Siege of Erfurt (1813)

Siege of Erfurt

Part of: Sixth Coalition War

Erfurt after the French withdrew to the citadels on January 6, 1814. Until May 1814, the demarcation line marked in red separated the warring parties from one another

date	October 25, 1813 to January 6, 1814
place	Erfurt and the surrounding area
output	Occupation of the urban area on January 6, 1814, withdrawal of the French troops to the Petersberg and Cyriaksburg citadels, local armistice
consequences	Handover of the citadels on May 16, 1814

Parties to the conflict
France	Prussia
Commander
Alexandre d'Alton	Friedrich von Kleist
Troop strength
initially 5,000 to 6,000 men, 2,000 of them fully operational	about 35,000 men (mainly Prussian troops, plus smaller contingents of Russian and Austrian cavalry and artillery) January to May 1814 about 4,000 men
losses
unknown, march off in May 1814 with 1,600 men	unknown, numerous deaths from diseases

The siege of Erfurt was a military operation as part of the Sixth Coalition War (see also Wars of Liberation ). It began on October 25, 1813 with the enclosure of Erfurt by Prussian , Austrian and Russian troops and ended on January 6, 1814 with the occupation of the city by the besiegers. The core of the fortress - the Petersberg and Cyriaksburg citadels - was not handed over by the French occupation until May 16, 1814 .

background

As part of the preparations for the spring campaign of 1813, the city of Erfurt - since August 1807 a “personal domain” of the French emperor (cf. Principality of Erfurt ) - was prepared for a possible siege from March . In the area around the city, all trees were felled 900 paces away from the wall (see Erfurt city fortifications ), and several mills in this area were demolished. Hundreds of farmers from the surrounding area were called in to carry out digging and repair work. The fortress moat (cf. flood ditch ) was filled with water as far as possible by opening or destroying all dams and dams of the tributaries in question. As a result, the groundwater level in the city center rose so much that numerous cellars and open spaces were under water. The unrest in the city - in which the military administration established in 1806, unlike in other German territories annexed or informally ruled by France, had never been completely replaced by a civilian administration - increased in the summer months as a growing section of the citizenry came to an end who longed for French rule, largely associated with material and personal loss experiences. When fresh on July 19, 1000 excavated recruits who should march off to train to France the next day, in front of the government building gathered, there was serious rioting. A crowd stormed the houses of city officials and those of citizens known as "French friends". The violence could only be ended by the intervention of garrisoned troops. In order to prevent further unrest, the city administration ordered the closure of all inns and taprooms.

After the defeat at Leipzig (cf. Völkerschlacht bei Leipzig ) the main French army turned west to reach the Rhine . Their way led across the Heerstraße running across Thuringia. At that time, Erfurt housed the only larger weapons and storage depot that Napoleon could fall back on east of the Rhine line. On the morning of October 23, the Kaiser arrived in Erfurt and for the next 48 hours he witnessed the march through of his defeated army. The Saxon officer accompanying him, Otto von Odeleben, noted:

“Napoleon was annoyed by the condition of the troops marching past, who hungered for the little food they received from the magazines. Only a few regiments and the guards marched through Erfurt in order. It was a misery to see the torn and starved arrive. The items of clothing and the biscuits that were distributed were not enough for everyone, which is why the quarreling, quarreling and pushing did not end (...). "

Occasionally the officers lost control of the troops who, among other things, plundered the magazine housed in the Ursuline monastery . In the early morning hours of October 25, the emperor left the city, which was already surrounded by troops of the Russian general Gorchakov (from Wittgenstein's corps ) on the evening of the same day . As a garrison, Napoleon had left around 5,000 men under the command of Division General Alexandre d'Alton , including many slightly wounded and sick who were unfit to march. Only 2,000 men were fully operational.

course

After a few days, Wittgenstein's corps was withdrawn and relocated to the Rhine, as it was obviously not needed on site. The execution of the siege was entrusted to the Prussian II Corps under Friedrich von Kleist . Kleist set up his headquarters in the village of Bösleben . Due to the initially only extensive enclosure, the defenders were able to operate a few days in advance of the city. The village of Daberstedt was burned down on October 29th . On November 1, the besiegers destroyed the pavilion with the bust of Napoleon (the so-called Napoleon Temple ), which was built in the Steiger between 1811 and 1812, by artillery fire. In the meantime, the population of Erfurt had to hand over all firearms, and house searches were carried out every now and then. The introduction of fixed prices for food should curb price increases; At the same time, the administration put paper money (so-called blockade notes ) into circulation, which all dealers and suppliers were obliged to accept.

On November 5th, the defenders made a sortie through the Johannestor against the village of Ilversgehofen , brought in prisoners and burned down some buildings - including the paper mill. As a result, Kleist had the city bombarded with artillery for over 15 hours on November 6th - largely indiscriminately in thick fog. The Severi district at the foot of the Domberg was particularly hard hit and almost completely destroyed by the bombardment . A local resident stated:

“So from my window you can see (...) nothing but rubble and piles of smoking ashes, except for the market and the fortress; all of the neighboring houses across the street (...), with the exception of a few, are no longer at all and have disappeared. (...) When you stand completely in the corn market on the street, and see the collapsed houses that are otherwise so well known to you - you will be overcome with shudders and horror; You won't even know where you are. "

While the material losses were considerable with 117 houses burned down or collapsed, the population, which had two fatalities, got off comparatively lightly.

A 14-day truce was signed on November 7th. Kleist apparently anticipated the imminent handover of the city. This did not materialize, however, whereupon the siege work continued after November 20. Since meanwhile the attitude of the population towards the crew, which was losing combat strength as a result of hunger and illness, became increasingly threatening (calls for an uprising were posted on various occasions in mid-December) and the Kleist corps gradually received the previously non-existent heavy siege artillery, d'Alton decided in the second half of December to enter into negotiations with the Prussians. He offered the immediate evacuation of the outer ring of the wall and the urban area, for which Kleist allowed him in return to retreat to the citadels with the still capable French troops and to remain there until the end of the war, provided that the ceasefire agreed in this connection was observed. This saved the garrison the otherwise certain doom in battle and let d'Alton not have surrendered and claimed the core of the fortress - which he also claimed after his return to France. In the city, a truce line reinforced with palisades was drawn by Prussians and French :

"After some Prussian officers had been in the city to inspect them and to determine the surrender border around the cathedral and Severi monastery : stakes were set from the Andreasthore , which remains completely closed, to form a demarcation line (.. .). They stand from the gate under the esplanade across the entire fire site of Viehgasse, up to the market, past the main guard, up to the Bergstrom , which defines the border, up to the Mainz mill. "

On January 6, 1814, the besiegers finally entered the city through the Schmidtstedter Tor .

After the occupation of Erfurt, Kleist's corps withdrew and rejoined the main Prussian army in Champagne at the beginning of February . Under the command of Major General Jagow, only parts of two Prussian reserve regiments as well as four infantry and two cavalry regiments of the Silesian Landwehr remained to observe the two citadels .

In May, the Prussians took over the Petersberg and Cyriaksburg citadels without a fight .

consequences

Overall, the military importance of the siege was minor. In terms of operational history, it can even be rated as a relative French success, since the weak fortress garrison was able to tie up an entire corps of the Prussian army for two months. In addition, in Erfurt, unlike anywhere else - the parallel sieges of Danzig , Dresden , Hamburg and Magdeburg - the encircling of strong and hard-to-replace contingents of the French field army should be mentioned.

View from Petersberg to today's Domplatz. The Severi district, which was destroyed in November 1813 and not rebuilt, was located between the Erthal Obelisk and Petersberg

During the siege, which lasted almost two and a half months, the death rate in the city rose sharply. In the course of 1813, 1,564 Erfurt citizens died, about 1,000 more than in 1812. As early as the spring and summer of 1813, numerous cases of typhus had occurred - probably brought in by the troops streaming through . Even before the siege began, a real typhus epidemic broke out among the wounded in the hospitals and military hospitals from the spring and autumn campaign. In the week before the battle of Leipzig alone, 504 soldiers were killed. From November 1st to 17th, 1,472 people died in the military hospitals. During earthworks in the Brühl district in spring 2004, the bones of around 120 French soldiers were discovered, whose bodies had apparently been walled up in a cellar and then forgotten. They were buried in the French honor grove of the Erfurt main cemetery, which was laid out after the Second World War for French prisoners of war and forced laborers who died in the city .

The siege left lasting traces in the cityscape and history of Erfurt, primarily through the destruction of the densely built-up area below the Domberg. The remains of the building were demolished in the following years and no new buildings were built. The resulting open spaces together with the former Vor den Graden square form today's Cathedral Square .

See also

Prussian grave near Ichtershausen

literature

• Biereye, Johannes: The liberation of Erfurt from Napoleonic foreign rule , o. O. o. J.
• Hühn, Georg Friedrich: Brief news of the siege, blockade and entry of the Royal Prussian troops in Erfurt. From October 21st, 1813 to January 8th, 1814. Drafted in a letter as a journal and sent to a trusted friend. Reprinted on the occasion of the 25th anniversary celebration , Erfurt 1839.
• Gutsche, Willibald (Ed.): History of the City of Erfurt , 2nd, edited edition. Weimar 1989
• Palmowski, Frank: The siege of Erfurt. Their tracks from 1813 to 2013 . Sutton Verlag, Erfurt 2013. ISBN 978-3-95400-252-8
• Martin Ulonska: Erfurt's monetary system in 1800 as a mirror of political conditions? ; In: Erfurt Münzblätter. Volume XI / XII yearbook 2003/2004, Erfurt 2010.

Individual evidence

1. ↑ See Hühn, Georg Friedrich, Brief Message from the Siege, Blockade and Entry of the Royal Prussian Troops in Erfurt. From October 21st, 1813 to January 8th, 1814. Drafted in a letter as a journal and sent to a trusted friend. Reprinted on the occasion of the 25th anniversary celebration, Erfurt 1839, pp. 2, 5.
2. ↑ See Gutsche, Willibald (ed.), Geschichte der Stadt Erfurt, 2nd, edited edition. Weimar 1989, pp. 208f.
3. ^ See Bade, Karl, Napoleon in 1813 politically and militarily portrayed, Altona 1841, Volume 4, p. 234.
4. ↑ Quoted from Bade, Napoleon, Volume 4, pp. 172f.
5. ↑ See Hühn, Message, p. 4.
6. ↑ See Bogdanowitsch, Modest I., History of the War in 1813 for Germany's Independence, St. Petersburg 1868, Volume 2, p. 332.
7. ↑ See Beitzke, Heinrich Ludwig, History of the German Wars of Freedom in the Years 1813 and 1814, Berlin 1855, Volume 2, p. 701.
8. ↑ See Gutsche, Geschichte, p. 209.
9. ↑ See Gutsche, Geschichte, p. 212.
10. ↑ See Hühn, Message, p. 5f.
11. ↑ See Gutsche, Geschichte, pp. 211f.
12. ↑ See Hühn, Message, p. 6.
13. ↑ See Hühn, Message, p. 6ff.
14. ^ Chicken, Message, p. 10.
15. ↑ See Hühn, Message, p. 14.
16. ↑ See Bogdanowitsch, Geschichte, Volume 2, p. 332.
17. ^ Chicken, Message, p. 27.
18. ↑ See Hühn, Message, p. 28f.
19. ↑ See Bogdanowitsch, Geschichte, Volume 2, p. 333.
20. ↑ 1814-1850: Erfurt in the Prussian state . Erfurt city administration. Retrieved November 23, 2018.
21. ↑ See Hühn, Message, p. 26.
22. ↑ See Horn, Wilhelm: To the characterization of the city of Erfurt. A medical-statistical contribution , Erfurt 1843, p. 319f.