Battle of Wollerau (1445)
Overview map of the Old Zurich War
| date | December 16, 1445 |
|---|---|
| place | Wollerau , Canton of Schwyz |
| output | Schwyzer victory |
| Parties to the conflict | |
|---|---|
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| Commander | |
| losses | |
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180 dead |
15 dead |
Etzel · Pfäffikon · Grüningen I · Freienbach · Blickensdorf · Hirzel · Bremgarten · Regensberg · Grüningen II · St. Jakob an der Sihl · Greifensee · St. Jakob an der Birs · Erlenbach I · Koblach · Sargans · Wil · Kirchberg · Wolfhalden · Obertoggenburg · Wigoltingen · Erlenbach II · Männedorf · Wollerau · Ragaz
The Battle of Wollerau was fought on December 16, 1445 in the course of the Old Zurich War in the area of the Höfe ( Switzerland ).
The opponents were on the one hand troops from the federal towns of Schwyz and Zug and on the other hand troops from the imperial city of Zurich and the German King Friedrich III. of Habsburg . The battle was the last major military encounter in the Lake Zurich area during this war.
prehistory
In 1444 and 1445 there were many battles for supremacy on Lake Zurich . These were accompanied by raids on both sides of the lake. The dominion of the city of Zurich was largely occupied by the Confederates in 1445, with the exception of the last permanent place Rapperswil next to the city of Zurich itself. After the fall of Regensberg and Grüningen in 1443 and Greifensee in 1444 , the warfare of the Confederates in this area concentrated on the city Rapperswil, which was besieged three times. The third and last siege of Rapperswil was lifted as a result of the naval battle near Männedorf in November 1445, but the Schwyzer fleet was not completely destroyed.
The feud entrepreneur Hans von Rechberg , who was the driving force behind the Zurich-Austrian ventures in this phase of the war, wanted to carry out an attack against Schwyz in the area of the courtyards , which Zurich had to cede to Schwyz as early as December 1440 in the Peace of Kilchberg . The aim of this new expedition was the reconquest of Pfäffikon and the complete destruction of the Schwyzerische fleet; «Umb da lüt and good tookeren and ze desert».
Rechberg planned a combined attack from three sides. On the left bank of the lake, the main contingent, consisting of the city of Zurich and men from the Black Forest , was supposed to march up the lake under his leadership and be reinforced by an amphibious operation near Au , in order to then attack Pfäffikon from the west. On the right bank of the lake, a contingent from Rapperswil was supposed to land at Hurden and the garrison from Pfäffikon was supposed to fall into the flank from the east. The third attack was to be carried out by the Zurich fleet against Pfäffikon across the lake.
course
The people of Zurich set out on the night of December 15-16, 1445. The main contingent of the Rechberger with cavalry and infantry came via Wädenswil , where it was reinforced, unnoticed and without incident in the area above Wollerau. However, due to the extreme winter cold, the crews of the two war rafts of Zurich made an unscheduled stopover in miles to warm up. Nonetheless, the flotilla appeared before daybreak before Pfäffikon, where it was noticed in the bright moonlight by the Pfäffikon crew of around 200 men. The Pfäffiker crew initially prepared to repel the attack against the Schwyz ships.
When Rechberg's troops set fire to a few houses on the outskirts of Wollerau and the Sihl Bridge in Schindellegi two hours before daybreak , the land attack from the west was also noticed by the Schwyzer captain in Pfäffikon. He responded with storm bells and an immediate transfer of some of his troops under his leadership to Wollerau in order to strengthen the crew there. He left the other part of the troops in Pfäffikon in order to prevent the landing and to collect the mobilized landsturm. After he reached the Wollerau garrison in the middle of the village, he ordered a reconnaissance by three men to sound out the strength of the enemy. They soon encountered Rechberg's vanguard, whereupon the Schwyz attacked immediately. The massive attack, which was unexpected for the Zurich vanguard, led them to retreat by surprise and with considerable losses to Rechberg's main contingent above Wollerau.
Meanwhile the day had come. When the people of Zurich noticed how small the defense troop was in Wollerau, Rechberg let his army march on the village, whereupon the Schwyz troop had to retreat and regroup at some distance on the mountain slope, which initially prevented further hostilities. The people of Zurich loaded the wounded on sledges in Wollerau - their 78 dead so far had been pulled naked through the snow - and transported them to Grützen (today's municipality of Freienbach ), where they stopped; on the one hand, to load the dead on ships and transport them to Meilen, and on the other hand, to fend off the Schwyz who were now pursuing them. Probably the union with the Rapperswil contingent was also planned here.
This had meanwhile landed in Hurden and gathered there, but the Rapperswilers did not succeed in uniting with Rechberg's main power, as the Pfäffikon crew had meanwhile received significant reinforcements from teams from Schwyz and the March and 50 men from Zug .
The Zurich fleet approached the bank near Pfäffikon and began with heavy fire, which forced the opponents there to retreat behind the houses. Due to the exposed bank, the ship's crew succeeded in untying the «Bär» raft in Pfäffikon and leading it away. This had some military as well as symbolic significance for the people of Zurich and Rapperswil, as this largest amphibious vehicle had dominated the lake for a long time and had caused some damage. In addition, that large rifle was trimmed down in the raft, which was lost during the conquest of the Sarganserland on October 25, 1440 in Walenstadt .
When Hans von Rechberg saw the fleet and the "Bear" withdraw from Grützen, he first ordered the withdrawal to Freienbach. There he used the scorched earth tactic , setting fire to the village to stop the enemy and ensure the retreat of his troops to Zurich. The Rapperswil contingent also withdrew to its two ships. Nevertheless, the Schwyz started a pursuit of Rechberg's troops, which was then broken off in the Horgen area because the enemy could no longer be reached.
losses
The total losses on the Zurich side amounted to a total of 180 men. The 78 dead from Wollerau who were carried away during the battle across the lake were buried in the cemetery in Meilen.
On December 20, four days after the battle, around 100 women in mourning clothes from the city of Zurich went up the lake in two ships to ask the Schwyz to rescue the other 102 fallen Zurich residents, who have now been completely looted and mostly still undressed were in Freienbach. The Schwyz captains agreed and allowed the population of Freienbach to take part in the salvage work for the then usual gravedigger tariff of 5 schillings.
The most prominent fallen on the Zurich side were Pantaleon Hagnauer (Zurich banner bearer), Rudolf Schulthess underm Schopf (Zurich mayor), Paul Göldli (councilor), Jakob Göldli (his brother), Hans Grebel (councilor) and Johannes Störi. A further six fallen from Küsnacht, Erlenbach and Herrliberg are known by name from the Küsnacht parish annual book.
Only 15 men from Schwyz are said to have died.
Heini Günthard
The most prominent survivor is the banner carrier Heini Günthard (also «Jacob Güntert» ). After the death of the banner owner Pantaleon Hagnauer, he at least managed to save the Zurich city banner under dramatic circumstances. He was found by the Zurich rearguard in Freienbach and taken to the ship, where he took the unbroken banner from under his coat before he passed out from his injuries.
The very banner that was made in 1437 had to be rescued again in the battle of Kappel in 1531 by Adam Näf from Hausen am Albis , also after the death of the owner of the banner. It hangs today in the Swiss National Museum in Zurich .
consequences
On December 24, 1445, the entire Zurich fleet set sail again, with the aim of rendering the last remaining Schwyz ships harmless, especially the two largest, the "Kiel" and the "Gans". With heavy shelling of the houses near Pfäffikon and Altendorf , they forced the teams and villagers there to retreat. They landed in Pfäffikon to take the ships away, but these were apparently too tightly tied and partly on dry earth, so that attempts were made to set them on fire with fire arrows. When this did not succeed either, the people of Zurich went over to chopping up the ships, collecting everything that was easily combustible and setting fire to it. After all ships had been made completely unusable, the fleet withdrew to Zurich. The remaining Schwyz fleet was completely destroyed by the end of 1445.
rating
For the failure of Rechberg's actually good plan, two errors were usually cited in the literature: First, Rechberg's fire at Schindellegi too early, which led to the first night battle, which was unfavorable for Zurich. In doing so, he had given up the element of surprise, and the Pfäffikon crew was alerted too early and ultimately reinforced in good time. Otherwise the only 200-strong Pfäffiker crew could easily have been surprised and driven out from three sides according to the original plan, which would have led to the unification of all Zurich contingents.
Second, the stopover of the Zurich fleet in miles; This delayed the attack and also meant that the attack by the fleet and the Rapperswil contingent did not take place at the same time, so that the Rapperswil met an intact and already strengthened village and had to retreat due to the superior force.
The removal of the “Bär” raft can be seen as a partial success for the Zurich-based company, although this seems questionable, at least in view of the losses. Hans Fründ : "So the people of Zurich had to leave a heavy deposit for the village of Freienbach and the stolen raft." Hans von Rechberg was also attested to be somewhat cold-blooded, as he succeeded in carrying away those who had died in the Freienbach area during the battle and in saving the rest of his troops from annihilation.
See also
Web links
- E. Stauber: The war fleet on Lake Zurich. 1914.
- A. Zeer: War images from Lake Zurich. 1904.
- Martin Illi: Old Zurich War. In: Historical Lexicon of Switzerland .
Individual evidence
- ↑ Klingenberger Chronik. Around 1460.
- ↑ Hans Fründ : Chronicle of the Old Zurich War. From 1447.
- ^ Peter Niederhäuser, Christian Sieber: A "fratricidal war" makes history. 2006.