Review by Kalisch
The Kalisch Revue was a maneuver that was held jointly by Prussia and Russia in Congress Poland near Kalisch in 1835 .
The motto of the maneuver was “Real power comes from intimate union”. Over 60,000 soldiers, with more than 7,000 horses and 136 cannons, gathered in Kalisch from September 12 to September 22, 1835, over 4,500 of whom were Prussians. The maneuver was intended to reaffirm the close political ties between Prussia and Russia vis-à-vis the European public, also in view of the Polish November uprising that had been suppressed a few years earlier . The choice of location was a symbolic reminder of the Kalisch alliance that Russia and Prussia had formed in February 1813 at the start of the wars of liberation against Napoleon .
The revue in Kalisch was not a conventional maneuver, no opposing parties were formed to fight each other, the point was that the higher commanders could practice the movement of corps and armies . In addition, it was a performance exhibition of the friendly armies with demonstrations of their own skills, such as almost equestrian demonstrations by the Cossacks and Circassians , joint exercises and getting to know the respective special features.
The commander-in-chief of the troops was Tsar Nikolaus I , the Prussian troops were commanded by Prince Wilhelm, who later became King and Kaiser Wilhelm I.
The highlight of the revue was a large military concert on September 18, 1835 with more than 2,000 military musicians. A forgotten march , the Friedrich Wilhelm III. when he was ten years old. The march was later used by most regiments of the army as a presentation march and was named that way. The Bundeswehr still plays it today.
A big fireworks display concluded the event . 45,000 rockets containing 12,000 pounds of powder were fired that evening . The largest rockets were three pounders, the fireworks cost 100,000 thalers .
Allegory to the Great Revue
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- C. v. Decker : The troop meeting at Kalisch in the summer of 1835. Based on the best materials collected on the spot, processed from a military-historical perspective . [Self-published], on commission from JH Bon, Königsberg 1835.
- Michael Elstermann: "The great revue in Kalisch 1835" or "The pleasure camp in honor of the Russian-Prussian brotherhood in arms" ; in: Zeitschrift für Heereskunde , No. 430, October / December 2008