Battle on Riebelsdorfer Berg

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The battle on Riebelsdorfer Berg on November 15, 1640 was a bloody conflict in the Thirty Years' War near Ziegenhain in northern Hesse . Opponents were Saxon-Weimar troops under Colonel Reinhold von Rosen , reinforced by a French battalion of Duke Henri von Orléans-Longueville and the Ziegenhain Citizens Corps, on the one hand, and imperial troops under General Hans Rudolf von Breda on the other. The “ Theatrum Europaeum ” reports in great detail about the meeting.

prehistory

Colonel von Rosen had previously stormed the city of Homburg in front of the height , defeated an imperial contingent near Friedberg and finally attacked and defeated the Croatian regiment of Colonel Peter von Losy in his quarters in Allendorf and lay with his troops in and near the Ziegenhain fortress . The imperial side occupied and sacked Treysa , set the city on fire and gathered troops from different directions in the direction of the Ziegenhain to eliminate roses there. In addition to the cuirassiers of Breda, this was in particular the sergeant-general Gil de Haes , who marched up with 3,000 mounted men in 24 squadrons and a considerable amount of foot soldiers.

Skirmishes on November 13th and 14th

Rosen awaited the opponents at Ziegenhain. A first attack on November 13th with five squadrons of Croats from the Bredas advance guard under Colonel Druckmüller was repulsed by Rosen's men. Rosen pursued the retreating Croatians, who lost a number of dead and prisoners. Sergeant-General Gil de Haes was shot in the thigh during one of these skirmishes .

Breda then withdrew to Neukirchen and waited for reinforcements. While the Bavarian General Feldzeugmeister Franz von Mercy was advancing from Neustadt with 1,500 horsemen and just as many infantry in order to be able to attack roses on both sides of the Schwalm , Breda had the villages that remained in the area burn down: Nieder Grenzebach , Steina , Leimbach , Loshausen , Ransbach , Zella and Salmshausen .

Until the early afternoon of November 14th, Rosen himself received reinforcements from Weimar troops under Colonel Müller and the Adjutant General de Charlouna with a French battalion from Duke de Longueville, who arrived from Kassel with 750 mounted men . Despite being outnumbered, Rosen decided to attack Breda before he could be pinned down by the Imperial forces. He attacked Breda's vanguard towards evening, then waited until the early morning of November 15 in a forest on Riebelsdorfer Berg, a few hundred meters northwest of Riebelsdorf , a current district of Neukirchen , and then attacked again.

The battle on November 15th

Sandstone column from 1843, which is reminiscent of Velten Muhly. This is where Muhly is said to have stood when he shot General Hans Rudolf von Breda. The obelisk, where Breda is said to have fallen, is about 280 meters southeast of it.

Breda formed its order of battle with 24 dismounted squadrons in the front line and the remaining eight in reserve on the left wing. However, Müller attacked this wing from the flank, and after a heavy fight Rosen and Müller succeeded in routing the imperial family. Breda himself was killed in action. According to tradition, he was killed by a shot by Velten (Valentin) Muhly , butcher and commander of the Ziegenhain vigilante group founded in 1539, which was responsible for the fortress watch in peace. The Ziegenhain riflemen had marched through a forest and surprisingly found themselves in the back of Breda's command post. With Breda, 300 of his soldiers lost their lives, many others were captured on the battlefield and then on the run.

One of the worst incursions by imperial troops into Hesse during the Thirty Years War ended with the battle near Riebelsdorf.

memory

In 1843 citizens of Ziegenhain erected an obelisk at the point where Breda fell, on the B 454 ; Since then, there has been a slender stone column at the place where Velten Muhly is said to have shot at Breda. The so-called "Breda sword" of the general is kept in the town hall of Ziegenhain.

Coordinates: 50 ° 53 ′ 6 "  N , 9 ° 17 ′ 56"  E

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Bernhard von Poten :  Rosen, Reinhold von . In: Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie (ADB). Volume 29, Duncker & Humblot, Leipzig 1889, pp. 197-199.
  2. ↑ The imperial general, from a branch of the von Bredow dynasty , appears in various sources as Johann Ludolf von Bredaw or von Bredau, and his rank is variously given as a field marshal lieutenant or general sergeant .
  3. ↑ Peter von Losy on "The Thirty Years' War in personal testimonies, chronicles and reports"
  4. ↑ Gil de Haes on "The Thirty Years' War in testimonials, chronicles and reports"
  5. ↑ Central German testimonials from the Thirty Years' War
  6. ^ Topographia Hassiae: Treysa on WikiSource.
  7. ↑ Muhly, Velten (Valentin)  ( page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. on "The Thirty Years War in personal testimonies, chronicles and reports."@1@ 2Template: Dead Link / www.warlich.net  
  8. ↑ "Riebelsdorf, Schwalm-Eder District". Historical local dictionary for Hessen. In: Landesgeschichtliches Informationssystem Hessen (LAGIS).

literature

Web links