German Democratic Legion

The German Democratic Legion was a volunteer unit formed from exiled German craftsmen and other emigrants in Paris under the leadership of the socialist poet Georg Herwegh , which set out for the Grand Duchy of Baden at the beginning of the German Revolution of 1848/1849 to fight the radical democratic Hecker uprising against the Baden government support. A week after the military defeat of the Heckerzug , the German Democratic Legion was also defeated and wiped out by Württemberg troops on April 27, 1848 in the battle near Dossenbach .

Lineup

Adelbert von Bornstedt , a former Prussian officer and editor of a German newspaper in exile, had founded a German Democratic Society in Paris, of which Georg Herwegh became president . After the beginning of the revolution, the company decided to set up a volunteer force to support the revolution in the German states.

Call of the German Democratic Society to the brave citizens of the Guard mobile in Paris to lend their no longer needed weapons to fight for a German republic. Please hand it in at the Central Office of the German Republicans at George Herwegh's.

The initiators of the provisional French government and the public for support for this plan. With posters they asked for donations of weapons.

The Legion was recruited from German artisans and workers living in Paris. It comprised about 800 to 1,000 men. In addition to Germans, there were also a number of French. It was divided into four battalions . Former Prussian officers like Otto von Corvin-Wiersbitzki or Wilhelm von Löwenfels drilled the volunteers.

On March 24, 1848, the troops marched to Strasbourg . The French government had promised its support, but only made about 5,000 francs available. Therefore the equipment of the Legion was rather poor. In addition to 250 rifles and 50 pistols, the men also carried 150 scythes .

Waiting time in Alsace

Before the Hecker procession began , Herwegh and others contacted Joseph Fickler and offered the Legion's support for a republican uprising in Baden. Emma Herwegh traveled to Baden as a scout. Friedrich Hecker was not very enthusiastic about the meeting, but agreed to announce when and where the Legion should unite with his followers. Herwegh and the legionaries waited in vain for this news. Another meeting followed later, which was now called a meeting point.

The government in Paris also urged the troops to act because they wanted to get rid of the revolutionary elements.

March through southwest Germany

Map of the area affected by the uprising with marking of the battle near Dossenbach

The Legion crossed the Rhine at Kembs on the night of April 23rd to 24th. From there the march went to Kandern, and from there after a short rest to Wieden. When the Parisian German Legion entered there on the 25th after a tiring march, it learned that Sigel had already withdrawn and that Freiburg was in the possession of the princely troops .

The men soon realized that they had no chance on their own and tried to withdraw to Switzerland. After a march of several days, the Legion met a company of the Württemberg army under Captain Friedrich von Lipp near Schopfheim on April 27, 1848 . At Dossenbach the regular troops defeated the legion despite their numerical superiority. About 30 legionaries fell and over 300 were captured. Among them was Adelbert von Bornstedt. Georg Herwegh was able to escape to Switzerland with his wife. Numerous caricatures and songs of mockery were written about his supposedly hasty escape. Bornstedt was sentenced to one year solitary confinement for high treason in 1849.

literature

• Ulrike Ruttmann: ideal - horror - illusion. Reception and instrumentalization of France in the German revolution of 1848/49. Stuttgart 2001, ISBN 978-3-515-07886-3 , pp. 104ff.
• Heinrich Börnstein : Seventy-five Years in the Old and New World. Memoirs of an Insignificant . 2 vol. Otto Wigang, Leipzig 1881 (2nd edition 1884), pp. 402–411 volume 1

Web links

• Materials on Georg and Emma Herwegh and the German Democratic Legion
• Martin Stohler: The first Baden uprising in 1848
• Franz Lipp: Georg Herwegh's four-day wandering and wandering trip with the Parisian German-Democratic Legion in Germany and its end by the Württemberg people near Dossenbach . Stuttgart, 1850 digitized
• From a high treason [d. i. Emma Herwegh]: On the history of the German democratic legion from Paris . Grünberg, 1849 digitized

Individual evidence

1. ^ Jürgen Angelow: From Vienna to Königgrätz. The security policy of the German Confederation in the European equilibrium, 1815-1866. Göttingen 1996, p. 136. ISBN 978-3-486-56143-2 .
2. ^ Gustav Struve: History of the three popular surveys in Baden, Verlag von Jenni, Sohn, Bern 1849