Horridoh Lützow!

Horridoh Lützow! is a novel by the German writer Rudolf Herzog from 1932. The author portrays the life and military work of the Prussian officer Ludwig Adolf Wilhelm von Lützow , beginning on October 13, 1806, the eve of the Battle of Jena and Auerstedt , until Lützow's death on December 6, 1834 in Berlin , adds the novel plot seamlessly, but not always completely correctly, to the historical events of Lützow and his famous volunteer corps, the " Black Hunters ".

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The novel describes in detail Lützow's path as a lieutenant in the battle of Jena and Auerstedt, which ends with a devastating defeat for the Prussians and forces the wounded Lützow to save themselves to the Magdeburg fortress with the broken combat units. Here he meets the seriously wounded Schill again and learns that Berlin has surrendered to the French emperor without a fight.

After Schill had secretly left the besieged Magdeburg in the direction of the Kolberg Fortress , Lützow had to witness on November 10, 1806 how the Magdeburg Fortress with 22,000 men and 600 cannons surrendered without a fight to the French General Ney .

The abdicated Lützow arrives via Lüneburg to Hamburg, which in turn is attacked by the French and so Lützow is forced to flee by ship via Copenhagen to Kolberg, where he meets Nettelbeck .

In Kolberg finally Lützow put together a Freikorps for Schill , who was appointed Rittmeister by royal order and charged with leading the Freikorps, Lützow then commanded the Dragoons.

The Freikorps must obtain horses, equipment and food from the enemy. At Stepenitz there was a first daring battle in which 31 Baden allied with France surrendered to four Schill's hunters. And the group also remains victorious against 500 Italians approaching the island of Wollin .

The capture of the French General Victor by a coup d'état by the Freikorps enables the Prussian headquarters in Danzig to exchange General Blücher , who is in French custody .

When one Prussian fortress after another surrendered to the French emperor and the Prussian royal family had to flee from Königsberg to the extreme East Prussia to Memel , it became more and more difficult for Lützow and the Schill Freikorps to keep their positions around Kolberg. A daring attack against Naugard is betrayed and fails, Lützow is injured by a bullet in the leg and slowly recovers in Kolberg. Lützow is relieved to hear the news that the incompetent fortress commander Lucadou will be replaced by Major Gneisenau , whom the faithful Nettelbeck will assist.

After a violent artillery attack on Kolberg, in which the city was shot ready for storm, the armistice surprisingly followed on the morning of July 2, 1807 - Kolberg was saved!

After the Peace of Tilsit , Schill and Lützow left Kolberg and the Freikorps was integrated into the Second Brandenburg Hussar Regiment in January 1808. On medical advice, Lützow says goodbye and heals his injuries in the hospital.

As early as the spring of 1809 there were first unrest and minor uprisings against Napoleonic rule. Schill and Lützow left, reunited, on April 20, 1809 with their Berlin hussar regiment. On May 1st they reach Wittenberg and cross the Elbe, wanting to help Colonel Dörnberg , who is preparing a farmers' survey in Kurhessen.

On May 4, 1809, Schill received the news that Dörnberg's plans had failed, the Bavarians, allied with Napoleon, also beat the Austrians under Archduke Karl before Regensburg, so that he had to flee to Bohemia. The low point was reached when the governor of Berlin asked Schill to return to Berlin and face a court martial.

With heavy losses of its own, the Freikorps defeated a team that had dropped out from Magdeburg, Lützow was badly wounded by a shot in the chest.

He then stayed in Bad Nenndorf to recover from his injury. Here he meets the young Elisa von Ahlefeldt-Laurwig. In Bad Nenndorf Lützow also learns of the dramatic death of his friend Schill, who died defending Stralsund, and that his head, on which King Jerome of Westphalia had set aside 10,000 francs, was cut off.

In court martial chaired by Blücher against Schill's troops, Lützow is treated as a foreigner and is therefore not subject to Prussian jurisdiction. On September 16, 1809, eleven officers of the Schill Free Corps were sentenced to death on Napoleon's orders and shot in Wesel. 600 Schill soldiers and non-commissioned officers are carried off on French galleys.

On March 20, 1810, Lützow married his beloved Elisa von Ahlefeldt-Laurwig at Tranekær Castle on Langeland . The young couple then returned to Berlin. The Prussian royal house relocated its court from Königsberg to Berlin, and the queen died on July 19, 1810 .

Napoleon forms his Grande Armée from all over the world, and Prussia, too, has to subordinate to him half of its troops under General Yorck under General Yorck under General Yorck, according to the federal treaty of February 24, 1812, as an auxiliary corps.