Gebhard Leberecht von Blücher

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Gebhard Leberecht von Blücher, painting by Ernst Gebauer , around 1815. Blücher's signature:
Signature Gebhard Leberecht von Blücher.PNG

Gebhard Leberecht von Blücher , from 1814 Prince Blücher von Wahlstatt (born December 16, 1742 in Rostock , † September 12, 1819 in Krieblowitz ) was a Prussian field marshal who became famous for his victory over Napoleon in the Battle of Waterloo . Popularly called "Marshal Forward", he is one of the most popular heroes of the Wars of Liberation in Europe .

After joining the Swedish cavalry , Blücher was captured by Prussian troops in 1760 and entered their service. For his success in the battle of Kirrweiler in 1794 he was promoted and took part in the battle of Auerstedt as brigade commander in 1806 . There he got to know his future chief of staff Gerhard David von Scharnhorst . After the Peace of Tilsit in 1807, he first moved to the war department and then retired.

At the beginning of the Wars of Liberation, Blücher returned to service and took part in the battles near Großgörschen and Bautzen in May 1813 . In August 1813 he won the Battle of the Katzbach . For his successes in the Battle of the Nations near Leipzig in October 1813, he was appointed Field Marshal General. After heavy fighting, he entered Paris with the allied troops in March 1814 . He was then appointed Prince of Wahlstatt and retired to Krieblowitz Castle .

After Napoleon's return in 1815, Blücher, now with August Neidhardt von Gneisenau as chief of staff, was again commander of the Prussian troops, which he deployed in the Netherlands with the British and allied troops under Wellington . On June 16, 1815, he was defeated by Napoleon in the Battle of Ligny . For a later advance with Wellington he withdrew his troops at high risk to Wavre . On June 18, 1815, his troops initially did not take part in the Battle of Waterloo , but then pushed forward at Gneisenau's insistence and appeared on the right flank of the French troops in the decisive phase . This, together with Wellington's advance, led to Napoleon's final defeat.

Life

“Marshal Forward”, painting by Emil Hünten , 1863

The beginnings

Blücher came from the old noble family Blücher . His father was the Hesse-Kassel cavalry master Christian Friedrich von Blücher (1696–1761). His mother was Dorothea Maria von Zülow (1702–1769) from the Mecklenburg nobility family of those von Zülow . The von Blücher family originally owned the Groß- Renzow manor . Gebhard Leberecht's great-grandfather lost this family property during the Thirty Years' War . In order to avoid armed conflicts between the estates and Duke Karl Leopold , his mother went to Rostock, where Blücher was born. Gebhard had six older brothers and two sisters. The very poor conditions prompted his parents to send him and his older brother Ulrich Siegfried to see his sister on the Swedish island of Rügen . She was married to the Swedish Chamberlain von Kradwitz. The brothers did not enjoy a basic spiritual schooling, rather they devoted themselves almost exclusively to physical training. After Sweden entered the Seven Years 'War in 1757 , the brothers joined the Swedish hussar regiment Sparre against their parents' wishes and fought against Prussia . Blücher was captured as a cornet in a battle near the village of Kavelpass in August 1760 by the Prussian hussar Gottfried Landeck (other sources name a hussar Martin Krausse or an old hussar [or sergeant] Pfennig) and brought to the Galenbeck estate . There Colonel von Belling , who was related by marriage to Blücher, persuaded him to enter the Prussian service and soon after made him his adjutant . From then on he fought successfully in the H8 Hussar Regiment and rose from cornet to staff assistant master (1771). At the Kavel Pass , the Blücherstein today reminds of his capture and his transfer to Prussian service.

Since Blücher had a suspected priest carried out a mock shooting during unrest in Poland (1772), he was passed over in the upcoming appointment as major and squadron chief . Thereupon he defiantly demanded his farewell (1773), which was granted to him by Frederick the Great with the words "The Rittmeister von Blücher can go to hell". Blücher quickly regretted this decision, but Friedrich refused him re-entry into the army despite repeated requests and petitions. Blücher retired to Silesia , where he bought an estate. In Pottlitz ( Flatow district in West Prussia) he married Karoline Amalie von Mehling (1756-1791) in 1773, with whom he had seven children. After her death he married Amalie von Colomb (1772-1850), a sister of the future general Peter von Colomb, in Sandhorst near Aurich in 1795 . For about 15 years, Blücher owned land in Groß-Raddow near Stettin, Regenwalde district (Western Pomerania). On February 6, 1782, he was accepted as a member of the Masonic lodge "Augusta to the golden crown" in Stargard in Pomerania.

After the death of Frederick II, Friedrich Wilhelm II reinstated Blücher in his old regiment in 1787 and promoted him to major. In 1789 he served as a lieutenant colonel in the regiment of Graf Goltzschen Hussars and received the order Pour le Mérite from King Friedrich Wilhelm II on June 4, 1789 . After the campaign against Holland in 1790 he became a colonel . After the battle of Kirrweiler (against France), in which he captured six guns, he became major general in 1794 . In 1795, Blücher took command of the Prussian troops remaining in Westphalia in accordance with the Treaty of Basel to protect the demarcation line . His headquarters were in Munster .

From 1798 to 1801 Blücher was the owner of the Nipnow estate in the rural community of Schmaatz near Stolp in Western Pomerania . In Hamm in 1799 he joined the Masonic lodge Zum bright light .

Jena and Auerstedt

In 1801, King Friedrich Wilhelm III appointed. Blücher to lieutenant general . Blücher lived in Emmerich am Rhein for two years , where he joined the Masonic lodge "Pax inimica malis" ( Latin , for example: peace - enemy of evil), in which his two sons and nine of his officers were initiated.

After the Treaty of Lunéville , in 1802 Blücher took possession of the Münster bishopric , the Essen monastery and the Werden imperial abbey for Prussia. Blücher became governor of the newly established province of Westphalia , with whose chief president Heinrich Friedrich Karl vom und zum Stein he became friends. In the years 1802–1806 he was master of the chair of the lodge “To the three beams”. There he also had himself painted in Masonic clothing .

When the war broke out in 1806 , he joined the corps of General Ernst von Rüchel with the Westphalian troops . Both tried in vain to persuade the Elector Wilhelm I of Hessen-Kassel to enter the war on the Prussian-Saxon side instead of wanting to remain neutral . Immediately before the start of the Battle of Auerstedt , on the morning of October 14, 1806, Blücher received the command of a newly formed light brigade as the advance guard of the main army under Duke Karl Wilhelm Ferdinand of Braunschweig . With her he attacked the defensive French infantry twice in the early morning fog without prior exploration and was repulsed. A little later, the Prussian side lost its leadership as a result of Braunschweig's fatal wound. The battle ended with the retreat of the main army, which turned into a general flight when they met the troops fleeing in panic from the battlefield of Jena . At short notice, Blücher took command of the two hundred-strong body squadron protecting the king.

The withdrawal to Lübeck

Special postage stamp of the Deutsche Post (GDR) for the 150th anniversary of the wars of liberation with images of Gneisenau and Blücher, 1963

Then Blücher collected parts of the dispersed troops and brought 34 heavy cannons to safety with Scharnhorst - this is where their friendship began. Blücher made Scharnhorst chief of staff, and both planned to attract French troops so that Prussia could raise new troops and attack the French again. Indeed, the French took up the pursuit with three corps under Marshals Bernadotte , Soult and Murat . Despite lack of food and many deaths from exhaustion - 700 kilometers had been covered in 20 days from Jena and Auerstedt - the French managed to escape. Initially 10,000 men strong, the army grew to 21,000 as a result of the merger with the declining troops of the Duke of Weimar on the east bank of the Müritz . Marshal Bernadotte sent two calls for honorable surrender, which Blücher refused despite the hopeless situation. At Strelitz alone , Blücher had lost 5,000 men to enemy attacks and starvation.

Blücher now led the troops to Lübeck , which as a free imperial city was neutral and almost unarmed, and on November 5th the Prussians used axes to gain access through the closed gates. When the French attacked on November 6th under Bernadotte, an attempt was made - against Scharnhorst's orders - to bring the cannons outside the city wall into the city. The open gate could be taken by the French. After bloody street fighting, the French had the city under control and captured many Prussians, including Scharnhorst and the seriously injured Yorck . Blücher managed to escape with 9,000 men. With his exhausted soldiers, Blücher withdrew via Schwartau to Ratekau , where he took up quarters in the pastorate. There was utter confusion in the village. Oats, hay, seed clover and bread, everything was confiscated. The church was broken into and used as a stable for horses. French artillery had taken position near the Riesebusch to bombard Ratekau. When the news came that Travemünde was in the hands of the French, Blücher decided to capitulate “in favor of the village of Ratekau and Pastor Schrödter”. This time he accepted a third offer from Bernadotte for an honorable surrender, admittedly with the written addition that he was only doing this because he had no more ammunition and bread and on condition that he would pay homage to the Prussian troops. Bernadotte did not accept these conditions at first, but since Blücher could not be induced to make any further concessions, Bernadotte gave in to avoid further fighting and deaths and, according to the surrender conditions, let the French troops along the road ( Eutin –Lübeck, on the Blüchichee in Ratekau) To stand up in deference to the brave enemy passing by. As a personal gesture, he refrained from accepting Blücher's sword. While the Prussian army leader was allowed to keep his weapons, his soldiers laid down their weapons and went into captivity. A memorial stone was erected in 1856 on the " Blüchiche " near Ratekau.

Blücher's cannon rescue and the retreat to Lübeck made him a legend throughout Europe. King Friedrich Wilhelm III. awarded him the Order of the Black Eagle in April 1807 . For Lübeck, however, the French era began . After the French imprisonment - Blücher was largely allowed to move freely on his word of honor - in which Napoleon also wanted to get to know him, he was exchanged in 1807 for the French General Victor , whom Prussian soldiers had kidnapped in the besieged Kolberg .

After a short stay at the royal court, which had evaded to Königsberg , he was given the command to subordinate a Prussian auxiliary corps to the Swedish King Gustav IV Adolf , and was sent to Swedish Pomerania to support the Swedes . But there were no more combat missions. In the following years he rose to governor general in Pomerania and the Neumark (1807) and general of the cavalry (1809).

Wars of Liberation

Battle of the Nations near Leipzig, painting by Wladimir Iwanowitsch Moschkow, 1815
Blücher's Rhine crossing near Kaub, painting by Wilhelm Camphausen , 1860

Blücher passionately demanded the liberation struggle against France and turned to the Prussian army reformers . He was not acceptable to the Prussian court, which was officially allied with France. When French agents tracked him down during the secret training of unauthorized troops (" Krümpern "), he had to leave active service in 1812. He then lived in Kunzendorf .

When Prussia resumed the war with France in 1813 , he was brought back. At first Blücher led the Prussian corps, then he became commander in chief of the Silesian Army . In the Battle of the Katzbach on August 26th, he destroyed Marshal Jacques MacDonald's army . On September 18, he gave his speech, famous in Freemasonry, in the box in Bautzen :

“From my youth I took up arms for my country and turned gray in it; I have seen death in its most terrible form and I still see it daily before my eyes; I've seen huts smoking and people walking away naked and bare, and I couldn't help. So it brings with it the hustle and bustle of people in their passionate state. But the better person gladly longs out of this wild crowd, and I greet the hour with a blessing when I can put myself in the spirit with good, loyal brothers in those higher regions, where a pure, bright light shines towards us. Masonry is therefore sacred to me, to which I will faithfully adhere until my death, and every brother will always be dear to my heart. "

On October 9, 1813, Blücher moved into his headquarters in Pouch near Bitterfeld, north of Leipzig, and on October 16, in the Battle of the Nations near Leipzig, completely defeated Marshal Marmont near Möckern . Although his cavalry had suffered heavy losses, the newly appointed Field Marshal General pursued the French as far as Paris . Because of his offensive approach, the Russian soldiers gave him the nickname "Marshal Forward", which soon became popular with the Germans.

On the march to France in December 1813, the Silesian Army gathered on the right bank of the Rhine at a width from Mannheim to Neuwied . The center of the army with Blücher and the Yorck and Langeron corps gathered in the Kaub area on the Taunus . On New Year's Eve of 1814, the vanguard and the first troops crossed the Rhine in boats, while Russian pioneers built a bridge from canvas pontoons. After the bridge was built near Pfalzgrafenstein Castle , Blücher's army crossed the Rhine from January 2nd to 5th. The advance of the Prussian troops in France also interrupted the French telegraph line from Metz to Mainz . At the same time the Sacken Corps crossed the Rhine near Mannheim and the St. Priest Corps crossed the Rhine between Neuwied and the mouth of the Lahn, with a focus on Koblenz .

On February 1, 1814, Blücher defeated the French army under Napoleon at La Rothière , but was beaten back in four battles over a period of five days ( Champaubert , Montmirail , Château-Thierry , Vauchamps ). On March 9th Blücher again triumphed at Laon and marched with the Bülow Corps from Belgium on Paris, which was taken on March 30th 1814 with the storming of Montmartre . Friedrich Wilhelm III. appointed Blücher on June 3, 1814 Prince of Wahlstatt and gave him the goods around Krieblowitz .

The Battle of Waterloo

Battle of Waterloo, painting by William Sadler, 1815

After Napoleon's return from exile on Elba , Blücher took over the 150,000-strong Prussian army in Belgium, but was defeated in the Battle of Ligny on June 16, 1815. Nevertheless, he advanced and two days later with his army intervened in the battle of Waterloo just in time and was able to defeat Napoleon by the already wavering troops of the English General Wellington ( “I wish it would be night or the Prussians would come” ) support. As a reward, Friedrich Wilhelm III gave him. a city ​​palace in Berlin .

In consultation with Wellington, whose troops were completely exhausted, Blücher then advanced in forced marches alone with his troops on Paris and occupied it on July 7, 1815. Blücher was neither interested nor involved in the negotiations that followed, but kept aloof.

Old age and death

Krieblowitz Castle , where Blücher last lived
Blücher mausoleum by Johann Heinrich Strack in Krieblowitz

In the same year Blücher was awarded the Blücherstern , a special form of the Iron Cross donated for him . Following a visit to London, where he was received by the king and celebrated as a hero, he retired to his castle in Krieblowitz , but visited Karlsbad regularly . He died on September 12, 1819 in Krieblowitz and was later buried there in a mausoleum created for him. The round tower built in the years 1846-1853 next to the family crypt was damaged by Soviet soldiers on February 25, 1945 and other acts of vandalism after the war, and Blucher’s coffin was removed. The grave has been empty since then. The whereabouts of the body is unknown.

To personality

Blücher was popular with the troops. Even before Scharnhorst's military reform, he led his soldiers without corporal punishment, he commanded energetically for them and once overlooked looting. Strategically and tactically he did not excel (here, however, his chiefs of staff, such as Scharnhorst or Gneisenau , whom he trusted, stood loyally at his side), but his daring, occasionally daring and affable temperament in front of many generals of the coalition armies made him stand out. His temperament and his will to attack led to his nickname "Marshal Forward".

Blücher's linguistically idiosyncratic letters reflect his character very well. He wrote the following letter to his wife on May 4, 1813, two days after the battle of Großgörschen :

"Whatever you get before the message, so be calm, because even if I received 3 bullets and also shot my horse, everything is not dangerous, and I am and will remain in perfect shape. I have enough satisfaction because I attacked Lord Napoleon twice and threw them both times. The battle was so grueling that both were partly exhausted and both lacked ammunition. The enemy has lost much more than we have, but there are also many good weapons, brother, who have left the world. [...] before today I can no longer write because I march out. […] Negatively I want to tell you more, god with you. I have a shot in the back that hurts me very much, I'll bring you that bullet. "

There were also bizarre remarks in Blücher's behavior : According to Hermann von Boyens' testimony , Blücher claimed to be pregnant by an elephant and believed that the French had heated the floor of his room red-hot, which is why he only walked on tiptoe. To this day it is unclear whether Blücher was actually mentally impaired, whether he had delusions from excessive alcohol consumption or whether his utterances arose from a strange sense of humor.

In his private life he repeatedly got into debt through his gambling addiction .

family

Coat of arms of Prince Blücher of Wahlstatt

Blücher was married twice. His first wife was Karoline Amalie von Mehling (* 1756 - June 17, 1791), whom he married on June 21, 1773. His wife's parents were the Polish colonel Friedrich Wilhelm von Mehling and Bernhardine von Bojanowska. He had seven children with her, including:

  • Franz (1778–1829) Prussian major general, mentally ill as a result of a head wound on September 16, 1813 near Peterswalde ⚭ Gerhardine Hermine Groß (* March 23, 1777; † June 7, 1807)
  • Friedrich Gebhardt Lebrecht (* December 15, 1780; † January 14, 1834) ⚭ Elisabeth von Conring (* August 2, 1791; † February 25, 1842)
  • Bernhardine Friederike (March 4, 1786 - March 14, 1870)
⚭ 1806 Adolph Ernst Ludwig Graf von der Schulenburg (born May 6, 1765 in Magdeburg; † September 9, 1813)
⚭ January 14, 1814 Maximilian Karl Asche von der Asseburg (born January 9, 1779 - † August 17, 1851)

His second wife was Amalie von Colomb on July 19, 1795 (* October 3, 1772, † April 16, 1850). She was the daughter of War and Domain Councilor Peter Colomb and Maria Elisabeth Bacmeister . This marriage remained childless.

Great battles

Phrase

The saying "(He / she goes) like Blücher (on the Katzbach)" also refers to Gebhard Leberecht von Blücher and generally describes a very stormy and determined approach.

Honors

Iron cross with golden rays, called "Blücherstern" (replica)
Blücher monument by Schadow with an inscription by Goethe on the Universitätsplatz in Rostock
Blücher statue by Christian Daniel Rauch opposite the Neue Wache in Berlin

Blücher was an honorary citizen of Berlin , Hamburg and Rostock (1816). He was on 14 June 1814 by the University of Oxford to Dr. jur. hc (together with Wellington and Metternich ) and on August 3, 1814 from Berlin University to Dr. phil. hc (together with Hardenberg , Yorck , Gneisenau, Kleist , Bülow and Tauentzien ).

In the Waterloo Hall of the main residence, Windsor Castle , the portrait of Wellington hangs in the place of honor at the head and that of Blucher on the right.

George Stephenson called one of his first locomotives "Blücher".

Blücher is - besides Hindenburg - the only bearer of the star of the Grand Cross of the Iron Cross ("Iron Cross with Golden Rays").

In Cologne the Blücherpark was named after him, in Aachen the Blücherplatz (west of the Europaplatz ), which was built around 1868. In the area of ​​the general train in downtown Berlin there were three (partly unrealized) designations as Blücherstraße and two as Blücherplatz as well as a designated Wahlstattplatz; plus six more Blücherstraße in today's Berlin. Around 1820 the Marschallbrücke in Berlin's government district was given its name in memory of Blücher.

museum

The town of Kaub am Rhein has been commemorating the Marschall and his crossing of the Rhine in 1814 with its Blüchermuseum Kaub since 1913 .

Monuments

  • The first memorial was erected on August 26th, 1819 in his native Rostock on Blücherplatz . It was the first memorial in Germany that was dedicated to a living, non-princely person. Blücher was reserved about this honor: “So I am honored”, wrote Blücher on February 8, 1816, “also because of the monument to be erected in my hometown in my hometown, I cannot help but allow myself the remark that the little that I was able to achieve is being given too high credit, and the decision about this was actually only due to posterity. ”The statue was made by Johann Gottfried Schadow in Berlin, who was chosen by the donors had discussed the arrangement with Goethe . It was inaugurated on August 26, 1819, the anniversary of the Battle of the Katzbach. The monument shows Blücher in uniform, wrapped in the lion skin of Hercules , in a striding position he stretches out the marshal's baton with his right hand. On the granite block below there are two reliefs where he is depicted once at the moment of the danger of June 16, 1815 and as a victorious general. The inscriptions come from Goethe . On the front page is written: "To Prince Blücher von Wahlstatt, his family." On the back panel:
"In waiting and war,
In fall and victory
Conscious and great,
So he tore us from enemies."
  • In Berlin, on June 18, 1826, King Blücher placed a second statue through Christian Daniel Rauch , made by the sculptor Lequine. It stood next to the Royal Palace , opposite the Neue Wache and the statues of Scharnhorst and Bülow. On the front is the inscription: “Friedrich Wilhelm III. to Field Marshal Prince Blücher von Wahlstatt, 1826 ”. The back shows the years 1813, 1814, 1815 in a laurel wreath. One side relief depicts the return of Blücher, the other a battle scene. The monument has stood in the back of the Prinzessinnengarten since the mid-1960s
  • A third statue , also by Rauch, was erected in 1827 on the Salzring , renamed Blücherplatz , the largest market square in Breslau after the Great Ring . As in Berlin, the artist depicted the field marshal walking forward. It was removed and melted down in 1945 when Wroclaw was de-German after it was taken over by Poland.
  • There is also a bust in the Walhalla and the Blücher monument by Fritz Schaper in Kaub am Rhein , which was unveiled on June 18, 1894, the anniversary of the Battle of Waterloo.
  • There is also a Blücher monument and a Blücher museum in Kaub.
  • In Krieblowitz in Lower Silesia , which was called Blüchersruh between 1937 and 1945 , there is the Blücher Mausoleum, a cylindrical structure about ten meters high.
  • Gustav Eberlein created a side bust of Blücher for the central statue of King Friedrich Wilhelm III for monument group 30 in the former Berlin Siegesallee .

Ships

Several ships were named after Marshal Blücher:

Trivia

The Blücher (shoe) goes back to Marshal Blücher, who had his soldiers equipped with this shoe model (back then still as boots) for the triumphant advance against Napoleon. The internationally used name still refers to its origins as a robust army boot.

literature

Older literature

  • Karl August Varnhagen von Ense : Life of Prince Blücher of Wahlstatt. Reimer, Berlin 1826 ( Google book in the Google book search). 2nd edition 1845 ( Google Book in Google Book Search).
  • Anecdotes, features and sketches from the life of the Royal Prussian Field Marshal Lebrecht von Blücher. Basse, Quedlinburg [a. a.] 1842 ( digitized version )
  • Carl Ludwig Bieske: The field marshal Prince Gebhard Leberecht Blücher of Wahlstatt. A biographical sketch . Mittler und Sohn, Berlin 1862 ( books.google.de in the Google book search).
  • Heinrich Berghaus : Blücher as a member of the Pomeranian Knighthood 1777–1817 and with the Prussian Army on the Rhine in 1794. Anklam 1863 ( books.google.de ).
  • Richard von MeerheimbBlücher, Gebhard Leberecht von . In: Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie (ADB). Volume 2, Duncker & Humblot, Leipzig 1875, pp. 727-733.
  • Bruno Garlepp : From Blücher's early years . Historical tale from the life of Marshal Forward . Second improved edition. Published by Max Woywod, Breslau 1892.
  • Eugen Anthes: Blücher's quarters in Caub: a reply to the section of the same name in the text: Blücher's transition at Caub by DW Sauer. Müller, Nassau ad Lahn 1894 ( dilibri.de ).

Newer literature

Web links

Commons : Gebhard Leberecht von Blücher  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. Wolfgang von Unger: Blücher . Unikum Verlag, Bremen 2011, ISBN 978-3-8457-2079-1 .
  2. https://www.deutsche-biographie.de/sfz35354.html#ndbcontent
  3. ^ Leopold Zedlitz-Neukirch (Baron von): New Prussian Adels Lexicon . First volume A – D. Reichenbach Brothers, Leipzig 1836, p. 256
  4. Jens Hennig: Gebhard Leberecht von Blücher . In: Ilona Buchsteiner (Hrsg.): Mecklenburgers in German history of the 19th and 20th centuries . Ingo Koch Verlag, Rostock 2001, p. 49.
  5. ^ Jürgen Holtorf: Die Logen der Freemaurer, Nikol VerlagsGmbH, Hamburg, ISBN 3-930656-58-2 , p. 140
  6. ^ Gustav Lehmann: The Knights of the Order pour le merite, Volume I, Berlin 1913, p. 200, No. 82.
  7. ^ Karl-Heinz Pagel: The district of Stolp in Pomerania . Lübeck 1989, p. 865
  8. Brief outline of the lodge's history ( Memento of the original from October 17, 2013 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. Lodge Pax inimica malis. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / pim.emmerich.freimaurerei.de
  9. List of the members of the Royal Prussian High Order of the Black Eagle, (No. 46 of the award of this order by Friedrich Wilhelm III.), Decker, Berlin. 1851.
  10. Berthold Seewald: The Prussian invasion began on New Year 1814. In: welt.de . December 31 2013.
  11. The empty grave
  12. ^ [...] certain mental limitations, [...] D. Chandler: Dictionary of the Napoleonic Wars . P. 60.
  13. According to his Quartermaster General von Müffling , Blücher could neither understand nor judge plans submitted for approval. In: Karl Marx, Friedrich Engels: New American Cyclopedia from 1857 .
  14. ^ Letters from Field Marshal Blücher, selected and introduced by Wilhelm Capelle . Insel, Leipzig n.d., p. 41.
  15. Fools and Nulps . In: Der Spiegel . No. 16 , 1995, pp. 205-207 ( online ).
  16. Peter Young, Michael Roffe: Blücher's Army. 1813-1815. Osprey Publishers, Oxford 2002, ISBN 0-85045-117-5 , pp. 9 f.
  17. ^ Mark Grossman: World Military Leaders. A biographical dictionary . Facts on File, New York 2007, ISBN 978-0-8160-4732-1 , p. 42.
  18. Blücherplatz Aachener Strasse and its history, accessed on June 11, 2013.
  19. Statues, monuments and ornamental buildings . In: Berliner Adreßbuch , 1875, part 4, p. 170.
  20. ^ Wilhelm Burckhardt: Gebhard Lebrecht von Blücher, Prussian field marshal and Prince of Wahlstatt , 2nd edition Schwäbisch Hall / Leipzig 1842, p. 120 f.
  21. On the fate of the monument in 1945 see Gregor Thum: The foreign city. Wroclaw 1945 . Siedler, Berlin 2003, ISBN 3-88680-795-9 , p. 380.
  22. ^ Blücher Museum in Kaub