Pomeranian campaign 1675/76

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Pomerania in the 17th century

The Pomeranian campaign 1675/76 was from September 1675 to mid-January 1676 of Brandenburg-Prussia and Denmark against Sweden led campaign in the Northern War .

The allies of Brandenburg and Denmark conquered large parts of Swedish Pomerania from Sweden in close cooperation .

prehistory

Brandenburg had decisively defeated the Swedes, who invaded the Mark Brandenburg in 1675, in the Battle of Fehrbellin and put them on the defensive. Nevertheless, the military defeat of the Swedes was not complete and another invasion of the Swedish Pomeranians had to be feared. On July 17, 1675, the Holy Roman Empire , Denmark and other powers declared war against Sweden, an ally of France . The Imperial War has now been declared on Sweden. At a Brandenburg-Danish conference on July 27, 1675, a joint military approach between Brandenburg and Denmark was decided. The start of combat operations by the Allies was delayed by ongoing negotiations on the planned war operations and the distribution of the conquered territories. The Allies' first goal was to conquer the Swedish possessions in northern Germany .

Preparations

Denmark was preparing for the beginning of the war and had a field army of 30 regiments of cavalry and infantry , a total of 20,000 men. The fleet was also put into combat readiness. In preparation for the troop march, the Danes now occupied and secured all passes in Holstein up to Hamburg. In addition, the Danish king ordered a Danish and a Dutch warship to close the Kattegat . The King of Denmark gave the order to General Field Marshal Adam von Weyher to gather the invading army near Bad Oldesloe (Holstein). The Danish fleet, reinforced by Dutch warships, received the order on August 22nd to move to the Baltic Sea in order to cross off the coast of Swedish Pomerania. On September 2, 1675, Denmark declared war on Sweden. The Danish king set out on September 3rd from Copenhagen for Oldesloe , where he arrived on September 9th for the display of his now assembled army. This army had a strength of 18,000 men and 40 field guns and was under the command of Field Marshal Weyher.

course

The plan was for the Allies to break into Swedish Pomerania in three places. The imperial troops under Kobe should break through at Tribsees , the Danes at Damgarten and the Brandenburgers at Gützkow .

The advance of the approximately 16,000 strong Danes through northern Mecklenburg began on 12/22. September. The aim was to reach Swedish-Pomerania via Gadebusch through neutral Mecklenburg . The aim of the Danes was to support the Brandenburgers and, on the other hand, to secure Danish interests in the region. The Danish king exerted great influence on the issuing of orders throughout the entire campaign.

On September 20, the Danes reached Wismar, which was under Swedish rule . On September 21, the king explored the area around the city and had it enclosed with two regiments of cuirassiers and one regiment of dragons. Then the Danish army moved on; on September 25th was reached Doberan . Here the Danish King Christian V and the Brandenburg Elector Friedrich Wilhelm I met on September 25, 1675, decided on an offensive alliance and agreed on common war goals. For Denmark, this consisted in regaining the provinces lost in the peace treaties of 1645 and 1660, as well as Wismar and the island of Rügen . Brandenburg was to receive all of Swedish Pomerania for this.

The Danish King Christian V and his staff during the conquest of Damgarten on October 6, 1675
Rosenburg Tapestries 1684-1693

On September 29th the Danes moved through Rostock, on October 1st they reached Ribnitz on the border across from Damgarten , the first place in Swedish Pomerania. There the Swedish Count Königsmarck was lying with some troops. The Danes now built a bridge to cross the border river Recknitz , where they lost 25 men due to the heavy Swedish counterfire. Because of the extensive mud along the way, it was not possible to bypass the Swedish hill on the opposite bank. Up until October 8th, both sides were involved in a positional battle here.

Failure to arm the fleet meant that the planned departure of the Swedish fleet had to be postponed again and again, contrary to the orders issued; the fleet did not set sail until October 9th. On October 10th several ships collided, on October 16th the fleet reached the open sea and had almost reached Gotland when it got caught in a heavy storm. Since a large part of the crews fell ill, the fleet management decided to return to Dalarö , where they arrived on October 20. The war plans of King Charles XI. were thus thwarted and the loss of the German provinces certain. The reasons for the failed operation lay in the poor management of the fleet; so the crews and equipment of the ships were incomplete. This went hand in hand with a lack of discipline and a poor level of training among the teams. The king, realizing the full extent of the grievances after this failed operation, decided to take the reins of government into his own hands. The influence of the Imperial Councilors and the Imperial Chancellor dwindled to a minimum. King Charles XI. then went from Stockholm to Bohuslän , which was attacked from Norway. Von Ascheberg tried to organize a defense there. On November 4th, Charles XI. Vanersborg .

The command of the Swedish troops in Pomerania by Field Marshal Carl Gustav Wrangel became increasingly negligent. He himself went to the fortress Stralsund and from there to the island of Ruden to await the arrival of the fleet, leaving it to Field Marshal Königsmarck and Field Marshal Conrad Mardefelt to take over the defense of Swedish Pomerania.

After the meeting with the Danish king in Rostock, the Brandenburg elector started moving again on September 27th, after his army had moved into Mecklenburg at the end of June and has remained there ever since. He first went to Treptow an der Tollense and from there on the 28th to Klempenow Castle , where the Swedish crew was besieged with an officer and 25 men and after the Brandenburgers fired 3 cannons, surrendered and were able to withdraw without weapons. The Brandenburgers then advanced to Völschow, where they took up quarters. On October 1, the elector recognized the Peene crossings Stolpe, Priemen, Gützkow and Jarmen . On October 4th, the troops from Völschow advanced to the Peene via Neetzow in 3 pillars. Lieutenant General Görtzky went to Stolpe, Lieutenant Colonel Grumbkow in the direction of Jarmen and the elector with the main power went through Kagenow to Peene against Gützkow. The attack on the ferry ramp and the ferry house began on October 5th. The latter was hit by a glowing bullet and burned down. After a two-hour bombardment, the Swedes withdrew with losses. The Captaine Huet and von Dohna now let their troops storm and conquered the ferry ramp. Now the 1000 paces long embankment, cut in several places, to the high bank lay ahead of them. In addition, the Swedes shot field pieces at the Brandenburg troops from the 2 redoubts flanking the ravine. Afterwards the Swedish hill before Gützkow was taken under hard fighting. The passage over the Peene was won. On the same day Görtzky near Stolpe and on October 6th Lieutenant Colonel von Grumbkow near Jarmen succeeded in forcing over the Peene after they had conquered the jumps there at Breechen and Stolpmühl. In Jarmen, the transition was delayed due to the lack of boats.

On October 7th, the temporary bridge construction at the Gützkower ferry was finished, so that the main power could cross with the horses. The Swedes had withdrawn in the direction of Greifswald - Stralsund. The elector (in the diary SKD - called His Electoral Highness) moved into his headquarters in Gützkow. On October 8th, the Swedes withdrew from Damgarten to Stralsund because they feared they would be cut off from the southeast by the Brandenburgers. The Danes immediately followed from Ribnitz via Damgarten to Stralsund. At the same time, Major General Bogislaw von Schwerin had taken the island of Wollin on the right wing of the Brandenburger and advanced on Usedom in the direction of Wolgast. On October 10th the elector traveled via Demmin, Grimmen, Greifswald to Franzburg and on the 12th to Stralsund, where he met the Danish king. On October 16, the elector returned to his headquarters in Gützkow via Loitz. There he decided that the crossing at the Gützkower ferry should remain the main crossing for his troops and supplies, this was fortified and manned and secured with 300 men under Major Clawitz from the Fargel Regiment. On October 21st the elector ordered the advance of his entire armed forces under his personal leadership on Wolgast.

After the breakthrough of the Peene Line, the Swedes cleared the passes between Damgarten and Tribsees on the Mecklenburg border on October 8th . Field Marshal Mardefelt now left his position near Wolgast before the elector had even started the attack. This opened the way to Pomerania for the Brandenburgers and Danes.

The Swedish troops withdrew to the remaining fortified places. The Danes pursued the Swedes as far as Stralsund. The Danes and Brandenburgers could not agree on a siege of the city, however, because the campaign season was too far advanced.

Siege of Wismar by the Danes
Flyer 1675

In the meantime, the Danes concentrated on the siege of Wismar . The city was of great importance to the Swedes as it was the only good port on the German coast and was within reach of Denmark. King Christian V reached the besieged city on October 26th. An unsuccessful assault on the city took place on October 28th. After the siege ring was close enough, fire mortars shot into the city from November 1st. The port of Wismar was blocked by a drawn chain. On December 13, 1675, the city fell into the hands of the Danes.

The Brandenburgers occupied the island of Wollin from October 10th to 13th and besieged Wolgast from October 31st . The garrison in Wolgast under Major Andreas Dubislaff von Blixen , which was heavily attacked by a 3500 man and eight cannon strong Brandenburg contingent, surrendered to the Brandenburgers on November 10, 1675 after a powder magazine had exploded and large parts of the castle had been destroyed.

At the end of 1675, the Swedes only held their ground in Demmin , Anklam , Greifswald, Stralsund and on the island of Rügen, except in Stettin . From then on, the war in Pomerania turned into a protracted fortress war that would drag on for several years. With this result, all activities ended for the time being, as the rough weather that set in early, the lack of food and illnesses forced the elector to release his troops into the winter quarters in mid-November. At the beginning of 1676, Swedish forces tried to retake Wolgast, which was held by Brandenburg with six companies (a total of 300 men). The Swedes carried out an unsuccessful assault on the enclosed city on January 15, 1676 with 1,500 men. The Swedish losses amounted to 120 dead and 260 wounded.

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Carl Friedrich Pauli: General Prussian State History , p. 173
  2. ^ Carl Friedrich Pauli: General Prussian State History , p. 172
  3. ^ Friedrich Ferdinand Carlson: History of Sweden - up to the Reichstag 1680 , p. 625
  4. ^ Gustav von Kessel: The diary of the travel marshal (1674-1683) DS from book - History of the Great Elector of Brandenburg. Jena 1865, p. 148 ff. Digitized at Google
  5. ^ Friedrich Ferdinand Carlson: History of Sweden - up to the Reichstag 1680 , p. 627
  6. ↑ Theatrum Europaeum, Vol. XI, p. 835.

literature

  • Dietmar Lucht: Pomerania - history, culture and science up to the beginning of the Second World War , Verlag Wissenschaft und Politik, Cologne 1996. ISBN 3-8046-8817-9
  • Ernst Müsebeck: The campaigns of the Great Elector to Pomerania 1675-77 , in: Baltic Studies NF 1 (1897), pp. 1–140.
  • Hans Prutz : The conquest of Stralsund by the Great Elector, October 1678 , in: Baltic Studies NF 2 (1898), pp. 1-20.
  • Curt Jany : History of the Prussian Army - From the 15th Century to 1914 , Vol. 1, Biblio Verlag, Osnabrück 1967, Page 229-271.
  • Friedrich Ferdinand Carlson: History of Sweden - up to the Reichstag 1680. , Fourth volume, Gotha 1855
  • Friedrich Förster: Friedrich Wilhelm, the great Elector, and his time: A history of the Prussian state during the duration of his government , Verlag von Gustav Hempel, Berlin 1855
  • Maren Lorenz : The wheel of violence. Military and civil population in northern Germany after the Thirty Years War (1650-1700) , Böhlau: Köln 2007.
  • Samuel Buchholz : Attempt a history of the Churmark Brandenburg , fourth part: new history, Berlin 1767.
  • Anonymous: Theatrum Europaeum , Volume XI, Frankfurt / Main 1682 .
  • Karl Friedrich Pauli : General Prussian State History , Seventh Volume, Halle 1767.