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Battle of  Austerlitz (detail)                                                                                                                                                 

French Era (1789-1815)

World

1789-1796, USA 
George Washington 1st  President

1789-1793, France

The French Revolution  shattered Europe's monarchies. When the Royal Family made an attempt to escape and Prussian and Austrian troops marched against Paris, the Jacobins got the upper hand and proclaimed the republic. King Louis XVI and Queen Marie Antoinette, youngest daughter of Maria Theresia, were found guilty and executed in 1793.

The French troops had stopped the first march on Paris and stroke back. The Revolutionary Government introduced mass conscription (in French: levée en masse), and the mercenary armies of Prussia and Austria were confronted by a  people's army of men who fought for their country and the ideas of the revolution. Their war song, the Marseillaise, has become  the national anthem of France. 

1794, Rhineland 

French troops occupied the left bank of the Rhine river. Bonn fell on October 6, 1794. De facto, the Rhine was now the border between the Revolutionary France and the Holy Roman Empire, although it was not recognized as such yet. 

In the meantime, Russia, Austria and Prussia had divided Poland among themselves for a second (1793) and third (1795) time, and Prussia  under King Friedrich Willhelm II (Frederick William II, 1786-1797) had annexed large territories. To concentrate on his new territories in the East, the King negotiated peace with France. As soon as compensation for lost Prussian territories on the left bank of the Rhine (Cleves) was guaranteed, the Peace of Basel was concluded, and Prussia quit the coalition against Revolutionary France for more than a decade. 

1795, Rhineland 

Already in n the same year, French troops crossed the Rhine to fight against the imperial Austrian troops. Soldiers of both armies marched through our region,  and the imperial troops needed quarters and food.

1797, Europe

One of the extremely capable revolutionary generals was Napoleon Bonaparte. For years, Austria, Prussia and Russia  were not match for him.  Napoleon defeated the Austrians in Italy. In the Treaty of Campo Formio of October 17, 1797, Holy Roman Emperor Francis II (in German: Franz) had to cede Habsburg territories to France. Moreover, he had to formally acknowledge the Rhine river as frontier between France and the  Empire; the occupied left bank became French territory. 

1799, France

Napoleon seized power in his coup d'état of November 9, 1799.

1800, England/Ireland 
Act of Union between England and Ireland

 1801-1809, USA 
Thomas Jefferson
3rd President

1804, France
Napoleon
 crowns himself Emperor

1807, England 
Abolition of
Slave Trrade

 1809-1817, USA 
James Madison
4th President

1801

Four years later, on February 8, 1801, the treaty of Lunéville was concluded; it confirmed the annexation of the left bank by France and obliged the Holy Roman Empire to compensate those princes who had lost territories there.

On February 23, 1803,  the Reichstag (Imperial Diet) passed a resolution on how to settle the compensations, referred to as the "Reichsdeputationshauptschluss" (in English: Principal Conclusion of the Extraordinary Imperial Delegation).  Ecclesiastical states would be  secularized and given to other, usually neighboring secular principalities. In other words: most of the bishops and archbishops were dispossessed. Moreover, almost all small states lost their sovereignty and became part of other, bigger states (mediatization).  

Almost all the small and medium states disappeared. On the other side, some princes who were on good terms with Napoleon gained more for compensation than they had lost. Among the winners of 1803 were Bavaria and Württemberg, both elevated to kingdoms shortly after. 

Also the Archbishopric of Cologne, an ecclesiastical state, was secularized. Its former territories eventually fell to the Counts of Berg, who then ceded them to Napoleon in 1806.

The Monastery of Heisterbach was dissolved and its demolition ordered. The last Archbishop Maximilian Franz  of Habsburg, Maria Theresia's youngest son, had to flee.

Nonetheless, many people welcomed the French, because some achievements of the French Revolution now came to Germany: liberation from serfdom, freedom of trade, abolition of the aristocracy’s privileges, end of the manorial system. The Napoleonic Code assured equality of all citizens before the law, and administration and economy were reorganized along the lines of the French model. Many changes were changes for the better.

1805, Europe

Austria, Sweden, Russia and England again joined forces against Napoleon. In the Battle of Trafalgar on October 21, 1805,  the French fleet  suffered a devastating defeat by the British Royal Navy under the command of Admiral Lord Nelson. Two month later, in the Battle of Austerlitz on December 2, 1805 Napoleon, supported by troops from Bavaria and  Württemberg, defeated the armies of the Russian Tsar Alexander I and  Emperor Franz II. 

1806, Germany

Napoleon's armies now controlled  much of the Holy Roman Empire. Most German states on the right bank grouped together into the "Confederation of the Rhine" (1806) under French protection, most of the others joins later until finally only Prussia, Austria, Danish Holstein and Swedish Pommerania  were left out. De facto, the Holy Roman Empire did not exist any more.  

Pushed by Napoleon, Franz II abdicated and declared the abolition of Holy Roman Empire. From now on, he was "Emperor of Austria".

1806, Rhineland

On March 15, 1806, the Duke of Berg, in personal union King of Bavaria, ceded the duchy to Napoleon, who enlarged its territory and elevated it to Grand Duchy of Berg. Also Königswinter with the mountains Wolkenburg and Drachenfels now fell to the new Grand Duchy of Berg. By decree of March 26, 1806, Napoleon assigned it to his cavalry general  and brother-in law, Joachim Murat. When Murat became King of Naples in 1808, Napoleon himself took over the  Grand Duchy of Berg. On February 12, 1808, serfdom was abolished in the Grand Duchy of Berg,  on January 1,1810, the French Franc was introduced and the Code Civil, also referred to as  Code Napoléon, entered in force. In 1812, a uniform jurisdiction followed. 

But Napoleon also forcibly enlisted soldiers from the Confederation of the Rhine to fight in his campaigns. Military service in the French army became mandatory, since 1806 the Grand Duchy of Berg had to recruit  5,000 men a year for Napoleon's wars. Soldiers from Berg fought against Prussia and in Spain. In the later Napoleonic war, countless French and auxiliary soldiers  would lose their lives.

1806, Prussia

Finally, the Prussian King  Friedrich Wilhelm III (Frederick William III, 1797-1840) took up arms against Napoleon, but now he was on his own. In the Battle of Jena-Auerstedt, Prussia suffered a devastating defeat, the King and his family fled  to Memel in Eastern Prussia, and Napoleon rode into Berlin at the top of his troops. 

Under the treaty of Tilsit in 1807, Prussia lost almost half of her territories, including all possessions west of the Elbe river. In vain Queen Louise asked for milder terms. 

Napoleon established the Kingdom of Westphalia and gave it to his younger brother Jérome, to become a model state for the Confederation of the Rhine. Prussia was occupied by French troops, and forced into a military alliance with France. 

In these times of hardships, great men such as Stein and Hardenberg,  set about reforming and modernizing the Prussian state; the peasants were liberated from serfdom, the Jews emancipated, and the municipalities were granted  self-adminstration. The school system was reformed and free trade was introduced. General Gneisenau reformed the Prussian army. 

1807, Europe

Since Napoleon could not conquer England, he intended to fight her by economic means, and decreed the Continental system: no country was allowed to trade with England, no harbor was allowed to let English ships moor. At first, these measures hit England's economy, but then English tradesmen  found new markets for their merchandises in their colonies, and eventually the continental system rather strengthened England as a naval and trading power,  whereas people on the continent suffered. 

Still Napoleon was far more powerful, but resistance gradually grew. The Spaniards waged a guerilla war against French occupation, and and only after long negotiations did Napoleon get military assistance from the Confederation of the Rhine.

In Prussia and other German states, there was at first only little resistance. But the pressure of Napoleon's dominance made patriotism grow, the word "my country" (in German Vaterland, fatherland) became meaningful. Yet, patriotism did not go against tolerance and cosmopolitanism, loving one's own country and culture included respect for other cultures. This is what great men of that time exemplified through their own lives, such as the universal scholar  Wilhelm von Humboldt and the  Brothers Grimm. Jakob and Wilhelm Grimm did not only collect German fairy tales, but legends from all over the world, had them translated and published them all together. 

1810

1812-1814, USA 
American-British War

The Continental System led to a breakup between the Tsar Alexander I and Napoleon, and Napoleon took up arms against Russia. 

On June 23, 1812 the enormous Grande Armée of 650,000 men crossed the Njemen River. Among them were about 270,000 Frenchmen and many soldiers from Prussia, Austria and the Confederation of the Rhine. The Grande Armée defeated the Russians in the bloody  Battle of Borodino in September 1812 and shortly after captured Moscow. But the city was abandoned, and the same night the Russians burned it down. With victory out of sight and all supplies and quarters gone up in flames, Napoleon finally ordered retreat. 

But it was too late, the Grande Armée got into the Russian winter and was again and again attacked by cossacks. With the last bit of strength, the soldiers fought their way through enemy lines.  Among the Frenchmen, only 18,000 survived, among the Bavarians only 3,000, and of 500 soldiers from the Duchy of Berg, only 190 came back alive. 

General Yorck, commander of the Prussian regiments in the Grande Armée and a Prussian patriot, signed a truce with the Russian General Diebitsch, without being authorized by the Prussian King (Convention of Tauroggen of December 30, 1812). It became the start of the Wars of Liberation.

In the Grand Duchy of Berg, the mandatory service in Napoleon's army strained the people so much that in it came to open opposition against further recruitment in January 1813. Troops from Berg were no longer used. 

King Friedrich Wilhelm III decreed general conscription and, on March 17, 1813, called all men to defend their country against Napoleon, the soldiers fighting in the regular army and everyone else who could bear a weapon. A wave of enthusiasm and dedication went through the lands, many volunteered and new military forces were created. Men not serving in the regular army joined forces in the Landwehr (defense of the country) regiments and marched with the regular regiments into combat. 

Another new military unit  were the Landsturm (national storm) forces, yet they remained at home to defend their towns and villages. Volunteers came together in Free Corps (voluntary forces), among them the famous Lützow Free Corps, named after its commander Ludwig Adolf Wilhelm von Lützow,. Men from all over Prussia and the German states fought with him, among them the poet Joseph von Eichendorff. The colors of their uniforms were black-red-gold, and later these colors became a symbol of freedom and national unity, and eventually the flag of democratic Germany. 

In summer 1813, Prussia, England, Sweden, Austria and Bavaria stood against  Napoleon. In the  Battle of Lepizig on October 16-19, 1813, also referred to as the "Battle of the Nations";  Napoleons army was defeated and had to retreat. 

Landsturm vom Siebengebirge (Seven Mountains Landsturm)

The Prussian army chased them. The Prussian Major von Boltenstern and his troops came to Königswinter and were met with enthusiasm. On November 10, 1813,  the people from Königswinter and other villages formed the "Landsturm vom Siebengebirge", and 3,000 armed men protected the right  bank of the Rhine River from Bad Honnef to the conjunction of the Rhine and the Sieg Rivers.

Blücher crosses the Rhine River

In New Year's night 1813/14, Prussian troops under field marshal  Gebhard Leberecht von Blücher crossed  the Rhine river at Caub, Palatinate. Cologne was still occupied by the French. On January 3, 1814, the Prussian troops under von Boltenstern and 150 volunteers from the region set out to re-conquer the city. But the attack failed and von Boltenstern  lost his life. 

The same day, Prussian troops and  Landsturm men attacked from the Island of Nonnenwerth the French troops on the left side of the Rhine River. Josef Genger of the Landsturm died in combat. A memorial on the Drachenfels, the Landsturmdenkmal, reminds us of both, von Boltenstern and Genger. On January 14,  1814,  the French had to withdraw from the Rhine frontier and from Cologne, in March 1814 the left bank was re-conquered.

1814, Paris

On March 31, 1814, the Allies finally entered Paris. Napoleon had to abdicate and go into exile on the island of Elba.  The Bourbon monarchy was restored.

1815, Vienna

Statesmen from all over Europe convened in the Congress of Vienna to reorganize Europe. But soon rivalries between the Allies arose, and they were at the verge of taking up arms against each other when alarming news reached the Congress: on March 1, 1815, Napoleon and some hundred followers, had landed in Southern France. Many people hailed him, and troops that should have fought him had defected and joined him. Quickly the allies  found an agreement, the last act was signed on June 9,  1815, some days before the battle of Waterloo. 

German Confederation and Prussian Rhineland 

The Congress of Vienna compensated Prussia for her lost territories. The whole of the Rhineland, Westphalia, and some other territories fell to Prussia. The Seven Mountains now belonged to the State of Prussia.  

The German states remained and grouped together into a loose "German Federation" (1815-1866). The Congress also reestablished the old feudal order. A time of restoration began. And yet, the hopes for democracy and national unity remained alive.