Battle of Drakenburg
| date | May 23, 1547 |
|---|---|
| place | Drakenburg on the Weser |
| output | protestant victory |
| consequences | Northern Germany free from imperial troops |
| Parties to the conflict | |
|---|---|
| Commander | |
| Troop strength | |
| 6,500 infantry, 1,400 horsemen, 24 guns |
6,000 infantry, unknown number of riders, 17 guns |
| losses | |
|
200 dead, 400 wounded |
2,500 dead, 2,500 prisoners |
In the battle of Drakenburg on May 23, 1547 north of Nienburg / Weser , the Protestant army of the Schmalkaldic League defeated the imperial troops of Duke Erich II of Calenberg , who could only swim through the Weser to save himself. Before that, the Protestants had already lost the Schmalkaldic War through their defeat in the Battle of Mühlberg on April 24, 1547 . As a result of the Battle of Drakenburg , northern Germany was freed from imperial troops, which strengthened the position of Protestantism.
Starting position
The Schmalkaldic League had already lost the Schmalkaldic War due to its defeat in the Battle of Mühlberg on April 24, 1547. By signing the Wittenberg surrender on May 19, 1547, the federation was de facto dissolved. Nevertheless, there was continued resistance against the Catholic Emperor Charles V through the Narrow Kaldic allies in northern Germany, especially through the cities of Bremen and Magdeburg .
Siege of Bremen
In January 1547 the imperial colonel and mercenary leader Christoph von Wrisberg enlisted an army in the Münsterland . The troops moved through the Diocese of Osnabrück via Minden against the imperial Bremen in order to conquer it. A long siege began, which the citizens of Bremen withstood despite being shot at. In April 1547, the 19-year-old Duke Erich II joined the imperial besiegers with his troops, so that around 12,000 men stood in front of the city. In May 1547, Duke Erich received the news that a Protestant army was plundering and pillaging through his Duchy of Calenberg . The army is also on its way to Bremen from the south to relieve the city. Because of the unsuccessful siege that lasted several months with insufficient provisions, the loss of a quarter of the mercenaries and the danger of mutiny , von Wrisberg and Erich II stopped the siege.
Parade and formation
Imperial
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After the siege was abandoned, the imperial troops withdrew from Bremen on May 22, 1547. They marched south at speed and at night to face the approaching Protestant army. The units of the two military leaders Erich II and Christoph von Wrisberg marched along the Weser, but separately on both banks. They wanted to reunite at a river crossing in due course. But Wrisberg's troop stayed far behind because problems arose due to the sandy paths. The young and ambitious Duke did not wait for the straggler and let his mercenaries move on even faster. When he heard of the enemy approaching near Drakenburg, he ordered his troops to be ready for battle. About 6,000 mercenaries , an unknown number of riders and 17 guns were available to him. He positioned them east of Drakenburg in the direction of Heemsen in the open field. As a battlefield, he chose an undulating terrain with up to 15 m high sand dunes . Erich considered the area ideal to await the enemy from a safe position. Due to the elevated position, his cannons had a clear field of fire. In addition, his troops had the advantage of sun and wind behind them. Erich's troops were hardly able to evade or retreat, as the battlefield was bordered by swamp and wetlands as well as the Weser .
Protestants
The Saxon Elector Johann Friedrich von Sachsen had set up the Schmalkaldic Armed Forces of the Protestants before his capture at the Battle of Mühlberg in 1547. At the beginning it consisted of only 4 pennons of Landsknechten under the leadership of Count Albrecht von Mansfeld . The troops moved from Saxony via Nordhausen, Northeim and Braunschweig to Bremen to come to the aid of the city of Bremen, which was besieged by the imperial forces. Troop contingents from the cities of Braunschweig, Hildesheim, Hamburg and Magdeburg were added on the way. There were 26 troops (about 6,500 men) of foot soldiers and up to 1,400 horsemen and 24 guns , so that the Protestants outnumbered the enemy. The Schmalkald Army had set up camp near Rodewald on May 22, 1547 and marched on May 23, 1547 from 4 a.m. towards the enemy via Anderten and Heemsen .
battle
The Narrow Kaldic troops approached from the east and met Erich II's troops entrenched in the dune area. The Narrow Kaldic attackers used a tactic that is attributed to the Brunswick captain Brun von Bothmer . He knew the terrain from childhood and suggested a pincer movement with a second attack in the rear of the enemy. Von Bothmer led about 1,000 mounted hookers with a few small-caliber cannons, who approached the enemy from the north, hidden. Both Protestant units started the battle simultaneously with fire and assault. The battle line-up of Erich II was shaken. In addition, the Narrow Kaldic horsemen pushed through the sand hills and separated the imperial associations. In the chaos, Erich's cavalry fled and caused damage to its own foot troops. Erich's infantry, the escape routes were cut off by the enemy and the swampy surroundings. The last resort was the Weser, which at that time was causing spring floods. About 1,000 imperial mercenaries drowned while trying to find a ford. Duke Erich managed with difficulty to swim to the other bank of the Weser. A total of around 2,500 of his men were killed and around another 2,500 were taken prisoner. On the other side, only around 200 dead and around 400 wounded are said to have been recorded.
Rearguard battle
A skirmish ensued after the battle in which the winners of the battle forfeited their war chests. The partial imperial army under Colonel von Wrisberg, who remained behind on the approach, reached the battlefield near Drakenburg on May 23, 1547, but the battle had already been fought. Because of the numerical inferiority, the imperial family withdrew towards Verden . About 10 km north of the battlefield they encountered in Hassel on the entourage of the Protestants. He was only protected by weak forces the strength of a peasant flag. Wrisberg's troops overwhelmed the not particularly combat-strong unit of recruited rural people. In doing so, they captured the Protestants' war chest with around 100,000 gold guilders , which later filled Charles V's imperial treasury .
consequences
The imperial army of Eric II had been crushed and in fact no longer existed, the troops of Colonel von Wrisberg withdrew to the Netherlands and disbanded by themselves. Emperor Charles V suffered a severe defeat by losing two associations in northern Germany.
The two surviving imperial commanders, Duke Erich II and Colonel von Wrisberg, were enemies for life after the battle. They accused each other of failure. While the young, inexperienced Duke Erich faced the battle alone and prematurely, Wrisberg left the Duke in the lurch.
It is doubtful that the outcome of the battle saved Protestantism in northern Germany, as there was no re-Catholicization in the areas of central Germany conquered by the emperor. The northern German, Protestant territories as well as the central German areas had to accept the interim . The Battle of Drakenburg did not bring about freedom of belief in the modern sense. In Protestant Bremen the Catholic faith was suppressed after 1547; the last Catholic churches were converted into Protestant churches.
Battlefield today
The former battlefield is now in the district of Sandberge about 2 km east of Drakenburg and north of Nienburg between the B 215 and a railway line. At that time the area was a sandy dune landscape that no longer exists in this form. Most of the sand accumulations were removed over time for road and railroad construction and used as building material. Individual dunes can still be found under the forest near the railway line. The former battlefield is now built over with an industrial area and residential buildings.
Pictorial representations
The oldest representation of the battle, a colored pen drawing from 1570/80 can be found in the oldest manuscript of Johann Renner's Bremer Chronik. Wilhelm Dilich had an etching made independently of this for his Bremen Chronicle of 1603. It probably goes back to a painting by Christian von Apen in Bremen's Schütting from 1590 , which has not survived. Two lost boxes in the Bremen armory were painted with images of the battle. In 1547 a triangular (!) Medal was struck in honor of Colonel Wilhelm von Thumbshirn from the Electoral Saxony.
Individual evidence
- ↑ Bremisches Jahrbuch 6, 1872, p. LXXX.
literature
- History of Drakenburg. Volume 1: The battle of Drakenburg on May 23, 1547 after the unsuccessful sieges of the Hanseatic city of Bremen during the conflict between the German Empire and the Schmalkaldic League. Heimatverein Drakenburg eV, Drakenburg 1997, ISBN 3-9802780-8-5
- Freiherr Karl von Bothmer: The battle before the Drakenburg on May 23, 1547. A historical-military study. In: Lower Saxony Yearbook for State History. 15, 1938, ISSN 0078-0561 , pp. 85-104.
- Wilhelm von Bippen : The illustrations of the battle at Drakenburg . In: Yearbook of the Bremen Art Collections 1, 2nd half volume, 1908, pp. 34–40.
Web links
Coordinates: 52 ° 41 ′ 36 ″ N , 9 ° 13 ′ 53 ″ E