Zeithainer Lustlager
The Great Campement near Mühlberg , also known as Zeithain's pleasure camp , was a grandiose troop show of August the Strong , combined with the display of royal splendor, which took place from May 31 to June 28, 1730 not far from the cities of Riesa and Grossenhain between the towns of Zeithain , Glaubitz and scattering took place.
Meaning and course
After the Great Northern War , which was victoriously concluded in 1721 after twenty years , August the Strong decided to reorganize and equip the Saxon troops. The Swedish army had previously passed through his country for five years until 1706 and had initially forced him to abdicate. The result of the reorganization was presented in a troop display with a field camp of the entire 27,000-strong Saxon army in June 1730, which took place near Zeithain .
The “Zeithainer Lustlager” was an organizational masterpiece that caused a sensation across Europe . It was not only the largest troop show in Europe, it was above all the most gigantic baroque festival of its time, the “spectacle of the century”, which, due to its splendor and opulence, is the epitome of the baroque way of life to this day. Ottoman state tents were also used, two of which can be seen today in the Türckische Cammer in the Dresden Royal Palace .
Baroque obelisks made of sandstone marked the camp, visible from afar, of which four obelisks (three between Glaubitz, Streumen and Marksiedlitz and one obelisk in the Zeithain district) have been restored.
In front of 48 invited European princes and their military officers, August presented his army in a maneuver , organized by Field Marshal Graf Wackerbarth , which was followed by great festivities, concluded with fireworks near Riesa. The Zeithain pleasure camp not only exhibited its military capabilities, but also the high level of Saxon art and culture. The present “Soldier King” Friedrich Wilhelm I in Prussia noted appreciatively: “The three regiments, Crown Prince good, Weissenfeld good, very good. Pflugk very miserable, bad. Giving orders good. I have seen commands from the cavalry, which I find very proper. "
A special highlight of the festival was a giant stollen baked by the Dresden master baker Johann Andreas Zacharias and sixty bakeries . It weighed 1,800 kilograms, was 18 cubits long (about 7 meters), 8 cubits (about 3 meters) wide, and 30 centimeters thick. It was baked in an oven specially built by Matthäus Daniel Pöppelmann and brought from the Mühlberg bakery to August's camp on a cart pulled by eight horses. There, the baked goods were cut with the famous " large stollen knife ", divided into 24,000 portions and given to the guests.
At Streumen (today in the municipality of Wülknitz ) a magnificent opera house was built especially for the pleasure camp. Comedies were performed, operas were shown.
A five-hour fireworks display on June 24th bathed the river and the city of Riesa in bright colors. Several months earlier, 200 carpenters had started to use 18,000 logs and the same number of boards to build an "80 cubits high and 200 cubits wide" scaffolding on the Riesa side of the river, opposite the specially converted Promnitz Castle, which was covered and painted with 6000 cubits of canvas, to represent a fairy palace. The illumination was done by 400 carpenters. Next to the palace there were among other things 60 cannons for firing, 48 mortars for throwing flares, 80 rocket boxes and 24 large fire wheels. At the same time, a fleet, illuminated to the top of the mast, led by fire-breathing whales and dolphins, sailed past the high-ranking guests gathered in a pavilion, whose glory and splendor were praised by the royal chapel on the nave.
Remarkable
The reason for Frederick the Great's flight
The pleasure camp also gained historical importance through a violent dispute during the maneuvers (Friedrich Wilhelm I chastised his son in front of subordinates) between the soldier king Friedrich Wilhelm I and his son, the then Crown Prince Friedrich , who then fled Zeithain. During the camp, Friedrich revealed to his friend Hans Hermann von Katte at Promnitz Castle on the Elbe that he was planning to flee to France in order to evade the educational powers of his strict father. Katte tried to stop him, but eventually went with him and was later executed for it. Heinrich von Brühl had learned of the escape plans through spies and had Friedrich Wilhelm I. reported them. As a result, both friends were immediately picked up. Heinrich von Brühl had created an enemy that made him feel this years later in the Seven Years' War.
A "FIFAT" of a size never seen before
One of the big events was the final fireworks display lasting several hours on the Elbe near Riesa. The princely commanders were able to see this from Promnitz Castle (located on the opposite side of the Elbe from Riesa), “whereby human life was spared as little as money; for in a whale and four dolphins, which spewed flames and transformed the Elbe, as it were, into a sea of fire, there were construction prisoners who had forfeited their lives and who managed the fire department in the belly of those monsters - which was not always the case, because several burned - given freedom. One of the brightest pieces of that fireworks display, next to the spitting of fire just mentioned, was supposed to be a vivat of a size never seen before . August even had the commanding lieutenant colonel Jauch come and impressed him with the colossal depiction of that Vivat. - Jauch did as he was commanded. There was nothing wrong with the Vivat's size either, but the way it was written, because FIFAT was burning - in brilliant fire . "The result was general laughter, only not from August the Strong, who ordered Jauch to" pick up someone who was stupid Stroke a clever little coat. "From the shameful FIFAT an honorable FAUSTA IUBILA FECERUNT AUGUSTI TEMPORA (German: Joyful festivities created August's [happy] times) was filtered, and" August did not fail to open his distinguished guests to understanding ", while Jauch was given the joke name Fifat until the end of his life .
Follow-up events
- In 1994 the Dresden Stollen Festival was launched, which today is considered the highlight of the Dresden Striezelmarkt .
- The AG Military History Zeithain e. V. has been organizing a "Zeithainer Lustlager" for lovers and collectors of historic military vehicles since 1998.
See also
literature
- Hans Beschorner: Descriptions and pictorial representations of the Zeithainer camp from 1730. In: New archive for Saxon history and antiquity. 27 (1906), pp. 103-151 ( SLUB Dresden Online ).
- Hans Beschorner: The Zeithainer camp from 1730. In: New archive for Saxon history and antiquity. 28 (1907), pp. 50-113 ( SLUB Dresden Online ) and pp. 200-252 Online .
- Cumbersome and exact description of everything that is in the Königl. Polln. Fäldläger at Radiwitz and Mühlberg everyday. From 31st Meyen to 28th June 1730. German manuscript on paper, 122 pages with 7 plates (with overall plan of the complex, deployment plan, details of the structures, representation of the fireworks).
- Wolfgang Huth: “The pleasure camp near Zeithain” in “250 Years of the Grödel-Elsterwerda Raft Canal 1748–1998” . Ed .: Heimatverein Elsterwerda und Umgebung eV, Heimatverein for the research of the Saxon steel works, Gröditzer Stahlwerke GmbH. Lampertswalde 1997, p. 94-97 .
- Johann Konrad Stoessel: Exactly recognizing and honestly reporting Prodromus, for the knowledge of the area and situation of the district between Hayn and Mühlberg and especially of the Radewitz, Glaubitz, Zeithayn, Gorisch [et] c. ohnweit Tieffenau, anno 1730, for the Königl. Pohln. and Churfl. Saxon. Armée formed Campements Dresden 1730. Online ULB Saxony-Anhalt
- Renate Schönfuß-Krause: Zeithainer pleasure camp - no pleasure camp for Lotzdorf and Saxon farmers . In: Lotzdorfer Impressions. Series of articles on the history of Radeberg and Lotzdorf. August 2020. Online resource
- Riddle at the foot of the obelisk. In: Sächsische Zeitung Riesa, December 19, 2015.
Web links
- Outlines of various sieges and war exercises of the camp near Zeithain in the Marburg digital archive
- AG Military History Zeithain e. V.
Individual evidence
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↑ Birgit Ulbricht: Flaming Stone. Sächsische Zeitung Grossenhain, January 7, 2016;
Final fine-tuning . - ↑ Karl Preusker: Views into the patriotic prehistory. 3rd volume. JC Hinrichs, Leipzig 1844, p. 118 ( online version ).
- ↑ So applicable and different from the anecdotes lexicon in: Bayerische Landbötin , 1833, p. 725.
- ↑ The large German anecdotes lexicon , Erfurt 1843/44, Reprint Leipzig 1985, p. 302.
Coordinates: 51 ° 20 ′ 0.3 ″ N , 13 ° 22 ′ 40.4 ″ E