assignment #2 - prince of homburg - military and politics

8/9/2019 Assignment #2 - Prince of Homburg - Military and Politics

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Prodanovic 1

Nevena Prodanovic

THEA 501

Calvin MacLean

September 25, 2014

Assignment #2

Part 1:Prussian Political Affaires in the XVIII Century

It is almost impossible to talk separately about the politics and military of Prussia since in

its core, it was a military state, from its beginnings through the rise and shine of the Prussian

Empire to the period after WW2 when its territories were divided between other German

republics; what was left of it was renamed Brandenburg and became a part of Eastern Germany

controlled by Soviets; finally, in the 1990s, East and West Germany reunified and made todays

Republic of Germany.

As already mentioned above, the entire male population of Prussia was almost without

exception a part of the military forces of the state, as it is mentioned in the article Military system

of Prussia: No man in Prussia is at liberty to enter upon any course of business, to form his

plans for life, or even to marry, until he has been an active soldier at least three years. There

never was a fitter or more effectual school of despotism.

Kleist started his military training at the age of fifteen, shortly afterwards wanting to quit

the army and commit to student life, he also had very low opinion on the service at the time:


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progressed, due to the dependence of the state on the army for its survival, the military

took precedence over every aspect of Prussian life. Recruitment was based upon the

canton system Each regiment was allocated a defined district or canton for

recruitment comprising 5000 households within which all males, from childhood on,were obliged to register on rolls. Literally every peasant was potentially also a soldier.

Every aspect of civil society was assigned a military function. (13)

Despite the fact that Prussia had a disproportionately large army, Frederics idea was not

aggression or expansion, it was his son, Frederic II who opted for the aggressive foreign policy

of expansion which lead Prussia to become one of the most important European forces at the

time. The rising military power of Prussia and the turbulence of the eighteenth century in Europe

brought new enemies to Prussias gates. The end of the eighteenth century in Europe and several

decades after it are marked with Napoleons conquests. Although Prussia had problems with

maintaining alliances and peace with other European forces, our focus should be on its relation

to France. The fall of Prussia to Napoleons forces and loss of the almost half of the territory

after the Battle of Jena in 1806 including all of Napoleons previous conquests throughout

Europe vastly affected young Kleist, which can be perceived from his biography by J. Maass:

His hatred of French was not new. Since 1802, when the machinations of that damned

consul had frustrated Kleists plans to settle in Switzerland, much had happened to

increase his loathing: Ulm, Augsburg, the piratical Peace of Pressburg, the division of

Germany into two hostile camps by the founding of the Confederation of the Rhine, the

final abolition of the Holy Roman Empire, the invasion of Prussia, the battles of Jena and

Auerstedt, his own arrest and deportation, emasculation and partition of Prussia, the

coronation of Jerome Bonaparte in Westphalia - one act of violence and treachery after

another had taught him to regard this tyrant as the evil spirit of the age. At his very first

encounter with the French, those apes of reason in 1801, he had begun to dislike


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heartily their mercurial wit, which struck him as frivolous, their hedonism, which struck

him as immoral, their bureaucracy, of which he was to feel full force five years later,

during his illegal imprisonment at Chalons-sur-Marne. And on to of all that, serving such

a master! Did they not deserve to be destroyed? (174-175)

These were tough times for Prussia. After Kleists death in 1811 more than half of its

territory was taken over by the French army, some of it lost to Russia, the army and the citizens

were in despair. Things started to get better some fifty years later with Bismarcks arrival as a

Prime Minister.

Part 2: The Battle of Fehrbellin

There were two Battles of Fehrbellin throughout the Prussian war history, the one central

to our play that happened in June 1675, after the Thirty Years War (1618-1648) and the other one

that took place in the Fall of the 1758, during the Seven Years War. In both of the battles the

adversaries were the Prussian and the Swedish troops.

As Robert M. Citino says in his article on theRise of German Militarism, that the first

one is one of the most famous (battles) in German history, celebrated as the birthday of the

Prussian army (34). This battle was important, not only because the Prussians defeated the

Swedes and took over Brandenburg, but also because of the way the Great Elector Frederic

William and his commanders led the army into this battle.

It is important to note that Elector risked loosing the entire part of the army that was

helping allies in the West, sent them on the two-weeks March of over 200 miles (330km) to be

able to surprise Swedish troops, which he managed with great success. This type of quick,


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surprising attack that he and his army performed, inspired future WWI and WWII German

campaigns called Blitzkrieg.

In the appendix to this paper there is a very detailed and colorful description of the battle

of Fehrbellin by Robert M. Citino that I would not like to spoil with retelling the story. Proceed

and enjoy!


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Bibliography

Allen, W.F.. Territorial Development of Prussia, The Aldine, Vol. 4, No. 9. September,

1871: pp. 136-137.

Citino, Robert M. The birth of German militarism: the legendary, victorious campaigns

of the Great Elector, Frederic William I. MHQ: The Quarterly Journal of Military History.

Summer 2014:pp. 30+. Academic OneFile. Web. 20 Sept. 2014.

Dwyer, Philip G. Introduction: The rise of Prussia. The Rise of Prussia 1700-1830. Ed.

Dwyer, Philip G. Harlow: Pearson Education Limited, 2000. pp. 1-26. Print.

Hagen, William W. Seventeenth-Century Crisis in Brandenburg: The Thirty Years' War,

The Destabilization of Serfdom, and the Rise of Absolutism. Oxford University Press on behalf of

the American Historical Association.The American Historical Review: Vol. 94, No. 2. April,

1989: pp. 302-335. Web. 20 Sept. 2014.

Maass, Joachim,Kleist: A Biography. Trans. Ralph Manheim. New York, Farrar, Straus

and Giroux, 1983. Print.

Muth, Jrg. Command Culture: Officer Education in the U.S. Army and the German

Armed Forces, 1901-1940, and the Consequences for World War II. Denton: University of North

Texas Press, 2011. Project MUSE. Web. 20. Sep. 2014.

Tuttle, Herbert.History of Prussia to the Accession of Frederic the Great 1134-1740.

Boston, Houghton, 1883. Internet Archive. Web. 20. Sep. 2014.

Military system of Prussia. The Advocate of Peace (1837-1845). Vol. 6, No. 8 (August,

1845) , pp. 89-93. World Affairs Institute. Web. 20. Sep. 2014.
http://www.jstor.org/stable/27888633https://archive.org/details/historyofprussia00tuttuofthttp://muse.jhu.edu/http://www.jstor.org/stable/1866829http://go.galegroup.com/ps/i.do?id=GALE%7CA371284328&v=2.1&u=tel_a_utl&it=r&p=AONE&sw=w&asid=8f33f4c43c0cf9313332177a59510d72http://www.jstor.org/stable/20636100

assignment #2 - prince of homburg - military and politics

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