Battles near Aschaffenburg
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| date | July 14, 1866 |
|---|---|
| place | Aschaffenburg , Bavaria |
| output | Victory of Prussia |
| Parties to the conflict | |
|---|---|
| Commander | |
| Troop strength | |
| 16,600 | 7,900 |
| losses | |
|
27 dead; 144 wounded; |
226 dead; 484 wounded; |
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Main Campaign in 1866
The skirmishes near Aschaffenburg , sometimes also called the Battle of Aschaffenburg , are understood to be a battle of the German War on July 14, 1866 between Prussia on the one hand and parts of the VIII Corps of the German Federal Army on the other (mainly Austrians , also Hessians-Darmstädter and Kurhessen ) .
course
The Prussians under General August Karl von Goeben (1816–1880) advanced over the Spessart on July 14, 1866 , where they had been involved in a battle with Hessian-Darmstadt troops near Laufach the day before . To defend Aschaffenburg , the federal troops had taken up positions along the railway line and in the pheasantry east of the city. The federal troops were mostly Austrian troops from the Brigade Major General von Hahn under the command of Division Commander Field Marshal Lieutenant Erwin von Neipperg , as well as some remaining Hessian contingents. After heavy mutual artillery fire, the Prussians attacked via the pheasantry. The Austrian troops finally had to retreat into the city across an open field, suffering great losses from Prussian rapid fire. The Prussians finally stormed the Herstalltor and invaded the city, which they conquered in fierce street fighting. The federal troops had to move west across the Main. Only the only bridge in town was available to them for this, as the railway bridge at Stockstadt was already occupied by the Prussians. However, a Prussian detachment under General Kummer quickly reached the bridge before the city was completely conquered and cut off the retreat of the federal troops remaining in the city. A large number of soldiers were then taken prisoner.
The day after next, the Prussians occupied the city of Frankfurt am Main on July 16 .
On the area east of the city limits, where a large part of the fighting took place at that time, the Austrian memorial stands today to commemorate those who fell at the time .
Eyewitness accounts
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According to a report in the Allgemeine Zeitung from Würzburg , the Prussians in Aschaffenburg, where they also disarmed the Landwehr after the fighting , “tore off the Bavarian coat of arms and planted their eagle with the inscription: 'Royal Prussian Post Office' at the post and railway office. "
A Colonel Keller reports from Babenhausen (15 km west of Aschaffenburg) in what condition the Austrian soldiers came from the battle near Aschaffenburg: “Without weapons and equipment. An Austrian officer told him that your soldiers 'the Italians' had done very badly. Sometimes armed force had to be used to bring them to the front at all. ”The Italians are members of the Wernhardt regiment who defended the pheasantry. They were inexperienced recruits from the province of Treviso in the then Austrian Veneto. In the Prussian account it is said that they "had fought bravely at the beginning of the battle, when it turned unfavorable, they made no particular effort to get through and often only offered little resistance to the capture."
Regimental history
In the regimental history of the hussar regiment "Landgrave Friedrich II. Von Hessen-Homburg" (2nd Kurhessisches) No. 14 , it is reported about the battles near Aschaffenburg that after the 4th field division had been defeated and they retreated across the Main had to compete, the hussars should take the rear guard. They tried to stop the advancing Prussians through attacks and foot fights. Now that the rest of the 4th Field Division had crossed the Main Bridge, the Hussars also began to retreat. But the Prussian infantry regiments No. 13 and 55 had already reached the Aschaffenburg Main Bridge and controlled this strategic point. Major Heusinger von Waldegg, commander of the Hussars used in this situation, the similarity of the hussar uniforms with those of the Prussian Hussars # 8. He led the Kurhessen the bridge, saluted the Prussian general grief and let his hussars to him and march past the guards. He was the last to cross the bridge and by the time the Prussians noticed the hussar and started shooting, it was already too late.
According to the regimental history of the 2nd Westphalian Infantry Regiment No. 15 (Prince Friedrich of the Netherlands). the losses were as follows:
-
Goeben division
- 17 officers 163 men killed and wounded
faced
- Austria
- 25 officers 481 dead and wounded
- 22 officers captured in 1964 man
- Hesse
- 4 officers, 14 men dead and wounded
- 4 officers captured 52 men
- Kurhessen
- 3 officers, 12 dead and wounded
- 5 prisoners
literature
- A South German: War life in the Spessart . In: The Gazebo . Issue 38, 1866, pp. 588-591 ( full text [ Wikisource ] - with illustration by WA Beer).
- Heinz Helmert, Hans-Jürgen Usczeck: Prussian-German wars from 1864 to 1871 - military course . 6th revised edition. Military publishing house of the German democratic republic, Berlin 1988, ISBN 3-327-00222-3
- War History Department of the Great General Staff (Ed.): The campaign of 1866 in Germany . Ernst Siegfried Mittler and Son, Berlin 1867, pp. 622–628 in the Google book search
- Roland Seubert: Friday, July 13th, 1866. When Prussia and Hesse shot at each other near Frohnhofen . Laufach 2016, ISBN 978-3-00-052810-1 .
- Oscar von Lettow-Vorbeck: History of the war of 1866 in Germany: The Main campaign . Verlag ES Mittler und Sohn, 1902, 40 pages
Web links
Individual evidence
- ^ The campaign of 1866 in Germany. Edited by the War History Department of the Great General Staff . Berlin 1867, p. 628 (scan sheet 642) digitized
- ^ The campaign of 1866 in Germany. Edited by the War History Department of the Great General Staff . Berlin 1867, pp. 622–629 (scan sheets 636–643)
- ^ Theodor Fontane : The German War of 1866. The campaign in West and Central Germany . Berlin 1871, pp. 172-180, books.google.de
- ↑ badenphila.de ( Memento of the original of September 27, 2007 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. From Colonel Keller's letters from the field
- ^ Theodor Fontane : The German War of 1866. The campaign in West and Central Germany . Berlin 1871, p. 177 f.
- ^ The campaign of 1866 in Germany. Edited by the War History Department of the Great General Staff . Berlin 1867, p. 628 f. (scan sheet 642)
- ↑ historical-uniformen.de
- ↑ v. War: The regiment's war diary from the Main Army campaign in 1866 . Minden 1867
