Black crowd

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The "Black Duke" Friedrich Wilhelm von Braunschweig, painting by Johann Christian Ludwig Tunica
Storm of the Black Crowd on Halberstadt 1809
Obelisk in memory of the battle near Ölper (1809)
Blacks flee to England.

The Black flock , originally Herzoglich Braunschweigisches Corps , also black corps or Black Legion called and later in British service as Black Brunswickers known ( "Black Brunswick"), was a volunteer corps , which on 1 April 1809 at the time of the Fifth Coalition War , from "Black Duke" Friedrich Wilhelm von Braunschweig-Lüneburg-Oels was set up to fight against Napoléon Bonaparte and the French occupation of Germany on various European theaters of war .

prehistory

In the battle of Jena and Auerstedt (October 14, 1806), Duke Karl Wilhelm Ferdinand of Braunschweig , Friedrich Wilhelm's father, was wounded and died a few days later as a result. Although the Principality of Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel had remained neutral in the conflict with Napoleon (but was Charles William Ferdinand commander of the Prussian had troops in battle), said the French emperor in 1807, the House of Brunswick had ceased to govern the duchy dissolved and made it to part of the newly created Kingdom of Westphalia . Braunschweig was henceforth the capital of the new " Département Oker " called part within the kingdom.

Friedrich Wilhelm's wife Marie , together with her two sons Karl and Wilhelm, initially fled to Sweden because of the threatened invasion of French troops in Braunschweig . Friedrich Wilhelm himself withdrew to his Silesian possessions in Oels , but did not want to accept the status quo without resistance and from September 1808 began to set up a corps in order to be able to take possession of the duchy, which was now occupied by the French.

Vienna Convention

Richard Knötel "Corps of the Duke of Braunschweig-Öls, 1809": Ulan and Hussar of the "Black Band".
Knötel "Corps of the Duke of Braunschweig-Öls, 1809": Infantrymen.

In the winter of 1808, Friedrich Wilhelm traveled to Vienna and on February 25, 1809, in the Vienna Convention , committed himself to Archduke Karl to raise a force of just over 2,000 men, including 1,000 hussars , 1,000 light infantry and 125 mounted artillery , which he wanted to equip at his own expense (by lending his property in Lower Silesian Oels and in Bernstadt ), whereupon Austria assured him that in this case it would consider him an ally.

Article III of the Convention said:

"This troop corps will be called the Ducal Braunschweigisches Korps."

Article VII stated:

"As soon as this corps has been formed, the builder agrees to leave the assembly point at once with it and to begin his operations against the enemy in connection with the Austrian Corps d'Armée, which is at first, but then against Magdeburg , if possible , Cassel , Braunschweig or the Lower Elbe, to strengthen his corps as much as possible, but in general to work with all his might on the communications, magazines, artillery parks and supply transports of the enemy. "

Article X stipulated that the new corps would receive weapons and equipment from Austrian arsenals .

Lineup

The Prussian King Friedrich Wilhelm III. on the other hand tried - in order to appease warring France - to actively prevent the formation of the Freikorps by withholding the Duke's Silesian income. On April 10, 1809, the Prussian king announced:

"... His Majesty has also come to the knowledge that a free corps is being set up near Nachod in Bohemia ... Under these circumstances, His Majesty found it necessary to remind your loyal subjects of the prohibitions on clandestine solicitation and the same to draw attention to what punishment would be exposed to those who take part in connections, whereby the calm of neighboring states could be endangered ... ” .

Troop strength and composition

On 25 July 1809, the black crowd consisted of two battalions of infantry with a free hunter -Bataillon, a company sniper , a Hussar - Regiment , a squadron of lancers and an astride battery . In addition to the commander of the troops, the Black Duke, another important personality was Major Georg Ludwig Korfes , who u. a. Deputy Chief of the General Staff .

uniform

Because of the mainly black uniform, the Freikorps was soon called the " Black Squad ". The infantry wore a black polo skirt with simple trimmings, black, sometimes gray linen trousers with blue piping , shoes with dark gray gaiters , a shako with a black plume (which was later replaced by a black horse tail), and black leather gear with a cartridge pouch and bayonet sheath , as well as brown fur sacks and gray bread bags. The skirt had a stand-up collar, which was bordered by a black cord, and light blue lapels.

The cavalry wore a black dolman with a light blue collar and lapels, a yellow sash with a light blue knot, and black breeches with blue piping. The black shako had the black horse tail and yellow metal storm bands from the start. The rest of the leather gear was also black.

The artillery of the cavalry was dressed similarly, had black Collets with long tails, a light blue, with black cord occupied collar and cuffs, black pants with blue piping and a hussar - saber .

The skull

Brunswick skull from 1815

The Freikorps, which called itself “ Crowd of Vengeance ” and carried the motto “ Victory or Death ”, wore a silver skull with two crossed bones underneath on the shako. This sign was already worn by the Prussian Black Hussar Regiment under General Daniel Friedrich von Lossow on the shako. Duke Silvius Nimrod von Württemberg- Oels donated the Knightly Order of the Skull to the Principality of Oels in 1652 . Both models may have persuaded the Black Duke to use this symbol for his troops.

commitment

Memorial in Elsfleth

The black crowd gathered in Náchod in March 1809 and set out on May 12th. She was baptized by fire on May 30th near Zittau . The city had to be temporarily abandoned after major losses. Battles followed in Rumburg and Peterswald in Bohemia . In June, the Black Group fought alongside the Austrians in Saxony and Franconia . After the defeat of the Austrians in the Battle of Wagram , the crowd fought their way from Zwickau through northern Germany to the North Sea coast. This led to a storm on Halberstadt and a battle near Ölper . They embarked on boats and ships in Elsfleth and Brake on August 6th and 7th, thus escaping their French pursuers. On August 8, they were taken over in the Weser estuary by an English flotilla under Captain George Stuart and brought via Heligoland to Great Yarmouth and Grimsby in Great Britain.

Further development

From 1810 the group fought as Braunschweig-Lüneburgsche Jäger , also known as Brunswick-Oels Jäger , under the command of Wellington in Portugal and Spain , where they also faced Westphalian , Hessian-Darmstadt , Baden and Nassau troops. After Napoleon's defeat, the corps returned to Braunschweig, where it was reshaped and supplemented with inexperienced officers and soldiers. The new corps fought in the battle of Quatre-Bras and Waterloo in 1815 , the avant-garde , the Braunschweigische Leibbataillon and three other battalions in the west, three battalions in the center of the decisive battle .

After several restructuring, the regular units that had emerged from the Black Squad were finally integrated into the Prussian Army in 1886 with the entire Braunschweig Army , namely as the " Braunschweigisches Hussar Regiment No. 17 " and " Braunschweigisches Infanterie Regiment No. 92 ".

Known members of the black crowd

reception

The Black Brunswicker by the English painter John Everett Millais

The now almost forgotten Black Band and their Duke were celebrated as heroes in large parts of Europe in their day. For a time it was fashionable to dress à la Brunsvic , i. H. to wear a black spinner ; even a christening gown tailored in the style of black uniforms has come down to us from this period.

The British call them the " Black Brunswickers " and, alluding to the skull emblem, the " Brunswick Death and Glory Regiment ", the French and Spaniards "death hunters". Lord Byron praised the "Black Duke" in 1816 in the third cant of his verse epic Childe Harold's Pilgrimage . In 1860 John Everett Millais painted " The Black Brunswicker ", a major work of the pre-Raphaelite school of painting in England.

The German boxer Max Schmeling got the battle name Black Uhlan of the Rhine from his manager Joe Jacobs in America .

literature

  • H [ugo] von Franckenberg-Ludwigsdorff: Memories of the Black Corps, which Duke Friedrich Wilhelm von Braunschweig-Oels established in 1809. From a veteran's diary. Schwetschke , Braunschweig 1859, digitized .
  • Ludwig Ferdinand Spehr : Friedrich Wilhelm, Duke of Braunschweig-Lüneburg-Oels. 2nd edition of the Friedrich Wilhelm's album. sn, Braunschweig 1861, digitized .
  • Constantin von Wurzbach : Sperling, Anton . In: Biographisches Lexikon des Kaiserthums Oesterreich . 36th part. Imperial-Royal Court and State Printing Office, Vienna 1878, p. 142 f. ( Digitized version ).
  • Gustav von Kortzfleisch: The Duke Friedrich Wilhelm von Braunschweig train through Northern Germany in 1809. In: Military weekly paper. Supplement 9/10, 1894, ZDB -ID 207819-3 , pp. 300–396 (also special print: Mittler, Berlin 1894, digitized ).
  • Gustav von Kortzfleisch : History of the Duke Braunschweig Infantry Regiment and its regular troops 1809–1902. = History of the Braunschweig Infantry Regiment No. 92. 3 volumes, Limbach , Braunschweig 1896–1903, digital copies: Volume 1 , Volume 2 , Volume 3 .
  • Otto von Pivka : The Black Brunswickers. Osprey Men-at-Arms, Reading 1973, ISBN 0-85045-146-9 .
  • Fred Mentzel: The contract of Duke Friedrich Wilhelm von Braunschweig with the British government on the use of the Black Corps (1809). In: Braunschweigisches Jahrbuch. Vol. 55, 1974, ISSN  0068-0745 , pp. 230-239, digitized .
  • Horst-Rüdiger Jarck , Gerhard Schildt (Hrsg.): Braunschweigische Landesgeschichte. A region looking back over the millennia. Appelhans , Braunschweig 2000, ISBN 3-930292-28-9 .
  • Detlef Wenzlik: Under the flag of the Black Duke 1809 (= The Napoleonic Wars. Vol. 9). VRZ-Verlag Zörb, Hamburg 2002, ISBN 3-931482-87-1 .
  • Frank Bauer: The train of the Black Duke 1809. Hope for the liberation of Germany (Small series history of liberation wars, H. 28), Potsdam 2009.
  • Christopher Schulze: The Black Duke. Friedrich Wilhelm von Braunschweig-Oels. A biography. Diplomica-Verlag , Hamburg 2014, ISBN 978-3-95850-513-1 .
  • Ruthard von Frankenberg: In the Black Corps to Waterloo. Memoirs of Major Erdmann von Frankenberg . edition by frankenberg, Hamburg 2015, ISBN 978-3-00-048000-3 .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Gustav von Kortzfleisch: History of the Duke Braunschweig Infantry Regiment and its regular troops 1809–1902. Vol. 1: 1809-1867. The Black Corps 1809 and the Anglo-Braunschweig Infantry Regiment until 1814 . Chapter I: The Black Corps. 1809. ( Digitized at the Braunschweig University Library)., Limbach , Braunschweig 1896
  2. ^ Gustav von Kortzfleisch: The Duke Friedrich Wilhelm von Braunschweig train through Northern Germany in 1809. 1894, special print p. 1.
  3. ^ Ludwig Ferdinand Spehr: Friedrich Wilhelm, Duke of Braunschweig-Lüneburg-Oels. 1861, p. 51 .
  4. ^ Ludwig Ferdinand Spehr: Friedrich Wilhelm, Duke of Braunschweig-Lüneburg-Oels. 1861, p. 1 .
  5. ^ Ludwig Ferdinand Spehr: Friedrich Wilhelm, Duke of Braunschweig-Lüneburg-Oels. 1861, p. 50 .
  6. ↑ Gustav von Kortzfleisch: The Duke Friedrich Wilhelm von Braunschweig train through Northern Germany in 1809. 1894, special print p. 74f.
  7. ^ Ludwig Ferdinand Spehr: Friedrich Wilhelm, Duke of Braunschweig-Lüneburg-Oels. 1861, p. 51f.
  8. ^ Ludwig Ferdinand Spehr: Friedrich Wilhelm, Duke of Braunschweig-Lüneburg-Oels. 1861, p. 52 .
  9. ^ Leonhard von Dresch: Germany in the period of the Rhine Confederation. From the war with Austria in 1809 to the beginning of the liberation war in 1813 (history of Germany since the foundation of the Rhine Confederation). Ulm, 1825. p. 159
  10. ^ Ruthard von Frankenberg: In the Black Corps to Waterloo. Memoirs of Major Erdmann von Frankenberg . Hamburg 2015. pp. 28–45
  11. ↑ Ernst von Wedel: Historical ranking and master list of the German army. Modifications made by Claus von Bredow. A. Scherl, Berlin 1905.
  12. ^ Ruthard von Frankenberg: In the Black Corps to Waterloo. Memoirs of Major Erdmann von Frankenberg . Hamburg 2015. pp. 75, 143-145, 170-176
  13. ↑ Ulrike Strauss: The "French Time" (1806-1815). In: Horst-Rüdiger Jarck, Gerhard Schildt: Braunschweigische Landesgeschichte. 2000, pp. 706f.
  14. ^ Ruthard von Frankenberg: In the Black Corps to Waterloo. Memoirs of Major Erdmann von Frankenberg . Hamburg 2015. pp. 66, 93, 100