Battle of Hohenlinden

Battle of Hohenlinden

Part of: Second Coalition War

History painting of the Battle of Hohenlinden

date	December 3, 1800
place	Hohenlinden in Upper Bavaria
output	French victory

Parties to the conflict
France	Austria Bavaria
Commander
Jean-Victor Moreau General en chef Jean Paul Dessolles Chef de l'état	Johann of Austria High command Franz von Lauer Feldzeugmeister Franz von Weyrother Chief of Staff
Troop strength
100,000	120,000
losses
6,000 dead and wounded	8,000 dead, 12,000 prisoners

The Battle of Hohenlinden found on 3 December 1800, during the Napoleonic Wars in the Upper Bavarian places Hohenlinden and Maitenbeth instead. Allied Austrian - Bavarian troops under Johann von Österreich suffered a heavy defeat against the French troops of the Rhine Army under General Moreau . After this defeat, the Austrian army was no longer able to stop the French advance. Emperor Francis II. Was forced to on December 25, 1800 cease-fire from Steyr to sign. The Treaty of Lunéville , signed on February 9, 1801, left Austria out of the war against France until 1805.

Historical context

In the wake of the French Revolution , from 1792 to 1815 there were several armed conflicts between revolutionary France and changing coalitions of European powers. These disputes are called coalition wars or, from 1799, the Napoleonic wars.

Although the first coalition war ended with the peace of Campo Formio in 1797, the second coalition war broke out as early as 1799 . At the beginning there was an alliance against France consisting of Great Britain , Austria , Russia , the Ottoman Empire , Portugal , Naples and the Papal States ; Due to the return of Russia to armed neutrality in 1800 and the British focus on engagement in the Orient, Austria remained as the only opponent of France on the European mainland.

Napoleon Bonaparte , who returned from his Egyptian expedition , took command of the French troops in northern Italy, where he was able to defeat the Austrian contingent under Field Marshal Lieutenant Melas on June 14, 1800 in the battle of Marengo so decisively that Melas entered into an armistice on June 15 had to consent.

At the same time, the French Rhine Army under General Moreau was operating in southern Germany against the last operational army in Austria under Feldzeugmeister Paul Kray von Krajowa .

The events before the battle

At the beginning of June, Moreau's armed force began its offensive with around 120,000 men on a width from Strasbourg to Lake Constance . On June 18, French troops took Munich , the Austro-Bavarian troops withdrew behind the Inn , only Wasserburg , Mühldorf , Kraiburg and a few other places on the Inn and Salzach were held and fortified as bridgeheads. About 105,000 French soldiers took up positions between Erding and Ebersberg . On July 15, 1800, an armistice was concluded at Parsdorf and extended again on September 20 in Hohenlinden. Since the people in Vienna were dissatisfied with his performance, Feldzeugmeister Kray was relieved of his command and he was succeeded by Johann von Austria , who was only eighteen years old .

After the peace negotiations initiated in Lunéville were unsuccessful, Bonaparte canceled the armistice with effect from November 28th. However, contrary to the expectations of the French, the coalition army did not remain in its permanent defensive position, but crossed the Inn with a strength of about 60,000 men. On December 1, there were clashes between Haag in Upper Bavaria and Mühldorf am Inn , whereupon Moreau withdrew his troops behind Haag in the course of December 2 and concentrated around 70,000 men at Hohenlinden. As a result of this withdrawal movement, the Austrian headquarters came to the misjudgment that the way to Munich was already clear, and the march to the west was ordered.

However, the French troops were still west of the Great Hague Forest. The left (northern) wing with the divisions Bastoul and Legrand stood on the line Hohenlinden - Hörlkofen - Erding , the center with the divisions Grouchy and Ney stand east of Hohenlinden at Stockach and right (South) wings with the divisions Decaen and Richepanse at Ebersberg and Steinhöring .

The battle

The 11th ^e régiment de chasseurs à cheval throws Austro-Hungarian grenadiers near Hohenlinden

At five o'clock on the morning of December 3, the Austrian vanguard under General Löppert, already in Kreith and Birkach, opened fire on the French positions ahead of time, while the Austrian-Bavarian bulk, General Kolowrat's division, from Haag on today's Bundesstrasse 12 Was heading west. The troops, who had already bivouacked in the open field , were further exhausted by heavy snowfall and bad roads due to the weather. The right wing under Kienmayer was able to push back the French troops in the north near Isen , Harthofen and Buch am Buchrain , but the left wing under Riesch got stuck in swampy terrain southeast of Maitenbeth and fell back.

The first units of the Kolowrat division reached the exit of the forest around seven o'clock and very soon got into engagements with Grouchy's French troops, which had been in order, east of Hohenlinden near Kreith, while the following units traveled a length of seven kilometers on the road through the Great Hague Forst were crammed together and communication within the marching column almost came to a standstill due to the bad weather. Although Kolowrat sent every unit arriving at the forest exit into action, the French line held out.

The final decision, however, was made on the southern wing. The French wing division under General Richepanse set out here at four o'clock in the morning, had united near St. Christoph north of Steinhöring and was advancing towards Maitenbeth from 7.15 a.m. General Riesch's division, already too slow, marched southeast to Albaching instead of east to Marsmaier and was further delayed. When the troops of the Austrian south wing finally met the French troops at Schützen, they were already so harassed by the Decaen division, which was also deploying south of Maitenbeth, that they could no longer prevent the attack on Maitenbeth.

At about 9:00 am, General Richepanse gave the order to attack Maitenbeth. Attacking from the south and south-west, the 8th Half-Brigade and the 1st Chasseurs Regiment were able to take Maitenbeth, with cuirassiers from the Nassau-Usingen regiment already dismounted, surprised and captured.

The eastern end of the forest was under French control. The 48th French half-brigade now advanced west through the forest to stab the Kolowrats division in the rear. Although a Bavarian battery of mounted artillery and a Bavarian infantry battalion of General von Wrede turned around in the forest, the French attack could not be stopped. As the resistance of the Kolowrats division, which was being pressed from two sides, was noticeably waning, Moreau ordered the Grouchy and Ney divisions in front of Hohenlinden to form attack columns and to proceed against the western exit of the forest. When the dragoons of French division Ney's advancing eastward and the 48th Half-Brigade coming from the east finally met at the forest exit, Kolowrat's troops were practically wiped out.

At the eastern end of the forest near Maitenbeth, cavalry units under Prince Liechtenstein made dogged attacks in order to retake the positions near Maitenbeth. Supported by an artillery battery near Berg, the Chevaulegers advanced from Kreuz against Maitenbeth, supported by other squadrons from the east. Although the dominant French battery was briefly reached in the altitude position and a howitzer was captured, the 8th Half Brigade and the 1st Chasseurs Regiment were able to hold the position until Richepance returned from the forest with reinforcements at around 3:00 p.m. and the troops of Prince Liechtenstein to the Forced retreat behind Haag. The Austro-Bavarian troops withdrew on the wings as well.

consequences

In total, the imperial troops lost around 12,000 dead and prisoners and around 50 artillery pieces, the Bavarian auxiliary troops around 5,000 men with around 24 artillery pieces. The French casualties are given as 2,500–6,000 dead and wounded.

The Austrian army withdrew towards Austria in complete dissolution, only slowly pursued by Moreau. Nevertheless, the Austrian army suffered another heavy defeat in the Battle of Walserfeld from December 12th to 14th. Also Archduke Charles , who had succeeded his brother John as commander on December 17, was from the army rubble more forms no field army, so the way to Vienna for Moreau was free.

In this situation, Emperor Franz II signed the Armistice of Steyr on December 25, 1800 , which was followed by the Peace of Lunéville on February 9, 1801 . This ended the war of the second coalition against France and confirmed the peace of Campo Formio of 1797. France received the areas on the left bank of the Rhine occupied since 1795 , to which it had already made a claim. The Reich was obliged to compensate the German princes affected by the loss of territory, which was implemented in 1803 by the Reichsdeputationshauptschluss .

Aftermath

Memorial plaque on the church of Maitenbeth

Memorial to the Battle of Hohenlinden between Hohenlinden and Kronacker

• Memorial plaques can now be found in both main places of the battle. In Hohenlinden at Haus Hauptstrasse 7 and at Gasthof zur Post, in Maitenbeth, a memorial stone with a plaque was placed on the war memorial next to the church.
• On December 5, 1998, a memorial was erected in Hohenlinden near the primary school on the way to Kronacker.
• On the 200th anniversary of the battle, the open-air play Knechte der Schlacht was performed in Hohenlinden in the summer of 2000 . On the anniversary, December 3, 2000, a ceremony and commemoration took place in Hohenlinden.
• The Scottish poet Thomas Campbell wrote the poem Hohenlinden

literature

• James A. Arnold: Marengo and Hohenlinden. Napoleon's Rise to Power . Lexington (VA) 1999. ISBN 0-9670985-0-5 (English)
• A. Schleifer: The battle of Hohenlinden on December 3rd, 1800 and the previous army movements . Erding 1885.
• Günter Schneider: Hohenlinden 1800. The forgotten battle . Kurt Vowinckel-Verlag KG, Potsdam 2000. ISBN 3-934531-05-9
• Siegfried Fiedler: Tactics and Strategy of the Revolutionary Wars. 1792-1848 . Bernard & Graefe, Bonn 1988. ISBN 3-8289-0521-8

Web links

Commons : Schlacht bei Hohenlinden  - Collection of pictures, videos and audio files

• Full description of the battle on a website dedicated to General Moreau
• Site of the Hohenlinden 2000 e. V.
• Videos explaining key locations in the battle

Individual evidence

1. ↑ http://www.schlacht-von-hohenlinden.de/

Coordinates: 48 ° 9 ′ 34.8 ″  N , 11 ° 59 ′ 52.6 ″  E