Battle of Aidenbach
| date | January 8, 1706 |
|---|---|
| place | Aidenbach |
| output | Decisive Habsburg victory |
| Territorial changes | Lower Bavaria, Upper Bavaria, Upper Palatinate |
| Parties to the conflict | |
|---|---|
| Commander | |
| Troop strength | |
| 3,000 - 7,000 | 1300 of them: 800 infantry 500 cavalry |
| losses | |
|
2,000-3,000 |
8-300 |
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The battle of Aidenbach took place on January 8, 1706 between approx. 3,000 Bavarian insurgents of the Bavarian state defense and imperial troops of the Habsburg Emperor Joseph I under General Sergeant Georg Friedrich von Kriechbaum . It was one of the smaller battles in the War of the Spanish Succession. But it was important in that the uprising of the Bavarian people against the imperial occupation was, according to Henric L. Wuermeling , the "first revolution in modern history".
prehistory
During the War of the Spanish Succession (1702–1712), the French and Bavarian troops were defeated by the Allies in the Battle of Höchstädt in 1704 . For France the battle meant a turning point, for the smaller partner Bavaria the military end. The elector Max Emanuel was given the imperial ban and went to Brussels under French protection, where he had already resided as governor of the Spanish Netherlands in the 1690s . The reign of the Wittelsbachers temporarily went into the hands of the Bavarian Electress Therese Kunigunde . In the spring of 1705, however, Emperor Leopold I died . His son and successor Joseph I had the Bavarian Oberland and the royal seat of Munich occupied and taxes increased dramatically. In the autumn of 1705 a compulsory eviction was ordered throughout the electorate. As a consequence, there were first uprisings and acts of violence by the men affected by the forced eviction in the Upper Palatinate , Lower Bavaria and the area around Tölz , which already shaped the slogan for the following revolts: "Liaba bairisch steam [die], als Kaiserlich verdeam [ spoil] ”. Burghausen was besieged and surrendered to the rebels on December 16, 1705, as did Braunau shortly afterwards . These two cities thus became the military and political centers of the insurrectionary movement. The entire area between Danube and Inn was conquered and the uprising spread to the Bavarian Forest and Kelheim an der Donau. The first democratic structure of modern Europe, the so-called "Gmein der Bürger und Bauern" or the " Braunau Parliament ", arose in Braunau . With the suppression of the uprising of the Oberlanders in the Sendlinger Murder Christmas , the imperial troops set about putting down the uprising for good. On January 1, 1706, General Wachtmeister von Kriechbaum began the advance towards Vilshofen via Neumarkt and Eggenfelden .
Course of the battle
On January 8, 1706, the imperial troops met a 3,000 to 7,000 strong peasant army near Aidenbach , the last contingent of the Bavarian state defense. A terrible slaughter ensued, in which more than 2000 men were killed. The defeat of Aidenbach meant the end of the insurgent army.
The imperial troops claimed to be victorious without major losses of their own after the unorganized insurgents quickly fled the battlefield. The imperial troops killed some of the rebels when they had already surrendered and laid down their arms. In justified relation. About the defeat of the rebellious subjects in Bavaria at the Markth Aidenbach Freytag on January 8, 1706 , Kriechbaum describes the battle from his point of view. Kriechbaum only gives his own losses as "not 8 dead and wounded men and even fewer horses". Georg Sebastian Plinganser put the number of Bavarian dead at only 2,000 in his justification to the Bavarian Elector Max Emanuel and estimated the enemy's losses at 300 men.
Johann Hoffmann , the leader of the country Defension in the Battle of Aidenbach escaped, but was later seized and 1706/7 in Braunau am Inn beheaded .
Effects
The battle led to the final collapse of the uprising against Austria. On January 13th, Schärding , Cham on 16th , Braunau on 17th was handed over to the imperial family. On January 18, 1706, Burghausen, the last town that was still in the hands of the Bavarian state defense , finally capitulated .
literature
- Max Graf Topor Morawitzky: Contributions to the history of the popular uprising in Lower Bavaria in the years 1705 and 1706. In: Negotiations of the historical association for Lower Bavaria. Vol. 8, 1862, ISSN 0342-247X , pp. 98-126, here p. 97 ff.
- Joseph Pamler: The Battle of Aidenbach on January 8th, 1706. From the handwritten chronicle of Aidenbach. sn, Passau 1859, ( digital version (PDF; 15.59 MB) ).
- Christian Probst : Better to die Bavarian. The Bavarian popular uprising in 1705 and 1706. Süddeutscher Verlag, Munich 1978, ISBN 3-7991-5970-3 .
- Henric L. Wuermeling : 1705. The Bavarian popular uprising and the Sendlinger Murder Christmas. With a prologue by Winston S. Churchill . 4th revised edition. LangenMüller, Munich 2005, ISBN 3-7844-3007-4 .
Individual evidence
- ↑ Herwig Slezak: He led the peasants into battle: "The son of the court judge". Retrieved August 3, 2019 .
- ↑ PNP Plus: Reading Journey into History. Retrieved August 3, 2019 .