Hamburg French Period

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Hamburg during the siege in 1813/1814

Hamburger French period referred to in the history of Hamburg the time under French occupation and integration into the French Empire in the years 1806 to 1814 to the German in other areas also so-called parallel French period .

Prospectus of the Imperial French City of Hamburg . by Johann Marcus David (1811)

Occupation of the city in 1806

As proof of its neutrality in the coalition wars , the Hamburg council had the fortifications of Hamburg torn down in 1804. To enforce the continental blockade , an economic blockade over the British Isles, Napoléon I had the Free and Hanseatic City of Hamburg occupied on November 19, 1806 during the Fourth Coalition War . The occupation was to last until 1814 with brief interruptions.

The occupiers banned trade with Great Britain and confiscated all English goods in the city. Because England was Hamburg's second most important economic partner after France at that time, many Hamburg trading companies went bankrupt. Unemployment and poverty increased sharply in the lower classes of the population. Many residents fled from the occupation and the threat of hardship to the surrounding area or further afield. Those who stayed behind suffered from special taxes and compulsory billeting to take care of the occupation soldiers. The smuggling with the Danish countryside flourished against it.

Hamburg as part of the French Empire (1811–1814)

Davouts decree of February 10, 1811

In 1811 Hamburg became a direct part of the French Empire. The council constitution was repealed by resolution of the government commission established by decree of December 18, 1810 under Marshal Davout of February 10, 1811 to February 13, 1811. Hamburg (French: Hambourg ) became the new capital of the Département des Bouches de l'Elbe (Department of the mouths of the Elbe), which had number 128 on the French list of departments. The Dutch Patrice de Coninck was prefect until 1813 , then Achille Le Tonnelier de Breteuil until 1814 .

Prefect Patrice de Coninck
Prefect Achille Le Tonnelier de Breteuil

The Arrondissement of Hamburg comprised the national territory of Hamburg and was divided into nine cantons, six city cantons numbered from one to six and Hamm, Bergedorf, Wilhelmsburg. The Senate and the Citizenship were dissolved and a Municipal Council was set up in their place. The municipal council had thirty members, about as many as the previous senate. The Municipal Council existed until May 26, 1814. Amandus Augustus Abendroth was appointed Maire (Mayor) and in 1813 Carsten Wilhelm Soltau was appointed Maire-Adjoint (Deputy Mayor). Administration and justice have now been separated for the first time. An Imperial Court of Justice ( Cour Impériale ) was set up in Hamburg as a court of appeal for the three Hanseatic departments . The Civil Code replaced Hamburg's city ​​law and jury courts were introduced in criminal proceedings . Higher French officials were seconded to Hamburg from inside France, especially from Alsace . As part of a Hamburg-Paris road planned by Napoleon, a bridge was built over the Elbe island Wilhelmsburg , which is at risk from flooding . It was torn down again after the French withdrew in 1814.

Battle of the Veddel in March 1813

On February 24, 1813, a spontaneous popular uprising broke out against the French rulers . After this was beaten down by the use of the Danish military who were called to help from neighboring Altona, Mayor Abendroth organized a vigilante group, recruited from the Hamburg merchants, to prevent future looting of the homes of wealthy citizens. During the Sixth Coalition War , all French soldiers were withdrawn by March 12, and the city was briefly liberated by Russian troops under Colonel Tettenborn on March 17, 1813 . Representatives of the old senate and the citizenship took over the government for two months. Tettenborn's work in Hamburg is viewed critically: “He saw Hamburg as a favorable location to enrich oneself and lead a dissolute lifestyle. He was less concerned with a serious defense of the city than with collecting an 'honorary gift' from 5000 Friedrich d'or and making him an honorary citizen. ” Furthermore, Tettenborn had far fewer troops than had been assumed. Instead of the expected 6,000 men, only 1,400 soldiers moved into the city.

When Napoleonic troops under Marshal Davout approached again on May 30, 1813 in order to regain Hamburg as the most important bastion in Northern Germany on Napoleon's orders, the defeated Russians and the Hanseatic Legion withdrew after a battle at the Nettelnburg lock and the French authorities were reinstated. Friedrich August Rüder , who was to hold the office until May 1814, became mayor .

Siege and Liberation of the City

In the graphic representation of the population development, a clear slump can be seen in 1814
Area in front of the Dammtor during the demolition in 1813, lithography by the Suhr brothers
The Cossacks cross the Elbe near Hamburg, drawing around 1814

Hamburg was developed into a fortress on the instructions of Napoleon under Marshal Davout. A large part of the male population was used as a compulsory measure for excavation work. In front of the city gates, on the Hamburger Berg , in Eimsbüttel, Rotherbaum and Hamm, the houses were torn down, all the trees felled and the gardens devastated in favor of a free field of fire. The population was forced to leave their homes and possessions in a matter of minutes and find shelter in neighboring towns or camp out in the open. In St. Pauli alone, 900 houses, stalls, the church and the hospital with 800 sick people were destroyed. Two thirds did not survive these relocations. The main churches except St. Michaelis were converted into horse stables. As a further punishment for his garbage, Hamburg was imposed a fine of 48 million francs and therefore the silver deposit of the Hamburger Bank worth 7.5 million marks Banco was confiscated. Napoleon is credited with saying: “I prefer to let the Hamburgers pay. It's the best way to punish merchants ”. In Hamburg the money economy collapsed and it lost its creditworthiness.

On December 6, 1813, the anticipated siege of Hamburg began by troops of the Northern Army under the leadership of the Swedish Crown Prince Karl Johann . The troops were quartered mainly in the Pinneberg rule and triggered the so-called Cossack winter there. 42,000 French soldiers had meanwhile been gathered in Hamburg, many of them sick or wounded. These troops also had to be fed and quartered. In February 1814 the number of sick people had risen to 17,000 because typhus had broken out. In anticipation of the siege and as a further punishment for the population, the French had already obliged the Hamburgers in November 1813 to provide themselves with sufficient food in their apartments for six months. Anyone who could not prove this in multiple checks was expelled from the city without consideration. Despite this measure, food in the city became scarce. For this reason, after renewed stricter controls, Davout had around 30,000 men, women and children who could not prove enough personal provisions drive first to the Petrikirche and the next morning in the cold from the city to Altona. They tried to find shelter in the surrounding area, in Altona, Barmbek, Wandsbek but also in Lübeck and Bremen. Many of them starved to death. In Ottensen alone, 1,138 dead were buried in a mass grave. Hamburg's population had shrunk to 55,000 at that time.

On the orders of Louis XVIII. Davout handed over the city - almost two months after Napoleon's abdication - on May 29, 1814, as his armed forces were decimated by disease and shortage. Davout left town with 25,000 soldiers and 5,000 horses. 4,800 sick remained in the city. The Senate met again for the first time on May 26, 1814. Russian troops under General Bennigsen were celebrated as liberators when they entered the completely ruined city on May 31, 1814.

The Congress of Vienna guaranteed Hamburg's sovereignty in 1815. Hamburg joined the German Confederation and called itself Freye and Hanseatic City from the end of 1819 .

Monuments

Memorial stone for the 1138 displaced persons who were initially buried in Ottensen
Hamburg-Barmbek, Pfennigsbusch / corner of Kraepelinweg: front side monolith. Grave memorial in memory of the dead who died of hunger, illness and cold in Barmbek in 1814 after being expelled by Davoust
Alter Hammer Friedhof, memorial to the French siege winter 1813/14
Memorial for the members of the Association of Hanseatic Comrades-in-arms from 1813 and 1814 in the Hamburg-Ohlsdorf cemetery. Formerly located on the grave site of the St. Maria-Magdalenen-Friedhof near Dammtor, moved in 1924
Spherical monument

In the Planten un Blomen park, opposite the exhibition hall 4 B, there is a memorial stone in the form of a sarcophagus for the displaced persons who were first buried in Ottensen in 1138 . The stone, based on a design by Carl Ludwig Wimmel, was erected in 1815 by the Patriotic Society on its mass grave in the meadow at what is now the confluence of Erdmannstrasse and Große Brunnenstrasse. In 1841 he and his bones were transferred to the churchyard of the main church St. Nikolai in front of the Dammthor , which was later closed and part of the Planten un Blomen park.

At the corner of Pfenningsbusch and Kraepelinweg in Barmbek-Süd, 50 Hamburgers are buried in a small park-like cemetery area who died of illness and hunger in 1814 after being expelled from Hamburg by the French. Several steps lead to the mass grave above street level. A memorial stone reminds of their fate.

Memorial stones in the Hammer Friedhof and in Marmstorf remind of up to a thousand other displaced persons who died of cold, hunger and epidemics in the winter of 1813/1814.

A stele in the Ohlsdorf cemetery commemorates the “club grave of comrades-in-arms” who besieged Hamburg together with the Russians. This so-called "Zippus" was erected in 1832 as a tomb on the St. Magdalenenfriedhof in front of the Dammtor and after its closure in 1924 it was moved to Ohlsdorf (Chapel 4 / Rosenweg).

The spherical monument in the jewelry garden on the north side of the Museum of Hamburg History commemorates the French era in Hamburg and the battles for the city in May 1813.

Linguistic relics of the French era

Numerous French expressions penetrated, among others, the Hamburg Low German and Missingsch . The French farewell adieu walked over adschüs / atschüs the present Bye . Expressions like Malesche (from “malaise”) and Plörre as well as the Franzbrötchen typical of Hamburg probably go back to the French era. The term “ Tante Meier ” also comes from the French era: when the French occupation soldier had to go to the toilet, he went to the tente majeure , the main tent. The Hamburger Deern, who did not speak French, understood Tantmajör and corrupted this to "Aunt Meier".

The street names Franzosenkoppel ( Lurup ) and Franzosenheide ( Schnelsen ) are reminiscent of land that was made available to refugees in the neutral Danish Holstein before the French Revolution .

Street names also recall the final defeat of the French conquerors in the battle of Waterloo : Waterloohain , Waterloostrasse and Bellealliancestrasse in Eimsbüttel .

literature

Web links

Commons : French occupation of Hamburg 1806-1814  - Collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Michael Kotulla : German Constitutional Law 1806-1918. A collection of documents . 4th volume: Bremen . Springer, Berlin / Heidelberg 2016, p.430-1 books.google document no.716
  2. ^ Wolf-Rüdiger Osburg, The Administration of Hamburg in the French Period 1811–1814 . P. Lang, 1988, p. 86
  3. ↑ Andreas Fahl, The Hamburg Citizen Military 1814–1868 ; Berlin 1987, p. 24f with further references.
  4. ↑ a b c d e Karlheinz Reher: In the stream of time. The history of the Pestalozzi Foundation Hamburg 1847–2014 . Christians Verlag, Hamburg 2014, ISBN 978-3-939969-07-5 , pp. 12-15.
  5. ^ William Löbe:  Rüder, Friedrich August . In: Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie (ADB). Volume 29, Duncker & Humblot, Leipzig 1889, p. 455.
  6. ↑ The French period. (PDF) (No longer available online.) Archived from the original on November 15, 2013 ; accessed on November 23, 2018 . Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.st-michaelis.de
  7. ↑ referred to as typhus in the English-language and French-language literature , cf. also typhus # confused with typhus
  8. ↑ Helmut Schoenfeld: The Ohlsdorf Cemetery: Graves, History, Memorials , 2010 p. 79 books.google
  9. ↑ Matthias Schmoock: Plietsch, fussy, bye: What remained of the French. In: Hamburger Abendblatt . November 18, 2006, accessed on November 23, 2018 (access for a fee). and Gernot Knödler: Rare pastries of a mysterious origin. taz. on the weekend, April 30, 2010, accessed on November 23, 2018 .
  10. ↑ Peter Schmachthagen: Article. In: Hamburger Abendblatt , August 22, 2017, p. 2
  11. ↑ schnelsenarchiv.de