Leipzig municipal guard

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Members of the Leipzig Communal Guard

The Leipzig Municipal Guard was a military-like institution in the city that existed from 1830 to 1870 to ensure its internal security.

history

In 1830 there was a certain political tension in Saxony as the king and government insisted on the old political conditions and the first news of the French July Revolution came in. The intervention of the police on a disturbing bachelorette party on September 2, 1830 in Leipzig led to riots in which the houses and apartments of hated municipal and royal officials were stormed and demolished. Since the police could not prevail and no military arrived, on September 5 the city's magistrate called on citizens to help themselves . The historian Ernst Kroker calls this date the birthday of the Leipzig Communal Guard. Volunteer troops quickly found themselves to occupy the city ​​gates and important facilities and places, and to clear the streets of tumults. Special groups formed that became companies, for example from a rifle club, from university academics, from hunting friends, from book printers, merchants, etc. When military units arrived in the city on September 6th and 7th, the "Communal Guard" had peace and order have already been restored to the city.

In several steps, the municipal guard became a permanent institution. On November 28th, Prince Johann arrived in Leipzig, inspected the now approximately 800-strong troop and approved their continued existence. Communal guards had been formed in numerous other Saxon cities following the example of Leipzig, and on November 29th their legal legitimacy took place through the “mandate concerning the establishment of the communal guards”, according to which “the communal guards were an association of the well-meaning residents of the cities from all classes for the purpose of maintaining general security and public order and a means of promoting public spirit ”. This was followed by a service regulation with disciplinary regulations and drill regulations .

  • Members of the Turner Company

  • Members of the bookselling company

  • The flag of the Leipzig municipal guard

  • The guardhouse next to the police office on Naschmarkt

Now service in the Leipzig municipal guard was no longer voluntary. Every man who had Leipzig citizenship had to belong to the municipal guard until he was 50 years old. This consisted in 1832 of 16 feet companies , each with four to five trains and a riding section and included a total of 2,280 people at a weapons with 2,037 rifles , 670 hand guns and 58 pistols . The companies were structured according to districts as well as professional groups and wore different uniforms. The guardsmen chose their officers and superiors themselves.

The headquarters were in the Blaue Mütze restaurant (today Lortzingstrasse). Newly entering guardsmen were drilled here and in various halls of the city, including workshop rooms. The permanent office of the Guard was in the Alte Waage . The guard house of the Leipzig Municipal Guard on Naschmarkt next to the police station and its immediate vicinity were manned by guards every day from 7 p.m. to 1 a.m.

Several times a year central exercises and parades took place, for which the entire guard marched to the parade ground in Gohlis . She was increasingly accompanied by many Leipzigers, and the whole thing took on more and more of the character of a folk festival.

In addition to the permanent guard duty, the communal guard was also deployed with varying degrees of success for events of greater importance. On April 7, 1839, she took over the security of the celebrations for the opening of the long-distance railway line Leipzig – Dresden . During the so-called Leipzig massacre on August 12, 1845, the local guard in charge was expelled from the square by the military, who then caused a bloodbath. The following day, the local guard took control of the city and calmed the situation. However, during the revolutionary days of 1848/1849, entire companies had to be dissolved because of “refusal” and “fraternization with the people”. The local guards lost three lives.

When Prussian troops occupied Leipzig in the German War in 1866 , that was the beginning of the end of the communal guard. Saxony's accession to the North German Confederation and the introduction of general conscription were further steps that made the municipal guard superfluous. On March 31, 1867, the last watch of the Leipzig municipal guard took place. Its final formal dissolution took place in 1870.

literature

  • Horst Riedel: Stadtlexikon Leipzig from A to Z . PRO LEIPZIG, Leipzig 2005, ISBN 3-936508-03-8 , pp. 309/310
  • Hans Carl Florian von Nostitz Drzewiecki: The communal guards of the Kingdom of Saxony in their creation, legal justification, organization and present form. Gärtner'sche Buchdruckerei, Dresden 1832, p. 39 (digitized version ) , accessed on December 18, 2014
  • Adolf Lippold: Of night watchmen, junk Jews and harp girls - memories of an old Leipzig man. Lehmstedtverlag, Leipzig, 2004, ISBN 3-937146-18-0 , chapter The communal guard moves out! Pp. 210-218
  • Dieter Kürschner: Leipzig as a garrison town 1866-1945 / 49. Edited from the estate by Ulrich von Hehl and Sebastian Schaar (= sources and research on the history of the city of Leipzig) Vol. 10, Leipzig 2015. On the Communal Guard, Chapter 2 under the title: Communal Guard and Landwehr in Leipzig , pp. 34-38.
  • Peter Beyer : The holdings of the municipal guard Leipzig (1830-1870) in the city archive. Finding aid introduction. In: Arbeitsberichte zur Geschichte der Stadt Leipzig, Leipzig, Vol. 13 (1967), pp. 18–28.

Web links

Commons : Leipziger Kommunalgarde  - Collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Ernst Kroker: Leipzig , Klinkhardt & Biermann, 1908, p. 122, (digitized version) , Reprint Salzwasser-Verlag GmbH, 2013, ISBN 978-3-8460-3010-3 .
  2. ^ Albin Kutschbach: Leipzig 150 years ago

annotation

  1. ↑ A commemorative plaque at the entrance to the Old Town Hall on the Naschmarkt side shows October 31, the day the Leipzig Municipal Guard was sworn in, as the day it was founded.