Lützovsches Freikorps – Wikipédia

The Lützovian Freikorps is a military unit of volunteers of the Prussian army during the Germany campaign of 1813. This franc body was commanded by Adolf von Lützow.

Uniformes d’fanterie du Lützovsche Freikorps, Par Richard Knötel, 1900.

Cavalerie du Corps Franc Lützow, Par Richard Knötel, 1900.

The Mort of Theodor Körner, The gazebo , 1863.

During the winter of 1812-1813, after the disaster of the Russian campaign for Napoleon, the trend reversed in Prussia, with the end of a forced alliance. Friedrich Ludwig Jahn and Friedrich Friesen, who created in the hiding a club of the German gymnastic movement in Berlin in 1810, called Chancellor Karl August Von Hardenberg to form an army bringing together all the Germans who want to fight against the French emperor. Even before the king entrusted this mission to Gerhard von Scharnhorst then officially in Lützow, Jahn and Friesen already carry out a rally January 29, 1813 in Breslau. They recruit volunteers in the region and prepare to welcome others. The troop was founded in February 1813 under the name of “Königlich Preußisches Freikorps” as a regular force of the Prussian army.

Entering the fight on June 5, 1813 , Lützow only learned about it on the 9th. He is then with 400 infantry and cavalry men in Plauen behind the enemy lines. Instead of sticking to the conditions of the armistice and dissolving in three days, Lützow keeps his men and brings them near Leipzig. More numerous than in the French and Wurtembergeoise Cavalleries commanded by François Fournier-Sarlovèze and Karl von Normann-Ehrenfels, they hide in Kitzen and attack the June 17, 1813 without warning. Part of the Lützow cavalry is slaughtered, the bulk of the infantry escapes. 150 of these volunteers are captured and treated by the French, not as prisoners of war, but as brigands. Although seriously injured, Lützow and Theodor Körner manage to flee ^{[ first ]} . After expeditions in Saxony (in particular Vogtland), Thuringia and Bavaria, the Franc body participated alongside the Cossacks in the Fall 1813 campaign in the Elbe valley and the Bremen. The frank body must however retreat before the French troops of Marshal Davout who still hold in Hamburg. Theodor Körner is killed the August 26, 1813 During a battle in Rosenow in Mecklembourg. Subsequently, the Franc body accompanies the Cossacks in Westphalia, Schleswig, Holstein and in the Rhine valley. Part of the cavalry between the North Army in the Netherlands and in the northeast of France in early 1814. Friedrich Friesen was captured by the French and shot in the Lobbe near Rethel, in the Ardennes, THE 16 mars 1814 .

Mémorial Friedrich Friesen, The gazebo , 1885.

After the first abdication of Napoleon and the occupation of Paris by the coalitions in 1814, non-Prussian volunteers were dismissed and the rest of the franc joined the 25 ^{It is} infantry regiment and 6 ^{It is} Uhlans regiment. When Napoleon returns from exile in mars 1815 , these two regiments are mobilized again. Lützow takes command of the Uhlans regiment during the battle of Ligny the June 16, 1815 , is seriously injured and taken prisoner. The two regiments then participate in the battle of Waterloo.

The franc body recruited volunteers exclusively. In its ranks, we find alongside Prussian citizens of the members of other German states such as the Confederation of the Rhine and the County of Oldenburg who are subject to the French. There are mainly craftsmen and among students’ hunters. The franc body owes its reputation to the poet Theodor Körner who wrote the song Lützows wild hunt On music by Carl Maria von Weber. Joseph von Eichendorff and Friedrich Fröbel are fighting in this army. Likewise, women Éléonore nextka and Anna Lühring (of) participate in it incognito.

The frank body includes around 3,500 men in 1814 distributed as follows:

• The infantry (2,900 men) is divided into three battalions, four musketeer companies and a detachment from hunters.
• The cavalry (600 men) consists of five squadrons, the first three equipped like the Uhlans, the others like the hussars. The second squadron is organized like hunters on horseback.
• Artillery (120 men) A battery of 8 pieces of 6 pounds is organized, it is organized as a battery on horseback.

Rally of BursChenschaft students at Wartburg in 1817

Although the Lützowsche Freikorps has taken part in many skirmishes and battles, the historian Heinrich von Treitschke does not give him great effective importance ^{[ 2 ]} . Indeed, the body knows the largest desertion rate in the Prussian army: 24% in infantry, the average rate being 15.6% ^{[ 3 ]} . Rudolf Ibbeken explains it by the voluntarism of its members who do not have the same consistency as real soldiers ^{[ 4 ]} .

However, the frank body is important in terms of propaganda: volunteers come from all over Germany and give a feeling of unity ^{[ 5 ]} . The celebrity of some of its members and the black of the uniform creates the myth and support of the population. After the victory over Napoleon France, the Lützowsche Freikorps is an icon for supporters of a national unit.

The uniform of the frank body is legendary. After the war, some of its surviving members continue to wear it, such as students from the University of Jena. In 1815, they form the UrbursChenschaft. Veterans created in 1817 the Wartburg Festival ^{[ 6 ]} .

The flag of the frank body, which takes up the colors of the eagle of the Holy Empire, becomes a symbol of the German liberation: “They wanted to get out of the night of slavery (black), by the blood of the fight (red), To reach the golden dawn of freedom (gold) ”. This emblem is adopted by the liberal nationalist students of the German fraternity In 1817, then by the Parliament of Frankfurt during the March Revolution and by the Republic of Weimar in 1918 ^{[ 7 ]} .

• Johann Friedrich Gottfried Eiselen (of) : History of the Lützovian Free Corps. 2nd Edition. Anton, Hall 1841.
• Adolf Brecher: Napoleon I and the raid of the Lützovian Free Corps near Kitzen on June 17, 1813. A contribution to the history of the Wars of Liberation , Gaertner, Berlin 1897
• Werner Hegemann (of) : Excavated story. Hegner, Leipzig 1933, pp. 178–196.
• Günter Jahn: The student era of the Unitist F.L. Jahn and their importance for the pre- and early history of the fraternity 1796–1819 . In: Christian Hünemörder (of) In connection with Günter Cerwinka (ed.): Representations and sources on the history of the German unitary movement in the nineteenth and twentieth century. Published on behalf of the Society for Fraternity Research. Volume 15. Winter, Heidelberg 1995, (ISBN  3-8253-0205-9 ) , Pp. 1–129 (on Jahn’s arrival in Wroclaw in January 1813 see p. 99).

The story of the Lützowsche Freikorps serves as a model for several historical films: