Clapper war
The lace war ( lux .: Klëppelkrich ) in 1798 was planned as a war of liberation for the West Eifel population against the French occupiers. The region had belonged to the Forests Department since 1795 and previously to the Duchy of Luxembourg . They wanted to defend themselves against the French, who demanded excessive taxes, drafted young peasants for military service and closed the churches.
The lace-warriors were farmers who had neither military experience nor powerful weapons. They drew with some shotguns, but otherwise with their usual professional tools such as. B. pitchforks, reforged scythes and also with clubs to war. The word Klöppel comes from the Moselle Franconian or Luxembourgish Klëppel, which means something like stick.
On October 29, an army of 2,000 men wanted to liberate Luxembourg City from the French. However, this undertaking failed in Hosingen , well before Luxembourg, when the lace-warriors believed that they had seen French soldiers at dusk. In truth, however, it was only a group of gendarmes who behaved so skilfully that one thought an entire army was already on the march.
After 110 French troops to Arzfeld were reassigned, gathered at its train of Dasburg about Dahnen , Daleiden and Irrhausen according Arzfeld about 500 clapper warrior to the French attack. On October 30, 1798, a battle broke out in front of the village entrance of Arzfeld. 7 French soldiers and 33 Eifel residents died. 32 lace warriors were captured by the French. Most of them were executed in Luxembourg City in 1799.
In remembrance of the parish church in Arzfeld there is a lace war memorial erected by the Eifelverein in 1908. The village of Dahnen, which had by far the most victims of all rebellious places, erected a memorial to its lace warriors on the church forecourt in October 1998. In the same year a commemorative plaque was unveiled on the village square in Daleiden. There are other bobbin war memorials since 1899 in Clervaux (Luxembourg) and since 1972 in the city of Luxembourg, as well as since 1898 in the Belgian city of Hasselt on the Leopoldplein .
Brabant and Flanders
In other Dutch provinces such as Flanders and Brabant , too, there was an uprising of young farmers in 1798/1799 who were to be drafted into military service. This uprising called Boerenkrijg ("Peasants' War") was put down within two months, with a total of around 15,000 dead. In addition to the obligation to serve, the general upheavals associated with the annexation of Belgium by the republican France from 1795 onwards, especially the persecution of Catholic priests , the establishment of the French language and the abolition of traditional institutions, privileges and structures.
literature
- Jean Engling : History of the so-called lace war , illustrated by sources, printed and published by V. Bück, Luxembourg, 1858.
- Jacques Dollar: La démystification du “Klöppelkrich” . Luxembourg 1981.
- Gerd Hagedorn: Discovered in Trier: A report by the Arzfeld pastor Franz Toetschen about the lace war . In: Heimatkalender 1998 in the Bitburg-Prüm district . Pp. 37-52.
- Gerd Hagedorn: Dahnen had to pay the most expensive of all. The victims of the lace war in Dahnen . In: Heimatkalender 1998 district Bitburg Prüm . Pp. 57-65; there also further articles about the bobbin warfare;
- Alois Mayer: Seduced, forced, lost. The lace war of 1798 in the Eifel . Aachen 1998.
- Islek oni borders (ed.): Klëppelkrich. Memories of a landscape . Luxembourg, 2002 (extensive bibliography).
- Johann Engling: History of the so-called Klöppelkrieges , Bück, 1858, 143 pages ( Google Books )
Individual evidence
- ↑ http://www.dieweltenbummler.de/reisen/wohnmobiltouren/2010-mit-dem-wohnmobil-durch-luxemburg/attachment/2010_luxemburg_wohnmobil_07/ DENKMAL AN DEN KLÖPPELKRIEG
- ↑ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bQUtscUwJrg Klöppelkrieg-Denkmal Clervaux