Battle of construction

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Sketch for the battle at Bau, April 9, 1848
Battles and naval battles of the Schleswig-Holstein uprising


The Battle of Bau was the first major battle during the Schleswig-Holstein uprising . It took place on April 9, 1848 at Bau in the Duchy of Schleswig .

The enemy armies

Neither the Danish army nor the newly formed Schleswig-Holstein army were prepared for war. Especially the Schleswig-Holsteiners had to struggle with great logistical difficulties, but also with a blatant shortage of officers. The Schleswig-Holstein Army numbered around 5,600 to 6,500 men on the day of the battle. Of these, however, only about 2,200 men took part directly in the fighting. In addition to the provisional government had converted parts of the old Danish state army (4 line infantry battalions, two hunters Corps, two dragoon regiments, 1 artillery regiment) were especially rapidly built, barely trained and poorly armed volunteer corps part of Schleswig-Holstein forces. The Danish forces consisted of the North Jutian Main Corps under General v. Hedemann 7,200 men and from the island Alsen v on opposite flank Corps colonel. Trolling with 3,800 men. Here, too, by far not all of the forces at Bau / Bov were used directly.

Course of the battle

On April 8, the Danish heads of the main corps were under General v. Hedemann advanced to the villages of Bommerlund and Kliplev. As early as April 6th, rumors about a Danish landing near Holnis - a headland at the exit of the Flensburg Fjord - led to the unfortunate decision of the Schleswig-Holstein commander-in-chief v. Krohn led to post a more significant force further east of Flensburg. The battle of Bau on April 9, 1848 took place in the narrower area north and west of the city of Flensburg. The Danish troops, taking full advantage of their numerical superiority, were to attack the Schleswig-Holsteiners in their center between Bau and Krusau and at the same time carry out a bypass attack from the west, which would block the retreating Schleswig-Holstein troops from the escape route to the south. In addition, three Danish companies, having landed at Holnis, faked a flank attack from the east, while Danish warships advanced into the inner fjord and were supposed to take the city under fire from there. This plan only partially worked, and bypassing the Schleswig-Holsteiners on their left flank failed. However, all other elements of the Danish attack were enough to turn April 9, 1848 into a catastrophic defeat for the young Schleswig-Holstein army . At the center of this struggle, which is often endeavored and heroized in literature and art, was the downfall of the Kiel student and gymnast corps . The gymnasts and students fighting in association with the Schleswig-Holstein 5th Jägerkorps (Major Michelsen) were not informed of the general withdrawal of the other Schleswig-Holstein troops. They were locked up there and finally captured almost closed after a bloody battle in the Flensburg Neustadt. As irregular irregulars and from the point of view of the Danish government as “traitors”, these captured students and gymnasts were treated particularly harshly, brought from Flensburg by ship via Sønderborg to Copenhagen and imprisoned there on the decommissioned liner “Dronning Maria”. In the battle at Bau, 35 men were killed on the Schleswig-Holstein side and 16 men on the Danish side, there were 138 and 166 wounded and 923 Schleswig-Holsteiners were taken prisoner.

Evidence of memory

In the Neustadt district of Flensburg (at the lower end of Harrisleer Straße) an obelisk was erected in 1888 to commemorate the students, volunteer gymnasts and soldiers who died on the German side. In addition, a gymnast monument was erected not far away near the mountain mill . The streets Turnerberg and Michelsenstraße also remind of the battle in Flensburg. After the battle, streets were also given the name Baustraße in some cities , for example in Kiel . Furthermore, there is a street in Kiel that was named after Major Sören Johann Dietrich Michelsen , who was killed in the battle. In Vischer's novel Auch Eine (1879), the protagonist is wounded by a saber blow in the Battle of Bau after his rifle fails.

  • Monument in the new town (1889)

  • Obelisk in the New Town (2011)

  • Turner monument at the mountain mill

  • Cannon balls in the pan factory (2015)

literature

  • Detlev von Liliencron (Ed.): Up eternally ungedeelt - the uprising of Schleswig-Holstein in 1848. Richter, Hamburg 1898. Reprint: Weidlich, Frankfurt / Main 1980.
  • Depiction of the events of the German-Danish War of 1848, with special consideration of the proportion of Prussian troops. First division. From the initial circumstances to the meeting at construction. With an overview map and a plan of the area around Flensburg and Bau. Supplement to the military weekly paper for July, August and September 1852. Edited by the historical department of the General Staff. Berlin 1852 scan online
  • Jan Schlürmann : The Schleswig-Holstein Army 1848–1851 , Tönning 2004, pp. 69–72.

Web links

Commons : Battle of Construction  - Collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ^ The battle in the Neustadt (1848) ; accessed March 1, 2015
  2. ↑ Flensburg-Online, Neuer Wohnraum , from: March 1, 2015
  3. ↑ The Memorial to the Fallen at Bau , March 1, 2015
  4. ↑ In December 2014, a move was considered: City of Flensburg approves the implementation of the gymnastics monument to the sports facility Eckener Str. , From: December 16, 2014 and the gymnastics monument received - listen to the preservationists! , dated: December 18, 2014; Accessed on: March 1, 2015
  5. ↑ a b The battle in the Neustadt (1848) ; accessed January 28, 2017