For the Fatherland? The Motivations of Austrian and Prussian Volunteers during the Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars

Abstract

“Leb’ wohl! leb’ wohl! / Mit dumpfen Herzensschlägen”1 these were the opening lines, taken from Theodor Körner’s poem Abschied von Wien, in Carl Ernst Eduard Pfitzner’s diary of his military service in the war of 1815. On 16 June 1815 Napoleon had won what was to be his final military victory. He had returned in triumph from his exile on Elba in March, and, after gathering his forces, struck at the Allies in Belgium. While Marshall Ney held Wellington’s army at Quatre Bras, Napoleon attacked and inflicted a heavy defeat on the Prussian army under General Blücher at Ligny. Four days earlier, Carl Ernst Eduard Pfitzner had begun his journey from Königsberg to Berlin. News of Napoleon’s return had spread quickly in the German states, and Pfitzner, determined to volunteer for the new war against the French, served as a ranger (Jäger) in the Prussian army despatched to France.KeywordsMilitary ServiceGerman StateMilitary LifeRule HouseNationalist SentimentThese keywords were added by machine and not by the authors. This process is experimental and the keywords may be updated as the learning algorithm improves.