Virtue union
The Tugendbund - the society for the practice of public virtues - was an association which was founded in the spring of 1808 under the impression of the devastating defeat of Prussia in the war with France and the oppressive peace of Tilsit in Königsberg i. Pr. Made. It was the seed of the Prussian reforms and the wars of liberation .
history
At the instigation of Hans Friedrich Gottlieb Lehmann, Rector of the Kneiphöfische Stadtschule , and Friedrich Wilhelm Mosqua , Karl Alexander von Bardeleben , Ludwig von Baczko and Wilhelm Traugott Krug founded the “Moral Scientific Association”. From Friedrich Wilhelm III. approved on June 30, 1808, the association pursued the goals
- to raise the spirits despaired by the misfortune,
- alleviate physical and moral misery,
- to provide popular youth education,
- to operate the reorganization of the army and
- To cultivate patriotism and attachment to the dynasty everywhere.
Underlying these open endeavors was the secret intention to combat French rule. The idea met with approval in Silesia and Pomerania , less in the Mark Brandenburg and least in Berlin .
Other factors worked against a larger expansion of the association. Many fearful civil and military officials forbade their subordinates from joining. Others found the statutes to be too broad and impractical; The most damaging factor for the association, however, was the fact that Prussia did not join Austria 's uprising in 1809 , and that Schill's undertaking , which was wrongly imposed on the Tugendbund, failed.
The number of participants ranged from 300 to 400. Among them were Hermann von Boyen , Wilhelm von Dörnberg , Job von Witzleben , Karl von Grolman , Werner von Haxthausen , Friedrich von Ribbentrop , Alexander Wilhelm von der Goltz , Johann Philipp von Ladenberg , Friedrich Eichhorn , Johann Kaspar Friedrich Manso . On the other hand, main supporters of the whole idea such as Heinrich Friedrich Karl vom und zum Stein , Barthold Georg Niebuhr , August Neidhardt von Gneisenau and Gerhard von Scharnhorst never belonged to the association.
On December 31, 1809, Friedrich Wilhelm III decreed. At the urging of Napoleon Bonaparte, the association was dissolved by a cabinet order . The Tugendbund was later suspected by the reaction (politics) in Prussia for promoting demagoguery .
After the Battle of the Beresina and the Tauroggen Convention , former members of the Tugendbund in particular supported the establishment of the East Prussian Landwehr as a prelude to the wars of liberation .
Branches
The virtue union was divided into chambers.
East Prussia
- Königsberg, main chamber
- Braunsberg
- Stallupönen
- Fischhausen
- Hohenstein
- Memel
Pomerania
Mark Brandenburg
Silesia
literature
- Birgit Aschmann : Prussia's fame and Germany's honor. On the national honorary discourse in the run-up to the Franco-Prussian wars of the 19th century . R. Oldenbourg Verlag 2013. GoogleBooks
- Johannes Voigt : History of the so-called virtue union and the moral-scientific association . Decker, Berlin 1850, Internet Archives
- Georg Baersch : Contributions to the history of the so-called Tugendbund, with consideration of the writing of Professor Johannes Voigt in Königsberg and refutation and correction of some incorrect information in the same . Perthes-Besser & Mauke, Hamburg 1852. Evidence from the Bavarian State Library . Reprinted by Nabu Press 2011, ISBN 978-1245024457 .
- August Lehmann: The Tugendbund. From the papers left behind by co-founder Professor Dr. Hans Friedrich Gottlieb Lehmann. Haude and Spener, Berlin 1867. GoogleBooks .
- Paul Stettiner : The Tugendbund . W. Koch, Königsberg 1904. Reprinted by Nabu Press 2010. ISBN 978-1145170278 .
Web links
- Tugendbund (zeno.org)
- Nobility in the Moral and Scientific Association 1808–1809
- The Tugendbund in Braunsberg