Beetle wood deception

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Map sketch showing the route of the Württemberg companies on August 2nd and 3rd, 1870

The deception at the Käferholz was a sham action by the Württemberg army on August 2 and 3, 1870 at the beginning of the Franco-German War in 1870/71 on a hill near Lörrach near the border triangle near Basel . By deceiving the Käferholz, two Württemberg companies prevented a French division from fighting.

Classification of the action

The French Emperor Napoleon III. On July 19, 1870, Prussia declared war, after which the four southern German states of Baden, Bavaria , Hesse and Württemberg joined the war on the side of Prussia and its North German Confederation . The Grand Duchy of Baden announced the mobilization on July 15, 1870 and declared on July 21 that the alliance case according to the alliance treaty of August 17, 1866 would occur. H. Baden entered the war on the side of Prussia. The commander of the 3rd Army, the Prussian Crown Prince Friedrich III. ordered the concentration of the Baden division near Karlsruhe on July 30th . Since July 21, all of Baden south of Rastatt had been stripped of Baden troops. "The German army command was not deterred in leaving the Rhine border open as planned by several disturbing reports of an imminent crossing of the French over the Rhine." The surveillance of the border on the Rhine between Basel and Rastatt was left to the civil authorities, which for this purpose the gendarmerie , Customs officers and electricity guards.

On August 6th the battle of Wörth broke out and ended with a victory for Prussia and its allies. The numerical superiority of the Prussians had also contributed to this.

The Black Forest detachment of the Württemberg people

Since Baden and Württemberg entered the war on the Upper Rhine and the Black Forest, fears arose about a French attack, the Württemberg War Minister Lieutenant General Albert von Suckow set up a so-called Black Forest Detachment as a flying column , which should help calm the population, numbering around 2,300 men and consisted mainly of the 6th Württemberg Infantry Regiment under the command of Colonel Adolf von Seubert . It was to take a stand in the southern Black Forest and, if necessary, advance into the Rhine Valley or defend the passes into the Wiesental and Höllental .

On August 1, 1870, the detachment was on the line between Neustadt (Black Forest) , Lenzkirch , Sankt Blasien . Colonel Seubert initiated numerous small troop movements in the Rhine Valley, which were supposed to simulate the existence of well-known German troops on the Upper Rhine and in the Black Forest for the French army.

The 7th French Army Corps

Two divisions of the 7th French Army Corps under General Félix-Charles Douay were in the Belfort area at the end of July , while the third division was still encamped near Lyon . On July 27th, Douay received the order to unite his corps with the corps of Marshall Patrice de Mac-Mahon and to submit to his command.

In the area of ​​the former Hüningen fortress on the border with Baden, the 4th regiment de chasseurs was the vanguard of the 7th Corps on August 2nd .

The sham action

In the early afternoon of August 2, 1870, Seubert had the two companies in Hütten and Höchenschwand march to Waldshut , from where they were transported by rail to Rheinfelden (Baden) . Here Seubert gave a speech to his troops in which he recalled the regiment's participation in the suppression of the Hecker uprising in April 1848 - in the battle near Dossenbach - which took place near Rheinfelden - the 6th Company had the republican irregulars of the Germans Democratic Legion blows up.

The troops marched from Rheinfelden to Lörrach and, in the early hours of the night, to the Tüllinger Berg . Here in front of the so-called “Käferholz”, where the infantry battle of the Battle of Friedlingen took place in October 1702 , an advance command had instructed the local farmers to prepare a large number of piles of wood that could serve as a watch fire for a large number of troops. Seubert then moved with the two companies to this camp site to the drum roll and loud signal from the horn players. The units marched in front of the fire, visible from afar, and the two companies repeated this several times in order to simulate the deployment of numerous battalions. The prepared piles of wood were lit step by step, as would have happened if more and more new units had arrived. In addition, the local farmers were instructed to run around eagerly in front of the blasts of fire to depict the hustle and bustle of a large troop camp.

A Wuerttemberg patrol across from Hüningen observed the reaction on the French bank, where it remained calm. There was excitement on the Swiss side, where the troops deployed to occupy the border monitored the border in order to prevent a violation of Swiss neutrality.

On August 3, Colonel Seubert ended the sham campaign before daybreak and the companies took the same route back to Häuser and Höchenschwand.

The success of the sham campaign

Colonel von Seubert

Due to reports of German troop movements in the Rhine Valley and especially near Lörrach, General Douay feared a German invasion in southern Alsace and thereby the blocking of the retreat to Belfort . On the basis of his reports, Emperor Napoleon ordered on August 3 that only the 1st Division of the 7th Army Corps should join Mac-Mahon and that the remaining troops should remain in the Mühlhausen area in Alsace . Since the 3rd Division was still at Lyon, it was the 2nd Division (Liébert Division) with a total strength of about 8,000 men. Mac-Mahon lacked these forces in the battle of Wörth . The success report comes mainly from Seubert's own report, but the episode also found its way into the report of the Prussian General Staff.

Baden prevents a theater of war in the Markgräflerland

Due to the success of his activity, Seubert was now planning an advance on the Alsatian bank of the Rhine. The Baden War Ministry under the Prussian General Gustav Friedrich von Beyer initially prevented this by requesting parts of the Black Forest Detachment to cover the Rhine crossing at Maxau and finally demanded that the Württemberg government withdraw the troops from Baden , as the activities of the insufficient forces did not want to provoke a French advance on the banks of the Rhine in Baden. On August 10, the regiment received the order to retreat home, where it arrived in Stuttgart on August 20. The 6th Württemberg Infantry Regiment was ordered back home in the middle of the war with France, which at least had a bitter aftertaste among the officers and damaged the reputation of the regiment.

The southern Upper Rhine Valley was already without military protection before the Wuerttemberg people marched back, as they were encamped in the Black Forest and mainly intended to cover the passes to prevent French units from advancing into the Wuerttemberg Black Forest. Seubert leads some advances by the Franc-tireurs (local paramilitary free riflemen) between August 31 and September 3 on Baden territory which, in his opinion, could have been prevented by the presence of the Württemberg people.

Skirmishes on the French border

After the French declaration of war on July 19, 1870, "the population's protection forces against minor border attacks were formed in all places on the Upper Rhine border." In addition to the gendarmerie , customs officers and electricity guards, protection forces from members of the rifle clubs and fire services took over control of the Rhine border . The most serious incident took place on August 31, 1870 at 6 am 60 to 70 man of the French Garde Mobile in Bellingen on the Rhine translated. The troops destroyed the telegraph line and took two willows with them. When the alarm was triggered, the Baden defense forces in the area first gathered near Müllheim and then moved to Neuchâtel . On the French side - near Eichwald - a few hundred mobile guards and Vosges riflemen had gathered and it was expected that the French would try to cross the Rhine. The appearance of the security guards prevented the attempt, but a firefight broke out over the Rhine for nine hours . The police had two seriously injured and a number of slightly injured. At around 7.30 p.m., a battalion of the 6th Baden Infantry Regiment from Rastatt came to the rescue. On September 1, there were also shootings between Neuchâtel and Chalampé, which killed the Baden military. On September 3rd, Kleinkems was exposed to gunfire from France, with no casualties. In the following days, the Baden military moved into southern Alsace and the French mobile guards withdrew to Lyon , so that from September 8th there was no longer any threat to the Markgräflerland , but instead asked Alsatian mayors to be safe from German shelling.

Mention in the novel

The Lörrach watch fires also found their way into literature. In his novel The Collapse, the French writer Émile Zola describes the war from the point of view of a soldier of the 7th French Army Corps, whose stay near Mulhouse is described:

“There were only twelve thousand men here, everything General Felix Douay of the Seventh Army Corps had with him. [...] Watch fires were noticed near Lörrach. A telegram from the sub-prefect of Schlettstadt reported that the Prussians had crossed the Rhine at Markolsheim. "

literature

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ See Hans Fenske: Baden 1860 to 1918. In: Hansmartin Schwarzmaier (editor): Handbuch der Baden-Wuerttemberg history, third volume, p. 181
  2. ↑ Baden Observer of July 24, 1870
  3. ↑ War History Department of the Great General Staff: The Franco-German War, 1870-71: Edited by the War History Department of the Great General Staff , Volume 1, p. 101 Google digitized
  4. ↑ See von Aries, p. 17
  5. ↑ von Aries p. 15
  6. ↑ The complete list of the deployed units and officers can be found in Seubert columns 1115–1117
  7. ↑ See Seubert column 1131
  8. ↑ See La guerre de 1870-71 , p. 243 digital copy at gallica
  9. ↑ War History Department of the Great General Staff: The Franco-German War, 1870-71: Edited by the War History Department of the Great General Staff , Volume 1, p. 208 Google digitized
  10. ↑ See Seubert column 1167
  11. ↑ See Seubert Sp. 1165–1166
  12. ^ Karl Stiefel : Baden. 1648-1952. Volume I, Karlsruhe 1977, p. 1185
  13. ↑ according to another report 50 men
  14. ↑ after another message four
  15. ↑ See Freiburg newspaper of September 7, 1870 digitized version of the Freiburg University Library
  16. ^ See Freiburg newspaper of September 3, 1870 digitized version of the Freiburg University Library
  17. ↑ See Freiburg newspaper of September 6, 1870 digitized version of the Freiburg University Library
  18. ^ See Freiburg newspaper of September 10, 1870 digitized version of the Freiburg University Library
  19. ↑ Full text of the German translation on Gutenberg.de