Prüm Zeughaussturm

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In the Prüm arsenal storm on May 18, 1849, democratically-minded supporters of the revolution of 1848 armed themselves in order to militarily support the imperial constitution campaign. The action in the Eifel town of Prüm was - like the Iserlohn uprising and the other May uprisings in the Rhine Province and other parts of Prussia - a consequence of the policy of King Friedrich Wilhelm IV of Prussia , who in April 1848 rejected the imperial dignity and the Frankfurt Paulskirche constitution and the Prussian Parliament had dissolved.

The action was preceded by a large popular assembly with over 5,000 participants, which took place on May 13, 1849 on the Marienburg on the Moselle . The decision to arm himself was significantly influenced by Karl Grün , a left-wing democratic journalist and member of the Prussian state parliament. Five days later, led by the lawyer Victor Schily , around 100 revolutionaries from Prüm, Trier , Wittlich , Bitburg and other places in the region stormed the armory of the Prussian Landwehr in Prüm. They fired a few shots and some of the soldiers who were supposed to guard the weapons depot fraternized with them. Despite this success, there was no revolutionary uprising in the Moselle region. Karl Marx later reported that the leaders - Victor Schily and Peter Imandt - had moved with the guns and some men to the Palatinate, where they had joined the imperial constitution campaign. After the revolution was finally put down in July 1849, they went into exile in Switzerland and then in London in 1852. Otto Schily explained that his great-great-uncle Victor had, "... after the uprising failed, collected the captured rifles and handed them over to the authorities. He was a very German revolutionary. "

Of the 43 people who were indicted in 1850, the Trier district court sentenced six to five years of forced labor. A military court in Saarlouis sentenced three Landsturm soldiers to death: Johann Manstein from Laufeld near Manderscheid , Anton Steilen and Nikolaus Alken from Prüm had refused to shoot the revolutionaries because they knew them. On Sunday, October 14, 1849, they were shot in Fort Rauch of the Saarlouis fortress. Two of the leaders Ludwig Simon and Victor Schily, who fled to Switzerland after the crackdown on the imperial constitution campaign, were sentenced to death in absentia in 1851. Karl Grün, who had not participated in the storm himself, was arrested and charged with intellectual involvement, but acquitted after eight months in prison.

For the men fusiled in Saarlouis, a spiritual office was held in the local parish church of St. Ludwig . The numerous participation of the population in the fair can be interpreted as a clear expression of solidarity with the executed and the goals of the revolution of 1848:

“Yesterday morning the solemn soul ministry organized for the Prüm militants who fusiled the previous Sunday took place in our parish church (sic). It may well be said that (sic) no church service has been attended as numerous as this for many years, as the church hardly offered enough space for the thousands (sic) of pious believers from all classes. The emotion was general and moving; there was abundant sacrifice for the widow (sic) and the orphans, and the tears (sic) moistened looks of the pious participants (sic) showed more than enough how close the sad lot (sic) of the deceased was to the heart. In the afternoon almost the entire population flowed to the flower-adorned graves of the dead, where, with the permission of our Lord fortress commanders, the Prüm militants who were still here came praying to pray the most fervent prayers for the rest of the fallen to send."

On the occasion of the 160th anniversary of the events, the composer Christopher Meux processed them into the musical "May 1849 - The Prümer Zeughaussturm".

literature

  • Criminal procedure against Dr. C. Green and 22 comrades. Because of treason resp. Looting of the arsenal in Prüm. Negotiated before the Assize in Trier in January 1850 . Lintz, Trier 1850 digitized
  • Indictment files, drawn up by the K. General State Procuratorate of the Palatinate, together with the verdict of the Prosecution Chamber of the K. Appellate Court of the Palatinate in Zweibrucken on June 29, 1850, in the investigation against Martin Reichard, dismissed notary in Speyer and 332 consorts, for armed Rebellion against the armed power, high treason and state treason, etc. Ritter, Zweibrücken 1850. Digitized
  • Karl Handfest: The Zeughausstürmer of 1849 - and what became of them. In: Yearbook of the district of Prüm. Vol. 10, 1969, ISSN  0448-1429 , pp. 132-133.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Karl Marx: Mr. Vogt. Chapter II: The Buerstenheimer
  2. ↑ Stefan Reinecke: “At that time I had a more romantic relationship with Marx” . In: The daily newspaper: taz . May 5, 2018, ISSN  0931-9085 , p. 26 ( taz.de [accessed on May 6, 2018]).
  3. ↑ Severin Delges: History of the Catholic Parish St. Ludwig in Saarlouis, Saarlouis-Lisdorf 1931 , extension by a second part by Heinrich Unkel in 1952, extension by a third part by Marga Blasius in 1985, part 1, p. 105.
  4. ^ In: Karl Theodor Ferdinand Grün in the Lexicon of Westphalian Authors
  5. ^ Bulletin for the districts of Saarlouis, Merzig, Ottweiler, Saarburg and for German Lorraine, No. 126, Saarlouis, Sunday, October 21, 1849.
  6. ^ Musical about the Prümer Zeughaussturm ( Memento from July 4, 2010 in the Internet Archive )