Clubist

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As Klubisten (or Clubisten ) members of outside France in the wake of be French Revolution , founded in the 18th century Jacobin clubs frequently referred.

The "Mainz Clubists"

In Germany, clubists particularly refer to the members of the Mainz Jacobin Club "Friends of Freedom and Equality", founded on October 23, 1792 , who are considered to be the initiators of the Mainz Republic of 1793.

After the end of the short-lived republic and the occupation of Mainz by Prussian and Austrian troops, persecution began in which many clubists were victims of abuse before they were arrested by the occupation forces:

After the withdrawal of the French, the inhabitants were busy all day pulling the clubists out of the corners and arresting them; every moment you saw one covered with head wounds, with a broken nose, a scratched face, torn hair, more dead than alive, dragging through the streets and if the poor thief was given peace for a moment, he tore himself one and the other from the crowd and let out his anger again.

In the conquered Mainz, Goethe , too , witnessed the lynching practiced on the clubists, especially on July 24th and 25th. He writes about an "arch clubist" discovered at a roadside check:

But he is dragged to the next field, pounded and beaten terribly; all the limbs of his body are bruised, his face unrecognizable. A guard finally takes care of him, they take him to a farmhouse, where he was lying on straw from the assaults of his enemies of the city, but not from abuse, glee and abuse.

"The clubists had passed over in the surrender ... they were taken out of the withdrawing column without the French resisting. The people began to seize them ... ... that the imprisonment had an effect from below seems good to me . The mischief that these people have caused is great. That they are now leaving the French is right for the world to run ... " .

The main reason for the aggression emanating from expelled and returned Mainz residents was the many thousands of expropriations with deportation from the city within 24 hours decreed by the Mainz Convention with clubists at the top from March 25 to 29. Only a bundle of armbands was allowed, money and valuables were left behind and were confiscated. Existences and families were destroyed.

Many of the actual and alleged Mainz clubists were held captive at Königstein Fortress . Caroline Böhmer , a member of the family of one of the leading clubists and mistakenly regarded as his wife, also imprisoned there , writes about the situation:

They speak of formalities, they anticipate indictment, defense, investigation - where did this take place? Robber formalities are practiced on us - and they do not do well in the German eagerness to exclusively assign the robber trade to a nation. At least they shouldn't have to tell me that I saw 160 prisoners who had passed through German hands, plundered, beaten to the death, and despite the fact that very few of them really attached themselves to the Franks [ie the French], now the Germans Had to swear magnanimity. Königstein forms zealous sons of freedom - everything that stirs of strength in these arms rebels against this procedure.

Carolin Böhmer was released on July 5, 1793 by order of the Prussian king.

As long as the law of the electoral state continued to apply, the clubists had violated it many times. According to the official maxim already in force at the time, the law enforcement authorities therefore had to act on their own initiative. However, the electoral administration had demanded that a cautious assessment should be made of the clubists. Documents and collected data would have to prove allegations. On July 25th, 62 clubists were arrested between Landau and Bingen.

The clubists incarcerated in the fortresses of Königstein and Ehrenbreitstein near Koblenz were released in 1795 as part of a mutual release of prisoners agreed with France. Most joined the French army or exercised civil functions in occupied German territories. Former leading clubists like Metternich and Wedekind established themselves permanently in principalities. The latter was ennobled in 1809 and wrote works on the importance and merits of the nobility.

swell

literature

  • Heinrich Josef König : The clubists in Mainz. Novel. 3 volumes, Brockhaus, Leipzig 1847, OCLC 474221727 .
  • Walter Grab : Democratic currents in Hamburg and Schleswig-Holstein at the time of the first French republic (= publications of the Association for Hamburg History . Volume XXI). Hans Christians, Hamburg 1966, OCLC 3139814 (Dissertation University of Hamburg, Philosophical Faculty, October 20, 1966, 275 pages).
  • Karl Hochmuth: The Clubist Persecution 1793-1798 . Würzburg 1957, DNB 480734593 (Dissertation University of Würzburg, Philosophical Faculty, 1957, 168 pages).

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Frankfurter Journal, July 29, 1793; cited in Franz Blei Deutsche Litteratur-Pasquille 1907, p. 37
  2. ^ Siege of Mainz , July 25, 1793. In: Goethe Works. Hamburg edition. 1948ff. Vol. 10, p. 388
  3. ^ Goethe "Talks", Vol. 8
  4. ↑ Boehmer's letter to Gotter. Quoted in Eckart Kleßmann: Universitätsmamsellen. Frankfurt am Main 2008, pp. 201f
  5. ^ Resolution 1793 1/6 No. 2 in the Mainz City Archives
  6. ↑ The prisoners there were transferred to Petersberg near Erfurt in early 1794 .
  7. ↑ Refers mainly to the Mainz Club