and Hecker expected to find many supporters in the city and surrounding countryside. Several groups of liberal and republican-minded citizens had already emerged in Konstanz in the 1830s. Joseph Fickler
Joseph Fickler
Joseph Fickler was a German journalist. A democrat by philosophy, Fickler became a leader of the Baden democratic movement. In 1849, he became a member of the Baden revolutionary provisional government. He died in 1865.-References:...
had emerged as a local agitator in the Vormärz
Vormärz
' is the time period leading up to the failed March 1848 revolution in the German Confederation. Also known as the Age of Metternich, it was a period of Austrian and Prussian police states and vast censorship in response to calls for liberalism...
period before the failed March revolutions of 1848. He was the publisher and editor of the Seeblätter, a radical-democratic newspaper. Under Fickler's leadership a sports club was founded on March 31. With 40 charter members, the goal of the club was "to form an armed, but free corps" and shortly thereafter became a nationally-established liberal Workers Association. Fickler's arrest on April 8, 1848 gave Hecker the final impetus he needed to head to Konstanz.
In fact, a somewhat republican but primarily militant mood prevailed in the spring of 1848 in the citizenry of Konstanz. Since March 5, 1848, there had been a permanent Citizens Committee, convened at a public meeting, which was to represent the political citizenship at the pre-parliamentary assemblies in Offenburg
Offenburg
Offenburg is a city located in the state of Baden-Württemberg, Germany. With about 60,000 inhabitants, it is the largest city and the capital of the Ortenaukreis.Offenburg also houses University of Applied Sciences Offenburg...
. The situation in the city was tense. On the - as it turned out false - rumor that tens of thousands of armed and unarmed Frenchmen near Offenburg crossed the border to ravage the country, on March 26 a general arming of the citizenry took place. Franz Sigel
Franz Sigel
Franz Sigel was a German military officer, revolutionist and immigrant to the United States who was a teacher, newspaperman, politician, and served as a Union major general in the American Civil War.-Early life:...
, a former officer who was in the quasi-militarized city, organized a militia of 400 men on behalf of the mayor, Mayor Charles Hüetlin. The hopes of Hecker and Struve were based on the militia.
Hecker arrived in Konstanz on the evening of April 11. To escape arrest, he had traveled through France and Switzerland. Together with Franz Sigel
Franz Sigel
Franz Sigel was a German military officer, revolutionist and immigrant to the United States who was a teacher, newspaperman, politician, and served as a Union major general in the American Civil War.-Early life:...
, Gustav Struve
Gustav Struve
Gustav Struve, known as Gustav von Struve until he gave up his title, , was a German politician, lawyer and publicist, and a revolutionary during the German revolution of 1848-1849 in Baden...
, and Theodor Mogling, who had arrived earlier, he planned the next steps: Four columns were to march and meet up in Karlsruhe, one of Constance, two on different routes of Donaueschingen
Donaueschingen
Donaueschingen is a German town in the Black Forest in the southwest of the federal state of Baden-Württemberg in the Schwarzwald-Baar Kreis. It stands near the confluence of the two sources of the river Danube ....
, and a fourth over upper Black Forest
Black Forest
The Black Forest is a wooded mountain range in Baden-Württemberg, southwestern Germany. It is bordered by the Rhine valley to the west and south. The highest peak is the Feldberg with an elevation of 1,493 metres ....
, from St. Blasien
St. Blasien
St. Blasien is a town in the Waldshut district in Baden-Württemberg, Germany. It is situated in the southern Black Forest, 17 km northeast of Waldshut-Tiengen. St. Blaise's Abbey in the Black Forest is located in St. Blasien. The town is twinned with Saint-Blaise in Switzerland. There is also...
and Waldshut
Waldshut-Tiengen
Waldshut-Tiengen is a city in southwestern Baden-Württemberg right at the Swiss border. It is the district seat and at the same time the biggest city in Waldshut district and a "middle centre" in the area of the "high centre" Lörrach/Weil am Rhein to whose middle area most towns and communities in...
. They hoped for a snowball effect: the columns were supposed to gain more and more people en route so that the state should eventually collapse like a house of cards.
.
The Konstanz Republicans, however, opposed Hecker's plan as unrealistic and dangerous. The troops of the German Confederation were said to be stationed all around and the operation was poorly prepared. They refused to support an armed uprising as the people had only armed themselves as protection against foreign enemies. Hecker pressed for a public meeting, he hoped to find the people more open to his plan. The People's Assembly was held on April 12 in the afternoon at about five o'clock in the Town Hall. There Hecker outlined his political stance and called on the people to participate in his plan. He and his companions did not find the expected enthusiastic reception. In the tumultuous atmosphere Hecker met with threats and hostility. Although he was speaking to a republican-minded majority, neither the Citizens Committee, nor the People's Assembly, or the militia immediately wanted to join his Revolution.
Shortly thereafter the myth arose that Hecker that evening, from the balcony of City Hall, and before an enthusiastic crowd,declared the Republic. None of the three reporting newspapers, not even the leftist Seeblätter, however, mention such an event, an actual proclamation certainly would have found expression in the press. In the context of the events of that evening, it seems unlikely, moreover, that this was anything more than just a rumor. Nevertheless, this myth remained very stubborn, and was often used in post-revolutionary republican propaganda.
The uprising
The goal of the uprising, which departed from Konstanz the day after the People's Assembly, was to advance towards the Rhine plain in order to meet there with another Republican volunteer army that was advancing from France, the 900-strong German Democratic Legion under the poet George Herwegh. Together, they wanted to occupy Karlsruhe the capital of Baden, dethrone the Grand Duke, and enforce a German Republic.Beginnings
The first day of the uprising, Thursday, April 13, 1848, was a disaster. On the same evening that Hecker had encountered such strong opposition at the People's Assembly, Franz Sigel had assigned his militia to take part in the revolution. However, this was prevented by Mayor Karl Hüetlin. The following morning 150 men gathered in the market square, but with the rainy weather and the strategic futility of the venture apparent, only 30-50 men eventually joined. With Hecker, Sigel and Mogling they moved at around eight o'clock from the city - the number of curious spectators was probably significantly greater than that of the participants. Hecker, "Leader of the Insurrection and Supreme Commander," wearing his uniform of the revolution in which he appeared like a romantic robber chief: blue shirt, sword and pistol on his belt and the distinctive, wide-brimmed "Hecker hat".The unified throng of the country people they had hoped for failed to appear. However, as they moved northwest, through Allensbach
Allensbach
Allensbach is a municipality in the district of Konstanz in Baden-Württemberg in Germany, which is known for being the home of the Institut für Demoskopie Allensbach, one of the best known polling organizations in Germany....
, Radolfzell
Radolfzell
Radolfzell am Bodensee is a town in Germany at the western end of Lake Constance approximately 18 km northwest of Konstanz. It is the third largest town, after Constance and Singen, in the district of Konstanz, in Baden-Württemberg....
, Stockach
Stockach
Stockach is a town in the district of Konstanz, in southern Baden-Württemberg, Germany.-Location:It is situated in the Hegau region, about 5 km northwest of Lake Constance, 13 km north of Radolfzell and 25 km northwest of Konstanz....
and Engen
Engen
Engen was a Japanese era of the Southern Court during the Era of Northern and Southern Courts after Kemmu and before Kōkoku, lasting from February 1336 to April 1340...
, volunteers from the isolated villages joined, so that the train grew slowly. In a few places such as Singen am Hohentwiel, the entire militia joined. Also in Konstanz some supporters finally surfaced. On the first day after the departure, April 14, a large crowd of Hecker supporters gathered to follow the main body. There was an armed confrontation outside the city chancellery, which almost degenerated into a small civil war. The supporters were encouraged by the (false) rumor circulating that thousands of farmers had joined Hecker. Eventually, on the 15th, between 150 and 250 volunteers with two artillery pieces behind them left Konstanz, reportedly accompanied by "jubilant crowds."
Makeup of Hecker's army
On the first day, between 30 and 50 men comprised the entirety of Hecker's fighting force. Around 120 to 250 more men from Konstanz followed on the second and third day. However, a week later, at the "Battle of Kandern", the force had grown to between 800 to 1200 men. Besides the men from Konstanz, most were from villages the column moved through or passed near. Many spontaneously decided to join - mostly small groups of citizens or sometimes a local militia. There were participants from Dettighofen, Stockach, Singen on Hohentwiel, Emmingen ab EggEmmingen-Liptingen
Emmingen-Liptingen is a town in the district of Tuttlingen in Baden-Württemberg in Germany.-History:Emmingen was first mentioned in 820, Liptingen in 761. The municipalities were combined in 1975.-External links:*...
, Liptingen, Immendingen
Immendingen
Immendingen is a town in the district of Tuttlingen in Baden-Württemberg in Germany....
, Freiburg, Möhringen
Tuttlingen
Tuttlingen is a town in Baden-Württemberg, capital of the district Tuttlingen. Nendingen, Möhringen and Eßlingen are three former municipalities that belong to Tuttlingen...
, Grimmelshofen, Geisingen
Geisingen
Geisingen is a town in the district of Tuttlingen, in Baden-Württemberg, Germany. It is situated on the Danube, 13 km southwest of Tuttlingen, and 21 km southeast of Villingen-Schwenningen.- History :...
, Bjorndal, Falkau
Feldberg, Baden-Württemberg
Feldberg is a municipality in the district of Breisgau-Hochschwarzwald in Baden-Württemberg in southern Germany. It is located near the Feldberg. At an elevation of 1277m, it is considered the highest village in Germany.-External links:*...
, Gurtweil, Tiengen
Waldshut-Tiengen
Waldshut-Tiengen is a city in southwestern Baden-Württemberg right at the Swiss border. It is the district seat and at the same time the biggest city in Waldshut district and a "middle centre" in the area of the "high centre" Lörrach/Weil am Rhein to whose middle area most towns and communities in...
, and Utzenfeld
Utzenfeld
Utzenfeld is a town in the district of Lörrach in Baden-Württemberg in Germany.-Geography:Utzenfeld is a community in the Black Forest in Baden-Württemberg. It is a member of the Schönau Community Administration Association in the Black Forest...
. Even after the defeat of the uprising people continued to try to join, either from lack of information or to protest against the occupation of the country.
About 60 percent of the participants in the uprising were craftsmen (22.5% masters and 35% journeyman). Many of them were poor, many because their social situation had deteriorated, especially in the famine of 1846/47. Many journeymen could find no work and had little hope of being able to become masters themselves. Even master craftsmen often had virtually no way to make even a modest living. The remaining participants were manufacturers were also among the participants, as well as students from the University of Freiburg
University of Freiburg
The University of Freiburg , sometimes referred to in English as the Albert Ludwig University of Freiburg, is a public research university located in Freiburg im Breisgau, Baden-Württemberg, Germany.The university was founded in 1457 by the Habsburg dynasty as the...
and farmers.
Defeat
Within days, the uprising was crushed. On April 14 military units of the German Confederation, under the command of General Friedrich von Gagern set themselves on the heels of Hecker's column. On the 16th, Hecker had to turn south towards Stühlingen and Bonndorf without having reached Donaueschingen, in order to avoid a clash with the Confederation troops. He was cut off from the lower Rhine; MannheimMannheim
Mannheim is a city in southwestern Germany. With about 315,000 inhabitants, Mannheim is the second-largest city in the Bundesland of Baden-Württemberg, following the capital city of Stuttgart....
, Heidelberg
Heidelberg
-Early history:Between 600,000 and 200,000 years ago, "Heidelberg Man" died at nearby Mauer. His jaw bone was discovered in 1907; with scientific dating, his remains were determined to be the earliest evidence of human life in Europe. In the 5th century BC, a Celtic fortress of refuge and place of...
, and Karlsruhe were now unattainable. The army forced Hecker's column farther and farther to the southwest, until in Kandern, in the extreme southwest corner of the country, Hecker found himself forced to face them. The battle took place on the 20th. About 800 Hecker supporters faced around 2,000 soldiers from the governments of Hessen and Baden. The confederation troops were not only in the superior, but also better armed and trained. There were casualties on both sides. General von Gagern was among the first casualties of the battle, but the guerrillas were routed. Hecker and Struve were able to escape and fled to Switzerland.
Aftermath
It took several days before the news of Hecker's defeat spread. Meanwhile, militia groups continued to set out to join the uprising. In Freiburg im Breisgau, although they had been informed of the defeat of the uprising, a public meeting on April 23 decided to take up arms against the approximately 3,000 soldiers who had arrived. The uprising was bloodily suppressed.A week after the Battle of Kandern, on April 27, Herwegh's group was finally defeated at Dossenbach. His 650 men had only crossed the Rhine on April 23 - too late to come to Hecker's aid. On April 25, Bavarian soldiers arrived at Konstanz. The Lake Constance and the Upper Rhine Districts were in a state of war. A number of revolutionaries were arrested. The city remained under siege until March, 1849. With that, the first major republican revolutionary uprising in Baden failed. The rumor, Hecker was planning another uprising from Switzerland, persisted for months. Hecker, however, who could hardly still hope for a revolution in Baden, traveled through France and took up residence in the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
, only to return briefly in May 1849 as the revolution flared up again. Gustav von Struve remained in the area and tried in September 1848 in Lörrach
Lörrach
Lörrach is a city in southwest Germany, in the valley of the Wiese, close to the French and the Swiss border. It is the capital of the district of Lörrach in Baden-Württemberg. The biggest industry is the chocolate factory Milka...
to foment another uprising, which also failed. Georg Herwegh, who had also fled to Switzerland, took no more part in the Baden republican revolutions. Only Franz Sigel, the former military, participated in the May Uprisings and the Constitution Campaigns of 1849 and in the June 1849 was named Minister of War in the short-lived Republic of Baden
Republic of Baden
The Republic of Baden was a state of Germany during the time of the Weimar Republic, formed after the abolition of the Grand Duchy of Baden in 1918...
, which ended with the capture of Rastatt
Rastatt
Rastatt is a city and baroque residence in the District of Rastatt, Baden-Württemberg, Germany. It is located on the Murg river, above its junction with the Rhine and has a population of around 50'000...
by Prussian troops on July 23, 1849.
Sources
- Marliese Hermann: Untersuchungen zur Revolution von 1848/49 in Konstanz. Magisterarbeit, Konstanz 1999
- Georg Heym: Die Revolution (Theaterstück)
- Gert Zang: Konstanz in der Großherzoglichen Zeit. Restauration, Revolution, Liberale Ära 1806 bis 1870. Konstanz: Stadler 1994. ISBN 3-7977-0301-5