Battle of Stadtlohn
Battle of Stadtlohn, etching from 1626
| date | August 6, 1623 |
|---|---|
| place | Lohner Bruch northeast of Stadtlohn |
| output | Catholic victory |
| Parties to the conflict | |
|---|---|
|
protestant army |
|
| Commander | |
| Troop strength | |
| 16,000 infantrymen 6,000 cavalrymen 14 guns |
12,000 infantrymen 4,500 cavalrymen 16 guns |
| losses | |
|
300 dead |
over 6,000 dead |
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The Battle of Stadtlohn , also known as the Battle of the Lohner Bruch , was fought during the Thirty Years' War on August 6, 1623 between the troops of the Protestant general Christian von Braunschweig-Wolfenbüttel and the army of the Catholic League under Count Tilly . The battle ended in a heavy defeat for Christian von Braunschweig.
Starting position and process
An attempt by Christian in the summer of 1623 to turn the Lower Saxony Empire into a new starting point for a revolt against the Habsburg emperor failed. Then Christian wanted to go to the Netherlands with his 16,500-strong army , where his employer Friedrich V of the Palatinate and above all his wife Elisabeth Stuart stayed. On the morning of August 6, the army of the Catholic League, under the command of Count Tilly, finally caught up with Duke Christian's forces a few kilometers from the Dutch border. The battlefield was about 3 km northeast of Stadtlohn across the Düwing Dyk (about at the level of today's Kersting-Hof). Back then, the area was largely free of trees, as evidenced by the name Blutfeld (from “bloot” = “only”). At that time, the Düwing Dyk was the main fixed route through the otherwise marshy and damp terrain and the only available route to the Kalterbrücke east of Stadtlohn, which at the time was the only way for Christian's wagons to cross the Berkel . If one can believe the, incidentally, very precise (the Wüllener Landwehr , for example, is shown very correctly) engraving in the Theatrum Europaeum , some cars have also tried to cross the mill bridge directly at the north gate of Stadtlohn. The subsequent passage through the narrow streets of the city should have taken a lot of time.
The soldiers of the league were numerically superior and clearly more experienced in the war and, due to the previous offensive driven by Tilly like a persecution, of better morale, so that the Braunschweig soldiers were quickly overrun. The League Army caused extremely heavy losses among its Protestant opponents. About two-thirds of the soldiers commanded by Christian were killed or captured. The losses on the Protestant side were so high that Tilly's troops refrained from further attacks after a while.
At nightfall, Christian von Braunschweig reached the Netherlands with about 5,000 men. More than 100 field character , the entourage and all the guns of his army had fallen to troops of the Catholic League in the hands.
reception
Literary processing
In the years 1834 to 1838 Annette von Droste-Hülshoff processed the defeat of Christian von Braunschweig in the verse epic Die Schlacht im Loener Bruch 1623 , which she published in her collection of poems in 1838 .
Memorial stone and diorama of the battle
On the occasion of the 360th anniversary of the battle, the Heimatverein Stadtlohn erected a memorial stone at Düwing Dyk. Furthermore, since 2013, a diorama of the battle with around 16,000 figures on a size of 12 square meters can be viewed in a separate exhibition room in the former Marienschule von Stadtlohn. The battle and part of the city were depicted in a faithfully reproduced landscape on a 1:72 scale. The figures are individually cast tin figures and a specially designed series of figures made of plastic. All figures were painted by hand and even trees and buildings were designed as individual copies.
literature
- Hans E. Flieger: The Battle of Stadtlohn on August 6, 1623 . Shaker, Aachen 1998. ISBN 3-8265-3738-6 .
- Ulrich Söbbing: The battle in the Lohner Bruch near Stadtlohn on August 6, 1623 . Heimatverein Stadtlohn, Stadtlohn 1998 (for the exhibition on the 375th anniversary of the battle and 350th anniversary of the Peace of Westphalia from June 14 to August 31, 1998 in the town hall of Stadtlohn).
- Ulrich Söbbing: The battle in the Lohner Bruch near Stadtlohn in 1623. A battle in Westphalia decides the first phase of the Thirty Years War . In: Bürgerbuch Gronau and Epe, Vol. 9 (1998/99), pp. 210–215.
- Rudolfine Freiin von Oer: The battle at Stadtlohn in Westphalian history . In: Gunnar Teske (Red.): Thirty Years War and Peace of Westphalia . United Westfälische Adelsarchive eV, Münster 2000, ISBN 3-7923-0711-1 , pp. 57-65.
- Gunnar Teske: Citizens, Peasants and Envoys. The Thirty Years War and the Peace of Westphalia in Westphalia. 2nd edition, Ardey-Verlag, Münster 1998, ISBN 3-87023-085-1 .
- Truthful and specific report, of the mighty meeting, held in the Diocese of Munster in Westphalia, between General Graff Tilly and Hertzog Christian Bischoff in Halberstadt. Communicated as the original by Frhrn. Friedrich von Landsberg-Gemen. In: Journal for patriotic history and antiquity , Volume 23 (1863), pp. 339–355, Google .
- Albert Weskamp: The army of the league in Westphalia to defend against the Count of Mansfeld and the Duke Christian of Braunschweig, 1622-23 . Regensberg, Münster 1891.
- Heinrich von Xylander : Duke Christian the Younger of Braunschweig and Lüneburg (1599-1626). The life of a Protestant leader from the beginning of the Thirty Years War. Complete edition. Edited by Thomas Thalmaier, Willebadessen 2014. ISBN 978-3-7386-0359-0 . Therein description of the battle and final assessment of the events, pp. 147–155.
Web links
- Heimatverein Stadtlohn: The battle in the Lohner Bruch near Stadtlohn 1623 (PDF file)
- Diorama about the battle in the Lohner Bruch near Stadtlohn
- Text by Annette von Droste-Hülshoff's "Battle of the Loener Bruch 1623" (PDF file; 165 kB)
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b c d Marcus Junkelmann: Tilly. The Catholic General (= Small Bavarian Biographies). Verlag Friedrich Pustet, Regensburg 2011, ISBN 978-3791723549 , p. 100. - According to the author, these figures represent the “ best possible approximation ”.
Coordinates: 52 ° 1 ′ 11 ″ N , 6 ° 56 ′ 48 ″ E