Electoral Mainz Army

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The Kurmainz Army was the standing army of the Archbishopric of Kurmainz from the beginning of the 17th century until the dissolution of the Kurmainz State as a result of the Reichsdeputation Hauptschluss in 1803.

History of the army

overview

The territory of the Kurmainzischen state had a size of approximately 8260 km² (170 square miles ) and a population of 300,000 to 400,000 inhabitants in the 18th century . Of the 40 cities, the two residences Mainz and Aschaffenburg as well as Erfurt were among the most important. The capital and residence city of Mainz with its strong fortifications formed the center of the defensive Kurmainz military. The top management of the army was the responsibility of the electoral war conference . This consisted of six civil and three military members.

The Electoral Mainz army comprised mostly between 1,500 and 3,000 men, in the 18th century mostly between 3,000 and 4,000 soldiers and was supposed to defend an area in the western and central part of the Holy Roman Empire from Mainz to Aschaffenburg as well as Erfurt and Duderstadt . Only in times of war did the army reach a strength of up to 6,000 men.

Despite the overall small size of the army, the ratio of the military to the total population was as high as that of the Electorate of Saxony or the Archduchy of Austria . In addition to the army, there was also a militia system that was set up after the state committee . Until 1746 the land militia consisted of 16 land companies of 150 men each, who were distributed among the various offices.

Lineup

Like all imperial estates , the Electoral Mainz state had received the right to maintain a standing army in the course of the Peace of Westphalia . At the same time, many imperial princes began to set up their own permanently established armed structures.

The beginnings of the Kurmainzische Army can be traced back to the reign of Archbishop Johann Schweikhard von Kronberg . The army received its essentially final form under Archbishop Johann Philipp von Schönborn .

The army was involved in the fighting of the Palatinate War of Succession . The 20,000 French soldiers who approached Mainz fortress in 1688 were faced with only 700 to 800 men from the Kurmainz army. Resistance was therefore pointless and a handover was agreed. After the fortress was recaptured, the Archbishop of Mainz tried to increase the number of his troops in order to be prepared for a new attack. In 1691 the Kurmainz troops were 3,176, in 1694 only 2,400 men. Even for this small army, the current expenses were actually too high for the Kurmainzer state. At the same time, the costs for the fortification had to be made. The annual cost of the salary amounted to 1.5 million guilders in 1692. This and the cost of the fortification work could only be covered to a fifth from the income of the spa state.

After the Rijswijk Peace of 1697, the standing army was reduced so much that it was almost the same as a dissolution. After the War of the Spanish Succession ended in 1713, the army was no longer reduced. From 1707 onwards, the regiments were finally assigned certain recruiting areas within the archbishopric, the layout of which changed under each elector.

Kurmainzer Grenadier in green (left), drawing after Richard Knötel

Until the middle of the 18th century, the standing army was typically a recruited mercenary army . Archbishop Johann Friedrich Karl von Ostein introduced an enrollment system similar to the Prussian cantonal constitution . As in Prussia, the number of exemptions was very high, so that only the rural population was affected. In contrast to the Prussian system, the period of service in Mainz was not unlimited in time, but limited to four years. However, there was no Prussian leave of absence system for this. Since the 1740s, the proportion of residents has been almost 100 percent. Only 10 percent of the soldiers performed their duties outside the Mainz fortress. In Mainz there were three regiments of seven companies each , around 550 men. There were 30 artillerymen and a fourth regiment in Erfurt . In Mainz there were still 120 artillerymen, a few engineers and the district company of the Upper Rhine Reichskreis . Of the Great General Staff with its 164 officers , most of was on leave. A third of the troops of the Mainz garrison were also on leave during peacetime.

In the 18th century the army was organized into four infantry regiments , the artillery and the engineer corps . In addition there was a hussar and a Landjäger corps . The electoral bodyguard had a strength between 50 and 100 men. She mainly took on representational tasks.

Traditionally, the army in Mainz served to supply young aristocrats with officer positions, so that the budget for the officer corps was very pronounced. The Electoral Mainz General Staff , in an army the size of a brigade , consisted at times of a general en chef , who was also the military governor of the city and fortress of Mainz , five field marshal lieutenants and seven general field sergeants and was therefore completely oversized. The Mainz nobility occupied about half of the officer's posts.

The size of the standing army was largely based on the district contingent that had to be provided for the Imperial Army . The troop strength was usually kept between the required quota and its double thickness in order in case of war, even excluding county quotas to still have experienced troops in their own territory. In the 18th century Kurmainz had to provide 2591 foot soldiers and 576 horsemen for the Imperial Army for the triplum of the Kurrheinische Kreis . By the end of the century this number had increased to 4,400 men. However, this troop target never came about in relation to the entire empire.

In the Seven Years War

As part of the Imperial Army, a regiment of the Kurmainzer Army with four battalions under General Field Marshal Sergeant Philipp Franz Freiherr von Gudenus took part in the Seven Years' War . The garrison strength of the fortress Mainz, reduced by this contingent, was 1200 men at this time. For this purpose, an infantry regiment of 18 companies with 2400, later 3400 men under the Count Lamberg against subsidies loaned to Austria. Both regiments fought successfully near Prague , Hochkirch , Maxen and Dresden .

Archbishop Emmerich Joseph kept the high troop strength of around 4,000 men after the end of the Seven Years' War in order not to have to dismiss the many officers who had returned from the war. From the regiments "Lamberg" and "Gudenus" the four original regiments were formed again in 1763.

In the revolutionary wars

In the 18th century Mainz remained largely neutral in the conflicts, so that the territory was not involved in direct fighting. This only changed in the course of the French Revolution . The elector dared a warlike course against the revolutionary French army and suffered a complete defeat. The main practice of the army in the peace years was to stage colorful marches at court festivals. She was not ready for war or combat. At the request of Austria, the entire garrison of fortress Mainz was ordered to guard Austrian stores in Speyer , where it was either driven into the Rhine or taken prisoner on September 30, 1792 by the troops of the French General Custine . Improvised vigilante groups were hastily mobilized and armed with military equipment that had become unusable. When Mainz was besieged by a French army during the First Coalition War in October 1792, there were only just under 1200 Mainz soldiers in the city. There was no significant fighting and after a short time one of the most important imperial fortresses capitulated after being requested by the French general.

End of the army

The end of the electoral state also meant the end for the army. After the end of the French occupation , Mainz fell to Hessen-Darmstadt in 1816 .

Living conditions and relationship to civil society, research history

The Mainz military did not have a good reputation. The low claimed military value of the troops is due to the fact that the Mainz fortress was abandoned without a fight in 1792 before a French army . Bad training, insufficient accommodation and low pay contributed to this. Outstanding wages from the garrison at Mainz Fortress led to a loss of discipline, and in 1697 there was a threat of famine within the military. The soldiers had to buy their uniforms and equipment themselves. The company economy, which had already been abolished elsewhere, continued in the Mainz military until the end. The soldiers were not housed in quarters, but in barracks . There was a barracks in town for each regiment . Older historical research has almost unanimously judged the armed forces of the spiritual territories and the Kurmainzer military as unsuitable and irrelevant.

Fortresses of the army

  • Mainz fortress : The Kurmainzische fortress Mainz was considered an important fortress and was expanded more and more spaciously. It became particularly involved in fighting in the course of the reunification policy of Louis XIV towards the end of the 17th century . By the end of the 18th century, the Electoral Mainz army had never achieved a strength that would have made it possible to provide the fortress of Mainz with a sufficient garrison, let alone defend the archbishop's scattered possessions at the same time. According to contemporary estimates, up to 18,000 men were needed to defend Mainz fortress in the middle of the 18th century. The fortress service was supplemented by an armed citizen militia , which was not part of the army.
  • Koenigstein Castle
  • Petersberg Citadel
  • Citadel Cyriaksburg

Remembrance and commemoration

The Königsteiner Karnevalsverein Historische Festungsgarde eV ties in with the Kurmainzische Army and uses the true-to-original uniforms of the Historic Fortress Guard of the Königstein Castle of the Electoral Mainz Army from the middle of the 18th century.

literature

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Michael Müller: The development of the Kurrheinische Kreis in its connection with the Oberrheinischer Kreis in the 18th century, Peter Lang international publishing house of the sciences, Frankfurt am Main 2008, p. 66
  2. ↑ Brodhaecker, Michael: The May 21, 1848 in Mainz. Documentation of the political and social unrest in the federal fortress based on the sources. In: Mainzer Geschichtsblätter, Heft 11 (1999), pp. 20–37.
  3. ↑ Susanne Schlösser: "... the city of Mainz felt the oppression very hard ...", The Mainz fortress and its impact on the everyday life of the population in the 17th and 18th centuries. In: Mainzer Geschichtsblätter, volume 7: “Die Wacht am Rhein”, Mainz 1992, p. 19
  4. ^ Walter G. Rödel: Mainz and its population in the 17th and 18th centuries: Demographic development, living conditions and social structures in a spiritual residence city, Steiner-Verlag-Wiesbaden-GmbH, 1985, page 47
  5. ↑ Brodhaecker, Michael: The May 21, 1848 in Mainz. Documentation of the political and social unrest in the federal fortress based on the sources. In: Mainzer Geschichtsblätter, Heft 11 (1999), pp. 20–37.
  6. ^ Walter G. Rödel: Mainz and its population in the 17th and 18th centuries: Demographic development, living conditions and social structures in a spiritual residence city, Steiner-Verlag-Wiesbaden-GmbH, 1985, page 43
  7. ↑ https://www.plaschi.de/historische-festungsgarde.html