Johann Horn (Sergeant)
Johann Horn , (* approx. 1770 in Appenheim ; † August 1, 1800 in Ulm ) was a sergeant who, in 1799, was awarded the Bavarian Medal of Valor in Gold for his bravery near Obrigheim am Neckar , the highest Bavarian order of bravery for men and non-commissioned officers, was awarded. After his death, it was attached to the battalion flag by the troop commander (later field marshal) Prince Karl Philipp von Wrede with a special permission from the elector. His medal was the only personal award that has ever adorned a Bavarian troop flag .
The Bavarian bravery medal
The Bavarian Bravery Medal was donated by Elector Karl Theodor in 1794 under the designation "Military Merit Medal", as the highest honor for his soldiers not in the rank of officer, in a gold and silver version. In addition to the permanent reward of double wages , the awardees enjoyed enormous social prestige; z. B. had to present the guards of the barracks in front of them, even if they were just simple soldiers or civilians with the medal. In 1918 the order was officially named "Bavarian Medal for Bravery", previously just its popular name.
In the two coalition wars against France (1792-1801) - including the Johann Horn award - only 34 gold medals for bravery were awarded. During the First World War, when most were awarded, only 998 soldiers received the gold level, which Horn also owned. The awards ended with the abolition of the monarchy, the order of the Bavarian Bravery Medal remained as a corporation under public law. According to the law on titles, medals and decorations of 1957, the Bavarian Bravery Medal was recognized as one of the highest German war medals and from then on, the owners who were still living at the time were paid a monthly honorary salary of DM 50 ; In the event of death, the Bundeswehr dispatched an honorary delegation to carry the medal on a pillow at the funeral. In 1969, when the foundation celebrated its 175th anniversary, 760 bearers of the high decoration were still alive.
Bavarian Medal for Bravery Front, 1799, this model was awarded to Johann Horn
Bavarian Medal of Bravery on the back, 1799, this model was awarded to Johann Horn
Bavarian Bravery Medal, last model, front side.
Bavarian bravery medal, last model, reverse side.
Historical background
The young French republic spread its ideas of "freedom-equality-fraternity" with great missionary zeal. As early as the First Coalition War (1792–97), their desire to expand fell victim to the German areas on the left of the Rhine, which turned that region into a theater of war with all its terrible consequences. After changing fortunes in the war, the part of the Electoral Palatinate on the left bank of the Rhine finally remained in French hands from 1797. Elector Carl Theodor von der Pfalz, who also inherited Bavaria in 1777 and henceforth ruled over both countries, died on February 16, 1799. Count Palatine Max IV. Joseph von Pfalz-Zweibrücken-Birkenfeld succeeded him as Elector Palatinate-Bavarian; in 1806 he was to become the first king of Bavaria under the name Max I. Joseph . The immediate homeland and large parts of the country of the new elector were firmly under French occupation when he took office. Of his Electoral Palatinate, he had only the part on the right bank of the Rhine around Mannheim and Heidelberg .
Despite ongoing peace negotiations, the French crossed the Rhine completely unexpectedly on March 1, 1799 near Mannheim and Kehl in order to carry the war to Germany on the right bank of the Rhine ( Second Coalition War ). The border guard here consisted of Austrian and Bavarian troops, who were startled from their winter quarters when the French invaded. Units were rushed together, reformed and reorganized. Of course, many soldiers from the Electoral Palatinate part of the state served in the Bavarian army , including those from the area on the left bank of the Rhine, which had been occupied for years by the enemy, including what is now the Rhine-Hessian Appenheim.
Johann Horn's life
One of these Bavarian soldiers was Johann Horn from the village of Appenheim near Bingen on the left bank of the Rhine, then in the Electoral Palatinate . Horn served as a sergeant in the body company of the Palatinate-Bavarian infantry battalion "Wrede", which was newly formed in the summer of 1799 and which, according to old documents, consisted mainly of "Palatine leaveers (reservists), depot teams (stage troops) and pardoned deserters ". This battalion fought independently on the Rhine and Neckar until March 1800 under the command of Colonel Baron Carl Philipp von Wrede , the later field marshal, whose monument is in the Munich Feldherrnhalle . On November 4, 1799, the Wrede battalion, together with Austrian troops, attacked the French entrenched in this village near Obrigheim am Neckar. The Bavarians set in violent fire over the river and stormed the place. Documents from the Bavarian War Archives report on this:
“ On this occasion, Sergeant Johann Horn from Appenheim, Bingen district , distinguished himself by first passing the Neckar with his train under enemy fire and finally penetrating the left flank of the village of Obrigheim at its head. "
For his fearless behavior, Horn received the Bavarian Medal of Bravery in gold, the highest attainable war medal in his country in the rank of non-commissioned officer.
Johann Horn could not enjoy his award for long. The Austro-Bavarian troops in southern Germany suffered heavy losses. The Wrede battalion came to the Bavarian " Subsidien-Corps ", which, led by Lieutenant General Christian Freiherr von Zweibrücken , was subordinate to the Austrian army of General Feldzeugmeister Paul Kray von Krajowa . During battles in the Württemberg-Swabian region, the revolutionary troops inflicted a series of defeats on them in 1800, which ultimately led to the French breakthrough into Bavaria and the occupation of Munich. On August 24, 1801, Max IV. Joseph had to give up the Electoral Palatinate on the left bank of the Rhine for good in the Peace of Paris. Austria (i.e. the German Emperor) followed suit in the same year in the Peace of Lunéville with a declaration of renunciation of all parts of the country on the left bank of the Rhine. This ended the Second Coalition War in Germany.
Horn had already not seen the last part of that war. The battle of Memmingen on May 10, 1800 was his last. In it, the Bavarian associations had the task of preventing the unification of two French army groups not far from the city, in order to enable the Austrians there to retreat to the fortress of Ulm . Karl Gemminger's "Bayerisches Thatenbuch" reported about it in 1830 in the following words:
“ The task was all the more difficult as the Palatinate Bavarian brigade was very weakened in terms of crew. Extremely exhausted heart trains, night watch and combat, it should take on an enemy who was twelve times superior. The attack began with furious impetus as early as noon at noon. The Bavarians, conscious that the rescue of the entire Austrian army depended on the duration of their resistance, displayed a heroic bravery alternately in defense and attack, through which they held up the bold, often superior enemy and theirs until 10 o'clock at night Maintaining positions immovable. The retreat of the Austrians to Ulm, into the entrenchments there, to which Wrede led his brave ones, was thereby covered and happily accomplished. "
During these battles, Johann Horn suffered severe wounds when he stormed ahead of his battalion with his medal on, flag in hand. He did not recover from it and died from it. The pay lists in the Bavarian War Archives list Horn from May 11th until the date of his death on August 1st, 1800, as permanently “hospital sick” (archives of the 3rd Inf. Rgts, Volume 37).
Horns medal
Baron von Wrede, meanwhile advanced to major general and brigade commander, had such a high opinion of his valiant sergeant that he asked the elector for a special permit to attach his gold medal for bravery to the battalion flag he carried when he was mortally wounded to be allowed. The special permission for this was issued on August 26th, 1801. The battalion was no longer called "Wrede" since March 30th, 1800, but "Zoller" and formed the 1st battalion of the newly formed 3rd Bavarian Infantry Regiment on June 25th, 1801 , which later bore the name “Regiment Prince Karl of Bavaria” and was garrisoned in Augsburg . Horn's medal of bravery was therefore attached to the flag of that 1st Battalion of the 3rd Bavarian Infantry Regiment.
In 1809 she saw Andreas Hofer's troops fighting bitterly against the Bavarian occupiers in the Tyrolean mountains. In 1812, the icy deserts of Russia were reflected in it, where the Bavarians, as brothers in arms of France, had carried them along with the troop flag. During the terrible retreat from there, Napoleon's “great army” also largely disbanded their Bavarian contingent. Of his 52,000 relatives, barely 12,000 returned home from Russia; in rags, half insane and frozen to death. Since the completely exhausted soldiers could no longer carry their flags, they were loaded onto the carriages of the field war commissariat, which also contained the Bavarian war chest. In a surprise attack, the Russians captured these wagons on October 24, 1812 near Uschatz, not far from the Daugava. The treasury with 16,000 guilders and all 22 Bavarian battalion flags - including Horn's medal of bravery - fell into their hands as booty. A bitter loss for the Bavarians, only mitigated by the fact that the standards were lost as baggage and not in open combat. General von Wrede reported about this to the king on October 30, 1812 from Danielowitschi: “The enemy attacked the war coffers and baggage and took the flags wrapped in the coffers, of which he cannot boast of conquering them because he did found in the war coffers and did not take guns in hand. "
After returning from Russia, new standards had to be acquired for the units and on July 31, 1813, the replaced battalion flag was decorated with a gold medal for bravery in memory of Johann Horn. Bavarian soldiers carried the flag with horn decorations in the battles of the Wars of Liberation 1813–15 and the German-German War in 1866. It waved on the battlefields of Sedan , Orlèans and Paris in 1870/71 ;
1914/18 near Badonviller, Saarburg, Nancy-Epinal, on the Somme, near Lemberg, Cholm, before Verdun, in Romania at the Red Tower Pass and the like. in the Christmas battle of Rimnicul-Sarat, in Champagne, and on Kemmelberg in Flanders. After the dissolution of the Bavarian Army on May 5, 1919, the standard with the Order of Horn was given a place of honor in the Bavarian Army Museum in Munich (today's State Chancellery); when this museum was relocated to Ingolstadt , it was also there. The commemorative publication for the 175th anniversary of the foundation of the Bavarian Bravery Medal states in 1969 (page 8) that Johann Horn's medal is still attached to the old troop flag. On request, the Bavarian Army Museum announced in 2005 that the flag was hanging in the flag room there, but that there was no trace of the order. Apparently the valuable piece has been removed in the meantime and - in ignorance of its special significance - placed separately in the museum's collection. It is probably one of those gold medals of bravery that are on display in the house's collection of medals today.
Johann Horn's story was included in a brief description of the memorial work "The Bavarian Soldier in the Field" (Volume 1, Pages 85/86) published in 1898, which records the fame of Bavarian soldiers from 1793 to 1871. In the commemorative publication for the 175th anniversary of the foundation of the Bavarian Bravery Medal (Munich 1969), the affixing of Horn's award to a Bavarian standard is listed as the only precedent of this kind, without going into the circumstances of the award.
literature
- "The Bavarian Soldier in the Field" (Volume 1, Pages 85/86), Bavarian War Archives Munich, 1898
- "Festschrift for the 175th anniversary of the Bavarian Bravery Medal" , Munich, 1969
- "An intrepid Appenheimer - Johann Horn's medal for bravery adorns the army flag" , Joachim Specht, Heimat am Mittelrhein, monthly newspaper for culture and Heimatpflege, supplement of the Mainzer Allgemeine Zeitung, No. 2, 2008
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Horn, Johann |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES | Horn, Johannes |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | Knight of the Bavarian Bravery Medal |
| DATE OF BIRTH | around 1770 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Appenheim |
| DATE OF DEATH | August 1, 1800 |
| Place of death | Ulm |