Battle near Eckernförde
The tow rope between Gefion and Geiser is shot to pieces. Painting by Wilhelm Petersen ( Frederiksborgmuseet )
| date | April 5, 1849 |
|---|---|
| place | off Eckernförde , Baltic Sea |
| output | Victory of the German-Schleswig-Holstein troops |
| Parties to the conflict | |
|---|---|
|
Provisional government of Schleswig-Holstein's German Confederation |
|
| Commander | |
| Troop strength | |
| 1 ship of the line 1 sailing frigate 2 auxiliary steamers 148 ship guns 1,315 crew members |
16 guns |
| losses | |
|
105 killed, 61 injured, around 1,000 prisoners |
5 fallen |
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The battle near Eckernförde on April 5, 1849 was a battle in the Schleswig-Holstein War .
prehistory
In 1848 the duchies of Schleswig and Holstein rose against the crown of Denmark . Occupied by the Schleswig-Holstein Army , Eckernförde became the target of a Danish landing attempt on April 5, 1849 , when the liner Christian VIII , the sailing frigate Gefion , the two small steamers Geiser and Hekla and three yachts entered Eckernförde Bay . The landing force was about 250 men.
Already in April 1848 General Friedrich von Wrangel had through the Kgl. First lieutenant of the artillery Werner von Siemens set up the artillery defense of Eckernförde to See. He set up two separate batteries on the beach , which initially consisted of 10 guns . They were under the command of the Prussian captain Eduard Julius Jungmann , who commanded on behalf of the German Confederation . A Nassau battery of six guns brought in under Captain Müller improved the artillery to 16 guns.
course
On the evening of April 4, the Danish warships anchored in the roadstead of Eckernförde, where they could not be reached at first. Militarily, the Danish ships armed with 147 guns were in the superior force. Although the east wind prevailed, which pushed the ships further into the bay of Eckernförde, a situation from which they could not free themselves without help , Christian VIII and the Gefion attacked the city on April 5th at seven in the morning. They were shot at by the German guns, with losses on both sides. The ships could only be maneuvered with the help of the steamers. Under the command of Ludwig Theodor Preusser , the battery succeeded in shooting through the tow rope of the Gefion , whereupon it drifted closer to the German batteries from eight o'clock, unable to maneuver, and around ten o'clock also the Christian VIII. Further attempts by the steamers Geiser and Hekla , To drag the ships out of the bay and thus out of the fire zone was a failure.
At around 1 p.m., Danish parliamentarians called for free exit under threat of bombardment of the city, which was rejected. Both ships were shot incapable of maneuvering, the Gefion surrendered around 6 p.m., the liner, which ran aground, about half an hour later. After the surrender , the Christian VIII finally exploded during the disembarkation of the crews due to circumstances that were not entirely clear. At this point, most of the crew had already been able to save themselves on land.
In the battle, 224 Danes and five Schleswig-Holsteiners were killed, including the commander of the Süderschanze, Ludwig Theodor Preusser , who was transferred to the ship before the explosion of Christian VIII .
consequences
Mainly Duke Ernst II of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha as commander of the imperial troops , Eduard Julius Jungmann and Ludwig Theodor Preusser became known to the German public because of their military achievements. The victory made Duke Ernst a national hero as the “winner of Eckernförde” . The captured Gefion was handed over to the German imperial fleet after its repair under the name Eckernförde .
The Danish commander Frederik August Paludan was initially sentenced by a Danish court martial , but then pardoned by the king to three months of “light imprisonment”. Nevertheless, he was never allowed to command a command again. The battle was considered a sensation, but was of no great military value. More important was the moral effect in the second year of the uprising of the duchies against the entire Danish state. After the defeat at Fredericia and the departure of Prussia and the German Confederation , the German-minded Schleswig and Holstein residents, left to their own devices, finally lost the war. They had to give up the plan to achieve independence. Denmark ruled Schleswig and Holstein again.
reception
Carsten Jensen gives a poetic and “realistic” description of the battle in 2006 in his book Vi, de druknede , German We Drowned .
See also
- Schleswig-Holstein Navy
- Medal for the battle near Eckernförde
- Memorial cross for Eckernförde
- Süderschanzen monument
- Gefion fountain (Eckernförde)
- Malmo Armistice
literature
- Michael Salewski : Eckernförde, April 5, 1849. On the intellectual history of one day. In: Werner Paravicini (Ed.): Mare Balticum. Contributions to the history of the Baltic Sea region in the Middle Ages and modern times. Festschrift for Erich Hoffmann's 65th birthday. Thorbecke, Sigmaringen 1992, ISBN 3-79957-069-1 , pp. 339-363.
- Jann Markus Witt, Heiko Vosgerau (ed.): Schleswig-Holstein from the origins to the present. A national history. Convent-Verlag, Hamburg 2002, ISBN 3-93461-339-X .
- Hans Hildebrand, Albert Röhr, Hans-Otto Steinmetz: The German warships. A mirror of naval history from 1815 to the present day. Biographies. 1st volume, Mundus Verlag, Ratingen o. J. (actually 2nd volume, under Gefion ), ISBN 3-88385-028-4
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ Jean Schoos : The medals and decorations of the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg and the former Duchy of Nassau in the past and present. Verlag der Sankt-Paulus-Druckerei, Luxembourg 1990, ISBN 2-87963-048-7 , pp. 142-143.
- ↑ a b Eckernförde-Lexikon, editor: Heimatgemeinschaft Eckernförde in cooperation with the department for regional history of Christian-Albrechts-Universität zu Kiel, 2014, Husum Druck- und Verlagsgesellschaft, ISBN 978-3898767354
- ↑ Barbara Grabmann: Processes of the constitution of collective identity in comparison. Museums in Scotland and Bavaria. Tectum Verlag, 2002, ISBN 3-82888-444-X , p. 427.
- ↑ Jan Markus Witt: The battle of Eckernförde . Online contribution on the homepage of the Society for Schleswig-Holstein History in the section Schleswig-Holstein from AZ .
- ↑ Jan Markus Witt: The battle of Eckernförde . Online contribution on the homepage of the Society for Schleswig-Holstein History in the section Schleswig-Holstein from AZ .
- ↑ Carsten Jensen: We drowned. Novel. Knaus, Munich 2008, ISBN 978-3-8135-0301-2 .