Hanseatic Legion

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Hanseatic Legion 1814.jpg
United cavalry of the Hanseatic Legion and the Hanseatic Civil Guard

The Hanseatic Legion was a force in the Wars of Liberation that was made up of citizens from the three Hanseatic cities of Hamburg , Bremen and Lübeck .

history

The Hanseatic Legion initially consisted of a group of Hamburg citizens who came together at the suggestion of the Russian General Tettenborn in 1813 to take part in the War of Liberation. This association was soon joined by volunteers from the Hanseatic sister cities of Bremen and Lübeck . The Hanseatic Legion should not be confused with the Hamburg Citizens ' Military , the Bremen City Military or the Lübeck Citizens' Guard . During the time when the three formations existed together, the task of these urban troops was limited to the liberation of Hamburg and the other Hanseatic cities, while the legion was also to take part in the coalition war under Russian command .

The Hanseatic Legion defended the Hanseatic city against the troops of Davouts and Vandammes until Tettenborn decided to evacuate the city on the night of 29-30 May. The Hanseatic Legion, like the Hanseatic Civil Guard, went with Tettenborn and joined the Northern Army in Mecklenburg under General Wallmoden . The associations took part in the fighting in Mecklenburg and later in Schleswig .

The members of the Hanseatic Legion returned to Bremen, Hamburg and Lübeck on June 30, 1814.

They all received the war memorial of the Hanseatic Legion .

Butcher

Fallen memorial for the battle near Mölln (1813)

Members

Troops

Remembrance: flags and monuments

Hamburg

Monument to the association of Hanseatic comrades-in-arms

On April 21, 1813, four flags and a standard, which had previously been sewn by women from Hamburg, were consecrated by the senior Johann Jakob Rambach in the main church Sankt Michaelis (Hamburg) . Their design goes back to a group around Johannes Michael Speckter , Friedrich Perthes , Ferdinand Beneke and Daniel Runge . They chose a red cross, similar to the white cross of the Prussian Landwehr , as a badge .

On September 29, 1814, the standards of the Cossacks and the Hanfftschen Escadron , as well as a company flag of the riding artillery (white with a red cross and signature: riding artillery ) were hung in the main church of Sankt Michaelis (Hamburg) . The two infantry flags and a standard came there on June 11, 1815 when the Hamburg contingent received new flags. Also in St. Michaelis on October 18, 1817, two plaques donated by private individuals were put up with the names of the people of Hamburg who died in the war. From the Legion, the 157 names of 7 officers, 12 NCOs and 138 soldiers were included. The flags and the boards fell victim to the fire in St. Michael's Church on July 3, 1906.

The association of Hanseatic comrades-in- arms is building a communal grave with an obelisk, which also served as a memorial to the fallen. This memorial was initially located in the cemetery of the Maria Magdalenen Monastery at Dammtor and was moved to the Ohlsdorf cemetery in 1924 , where it is still located in the square in front of Chapel 4 today.

Lübeck

Flag and standard on March 9, 1913 under the pulpit of St. Mary's Church

In Lübeck, the council and citizenship decided on September 3, 1816 to have a memorial plaque for the fallen of the Lübeck contingent put up in the Marienkirche . The copper plaque containing 38 names of 5 officers, 2 NCOs and 31 soldiers was erected on the west side of the first south pillar of the nave according to a design by the city architect J. Ch. Lillie . The table at the top in the pointed arch, 2.87 m high and 1.16 m wide, which was composed of two copper plates from the foundry of Simon Hasse in Trems, was inscribed by the engraver Georg Heinrich Tischbein in Bremen, while the simple one Frame made of black marble was supplied by master stone mason Georg Peter Remé (1774–1820).

The flag of the foot troops and the standard of the mounted troops of the Hanseatic Legion were ceremoniously transferred to the church on October 19, 1814 and hung. Their red Hanseatic crosses consisted of red cloth cutouts, the double-headed eagles in the corners of black fabric. The background of the flag was made of white and yellow silk . They bore the inscriptions Gott mit uns und Deutschland or Tod and were embroidered in March 1813 by the women of the Platzmann and Demoiselle Rodde families .

The memorial and the flags were destroyed in the air raid on Lübeck on March 29, 1942 .

In the city of Lübeck, only the memorial to Major Friedrich Wilhelm Ludwig von Arnim-Suckow , who died here on September 5, 1813, reminds of the Hanseatic Legion.

literature

Contemporary literature and memories

  • Philipp Boye: Campaign of the Hanseatic League in the years 1813 and 1814. From an eyewitness. Hamburg 1815.
  • Ferdinand Beneke : Heer-Geräth for the Hanseatic Legion. Pamphlet, Hamburg 1813.
  • Joachim Kannicht: With the Hanseatic Legion against Napoleon. Experiences of a Young Student 1813–1816. 2008, ISBN 978-3-938208-64-9 .
  • Lutz Voigtländer (Hrsg.): The diary of Johann Heinrich Lang from Lübeck and the campaigns of the Hanseatic people in the years 1813-1815. (Publications on the history of the Hanseatic city of Lübeck; Series B, Volume 4) Lübeck: Schmidt-Römhild 1980, ISBN 3-7950-0440-3 .
  • Daniel Runge : Songbook dedicated to the Hanseatic Legion. Hamburg 1813.
  • Perthes: W. Perthes life . Volume 1 Gotha (1892).

Studies

  • Cipriano Francisco Gaedechens : The Hanseatic Legion. In: Journal of the Association for Hamburg History. 8 (NF5) (1889), pp. 601-640.
  • Ludwig Arndt: Military associations in Northern Germany: Club life, badges, awards, monuments. 2008, ISBN 978-3-8334-8966-2 (on the traditional associations to which the members of the Hanseatic Legion came together after its dissolution in the Hanseatic cities).
  • Heilwig Prosch: The Hanseatic Legion 1815 according to Senate files and family letters. In: The car . 1960, pp. 66-77.
  • W. Richter: Hanseatic Legion . Niederdeutsches Heimatblatt (NdHBl) No. 13/1927.
  • Jan Schlürmann : The military of the Free and Hanseatic City of Lübeck 1623–1867. In: Eva S. Fiebig, Jan Schlürmann (Hrsg.): Handbook on the North Elbian military history. Armies and wars in Schleswig, Holstein, Lauenburg, Eutin and Lübeck 1623–1863 / 67. Husum 2010, pp. 165-204.

Web links

Commons : Hanseatic Legion  - collection of images, videos and audio files

See also

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Gustav Schaumann , Friedrich Bruns (editor): The architectural and art monuments of the Free and Hanseatic City of Lübeck . Edited by the building deputation. Volume 2, part 2: The Marienkirche. Nöhring, Lübeck 1906, p. 384. ( digitized version )
  2. ↑ Lübeck under the French. by Wilhelm Haase-Lampe , in Von Lübeck's Towers ; Volume 23, No. 11, edition of March 15, 1913, p. 88.
  3. ↑ Gustav Schaumann, Friedrich Bruns (editor): The architectural and art monuments of the Free and Hanseatic City of Lübeck . Edited by the building deputation. Volume 2, part 2: The Marienkirche. Nöhring, Lübeck 1906, p. 445. ( digitized version )