Siege of Tönning (1713)
Tönning fortress in 1651
| date | February 1713 - February 7, 1714 |
|---|---|
| place | City of Tönning , Holstein-Gottorp |
| output | 1713–1714: Danish-Russian-Saxon victory |
| Parties to the conflict | |
|---|---|
| Commander | |
| Troop strength | |
| 9000 Swedes 1600 Holsteiners |
36,000 |
1st phase: Swedish dominance (1700–1709)
Riga I • Jungfernhof • Varja • Pühhajoggi • Narva • Pechora • Düna • Rauge • Erastfer • Hummelshof • Embach • Tartu • Narva II • Wesenberg I • Wesenberg II
Arkhangelsk • Lake Ladoga • Nöteborg • Nyenschanz • Neva • Systerbäck • Petersburg • Vyborg I • Porvoo • Neva II • Koporje II • Kolkanpää
Vilnius • Salads • Jacobstadt • Walled Courtyard • Mitau • Grodno I • Olkieniki • Nyaswisch • Klezk • Ljachavichy
Klissow • Pułtusk • Thorn • Lemberg • Warsaw • Posen • Punitz • Tillendorf • Rakowitz • Praga • Fraustadt • Kalisch
Grodno II • Golovchin • Moljatitschi • Rajowka • Lesnaja • Desna • Baturyn • Koniecpol • Weprik • Opischnja • Krasnokutsk • Sokolki • Poltava I • Poltava II
2nd phase: Sweden on the defensive (1710–1721)
Riga II • Vyborg II • Pernau • Kexholm • Reval • Hogland • Pälkäne • Storkyro • Nyslott • Hanko
Helsingborg • Køge Bay • Gulf of Bothnia • Frederikshald I • Dynekilen Fjord • Gothenburg I • Strömstad • Trondheim • Frederikshald II • Marstrand • Ösel • Gothenburg II • Södra Stäket • Grönham • Sundsvall
Elbing • Wismar I • Lübow • Stralsund I • Greifswalder Bodden I • Stade • Rügen • Gadebusch • Altona • Tönning II • Stettin • Fehmarn • Wismar II • Stralsund II • Jasmund • Peenemünde • Greifswalder Bodden II • Stresow
The siege of Tönning fortress from 1713 to 1714 was a military intervention in the Great Northern War . The Tönning fortress was owned by the House of Schleswig-Holstein-Gottorf . This was related to the Swedish royal family.
The parties
An alliance of Russians, Saxons and Danes pursued the defeated army of the Swedish Count Magnus Stenbock . This was recorded by the fortress commander Zacharias Wolf in Tönning. The crew of the fortress consisted almost entirely of Swedish soldiers.
The siege
 
| |
In the spring of 1713, the Swedish and Schleswig-Holstein-Gottorp army under the command of Count Magnus Stenbock were surrounded by a joint Russian-Saxon / Polish army near Tönning. The Swedish armed forces consisted of the remains of a 16,000-strong army that had broken out of the encircled Stralsund . Stenbock ignored the order to invade Poland and turned west. At the battle of Gadebusch he defeated a Danish / Saxon army and pursued their remains to Holstein. The Russian and Polish allies of Saxony and Denmark sent 36,000 soldiers after Stenbock.
In February 1713, the injured Duke Karl Friedrich von Holstein-Gottorp the neutrality and granted the Swedish army inlet into the fortress of Tönning. In addition to the regular crew of 1,600 men, 11,000 Swedes moved into the city with 1,000 horses and other baggage. A total of 22,000 people are said to have been on the square kilometer of the completely unprepared fortress at this time.
However, there were hardly any supplies for so many people. In the spring, the supply situation deteriorated drastically and 2,800 Swedes became seriously ill. On May 16, 1713, the Swedish army surrendered to the Danish king and became a prisoner of war. The Swedish army still consisted of 9,632 healthy and 2,923 sick soldiers. At Hoyerswort , the only noble farm in Eiderstedt , inhabited by free North Frisians , Count Stenbock presented the King of Denmark with the strength list of his army and his sword , but this was returned to him immediately. Stenbock was first brought to Flensburg and later to Copenhagen . The Danish king demanded 80,000 thalers for the release of the army and its commander.
Surrender
- 128 flags and standards
- 8 timpani
- 147 drums
- 185 short rifles
- 910 pistols
- 8747 carbines and muskets
- 15 metal and 6 iron three-pounders
- 2034 horses
- 135 officers and 21 crown cars
The 1,600-strong garrison at Tönning Fortress held out until February 7, 1714. Only after the last of the food had been consumed did the fortress commander Zacharias Wolf capitulate.
The consequences
Gottorf had no military chance against the Danish king . As a result of the war, he was again duke in the previously Gottorf parts of the Duchy of Schleswig and limited the influence of the Gottorf family on the remaining Gottorf parts in the Duchy of Holstein .
The Danish king then had the fortress razed and the Tönningen Castle demolished in the process. The demolition lasted until 1735.
The Swedish prisoners were distributed to Holstein. Of the 80,000 thalers provided by the Swedish krona, only a little over 10,000 thalers reached Stenbock. These were hardly enough to alleviate the plight of the prisoners, let alone trigger them. That one payment was all Sweden did for its lost army in Germany. The Swedish King Karl XII. turned away from Stenbock and let him die in the dungeon of Copenhagen Castle. The money that had disappeared was probably divided between Georg Heinrich von Görtz and Minister Vellingk .
Georg Heinrich von Görtz became the leading minister of Holstein-Gottorp and tried to claim the remaining goods of the Swedish crown in Germany. By clever tactics he managed to tie Holstein-Gottorp to the Swedish crown for the following years.
literature
- Paul Bushkovitch: Peter the Great. The struggle for power, 1671-1725. New studies in European history. Cambridge University Press, 2001, ISBN 0-521-80585-6 .
- Robert I. Frost: The Northern Wars. War, State and Society in Northeastern Europe 1558-1721. Longman, 2000, ISBN 978-0-582-06429-4 .
- Manfred Jakubowski-Tiessen : The early Pietism in Schleswig-Holstein. Origin, development and structure (= work on the history of Pietism. 19). Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 1983, ISBN 3-525-55802-3 .
- Olaf Klose (ed.): Handbook of the historical sites of Germany . Volume 1: Schleswig-Holstein and Hamburg (= Kröner's pocket edition . Volume 271). Kröner, Stuttgart 1958, DNB 456882790 .
- Peter Hamish Wilson: German armies. War and German politics, 1648-1806. Warfare and history. Routledge, 1998, ISBN 1-85728-106-3 .
- Knut Lundblad: History of Charles the Twelfth King of Sweden. Edited by Friedrich Perthes. Hamburg 1840 ( Volume 1 , Volume 2 )