Second Turkish siege of Vienna

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Second Turkish siege of Vienna
Part of: Great Turkish War (1683–1699)
Contemporary painting of the siege of Vienna in 1683. In the foreground the relief army of King Johann III.  Sobieski in the battle against the Ottomans, in the background the besieged city.
Contemporary painting of the siege of Vienna in 1683.
In the foreground the relief army of King Johann III. Sobieski in the battle against the Ottomans, in the background the besieged city.
date July 14th to September 12th 1683
place Austria , Vienna
output The Ottomans are defeated by the relief army .
Parties to the conflict

Ottoman Empire 1453Ottoman Empire Ottoman Empire ( Transylvania , Wallachia , Moldova , Khanate of Crimea )

Holy Roman Empire 1400Holy Roman Empire Holy Roman Empire , Poland-Lithuania , Papal States , Republic of Venice

Commander

Grand Vizier Kara Mustafa Pascha

In Vienna:
Count Ernst Rüdiger von Starhemberg
Relief Army:
King Johann III. Sobieski
Duke Charles V of Lorraine

Troop strength
approx. 120,000 16,200–30,000 in Vienna and 60,000–70,000 relief armies
losses

30,000-50,000

15,000

The Second Siege of the Turks in Vienna (or, more accurately, the Second Siege of the Ottomans ) in 1683 was - like the first in 1529 - an unsuccessful attempt by the Ottoman Empire to take Vienna . It lasted from July 14th to September 12th, when one of Poland's King John III. Sobieski commanded relief army forced the Ottoman army of Grand Vizier Kara Mustafa Pascha to retreat in the Battle of Kahlenberg .

Under city commandant Ernst Rüdiger von Starhemberg , Vienna, at that time the capital of the Roman-German emperor , was defended for two months against a siege army of around 120,000 men . For the first time, troops from the Holy Roman Empire allied with those from Poland-Lithuania to relieve the city . The Republic of Venice and the Papal States provided further support .

initial situation

The expansion policy of the Ottomans had already reached its climax. Most of the Kingdom of Hungary was under Ottoman control from 1541, partly directly (Central Hungary), partly as a vassal (Principality of Transylvania); the subjugated Hungarian territories provided money and, in some cases, troops, as they were contractually obliged to do so. The Golden Apple , as the Ottomans called Vienna at the time, seemed within their grasp.

1672 attacked the Ottomans at that time to the Polish-Lithuanian part of Right-bank Ukraine , conquered the fortress Kamieniec Podolski and came to Lviv in Galicia before. The country, torn by internal conflicts , especially disrupted and militarily weakened by the wars of the " Bloody Flood ", concluded a preliminary peace treaty in the Treaty of Buczacz . In this agreement, the Poles undertook to cede Podolia with Kamieniec Podolski and the right-wing Ukraine to the Zaporozhian Cossacks under Hetman Doroshenko , who were Ottoman vassals. In addition, the country pledged to pay an annual tribute to the Ottoman Sultan . The refusal to ratify the Buczaczer Treaty by the Polish Reichstag led to renewed acts of war. 1673 led the Poles under their field marshal Johann (Jan) III. Sobieski again an army against the Ottomans and defeated them at Chotyn .

Nevertheless, the war continued with undiminished severity over the next few years. After eventful battles, the Ottoman-Polish War was finally ended in 1676 in the Treaty of Żurawno on more favorable terms for the Poles than in the Treaty of Buczacz. The Ottomans, however, remained a threat to Poland.

The Holy Roman Empire under the Habsburg Emperor Leopold I was shattered by wars of religion and the Thirty Years War and weakened by the plague epidemic of 1679. In royal Hungary , the Catholic Habsburgs had long suppressed the Protestant nobility. This finally arose in 1678–1682 in the Kuruzen uprising under the leadership of Emmerich Thököly against the emperor.

The Habsburgs were engaged in a two-front war against France under Louis XIV in the west and against the Ottomans under Sultan Mehmet IV in the southeast. Louis XIV was largely responsible for the escalation and encouraged the Ottomans to undertake a limited campaign against the western Hungarian fortresses.

Strategic importance of Vienna

Vienna's economic importance was based on its location at the intersection of two important trade routes, the Danube and the Amber Road . From a military point of view, Vienna was difficult to defend towards the neighboring Hungary , which was characterized by extensive plains, and was difficult to support militarily from the Holy Roman Empire in the north, due to the difficult passage of the Danube. However, Vienna had its own large Danube fleet , which enabled its own supplies and the transport of heavy artillery . Strategically, the city was considered a Christian outpost due to its location between the Alps and the Carpathian Mountains . Vienna was thus of great importance for the Ottomans, who viewed Vienna as a 'gateway to Western Europe'.

Vienna fortress

Fortified Vienna around 1609/1640, here still without the Ravelin
(etching by Jacob Hoefnagel 1609, Claes Janszoon Visscher 1640)

After the first Turkish siege of Vienna in 1548, the city walls, which were built in 1194 with the help of the ransom money for Richard the Lionheart , were adapted to the current state of military technology. Italian fortress builders built a fortress that corresponded to the then current standards. After the Thirty Years War , the fortress was expanded from the old Italian manner to the New Italian manner. At the particularly critical point between the Schottenbastei and the Augustinerbastei , where the ditch was not filled with water, four ravelins were erected , which were completed by 1672. The counter scabbard as the front edge of the trench was expanded with a covered path .

The castle bastion (the left wing of the defenders, the right wing of the attackers) was a regular square with nine cannons each , but it had no mine system. Behind the castle bastion was the cavalier , the Spaniard bastion, a raised artillery fortress. The Löwelbastei (the right wing of the defenders, the left wing of the attackers) was smaller than the castle bastion, and behind it the cavalier, called the "cat" , took up space again.

The more than 200 meter long city wall between the bastions was too long for an effective use of grapes . In addition, the Ravelin was pushed a little too far into the trench and built a little too high, so that artillery fire in the trench behind the Ravelin from the bastions was only possible to a limited extent. The first houses in the suburbs were only 200 meters away from the city wall, and the glacis could not be leveled in the last days before the siege.

Cross section of the Vienna city walls

In the mine war for Vienna, the Ottomans had a clear advantage with 5000 miners . They not only had more material and personnel, but also more experience in mine warfare. In 1682, after the failure of the peace negotiations between Emperor Leopold I and the Ottomans, the Emperor recruited the fortress builder Georg Rimpler and hired him as an engineer and lieutenant colonel. Georg Rimpler reinforced the countercarp , built caponiers between the Ravelin and the bastions , and behind them, at the throat between the curtain wall and the bastion, the Niederwall was built. He let palisades up before the Covered Way and recommended digging a Künette in the ditch. He correctly recognized that the main attack by the Ottomans should take place between the Burg and Löwelbastei. He hired miners from Tyrol , the Netherlands and Lorraine for this difficult service, and women were also initially used.

prehistory

Emperor Leopold I.
Pope Innocent XI.

Political and Military Alliances

On August 10, 1664, Emperor Leopold I and the Grand Vizier Ahmed Köprülü had signed a 20-year peace treaty in Eisenburg / Vasvár . An extension of this peace treaty did not come about in 1682. On January 26, 1683, Leopold I concluded a defensive alliance with Bavaria against France and the Ottoman Empire. On March 31st, the Ottoman Army rallied near Adrianople (today Edirne) with 168,000 men and 300 guns and a declaration of war on the Holy Roman Empire and Poland followed. It said: We are about to cover your little country with war (...). Above all, we order you to wait for us in your residence city so that we can behead you (...) and let the very last creature of God, as it is only a Giaur [unbeliever], disappear from the earth; We shall first subject young and old to the cruelest torments and then hand over to the most shameful death.

On the same day, Pope Innocent XI succeeded. to persuade the Polish King Jan Sobieski and Emperor Leopold I to form a defensive alliance. Innocent XI. supported the alliance and the fight against the Ottomans with 1.5 million guilders . The following contract was signed:

  1. The Emperor of the Holy Roman Empire is said to provide 60,000 men annually during the Turkish War and the Polish Crown 40,000 men.
  2. If the King of Poland takes part in the war himself, he takes over command of the troops.
  3. Mutual assistance in the siege of Krakow or Vienna.
  4. Both sides should look for Christian allies and invite them into the alliance.
  5. The emperor pays 200,000 to the Polish crown Reichstaler .
  6. All taxes (300,000 Reichstaler) of the Venetian churches in Lombardy are used for one year as pay of the Polish soldiers for the Turkish war.
  7. The emperor assumes all debts of the Poles to Sweden from the last Swedish war and waives all debts to Austria.
  8. No alliance partner makes a ceasefire or peace with the Ottomans without the consent of the other .
  9. His Imperial Majesty, the Crown of Poland and Cardinals Pio and Barberini swear a sacred oath on this treaty.
  10. Military advisors are to be assigned from both sides, who will convey to the other side the need to raise an army.
  11. Territories conquered in Hungary belong to His Imperial Majesty, territories conquered in Wallachia and Ukraine belong to Poland.
  12. This alliance also passes to the heirs and successors of the Roman emperor.

Ottoman advance

Sultan Mehmed IV
Kara Mustafa Pasha

On May 3, the Ottoman army reached Belgrade . Sultan Mehmed IV transferred the supreme command to his grand vizier Kara Mustafa Pascha . The Grand Vizier received support from the Hungarian opposition under Imre Thököly. Vienna, the capital of the Holy Roman Empire, was announced later in Stuhlweissenburg as the target of the campaign . Duke Charles V of Lorraine tried to divert the Ottoman troops by sieging Neuhäusel , but gave up the siege on June 9 and withdrew the Austrian troops to Raab . The Ottomans crossed the strategically important bridge at Esseg on June 13, but the bridge was too weak for the heavy siege equipment. The Ottoman pioneers built a new bridge.

Skirmish at Petronell

On July 1st the Ottomans arrived at Raab. Tata , Neutra , Veszprém and Pápa surrendered to the Ottomans. In Vienna, Count Ernst Rüdiger von Starhemberg took the first defensive measures and had the city walls repaired. Raab was supposed to hold up and wear down the Ottoman troops, but Duke Charles V only left a reinforced garrison in Raab and withdrew with his troops towards Vienna. The Ottomans followed him. The Ottomans were already on the Austrian border on July 4th. Three days later, 40,000 Crimean Tatars , outnumbered all defenders in the region around Vienna by double , rode into Petronell, 40 kilometers to the east . At Regelsbrunn they encountered declining Austrian Savoy dragons . After initial confusion, Charles V of Lorraine was able to deploy the troops to fight. At the head of his troops he attacked the Tatars. He was supported by Generals Sachsen-Lauenburg , Taaffe, and Discounta on the right wing and by Margrave Ludwig Wilhelm von Baden , then Mercy and Palffy on the left wing. The Tatars were driven to flight with the loss of 200 men. The imperial family lost about sixty men, including a young Prince of Aremberg and a brother of Prince Eugene of Savoy , Colonel Prince Ludwig Julius of Savoy , who was fatally crushed by his wounded horse and died a few days later in Vienna. After these battles, Emperor Leopold I and the imperial family left Vienna via Korneuburg , Melk and Linz to Passau . The flight was politically necessary to organize the relief army. About 80,000 residents left the city with the emperor.

Prepare for the siege

The Feldzeugmeister Graf Ernst Rüdiger von Starhemberg took over the military command in the capital. All troops of Emperor Leopold I were alerted and ordered to Vienna to see Duke Charles V on the left bank of the Danube. Feldzeugmeister Count Leslie was summoned to Vienna in forced marches with the infantry from the island of Schütt on the left bank of the Danube to reinforce the garrison of Vienna. The next day, Duke Charles V and his troops came from Schwechat across the Danube bridges to Leopoldstadt and Tabor. There he camped with his troops. The residents of the suburbs were asked to bring everything into the city (especially food). On July 12th, the suburbs of Vienna (today 3rd to 9th district of Vienna) were set on fire on the orders of Count Starhemberg. The remaining ruins still offered the Ottomans enough protection. The citizens and students of Vienna were drafted into the defense. Ammunition (1000 24-pounder balls ) from Steyr met over the waterway one in Vienna.

Archbishop Count Leopold Karl von Kollonitsch , a veteran of the Order of Malta, had asked for the position of general guardian for refugees and orphans. He had already gained experience working in the siege of Candia .

He also made a decisive contribution to the financing of the war by raising 600,000 guilders in an unusual way. He confiscated, for example, all of the cash of the Archbishop of Gran as a primate of Hungary and also his sumptuous dishes and valuable church utensils, which he had melted down and used for minting coins. The Archbishop of Raab wanted to claim 5% interest on his war contribution of 61,000 guilders. Kollonitsch rejected this claim. In addition, he organized the care of 500 children orphaned by the siege at Mailberg Castle and a little later he set up the first military hospitals.

Devastation in Burgenland and Lower Austria

The destruction of Perchtoldsdorf

The connection from Vienna to Wiener Neustadt was already interrupted by the Tatars. On July 11th, after three days of siege, the Ottomans captured Hainburg and burned it down. 90 percent of the population were murdered or abducted. The towns of Baden , Schwechat , Inzersdorf and the Favorita near Vienna fared not much differently . They were captured and destroyed in the following days. The population of Perchtoldsdorf was killed and the place burned down as well as in Mödling , where the residents who fled to St. Othmarkirche were killed in the church. In Bruck , the suburbs were set on fire by the residents themselves. After previously refusing to hand over the city, they surrendered, just like Eisenstadt and Ödenburg had done before . The city had to make contributions , including 50 wagons of barley and flour for the camp outside Vienna. On July 14th, the Ottomans looted and burned the Heiligenkreuz Abbey .

Course of the siege

Army camp of Charles V of Lorraine near Jedlesee (north ≈ bottom right corner)

Guns of the Vienna fortress, the relief army and the Ottomans

The Vienna fortress had 130 cartoons and double cartons with a caliber of 40 kilograms. Furthermore, 11 Kolumbrine guns with a caliber of 5 kg belonged to the arsenal of the fortress.

The relief army of the imperial, the Poles, Bavaria and Saxony as well as the southwest German principalities, advancing on September 7 and 8, 1683, carried a total of 152 Kartaunen with them.

The Ottoman army had 50 Balyemez guns with a caliber of 13 to 40 kilograms (10 to 30 Okka), 15 to 20 Kolumbrine guns (Turkish Kolomborna) with a caliber of 4 to 11 kilograms, 5 mortars and 120 Sahi guns . Larger guns were not taken by Grand Vizier Kara Mustafa, although the Ottomans had sufficient numbers in Hungarian fortresses.

Division of the Ottoman troops

Section: Left center Right
Fortress structure in it Löwelbastei (actually "Löblbastei") Ravelin Castle Bastion
Troops / commanders Janissary Corps
Ahmed Pasha
Rumelian troops Kara Mehmed Pascha ,
Vizier Abaza Sari Hüseyin Pascha

July

Beginning of the siege

Vienna fortress before the siege (copper engraving by Folbert van Alten-Allen )

On July 14th the Ottomans reached Vienna and enclosed it from the south, west and north. The Grand Vizier Kara Mustafa built his tent castle on the Schmelz . French engineers in the Ottoman army advocated the attack on the Carinthian bastion, near the Wien River , on the section of which the Ottomans had failed as early as 1529. Achmed Bey was an Ottoman engineer and a runaway Capuchin in Kara Mustafa's army. He had already scouted the fortress of Vienna in 1682 as a member of an embassy of the Hungarian rebel Thököly . He advised Kara Mustafa to attack the fortifications that Georg Rimpler had prepared in the meantime in the south-west between Burgbastei and Löwelbastei. The Grand Vizier determined the position of the gun emplacements and the beginning of the trenches. He wrote a letter to surrender and surrender the city and had it brought to Vienna. Count Starhemberg refused to surrender. He hoped to hold out with around 11,000 soldiers and 5,000 citizens and volunteers until the relief .

The city was not yet completely surrounded by the Danube Canal , so that the city could have been supplied with troops, material and news via islands in the Danube (today the 2nd, 20th and parts of the 21st and 22nd districts). Therefore, on July 15, Grand Vizier Kara Mustafa sent troops under Hüseyin Pasha, the Beylerbeyi of Damascus , with the task of driving the townspeople from these islands. Since the arm of the Danube was passable in several places and the islands were lower than the city (a problem for the artillery), Duke Charles V withdrew with the cavalry over the Danube to Jedlesee on July 16 and cleared all the islands on the Danube and took up position on the left bank of the Danube. Now the Ottomans completely enclosed the city. The Leopold city was set on fire, the bridges were demolished. After the conquest of Leopoldstadt, Grand Vizier Kara Mustafa ordered the Beylerbeyi of Bosnia , Hizir Pascha, to secure Leopoldstadt with his troops and to start bombarding the city from there. The next day the Ottomans broke the last bridge and thus the last connection between Vienna and the Danube.

The first bullets struck Vienna on the day the Ottomans arrived. The first fires that broke out in the city were soon extinguished. The population then lynched two alleged arsonists . Count Starhemberg gave the order to take additional fire protection measures and deployed a company to fight the fire. The comedy house between the castle and the Augustinian monastery was completely demolished immediately due to its many wooden structures. A few days later, on July 19, a bomb caused a large fire that threatened to spread. The company set up for this put out the fire very quickly.

A first attack on Klosterneuburg was repulsed on July 17th. Klosterneuburg played a key role in securing the Ottoman siege army in front of Vienna. The defense was headed by the 50-year-old chamber clerk Marcellinus Ortner, a lay brother of the monastery who was a carpenter by profession. The lower town was looted and set on fire, but thanks to Ortner's measures, Klosterneuburg was able to withstand the attacks. Two days later he repulsed another attack by the Ottomans on Klosterneuburg.

On July 19, the Sultan's court treasurer, Ali Aga, came to the Ottoman camp in Vienna. He reported that Mehmed IV was dismayed by the decision to attack Vienna. His order was to support the Hungarian rebels and the Neuhäusl fortress and to take further fortresses in Hungary and not to march on Vienna. The Grand Vizier tried to appease the court treasurer with military successes and increased the pressure on his troops. But until the departure of the court treasurer Ali Aga to Edirne on July 30th to report to the Sultan, he could not show any notable successes.

On July 27th the mobilization of all defensive men was ordered in Vienna. The first measures against diseases have also been taken.

News war

The Ottomans picked up a messenger who wanted to get through from Vienna to the imperial troops in Jedlesee on July 18. During interrogation, he named Vienna's troop strength. On the night of July 20th, a cuirassier reached the fortress and brought Count Starhemberg a letter from Duke Charles V. That same night the soldier set out on his way back, but was intercepted by the Ottomans with the encrypted letters.

Mine warfare (trenches through the glacis and first mines)

Shelling of the Ottoman siege works from the city
(etching by Romeyn de Hooghe )

With the arrival of Ottoman troops, a race began in the trenches on the glacis. Both parties dug trenches towards each other. The next day the Viennese carried out the first breakdowns to disrupt the excavation work. Within three days, the Ottomans came within attack range of the Vienna entrenchments .

In the meantime the final preparations were made in the trench. A trench was dug that reached down to the groundwater; three caponier and a low wall were before the curtain wall built, built a third line of defense on the right and left of the Löwelbastei. In addition, transverse walls and palisades were drawn, which prevented the Ottomans from conquering part of the defenses of a line from being able to conquer the entire line immediately. When Grand Vizier Kara Mustafa inspected the fortification work on July 18, the Ottomans discovered a water pipe from the suburbs, dug the pipe down for the Viennese and now used it themselves. The atmosphere in the Ottoman camp was very good. The Ottomans with their entrenchments were now only twenty meters away from the Kontereskarpe . The Ottomans were only six meters away from the tips of the Burg and Löwelbastei, where the countercarp protruded into the glacis. Shotguns and hand grenades have already been used for fighting here. A bombing burned down parts of the foremost palisade of the besieged.

From July 20th, the Ottomans began to dig deeper into the earth. A mine was dug against the palisade in each section. On July 23, the Ottomans blew up mines for the first time in front of the section of the Ravelin and the Burgbastei. An attack by the Ottomans on the palisades was largely repulsed with great losses on both sides. In the city, every homeowner was obliged to assign a man to listen in the cellar for digging or knocking. The bad weather the next day gave the besieged a day's break. But on the following July 25th the mine fighting continued. The Ottomans blew up a mine in front of the Löwelbastei and blew up part of the palisade. The following day the Viennese blew up the first mine under the Ottoman entrenchments, but had little effect.

On July 28, the Ottomans detonated mines in front of the Ravelin. The palisades, the covered path and the counter scabbard were blown up to a width of seven meters and thrown into the ditch. The Viennese managed to secure the collapsed part of the countercarp with high losses due to a failure.

In front of the castle bastion, the Ottomans and the Viennese blew up a mine each on July 30th, which damaged the trenches and the covered path on the countercarp. After an attack by the Ottomans and a counterattack by the Viennese, the latter withdrew from their own trenches to the repaired, covered path. In front of the Ravelin, the Ottomans storm up to the Viennese palisades. In front of the Löwelbastei 30 guns were brought into position through the trenches. On July 31, they shot the cavalier of the Löwelbastei, the " cat ". The guns inside were destroyed or taken out of the cat. Loopholes were broken into the remains of the cat. The parapet of the bastion was somewhat removed to have a better field of fire against the buried Ottomans. In some places the trenches were so close that hand-to-hand fighting broke out.

Chronicle in Europe

Count Philipp von Thurn arrived in Warsaw on July 14th and brought the news of the siege of Vienna. King Jan Sobieski gave instructions to gather the army and wanted to leave before the end of the month.

Emperor Leopold I traveled on and reached Passau on July 17th . The first Bavarian auxiliary troops (10,000 men) arrived there on July 23 . On July 27th, Count Philipp von Thurn delivered the message in Passau that King Jan Sobieski and his older son Prince Jakob Ludwig Heinrich would be coming to Vienna with 50,000 men by the end of August. The Jesuit Father Wolff reported to Emperor Leopold I that 10,000 men from Saxony would leave this month. A few days later the news came from Poland that Sobieski would be in Vienna by August 20th. He was marching across Silesia and Moravia .

August

Besieged Vienna

Supply situation

Food prices were fixed in Vienna on August 1st. This prescription was unsuccessful; it had to be repeated almost every day for the next seven weeks and extended to include medication and other everyday items. In addition, the accommodation of the many corpses was arranged. These regulations also had to be repeated every few days with severe penalties. The longer the siege lasted, the harder the city government had to crack down on price usurers as the black market flourished.

The Ottoman siege army also had to contend with supply problems. Replenishment had to be obtained from the oven because the Tatars had destroyed a great deal in the vicinity. In addition, the siege dragged on longer than planned. So the supplies ran out. By the end of August all food in the Ottoman camp had been used up.

Vienna Chronicle

On August 1, the Ottomans fired during the Mass to St. Stephen's Cathedral . The next day the Capuchin Church was bombed, so that the roof collapsed.

On August 8, a 15-year-old boy was picked up as a spy. The townspeople were extremely nervous, and although he denied everything, he was beheaded on August 27th. The " Red Ruhr " broke out and decimated the city population. Count Starhemberg fell ill on August 11 and was only able to recover on August 20.

A draft order was issued on August 26th to all men in Vienna who, because they were not fit or had not participated in the city's defense for other reasons, and two days later Count Starhemberg imposed the death penalty on those who did not submit to the draft .

On August 27, 30 rockets were shot down from St. Stephen's Cathedral during the night. The next night there were already 100 missiles.

On August 31, the Viennese recognized that the Ottomans were preparing for the impending relief and began to draw hope. Count Starhemberg used all means for the fighting, had the streets and houses around the Burgbastei and Löwelbastei area put into a state of defense and set up another line of defense there.

Chronicle of the Ottomans

View of the Ottoman trenches from St. Stephen's Cathedral

Grand Vizier Kara Mustafa had the Alaybeyi removed from the right wing (Burgbastei) on August 3rd due to lack of success. The post of arsenal colonel was also replaced after criticism.

On August 22nd, the Ottoman ally Michael I. Apafi , Prince of Transylvania, arrived with his troops in the Ottoman camp outside Vienna. He strongly criticized the plans to conquer Vienna, which is why the angry Grand Vizier Kara Mustafa sent him back to supervise the bridges near Raab in Hungary.

News war

A messenger on horseback, Duke Charles V, penetrated the city on August 4th and brought news. The rewards and payment of the couriers became increasingly expensive. When Lieutenant Michael Gregorowitz brought three letters from Vienna to Duke Karl V in Jedlesee on August 8, he was promoted to company commander. He managed to reach Duke Charles V through the Ottoman camp and the Vienna Woods by August 16. The oriental goods merchant Georg Franz Kolschitzky was sent as a courier from the city to Duke Karl V on August 13 and arrived there on August 15. On August 17th, Kolschitzky returned as a hero. He had reached Vienna through the Ottoman troops with news from Duke Charles V. He brought the news that a relief army with a total of 70,000 men was gathering near Vienna and had defeated the Hungarian rebels. Kolschitzky received the promised reward of 200 ducats . The courier Seradly, von Kolschitzky's servant, was sent from Vienna to the imperial camp in Jedlesee on August 19. He received half of the wages of 200 ducats before he left. On August 21, he returned from Jedlesee with a few letters from Duke Charles V of Lorraine. The courier Georg Michaelowitz (who is confused by some contemporary witnesses with Kolschitzky or Lieutenant Gregorowitz) left on August 27 with a few letters to Duke Karl V. He received a reward of 100 ducats for this. When he returned on September 1st, he received an additional 100 ducats.

Mine warfare (through the palisades and the countercarp into the trench)

War underground

On August 1, further mines of the Ottomans damaged the counter-rake. The next day the Ottomans took the palisades in front of the Löwel Bastion. In the evening the Viennese let a mine go up under the Ottoman trenches in front of the Löwelbastei. Another Viennese mine exploded in front of the Ravelin on August 3, but the effects of the Viennese mines were much worse than the Ottoman mines. In the evening the Ottomans attacked the Ravelin and threw the Viennese out of the palisades and the covered path down the countercarp into the trench. The Viennese completely cleared the positions on the palisade the following day. A Viennese mine on August 5th near the castle bastion struck back and destroyed a large part of the covered path. The following attack by the Janissaries was repulsed, but the mood of the Ottomans was still good.

Trench warfare

The Ottomans dug a tunnel in front of the Löwelbastei and the Ravelin, which led into the moat. Towards the evening of August 6, the first Ottomans penetrated the trench in front of the Ravelin. Count Starhemberg came with the best hundred men and drove out the Ottomans again. All the wool sacks that the Ottomans had brought to the entrenchment were brought into the city. There were many deaths on both sides. But the next morning the Ottomans penetrated the tunnels into the ditch in front of the bastions, settled down and began to work their way towards Ravelin. A first mine was blown up in the ditch between Löwelbastei and Ravelin, and its earthwork was used for further entrenchments. The tunnel in front of the castle bastion collapsed as a result of heavy fire and buried thirty Ottomans. On August 8, an Ottoman soldier reached the city wall for the first time in an assault. The next day, the Ottomans blew up a mine in front of the Löwelbastei, which opened the way for the tunnel into the moat and could finally settle down.

Mine Warfare (Attack on the Second Line of Defense)

On August 9, the Ottomans blew up the first mine under the Ravelin and tore down seven meters of wall. The Viennese immediately sealed off the breach in the wall. In the following days the Löwelbastei and the Burgbastei were also attacked. The caponiers were completely buried and destroyed with the next mine. Failures by the Viennese to destroy the tunnels in the moat and thus block access to the moat failed with high losses. The pressure from the Ottomans did not ease.

On August 12th, fierce fighting continued over the Ravelin, and two mines under the castle bastion were blown up. The effect was weak and partially backwards, the subsequent assault failed with heavy losses by the Ottomans. Another mine under the top of the ravelin worked well. The ravelin was divided into two parts. In addition, precautions were taken on the ravelin and on the bastions so that the fortress section would still remain defensible should parts of it fall into Ottoman hands. The mood of the Ottomans wavered.

Attack by the Viennese on a mine under the Burgbastei
(copper engraving by Jacobus Peeters)

In mid-August, an Ottoman mine was rendered unusable by palisades, a second mine was destroyed by cannons and a third mine was destroyed by counter-blasting. On August 15, the Ottomans settled in the moat in front of the Löwelbastei and dug their way up to the trench in the middle of the ditch. If the Viennese fell out, all the Ottomans entrenched there were killed, their ramps, support beams and all wood set on fire, and their mines destroyed, after which the Viennese returned to the Löwelbastei. It took twelve days for the Ottomans to regain full control of this position. The mood of the Ottomans continued to deteriorate.

During the next few days there was heavy fighting throughout the trench without any noticeable progress on either side. The Viennese undertook an unsuccessful failure at the castle bastion on August 18th. It was a volunteer company made up of the townspeople who acted on their own. Three days later, a decree was issued in Vienna that no one was allowed to venture out without orders. The Ottomans blew up two mines under the castle bastion on August 20 and another under the Ravelin. The bastions were assaulted by the Ottomans all day without success. An attack by the Viennese against the tunnels in front of the Burgbastei on August 22nd had little effect. The Ottomans fled the trench, but occupied it again a few hours later. In the next few days there were numerous explosions of smaller mines, storms, failures and, above all, deaths on both sides.

Despite heavy rain that filled the trenches, the fighting continued. After a mine was blown under the Ravelin, the Ottomans attacked again unsuccessfully and suffered heavy losses. On the feast day of John the Baptist (August 29), they detonated a particularly large mine under the ravelin and blew up most of it. The last remainder of the ravelin was evacuated on the orders of the Viennese officers. The city government requested that water tubs be set up around the city in order to identify excavation activities more quickly. On the surface of the water in the vats, at the slightest vibration through the underground ditch, a distorted reflection could be seen.

A chance hit by the Ottomans behind the Löwelbastei on August 31 struck an ammunition dump that also set fire to the adjacent gunpowder dump. The black powder supplies were thereby significantly reduced.

Burning villages around Vienna

Course of the Ottoman siege in the vicinity of Vienna

The Ottomans conquered Pottendorf , Ebreichsdorf and Götzendorf on August 3rd, killing and deporting the local population. On August 24th, the Janissaries attacked Klosterneuburg again, which they wanted to use as a base against the relief army. The attack lasted until August 26th and was successfully repulsed.

Chronicle in Europe

Around August 3rd there were many small and large skirmishes between Polish auxiliaries and imperial troops on the one hand and Tatars , Hungarian rebels and Ottomans on the other. August was marked by the long wait of Emperor Leopold I in Passau for troops for the relief army. From August 9th to 11th, Emperor Leopold I fell ill and was in bed with fever, diarrhea and vomiting.

On August 8th, Prince Eugene of Savoy arrived in Passau. He reported that all other French officers who tried to join the Austrians were jailed. On August 12th, 1,000 men from the regiment of Prince Ludwig Anton von der Pfalz and on August 21st, 8,000 francs joined the army.

It was not until August 14th and not as promised at the end of July that King Jan Sobieski marched with his army from Krakow towards Vienna. He was on August 22 in Gliwice and reached the following day Opava .

On August 24th, Duke Charles V set out with his troops up the Danube to come to the meeting point in Tulln . At Bisamberg he met the Ottomans and the Hungarian auxiliary troops of Thököly and defeated them with his cavalry.

On August 25, the relief army under Emperor Leopold I moved towards Vienna. Leopold I took the ship from Passau to Linz , reached it three days later and immediately continued his march on Vienna. On August 31, Sobieski met Duke Charles V in Hollabrunn .

September

Trenches of the Ottomans in front of besieged Vienna in the final expansion phase
(copper engraving by the imperial captain and engineer Daniel Suttinger )

At the beginning of September food ran out in the city as well as in the Ottoman camp. The food shortage in the city was alleviated somewhat when 22 oxen, two horses and a wagon were brought in on September 3, during two further failures at Schottentor .

Vienna Chronicle

On September 3rd, 30 rockets were shot down from St. Stephen's Cathedral in the night; on September 6th, 7th and 8th there were already so many that they could not be counted. Draconic measures against deserters and conscientious objectors were decided on September 6th in Vienna. Anyone who was sick or too old for work had to show a medical certificate. On September 9th, the mayor of Vienna, Johann Andreas von Liebenberg, died after an illness lasting several weeks. In the streets behind the Burg- and Löwelbastei there was heavy digging on September 10th, palisades were built and walkways were laid for another line of defense.

Chronicle of the Ottomans

On September 7th, Grand Vizier Kara Mustafa held a muster. He wanted to conquer the city before the relief army arrived. In a large regrouping, the Ottomans regrouped for the relief battle over the next few days. Kara Mustafa held a council of war on the upcoming battle against the relief army. He took his leaders on a scouting tour of the deployment routes on which the relief army might advance.

News war

On September 1, Georg Michaelowitz brought news from Duke Karl V to the city at the risk of his life: The relief was on its way and would arrive in a few days. The very next day he left the city again with new messages. For this he received 200 ducats in advance, against the express will of the accountant. The message to the emperor urged that the relief be accelerated. The defenders had reached the end of their strength.

On September 4th, Stefan Seradly received 120 ducats for delivering letters to the relief army. But he betrayed the Viennese and ran over to Grand Vizier Kara Mustafa. As a result, he learned of the planned dismissal of Vienna and called in reinforcements.

On September 8, two German couriers were intercepted on their way to Vienna.

Mine War (attack on the city wall)

Failure of the Viennese
(etching by Romeyn de Hooghe)

On September 1, the Ottomans had several mines in Löwelbastei under the curtain wall driven. The Viennese made a sortie to fill in the mines, but failed due to strong resistance from the Ottomans. The next day, the Ottomans blew up a mine near the castle bastion. The effect was minimal. The mine made it easier for the Ottomans to get to the castle bastion. At the Löwelbastei, the Ottomans buried the city wall. If the Viennese fell against the Ottoman mines, all attackers were killed. On September 3rd the next mine went up at the top of the castle bastion. Several pieces of ashlar fell out. The Viennese made another sortie to destroy more mines, with no tangible results. That day, the number of deaths was very high on both sides. Count Starhemberg gave up the last remnants of the ravelin , countercarps and caponiers . The mines of the Ottomans now came two to three meters below the city wall. The Ottomans and Viennese clashed while mining and contaminating, resulting in slaughter.

On September 4th the mine was blown for the first time under the curtain wall. The effect was very strong, but the parts of the wall fell outwards, which made the attack more difficult and delayed and failed due to the defensive will of the population, who blocked the passage in a very short time by breaking in palisades. In another mine explosion and a storm by the Ottomans at the castle bastion, an eight-meter-wide breach was made in the castle bastion. Ottomans came from all sides to attack. The first janissaries were seen on the bastion. But the slope in the rubble to the castle bastion was too steep. The attack was repelled after two hours by staggered fire. The Viennese closed the breach with Spanish riders and sandbags. This storm alone cost the Viennese 200 men, including several officers. During the night the breach was completely closed. Wood from roofs and other components in Vienna was torn down to be used as palisades at Burg- and Löwelbastei. The mood of the Ottomans reached a low point after that day. The next day the Ottomans tried again. They wanted to take the city over the Löwelbastei. The city defenders had regrouped in 64 combat groups. After the demolition of two more mines at the extreme tip of the Löwelbastei it was possible to repel the storm on the Löwelbastei with high losses for both sides. As the barriers tightened, the Ottomans resumed the mine fight. At this point in time, only around 5,000 defensible men were available in Vienna.

The Ottomans conquered the Niederwall on September 8th . The Viennese tried to retake it in a counterattack, but the Ottomans repulsed it. At the same time, they prepared further mines on the curtain wall at this point and in the afternoon blew up two mines under the Löwel Bastion. A lot of brickwork ended up in the ditch. Nevertheless, the wall was afterwards steeper than flatter and so the attack that followed could easily be repulsed. The first mutinies occurred in the Ottoman camp.

On September 12, the Ottomans lined up for the relief battle near the Kahlengebirge as far as Hütteldorf and simultaneously drove five mines under the city walls. They had penetrated up to two meters below the curtain and were about to set and blow up the charges.

Chronicle in Europe

On September 4th, there was a war council at Stetteldorf am Wagram at Juliusburg Castle near Tulln , chaired by King Jan Sobieski. Together with Duke Charles V, the further route and tactics for the relief of Vienna were determined. This led to a diplomatic dispute between Charles V and Sobieski over the question of leading the relief army. Emperor Leopold I had contractually ceded the command to Sobieski in advance in order to persuade him to participate in the common war against the Ottomans. The differences between Duke Charles V and King Sobieski were finally resolved through diplomatic intervention by Marco d'Aviano , papal legate and confessor of Leopold I.

Attack of the Polish cavalry on Kahlenberg (painting by Jan Wyk, 1698)

On September 6th, Elector Max Emanuel came to Linz from Bavaria . Franconian, Saxon, Bavarian and Swabian contingents crossed the Danube near Krems and advanced towards Tulln. The next day the Polish Army crossed the Danube near Tulln and united with the troops of Saxony, the imperial, Bavarian and Franconian-Swabian imperial troops in this city, 30 kilometers upstream from Vienna. The Tatars , who were posted to guard the crossing, did not prevent the bridgehead . Emperor Leopold I left Linz by ship in the direction of Vienna. He stopped in Dürnstein on September 9th. Since he had ceded the leadership of the battle to King Sobieski, he could not travel on to the troops. He put Duke Charles V in his place to lead the imperial troops.

At the last great council of war of the Christian alliance, on the advice of Duke Charles V, it was decided to advance through the Vienna Woods , leaving the entourage behind in 3 columns on Vienna. The road for the relief army through the Vienna Woods was difficult, as there were only a few, poorly paved roads and the artillery could not be taken or only to a limited extent. There was also a lack of food during the approach. Since the entourage was left behind, there was no food supply. The troops had to march for two days without food. But there were no further difficulties in the advance. Grand Vizier Kara Mustafa had failed to secure the Danube bridges and to conquer Klosterneuburg , which now became an important bridgehead for the Allies. Furthermore, there was no Ottoman fortification of the Kahlengebirge, only the Kahlenbergkirche was destroyed. On the morning of September 12th, the Allies descended from the Kahlen Mountains for the Battle of the Kahlenberg .

Battle of the Kahlenberg

Attack of the relief army in the battle of the Kahlenberg

On September 11th, the Allied Christian troops occupied the Kahlengebirge. In the morning hours of September 12th, the relief army attacked with troops from Venice , Bavaria , Saxony , Franconia , Swabia , Baden , Upper Hesse and Poland , about 54,000 to 60,000 men. The Ottoman commanders could not agree on tactics for the two-front war. After a twelve-hour battle, the cavalry attacked from the heights of the Vienna Woods under the command of King Sobieski. The entire Christian armed forces went over to the general attack, for the Viennese also began a sortie when they saw that the battle was going to the advantage of the Christians and stormed the trenches of the Ottomans. The Ottoman army fled hastily. It was only on the other side of the Schwechat , approx. 10 km from Vienna, that Kara Mustafa succeeded in collecting some of his troops and returning them to Raab.

Consequences of the siege

Sobieski before Vienna.
The historical paintings of the Polish painter Juliusz Kossak (1824-1899) shows the not historical fact scene as two Polish wing Hussars King Sobieski captured the green flag of Muhammad deliver
The ball cross in Schwechat
Former weather vane on the south tower of St. Stephen's Cathedral (now in the Wien Museum )

On September 13th, King Sobieski entered the city. The Imperial forces pressed for an immediate pursuit of the Ottoman troops, but Sobieski did not want to strain his horse any further. So began the general looting of the animals, food, goods, materials, weapons, artillery and ammunition left behind by the Ottomans. Most of it, especially Grand Vizier Kara Mustafa's tented castle, was withheld by Sobieski, while the imperial troops were left with almost nothing.

The Viennese population randomly ran out of ammunition in joy. After the siege, several mines filled with gunpowder were found on the city wall behind the shot and abandoned Ravelin. These mines, located six meters below the curtain wall, were ready to be blown up, but were no longer detonated as a result of the defeat. When Emperor Leopold I learned of the victory of the relief troops, he went by ship from Dürnstein to Klosterneuburg. The next day he drove on to Vienna and moved into the liberated city.

Grand Vizier Kara Mustafa looked for someone to blame after the battle. He had Ibrahim Pasha, the Beylerbeyi of Ofen, executed because he was supposedly the first to withdraw from the battlefield. Probably he only wanted to get rid of one witness who could have testified that Ibrahim Pascha considered the two-front tactics against Vienna and the relief army to be wrong.

In 1683 the star and the crescent moon on St. Stephen's Cathedral, which had adorned the top there since 1519 (at that time not attached as an Ottoman symbol), were removed and replaced by a cross. Emperor Leopold I and King Jan Sobieski met on horseback near Schwechat . The relationship between the two rulers was somewhat disturbed. The glory of the relief battle won went to King Sobieski, as the emperor had to contractually cede the leadership in order to receive the support of the Poles. At the point where the two rulers met, the so-called ball cross was later placed. It is an obelisk resting on four Turkish balls. Allied troops held a parade in Schwechat. The electors of Bavaria and Saxony then withdrew with their troops.

It was not until September 18 that King Sobieski and Duke Charles V began to pursue the defeated Ottoman forces. But since the fleeing people were not immediately followed, they were able to gather again at Párkány . Contrary to the recommendations of Duke Charles V and without waiting for further imperial troops, which were a day's march behind the Polish-Austrian troops, King Sobieski moved towards Párkány on October 7th. The king, ignoring all warnings, trusted the reports of Ottoman prisoners that the garrison in Párkány was very small. But he did not know that a 40,000 strong Ottoman contingent had already gathered there, the majority of which consisted of troops that had not taken part in the battle for Vienna.

The vanguard, under the command of Stefan Bidziński , was immediately involved in a battle and almost completely wiped out (approx. 2000 men). Seeing the fleeing remnants of the vanguard, the king left his infantry and artillery behind and with only 4,000 men, Hussaria opposed the numerically superior enemy. The hastily built up Polish front could not be held due to the lack of infantry and artillery and finally collapsed. King Sobieski wanted to continue fighting, whereupon the officers, especially the Austrian Field Marshal von Dünewald , who loyally stood by the Polish king during the battle, asked him to think about his life. When caught in a wave of panicked Soldateska , he withdrew from the battlefield. From a report by the Polish nobleman and writer Jan Chryzostom Pasek we can see:

“So the king and the army came on the same level as those corpses of the vanguard, our courage lost our courage, and the Turks jumped at us like madmen. At first they began to offer weak resistance. But when they got the squadron of the Ruthenian voivods in the rear of the crown hetman, the squadron of hussars began to run away, a second after, a third, and finally the whole army gave heel money, with the king and all the hetmans , all to their great shame and to Laughter for the Germans. Shamefully they fled a good mile until they could lean on the imperial. "

After the dissolution of the Polish cavalry, the Poles withdrew in a hurry. King Sobieski escaped with great difficulty thanks to the help of his Tatar auxiliaries under the command of the Lipka Tatar Colonel Samuel Mirza Krzeczowski. Two days later, on October 9th, after the Polish Hussaria had been reinforced by infantry, artillery and imperial troops, the Ottomans were defeated by Sobieski in the second battle at Párkány .

On October 21st, the imperial troops and the Poles captured Gran . On December 25th, Grand Vizier Kara Mustafa, arriving in Belgrade, was strangled on the orders of the Sultan. He had lost the battle for Vienna despite being three times superior. As a thank you for the liberation of Vienna , the Feast of the Name of the Virgin was introduced in the Catholic Church on September 12th .

Due to the subsequent conquests in the course of the Great Turkish War in South-Eastern Europe, the House of Austria rose to become a major European power at the expense of the Ottoman Empire .

Traces of the Ottoman siege

Vienna

Cossack monument in the Wiener Türkenschanzpark
Memorial plaque on Kahlenberg
  • In the Türkenschanzpark in the 18th district, Ottoman units (including Janissaries ) fought particularly hard against the attacks of the relief army. The name of the Türkenschanzpark is still reminiscent of this battle today, as is the nearby Türkenschanzstrasse.
  • There has also been a Cossack memorial in the Türkenschanzpark since 2003 . It commemorates the participation of the Ukrainian Cossack army in the relief battle of September 12, 1683.
  • Near the Türkenschanzplatz, the Rimplergasse is reminiscent of the top fortress builder and miner Lieutenant Colonel Georg Rimpler .
  • The Türkenritthof on Hernalser Hauptstrasse in the 17th district is reminiscent of an old custom from the time of siege, in which a disguised “Turk” paraded through the streets on a donkey. The municipal housing from the 1920s is adorned with a corresponding statue above the entrance.
  • Türkenstrasse is located in the 9th district .
  • Heidenschussgasse in the 1st district houses the statue of an Ottoman Janissary at the Palais Montenuovo . It is reminiscent of a legend according to which the Ottomans tried to blow up the city walls underground at this point and almost succeeded. According to legend, they were discovered by a journeyman baker from Münster , who alerted the guard.
  • The Pummerin , the largest bell in St. Stephen's Cathedral, was cast from the bronze of the cannons left behind by the Ottomans .
  • Other alleys, streets, squares and buildings were named after prominent people from the siege, such as Graf-Starhemberg-Gasse in the 4th district, the Starhemberg barracks in the 10th district, the Sobieskigasse and Sobieskiplatz in the 9th district. Monuments are the Liebenberg monument opposite the university on the Ringstrasse, the monument in St. Stephen's Cathedral, the memorial plaque on the rebuilt church on the Kahlenberg, etc.
  • On the building at Am Hof ​​11 hangs a gold-plated Turkish ball that is said to have struck here.
  • At the corner of Linke Wienzeile / Morizgasse there is a memorial plaque and the relief “Turkish Gunner” by Alois Lidauer in memory of a Turkish ball found in 1969.
  • A Turkish ball is also walled in at Sterngasse 3. This ball is one of the few original balls.
  • There are also walled-in Turkish balls at Sieveringer Straße 101.

Other places

  • The Turkish cross in Perchtoldsdorf .
  • The Blutgasse to the Fischertor in Hainburg an der Donau commemorates the kidnapping and murder of 90% of the Hainburg population after the city was conquered on July 12, 1683.

Museum reception

The Second Siege of the Turks and the relief battle of September 12, 1683 are extensively documented in the Army History Museum in Vienna. Among the exhibits is u. a. a contemporary oil painting of monumental size, which makes the events understandable. A plan sketch makes it possible to visualize both the siege situation and the course of the battle. Special pieces are the sword of the defender of Vienna, Count Ernst Rüdiger von Starhemberg, together with a cuirass ascribed to him . There is also a large number of booty items from the Ottoman army, such as several horse tails , reflex arcs of the notorious Sipahi and an Ottoman standard ( Sancak-i Şerif ). A particularly effective weapon is a storm scythe , a defensive weapon of the besieged forged from three scythe blades .

Cinematic reception

The Italian-Polish historical film The Siege - September Eleven 1683 illustrates - historically not always correct  - the Second Turkish Siege of Vienna.

See also

swell

  • Balthasar Kleinschroth : Escape and Refuge . The diary of the priest Balthasar Kleinschroth from the Turkish year 1683. In: Hermann Watzl (Hrsg.): Research on regional studies of Lower Austria . tape 8 . Böhlau , Graz / Cologne 1983, ISBN 3-205-07205-7 .
  • Kara Mustafa in front of Vienna . The Turkish diary of the siege of Vienna in 1683, written by the master of ceremonies of the Sublime Porte. In: Ottoman historians . First edition. tape 1 . Styria, Graz / Vienna / Cologne 1955 (2nd edition by dtv , Munich 1976, ISBN 3-423-00450-9 ).
  • Karl Teply (editor): Kara Mustafa in front of Vienna . 1683 from the perspective of Turkish sources. Styria, Vienna 1982, ISBN 3-222-11435-8 .
  • Walter Sturminger (ed.): The Turks before Vienna in eyewitness reports . Rauch, Düsseldorf 1968 (as paperback by dtv, Munich 1983, in the series dtv-Augenzeugenberichte, ISBN 3-423-02717-7 ).

literature

Web links

Commons : Second Siege of the Turks in Vienna  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. a b c Bernd Rill, Ferenc Majoros: The Ottoman Empire 1300–1922. Marix, Wiesbaden 2004, ISBN 3-937715-25-8 , pp. 280-285.
  2. Thomas Winkelbauer : Stands freedom and princely power. Countries and subjects of the House of Habsburg in the denominational age, part 1 . In: Herwig Wolfram (Ed.): Austrian History 1522–1699 . Vienna 2004, ISBN 3-8000-3528-6 , p. 164.
  3. Düriegl 1983, p. 77, whereby it is "only" about the losses allegedly incurred up to August 12, 1683.
  4. ^ Ernst Joseph Görlich and Felix Romanik: History of Austria. Tosa Verlag, Vienna 1995 (Orig .: 1970), p. 234. The two authors are apparently based on a source from 1683, in which the Turkish losses up to September 7th are given as 48,544 men.
  5. ^ Eva Maria Müller: Austria and the Ottomans: History lessons in the new middle school in Graz . Diploma thesis, University of Graz - Institute for History, Supervisor: Klaus-Jürgen Hermanik, Graz 2015, p. 31ff. [1]
  6. Ljubiša Buzić, interview partner: Simon Inou: An end to the “Turkish siege”. In: KOSMO. Twist Zeitschriften Verlag GmbH, March 21, 2014, accessed on September 3, 2019 .
  7. Klaus-Peter Matschke: The cross and the half moon. The history of the Turkish wars. Artemis and Winkler, Düsseldorf 2004, p. 360 f.
  8. wien-vienna.at: Siege of the Turks - The Heere ( Memento from February 5, 2012 in the Internet Archive )
  9. ^ Slovakia in the early modern period
  10. ^ Löwelbastei in the Vienna History Wiki of the City of Vienna
  11. ^ Burgbastei in the Vienna History Wiki of the City of Vienna
  12. ^ A b Lieutenant Colonel Johann Georg von Hoffmann from the annual report of the Realgymnasium of the Theresian Academy in Vienna 1937, pp. 3–17, quoted from: Walter Sturminger: Die Türken vor Wien. Karl Rauch, Düsseldorf 1968, p. 32.
  13. Klaus-Peter Matschke, The Cross and the Crescent. The history of the Turkish wars , p. 358 f.
  14. Klaus-Jürgen Bremm : In the shadow of disaster. Twelve decisive battles in the history of Europe. Books on Demand, Norderstedt 2003, ISBN 3-8334-0458-2 , p. 160.
  15. a b c life story of Georg Rimpler (PDF; 849 kB) p. 178 ff. ( Memento from January 11, 2012 in the Internet Archive )
  16. a b c d e History of the State Museum of Lower Austria
  17. Fritz Reck-Mallaczewen. The coarse letter from Martin Luther to Ludwig Thoma - Chapter 10, Sultan Muhamed IV I to Emperor Leopold and John Sobieski of Poland
  18. ^ Matthaeus Merian: Theatri Europaei continuati twelfth part. Merian, Frankfurt am Main 1691, p. 524 f. (Secondary source)
  19. ^ Vienna's sieges by the Turks and their incursions into Hungary and Austria. By Karl August Schimmer, 1812
  20. ^ Richard Franz Kreutel (translator): The story of the Silihdar . from: Kara Mustafa in front of Vienna. The Turkish diary of the siege of Vienna in 1683, written by the master of ceremonies of the Sublime Porte. Volume 1 of the series: Ottoman historians. Verlag Styria, Graz / Vienna / Cologne 1955, first edition, pp. 141–143.
  21. Topçu
  22. Bird's eye view of the city of Vienna and its surroundings from the northwest, before 1683 ( Memento from January 12, 2012 in the Internet Archive )
  23. Sturminger 1968, quoted Lieutenant Colonel Johann Georg von Hoffmann, p. 116
  24. Biography of Georg Thomas Michaelowitz , wien.gv.at
  25. Sturminger 1968, quoted Lieutenant Colonel Johann Georg von Hoffmann, p. 185
  26. Sturminger 1968, quoted Lieutenant Colonel Johann Georg von Hoffmann, p. 300
  27. Klaus-Jürgen Bremm: In the shadow of disaster. Twelve decisive battles in the history of Europe. Books on Demand, Norderstedt 2003, ISBN 3-8334-0458-2 , p. 166.
  28. ^ Anton Faber in: The Cathedral. Bulletin of the Vienna Cathedral Conservation Association 2/2006, p. 11 ( PDF )
  29. Photo of the ball cross
  30. Maximilian Lorenz von Starhemberg p. 8 ( Memento from April 16, 2012 in the Internet Archive ) (PDF; 1.2 MB)
  31. Izabella Gawin, Dieter Schulze: KulturSchock Poland. Reise-Know-How-Verlag, Bielefeld 2004, ISBN 3-8317-1295-6 , p. 126
  32. Türkenschanzpark, Cossack memorial
  33. ^ The withdrawal of the Turks in 1683 ( memento from January 19, 2015 in the Internet Archive ), engraving from a leaflet from 1684
  34. ^ Magistrate of the City of Vienna: Türkenritthof
  35. Strauchgasse, Zum Heidenschuss
  36. Die Pummerin - cast from Turkish cannons , say.at
  37. Linke Wienzeile 172 in the Vienna History Wiki of the City of Vienna
  38. Hedwig Abraham: Siege of the Turks 1683 | Turkish ball | 1060, Linke Wienzeile 172.Retrieved March 25, 2017.
  39. Türkenkugel in Sterngasse | 1010, Sterngasse 3
  40. Sieveringer Hauptstrasse, Dreikugelhaus
  41. Johann Christoph Allmayer-Beck : The Army History Museum Vienna. Hall I: From the beginnings of the standing army to the end of the 17th century. Salzburg 1982, p. 30.
  42. ^ Manfried Rauchsteiner , Manfred Litscher (ed.): The Army History Museum in Vienna. Graz, Vienna 2000, p. 16.