The German wars of liberation 1807–1815: The restrained insurgency

Abstract

In the Age of Napoleon, ‘small wars’ and ‘revolutionary war’ were closely connected. There were, however, different strands of this phenomenon: speaking professionally, conservative officers condemned small wars as an irregular regression to previous less disciplined forms of warfare. The Prussian state continually tried to discipline and regulate spontaneous risings. Yet the irregular character of small wars offered the opportunities for a less complex way of fighting, thus enabling the arming of the ‘people’ to fight. Individual undertakings, such as Ferdinand von Schill's doomed campaign in 1809, were designed to spark off a general popular uprising. But they were cheered by many and supported by few. Meanwhile, Neidhardt von Gneisenau conceived guerrilla-style Landsturm home-defence forces, which were designed for an irregular people's war. These concepts were put into practice in the ‘war of freedom’ – or ‘war of liberation’ – in 1813. Eventually both the mobilisation and the tactics remained regular, however, despite the emphatic appeal to a national ‘people's war’.

Keywords::

• Germany
• guerrilla (warfare)
• insurgency
• Landwehr (provincial militia)
• Landsturm (home defence)
• little war
• militia
• Napoleon (age of)
• Prussia
• revolutionary war
• small wars
• War of the Sixth Coalition

Notes

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^3. Rink, ‘Preußisch-deutsche Konzeptionen’. See also Heuser, ‘Small Wars in the Age of Clausewitz’.

^4. Jessen, Preußens Napoleon?, 203–59.

^5. Hahlweg, Preußische Reformzeit, 7–8.

^6. Kunisch, Der kleine Krieg, 7.

^7. Rink, ‘The Partisan's Metamorphosis’; Vom Partheygänger; ‘Der kleine Krieg’, 356–7.

^8. Luh, Der Große.

^9. Grandmaison, La Petite Guerre, 2.

^10. Satterfield, Princes, Posts and Partisans; Tóth, ‘Régularité et irrégularité’; Picaud-Monnerat, ‘La guerre de partis’; La Petite guerre, 122–30.

^11. Picaud-Monnerat, ‘Partisan Warfare, War in Detachments’, 317–24; Rink, ‘Der kleine Krieg’, 383–4.

^12. Scharnhorst, Handbuch für Offiziere; Militairisches Taschenbuch.

^13. Höhn, Revolution–Heer–Kriegsbild, 233–366.

^14. Emmerich, Der Partheygänger; Ewald, Dienst der leichten Truppen; Valentini, Abhandlung; La Roche Aymon, Ueber den Dienst der leichten Truppen; Schels, Leichte Truppen; Decker, Der kleine Krieg, 1828.

^15. Voß, Der kleine Krieg, iii.

^16. Rink. Partheygänger, 241–5.

^17. Rink. ‘The Partisan's Metamorphosis’, 30; Coutau-Bégarie, ‘Guerres irrégulières’, 47.

^18. Schiller, Friedrich. Die Räuber, Act 1, Scene 2. http://gutenberg.spiegel.de/buch/3339/1.

^19. Möller, Fürstenstaat, 452–66; Echternkamp, Der Aufstieg, 149–59.

^20. See the contribution of Beatrice Heuser below.

^21. Sikora, ‘Scharnhorst’.

^22. Rink, ‘Graf Wilhelm von Schaumburg-Lippe’.

^23. Scharnhorst, Taschenbuch; cf. Frederick II's own instructions, Des Königs von Preussen.

^24. Rink, Partheygänger, 221–41; Jessen, Preußens Napoleon?, 11f.

^25. Berenhorst, Betrachtungen, 2nd ed. 2: 326–9; Jessen, Preußens Napoleon?, 216–18.

^26. On the tirailleurs' enthusiasm as a factor of combat effectiveness according to the spirit of the national-socialist era: Höhn. Revolution, 244–5. Very critical: Mönch, ‘Rokokostrategen’, 87–95.

^27. Scheipers, ‘Status and Protection of Prisoners of War’.

^28. Planert, Mythos vom Befreiungskrieg, 386–404.

^29. Hahlweg. Preußische Reformzeit, 58–60.

^30. Forrest, ‘The Ubiquitous Brigand’; Boycott-Brown, ‘Guerrilla Warfare’.

^31. Planert. Mythos vom Befreiungskrieg, 424–37; Heitzer, Insurrectionen,122–7.

^32. [Cölln]. ‘Briefe’, 94.

^33. Rink, ‘Ein Patriot und Partisan’; Bock, Schills Rebellenzug, 46.

^34. On the German reporting of the Peninsular War, see Wohlfeil, Spanien, 19–39, 102–63; Esdaile, The Peninsular War, 37–86, 295–308.

^35. Broers, Napoleon's Other War; Reynaud, Contre-guerilla; Lepetit, ‘Soumettre les arrières de l'armée’.

^36. Wohlfeil. Spanien, 102–63.

^37. Rößler, Graf Stadion, 1: 293.

^38. Botzenhart and Hubatsch, Freiherr vom Stein, 2: 808–12; Ibbeken, Preußen 1807–1813, 34–5; Duchhardt, Stein, 224–5.

^39. Kunisch et al., Scharnhorst, 5: 434–42, 665–78.

^40. Spanish manifestos in Wohlfeil, Spanien, 299–317. Gneisenau's 1808 memorandum in Thimme, ‘Zu den Erhebungsplänen’; Clausewitz, ‘Bekenntnisschrift von 1812’.

^41. Schmidt, Erinnerungen, 1: 123.

^42. Stamm-Kuhlmann, König in Preußens großer Zeit, 308, 332.

^43. Veltzke, ‘Zwischen König und Vaterland’.

^44. Bärsch, Ferdinand v. Schill's Zug, 1–38, 218–20 (FN 38).

^45. Binder von Krieglstein, Ferdinand von Schill, 147–55; Bärsch, Ferdinand v. Schill's Zug, 56.

^46. Bärsch, Ferdinand v. Schill's Zug, 73–115; Binder von Krieglstein, Ferdinand von Schill, 160–99.

^47. Zimmermann, Der Schwarze Herzog.

^48. Memorandum of 8 August 1811 printed in Pertz, Leben des Gneisenau, 2: 106–42.

^49. Ibbeken, Preußen, 108–11; Stamm-Kuhlmann, Friedrich Wilhelm III, 274.

^50. Esdaile, Fighting Napoleon, 82–8, 130–59; Fraser, Napoleon's Cursed War, 338–9; Martínez Laínez, Como lobos hambrientos, 83–95.

^51. Clark, Preußen, 400–5.

^52. Aschmann, Preußens Ruhm, 230–60.

^53. ‘An Mein Volk’ and ‘An Mein Kriegsheer’, Schlesische privilegierte Zeitung, 20 March 1813. Drafts in: Geheimes Staatsarchiv Preußischer Kulturbesitz, Rep 92, N 45, No. 2, fol. 2–4. Discussed in Rink, Partheygänger, 322–3; Aschmann, Preußens Ruhm, 276–80.

^54. Bald, ‘Wehrpflicht’.

^55. Decrees printed in Frauenholz, Entwicklungsgeschichte, 5: 141–57.

^56. Decrees in Frauenholz, Entwicklungsgeschichte, 161–75. Further: Rink, Partheygänger, 323–36; Langendorf, ‘Landwehr et Landsturm’.

^57. Friederich, Die Befreiungskriege, 1: 122f.; Ibbeken, Preußen, 398f.

^58. Nitschke, Die Preußischen Militärreformen, 184–6.

^59. Rink, Partheygänger, 329f.

^60. 60 Pertz, Leben des Gneisenau, 2: 106–42.

^61. Aschmann, Preußens Ruhm, 280–3.

^62. Arndt, Katechismus, 14.

^63. Körner, ‘Männer und Buben’. On the ‘male’ coding of conscription, see Hagemann, Männlicher Muth, 271–350.

^64. Walter, Preußische Heeresreformen, 235–469.

^65. Heuser. ‘Small Wars in the Age of Clausewitz’

^66. Rotteck, Ueber Stehende Heere und Nationalmiliz, IIIf.; Conversations-Lexikon, 9: 208–15.

^67. Rink, ‘The Partisan's Metamorphosis’; “Preußisch-deutsche Konzeptionen”.