Battle of Dennewitz

Battle of Dennewitz

Part of: Wars of Liberation

French advance on Berlin

date	September 6, 1813
place	Dennewitz , Brandenburg
output	Prussian victory

Parties to the conflict
France Saxony Rhine Confederation	Prussia Russia Sweden
Commander
Michel Ney	Friedrich Wilhelm von Bülow Bogislav von Tauentzien
Troop strength
60,000 men and 186 cannons	41,000 men 124 cannons
losses
9,000 dead and wounded 14,000 prisoners 53 cannons	10,500 dead and wounded

The Battle of Dennewitz took place on September 6, 1813 as part of the Wars of Liberation . In it, Prussian , Russian and Swedish troops of the Northern Army , led by Friedrich Wilhelm von Bülow and Bogislav Friedrich Emanuel von Tauentzien , defeated the French army and the Saxons allied with it under Marshal Michel Ney .

This victory finally prevented Napoleon from advancing into Berlin. Napoleon remained defensive from then on, which led to the decision in the Battle of the Nations near Leipzig .

prehistory

Starting position and advance of the French

Standard of the Saganer Landwehr battalion under General von Dobschütz
(exhibit in the former Dennewitz memorial hall)

Originally, Napoleon's concept was to prevent the unification of the three armies of the allied powers, the Russian Empire , the Kingdom of Prussia and the Empire of Austria , and to beat them separately. After the Battle of the Katzbach and the Battle of Kulm and Nollendorf , however, this concept could no longer be implemented. Therefore Napoleon tried to achieve the conquest of Berlin now . He commissioned Marshal Michel Ney to do this after Marshal Charles Nicolas Oudinot was defeated in the Battle of Großbeeren on 23 August.

On the morning of September 5, Marshal Ney began his march on Berlin from Wittenberg . He had three army and one cavalry corps at his disposal. At the head of the army marched the Oudinot Corps , whose avant-garde encountered the Prussian vanguard under the command of Leopold Wilhelm von Dobschütz shortly after Wittenberg near Zahna . At the same time, the Northern Army under the leadership of the Swedish Crown Prince Karl Johann - after the Battle of Großbeeren - advanced south, but made slow progress.

Battle at Zahna

At Zahna the troops of the Prussian vanguard were encompassed and thrown back on the bulk of the army with considerable losses. The main Prussian power then attacked again at Gadegast , but was again turned away and pursued to Seyda . The Prussian IV Army Corps Tauentzien was able to withdraw to Jüterbog , losing 3,000 men , while Marshal Ney had his troops camped at Seyda without being cleared up. The French planned to continue the advance northward the next day.

According to orders, Tauentzien should not avoid a fight even with inferior forces; however, he should line up west of Jüterbog and thus closer to the III. Army Corps Bülow approach. This should be ready the next morning in order to be able to fall Ney into the flank during an advance until the Russians and Swedes were close .

However, due to the lack of clarification, the French did not know where the main Prussian power was. Marshal Ney ordered the advance in two columns south past Jüterbog in the direction of Luckau . The Bertrand corps was to advance to Dennewitz , the Reynier corps to Rohrbeck .

Geographical conditions of the battle area

The site of the battle forms part of the Fläming plateau sloping towards the Elbe . The gently rolling landscape thus offered the infantry potential cover options , the cavalry opportunities to attack and the artillery heights on which to position themselves.

Course of the battle

Map of the battle from Alison's Atlas

The head of Bertrand's corps under Henri-Gratien Bertrand had already reached Dennewitz when she saw the Tauentzien marching column across in front of her. This too had noticed the enemy and stopped. In the upcoming battle, in which Bülow intervened as planned from the western flank, around 40,000 men on the Prussian side faced around 70,000 men on the French side.

Tauentzien raised his guns in three batteries and opened the artillery battle . The infantry line up for battle. The attack of the French Fontanelli division against the left wing of the Prussian line-up began at around 11 a.m.

Tauentzien had his Landwehr counter-attack, but they went back immediately. The approaching head of the Bülow Corps prevented the French from pursuing the Landwehr. Tauentzien saved this difficult situation with a successful attack by eight squadrons of his cavalry, which were able to penetrate into the second meeting of the French infantry and caused disorder in the French ranks. This gave Tauentzien's infantry time to rearrange themselves and collect ammunition. The troops of Tauentziens were able to defend themselves only with great difficulty and with heavy losses from the French attacks when they were attacked by Bülows III. Thümen Division, belonging to the Corps, rushed to the rescue.

Arrived west of Tauentzien, forming the right flank of the Prussian troops, the III. General Bülow's army corps entered battle near Niedergörsdorf. Since the French were believed to have been defeated, their infantry stormed in split battalion columns against the Morand division. As a result, they were repulsed with strong fire. But this French success was short-lived. After heavy attacks by the Prussians, the French troops could be pushed back on Dennewitz, where they moved into a new position behind a strong gun line. A fierce artillery fight began.

In order to counter the threat to the left flank of Bertrand's Corps, the VII. Corps von Reynier turned left from its march on Rohrbeck and, to the left of Bertrand's Corps, turned to battle with von Bülow's troops. Here, too, on the left wing of the French near Gölsdorf, the battle now billowed back and forth with varying degrees of success. After the late arrival of the Prussian Borstell division, which now formed the right wing of the Bülow Corps, the Saxons were forced out of Gölsdorf after a bloody battle. However, the Prussians could not advance further, as the XII. Corps under Marshal Oudinot appeared on the battlefield and, together with the Saxons who had just been driven out of the village, recaptured Gölsdorf.

Marshal Ney was on the right wing, mainly observing the course of action at Corps Bertrand in his vicinity. When the French troops were bypassed here by Major General von Thümen's troops and had to retreat, he made a decision that was disastrous for the outcome of the battle. He ordered Marshal Oudinot's corps to leave the left wing and support Bertrand's troops on the right wing. With the departure of the XII. Corps and the associated weakening of the left wing, the Bülow troops finally succeeded in driving the Saxons out of Göhlsdorf and advancing on Dennewitz. The Saxons finally withdrew, and the right wing also gave way before the XII. Corps could bring help there. That decided the battle. The French troops left the place of their defeat.

Consequences of the battle

The Prussians lost about 10,500 dead, wounded and prisoners, the French about 23,000 men.

"Battle of Dennewitz 1813" educational trail

The sites of the battles, the monuments of the Battle of Dennewitz and the exhibition in the village museum can be visited as part of a hike on a military-historical educational trail, which consists of 14 stations. This educational trail was designed primarily for hikers and cyclists.

Commemoration - Dennewitz Village Museum

On September 6, 1996, the new museum with an extensive collection on the battle of 1813 was opened in the farm building of the former Dennewitz village school. In addition, commemorative events are held in Dennewitz every 5 years. With the laying of wreaths, pageants and the bivouac of historical troops from 1813, the battle is remembered and the military and civilian victims are remembered.

Hero of Dennewitz

General von Dobschütz , later on January 13, 1814, the "Liberator of Wittenberg", played a prominent role in this series of battles. Only one month earlier, on August 4, 1813, he had taken over as commander of the reserve corps belonging to Tauentziens IV Army Corps . Because of his great military success, he was then called "Held von Dennewitz".

Monuments

• 

  Obelisk in Niedergörsdorf

• 

  Bülow monument in Dennewitz

• 

  The (original) Tauentzienstein in Dennewitz

• 

  Tauentzienstein (since 1988)

• 

  Memorial to fallen grenadiers in Dennewitz

literature

• Ludwig von Auer: About the battles of Groß-Bereren and Dennewitz. From an eyewitness . Hitzig Publishing House, Berlin 1813.
• Frank Bauer: Dennewitz September 6, 1813 (History of the Wars of Liberation 1813–1814; Issue 2). Potsdam 2003.
• Wilhelm Biereye: The battle of the Katzbach . Koehler, Dresden 1913.
• Richard Haedecke: The Battle of Dennewitz. A victory by Bernadotte; Study on the prehistory of September 6, 1813 . Schell & Rentel publishing house, Berlin 1916.
• Konrad Lehmann: The rescue of Berlin in the year 1813. The generalism of Bernadotte, Bülow, Oudinots and Neys in the Großbeeren and Dennewitz campaign . Kraus Reprint, Vaduz 1965 (reprint of the Berlin 1934 edition).
• Barthold von Quistorp: Second French offensive against the Mark and the Battle of Dennewitz (History of the Northern Army in 1813; Vol. 3). Verlag des Militärwochenblatts, Berlin 1865 ( books.google.de ).
• Theodor Rehwisch: Dennewitz. September 6, 1813 (Battle Pictures of the Wars of Liberation; 7). Preussisches Bücherkabinett, Berlin 2005, ISBN 3-938447-07-9 (reprint of the Leipzig 1912 edition).
• Wolfram Peche: The military history educational trail “Battle of Dennewitz 1813” . Sebnitz 2014
• Max Wald: Flämingheft 5 in 6 editions:
  • 1st to 3rd edition: From the French era in the Jüterbog-Luckenwalde district . Dahme / Mark, 1926, 1928 and 1937
  • 4th to 6th edition: From the French era - Großbeeren and Dennewitz . Dahme / Mark, 1940, 1942 and 1943

Web links

Commons : Battle of Dennewitz  - collection of images, videos and audio files

• 1813 Battle of Dennewitz
• Dennewitz in the Prussian Web
• Battle of Dennewitz
• Dennewitz 1813: Ney vs Bulow

Individual evidence

1. ↑ R. Braeuner: History of the Prussian Landwehr . Historical representation and illumination of its prehistory, establishment and later organization . LTR-Verlag, Buchholz-Sprötze 1996, ISBN 3-88706-405-4 , pp. 230-238 (reprint of the Berlin 1863 edition).
2. ^ Albert Sidney Britt, Thomas E. Griess: The wars of Napoleon. Square One Publishers, Garden City Park, NY 2003, ISBN 0-7570-0154-8 , p. 134