A History of Germany from the Earliest Times to the Present Day

by Bayard Taylor

The Tyrolese, who are still the most Austrian of Austrians, and the most Catholic of Catholics, organized a revolt against the French-Bavarian rule, early in 1809. This was the first purely popular movement in Germany, which had occurred since the revolt of the Austrian peasants against Ferdinand II. nearly two hundred years before. The Tyrolese leaders were Andreas Hofer, a hunter named Speckbacher and a monk named Haspinger; their troops were peasants and mountaineers. The plot was so well organized that the Alps were speedily cleared of the enemy, and on the 13th of April, Hofer captured Innsbruck, which he held for Austria. When the French and Bavarian troops entered the mountain-passes, they were picked off by skilful riflemen or crushed by rocks and trees rolled down upon them. The daring of the Tyrolese produced a stirring effect throughout Austria; for the first time, the people came forward as volunteers, to be enrolled in the army, and the Archduke Karl, in a short time, had a force of 300,000 men at his disposal.

Napoleon returned from Spain at the first news of the impending war. As the Rhine-Bund did not dream of disobedience, as Prussia was crippled, and the sentimental friendship of Alexander I. had not yet grown cold, he raised an army of 180,000 men and entered Bavaria by the 9th of April. The Archduke was not prepared: his large force had been divided and stationed according to a plan which might have been very successful, if Napoleon had been willing to respect it. He lost three battles in succession, the last, at Eckmühl on the 22d of April, obliging him to give up Ratisbon, and retreat into Bohemia. The second Austrian army, which had been victorious over the Viceroy Eugene, in Italy, was instantly recalled, but it was too late: there were only 30,000 men on the southern bank of the Danube, between the French and Vienna.

1809.

The movement in Tyrol was imitated in Prussia by Major Schill, one of the defenders of Colberg in 1807. His heroism had given him great popularity, and he was untiring in his efforts to incite the people to revolt. The secret association of patriotic men, already referred to, which was called the Tugendbund, or "League of Virtue," encouraged him so far as it was able; and when he entered Berlin at the head of four squadrons of hussars, immediately after the news of Hofer's success, he was received with such enthusiasm that he imagined the moment had come for arousing Prussia. Marching out of the city, as if for the usual cavalry exercise, he addressed his troops in a fiery speech, revealed to them his plans and inspired them with equal confidence. With his little band he took Halle, besieged Bernburg, was victorious in a number of small battles against the increasing forces of the French, but at the end of a month was compelled to retreat to Stralsund. The city was stormed, and he fell in resisting the assault; the French captured and shot twelve of his officers. The fame of his exploits helped to fire the German heart; the courage of the people returned, and they began to grow restless and indignant under their shame.

By the 13th of May, Napoleon had entered Vienna and taken up his quarters in the palace of Schönbrunn. The Archduke Karl was at the same time rapidly approaching with an army of 75,000 men, and Napoleon, who had 90,000, hastened to throw a bridge across the Danube, below the city, in order to meet him before he could be reinforced. On the 21st, however, the Archduke began the attack before the whole French army had crossed, and the desperate battle of Aspern followed. After two days of bloody fighting, the French fell back upon the island of Lobau, and their bridge was destroyed. This was Napoleon's first defeat in Germany, but it was dearly purchased: the loss on each side was about 24,000. Napoleon issued flaming bulletins of victory which deceived the German people for a time, meanwhile ordering new troops to be forwarded with all possible haste. He deceived the Archduke by a heavy cannonade, rapidly constructed six bridges further down the river, crossed with his whole army, and on the 6th of July fought the battle of Wagram, which ended with the defeat and retreat of the Austrians.

1809. THE DUKE OF BRUNSWICK'S ATTEMPT.

An armistice followed, and the war was concluded on the 14th of October by the Peace of Vienna. Francis II. was compelled to give up Salzburg and some adjoining territory to Bavaria; Galicia to Russia and the Grand-Duchy of Warsaw; and Carniola, Croatia and Dalmatia with Trieste to the kingdom of Italy,—a total loss of 3,500,000 of population. He further agreed to pay a contribution of eighty-five millions of francs to France, and was persuaded, shortly afterwards, to give the hand of his daughter, Maria Louisa, to Napoleon, who had meanwhile divorced himself from the Empress Josephine. The Tyrolese, who had been encouraged by promises of help from Vienna, refused to believe that they were betrayed and given up. Hofer continued his struggle with success after the conclusion of peace, until near the close of the year, when the French and Bavarians returned in force, and the movement was crushed. He hid for two months among the mountains, then was betrayed by a monk, captured, and carried in chains to Mantua. Here he was tried by a French court-martial and shot on the 20th of February, 1810. Francis II. might have saved his life, but he made no attempt to do it. Thus, in North and South, Schill and Hofer perished, unsustained by their kings; yet their deeds remained, as an inspiration to the whole German people.

During the summer of 1809, the Duke of Brunswick, whose land Napoleon had added to Jerome's kingdom of Westphalia, made a daring attempt to drive the French from Northern Germany. He had joined a small Austrian army, sent to operate in Saxony, and when it was recalled after the battle of Eckmühl, he made a desperate effort to reconquer Brunswick with a force of only 2,000 volunteers. The latter dressed in black, and wore a skull and cross-bones on their caps. The Duke took Halberstadt, reached Brunswick, then cut his way through the German-French forces closing in upon him, and came to the shore of the North Sea, where, it was expected, an English army would land. He and his troops escaped in small vessels: the English, 40,000 strong, landed on the island of Walcheren (on the coast of Belgium), where they lay idle until driven home by sickness.

1810.

For three years after the peace of Vienna, Napoleon was all-powerful in Germany. He was married to Maria Louisa on the 2d of April, 1810; his son, the King of Rome, was born the following March, and Austria, where Metternich was now Minister instead of Count Stadion, followed the policy of France. All Germany accepted the "Continental Blockade," which cut off its commerce with England: the standing armies of Austria and Prussia were reduced to one-fourth of their ordinary strength; the king of Prussia, who had lived for two years in Königsberg, was ordered to return to Berlin, and the French ministers at all the smaller Courts became the practical rulers of the States. In 1810, the kingdom of Holland was taken from Louis Bonaparte and annexed to the French Empire; then Northern Germany, with Bremen, Hamburg and Lübeck, was annexed in like manner, and the same fate was evidently intended for the States of the Rhine-Bund, if the despotic selfishness of Napoleon had not put an end to his marvellous success. The king of Prussia was next compelled to suppress the "League of Virtue": Germany was filled with French spies (many of them native Germans), and every expression of patriotic sentiment was reported as treason to France.