Battle of Hessisch Oldendorf
Battle of Hessisch Oldendorf 1633
Merian copper engraving 1644
| date | July 8, 1633 |
|---|---|
| place | Hessian Oldendorf |
| output | Victory of the Swedish-Hessian troops, Protestant side |
| consequences | Northern Germany remains Protestant |
| Parties to the conflict | |
|---|---|
| Commander | |
|
Georg (Braunschweig-Calenberg) , |
Jean de Merode , |
| losses | |
|
700 dead |
5000 dead, |
The Battle of Hessisch Oldendorf was part of the Thirty Years War and took place on July 8, 1633 between the Swedish and Imperial troops . At the time, Hessisch Oldendorf was a small town in the county of Schaumburg , which disintegrated after 1640 and was partly assigned to the Landgraviate of Hessen-Kassel.
Preparations
Hamelin , which has been occupied by troops of the Catholic League since 1625, was besieged by Protestant troops under Duke Georg von Lüneburg in the spring of 1633 in order to recapture the city. Therefore, the imperial troops of Generals Merode , Gronsfeld and Bönninghausen were united and ordered to relieve the city of Hameln. On July 6th, the relief army crossed the Weser near Minden with 8,000 infantry and 4,000 horsemen . This army also included Gottfried Huyn von Geleen , himself a commander in Hameln in 1630 and then commander of the imperial troops in Westphalia, later General Field Marshal, and Ferdinand Lorenz von Wartenberg , son of Ferdinand von Bayern .
The Protestant siege troops of Hameln under Duke Georg advanced against the imperial army in order to occupy the place Hessisch Oldendorf before the imperial ones, which they succeeded. The place was occupied and the troops brought into position. General Melander and his troops stood between the village and the village of Barksen, and General Kniephausen was right next to the village itself. Duke Georg commanded the center.
The imperial troops formed near the village of Segelhorst - the right wing under General Gronsfeld, the center under Merode and the left wing under Bönnighausen.
course
The imperial troops first attacked the right wing of the center at around 9 a.m. There was a forest there, which was defended by the Swedish general Lars Kagg (also Kagge ). The attempt of the infantry was supported by the cavalry under Colonel d'Asche from Segelhorst. But the Swedish general and his troops were able to repel all attacks. The Duke of Lüneburg recognized his chance and sent Colonel Stahlhans with four regiments of cavalry to the right near Oldendorf, and the troops under Knyphausen advanced and were able to encircle the imperial. The cavalry under Thilo Albrecht von Uslar also appeared on the battlefield (actually they were supposed to accompany the siege of Hameln, but had been withdrawn at short notice). The imperial cavalry fled the battlefield, the infantry held out for a while, but when the enclosure was locked, order dissolved and people sought salvation in flight. After a few hours around 3 p.m. the battle was over. 5000 men of the imperial army remained on the battlefield and 2500 were taken prisoner. In addition, 13 guns, 70 flags and the entourage fell into the hands of the Swedes. The remnants of the Imperial Army withdrew to Bad Münder . About 700 men are said to have died on the Protestant side (contemporary sources report 100, but this is doubtful).
A chronicler of the Swedish-Lüneburg troops who had visited the battlefield between Barksen and Segelhorst the following day wrote about it: ...
- “ Otherwise, this hour came out of the camp for Oldendorf and visited the Walstadt a little, after the meeting happened, since the appearance then shows that they already meant one another seriously, because the wood there as well as the flat Veldt and in the grain almost full of dead bodies ligated everywhere without Zhall, but in utterly profound reasons, since they want to prevail in the outside, ligature of their wool 5 or 6 on top of each other, all stripped naked and badly chopped up and disheveled, which is larger to look at, and is different from this not to judge that God Almighty had already been in conflict and received victory . "
consequences
General Merode was shot in the body and died. Gronsfeld lost his horse, sword and hat and had to walk to Minden , and because of his disputes with Merode, he was still blamed for the defeat. Colonel Quadt zu Alsbach also fell, Colonel Bernhard Hackfort was taken prisoner and was later exchanged for Alexander Forbes. The defeat put an end to the actions of the imperial army in northern Germany. The city of Hameln surrendered a few days later.
Memorial and memorial services
250 years after the battle, a memorial was erected at the historic site on the initiative of the local warrior association in 1883 and a five-day festival was celebrated in the city. The memorial was financed by selling a commemorative publication written by Albert Wehrhahn , who was born in Oldendorf , a city school councilor in Hanover. In 1933, the National Socialists who came to power even organized a seven-day 300th anniversary celebration. They linked the commemoration of 1633 (alleged salvation of faith and homeland) with the current year 1933 (alleged renewed salvation of the fatherland) and the alleged city founding year 1233, so that in an elaborate propaganda staging also the 700th anniversary of the city could be committed.
(Both 1883 and 1933 were celebrated around June 28th, because the Julian calendar was incorrectly oriented. Since the Gregorian calendar has been in force since 1700, July 8th, as stated above, would have been the correct date.)
Individual evidence
- ^ The commemorations in 1883 and 1933 for the battle of Hessisch Oldendorf 1633 Retrospectives Hessisch Oldendorf. Addenda to the city and regional history. Retrieved January 15, 2016.
literature
- EO Schmidt: Germany's battlefields , p. 39 digitized
- Carl Du Jarrys von La Roche: The Thirty Years' War: Illuminated from a Military Point of View. Edited from largely archival and other as yet unused sources , Volume 1, p. 313 ff., Digitized
- Albert Wehrhahn: Hessisch Oldendorf and its battlefields. In: Journal of the Association for Hessian History and Regional Studies. New episode, sixth volume. Commissionsverlag August Freyschmidt, Kassel 1877, pp. 139–200. Digitized