Napoleonic Rule in German Central Europe: Compliance and Resistance

Abstract

On 21 November 1808, Hamburger Ferdinand Beneke thought of Spain: ‘The war between Napoleon and Spain has begun; it must destroy Satan's Empire, or God has surely abandoned us. At the Town Hall the excitement on the news from Bayonne is general and widespread; it is our last spark of hope.’ 1 One year later, news of Major Schill's stand against the French captured Beneke's interest. 2 As revealed in his diary, letters and public papers, Beneke openly grieved for the loss of his republic's autonomy and constitution, lamented the decline of commerce, sympathized with smugglers arrested by the douaniers at the city gates, and viewed both Spanish fighters and Schill as heroes battling against a corrupt Empire. In practice, however, he offered no resistance to French authorities in Hamburg until spring 1813. Following the dramatic events of a local uprising, the departure of French forces and the arrival of Russian Cossacks, Beneke volunteered for a local militia and spent the next year in military camps across northern Germany working within the Hanseatic Directory to liberate the Hanseatic cities. Beneke's experiences illustrate the relationship between militarization, compliance and resistance in Napoleon's Empire.KeywordsPolitical CultureMilitary OccupationGerman CentralFrench AuthorityMilitary CampaignThese 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.