Battle of Ostrach

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First battle near Ostrach
Buchbühl monument (1903)
Buchbühl monument (1903)
date March 21, 1799
place Ostrach
output Retreat of the French
Parties to the conflict

France 1804First French Republic France

Austrian EmpireEmpire of Austria Austria

Commander

France 1804First French Republic Jean Jourdan

Austrian EmpireEmpire of Austria Karl von Teschen

Troop strength
18,000 52,000
losses

2,257 dead

2,113 dead

Second coalition war (1799–1802)

The Battle of Ostrach , also known as the Battle of Ostrach , on March 21, 1799 was the first battle of the Second Coalition War . The name of the battle, in the course of which the Imperial Army, led by the Austrians, was victorious over the French, was the Salemian village of Ostrach in today's Sigmaringen district .

prehistory

The first coalition war ended after five years with the peace of Campo Formio in 1797, which was favorable to the French , but Napoleon's failed Egyptian expedition in 1798, which incited the Ottomans and Russians against France, gave rise to a huge coalition against France that everyone could join Great powers besides Prussia participated. In November 1798 there was already a foretaste of the war when Naples occupied Rome , which was ended by the French the next month. The French Danube Army under General Jourdan was to penetrate with 45,000 men into southern Germany (today the south of Baden-Württemberg ). Austria opposed her with 77,000 men under her command, Archduke Karl von Österreich-Teschen .

On March 7th, the first Austrian soldiers marched through Ostrach towards Pfullendorf . On March 11th, Ostrach was full of Uhlans , the next day hussars and their Rittmeister Burckart joined them. Sometimes the French had the upper hand, sometimes the Austrians - the residents were always the ones to suffer.

Course of the battle on March 21, 1799

Ostrach March 21, 1799

On the cold and foggy night of Maundy Thursday , the river Ostrach was flooding, French troops with around 18,000 soldiers met around 52,000 soldiers of the Austrian coalition army in the village of Ostrach, which was 300 inhabitants at the time. At three o'clock in the morning, all of the Austrian vanguard attacked under Field Marshal Nauendorf . The first column on the right wing under Feldmarschallleutnant Karl Aloys zu Fürstenberg forced the French cavalry back.

This first attack was followed by another at around 5:30 a.m., at which time morning fog fell. General Jourdan, who had previously settled in Pfullendorf for the night, hurried to Ostrach. The second column, headed by Archduke Karl, arrived.

In the further course of the fighting, the third column under FML Wallis united with the second under Archduke Karl. Around 70,000 soldiers fought a bloody battle. Ostrach was alternately in French and Austrian hands. General Jourdan's attempt to resume fighting with the reserve hurried from Pfullendorf failed.

The meeting of the two armies was over by lunchtime. The French withdrew through the forest to Pfullendorf. Protected by the wide and swampy valley of the Andelsbach , the occupied hills and the approaching night, Archduke Karl was no longer able to attack the positions in Pfullendorf that day.

Appreciation

«One can say that on the part of the Archduke this was a mountain that gave birth to a mouse. .... to say that he was once again as strong as the enemy, had three times as much cavalry and found it stretched to eight miles; .... But the Archduke did not just act cautiously, but timidly. »

Aftermath

The French troops withdrew to Stockach . There, four days later, on March 25, 1799, the battle of Stockach took place , which the Austrians won again.

On March 21, 1799, 4,400 people were killed near Ostrach - but not a single Ostracher was among them. The villagers and their families hid in their cellars during the battle. Wunibald Knoll, a Salemian postman at the time, wrote it down for posterity:

“We crawled out of our caves and breathed a little more freely again. But what a horrible sight it was everywhere! Dead and injured lay everywhere .... "
“Everyone hotter was shot through, and yet nobody was bled by the burgersleithen. The Bader was shot with a cannonball, a horse and two oxen, but no one else in the village was damaged. Therefore, this day has been celebrated because everything came through so happily, it would have to be spent knowing everything. Thank God a thousand times. "

Instead of celebrating the resurrection of Christ , thousands of corpses were collected in the fields for days. Losses on the French side 2,257 men, on the Austrian side 2,113 men.

Commemoration

Monument / memorial chapel on the Buchbühl above Ostrach (2015)

In memory of the Battle of Ostrach in 1799, the foundation stone for a memorial on the Buchbühl was laid on May 17, 1903 by the Ostrach Veterans Association . Before that, there was a simple wooden cross on the as yet unwooded Buchbühl. The design comes from the Hohenzollern architect and state curator Wilhelm Friedrich Laur . The inauguration of the dome building made of Otterswang limestone with a square floor plan of 5 × 5 m, a height of nine meters, a simple interior and a tomb took place on October 22, 1903. The copper-covered dome bears a gilded cross. In 1945 a Lady Chapel was set up to protect the monument .

Trivia

With hundreds of extras in historical uniforms, cannons, infantry, sutlers and cavalry, a battle of the historical battle of Ostrach was re-enacted on May 16 and 17, 2009. A soldiers camp was set up for two days, which the visitors could visit. Participants came from Germany, France , Hungary , Switzerland and the Czech Republic . The participants were members of the Friends of Living History . The municipality of Ostrach planned the amount of 15,000 euros in the 2009 annual budget for the event.

literature

Web links

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

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c d Ruth Broda: “The Battle of Ostrach” is celebrating its 210th anniversary - celebration on the weekend. How a village became a theater of war . In: Südkurier of May 13, 2009
  2. ↑ s. Clausewitz p. 121/122
  3. ^ Siegfried Volk: Historical battle of 1799 is re-enacted in Ostrach. Battle comes alive . In: Südkurier of October 31, 2008
  4. ↑ Ruth Broda: Committee. Battle costs 15,000 euros . In: Südkurier of January 14, 2009