East Prussian Landwehr 1813

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Entry of the Russians in Koenigsberg on January 5th, 1813
Decision of the Landwehr order

The East Prussian Landwehr was set up in 1813 for the liberation of Napoleon Bonaparte's occupation of East Prussia . The Wars of Liberation began with her .

Emergence

As governor general of the province, Ludwig Yorck von Wartenburg negotiated the Tauroggen Convention on December 30, 1812 . When Russian troops marched into Königsberg a few days later, on January 5, 1813, they were welcomed (unlike in the Seven Years' War ) as liberators. This should be followed by a change of political front. As a (forced) ally of the French, the Prussians wanted to switch to the Russians, in whose service Freiherr vom Stein was already a commissioner. After Yorck had ordered the establishment of the East Prussian National Cavalry Regiment , Count Dohna summoned the East and West Prussian estates . The 64 delegates came to the East Prussian General Landscape Directorate on February 5, 1813 . Otto Brausewetter , descendant of one of the participants, remembered this historic hour with a famous painting.

Two days later, the Landwehr regulations drawn up by Clausewitz , Dohna and Yorck were unanimously adopted by the state parliament . From March 1813, Karl Alexander von Bardeleben set up 19 Landwehr battalions, 3 Landwehr cavalry regiments, 4 Landwehr field batteries and 2 Landwehr train battalions with 20,000 men. A cavalry regiment was assigned to the Northern Army of the Crown Prince of Sweden. The three Landwehr battalions set up in Königsberg were formed into the Königsberger Landwehr Regiment and also assigned to the Northern Army under the command of Karl Friedrich Friccius . The Königsberg regiment fought with great bravery in the battles near Großbeeren and Dennewitz , took part in the Battle of the Nations near Leipzig and stormed the Grimma Gate on October 19, 1813 , whereby the defense of Leipzig collapsed. Due to the heavy losses, the regiment received a replacement from the East Frisian Landwehr in November . In 1814 it took part in the winter campaign in the Netherlands.

All other East Prussian units formed the Landwehr Division under Count Ludwig von Dohna , which took part in the siege of Danzig . Of their approximately 9,000 men, 2,500 fell or died of disease. It was to remain the only division in German history in which all officers were elected. East Prussia was the only province to set up Landwehr artillery and Landwehr train formations.

On March 27, 1813, the Crown of Prussia declared war on the Premier Empire .

“When the storm broke out in the spring of 1813, Königsberg was again the focus of events. Although town and country had suffered badly economically from the lost war and from services to enemy and allied troops, there was an unparalleled willingness to make sacrifices when it came to equipping the Landwehr for the struggle for freedom. More than 200 students out of a total of around 300 reported to volunteer hunters, the Lützow Freikorps, the National Cavalry Regiment and the Landwehr Brigade for arms service. [...] The attitude of the professors was less exemplary. "

- Siegfried Schindelmeiser

With the army reform by Wilhelm I , the old Landwehr constitution was also changed. The soldier served three years under the banner, then four years in the reserve and five years in the Landwehr. At the age of 32, the soldier belonged to the Landwehr, which was basically not mobilized. The reserve officer was new ; he belonged to a regiment and not to the Landwehr of his district.

In honor of the Landwehr, the war councilor Johann Georg Scheffner set up a Landwehr cross on the Galtgarben .

Uniformity

The colors of the badges on the collar and sleeves of the uniform, the single-row buttoned dark blue Litewka, and the headgear were based on the province. The badge color for East Prussia, Kurmark and Neumark was poppy red. The armpit tabs of the Prussian Landwehr infantry regiments indicated the respective battalion by their color (I. - white, II. - red and III. - yellow) and also often bore the number of the regiment.

However, at the beginning of the wars of liberation, very few regiments had fully clothed all men. This did not allow the Prussian finances after the years of Napoleonic occupation. Many Landwehr men had to help themselves with civilian clothing, some of which, but not always, had been reworked and re-colored. The image of the Landwehr was therefore very variegated in the initial phase.

The Landwehr wore the Landwehr cross on their headgear to show the difference to the line regiments.

Armament

The equipment and armament of the Landwehr infantry was rather poor in the early days of 1813 to 1815, often only pikes and axes were used as weapons and many soldiers had no shoes. The Landwehr cavalry was basically equipped with lances until 1816.

European significance

Yorck's appeal to the 64 deputies from East Prussia and West Prussia and the acceptance of the Landwehr order by the state parliament had historical significance for all of Europe:

“In the capital of East Prussia in February 1813, the signal was given for the liberation of Germany and Europe from Napoleonic imperialism, and this signal was not given by the king, but by the people, who decided to act on their own authority. That was two steps forward in historical development that could not be turned back. The nation state and democracy emerged as models on the historical horizon. It may be a long way to go before they are realized ... and we may have different ideas about them today than the men of 1813; that a new exhilaration from Konigsberg (and from Breslau) seized the German people and that this people began to take their fate into their own hands, these are two facts that are just as indispensable in German history as in the history of the city Königsberg. "

- Fritz Gause

literature

  • Adalbert Bezzenberger : In memory of the members of the Prussian Landtag and the dead of the Prussian Landwehr . Revised edition, Königsberg 1900
  • Georg Bujack : In memory of the members of the Prussian Landtag in February 1813 in Königsberg and the deeds of the Prussian Landwehr in 1813 and 1814 . 1890
  • Count August von Dönhoff : Königsberg and East Prussia at the beginning of 1813. A diary from January 1 to February 28, 1813 . 1901
  • Karl Friedrich Friccius : History of the war in the years 1813 and 1814 with special consideration for East Prussia and the Königsberg Landwehr battalion , 1843
  • Arnold Nestor: East Prussian Landwehr. With flags flying . Berlin 1915.
  • Paul Stettiner : East Prussia Uprising and Liberation 1812–1814. Bon, Koenigsberg 1913.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ A. Crusius: The winter campaign in Holland, Brabant and Flanders, an episode from the Wars of Liberation in 1813 and 1814 . Luxembourg 1865, digitized
  2. ^ R. Albinus: Königsberg Lexicon . Würzburg 2002. ISBN 3-88189-441-1 .
  3. ↑ Götz von Selle : History of the Albertus University in Königsberg in Prussia , 2nd edition. Würzburg 1956, p. 262.
  4. ^ S. Schindelmeiser: The Albertina and its students from 1544 to WS 1850/51 . Munich 2010, p. 51. ISBN 978-3-00-028704-6 .