German War of Brothers

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Advance of the Prussians and battles in 1866

The German War of Brothers (German: Deutscher Bruderkrieg), also known as the Austro-Prussian War, Seven Weeks' War, German Civil War, Brothers War, Fraternal War, and German War (German: Deutscher Krieg), was a war for dominance in the German Confederation between 15 (16 with Lauenburg) German states and Italy led by the Kingdom of Prussia and 14 German states led by the Empire of Austria from 14 June to 22 July 1866.

The term 'Prussian-Austrian' or 'Austro-Prussian War' used in English-speaking countries falls short and does not appreciate the character of what was in real terms an internal German civil war. It took place within the borders of the German Confederation (South and Central Germany, Bohemia and Moravia) as well as in the Kingdom of Hungary, in Northern Italy and in the Adriatic Sea.

After Prussia's victory, Austria had to accept the dissolution of the Confederation. Prussia initially founded the North German Confederation in 1867. Austria tried to re-enter Germany but was refused due to it's unwillingness to split its political territory into the separate Austrian, Hungarian and Galician-Lodomerian ones (Hungary and Galicia were not to be allowed to become 'German'). However, during the Franco-Prussian War of 1870-71, the southern German states joined the North German Confederation. This renamed itself the German Empire in 1871. From this point onwards at the latest, Austria was no longer part of the Reich. In the course of the reorganization of the European alliance system at the Berlin Congress in 1878, the old rivalry with the Dual Alliance was settled.

King Wilhelm, Otto von Bismarck and General of the Infantry von Moltke observed the largest encirclement battle in the history of war near Königgrätz: on 3 July 1866, over 400,000 Austrians (and Saxons) and Prussians faced each other. 1,500 guns were used. With the victory of the Prussian Army over the Austro-Hungarian Imperial and Royal Army k. k. Army, the way opened up for a German unification (North German Confederation) under Prussian leadership, although without the southern German states, especially without the Austrian Empire, the German Confederation had failed as a result of German dualism and only the Lesser German (Kleindeutschland) solution came about.

Belligerents and strength

Battle of Königgrätz
Bavarian Prince Ludwig was hit by a Prussian rifle bullet near Helmstadt during the War of 1866. Seriously wounded and bleeding profusely, he was taken to the first aid station in Waldbrunn. Afterwards we went to Würzburg lying on a wagon in the hay.
Bavaria and Prussia after the German War

Prussian-led coalition

Austrian-led coalition

History

The causes of the war lay in the Austro-Prussian dispute over the leadership role in the German Confederation. This goes back to the Congress of Vienna. The Congress was chaired by Austrian statesman Klemens Wenzel Lothar Fürst von Metternich, and was held from September 1814 to June 1815. Virtually every state in Europe had a delegation in Vienna – more than 200 states and princely houses were represented at the Congress. In addition, there were representatives of cities, corporations, religious organizations (for instance, abbeys) and special interest groups – e.g., a delegation representing German publishers, demanding a copyright law and freedom of the press. Prussia, represented by Karl August Fürst von Hardenberg, overall felt taken advantage of (despite significant gains on land), even though the Prussian Army had to bear by far the greatest burden during the Wars of Liberation. Generalfeldmarschall Gebhard Leberecht von Blücher, the great victor of Waterloo, characterized the negotiations as follows:

“The congress is like a fair in a small town, where everyone drives their cattle to sell and barter them.”

At the time of the German Confederation, the Austrian ambassador presided over the Bundestag. Therefore, Austria was called the “presidential power”, which essentially only meant an executive role in the Bundestag. Prussia ultimately complained that Austria would continue to hold the presidency of the leading federal body: in Prussia's view, both great powers should take turns (Alternat). Prussia also demanded a parliament elected by the people; This was interpreted by the skeptical national movement as a non-serious pretext to prevent reform. Because of Prussia's resistance, the other states did not dare to continue on this path of reform. They feared that they would be at the mercy of Austrian superiority in a Germany without Prussia.

In 1849, the National Assembly in Frankfurt elected the Prussian king as the Emperor of a Lesser Germany (a Germany without Austria). The king refused and tried to unite Germany with the Erfurt Union of 1849–1850. When the union parliament met in early 1850 to discuss the constitution, the participating states were mainly only those in Northern and Central Germany. Austria and the southern German states Württemberg and Bavaria forced Prussia to give up its union plans in late 1850. In April and June 1866, Prussia proposed a Lesser Germany again. A corner stone of the proposal was the election of a German parliament based on universal male suffrage. The proposal explicitly mentioned the Frankfurt election law of 1849. Austria and its allies refused the proposal.

The pretext for the war, which would become the climax and "last straw" of "German dualism" or "German fratricidal struggle" (German: Deutscher Dualismus) between the two most influential German powers since the last phase of the Holy Roman Empire of the German Nation, was the dispute over the administration of Schleswig and Holstein after the end of the German-Danish War of 1864. The Prussian Prime Minister Otto von Bismarck tried several times to reach a compromise with Austria, but ultimately he steered Prussia towards confrontation with Austria and, if necessary, the other states. The Austrian Emperor Franz Joseph I, in turn, was unimpressed, considered von Bismarck's position in Prussia to be weak and assessed his own military power as insurmountable.

The prospects for a war were also very favorable for Prussia in 1866, because Austria was in a serious financial crisis and France declared its neutrality in the event of a German fratricidal war. Otto von Bismarck had also made a pact with Italy, who desired Austrian-controlled Venetia. Italy's entry into the war forced the Austrians to divide their forces. On 8 April 1866, Prussia and Italy concluded a three-month secret offensive alliance against Austria, through which Prussia, among other things, violated Article III in conjunction with Article II of the German Federal Act.

In order to resolve the dispute, Austria turned to the Bundestag of the German Confederation on 1 June 1866 and requested that the State Parliament of Holstein be convened. Although Holstein was under Austrian administration, Austria tolerated the secondary government of Duke Friedrich VIII of Schleswig-Holstein, to Prussia's chagrin.

Prussia viewed this action as a breach of the Gastein Convention, in which Prussia and Austria had divided their spheres of influence in Schleswig-Holstein in 1865 and determined their policies. On 9 June 1866, Prussian troops marched into Holstein, whereupon Austria requested the Bundestag to mobilize federal troops for the purpose of a federal execution. It remained unclear whether Prussia should really be forced militarily to comply with federal obligations. On 14 June 1866, the Bundestag approved the motion with nine votes to six. Austria obtained a federal resolution from the Bundestag on the mobilization of the federal army against Prussia. Prussia declared that this was a breach of the federal constitution and declared the German Confederation dissolved.

The decisive battle against was finally won by the united Prussian armies on 3 July 1866 in the Battle of Königgrätz (Schlacht bei Königgrätz) in Bohemia under the personal leadership of King Wilhelm of Prussia. Wilhelm wanted to march on to Vienna and annex Austria, but was dissuaded from doing so by von Bismarck (once again threatening to resign or jump off the window at Nikolsburg) and his son Crown Prince Friedrich, who was appalled by the casualties. Prussia annexed several of Austria's allies north of the Main, as well as Schleswig-Holstein.

Battles

Battles, excluding the Italian Campiagn (Custoza, Trentino, Lake Garda, Valtellina, Vezza d'Oglio, Lissa,[1] Bezzecca, and Versa) from from 20 June to 12 August 1866 (Veneta, Friuli and Mantua were annexed by Italy). Prussian coalition victories in green:

Battle Date Result
Battle of Hühnerwasser 26 June 1866 Victory
Battle of Podol 26–27 June 1866 Victory
Battle of Trautenau (de) 27–28 June 1866; It was the only victorious, albeit costly, battle of the Austro-Hungarian k. k. Army (four brigades) with around 25,000 men against the Prussian Army with around 15,000 men in the campaign of 1866, when the 10th Austrian Corps under Ludwig Karl Wilhelm Freiherr von Gablenz threw back the 1st Prussian Corps under Adolf Albert Ferdinand Karl Friedrich von Bonin. Loss
Battle of Nachod 27 June 1866 Victory
Battle of Langensalza (de) 27 June 1866; In this theater of war, Prussia and its North German ally Saxe-Coburg and Gotha faced the Kingdom of Hanover, which was now isolated in terms of foreign policy. The Hanoverian army had achieved success, but this did little to change the overall unfavorable situation. Because of the exhaustion of the soldiers (not least as a result of the extreme heat that prevailed that day) and the shortage of ammunition, the victorious army could no longer pursue and possibly finally destroy the badly battered Prussian force – as King George V had suggested. Upon hearing the news of the defeat, the top Prussian Army command (King Wilhelm I, General von Moltke) ordered the Hanoverian army to be vigorously attacked from all sides and thereby forced to surrender. By the following day the army was largely surrounded. Loss
Battle of Skalitz 28 June 1866 Victory
Battle of Münchengrätz 28 June 1866 Victory
Battle of Gitschin 29 June 1866 Victory
Battle of Königinhof 29 June 1866 Victory
Battle of Schweinschädel 29 June 1866 Victory
Battle of Königgrätz (de) 3 July 1866; The campaign began with General Herwarth von Bittenfeld's advance to Dresden in the Kingdom of Saxony, where he easily defeated the Saxon army of 23,000 and joined with the First Army. Prussian forces, totaling around 285,000 troops, used their superior training and tactical doctrine and the Dreyse needle gun to win the battle and the entire war at Königgrätz on their own. Prussian artillery was ineffective and almost all of the fighting on the Prussian side was done by the First Army under Prince Friedrich Karl and one division from the Second Army. The Prussian 7th Infantry Division and 1st Guards Infantry Division attacked and destroyed 38 out of 49 infantry battalions of four Austrian corps at the Swiepwald and Chlum at the centre of the battlefield, deciding the outcome of the struggle and forcing an Austrian retreat at 15:00, before any Prussian reinforcements could even seriously engage the Austrian flanks. Victory
Battle of Dermbach (de) 4 July 1866; The Prussian 13th Division under Lieutenant General August Karl von Goeben faced parts of the 3rd and 4th Infantry Divisions of the Bavarian Army under Lieutenant Generals Zoller and Hartmann. The fight on the two battlefields did not result in a clear winner. The Prussian armed forces had achieved limited success by occupying Wiesenthal, Nebelberg and Zella, but were unable to force the Bavarians to retreat in general. Under the impression of the heavy defeat of the allied Austrians on 3 July 1866 in the Battle of Königgrätz, the Bavarian army command decided to retreat from Thuringia to Bavaria, because now the defense of Bavarian territory had to be a priority. Victory
Battle of Kissingen (de) 10 July 1866; While the majority of the Prussian armies marched to Bohemia, where they defeated the Austrian and Saxon troops on 3 July at Königgrätz (Sadova), the Prussian western army first moved into the Kingdom of Hanover. After the surrender of Hanover on June 29 these troops were grouped under the name Mainarmee (German for: Army of the river Main) and pushed southward towards the river Main against the allies of Austria in southern Germany. The Bavarian troops, who formed the VIIth Federal Corps of the German Confederation, withdrew after several lost battles to Kissingen. There they wanted to prevent the Prussians from crossing the river Franconian Saale, but would fail, although the Prussians had far higer casualties. After Kissingen was lost, the Bavarian troops at Friedrichshall and Hausen, which meanwhile also had been taken by the Prussians, got the order to withdraw to Nüdlingen. Under the cover of darkness, the Bavarians marched back to Münnerstadt. At Hammelburg the Bavarians were defeated too. Prussian artillery fire, which caused heavy devastation in the town, forced the Bavarian troops to leave the town and retreat to Arnstein. Victory
Battle of Frohnhofen 13 July 1866 Victory
Battle of Aschaffenburg 14 July 1866 Victory
Battle of Blumenau 22 July 1866 Victory
Battle of Hundheim 23 July 1866 Victory
Battle of Tauberbischofsheim 24 July 1866 Victory
Battle of Werbach 24 July 1866 Victory
Battle of Gerchsheim 25 July 1866; 16,000 soldiers of Prussia and Oldenburg clashed against 26,000 soldiers of Austria, Baden, Württemberg, Hesse-Darmstadt and Nassau with minor casualites. The Goeben division began the advance on the road to Würzburg at 1 p.m. , with the 25th Infantry Brigade under Major General von Kummer forming the avant-garde, followed by the Oldenburg-Hanseatic Brigade Weltzien and the Reserve Brigade under Major General von Tresckow. The 26th Infantry Brigade under Major General von Wrangel covered the right flank during the march. In the meantime, Prince Alexander had received news of the Bavarian defeat at Helmstadt and retreating parts of the Bavarian army began to block the retreat routes of the VIII Corps, which were also endangered by the Wrangel Brigade. The Hessian division and the 2nd brigade of the Württemberger were supposed to cover the withdrawal of the VIII Corps. This retreat was orderly at the beginning, but it degenerated into chaos in the forest, which, however, was not noticed by the Prussians and therefore not exploited. Victory
Battle of Helmstadt 25 July 1866 Victory
Battle of Roßbrunn 26 July 1866; On the plateau between Tauber and Main, the federal troops were pushed back again on 25 and 26 July in a series of individual, long, back-and-forth battles around Uettingen, Helmstadt and Roßbrunn. After the Prussian bombardment of the Bavarian troops in the Marienberg Fortress near Würzburg the next day, a local ceasefire came about, which was followed by the general ceasefire on 2 August 1866. Victory

Casualties and losses

King Wilhelm and Otto von Bismarck
The Royal Italian troops suffered a heavy defeat against the Imperial Austrians near Custozza on 24 June 1866[2]
Awards and decorations of the War of 1866:
1) Prussian Medal of Honor for the military participants in the Main Campaign in 1866
2) Prussian Medal of Honor for the non-combatant participants in the War of 1866
3) Bavarian Commemorative Cross for civilian doctors 1866
4) Bavarian Order of Merit of St. Michael, Knight 1st Class (miniature)
5) Bavarian Military Medical Medal of Honor in Silver
6) Bavarian Military Order of Merit, Knight 2nd Class
7) Bavarian Military Merit Cross
8) Bavarian Army Memorial Medal 1866
9) Principality of Lippe-Detmold: Commemorative Medal for participants in the Campaign of 1866
10) Prussian Red Eagle Order, IV Class without Swords
11) Bavarian Civil Merit Medal in Silver
12) Bavarian Military Merit Medal ("Medal of Bravery") in Silver
13) Bavarian Military Merit Medal ("Medal of Bravery" ) in Gold

Exact numbers are contradictory, but the result is largely known. The armed forces of Prussia, Italy and their allies suffered a total of around 37,000 to 44,000 dead and wounded (dependinmg on the source), significantly fewer than their opponents. in Heinrich Blankenburg's Der deutsche Krieg von 1866 (Leipzig 1868) some exact numbers are recorded:[3]

  • Bavaria: 337 ⚔, 1,961 wounded and 1,530 missing
  • Saxony: 265 ⚔, 1,912 wounded and missing[4]
  • Württemberg: 66 ⚔, 500 wounded
  • Hessen-Darmstadt: 128 ⚔, 437 wounded, 57 missing
  • Nassau: 5 ⚔, 19 wounded, 7 missing
  • Baden: 21 ⚔, 116 wounded, 58 missing
  • Prussia (status July 1867): 10,877 ⚔, 16,177 wounded, 785 missing

M. Clodfelter's Warfare and Armed Conflicts: A Statistical Encyclopedia of Casualty and Other Figures (Jefferson, North Carolina, 2017) shows newer, significantly different numbers:

  • Kingdom of Prussia: 40,000
    • 11,765 battle deaths ⚔
    • c. 7,000 disease deaths
    • c. 25,000 wounded
    • c. 1,100 missing
    • 910 captured
  • Kingdom of Italy: 11,197
    • 2,314 battle deaths ⚔
    • c. 4,500 wounded
    • 553 missing
    • c. 5,000 captured
  • Austrian Empire: 106,796
    • 24,431 battle deaths ⚔
    • 19,134 disease deaths
    • c. 40,000 wounded
    • 12,365 missing
    • c. 40,000 captured
  • Kingdom of Hanover : c. 25,000
    • 3,456 battle deaths ⚔
    • c. 5,500 wounded
    • 16,263 captured or missing
  • Kingdom of Bavaria: c. 20,000
    • 5,500 battle deaths ⚔
    • c. 1,200 wounded
    • 1,397 captured or missing
  • Kingdom of Saxony: 7,000
    • 1,341 battle deaths ⚔
    • 4,678 wounded
    • 580 captured or missing
  • Grand Duchy of Hesse: 3,500
    • 767 battle deaths ⚔
    • 2,321 wounded
    • 546 captured or missing
    • Kingdom of Württemberg: 2,300
    • 452 battle deaths ⚔
    • 1,679 wounded
    • 198 captured or missing
  • Baden: 500
    • 112 battle deaths ⚔
    • c. 300 wounded
    • 57 captured or missing

Peace of Prague (1866)

The Peace of Prague (German: Prager Frieden) was signed by the Kingdom of Prussia and the Austrian Empire at Prague on 23 August 1866. In combination with the treaties of Prussia and several south and central German states it effectively ended the German War of Brothers. The treaty was lenient toward the Austrian Empire because Otto von Bismarck had persuaded Wilhelm I that maintaining Austria's place in Europe would be better than harsh terms for the future for Prussia.

The agreements made in the preliminary peace treaty of Nikolsburg on 26 July 1866 to exclude Austria from the German world as well as its reorganization by Prussia and its sole rights to the duchies of Schleswig and Holstein were confirmed. Meanwhile, the southern German states of Württemberg on 13 August, Baden on 17 August and Bavaria on 22 August had joined the Treaty of Nikolsburg as part of peace treaties with Prussia.

Prussia agreed to allow the Kingdom of Saxony's territorial holdings to remain as they were. The Habsburg Monarchy did not have to cede any land in the Peace of Prague, and the amount of reparations was low at 20 million thalers. Von Bismarck wanted to reconcile with Austria in the medium term. In addition, a quick peace agreement was important to ward off French interference or a European peace congress. The German Confederation was abolished. The North German Confederation had been formed as a military alliance five days prior to the Peace of Prague, with the north German states joining together. The Southern German states outside the Confederation were required to pay large indemnities to Prussia.

Austria's appeal to its allies in 1866 for its own German confederation was unsuccessful. Article 4 gained importance again in 1870. Austria, as a contracting partner, could have objected to the southern states joining the North German Confederation. Chancellor Beust also made attempts in this direction, but was unable to gain the Russian Empire's support. Isolated in foreign policy, Austria decided to take a positive stance. With a note dated 25 December 1870, Austria agreed to the founding of the German Empire.

Further reading

References

  1. ↑ The Battle of Lissa (or Battle of Vis) took place on 20 July 1866 in the Adriatic Sea near the Dalmatian island of Vis and was a significant victory for an Austrian Empire force of the k. u. k. Kriegsmarine under Wilhelm von Tegetthoff over a numerically superior Italian force. It was the first major sea battle between ironclads and one of the last to involve deliberate ramming. The Italian navy fired roughly 1,450 shots during the engagement but failed to sink any Austrian ship and lost two ironclads.
  2. ↑ Der letzte große Triumph Österreichs über Italien
  3. ↑ Verlustliste 1866
  4. ↑ Der Krieg von 1866 und wie ihn die Grimmaer erlebten
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