A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P R S T U V W X Z

Germany from the Earliest Period Vol. 4

W >> Wolfgang Menzel, Trans. Mrs. George Horrocks >> Germany from the Earliest Period Vol. 4





[Footnote 1: He capitulated at Suhlingen on honorable terms, but was
deceived by Mortier, the French general, and Napoleon took advantage
of a clause not to recognize all the terms of capitulation. The
Hanoverian troops, whom it was intended to force to an unconditional
surrender to the French, sailed secretly and in separate divisions to
England, where they were formed into the German Legion.]

[Footnote 2: England offered the Netherlands instead of Hanover to
Prussia; to this Russia, however, refused to accede. Prussia listened
to both sides, and acted with such duplicity that Austria was led, by
the false hope of being seconded by her, to a too early declaration of
war.--_Scenes during the War of liberation._]

[Footnote 3: Gustavus Adolphus IV. of Sweden, who had wedded a
princess of Baden, was at Carlsruhe at the very moment that the Duc
d'Enghien was seized as it were before his eyes. This circumstance and
the ridicule heaped upon him by Napoleon, who mockingly termed him the
Quixote of the North, roused his bitter hatred.]

[Footnote 4: Bulow wrote in his remarkable criticism upon this war:
"The hot coalition party--that of the ladies--of the empress and the
queen of Naples--removed Prince Charles from the army and called Mack
from oblivion to daylight; Mack, whose name in the books of the
prophets in the Hebrew tongue signifies defeat."]

[Footnote 5: Napoleon gained almost all his victories either by
skilfully separating his opponents and defeating them singly with
forces vastly superior in number, or by creeping round the
concentrated forces of the enemy and placing them between two fires.]

[Footnote 6: Ney was, for this action, created Duke of Elchingen.]

[Footnote 7: Klein, the French general, also a German, allowed himself
to be kept in conversation by Prince, afterward field-marshal
Schwarzenberg, who had been sent to negotiate terms with him, until
the Austrians had reached a place of safety.--_Prokesch.
Schwarzeriberg's Memorabilia._]

[Footnote 8: "Prussia made use of the offers made by England (and
Russia) to stipulate terms with France exactly subversive of the
object of the negotiations of England (and Russia)."--_The Manifest of
England against Prussia. Attgemeine Zeitung, No. 132._]

[Footnote 9: On the 4th of December, Napoleon met the emperor Francis
in the open street in the village of Nahedlowitz. That the impression
made by the former upon the latter was far from favorable is proved by
the emperor's observation, "Now that I have seen him, I shall never be
able to endure him!" On the 5th of December, the Bavarians under Wrede
were signally defeated at Iglau by the Archduke Ferdinand.]

[Footnote 10: "After the commission of such numerous mistakes, I must
nevertheless praise the minister, Von Haugwitz, for having, in the
first place, evaded a war unskilfully managed, and, in the second, for
having annexed Hanover to Prussia, although its possession, it must be
confessed, is somewhat precarious. Here, however, I hear it said that
the commission of a robbery at another's suggestion is, in the first
place, the deepest of degradations, and, in the second place,
unparalleled in history."--_Von Bulow, The Campaign of 1805._ It has
been asserted that Haugwitz had, prior to the battle of Austerlitz,
been instructed to declare war against Napoleon in case the
intervention of Prussia should be rejected by him. Still, had Haugwitz
overstepped instructions of such immense importance, he would not
immediately afterward, on the 12th of January, 1806, have received, as
was actually the case, fresh instructions, in proof that he had in no
degree abused the confidence of his sovereign. Haugwitz, by not
declaring war, husbanded the strength of Prussia and gained Hanover;
and, by so doing, he fulfilled his instructions, which were to gain
Hanover without making any sacrifice. His success gained for him the
applause of his sovereign, who intrusted him, on account of his skill
as a diplomatist, with the management of other negotiations. Prussia
at that time still pursued the system of the treaty of Basel, was
unwilling to break with France, and was simply bent upon selling her
neutrality to the best advantage. Instead, however, of being able to
prescribe terms to Napoleon, she was compelled to accede to his.
Napoleon said to Haugwitz, "Jamais on n'obtiendra de moi ce qui
pourrait blesser ma gloire." Haugwitz had been instructed through the
duke of Brunswick: "Pour le cas que vos soins pour rétablir la paix
échouent, pour le cas où l'apparition de la Prusse sur le théâtre de
la guerre soit jugée inévitable, mettez tous vos soins pour conserver
à la Prusse l'épée dans le fourreau jusqu'au 22 Décembre, et s'il se
peut jusqu'à un terme plus reculé encore."--_Extract from the Memoirs
of the Count von Haugwitz._]

[Footnote 11: He married a Mademoiselle von Geyer. His children had
merely the title of Counts von Hochberg, but came, in 1830, on the
extinction of the Agnati, to the government.]

[Footnote 12: On the 1st of January, 1806; the Bavarian state
newspaper announced it at New Year with the words, "Long live
Napoleon, the restorer of the kingdom of Bavaria!" Bavarian authors,
more particularly Pallhausen, attempted to prove that the Bavarians
had originally been a Gallic tribe under the Gallic kings. It was
considered a dishonor to belong to Germany.]

[Footnote 13: In 1797, the anonymous statesman, in the dedication "to
the congress of Rastadt," foretold the formation of the Rhenish
alliance as a necessary result of the treaty of Basel. "The electors
of Brandenburg, Hanover, Hesse-Cassel, and all the princes, who
defended themselves behind the line of demarcation against their
obligations to the empire, and tranquilly awaited the issue of the
contest between France and that part of the empire that had taken up
arms; all those princes to whom their private interests were dearer
than those of the empire, who, devoid of patriotism, formed a separate
party against Austria and Southern Germany, from which they severed
and isolated themselves, could, none of them, arrogate to themselves a
voice in the matter, if Southern Germany, abandoned by them, concluded
treaties for herself as her present and future interests demanded."]

[Footnote 14: "Oldenburg affords a glaring proof of the insecurity and
meanness characteristic of the Rhenish alliance. The relation even
with Bavaria was not always the purest, and I have sometimes caught a
near glimpse of the claws."--_Gagern's Share in Politics._]

[Footnote 15: No diet had, since 1770, been held in Wurtemberg, only
the committee had continued to treat secretly with the duke. In 1797,
Frederick convoked a fresh diet and swore to hold the constitution
sacred. Some modern elements appeared in this diet; the old opposition
was strengthened by men of the French school. Disputes, consequently,
ere long arose between it and the duke, a man of an extremely
arbitrary disposition. The Estates discovered little zeal for the war
with France, attempted to economize in the preparations, etc., while
the duke made great show of patriotism as a prince of the German
empire, nor gave the slightest symptom of his one day becoming an
enemy to his country, a member of the Rhenish alliance, and the most
zealous partisan of France. Moreau, however, no sooner crossed the
Rhine than the duke fled, abandoned his states, and afterward not only
refused to bear the smallest share of the contributions levied upon
the country by the French, but also seized the subsidies furnished by
England. The duke, shortly after this, quarrelling with his eldest
son, William, the Estates sided with the latter and supplied him with
funds, at the same time refusing to grant any of the sums demanded by
the duke, who, on his part, omitted the confirmation of the new
committee and ordered Grosz, the councillor, Stockmaier, the secretary
of the diet, and several others, besides Batz, the agent of the diet
at Vienna, to be placed under arrest, their papers to be seized, and a
sum of money to be raised from the church property, 1805. Not long
after this, rendered insolent by the protection of the great despot of
France, he utterly annihilated the ancient constitution of
Wurtemberg.]



CCLIV. Prussia's Declaration of War and Defeat


Prussia, by a timely declaration of war against France before the
battle of Austerlitz, might have turned the tide against Napoleon, and
earned for herself the glory and the gain, instead of being, by a
false policy, compelled, at a later period, to make that declaration
under circumstances of extreme disadvantage. Her maritime commerce
suffered extreme injury from the attacks of the English and Swedes.
War was unavoidable, either for or against France. The decision was
replete with difficulty. Prussia, by continuing to side with France,
was exposed to the attacks of England, Sweden, and probably Russia; it
was, moreover, to be feared that Napoleon, who had more in view the
diminution of the power of Prussia than that of Austria, might delay
his aid. During the late campaign, the Prussian territory had been
violated and the fortress of Wesel seized by Napoleon, who had also
promised the restoration of Hanover to England as a condition of
peace. He had invited Prussia to found, besides the Rhenish, a
northern confederation, and had, at the same time, bribed Saxony with
a promise of the royal dignity, and Hesse with that of the annexation
of Fulda, not to enter into alliance with Prussia. Prussia saw herself
scorned and betrayed by France. A declaration of war with France was,
however, surrounded with tenfold danger. The power of France,
unweakened by opposition, had reached an almost irresistible height.
Austria, abandoned in every former campaign and hurried to ruin by
Prussia, could no longer be reckoned on for aid. The whole of Germany,
once in favor of Prussia, now sided with the foe. Honor at length
decided. Prussia could no longer endure the scorn of the insolent
Frenchman, his desecration of the memory of the great Frederick, or,
with an army impatient for action, tamely submit to the insults of
both friend and foe. The presence of the Russian czar, Alexander, at
Berlin, his visit to the tomb of Frederick the Great, rendered still
more popular by an engraving, had a powerful effect upon public
opinion. Louisa, the beautiful queen of Prussia and princess of
Mecklenburg, animated the people with her words and roused a spirit of
chivalry in the army, which still deemed itself invincible. The
younger officers were not sparing of their vaunts, and Prince Louis
vented his passion by breaking the windows of the minister Haugwitz.
John Muller, who, on the overthrow of Austria, had quitted Vienna and
had been appointed Prussian historiographer at Berlin, called upon the
people, in the preface to the "Trumpet of the Holy War," to take up
arms against France.

War was indeed declared, but with too great precipitation. Instead of
awaiting the arrival of the troops promised by Russia or until Austria
had been gained, instead of manning the fortresses and taking
precautionary measures, the Prussian army, in conjunction with that of
Saxony, which lent but compulsory aid, and with those of Mecklenburg
and Brunswick, its voluntary allies, took the field without any
settled plan, and suddenly remained stationary in the Thuringian
forest, like Mack two years earlier at Ulm, waiting for the appearance
of Napoleon, 1806. The king and the queen accompanied the army, which
was commanded by Ferdinand, duke of Brunswick, a veteran of seventy-
two, and by his subordinate in command, Frederick Louis, prince of
Hohenlohe-Ingelfingen, who constantly opposed his measures. In the
general staff the chief part was enacted by Colonel Massenbach, a
second Mack, whose counsels were rarely followed. All the higher
officers in the army were old men, promotion depending not upon merit
but upon length of service. The younger officers were radically bad,
owing to their airs of nobility and licentious garrison life; their
manners and principles were equally vulgar. Women, horses, dogs, and
gambling formed the staple of their conversation; they despised all
solid learning, and, when decorated on parade, in their enormous
cocked hats and plumes, powdered wigs and queues, tight leather
breeches and great boots, they swore at and cudgelled the men, and
strutted about with conscious heroism. The arms used by the soldiery
were heavy and apt to hang fire, their tight uniform was inconvenient
for action and useless as a protection against the weather, and their
food, bad of its kind, was stinted by the avarice of the colonels,
which was carried to such an extent that soldiers were to be seen,
who, instead of a waistcoat, had a small bit of cloth sewn on to the
lower part of the uniform where the waistcoat was usually visible.
Worst of all, however, was the bad spirit that pervaded the army, the
enervation consequent upon immorality. Even before the opening of the
war, Lieutenant Henry von Bulow, a retired officer, the greatest
military genius at that period in Germany, and, on that account,
misunderstood, foretold the inevitable defeat of Prussia, and,
although far from being a devotee, declared, "The cause of the
national ignorance lies chiefly in the atheism and demoralization
produced by the government of Frederick II. The enlightenment, so
highly praised in the Prussian states, simply consists in a loss of
energy and power."

The main body of the Prussian army was stationed around Weimar and
Jena, a small corps under General Tauenzien was pushed forward to
cover the rich magazines at Hof, and a reserve of seventeen thousand
men under Eugene, duke of Wurtemberg, lay to the rear at Halle. It was
remarked that this position, in case of an attack being made by
Napoleon, was extremely dangerous, the only alternatives left for the
Prussian army being either to advance, form a junction with the
gallant Hessians and render the Rhine the seat of war, or to fall back
upon the reserve and hazard a decisive battle on the plains of
Leipzig. That intriguing impostor, Lucchesini, the oracle of the camp,
however, purposely declared that _he_ knew Napoleon, that Napoleon
would most certainly not attempt to make an attack. A few days
afterward Napoleon, nevertheless, appeared, found the pass at Kosen
open, cut off the Prussian army from the right bank of the Saal, from
its magazines at Hof and Naumburg, which he also seized, from the
reserve corps stationed at Halle, and from Prussia. Utterly astounded
at the negligence of the duke of Brunswick, he exclaimed, while
comparing him with Mack, "Les Prussiens sont encore plus stupides que
les Autrichiens!" On being informed by some prisoners that the
Prussians expected him from Erfurt when he was already at Naumburg, he
said, "Ils se tromperont furieusement, ces perruques." He would,
nevertheless, have been on his part exposed to great peril had the
Prussians suddenly attacked him with their whole force from Weimar,
Jena, and Halle, or had they instantly retired into Franconia and
fallen upon his rear; but the idea never entered the heads of the
Prussian generals, who tranquilly waited to be beaten by him one after
the other.

After Tauenzien's repulse, a second corps under Prince Louis of
Prussia, which had been pushed forward to Saalfeld, imprudently
attempting to maintain its position in the narrow valley, was
surrounded and cut to pieces. The prince refused to yield, and, after
a furious defence, was killed by a French horse-soldier. The news of
this disaster speedily reached the main body of the Prussians. The
duke of Brunswick, at that time holding a military council in the
castle of Weimar, so entirely lost his presence of mind as to ask in
the hearing of several young officers, and with embarrassment depicted
on his countenance, "What are we to do?" This veteran duke would with
painful slowness write down in the neatest hand the names of the
villages in which the various regiments were to be quartered,
notwithstanding which, it sometimes happened that, owing to his
topographical ignorance, several regiments belonging to different
corps d'armee were billeted in the same village and had to dispute its
possession. He would hesitate for an hour whether he ought to write
the name of a village Munchenholzen or Munchholzen.

The Prussian army was compared to a ship with all sail spread lying at
anchor. The duke was posted with the main body not far from Weimar,
the Saxons at the Schnecke on the road between Weimar and Jena, the
prince of Hohenlohe at Jena. Mack had isolated and exposed his
different corps d'armee in an exactly similar manner at Ulm. Hohenlohe
again subdivided his corps and scattered them in front of the
concentrated forces of the enemy. Still, all was not yet lost, the
Prussians being advantageously posted in the upper valley, while the
French were advancing along the deep valleys of the Saal and its
tributaries. But, on the 13th of October, Tauenzien retired from the
vale, leaving the steeps of Jena, which a hundred students had been
able to defend simply by rolling down the stones there piled in heaps,
open, and, during the same night, Napoleon sent his artillery up and
posted himself on the Landgrafenberg. There, nevertheless, still
remained a chance; the Dornberg, by which the Landgrafenberg was
commanded, was still occupied by Tauenzien, and the Windknollen, a
still steeper ascent, whence Hohenlohe, had he not spent the night in
undisturbed slumbers at Capellendorf, might utterly have annihilated
the French army, remained unoccupied. The thunder of the French
artillery first roused Hohenlohe from his couch, and, while he was
still under the hands of his barber, Tauenzien was driven from the
Dornberg. The duties of the toilet at length concluded, Hohenlohe led
his troops up the hillside with a view of retaking the position he had
so foolishly lost; but his serried columns were exposed to the
destructive fire of a body of French tirailleurs posted above, and
were repulsed with immense loss. General Ruchel arrived, with his
corps that had been uselessly detached, too late to prevent the flight
of the Hohenlohe corps, and, making a brave but senseless attack, was
wounded and defeated. A similar fate befell the unfortunate Saxons at
the Schnecke and the duke of Brunswick at Auerstädt. The latter,
although at the head of the strongest division of the Prussian army,
succumbed to the weakest division of the French army, that commanded
by Davoust, who henceforward bore the title of duke of Auerstädt, and
was so suddenly put to the rout that a body of twenty thousand
Prussians under Kalkreuth never came into action. The duke was shot in
both eyes. This incident was, by his enemies, termed fortune's
revenge, "as he never would see when he had his eyes open."[1]

Napoleon followed up his victory with consummate skill. The junction
of the retreating corps d'armee and their flight by the shortest route
into Prussia were equally prevented. The defeated Prussian army was in
a state of indescribable confusion. An immensely circuitous march lay
before it ere Prussia could be re-entered. A number of the regiments
disbanded, particularly those whose officers had been the first to
take to flight or had crept for shelter behind hedges and walls. An
immense number of officers' equipages, provided with mistresses,
articles belonging to the toilet, and epicurean delicacies, fell into
Napoleon's hands. Wagons laden with poultry, complete kitchens on
wheels, wine casks, etc., had followed this luxurious army. The scene
presented by the battlefield of Jena widely contrasted with that of
Rossbach, whose monument was sent by Napoleon to Paris as the most
glorious part of the booty gained by his present easy victory.[2]

The fortified city of Erfurt was garrisoned with fourteen thousand
Prussians under Mollendorf, who, on the first summons, capitulated to
Murat, the general of the French cavalry. The hereditary Prince of
Orange was also taken prisoner on this occasion. Von Hellwig, a
lieutenant of the Prussian hussars, boldly charged the French guard
escorting the fourteen thousand Prussian prisoners of war from Erfurt,
at the head of his squadron, at Eichenrodt in the vicinity of
Eisenach, and succeeded in restoring them to liberty. The liberated
soldiers, however, instead of joining the main body, dispersed.
Eugene, duke of Wurtemberg, was also defeated at Halle, and, throwing
up his command, withdrew to his states. History has, nevertheless,
recorded one trait of magnanimity, that of a Prussian ensign fifteen
years of age, who, being pursued by some French cavalry not far from
Halle, sprang with the colors into the Saal and was crushed to death
by a mill-wheel.

Kalkreuth's corps, that had not been brought into action and was the
only one that remained entire, being placed under the command of the
prince of Hohenlohe, its gallant commander, enraged at the indignity,
quitted the army. Hohenlohe's demand, on reaching Magdeburg, for a
supply of ammunition and forage, was refused by the commandant, Von
Kleist, and he hastened helplessly forward in the hope of reaching
Berlin, but the route was already blocked by the enemy, and he was
compelled to make a fatiguing and circuitous march to the west through
the sandy March. Magdeburg, although garrisoned with twenty-two
thousand Prussians, defended by eight hundred pieces of artillery and
almost impregnable fortifications, capitulated on the 11th of November
to Ney, on his appearance beneath the walls with merely ten thousand
men and a light field-battery. Kleist, in exculpation of his conduct,
alleged his expectation of an insurrection of the citizens in case of
a bombardment. Magdeburg contained at that time three thousand unarmed
citizens. It is not known whether Kleist had been bribed, or whether
he was simply infected with the cowardice and stupidity by which the
elder generals of that period were distinguished; it is, however,
certain that among the numerous younger officers serving under his
command not one raised the slightest opposition to this disgraceful
capitulation.[3]

The Hohenlohe corps, which consisted almost exclusively of infantry,
was accompanied in its flight by Blucher, the gallant general of the
hussars, with the elite of the remaining cavalry. Blucher had,
however, long borne a grudge against his pedantic companion, and,
mistrusting his guidance, soon quitted him. Being surrounded by a
greatly superior French force under Klein,[4] he contrived to escape
by asserting with great earnestness to that general that an armistice
had just been concluded. When afterward urgently entreated by
Hohenlohe to join him with his troops, he procrastinated too long, it
may be owing to his desire to bring Hohenlohe, who, by eternally
retreating, completely disheartened his troops, to a stand, or owing
to the impossibility of coming up with greater celerity.[5] He had,
indubitably, the intention to join Hohenlohe at Prenzlow, but
unfortunately arrived a day too late, the prince, whose ammunition and
provisions were completely spent, and who, owing to the stupidity of
Massenbach, who rode up and down the Ucker without being able to
discover whether he was on the right or left bank, had missed the only
route by which he could retreat, having already fallen, with twelve
thousand men, into the enemy's hands. This disaster was shortly
afterward followed by the capture of General Hagen with six thousand
men at Pasewalk and that of Bila with another small Prussian corps not
far from Stettin. Blucher, strengthened by the corps of the duke of
Weimar and by numerous fugitives, still kept the field, but was at
length driven back to Lubeck, where he was defeated, and, after a
bloody battle in the very heart of the terror-stricken city, four
thousand of his men were made prisoners. He fled with ten thousand to
Radkan, where, finding no ships to transport him across the Baltic, he
was forced to capitulate.

The luckless duke of Brunswick was carried on a bier from the field of
Jena to his palace at Brunswick, which he found deserted. All
belonging to him had fled. In his distress he exclaimed, "I am now
about to quit all and am abandoned by all!" His earnest petition to
Napoleon for protection for himself and his petty territory was
sternly refused by the implacable victor, who replied that he knew of
no reigning duke of Brunswick, but only of a Prussian general of that
name, who had, in the infamous manifest of 1792, declared his
intention to destroy Paris and was undeserving of mercy. The blind old
man fled to Ottensen, in the Danish territory, where he expired.

Napoleon, after confiscating sixty millions worth of English goods on
his way through Leipzig, entered Berlin on the 17th of October, 1806.
The defence of the city had not been even dreamed of; nay, the great
arsenal, containing five hundred pieces of artillery and immense
stores, the sword of Frederick the Great, and the private
correspondence of the reigning king and queen, were all abandoned to
the victor.[6] Although the citizens were by no means martially
disposed, the authorities deemed it necessary to issue proclamations
to the people, inculcatory of the axiom, "Tranquillity is the first
duty of the citizen." Napoleon, on his entry into Berlin, was
received, not, as at Vienna, with mute rage, but with loud
demonstrations of delight. Individuals belonging to the highest class
stationed themselves behind the crowd and exclaimed, "For God's sake,
give a hearty hurrah! Cry Vive l'empereur! or we are all lost." On a
demand, couched in the politest terms, for the peaceable delivery of
the arms of the civic guard, being made by Hulin, the new French
commandant, to the magistrate, the latter, on his own accord, ordered
the citizens to give up their arms "under pain of death." Numerous
individuals betrayed the public money and stores, that still remained
concealed, to the French. Hulin replied to a person who had discovered
a large store of wood, "Leave the wood untouched; your king will want
a good deal to make gallows for traitorous rogues." Napoleon's
reception struck him with such astonishment that he declared, "I know
not whether to rejoice or to feel ashamed." At the head of his general
staff, in full uniform and with bared head, he visited the apartment
occupied by Frederick the Great at Sans Souci, and his tomb. He took
possession of Frederick's sword and declared in the army bulletin, "I
would not part with this weapon for twenty millions." Frederick's tomb
afforded him an opportunity for giving vent to the most unbecoming
expressions of contempt against his unfortunate descendant. He
publicly aspersed the fame of the beautiful and noble-hearted Prussian
queen, in order to deaden the enthusiasm she sought to raise. But he
deceived himself. Calumny but increased the esteem and exalted the
enthusiasm with which the people beheld their queen and kindled a
feeling of revenge in their bosoms. Napoleon behaved, nevertheless,
with generosity to another lady of rank. Prince Hatzfeld, the civil
governor of Berlin, not having quitted that city on the entry of
Napoleon, had been discovered by the spies and been condemned to death
by a court-martial. His wife, who was at that time enceinte, threw
herself at Napoleon's feet. With a smile, he handed to her the paper
containing the proof of her husband's guilt, which she instantly
burned, and her husband was restored to liberty. John Muller was among
the more remarkable of the servants of the state who had remained at
Berlin. This sentimental parasite, the most despicable of them all,
whose pathos sublimely glossed over each fresh treason, was sent for
by Napoleon, who placed him about his person. Among other things, he
asked him, "Is it not true the Germans are somewhat thick-brained?" to
which the fawning professor replied with a smile. In return for the
benefits he had received from the royal family of Prussia, he
delivered, before quitting Berlin, an academical lecture upon
Frederick the Great, in the presence of the French general officers,
in which he artfully (the lecture was of course delivered in the
French language) contrived to flatter Napoleon at the expense of that
monarch.[7] Prince Charles of Isenberg raised, in the very heart of
Berlin, a regiment, composed of Prussian deserters, for the service of
France.[8]

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