Ferdinand von Schill

Ferdinand Baptista von Schill
Ferdinand von Schill
Born	(1776-01-06)6 January 1776 Wilmsdorf /Bannewitz,Saxony
Died	31 May 1809(1809-05-31)(aged 33) Stralsund,Swedish Pomerania
Allegiance	Prussia
Service/branch	Prussian Army
Years of service	1788/90–1809
Rank	Major
Commands held	Freikorps Schill
Battles/wars	Napoleonic Wars Siege of Kolberg Battle of Stralsund†

Ferdinand Baptista von Schill(6 January 1776 – 31 May 1809) was aPrussianmajorwho revolted unsuccessfully againstFrenchdomination of Prussia in May 1809.

Schill's rebellion ended at theBattle of Stralsund,a battle which also saw Schill's own death in action. Outnumbered 3 to 1, Schill's Prussian forces succumbed to aNapoleonicforce supported by Dutch and Danish auxiliaries.

Life

Schill was born at Wilmsdorf (now a part ofBannewitz,Saxony) and entered thePrussian Army'scavalryat the age of twelve or fourteen (sources differ).His father, Johann-Georg Schill, had been an ambitious commoner fromBohemia,who attained the aristocratic "von" for his services toAustriaand Saxony during theSeven Years' War.J.-G. von Schill had raised a "Freikorps",a small raiding party of cavalry and mounted infantry, operating behind enemy lines, and acquired some measure of fame and success. Many of Ferdinand von Schill's later biographers assumed that his father's example was an important influence on his subsequent career.

Ferdinand von Schill was a second-lieutenant ofdragoonswhen he was wounded at thebattle of Auerstadt.From that field he escaped toKolberg,where he played a very prominent part in the celebratedsiege of 1806–07,as the commander of a Freikorps, raiding behind the French lines. After theTreaty of Tilsit,he was promoted tomajor,awarded thePour le Mérite,and given the command of ahussarregiment formed primarily from his Kolberg men.

Schill's revolution

In 1809 the political situation in Europe appeared to Schill to favor an attempt to liberate Germany from the French domination ofNapoleon Bonaparte.He was an active member of theTugendbund,the quasi-Masonic "League of Virtue" founded in June 1808, and including many notable Prussian reformers such asGerhard von ScharnhorstandAugust Neidhardt von Gneisenau.It was banned in 1809.Many Tugendbund leaders believed that the newKingdom of Westphalia,created byNapoleonfrom many smaller German states, and ruled by Napoleon's youngest brotherJérôme Bonaparte,was ripe for revolution. Schill planned to create an uprising in Westphalia that would topple the Bonaparte regime there, and – coupled with the efforts of Austria, Spain, and Britain – would bring about the fall of Napoleonic dominance in Germany.

Leading out his regiment from Berlin under pretext of manoeuvres, he raised the standard of revolt, and, joined by many officers and a company oflight infantry,marched first south through Saxony, and then north-west into Westphalia. At the village ofDodendorfon 5 May 1809, he had a brush with theMagdeburggarrison and won a small victory.Schill had no difficulty defeating, or even recruiting, the unreliable Westphalian troops sent against him, and his rebellion swelled to over 2,000 men.

He had less success, however, with the gatheringDanishandDutchforces, which gradually drove him in a north-east direction toward theBaltic Sea.His most serious difficulty was the condemnation of Prussia's kingFrederick William III,who feared that the revolt would drag a weakened and unprepared Prussia into another disastrous war against Napoleon. By the end of May, although he had left garrisons and raiding parties in various places, Schill's main force was trapped atStralsund.He had between 1,500 and 2,000 men, against a force of 8,000DanishandDutchtroops under French command.

Ferdinand von Schill's death mask,Deutsches Historisches Museum Berlin

Ferdinand von Schill – Monument inStralsund

Liberation fails

Further information:Battle of Stralsund (1809)

On 31 May the Napoleonic forces stormed Stralsund. Schill was killed in the street fighting as his defenses collapsed. Over a thousand of his rebels escaped to Prussia, overland or by ship, where the officers were tried bycourt-martial,cashieredand imprisoned(although all were subsequently pardoned). Some smaller parties of rebels including his two brothers escaped to Sweden, and ultimately Austria and Britain, but the rest were either killed or taken. The French commander counted 570 prisoners, the majority of whom were then sent to the galleys. About 100 rebels who had been Westphalian deserters were separated and taken toBrunswick,where 14 of them were ultimately executed.

Schill's body was decapitated. The corpse was dumped in an unmarked grave in Stralsund. The head was sent toJerome Bonaparteas a trophy, but he gave it to a Dutch surgeon who collected oddities, and it remained at theUniversity of Leidenuntil 1837, when German patriots obtained it for the dedication of a Schill monument in Brunswick.

Schill's Eleven Officers

Eleven of Schill's officers were taken as a group to several different cities before their fate was sealed by Napoleon's orders. Eventually they were taken to the fortress ofWeselwhere they were given a show trial and executed on 16 September. The young group became tragic heroes and martyrs, and their appearance brought out crowds in every German-speaking town and city they went through. A dramatic letter-writing campaign led by Philippine von Griesheim, the fiancé of one of the eleven officers, Albrecht von Wedell, and appeals to the Prussian King Frederick William III by the eleven asking to die by a Prussian firing squad instead of at the 'hands of the enemy' helped create a legend that would become part of the propaganda encouraging the German liberation movement of 1813 leading to Prussia's restoration of independence.

One other close comrade of Schill's escaped execution and became known as 'The Twelfth'. Lieutenant Heinrich von Wedell had served with Schill as far back as the Siege of Kolberg. He was badly wounded at the battle of Dodendort and had to remain behind there. He was captured and interrogated by the French. Heinrich managed to convince the French that he had participated against his will and so he was sent to France, physically branded a criminal, and served eight months on a prison ship and then hard labor in a prison quarry before eventually being released in early 1812 in anticipation of the impending war with Russia. He was the cousin of Carl and Albrecht von Wedell who were among the eleven Schill officers executed atWesel.

Another of Schill's officers, the Swede Friedrich-Gustave Peterson was executed by firing squad in Stralsund.

Legacy

By the 1830s Schill was widely considered a hero throughout Germany. Monuments and historical markers to him or to his rebels have been erected in towns and cities:Wesel,Stralsund,Braunschweig,Wilmersdorf,Potsdam,Ohlau,Cottbus,Anklam,Geldern,andWittenberg.

Military units were named after him (most notably the last division fielded by theWehrmachtduringWorld War II,theInfantry Division Ferdinand von Schillof late April 1945), streets and plazas bear his name to this day. Over 400 biographies, novels, plays, operas, and collections of poetry have been published about him in German, and he is featured in over a dozen German films includingRudolf Meinert's 1926 silent filmThe Eleven Schill Officersand his1932 sound remake.

References

Sources

• Haken,Ferdinand von Schill(Leipzig, 1824)
• Barsch,Ferdinand von Schills Zug und Tod(Leipzig, 1860)
• Binder von Krieglstein,Ferdinand von Schill: Ein Lebensbild(Berlin, 1902)
• Sam Mustafa,The Long Ride of Major von Schill(Rowman & Littlefield, 2008)
• This article incorporates text from a publication now in thepublic domain:Chisholm, Hugh,ed. (1911). "Schill, Ferdinand Baptista von".Encyclopædia Britannica.Vol. 24 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. pp. 323–324.