Oldenburg French Period
In the history of Oldenburg, the Oldenburg French period describes the period from 1806 to 1814 under French influence and incorporation into the French Empire, parallel to the so-called French period in other German and European regions .
Oldenburg from the coalition wars to joining the Rhine Confederation
Already at the beginning of the coalition wars in 1799, the Duchy of Oldenburg suffered from troops moving through and billeting of troops from the Electorate of Hanover , England and Prussia . After the end of the Third Coalition War , membership of the Rhine Confederation could still be prevented due to the close relationship with Russia - Tsar Alexander I was the nephew of the deceased wife of Duke Peter I in Oldenburg . However, Russia could not fully guarantee the security of the duchy because it was already bound together with Prussia in the war against Napoleon I.
On October 14, 1806, Prussia left the war after the defeats of Jena and Auerstedt . The Prussian General Blücher had to capitulate north of Lübeck on the territory of the Principality of Lübeck , an exclave belonging to Oldenburg . Russia - now on its own - could not prevent the Duchy of Oldenburg from being occupied on November 12, 1806 by troops of the new Kingdom of Holland under Napoleon's brother Louis Bonaparte . Only after massive Russian protests did the troops withdraw again in January 1807 and Duke Peter, who had settled in the royal seat of the unoccupied part of the Principality of Lübeck Eutin , returned to Oldenburg to the cheers of the population.
In the Treaty of Tilsit in July 1807, Russia had to come to an understanding with France after the Prussian defeat. In return, Napoleon guaranteed the sovereignty of some principalities that were ruled by relatives of the Tsar, including that of the Duchy of Oldenburg. The rule of Jever, ruled by Russia since 1797, and the rule of Kniphausen , which has been independent since 1806 - both formerly Oldenburg possessions - were, however, added to Holland.
In February 1808 Peter I traveled to Paris to pay his respects to Napoleon for the guarantee of sovereignty and was treated courteously. In September and October of the same year, Peter was present at the Erfurt Prince Congress at the invitation of Napoleon . Napoleon sought an understanding with Russia again after the heavy defeat of Bailén in the Spanish campaign . Under pressure from the tsar, Peter was now forced to join the Confederation of the Rhine as the last German prince .
Accession to the Rhine Confederation and French occupation
Joining the Rhine Confederation can be seen as the actual beginning of the French era for the Duchy of Oldenburg. The duchy had to participate in the Rhine Confederation contingent and the continental blockage restricted trade on the one hand, and increased smuggling via Heligoland on the other . As a result, Oldenburg's position vis-à-vis France became increasingly weaker. In addition, Duke Peter made it possible for Duke Friedrich Wilhelm von Braunschweig to embark from the Oldenburg port of Brake to England with a volunteer corps recruited in Bohemia , in order to join the King's German Legion in the fight against Napoleon. Furthermore, Peter had in April 1809 his son George with the Russian Grand Duchess Catherine Pavlovna of the Tsar, daughter Paul I married. The Grand Duchess had previously rejected Napoleon's hand at the Princely Congress in Erfurt. Oldenburg was thus in a difficult position vis-à-vis France.
The occupation of the duchy was therefore only a matter of time, especially since Napoleon had to control the entire North Sea coast for an effective continental barrier . After the Electorate of Hanover was occupied on March 1, 1810 and Napoleon's brother, who had fallen from grace as King of Holland, had to abdicate on July 1, 1810, and Holland became French, Oldenburg bordered directly on France. On December 13th, the French Senate finally decided to occupy Oldenburg and to set up four Hanseatic departments which - parallel to the rivers Ems , Weser and Elbe - extended to Hamburg and Lübeck and bordered the Kingdom of Westphalia in the south . From the former counties of Oldenburg and Delmenhorst , the Arrondissement Oldenburg was formed, which belonged to the department of the Weser estuaries - Département des Bouches du Weser - with its headquarters in Bremen . Südoldenburg came to the department of Ober-Ems - Département de l'Ems-Supérieur - with headquarters in Osnabrück . The southern part of the Principality of Lübeck , which belongs to the Duchy of Oldenburg , was also occupied by the French. From 1811 to 1814 it was an exclave of the Bouches de l'Elbe department .
Most of the occupation was peaceful. The public coffers of Oldenburg were confiscated, so that from January 1, 1811 civil servants' salaries could no longer be paid. Duke Peter was given the choice of staying in Oldenburg or - as a replacement - becoming Duke of the much smaller Principality of Erfurt , but then preferred to go into exile in Russia on February 27, 1811 . He offered his highest officials to join his service and pay them out of his private fortune.
On February 28, 1811, Oldenburg was taken over by France through a ceremony in the Lamberti Church and a proclamation addressing the residents as French citizens.
In the summer of 1811 a delegation from Oldenburg, led by Gerhard Anton von Halem, as president of the provisional court of appeal, traveled to Paris to pay homage to Napoleon on the part of the new provinces.
The constitution of the First French Empire as well as the most modern body of law in Europe at the time, the Code Napoléon , came into force on August 20 in Oldenburg and brought about far-reaching changes for the legal and administrative system. Public court hearings and the division of inheritance in equal parts were allowed, which dismembered the peasant property. On the other hand, the feudal system was abolished, civil marriage and state birth and death registers were introduced and the Jewish population was given legal equality.
Pierre de Coubertin, a relative of the founder of the Olympic Committee of the same name, then Amadee-Pierre Perrier and, in 1812, the future Senator from Bremen, Johann Eberhard Pavenstedt , who was greatly respected for his hard-working and measured work, became sub-prefect of the Oldenburg arrondissement . However, Pavenstedt was then replaced by the young and inexperienced Baron Pierre-Emmanuel Frochot.
The civilian population suffered with great bitterness under the foreign rule of the French. The raising of troops for the Confederation of the Rhine contingent, but later also of seamen to man the ships for the planned invasion of England, was carried out ruthlessly, sometimes with reprisals against relatives of men who fled. A large number of taxes were levied and even children of twelve years of age were forced to build roads, while on the other hand, building dykes was neglected. In order to counter the continued rampant smuggling, measures were taken with the greatest severity, including the death penalty . Trade remained blocked by the continental blockade.
In addition, any sympathy for the ducal ruling house was denied and Napoleon's victories and special days, such as Napoleon's birthday (August 15) as well as the date of his coronation as emperor (December 2), had to be celebrated as state holidays.
The former Rheinbund battalion garrisoned in Oldenburg was assigned to the 129th Line Infantry Regiment in 1812 , whose headquarters were in Osnabrück . The regiment took part in the Russian campaign in 1812 and was completely wiped out. Other Oldenburgers served in other units of the Grande Army, especially in the cavalry. The exact number of Oldenburg losses is unknown. It is only certain that by December 1814 there was no news of 700 members of the duchy who had been in French service. (von Weltzien, p. 133)
Fall of French rule in 1813
In early 1813, news of Napoleon's retreat finally spread. In March 1813 Hamburg was liberated (albeit initially only temporarily) and there were popular uprisings and unrest across the country. On March 16, 1813, Cossacks were sighted on the borders of the duchy. From the perspective of the French, Oldenburg was no longer safe from an attack and liberation, and officials and the gendarmerie initially withdrew to Bremen. From respected citizens, civil guards were formed to maintain public order and, in case of doubt, also protect French property and their sympathizers. Nevertheless, the houses of the Maires in Brake and Elsfleth were devastated and a short time later the riots reached Oldenburg. There Frochot appointed a five-person administrative commission from members of the former magistrate, which was supposed to maintain order. However, the commission agents did not get the situation in Oldenburg under control. The prison, in which many goods were stored, was ransacked. The Commission also changed various official titles from French to German and refrained from prosecuting troublemakers. To this end, the commission issued a proclamation to ensure that the people remained calm. The French rated this as an attack and on March 20, 1813, a state of emergency was imposed on the Hanseatic departments . French troops were sent to Oldenburg via Brake and Elsfleth and captured some officials with German titles on the way. A fort near Blexen , previously occupied by insurgent gunners, was retaken by the French on March 25th. Several captured gunners were executed. After the French victories at Großgörschen (May 2, 1813) and Bautzen (May 20/21), the sub-prefect Frochot also returned to Oldenburg.
The members of the administrative commission, although appointed by Frochot, kept in hiding, but later faced the French against the assurance of impunity. Among them were the lawyers Albrecht Ludwig von Berger and Christian Daniel von Finckh as well as the sugar manufacturer Gerhard Nikolaus Bulling, the merchant Johann Dietrich Klävemann and the landowner Peter Ludwig Carl Friedrich von Negelein on Fikensolt. On April 4, the five commission members and the former Oldenburg Maire Johann Wiegand Christian Erdmann were transferred to Bremen. There Berger and Finckh were sentenced to death by the notorious General Dominique Joseph Vandamme in a show trial for high treason, contrary to Frochot's assurance of impunity . An acquaintance of the two, General von Osten, had to direct the execution. The others were allowed to return to Oldenburg.
Berger and Finckh were later rehabilitated by Peter I and in 1824 a memorial was erected for the two in the Gertrudenfriedhof .
After the executions, the burdens continued to increase in retaliation for Oldenburg through reckless service obligations, requisitions, billeting and compulsory labor in the fortress construction. The state of siege was maintained, but the planned looting by the French knight Louis Marcel de Cousser, who fled to Oldenburg as a trustee of the king after the French Revolution and was appointed chairman of the municipal council by the French , was averted.
Wars of Liberation
The Wars of Liberation had now begun in Prussia and Duke Peter moved to Northern Germany in the wake of the Tsar and with the Prussian-Russian army and the Russian-German Legion that the Tsar had set up from German exiles and prisoners of war . With these armies he took part in the battles near Großgörschen, Bautzen, Dresden (August 26-27) and finally in the Battle of the Nations near Leipzig (October 16-19). In October 1813, Russian Cossacks finally reached Oldenburg. Duke Peter returned on November 27th and was greeted by the citizens with a storm of applause and the ringing of bells. A thanksgiving ceremony followed on December 5th in the presence of Russian soldiers.
So that Oldenburg could also take part in the liberation struggle against the French, Peter implemented the military constitution drafted by Hereditary Prince August on December 24th , thereby introducing general conscription for the establishment of an Oldenburg contingent. However, the line-up was slow due to general indignation and so the contingent was the only one of the German states not to take part in the spring campaign of 1814 .
When Napoleon returned to France from Elba on March 1, 1815 , general mobilization also took place in Oldenburg in May 1815 . The well-armed but young and inexperienced Oldenburg regiment under Colonel Wilhelm Gustav Friedrich Wardenburg with 1,600 men was assigned to the North German Federal Corps under Field Marshal Blücher. The troops did not take part in the Battle of Waterloo . Instead, the Oldenburgs were used in the fortress war in the German-French border area in the battles of Mézières near Sedan and Montmédy in the summer of 1815 . There, Wardenberg avoided unnecessary losses by the Oldenburgs twice through justified refusal of orders and after an outbreak of the dysentery von Blücher personally brought about the release of the regiment back home. On December 8th, the troops arrived in Oldenburg. The regiment had to complain about five dead.
Oldenburg in the Congress of Vienna
Duke Peter did not personally take part in the Congress of Vienna because he was averse to court life. His envoy in Vienna, the district president of the Principality of Lübeck, Hans Albrecht von Maltzan , who belonged to Oldenburg , had a difficult time and had to ask Grand Duchess Pavlovna, who also represented Oldenburg interests, for instructions every day.
As a result of the Congress of Vienna, Oldenburg was elevated to a Grand Duchy . It contained the former lordship of Count Bentinck , which had been converted into the Amt of Varel , as well as Vechta and Cloppenburg , which were, however, heavily in debt. On December 28, 1813, the tsar had already given the rule of Jever to Oldenburg, which again belonged to the duchy after 150 years. On the other hand, Peter had to forego the Weser customs revenue. For this, Oldenburg was compensated with the small and distant Principality of Birkenfeld . Oldenburg also joined the German Confederation when it joined the Vienna Final Act in 1821 .
literature
- Andreas Lombard: House and Land. The Duchy and Grand Duchy of Oldenburg from 1773 to 1918. Published in: History of the Oldenburger Land - Duchy, Grand Duchy of the Free State . Edited by Jörg Michael Henneberg and Horst-Günther Lucke. Aschendorff publishing house. Muenster. 2014. ISBN 978-3-402-12942-5 . Page 68–85.
- Ludwig von Weltzien : Military studies from Oldenburg's prehistory and history of the Oldenburg contingent , Oldenburg (Schulzesche Buchhandlung) 1858.
Individual evidence
- ^ Wilhelm Gilly de Montaut: Fortress and Garrison Oldenburg . Heinz Holzberg Verlag, Oldenburg 1980, ISBN 3-87358-132-9 . Pages 38-39.
- ↑ a b c NWZ Online . Thomas Husmann: Cossacks put an end to the horror. February 9, 2009.
- ^ Albrecht Eckhardt, Heinrich Schmidt (ed.): History of the Oldenburger Land . Heinz Holzberg Verlag, Oldenburg 1987, p. 290.