Battle of Fehrbellin

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Battle of Fehrbellin
Schematic map (further maps)
Schematic map ( further maps )
date 18 jul. / June 28th greg. until 19 jul. / June 29,  1675 greg.
place Fehrbellin
output Victory of Brandenburg, end of the threat to the Mark Brandenburg from the Swedish army
Parties to the conflict

Sweden 1650Sweden Sweden

Brandenburg PrussiaBrandenburg-Prussia Brandenburg-Prussia

Commander

FM Waldemar von Wrangel

Elector Friedrich Wilhelm
Field Marshal Georg von Derfflinger

Troop strength
7000 infantrymen
4000 riders
38 cannons 		6000 riders
13 cannons
losses

approx. 4000 dead, wounded, prisoners, deserters
(following days included)

approx. 500 dead and wounded

Battles and Sieges of the
Northern War (1674–1679)
Georg von Derfflinger
Flag of one of the Altmark farmers' companies mobilized in the run-up to the battle
Map of the Battle of Fehrbellin
Copper engraving by Johann Gottfried Bartsch (1675) describing the battle
The height defended by the Brandenburgers, painting by Dismar Degen

The Battle of Fehrbellin was a battle of the Swedish-Brandenburg War , in which on June 18 . / June 28, 1675 greg. Swedish and Brandenburg-Prussian troops met in and around Fehrbellin . The battle was a retreat in which the Brandenburg troops defeated the Swedish troops that had previously occupied parts of Brandenburg. Measured by the number of participants, it is a rather small battle, but it was of great importance for the history of Brandenburg-Prussia.

prehistory

Unless explicitly stated, calendar dates in this article refer to the Gregorian calendar , which was ten days ahead of the Julian calendar used in Brandenburg and Sweden at the time .

Elector Friedrich Wilhelm , portrait by Govaert Flinck

Elector Friedrich Wilhelm was on a campaign against France in Alsace during the Dutch War . There the imperial and Brandenburg troops had just suffered a defeat at Türkheim , which forced them to vacate the place. In December 1674, Swedish troops marched into the march under Lieutenant General Wolmar von Wrangel , a half-brother of Carl Gustav von Wrangel , in order to force Friedrich Wilhelm to withdraw his troops from the Upper Rhine. This happened under pressure from France, which urged Sweden to take this step with subsidy payments and clever tactics. In Erstein , Friedrich Wilhelm learned of the Swedish invasion of the Mark Brandenburg . He then led his troops to Breit , where they took winter quarters. After the end of winter, the Brandenburg forces broke on May 26th July. / June 5, 1675 greg. in three columns and reached Magdeburg on July 11th . / June 21, 1675 greg. . This was a very good march performance and helped to surprise the Swedes, who did not expect the arrival of the electors. However, this effort was bought at the expense of the marching column pulling apart and the absence of almost all of the infantry. The bulk of the infantry was two days' march back.

The arrival of the Brandenburgers had gone unnoticed by the Swedes, and so Friedrich Wilhelm issued secrecy measures to preserve this advantage. In the meantime, the Swedes devastated and plundered large areas. Brandenburg farming companies occupied the Luch crossings of Oranienburg , Kremmen and Fehrbellin in order to guarantee the protection of the Havelland . However, these positions could not be held against the Swedes. The Swedes occupy Havelberg , Rathenow and Brandenburg an der Havel . Friedrich Wilhelm made the decision to take Rathenow, located between the two places, in order to separate the Swedish troops from one another.

Battle for Rathenow

On jul. / June 23, 1675 greg. The Brandenburg troops started moving via Genthin and crossed on the night of July 14th . / June 24th greg. 15 jul. / June 25th greg. north of Rathenow the Havel to attack the city from the south, while riders and dragoons attacked directly across the bridges. The six companies of Swedish dragoons were completely taken by surprise. Under the leadership of Field Marshal Georg von Derfflinger , the Brandenburgers penetrated the town and after a tough fight overpowered the defenders. All but ten Swedes were killed or captured. Between 500 and 600 horses could be captured.

The only Luch crossing unoccupied by Brandenburgers was at Fehrbellin; the bridge there had been destroyed by a Brandenburg command under Lieutenant Colonel Hennigs and the dam pierced. Wrangel was already on the way from Brandenburg to Rathenow when he learned of the fall of the place. Thereupon he turned to Nauen , which he reached before the electoral troops.

Battle near Nauen

In Nauen it happened on July 17th . / June 27, 1675 greg. between the Brandenburgers and the Swedish rearguard Wrangels, who were left behind to delay the Brandenburg advance, for a battle over the dam near Nauen. The electors succeeded in breaking the Swedish resistance and conquering the dam. In Nauen they captured 2,000 cattle and spent the night there. On jul. / June 28th greg. When the Swedish troops marched, pursued by the Brandenburgers, to Fehrbellin, to repair the bridge there and to cross the Rhin .

course

In order to conduct a battle of retreat and to allow the uninvolved troops and the extensive entourage of over 1500 cars to withdraw unhindered, Wrangel stood a little south of Hakenberg with 7000 men (in German literature 11,000-12,000 men). He had already sent his 38 guns ahead, so that he only had seven guns that were quickly retrieved. The Swedish forces were divided into eight brigades and 24 squadrons. Before that, the Swedish armed forces had already lined up three times, but abandoned this arrangement each time.

Persecution of the Swedish army by the Brandenburgers

On the Brandenburg side there were around 5000 cuirassiers and 600 dragoons with 13 guns. The musketeers could not keep up with the rapid advance of the cavalry troops and were a day's march back. The lack of infantry was a disadvantage for the Brandenburgers. Wrangel had his troops, divided into two meetings , line up in a classical formation. The infantry stood in the middle with the riders on the flanks. The eight infantry regiments were grouped into six brigades. The guns were set up in the spaces between the first meeting. The Swedes had Hakenberg behind, the Rhinluch on their left, their right flank leaned against a wood, the Dechtower spruce. The Katharinenpfuhl lay a little short of their right flank . The Brandenburgers leaned against the Katharinenpfuhl with their left flank and against the Rhinluch with their right. Wrangel had failed to occupy the hill on his right flank. Friedrich Wilhelm took advantage of this, had his artillery, which was covered by two dragoon regiments , deployed there and took the Swedes under flank fire.

While the Brandenburgers occupied the hills under protection from the early morning fog and rain, Friedrich II , Prince of Hesse-Homburg , fought on the right flank of the Brandenburgers and ran the risk of being cut off. The situation began to become dangerous for the Swedes when at 8 o'clock in the morning the Brandenburg artillery opened fire and streaked the Swedish lines. The rain and fog had passed, and Wrangel saw the threat from the hill. He ordered Lieutenant Colonel von Maltzahn, who was in Swedish service, to attack with the cavalry of his right wing and the Dalwig Infantry Regiment. The Swedes succeeded in routing the cavalry reserves of artillery cover, and only the almost simultaneous arrival of the elector stopped them. Derfflinger had sent reinforcements who, under the rushing Prince von Homburg and the Chamberlain von Buch, fell the Swedes into the flank and forced them to retreat immediately.

Since Wrangel's left flank was no longer threatened by the Prince of Homburg, he withdrew his strength from there and renewed his attack on the battered defenders of the gun emplacement. The attack developed into hand-to-hand combat, in which both carbines and pallashes were used. 69 high-ranking officers like Derfflinger were in the fray. Derfflinger had to be brought out of a dangerous situation by the Prince of Homburg and Colonel Berend Joachim von Mörner . Here Mörner died and was replaced by Lieutenant Colonel Hennigs, who held the Brandenburgers together and caused great losses to the Swedes. After a long battle that was costly for both sides, the Brandenburgers gained the upper hand and put the Swedish riders to flight. This led to the Swedish infantry regiment of Dalwig getting into an isolated position and being surrounded. The regiment was completely destroyed, only 20 men managed to escape, 60 to 70 men were captured and Lieutenant Colonel Maltzahn was killed.

The Swedes had suffered heavy losses, their cavalry was in disarray, and they had failed to rise. In addition, there were reports that the Brandenburgers were awaiting imperial reinforcements. Wrangel decided to retreat to Fehrbellin via Hakenberg, although the transition there had not yet been restored. According to the report of the Chamberlain von Buch, the Swedes lost 2,100 dead, even more wounded and 60 to 70 prisoners, while on the Brandenburg side 218 men died and 280 were seriously wounded.

At about 10 o'clock the Swedes, arranged in two columns, began their retreat on Fehrbellin. The Brandenburgers accompanied the Swedish retreat on their left flank and kept them under artillery fire, which was returned by the Swedes. A bullet just missed the elector and tore the stable master Emanuel Froben off the right leg above the knee, which he died an hour later. There was no opportunity to attack, however, as the Swedes had strong infantry on their left and the terrain was not favorable either. There was only one weak attack, which was immediately repulsed. At lunchtime the Swedes reached Fehrbellin, which had been prepared for defense. The elector refused his officers' consideration of shooting at the place.

The Swedes made makeshift repairs to the bridge overnight, and so the elector found the next morning, July 19th . / June 29, 1675 greg. , the majority of Swedes on the other side of the lynx. Two battalions of musketeers from the Gotha regiment stayed behind to cover the retreat. Derfflinger attacked them with 1150 men of his vanguard riding and drove them after a hard fight through the crossfire of his dragoons. Before they left, the Swedes had set their supplies of powder on fire. Nevertheless, the Brandenburgers captured five guns, ten ball wagons, four ammunition carts, nine hundredweight fuses and seven hundredweight musket balls. The Swedes withdrew via Neuruppin , through the Prignitz and Mecklenburg , with many stragglers being slain by angry farmers. The elector ended the pursuit in Wittstock because of the complete exhaustion of “man and horse” and to wait for his infantry and artillery to arrive.

The battle and persecution had cost the Swedes 2,400 dead and 300 to 400 prisoners, while the victors only complained about 500 men. The Swedes lost Colonel Adam Wachtmeister, Lieutenant Colonel Maltzahn, five other staff officers, six cavalry captains, some lieutenants and cornets, and all the officers of the Dalwig regiment. Among the Brandenburg dead were, in addition to Mörner, Major von der Marwitz, the Rittmeister von Asseburg, Beyer, Burgsdorff and Schönermark, some lieutenants and 218 men. Among others, Lieutenant Colonels Sydow, Köller, Strauss, Hennigs and Captain Buch were wounded. The Elector promoted Hennigs to colonel on the battlefield and ennobled him in 1676 with a letter of nobility dated to the day of Fehrbellin in the name of Hennigs von Treffenfeld .

The Brandenburgers captured six dragoon flags and several kettledrons in Rathenow, eight infantry flags in the bitter battle for the height, two standards and five artillery pieces. Most of the fallen were buried on the battlefield itself.

consequences

Persecuted by the Brandenburgers to Wittstock, Wrangel's retreat turned into a catastrophe, especially since thousands of his soldiers deserted. From the initial 12,000 men only 4,000 reached Demmin .

The Battle of Fehrbellin was the first independent victory of the Brandenburgers over the troops of a great power and strengthened the self-confidence of Brandenburg-Prussia. As a result of this victory, Sweden was militarily pushed further on the defensive, and the Margraviate of Brandenburg was no longer militarily threatened by the Swedes until the peace agreement in 1679. Another consequence of the victory was that the Danes and the Holy Roman Empire , who had hitherto kept out of the conflict for flimsy reasons, fulfilled their alliance obligations and declared war on Sweden.

Nevertheless, the Battle of Fehrbellin and the subsequent conquest of Swedish Pomerania as well as the East Prussian campaign brought the Hohenzollern barely any tangible territorial gain, as in 1679 in the Peace of Saint-Germain almost all advantages resulting from the victorious battle were reversed.

German reception

“The Great Elector went with might to
achieve peace.
Soon the Swede came out of midnight,
driven by France's money,
with his lap and Finnish power, had
a great deal of malice practiced
in the Kur- and Brandenburger land
with church robbery and looting.
Man and woman were chased away,
The cattle were shot through,
It is done that nothing is left,
That annoyed many;
Until at last the great hero
suddenly appeared,
And his name in the world,
bound even higher. "

- New Song from Happy Victorie (1675)

Even at that time, the “Battle of Fehrbellin” was causing a stir all over Europe. "The Brandenburg army, which had never gone into battle alone before, had knocked out the excellent Swedish troops." In addition, this victory averted the danger for the Reich, which was mainly perceived by German contemporaries to become again the scene of Franco-Swedish power politics in the Thirty Years War. It was therefore not unusual that even in distant Strasbourg, songs were composed about Friedrich Wilhelm that celebrated the Hohenzollern as the “Great Elector” for the first time (see box on the right). A few years later, in 1682, the Theatrum Europaeum in Frankfurt am Main also documented this assessment.

"What would arise before frolocken about this Victorie in and outside of Germany, and how this created the veneration and estime, so one before Se. Elector Durchl. Allready had increased, even the devotion and love, so which subjects and lands, which they bore, were enlarged, cannot be described. Many thousands wept with joy and absently kissed the arm of this hero who learned to argue so valiantly. "

While Swedish historiography attached little more to the meeting at Fehrbellin than the importance of a battle of retreat, German historiography recognized in it a historical turning point. As a result, Fehrbellin's Equestrian Day held a special place in the interests of German historians until the end of the First World War (1914–1918), who saw the Brandenburg victory as the starting point for the rise of Prussian military power. This view has its origins as early as the 18th century. In his Mémoires pour servir à l'Histoire de la maison de Brandebourg , published in 1751, King Frederick II already wrote of a “famous and decisive battle [...] which was brought about more by courage than by prudence. [...] [Elector Friedrich Wilhelm], with a small cavalry, tired from a long march, defeated a large number of sizable infantry that had defeated the Reich and Poland through bravery. [...] His descendants consider this famous meeting to be the starting point for the size to which the House of Brandenburg has since grown. "

Romanticizing depiction of the death of the stable master Emanuel Froben from the history book Pictures and Tales from German History; For the more mature German youth (Berlin 1863)

The later historians agreed with this interpretation that June 28, 1675 was a "Brandenburg victory date, which marked the starting point of the Brandenburg-Prussian ascent in the field." After the end of the Second World War (1939-1945) it was omitted While it is largely the glorification of the military, the battle itself is still recognized today as a turning point in history. In 1998 the historian Heinz Schilling wrote : "Fehrbellin is the beginning of those military bravura pieces by Hohenzollern princes that were to become a Prussian myth under Friedrich II."

Another aspect of the German historiography of the Battle of Fehrbellin was the glorification of Elector Friedrich Wilhelm and his role during the battle. This focus was intensified during the 19th century and reached its climax in the German Empire . The aim of this interpretation was to establish a myth about the ruling house of the Hohenzollern, which is why it was particularly common in school books. In a school book from 1905, for example, one can read: “He [Friedrich Wilhelm] rushed into the thick of the battle at the head of a group of cavalry and called out to the soldiers who were already retreating: 'Confident, brave soldiers! I, your prince and current captain, want to win or die knightly with you! '"

The legend of the behavior of the electoral stable master Emanuel Froben , which was a symbol of the required fulfillment of duty during militarism, played a special role . According to her, the elector rode a white horse and the stable master noticed that the Swedes shot at this far more often than at the other horses. Under the pretext that the animal would shy away, he persuaded the elector to swap the white horse for Froben's brown horse. A few minutes later the stable master was killed by a bullet. In the school books of the empire, Froben's act was often portrayed as an expression of exemplary fulfillment of duty: “The elector threw himself into the midst of the fray. […] At his side his stable master Emanuel Froben fell, as the legend reports, as a sacrifice of his loyalty. "This was an example of the way in which the adolescents of that epoch used the slogan of" heroic death for emperors, people and Fatherland ”should be brought closer.

Culture of remembrance

The battle forms the background for the drama " Prince Friedrich von Homburg or the Battle of Fehrbellin " by Heinrich von Kleist (written 1809/10, first published in 1821). The plot has nothing in common with the historical events and characters. The same is true of the opera “ The Prince of Homburg ” by Hans Werner Henze (1960).

The "New Monument" ( Victory Column Hakenberg ) on the Kurfürstenhügel near Hakenberg is designed as a lookout tower. The two-part base has the shape of a cube with four truncated edges; A round tower-like structure rests on it, which carries a circumferential gallery at a height of 23 m. This consists of an iron latticework in the middle of which the (later gilded) bronze statue of the goddess of victory Victoria rises on a gray sandstone cone, also called Nike (Berlin: "little Goldelse") , a forerunner of the "big Goldelse" on the Berlin Victory Column . On the outside of the basement there is an inscription plaque with the dedication, and above it an oversized niche with the colossal bust of the Great Elector. The memorial goes back to an initiative of Crown Prince Friedrich Wilhelm (later Emperor Friedrich III ), who also laid the foundation stone on June 18, 1875. The inauguration ceremony took place on September 2, 1879 (so-called Sedan Day).

The Fehrbelliner Reitermarsch , composed by Richard Henrion in 1893, is still one of the most popular pieces in the repertoire of military bands and is a regimental march of various Bundeswehr units . Since the end of the German Empire in 1918, it has been sung as a popular song with the line “We want our old Kaiser Wilhelm back” and in this context is referred to as the “Kaiser Wilhelm March”.

Fehrbelliner Platz was built in 1892 in rural Wilmersdorf , which was not incorporated into Berlin until 1920 . The Fehrbelliner Platz underground station was opened there in 1913 and, after 1934, the square was converted into a horseshoe shape with monumental administrative buildings.

See also

literature

  • Curt Jany: History of the Prussian Army - From the 15th century to 1914. Volume 1, Biblio Verlag, Osnabrück 1967, pages 239–243.
  • Frank Bauer: Fehrbellin 1675 - Brandenburg-Prussia's rise to a great power. Potsdam 1998, ISBN 3-921655-86-2 .
  • Martin Lezius : From Fehrbellin to Tannenberg - Three Hundred Years of German War History. Volume 1, Ernst Steiniger printing and publishing bookstore, Berlin 1936.
  • J. Mankell: Svenskar och tyskar om slaget vid Fehrbellin. (German: A Swedish representation of the Battle of Fehrbellin.) Military weekly paper 1876, No. 83–86.
  • Ernst Opgenoorth : Friedrich Wilhelm - The great elector of Brandenburg. Volume 2: 1660-1688 . Musterschmidt, Göttingen 1978, ISBN 3-7881-1687-0 .
  • Heinz Schilling: Courts and Alliances. Germany 1648–1763 (= The Reich and the Germans, Vol. 6). Siedler, Berlin 1989, ISBN 3-442-75523-9 .
  • Images from Brandenburg-Prussian history. Lectures and essays, compiled for the bicentenary of the day by Fehrbellin, Wilhelm Schwartz, Berlin 1875, e-book or reprint, Potsdam 2010, ISBN 978-3-941919-66-2 .
  • Uwe-Rolf Hinze: The battle of Fehrbellin 1675 . Edition Rieger, Karwe 2010.

Web links

Commons : Battle of Fehrbellin  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Bauer, p. 117
  2. ↑ J. Mankel, p. 19
  3. ↑ Opgenoorth, p. 169; Bauer, p. 120
  4. ↑ Bauer, p. 116 f.
  5. ↑ a b Bauer, p. 120
  6. ^ Bauer, p. 124
  7. ↑ Quoted from Lezius, p. 71
  8. ↑ a b Bauer, p. 131
  9. ↑ Quoted from: Hermann von Petersdorff: Der Große Kurfürst. Berlin 1939, p. 149. The complete text can be found in: Frank Bauer: Fehrbellin - Brandenburg-Prussia's departure to a great power. Potsdam 1998, p. 137 f.
  10. ↑ Barbara Beuys: The Great Elector - The man who created Prussia. Reinbek 1984, p. 347.
  11. ^ Heinz Schilling: Courts and Alliances - Germany 1648–1763. Berlin 1998, p. 224.
  12. ↑ Theatrum Europaeum. Vol. 11, Frankfurt am Main 1682, p. 720.
  13. ^ Gerd-Ulrich Hermann: Georg Freiherr von Derfflinger. Berlin 1997, p. 166.
  14. ↑ P. 149–151 Textarchiv - Internet Archive . Oeuvres pp. 89–90 friedrich.uni-trier.de
  15. ↑ Friedrich II of Prussia: Memorabilia on the history of the House of Brandenburg. Munich 1995, p. 105; see. Volz, pp. 76-78 friedrich.uni-trier.de
  16. ↑ Hermann Stegemann: The war - Its essence, its change. Volume 2. Stuttgart / Berlin 1940, p. 26
  17. ^ Heinz Schilling: Courts and Alliances - Germany 1648–1763. Berlin 1998, p. 224. Also in a similar sense: Gerd-Ulrich Hermann: Georg Freiherr von Derfflinger. Berlin 1997, p. 167.
  18. ^ H. Sieber: History - edition for Protestant schools. Breslau 1905, p. 51 f. Also the novel-like depiction in: Hans Heyck: The Great Elector of Brandenburg. Berlin 1939, pp. 285-297.
  19. ↑ Friedrich Polack: Geschistorbilder - Edition B. 17th edition, Worbis 1894, p. 256.
This version was added to the list of articles worth reading on January 10, 2008 .