Battle of Frankfurt (Oder)

Siege of the city of Frankfurt (Oder) by the Swedes

date	April 3 or April 13, 1631
place	Frankfurt (Oder)
output	Protestant victory (Sweden, Scots)
consequences	Frankfurt served as the back cover for the advance of the Swedes towards central and southern Germany.

Parties to the conflict
Holy Roman Empire (League)	Sweden , Scots (Protestants)
Commander
	Gustav II Adolf of Sweden , John Hepburn , Robert Monro
losses
3000 dead and wounded	800 dead and wounded

Timeline for the Thirty Years War

Storm on the Lebuser Tor

The battle of Frankfurt (Oder) on 13./15. April 1631 was a battle of the Thirty Years' War between Sweden and the Holy Roman Empire over the strategically important fortified Oder crossing in Frankfurt (Oder) , Brandenburg . The city was the first important fortress the Swedes attacked outside the Duchy of Pomerania , where the Swedes had built a beachhead. After a two-day siege, Swedish forces, supported by Scottish relief troops, stormed the city. The result was a Swedish victory. After the subsequent evacuation of Landsberg (Warthe) (today Gorzów Wielkopolski), Frankfurt served as the back cover of the Swedish army when Gustav II Adolf of Sweden advanced to central Germany.

foreplay

The Swedish King Gustav Adolf began to intervene in the Thirty Years War when he helped Stralsund against Wallenstein in 1628 and landed in Pomerania in June 1630. With the central parts of the Duchy of Pomerania, Sweden held a bridgehead in the northeast corner of the Holy Roman Empire, while the rest of the empire was occupied by forces of the Catholic League and Emperor Ferdinand II . Apart from Magdeburg , which had allied itself with the Swedes on August 1st, the German Protestant states mistrusted Gustav Adolf and were reluctant to join an alliance.

In January 1631, Swedish forces stationed in Pomerania advanced south and took the Pomeranian cities of Gartz (Oder) and Greifenhagen (today Gryfino ) near the Pomeranian border with Brandenburg. Further advances along the Oder into the area of the Brandenburg Elector Georg Wilhelm followed and on January 23, 1631, the Swedes, allied with France under the Treaty of Bärwalde, settled in Bärwalde in Brandenburg (today Mieszkowice ).

Siege and storming of Frankfurt

The Swedish troops, commanded by Gustav Adolf, were assisted by Scottish auxiliaries under the command of John Hepburn and Robert Monro . They besieged the city for two days and stormed it on the second day. The attack was successful and was followed by the sacking of the city. Success was based in part on internal squabbles among the Defense Forces - mercenaries who had not been paid refused to fight unless they were paid up front. The defenders were "slaughtered [...] where they stood" and suffered 3,000 deaths compared to 800 on the Swedish side. When the city was sacked, there were many murders by Swedish troops.

aftermath

The Scottish Major General in the Swedish Service John Leslie was appointed governor of the city and gave orders to reinforce the defenses and bury the thousands of dead. The latter was achieved by digging mass graves for more than a hundred corpses each; after six days all the dead were buried. John Leslie was soon replaced by another Scotsman as governor of Frankfurt, James MacDougal , who was replaced by a third Scotsman: Alexander Leslie .

Frankfurt served as the back cover of the advancing Swedish army. The other important city in northeast Brandenburg , Landsberg (Warthe) (today Gorzów Wielkopolski ), was captured on April 23. As a result, the Brandenburg Elector Georg Wilhelm was forced to enter into treaties with Sweden, which were concluded on May 14, June 20 and September 10, 1631 and gave Sweden command of the Brandenburg military, but did not bring about the status of an official alliance . During 1631 Gustav Adolf of Sweden advanced into the center of Germany, and while Magdeburg was lost in May and Gustav Adolf was hard pressed in Werben in July , the subsequent victory in Breitenfeld in September opened the way for him to advance into southern Germany.

literature

Richard Brzezinski: Lützen 1632 - Climax of the Thirty Years War . Osprey Publishing, Oxford 2001, ISBN 1-85532-552-7 (English).
Gerhard Müller (ed.): Theological Realenzyklopädie I . Verlag Walter de Gruyter , Berlin 1993, ISBN 3-11-013898-0 ( books.google.de [accessed on July 5, 2015]).
Jan N. Lorenzen: The great battles: myths, people, fates . 1st edition. Campus-Verlag , Frankfurt am Main, New York 2006, ISBN 3-593-38122-2 ( google.de [accessed on July 5, 2015]).

Individual evidence

↑ ^a ^b ^c Richard Brzezinski: Lützen 1632 - Climax of the Thirty Years War . Osprey Publishing, Oxford 2001, ISBN 1-85532-552-7 , pp. 12 (English, limited preview in Google Book Search).
↑ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e ^f ^g ^h ⁱ Theologische Realenzyklopädie I. (1993), p. 175.
↑ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e ^f ^g Bröckling (1998), p. 57.
↑ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e ^f ^g ^h ⁱ Mackillop (2003), p. 64.
↑ Ringmar (1996), p. 5.
↑ Lorenzen: The Great Battles: Myths, People, Fates. (2006), p. 67.
↑ ^a ^b Parker (1997), p. 203.

[Brzezinski12-1] Richard Brzezinski: Lützen 1632 - Climax of the Thirty Years War . Osprey Publishing, Oxford 2001, ISBN 1-85532-552-7 , pp. 12 (English, limited preview in Google Book Search).

[TRE175-2] ↑ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e ^f ^g ^h ⁱ Theologische Realenzyklopädie I. (1993), p. 175.

[Broeckling57-3] ↑ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e ^f ^g Bröckling (1998), p. 57.

[Mackillop64-4] ↑ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e ^f ^g ^h ⁱ Mackillop (2003), p. 64.

[5] Ringmar (1996), p. 5.

[Lorenzen67-6] Lorenzen: The Great Battles: Myths, People, Fates. (2006), p. 67.

[Parker203-7] Parker (1997), p. 203.