Schill's hunters

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From left to right: Hunter , artillery sergeant , light infantryman and hussar of the Schill Free Corps (uniform studies from Richard Knötel )

The Schillschen Jäger (also known as Schill's Freikorps ) were an irregular unit under the command of the Prussian major Ferdinand von Schill (1776-1809), which fought against France during the Fifth Coalition War.

course

During the spring of 1809 against the backdrop of the popular uprising in Spain , a new war between Austria and France looming, precipitated Schill, 1807, the popular defender of Kolberg , the decision, a volunteer corps to form Prussia by Napoleon Bonaparte in a people's war to liberate .

On April 28, 1809 he left Berlin with the hussar regiment he led under a pretext and announced his intention. A little later, 500 soldiers from the Berlin garrison and officers from Kolberg days joined him, but the expected influx from northern Germany did not materialize. The Freikorps led the battle of Dodendorf on May 5, 1809 . He later succeeded in conquering Stralsund . For the Prussian king and the government, Schill was considered a deserter . He therefore received no help from the army or politics. His hopes for a popular uprising and the arrival of British aid were also not fulfilled. With around 1500 fighters, Schill was defeated in Stralsund by the Dutch general Pierre Guillaume Gratien , where he fell in a street fight on May 31, 1809.

The shooting of the eleven Schill officers on September 16, 1809 on the Lippewiese near Wesel; standing: Hans Gustav Albert von Wedell

Eleven of his officers were sentenced to death by a French court martial and shot in Wesel on September 16, 1809 . In their honor, a memorial based on a design by Karl Friedrich Schinkel was erected on the Weseler Lippewiese in 1835 . A memorial stone and plaque were placed on the Kniepertor in Stralsund, the place of his execution by the French, for Lieutenant Friedrich Gustav von Petersson , who was fighting at Schill's side .

List of officers shot dead

Memorial monument for the 11 officers shot dead in Wesel
Surname Branch of service Place and year of birth
Lieutenant Friedrich Wilhelm Felgentreu artillery Berlin 1786
Lieutenant Hans von Flemming infantry Glogau 1790
Lieutenant Constantin Wilhelm Gabain infantry Geldern 1786
Lieutenant Friedrich Ferdinand Galle Hussars Berlin 1771
Lieutenant Leopold Jahn Hussars Massau 1778
Lieutenant Carl Gustav von Keffenbrinck ? Krien 1791
Lieutenant Adolph von Keller infantry Strasburg 1785
Lieutenant Johann Christian Daniel Schmidt Hunter Berlin 1780
Lieutenant Carl Friedrich von Trachenberg infantry Rathenow 1784
Lieutenant Albert von Wedell infantry War village 1791
Lieutenant Carl Magnus von Wedell Hussars Braunsforth 1786

Memory and honor

Memorial plaque on the church square in Rathenow

In addition to Ferdinand von Schill , the 11 Schill officers and other executed members of the Freikorps are commemorated and honored :
To commemorate the anniversary of the death of the 11 Schill officers, on March 31, 1835, at the place of their execution on the Lippewiesen, according to the designs by Karl Friedrich Schinkel inaugurated a monument. A memorial was erected in Braunschweig for 14 fellow soldiers who were shot dead. In 1935/1936 five streets in Berlin-Lankwitz were named after executed Schill officers (Felgentreu, Gabain, von Keffenbrink, von Trachenberg and the von Wedell brothers). In the district hall in Rathenow , as a replacement for an epitaph that was burned in the church, a memorial plaque created by the sculptor Karl Mertens commemorated von Trachenberg and von Keller, which disappeared in 1990. In 2009 a plaque was put up again on the church square.

Film adaptations

The incident has been filmed several times, under the titles:

literature

  • Veit Veltzke (ed.): For freedom - against Napoleon. Ferdinand von Schill, Prussia and the German Nation . Böhlau, Cologne, Weimar, Vienna 2009, ISBN 978-3-412-20340-5
  • Felix Richard: The fate of the 11 Schill officers. A memorial book . Published by the city of Wesel on the occasion of the 150 anniversary of the anniversary of their death on September 16, 1959. Wesel city administration, Wesel 1959

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ names list: Veit Veltzke (ed.): For the freedom - against Napoleon. Ferdinand von Schill, Prussia and the German Nation . Böhlau, Cologne, Weimar, Vienna 2009, ISBN 978-3-412-20340-5 , p. 405 f.
  2. ^ Memorial to the 11 Schill officers . In: Online project Fallen Memorials , accessed on April 6, 2014.
  3. ↑ Schill Memorial Braunschweig . In: Online project Fallen Memorials , accessed on April 6, 2014.
  4. ↑ Felgentreustraße. In: Street name lexicon of the Luisenstädtischer Bildungsverein (near  Kaupert )
  5. ↑ Gabainstrasse. In: Street name lexicon of the Luisenstädtischer Bildungsverein (near  Kaupert )
  6. ↑ Keffenbrinkweg. In: Street name lexicon of the Luisenstädtischer Bildungsverein (near  Kaupert )
  7. ↑ Trachenbergring. In: Street name lexicon of the Luisenstädtischer Bildungsverein (near  Kaupert )
  8. ↑ Wedellstrasse. In: Street name lexicon of the Luisenstädtischer Bildungsverein (near  Kaupert )