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




The Russo-gallic alliance was viewed with terror by Austria. Europe
had, to a certain degree, been partitioned at Erfurt, by Napoleon and
Alexander. Fresh sacrifices were evidently on the eve of being
extorted from Germany. Russia had resolved at any price to gain
possession of either the whole or a part of Turkey, and offered to
confirm Napoleon in that of Bohemia, on condition of being permitted
to seize Moldavia and Wallachia.[4] The danger was urgent. Austria,
sold by Russia to France, could alone defend herself against both her
opponents by an immense exertion of the national power of Germany. The
old and faulty system had been fearfully revenged. The disunion of the
German princes, the despotism of the aristocratic administrations, the
estrangement of the people from all public affairs, had all conduced
to the present degradation of Germany. Necessity now induced an
alteration in the system of government and an appeal to the German
people, whose voice had hitherto been vainly raised. The example set
by Spain was to be followed. Stein, who was at that time at Vienna,
kindled the glowing embers to a flame. The military reforms begun at
an earlier period by the Archduke Charles were carried out on a wider
basis. A completely new institution, that of the _Landwehr_ or armed
citizens, in contradistinction with the mercenary soldiery, was set on
foot. Enthusiasm and patriotism were not wanting. The circumstance of
the pope's imprisonment in Rome by Napoleon sufficed to rouse the
Catholics. Everything was hoped for from a general rising throughout
Germany against the French. Precipitation, however, ruined all.
Prussia was still too much weakened, her fortresses were still in the
hands of the French, and Austria inspired but little confidence, while
the Rhenish confederation solely aimed at aggrandizing itself by fresh
wars at the expense of that empire, and, notwithstanding the
inclination to revolt evinced by the people in different parts of
Germany, more particularly in Westphalia, the terror inspired by
Napoleon kept them, as though spellbound, beneath their galling yoke.

While Napoleon was engaged in the Peninsula, Austria levied almost the
whole of her able-bodied men and equipped an army, four hundred
thousand strong, at the head of which no longer foreign generals, but
the princes of the house of Habsburg, were placed. The Archduke
Charles[5] set off, in 1809, for the Rhine, John for Italy, Ferdinand
for Poland. The first proclamation, signed by Prince Rosenberg and
addressed to the Bavarians, was as follows: "You are now beginning to
perceive that we are Germans like yourselves, that the general
interest of Germany touches you more nearly than that of a nation of
robbers, and that the German nation can alone be restored to its
former glory by acting in unison. Become once more what you once were,
brave Germans! Or have you, Bavarian peasants and citizens, gained
aught by your prince being made into a king? by the extension of his
authority over a few additional square miles? Have your taxes been
thereby decreased? Do you enjoy greater security in your persons and
property?" The proclamation of the Archduke Charles "to the German
nation," declared: "We have taken up arms to restore independence and
national honor to Germany. Our cause is the cause of Germany. Show
yourselves deserving of our esteem! The German, forgetful of what is
due to himself and to his country, is our only foe." An anonymous but
well-known proclamation also declared: "Austria beheld--a sight that
drew tears of blood from the heart of every true-born German--you, O
nations of Germany! so deeply debased as to be compelled to submit to
the legislation of the foreigner and to allow your sons, the youth of
Germany, to be led to war against their still unsubdued brethren. The
shameful subjection of millions of once free-born Germans will ere
long be completed. Austria exhorts you to raise your humbled necks, to
burst your slavish chains!" And in another address was said: "How long
shall Hermann mourn over his degenerate children? Was it for this that
the Cherusci fought in the Teutoburg forest? Is every spark of German
courage extinct? Does the sound of your clanking chains strike like
music on your ears? Germans, awake! shake off your death-like slumber
in the arms of infamy! Germans! shall your name become the derision of
after ages?"

The Austrian army, instead of vigorously attacking and disarming
Bavaria, but slowly advanced, and permitted the Bavarians to withdraw
unharassed for the purpose of forming a junction with the other troops
of the Rhenish confederation under Napoleon, who had hastened from
Spain on the first news of the movements of Austria. The hopes of the
German patriots could not have been more fearfully disappointed or the
German name more deeply humiliated than by the scorn with which
Napoleon, on this occasion, placed himself at the head of the nations
of western Germany, by whose arms alone, for he had but a handful of
French with him, he overcame their eastern brethren at a moment in
which the German name and German honor were more loudly invoked. "I
have not come among you," said Napoleon smilingly to the Bavarians,
Wurtembergers, etc., by whom he was surrounded, "I am not come among
you as the emperor of France, but as the protector of your country and
of the German confederation. No Frenchman is among you; _you alone_
shall beat the Austrians."[6] The extent of the blindness of the
Rhenish confederation[7] is visible in their proclamations. The king
of Saxony even called Heaven to his aid, and said to his soldiers,
"Draw your swords against Austria with full trust in the aid of Divine
providence!"[8]

In the April of 1809, Napoleon led the Rhenish confederated troops,
among which the Bavarians under General Wrede chiefly distinguished
themselves, against the Austrians, who had but slowly advanced, and
defeated them in five battles, on five successive days, the most
glorious triumph of his surpassing tactics, at Pfaffenhofen, Thann,
Abensberg, Landshut, Eckmuhl, and Ratisbon. The Archduke Charles
retired into Bohemia in order to collect reinforcements, but General
Hiller was, on account of the delay in repairing the fortifications of
Linz, unable to maintain that place, the possession of which was
important on account of its forming a connecting point between Bohemia
and the Austrian Oberland. Hiller, however, at least saved his honor
by pushing forward to the Traun, and, in a fearfully bloody encounter
at Ebelsberg, capturing three French eagles, one of his colors alone
falling into the enemy's hands. He was, nevertheless, compelled to
retire before the superior forces of the French, and Napoleon entered
Vienna unopposed. A few balls from the walls of the inner city were
directed against the faubourg in his possession, but he no sooner
began to bombard the palace than the inner city yielded. The Archduke
Charles arrived, when too late, from Bohemia. Both armies, separated
by the Danube, stood opposed to one another in the vicinity of the
imperial city. Napoleon, in order to bring the enemy to a decisive
engagement, crossed the river close to the great island of Lobau. He
was received on the opposite bank near Aspern and Esslingen by the
Archduke Charles, and, after a dreadful battle, that was carried on
with unwearied animosity for two days, the 21st and 22d of May, 1809,
was for the first time completely beaten[9] and compelled to fly for
refuge to the island of Lobau. The rising stream had, meanwhile,
carried away the bridge, Napoleon's sole chance of escape to the
opposite bank. For two days he remained on the island with his
defeated troops, without provisions, and in hourly expectation of
being cut to pieces; the Austrians, however, neglected to turn the
opportunity to advantage and allowed the French leisure to rebuild the
bridge, a work of extreme difficulty. During six weeks afterward the
two armies continued to occupy their former positions under the walls
of Vienna on the right and left banks of the Danube, narrowly watching
each other's movements and preparing for a final struggle.

The Archduke John had successfully penetrated into Italy, where he had
defeated the viceroy, Eugene, at Salice and Fontana fredda. Favored by
the simultaneous revolt of the Tyrolese, his success appeared certain,
when the news of his brother's disaster compelled him to retreat. He
withdrew into Hungary,[10] whither he was pursued by Eugene, by whom
he was, on the 14th of June, defeated at Raab. The Archduke Ferdinand,
who had advanced as far as Warsaw, had been driven back by the Poles
under Poniatowski and by a Russian force sent by the emperor Alexander
to their aid, which, on this success, invaded Galicia. Napoleon
rewarded the Poles for their aid by allowing Russia to seize Wallachia
and Moldavia.

The fate of Austria now depended on the issue of the struggle about to
take place on the Danube. The archduke's troops were still elated with
recent victory, but Napoleon had been strongly reinforced and again
began the attack at Wagram, not far from the battleground of Aspern.
The contest lasted two days, the 5th and 6th of July. The Austrians
fought with great personal gallantry, lost one of their colors, but
captured twelve golden eagles and standards of the enemy; but the
reserve body, intended to protect their left wing, failing to make its
appearance on the field, they were outflanked by Napoleon and driven
back upon Moravia. Every means of conveyance in Vienna was put into
requisition for the transport of the forty-five thousand men, wounded
on this occasion, to the hospitals, and this heartrending scene
indubitably contributed to strengthen the general desire for peace. An
armistice was, on the 12th of July, concluded at Znaym, and, after
long negotiation, was followed, on the 10th of October, by the treaty
of Vienna. Austria was compelled to cede Carniola, Trieste, Croatia
and Dalmatia to Napoleon, Salzburg, Berchtoldsgaden, the Innviertel,
and the Hausruckviertel to Bavaria, a part of Galicia to Warsaw and
another part to Russia. Count Stadion lost office and was succeeded by
Clement, Count von Metternich.--Frederick Stabs, the son of a preacher
of Nuamburg on the Saal, formed a resolution to poniard Napoleon at
Schönbrunn, the imperial palace in the neighborhood of Vienna. Rapp's
suspicions became roused, and the young man was arrested before his
purpose could be effected. He candidly avowed his intention. "And if I
grant you your life?" asked Napoleon. "I would merely make use of the
gift to rob you, on the first opportunity, of yours," was the
undaunted reply. Four-and-twenty hours afterward the young man was
shot.[11] The ancient German race of Gotscheer in Carniola and the
people of Istria rose in open insurrection against the French and were
only put down by force.

Although Prussia had left Austria unsuccored during this war, many of
her subjects were animated with a desire to aid their Austrian
brethren. Schill, unable to restrain his impetuosity, quitted Berlin
on the 28th of April, for that purpose, with his regiment of hussars.
His conduct, although condemned by a sentence of the court-martial,
was universally applauded. Dornberg, an officer of Jerome's guard,
revolted simultaneously in Hesse, but was betrayed by a false friend
at the moment in which Jerome's person was to have been seized, and
was compelled to fly for his life. Schill merely advanced as far as
Wittenberg and Halberstadt, was again driven northward to Wismar, and
finally to Stralsund, by the superior forces of Westphalia and
Holland. In a bloody street-fight at Stralsund he split General
Carteret's, the Dutch general's head, and was himself killed by a
cannon-ball. Thus fell this young hero, true to his motto, "Better a
terrible end than endless terror." The Dutch cut off his head,
preserved it in spirits of wine, and placed it publicly in the Leyden
library, where it remained until 1837, when it was buried at Brunswick
in the grave of his faithful followers. Five hundred of his men, under
Lieutenant Brunow, escaped by forcing their way through the enemy. Of
the prisoners taken on this occasion, eleven officers were, by
Napoleon's command, shot at Wesel, fourteen subalterns and soldiers at
Brunswick, the rest, about six hundred in number, were sent in chains
to Toulon and condemned to the galleys.[12] Dörnberg fled to England.
Katt, another patriot, assembled a number of veterans at Stendal and
advanced as far as Magdeburg, but was compelled to flee to the
Brunswickers in Bohemia. What might not have been the result had the
plan of the Archduke Charles to march rapidly through Franconia been
followed on the opening of the campaign?

William, duke of Brunswick, the son of the hapless Duke Ferdinand, had
quitted Oels, his sole possession, for Bohemia, where he had collected
a force two thousand strong, known as the black Brunswickers on
account of the color of their uniform and the death's head on their
helmets, with which he resolved to avenge his father's death.
Victorious in petty engagements over the Saxons at Zittau and over the
French under Junot at Berneck, he refused to recognize the armistice
between Austria and France, and, fighting his way through the enemy,
surprised Leipzig by night and there provided himself with ammunition
and stores. He was awaited at Halberstadt by the Westphalians under
Wellingerode, whom, notwithstanding their numerical superiority, he
completely defeated during the night of the 30th of July. Two days
later he was attacked in Brunswick, in his father's home, by an enemy
three times his superior, by the Westphalians under Rewbel, who
advanced from Celle while the Saxons and Dutch pursued him from
Erfurt. Aided by his brave citizens, many of whom followed his
fortunes, he was again victorious and was enabled by a speedy retreat,
in which he broke down all the bridges to his rear, to escape to
Elsfleth, whence he sailed to England.

In August, an English army, forty thousand strong, landed on the
island of Walcheren and attempted to create a diversion in Holland,
but its ranks were speedily thinned by disease, it did not venture up
the country and finally returned to England. The English,
nevertheless, displayed henceforward immense activity in the
Peninsula, where, aided by the brave and high-spirited population,[13]
they did great detriment to the French. In the English army in the
Peninsula were several thousand Germans, principally Hanoverian
refugees. There were also numerous deserters from the Rhenish
confederated troops, sent by Napoleon into Spain.

During the war in June, the king of Wurtemberg took possession of
Mergentheim, the chief seat of the Teutonic order, which had, up to
the present period, remained unsecularized. The surprised inhabitants
received the new Protestant authorities with demonstrations of rage
and revolted. They were the last and the only ones among all the
secularized or mediatized estates of the Empire that boldly attempted
opposition. They were naturally overpowered without much difficulty
and were cruelly punished. About thirty of them were shot by the
soldiery; six were executed; several wealthy burgesses and peasants
were condemned as criminals to work in chains in the new royal gardens
at Stuttgard. Thus miserably terminated the celebrated Teutonic order.


[Footnote 1: The whole of the revenues of Prussia were confiscated by
the French until 1808. The contribution of one hundred and forty
millions was, nevertheless, to be paid, and the French garrisons in
the Prussian fortresses of Glogau, Küstrin, and Stettin were to be
maintained at the expense of Prussia. The suppression of the
monasteries in Silesia was far from lucrative, the commissioners, who
were irresponsible, carrying on a system of pillage, and landed
property having greatly fallen in value. The most extraordinary
imposts of every description were resorted to for the purpose of
raising a revenue, among other means, a third of all the gold and
silver in the country was called in. A coinage, still more debased,
was issued, and one more inferior still was smuggled into the country
by English coiners. In 1808, silver money fell two-thirds of its
current value and was even refused acceptance at that price.--The
French, moreover, lorded over the country with redoubled insolence,
broke every treaty, increased their garrisons, and occasionally laid
the most inopportune commands, in the form of a request, upon the
king; as, for instance, to lay under embargo and deliver up to them a
number of English merchantmen that had been driven into the Prussian
harbors by a dreadful storm. Blücher, at that time governor of
Pomerania, restrained his fiery nature and patiently endured their
insolence, while silently brooding over deep and implacable revenge.]

[Footnote 2: When marching with his pupils out of Berlin, he would ask
the fresh ones as he passed beneath the Bradenburg gate, "What are you
thinking of now?" If the boy did not know what to answer, he would
give him a box on the ear, saying as he did so, "You should think of
this, how you can bring back the four fine statues of horses that once
stood over this gate and were carried by the French to Paris."]

[Footnote 3: Decree of 16th December, 1808: "A certain Stein, who is
attempting to create disturbances, is herewith declared the enemy of
France; his property shall be placed under sequestration, and his
person shall be secured." The Allgemeine Zeitung warns, at the same
time, in its 330th number, all German savants not to give way to
patriotic enthusiasm and to follow in John Müller's footsteps.]

[Footnote 4: Bignon's History of France.]

[Footnote 5: He undertook the chief command with extreme unwillingness
and had long advised against the war, the time not having yet arrived,
Prussia being still adverse, Germany not as yet restored to her
senses, and experience having already proved to him how little he
could act as his judgment directed. How often had he not been made use
of and then suddenly neglected, been restrained, in the midst of his
operations, by secret orders, been permitted to conduct the first or
only the second part of a campaign, been placed in a subaltern
position when the chief command was rightfully his, or been forced to
accept of it when all was irremediably lost. Even on this occasion the
first measure advised by him, that of pushing rapidly through Bohemia
and Franconia, met with opposition. On the Maine and on the Weser
alone was there a hope of inspiring the people with enthusiasm, not in
Bavaria, where the hatred of the Austrians was irradicably rooted. It,
nevertheless, pleased the military advisers of the emperor at Vienna
to order the army to advance slowly through Bavaria.]

[Footnote 6: "None of my soldiers accompany me. You will know how to
value this mark of confidence."--_Napoleon's Address to the Bavarians.
Bölderndorf's Bavarian Campaigns_. "I am alone among you and have not
a Frenchman around my person. This is an unparalleled honor paid by me
to you."--_Napoleon's Address to the Würtemberg troops_. Arndt wrote
at that time:

"By idle words and dastard wiles
Hath he the mastery gained;
He holds our sacred fatherland
In slavery enchained.
Fear hath rendered truth discreet,
And Honor croucheth at his feet.

Is this his work? ah no! 'tis _thine!_
This _thou_ alone hast done.
For him thy banner waved, for him
Thy sword the battle won

By thy disputes he gaineth strength,
By thy disgrace full honor,
And 'neath the German hero's arm
His weakness doth he cover:
Glittering erewhile in borrowed show,
The Gallic cock doth proudly crow."]

[Footnote 7: The states of Würtemberg imparted, among other things,
the following piece of information to the house of Habsburg: "That the
heads of a democratical government should spread principles
destructive to order among its neighbors was easily explicable, but
that Austria should take advantage of the war to derange the internal
mechanism of neighboring states was inexcusable."--_Allgemeine
Zeitung, No. 113_. The Bavarian proclamation (_Allgemeine Zeitung, No.
135_) says, "Princes of the blood royal unblushingly subscribed to
proclamations placing them on an equality with the men of the
Revolution of 1793." The _Moniteur_, Napoleon's Parisian organ, said
in August, 1809, after the conclusion of the war, "The mighty hand of
Napoleon has snatched Germany from the revolutionary abyss about to
engulf her."]

[Footnote 8: Posselt's Political Annals at that time contained an
essay, in which the attempt made by the Austrian cabinet to call the
Germans to arms was designated as a "crime" against the sovereigns
"among whom Germany was at that period partitioned, and in whose
hearing it was both foolish and dangerous to speak of Germany."
Derision has seldom been carried to such a pitch.]

[Footnote 9: The finest feat of arms was that performed by the
Austrian infantry, who repulsed twelve French regiments of
cuirassiers. This picked body of cavalry was mounted on the best and
strongest horses of Holstein and Mecklenburg (for Napoleon overcame
Germany principally by means of Germany), and bore an extremely
imposing appearance. The Austrian infantry coolly stood their charge
and allowed them to come close upon them before firing a shot, when,
taking deliberate aim at the horses, they and their riders were rolled
in confused heaps on the ground. Three thousand cuirasses were picked
up by the victors after the battle.]

[Footnote 10: Napoleon proclaimed independence to the Hungarians, but
was unable to gain a single adherent among them.]

[Footnote 11: Aretin about this time published a "Representation of
the Patriots of Austria to Napoleon the Great," in which that great
sovereign was entreated to bestow a new government upon Austria and to
make that country, like the new kingdom of Westphalia, a member of his
family of states. A fitting pendant to John Müller's state speech, and
so much the more uncalled-for as it was exactly the Austrians who,
during this disastrous period, had, less than any of the other races
of Germany, lost their national pride.]

[Footnote 12: They were afterward condemned to hard labor in the
Hieres Isles, nor was it until 1814 that the survivors, one hundred
and twenty in number, were restored to their homes.--_Allgemeine
Zeitung, 1814. Appendix 91._]

[Footnote 13: Vide Napier's Peninsular War for an account of the
military achievements of the Spaniards.--_Trans._]



CCLVII. Revolt of the Tyrolese


The Alps of the Tyrol had for centuries been the asylum of liberty.
The ancient German communal system had there continued to exist even
in feudal times. Exactly at the time when the house of Habsburg lost
its most valuable possessions in Switzerland, at the time of the
council of Constance, Duke Frederick, surnamed Friedel with the empty
purse, was compelled by necessity and for the sake of retaining the
affection of the Tyrolese, to confirm them by oath in the possession
of great privileges, which his successors, owing to a wholesome dread
of exciting the anger of the sturdy mountaineers, prudently refrained
from violating. The Tyrol was externally independent and was governed
by her own diet. No recruits were levied in that country by the
emperor, excepting those for the rifle corps, which elected its own
commanders and wore the Tyrolean garb. The imposts were few and
trifling in amount, the administration was simple. The free-born
peasant enjoyed his rights in common with the patriarchal nobility and
clergy, who dwelt in harmony with the people; in several of the
valleys the public affairs were administered by simple peasants; each
commune had its peculiar laws and customs.

The first invasion of the Tyrol, in 1703, by the Bavarians, was
successfully resisted. The Bavarians were driven, with great loss on
their side, out of the country. A somewhat similar spirit animated the
Tyrolese in 1805, and their anger was solely appeased by the express
remonstrances of the Archduke John, whom the inhabitants of the
Austrian Tyrol treated with the veneration due to a father. They now
fell under the dominion of Bavaria, whose benevolent sovereign,
Maximilian Joseph, promised, under the act dated the 14th of January,
1806, "not only strongly to uphold the constitution of the country and
the well-earned rights and privileges of the people, but also to
promote their welfare": but, led astray by his, certainly noble,
enthusiasm for the rescue of his Bavarian subjects from Jesuit
obscurantism, he imagined that similar measures might also be
advantageously taken in the Tyrol, where the mountaineers, true to
their ancient simplicity, were revolted by the severity of the cure,
attempted too by a physician of whose intentions they were
mistrustful. Bavaria was overrun with rich monasteries; the Tyrol,
less fertile, possessed merely a patriarchal clergy, less numerous,
more moral and active. There was no motive for interference. The
conscription that, by converting the idle youth of Bavaria into
disciplined soldiery, was a blessing to the martial-spirited and
improvident population, was impracticable amid the well-trained
Tyrolese, and, although the control exercised by a well-regulated
bureaucracy might be beneficial when viewed in contradistinction with
the ancient complicated system of government and administration of
justice during the existence of the division into petty states and the
manifold contradictory privileges, it was utterly uncalled for in the
simple administration of the Tyrol. For what purpose were mere
presumptive ameliorations to be imposed upon a people thoroughly
contented with the laws and customs bequeathed by their ancestors? The
attempt was nevertheless made, and ancient Bavarian official insolence
leagued with French frivolity of the school of Montgelas to vex the
Tyrolese and to violate their most sacred privileges. The numerous
chapels erected for devotional purposes were thrown down amid marks of
ridicule and scorn; the ignorance and superstition of the old church
was at one blow to yield to modern enlightenment.[1] The people
shudderingly beheld the crucifixes and images of saints, so long the
objects of their deepest veneration, sold to Jews. Notwithstanding the
late assurances of the Bavarian king, the Tyrolean diet was, moreover,
not only dissolved, but the country was deprived of its ancient name
and designated "Southern Bavaria," and the castle of the Tyrol, that
had defied the storms of ages, and whose possessor, according to a
sacred popular legend, had alone a right to claim the homage of the
country, was sold by auction. The national pride of the Tyrolese was
deeply and bitterly wounded, their ancient rights and customs were
arbitrarily infringed, and, instead of the great benefits so recently
promised, eight new taxes were levied, and the tax-gatherers not
infrequently rendered themselves still more obnoxious by their
brutality. Colonel Dittfurt, who, during the winter of 1809, acted
with extreme inhumanity in the Fleimserthal, where the conscription
had excited great opposition, and who publicly boasted that with his
regiment alone he would keep the whole of the beggarly mountaineers in
subjection, drew upon himself the greatest share of the popular
animosity.

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