| Ferdinand born 1802 and died in 1838 |
Ferdinand Schilly and Maria Schweiss
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Schilly
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| Eleven Generations from Germany/France/Germany to the U.S.A. - DE1. Lawrence Schilli, (b. 1710 in ?; d. 2-4-1745 in ?) Married: (?) TO: (?) Father of Mathias Schilly. DE2/FR1. Mathias Schilly (Schilli), (b. 1735 in Rieshof, Passau in Niederbayern (Lower Bavaria); d. 3-30-1806 it appears in Paris Region). Married: (?) Anna Maria Armbruster, (b. ? in Fessenbach, Middle Baden; d. ? it appears in Paris Region) Parents of Andreas Schilly (Schilli) but not certain how many other children. FR2. Andreas Schilly (Schilli) (b. 11-27-1775 in Paris Region; d. 1815 in ?) Married 1-9-1797. Anna Maria Hugle Danner, (b. ?; d ?.) They had five children, Ferdinand Schilly was their third child. DE3. Ferdinand Schilly (b. 6-5-1802 in Fessenbach, Middle Baden; d. 2-1-1838 in Fessenbach, Middle Baden) Married ? Maria Schweiss (b. ?; d. ?) They had three sons and one daughter, Lorenz Schilly was their second child. |
Schweiss
German (Rhineland): apparently a nickname for someone who worked very hard or sweated excessively, from
Middle High German sweiz ‘sweat’.
However, it is possible that this may be no more than a folk-etymological alteration of Schweitz ‘(person from)
Switzerland’.
Frau Ferdinand Schilly, nee Maria Schweiss
German (Rhineland): apparently a nickname for someone who worked very hard or sweated excessively, from
Middle High German sweiz ‘sweat’.
However, it is possible that this may be no more than a folk-etymological alteration of Schweitz ‘(person from)
Switzerland’.
Frau Ferdinand Schilly, nee Maria Schweiss
The French Revolution
With the Houses of Habsburg and Bourbon linked by marriage
the people of Freiburg and its surrounding Breisgau hope for a
lasting peace in their region. However it only holds for 21 years
when in 1789 the French revolution and its aftermath change the
European landscape. In the beginning German intellectuals are
over-enthusiastic about this turn in history. At the University of
Tübingen the philosophers Hegel, Hölderlin and Schelling plant a
freedom pole and sing revolutionary songs dancing around.
However those who have power in German territories are not
worried by the development. In distant Vienna Emperor Leopold II
sees no danger for a revolutionary movement whatsoever, since
our nation is neither so corrupt, nor so pressed, and not so
enthusiastic. The Jena philosopher Carl Leonard Reinhold calms
down the authorities with another beating argument: Germany
among all remaining European states is rather in the mood for
revolutions of the spirit but not for political uprisings. This
coincides nicely with Lenin's observation more than a hundred
years later. He completely denied the Germans any ability for a
revolution: If Germans want to make a revolution on a railway
station they first buy a ticket for getting access to the platform.
In the declaration of Pillnitz of 1791, Austria and Prussia favour a
military intervention in France to ensure an appropriate monarchic
government and conserve the rights of the sovereign and the
interests of the nation. This leads to France's declaration of war
on Austria. Besides the defensive protection of its "natural
borders", the offensive export of the achievements of the
revolution into neighbouring countries becomes France's main
objective of the war. Consequently the revolutionary armies
threaten the Habsburg possessions on the Rhine.
When in Paris in 1792 Robespierre's terror regime takes over
intellectuals who had previously hailed the revolution become
disillusioned. Aesthetes like Klopstock, Wieland and also Goethe
turn away nauseated by the bloody excesses. Germany's national-
poet writes short and to the point in his Venetian epigrams:
France's sorrowful fate, those having power shall consider.
The man in the street however shall consider it even more.
The powerful perished but who guarded man against the
crowd?
The crowd became tyrant of the crowd !
The First Coalition War
When Leopold II dies in 1792 his son Franz II is elected German
emperor. The two German big-powers (Austria forming the First
Coalition with Prussia) want to end rapidly the horrific episode in
their neighbouring country. Not expecting any resistance from the
army of the Sansculottes they speak of a walk to Paris. However,
following the famous cannonade of Valmy (a village in Northern
France) the zest of the badly organized and inadequately
equipped allied mercenaries has gone. Goethe, who had to
accompany his Duke Carl August as an imbedded reporter into
France, tells about the retreat of the allied forces and portrays the
campaign as a nightmare that kept me imprisoned between
excrements and desperate straits, lack and worry, danger and
pain, between debris, corpses, rotten carcass and piles of shit. In
this nightmare, however, our national poet recognizes the historic
significance of the event, although his famous sentence: A new
epoch of world history originates from here and today, and you
can say that you have been part of it, he only formulated later in
his life.
Indeed. The French revolutionary army rapidly occupies the
Austrian Netherlands (Belgium) as well as Savoy, advances on
the Rhine and occupies Worms, Speyer (Spires), Mainz and
Frankfurt. In view of this rally Spain, Great Britain, Holland,
Sardinia, Naples, Portugal and the German empire join the anti-
French coalition. The allied forces reconquer the Netherlands but
when the revolutionary regime orders the levée en masse
(general mobilization) the luck in war turns again. In 1793 the
French eventually occupy a bridge head on the East bank of the
Rhine, the key to the Empire Old-Breisach.
The mercenary armies are not only numerically but also
ideologically inferior to the army of the soldiers-citizen. Particularly
in Prussia, more interested in increasing its territory in the third
Polish division, the defense of the ailing Empire in the west is
unpopular. Consequently in 1795 Prussia retires from the anti-
republican coalition and concludes a separate peace treaty with
France.
In the summer of 1796, the revolutionary army occupies Freiburg.
This however only after a heroic resistance of its citizens as their
General Freiherr of Duminique certifies. The table still visible at
the Martinstor is one of the rare cases where a commander
commemorates the braveness of his soldiers The French
superiority compared to their own inability awakens nationalistic
feelings among the German people. However, regarding France
where in the name of an over boarding nationalism freedom and
humanity are trampled upon Goethe and Schiller write the
following Xenia into their compatriots' history book:
Germany in vain you hope to form a nation;
Rather form, for you can do it, your people to freer men.
The Second Coalition War
When in 1799 Austria forms a Second Coalition against the
French Republic all regular Habsburg troops hastily leave
Freiburg. The remaining landsturm (local troops) in vain tries to
repulse the invaders and in April of the following year the French
eventually occupy the city.
As war progresses Austria suffers her second defeat in Northern
Italy, this time at Marengo. With the conquest of this region the
new commander-in-chief of the French army, Napoleon, makes
François' I dream come true. Furthermore, the following Luneville
peace treaty confirms the transfer of all territories located on the
left bank of the river Rhine to the French Republic. Consequently,
Napoleon realizes Louis' XIV plan of the Rhine being France's
natural border too.
The German Princes deposited of their territories in this way ask
for compensation. This works the French Republic way in
expropriating Church property. Since, however, the Habsburg
Emperor would feel greatly embarrassed ordering the
secularization in his catholic territories Franz II assigns an
Imperial Committee to the task. Napoleon's own interest in these
redistribution of territories is the creation of moderate-sized
German buffer-states. Furthermore, in being generous he wins
allies for his future ambitious plans.
As usual: the Big Swallow the Small
In 1803 the Imperial Committee publish their verdict: 112 estates
mostly ecclesiastical but also free cities and small counties
disappear. With those "gained surfaces" the German princes are
generously compensated for their losses on the West bank of the
Rhine. Napoleon concedes considerable territorial gains to
Baden, Württemberg and Bavaria. Even fractious Austria that had
lost Belgium, the Breisgau, and the Ortenau is compensated with
the bishoprics of Trient, Brixen and Salzburg. In these
rearrangements also the three ecclesiastical principalities of
Cologne, Mainz and Trier disappear together with the Archbishop
Electors.
Without those sure catholic votes the election of a Habsburg as
German emperor is no longer assured. Under these
circumstances and also feeling that the German Empire is no
longer viable Franz II takes on the title of an Austrian emperor. In
1804 he mounts the Austrian throne as Franz I. As he had
advanced Napoleon's coronation the still only just general is
beside himself with anger. Napoleon calls Franz a skeleton who
only happens to be on the throne due to the merits of his
predecessors. In December of the same year Napoleon crowns
himself emperor of France with pope Pius VI just standing by and
watching.
The Third Coalition War
Eventually Austria concludes an alliance with Russia and in 1805
starts the third Coalition war. This time the clash between
Austrian and French troops takes place deep in German territory
near the city of Ulm on the Danube river. The princes of Baden,
Württemberg and Bavaria had formed an alliance with the French
emperor in contempt of their responsibility for the Empire
allowing the French troops to march through their territories.
While the Austrian corps is still waiting for Russian support to
arrive Napoleon makes short work of the enemy forces. The
Austrians rapidly surrender and he proclaims: Le jour d'Ulm est
un de plus grand de l'histoire française*.
*The day of Ulm is one of the greatest in French history
Rapidly the French move in the direction of Austerlitz where
Napoleon inflicts a crushing defeat to the allies in the so called
three-emperor-battle, actually a four-emperor-battle with Franz
still carrying two imperial crowns. Triumphantly, Napoleon
marches into Vienna. In the peace treaty of Bratislava (Pressburg)
Austria loses her upper-Rhineland and upper-Swabian provinces
to Baden and Württemberg respectively. The city of Lindau, Tyrol
and Vorarlberg are transferred to Bavaria while Venetia, Istria and
Dalmatia are annexed to the already Napoleonic Italy.
The End of the Holy Roman Empire
In rewarding the loyal services of his vassals Napoleon
distributes decorations and also the title-inflation continues. More
important: Bavaria and Württemberg are promoted to kingdoms
and declare their resignation from the Holy Roman Empire
together with sixteen other German states including Baden. With
those renegades Napoleon forms the Rhine Confederation of
1806, a third Germany to counterbalance the big powers? Austria
and Prussia. This association is the death-blow to the Holy
Roman Empire. Consequently the last of the Habsburgs Franz II
steps down as German Emperor but remains Austria's Emperor
Franz I.
In this general reshuffling of territories Baden only becomes a
Grand-Duchy but following the acquisition of the Breisgau with
Freiburg in the South and Palatina with Heidelberg in the North
Baden - due to its longish shape - plays the important role of a
defensive wall and an area for military deployment on the right
bank of the river Rhine. To strengthen the ties between the two
countries Napoleon arranges the marriage between his 17-year
old adoptive-daughter and Imperial Highness Stephanie
Beauharnais and young Karl Ludwig, heir to the throne of Baden.
The integration of the mostly catholic Breisgau into the originally
protestant North of Baden is not without problems. Great Duke
Karl Friedrich is sold to his new subjects as the regional father
and upright man, who has reigned with virtuous restraint and with
philanthropic laws for 60 years. Furthermore historians hurry to
point out that Karl Friedrich’s ancestors were the Dukes of
Zähringen and so the Breisgau eventually is back to its roots.
Nevertheless Freiburg is degraded from Austria's Western
outpost to a provincial city. It is on the brink of even loosing its
catholic university as two universities seem too costly to the
Grand-Duchy and furthermore the one in protestant Heidelberg is
ideologically closer to the Karlsruhe government.
The Fourth Coalition War
Prussia normally not interested in the Empire's fate is shocked by
the French domination of Central Europe. The Prussian King
Friedrich Wilhelm III demands Napoleon to withdraw from all
German territories and declares together with Russia the Fourth
Coalition war on France. The battle of Jena and Auerstedt turns
into a debacle for the once glorious Prussian army although the
government just claims: The king has lost a battle. Now it is the
citizen's first duty to remain quiet. In the aftermath of the defeat
Prussia's Queen clearly states: We reposed on the laurels of
Friedrich the Great who was a master of his time. However time
has surpassed us. Napoleon amputates Prussia's territories
both in the West and in the East. Following Prussia's total defeat
the French respectfully call their Emperor: Le grand mécanicien
de la victoire.
The Fifth Coalition War
Emperor Franz I sees another chance against Napoleon when
the rebellion against the French occupation rages in Spain. In
declaring the Fifth Coalition War in 1809 Austria opens a second
front. What a blue-eyed decision! Caesar rapidly arrives, analyses
the situation and humiliates the Austrian forces in the battle of
Wagram. As a consequence of the defeat Habsburg’s territories
are further trimmed losing Salzburg and North-Tyrol to Bavaria
and South-Tyrol to Italy. In this hopeless situation Franz I recalls
an old Habsburg tradition. In 1810 he nobles the Corsican upstart
in marrying his daughter the Archduchess Marie-Louise to him.
When Napoleon fathers a son he already at his birth is
proclaimed King of Rome. The French call him Napoleon II
following his father's abdication although the young man is raised
and lives as Duke of Reichstadt in the Vienna palace of
Schönbrunn until his early death at the age of 21.
Le Grand Empire
Nothing stops Napoleon anymore. People give up in resignation:
Fiat voluntas domini Napoleonis* and so in 1811 he draws up a
new map of Europe. Many territories simply become part of
France like the Netherlands (Département des Bouches du
Rhin), the South of Switzerland (Département du Léman et du
Simplon) and Northern Germany forming a land bridge to the
Baltic sea with Bremen (Département des Bouches du Weser),
Lübeck and the city Hamburg as the Préfecture du Département
des Bouches de l'Elbe. Officially it is spread that Napoleon plans
to build a navigable canal between Paris and the Baltic Sea. This
will avoid the shipment of goods between France and the North of
Germany in the unfriendly waters of the Channel dominated by
the British fleet. The Northern platform however will primarily
serve as the French military deployment area for the planned
campaign against Russia.
*Lord Napoleon’s will shall be.
In Napoleon's Grand Armée of 412 000 men who march into
Russia there serve about 150 000 Germans. They are beaten by
Father Frost and lost in the vast planes of Mother Russia. Among
those who survive and return there are only 1000 Germans and
just 145 soldiers from Baden. Whilst the satellite states moan
about their heavy financial contributions to the Napoleon wars it is
the high blood toll they pay that becomes unbearable. Volunteer
Corps roam the German countryside like those of Schill and
Lützow fighting against the French occupation and carrying for the
fist time the colours of German liberty: black, red and gold. The
more of those volunteers die in open fighting or in front of French
firing squads the more German resistance against the
occupation grows.
The Battle of the Nations at Leipzig
It is a tragic fact that in 1813 in the great Battle of the Nations at
Leipzig soldiers of the Rhine Confederation and in particular
mercenaries from Baden fight on Napoleon's side. Under great
losses Austria, Prussia and their allies eventually win the battle
and Karl Friedrich of Baden together with his mentor is the looser.
Therefore nobody is surprised that unknown persons tear down
the Baden coat of arms from the government building in Freiburg
and install the Habsburg double eagle instead. As late as
November 1813, Karl Friedrich eventually sends his troops
against Napoleon. Men from Baden had died in the Napoleonic
wars apparently on the wrong side since the Grand Duke
suddenly declares: Now our big goals are Baden's conservation
and the battle for German freedom and independence. The
defense of the fatherland may fill your hearts with the most sacred
enthusiasm. My call will inspire you with glorious eagerness
while you place yourself under the flags of your brothers in arms
undivided in the field of honour.
With the Houses of Habsburg and Bourbon linked by marriage
the people of Freiburg and its surrounding Breisgau hope for a
lasting peace in their region. However it only holds for 21 years
when in 1789 the French revolution and its aftermath change the
European landscape. In the beginning German intellectuals are
over-enthusiastic about this turn in history. At the University of
Tübingen the philosophers Hegel, Hölderlin and Schelling plant a
freedom pole and sing revolutionary songs dancing around.
However those who have power in German territories are not
worried by the development. In distant Vienna Emperor Leopold II
sees no danger for a revolutionary movement whatsoever, since
our nation is neither so corrupt, nor so pressed, and not so
enthusiastic. The Jena philosopher Carl Leonard Reinhold calms
down the authorities with another beating argument: Germany
among all remaining European states is rather in the mood for
revolutions of the spirit but not for political uprisings. This
coincides nicely with Lenin's observation more than a hundred
years later. He completely denied the Germans any ability for a
revolution: If Germans want to make a revolution on a railway
station they first buy a ticket for getting access to the platform.
In the declaration of Pillnitz of 1791, Austria and Prussia favour a
military intervention in France to ensure an appropriate monarchic
government and conserve the rights of the sovereign and the
interests of the nation. This leads to France's declaration of war
on Austria. Besides the defensive protection of its "natural
borders", the offensive export of the achievements of the
revolution into neighbouring countries becomes France's main
objective of the war. Consequently the revolutionary armies
threaten the Habsburg possessions on the Rhine.
When in Paris in 1792 Robespierre's terror regime takes over
intellectuals who had previously hailed the revolution become
disillusioned. Aesthetes like Klopstock, Wieland and also Goethe
turn away nauseated by the bloody excesses. Germany's national-
poet writes short and to the point in his Venetian epigrams:
France's sorrowful fate, those having power shall consider.
The man in the street however shall consider it even more.
The powerful perished but who guarded man against the
crowd?
The crowd became tyrant of the crowd !
The First Coalition War
When Leopold II dies in 1792 his son Franz II is elected German
emperor. The two German big-powers (Austria forming the First
Coalition with Prussia) want to end rapidly the horrific episode in
their neighbouring country. Not expecting any resistance from the
army of the Sansculottes they speak of a walk to Paris. However,
following the famous cannonade of Valmy (a village in Northern
France) the zest of the badly organized and inadequately
equipped allied mercenaries has gone. Goethe, who had to
accompany his Duke Carl August as an imbedded reporter into
France, tells about the retreat of the allied forces and portrays the
campaign as a nightmare that kept me imprisoned between
excrements and desperate straits, lack and worry, danger and
pain, between debris, corpses, rotten carcass and piles of shit. In
this nightmare, however, our national poet recognizes the historic
significance of the event, although his famous sentence: A new
epoch of world history originates from here and today, and you
can say that you have been part of it, he only formulated later in
his life.
Indeed. The French revolutionary army rapidly occupies the
Austrian Netherlands (Belgium) as well as Savoy, advances on
the Rhine and occupies Worms, Speyer (Spires), Mainz and
Frankfurt. In view of this rally Spain, Great Britain, Holland,
Sardinia, Naples, Portugal and the German empire join the anti-
French coalition. The allied forces reconquer the Netherlands but
when the revolutionary regime orders the levée en masse
(general mobilization) the luck in war turns again. In 1793 the
French eventually occupy a bridge head on the East bank of the
Rhine, the key to the Empire Old-Breisach.
The mercenary armies are not only numerically but also
ideologically inferior to the army of the soldiers-citizen. Particularly
in Prussia, more interested in increasing its territory in the third
Polish division, the defense of the ailing Empire in the west is
unpopular. Consequently in 1795 Prussia retires from the anti-
republican coalition and concludes a separate peace treaty with
France.
In the summer of 1796, the revolutionary army occupies Freiburg.
This however only after a heroic resistance of its citizens as their
General Freiherr of Duminique certifies. The table still visible at
the Martinstor is one of the rare cases where a commander
commemorates the braveness of his soldiers The French
superiority compared to their own inability awakens nationalistic
feelings among the German people. However, regarding France
where in the name of an over boarding nationalism freedom and
humanity are trampled upon Goethe and Schiller write the
following Xenia into their compatriots' history book:
Germany in vain you hope to form a nation;
Rather form, for you can do it, your people to freer men.
The Second Coalition War
When in 1799 Austria forms a Second Coalition against the
French Republic all regular Habsburg troops hastily leave
Freiburg. The remaining landsturm (local troops) in vain tries to
repulse the invaders and in April of the following year the French
eventually occupy the city.
As war progresses Austria suffers her second defeat in Northern
Italy, this time at Marengo. With the conquest of this region the
new commander-in-chief of the French army, Napoleon, makes
François' I dream come true. Furthermore, the following Luneville
peace treaty confirms the transfer of all territories located on the
left bank of the river Rhine to the French Republic. Consequently,
Napoleon realizes Louis' XIV plan of the Rhine being France's
natural border too.
The German Princes deposited of their territories in this way ask
for compensation. This works the French Republic way in
expropriating Church property. Since, however, the Habsburg
Emperor would feel greatly embarrassed ordering the
secularization in his catholic territories Franz II assigns an
Imperial Committee to the task. Napoleon's own interest in these
redistribution of territories is the creation of moderate-sized
German buffer-states. Furthermore, in being generous he wins
allies for his future ambitious plans.
As usual: the Big Swallow the Small
In 1803 the Imperial Committee publish their verdict: 112 estates
mostly ecclesiastical but also free cities and small counties
disappear. With those "gained surfaces" the German princes are
generously compensated for their losses on the West bank of the
Rhine. Napoleon concedes considerable territorial gains to
Baden, Württemberg and Bavaria. Even fractious Austria that had
lost Belgium, the Breisgau, and the Ortenau is compensated with
the bishoprics of Trient, Brixen and Salzburg. In these
rearrangements also the three ecclesiastical principalities of
Cologne, Mainz and Trier disappear together with the Archbishop
Electors.
Without those sure catholic votes the election of a Habsburg as
German emperor is no longer assured. Under these
circumstances and also feeling that the German Empire is no
longer viable Franz II takes on the title of an Austrian emperor. In
1804 he mounts the Austrian throne as Franz I. As he had
advanced Napoleon's coronation the still only just general is
beside himself with anger. Napoleon calls Franz a skeleton who
only happens to be on the throne due to the merits of his
predecessors. In December of the same year Napoleon crowns
himself emperor of France with pope Pius VI just standing by and
watching.
The Third Coalition War
Eventually Austria concludes an alliance with Russia and in 1805
starts the third Coalition war. This time the clash between
Austrian and French troops takes place deep in German territory
near the city of Ulm on the Danube river. The princes of Baden,
Württemberg and Bavaria had formed an alliance with the French
emperor in contempt of their responsibility for the Empire
allowing the French troops to march through their territories.
While the Austrian corps is still waiting for Russian support to
arrive Napoleon makes short work of the enemy forces. The
Austrians rapidly surrender and he proclaims: Le jour d'Ulm est
un de plus grand de l'histoire française*.
*The day of Ulm is one of the greatest in French history
Rapidly the French move in the direction of Austerlitz where
Napoleon inflicts a crushing defeat to the allies in the so called
three-emperor-battle, actually a four-emperor-battle with Franz
still carrying two imperial crowns. Triumphantly, Napoleon
marches into Vienna. In the peace treaty of Bratislava (Pressburg)
Austria loses her upper-Rhineland and upper-Swabian provinces
to Baden and Württemberg respectively. The city of Lindau, Tyrol
and Vorarlberg are transferred to Bavaria while Venetia, Istria and
Dalmatia are annexed to the already Napoleonic Italy.
The End of the Holy Roman Empire
In rewarding the loyal services of his vassals Napoleon
distributes decorations and also the title-inflation continues. More
important: Bavaria and Württemberg are promoted to kingdoms
and declare their resignation from the Holy Roman Empire
together with sixteen other German states including Baden. With
those renegades Napoleon forms the Rhine Confederation of
1806, a third Germany to counterbalance the big powers? Austria
and Prussia. This association is the death-blow to the Holy
Roman Empire. Consequently the last of the Habsburgs Franz II
steps down as German Emperor but remains Austria's Emperor
Franz I.
In this general reshuffling of territories Baden only becomes a
Grand-Duchy but following the acquisition of the Breisgau with
Freiburg in the South and Palatina with Heidelberg in the North
Baden - due to its longish shape - plays the important role of a
defensive wall and an area for military deployment on the right
bank of the river Rhine. To strengthen the ties between the two
countries Napoleon arranges the marriage between his 17-year
old adoptive-daughter and Imperial Highness Stephanie
Beauharnais and young Karl Ludwig, heir to the throne of Baden.
The integration of the mostly catholic Breisgau into the originally
protestant North of Baden is not without problems. Great Duke
Karl Friedrich is sold to his new subjects as the regional father
and upright man, who has reigned with virtuous restraint and with
philanthropic laws for 60 years. Furthermore historians hurry to
point out that Karl Friedrich’s ancestors were the Dukes of
Zähringen and so the Breisgau eventually is back to its roots.
Nevertheless Freiburg is degraded from Austria's Western
outpost to a provincial city. It is on the brink of even loosing its
catholic university as two universities seem too costly to the
Grand-Duchy and furthermore the one in protestant Heidelberg is
ideologically closer to the Karlsruhe government.
The Fourth Coalition War
Prussia normally not interested in the Empire's fate is shocked by
the French domination of Central Europe. The Prussian King
Friedrich Wilhelm III demands Napoleon to withdraw from all
German territories and declares together with Russia the Fourth
Coalition war on France. The battle of Jena and Auerstedt turns
into a debacle for the once glorious Prussian army although the
government just claims: The king has lost a battle. Now it is the
citizen's first duty to remain quiet. In the aftermath of the defeat
Prussia's Queen clearly states: We reposed on the laurels of
Friedrich the Great who was a master of his time. However time
has surpassed us. Napoleon amputates Prussia's territories
both in the West and in the East. Following Prussia's total defeat
the French respectfully call their Emperor: Le grand mécanicien
de la victoire.
The Fifth Coalition War
Emperor Franz I sees another chance against Napoleon when
the rebellion against the French occupation rages in Spain. In
declaring the Fifth Coalition War in 1809 Austria opens a second
front. What a blue-eyed decision! Caesar rapidly arrives, analyses
the situation and humiliates the Austrian forces in the battle of
Wagram. As a consequence of the defeat Habsburg’s territories
are further trimmed losing Salzburg and North-Tyrol to Bavaria
and South-Tyrol to Italy. In this hopeless situation Franz I recalls
an old Habsburg tradition. In 1810 he nobles the Corsican upstart
in marrying his daughter the Archduchess Marie-Louise to him.
When Napoleon fathers a son he already at his birth is
proclaimed King of Rome. The French call him Napoleon II
following his father's abdication although the young man is raised
and lives as Duke of Reichstadt in the Vienna palace of
Schönbrunn until his early death at the age of 21.
Le Grand Empire
Nothing stops Napoleon anymore. People give up in resignation:
Fiat voluntas domini Napoleonis* and so in 1811 he draws up a
new map of Europe. Many territories simply become part of
France like the Netherlands (Département des Bouches du
Rhin), the South of Switzerland (Département du Léman et du
Simplon) and Northern Germany forming a land bridge to the
Baltic sea with Bremen (Département des Bouches du Weser),
Lübeck and the city Hamburg as the Préfecture du Département
des Bouches de l'Elbe. Officially it is spread that Napoleon plans
to build a navigable canal between Paris and the Baltic Sea. This
will avoid the shipment of goods between France and the North of
Germany in the unfriendly waters of the Channel dominated by
the British fleet. The Northern platform however will primarily
serve as the French military deployment area for the planned
campaign against Russia.
*Lord Napoleon’s will shall be.
In Napoleon's Grand Armée of 412 000 men who march into
Russia there serve about 150 000 Germans. They are beaten by
Father Frost and lost in the vast planes of Mother Russia. Among
those who survive and return there are only 1000 Germans and
just 145 soldiers from Baden. Whilst the satellite states moan
about their heavy financial contributions to the Napoleon wars it is
the high blood toll they pay that becomes unbearable. Volunteer
Corps roam the German countryside like those of Schill and
Lützow fighting against the French occupation and carrying for the
fist time the colours of German liberty: black, red and gold. The
more of those volunteers die in open fighting or in front of French
firing squads the more German resistance against the
occupation grows.
The Battle of the Nations at Leipzig
It is a tragic fact that in 1813 in the great Battle of the Nations at
Leipzig soldiers of the Rhine Confederation and in particular
mercenaries from Baden fight on Napoleon's side. Under great
losses Austria, Prussia and their allies eventually win the battle
and Karl Friedrich of Baden together with his mentor is the looser.
Therefore nobody is surprised that unknown persons tear down
the Baden coat of arms from the government building in Freiburg
and install the Habsburg double eagle instead. As late as
November 1813, Karl Friedrich eventually sends his troops
against Napoleon. Men from Baden had died in the Napoleonic
wars apparently on the wrong side since the Grand Duke
suddenly declares: Now our big goals are Baden's conservation
and the battle for German freedom and independence. The
defense of the fatherland may fill your hearts with the most sacred
enthusiasm. My call will inspire you with glorious eagerness
while you place yourself under the flags of your brothers in arms
undivided in the field of honour.
Fessenbach
Information Sources:
Fessenbach Catholic records are included with Weingarten. Weingarten Catholic records cover
the years 1787 through 1900, and include a family book (Familienbuch). Weingarten records also
include the towns of Albersbach and Zell-Weierbach.
Information Sources:
Fessenbach Catholic records are included with Weingarten. Weingarten Catholic records cover
the years 1787 through 1900, and include a family book (Familienbuch). Weingarten records also
include the towns of Albersbach and Zell-Weierbach.
The white grape variety that forms the style benchmark in Germany is Riesling. It has a great
capacity to ripen well in warm autumns, and thus takes full advantage of the QmP levels.
Indeed, it could be said that the QmP law was framed around Riesling. As new varieties were
developed, Riesling lost ground to more prolific and easy to grow vines.
Riesling is one of the world's classic vines and is described in the chapter on grape varieties.
In Germany it occupies the best sites: the steeper river-valley vineyards such as those in the
middle Mosel and Rheingau. These sites provide the good exposure to the sun, and the
autumn warmth, which suit Riesling, which has a long ripening period.
The other classically German white wine variety is Silvaner. It is most associated with the
Franken region, but in fact has its biggest plantations in the Rheinhessen. It can make
concentrated, lively and long-lasting dry wine, but only when grown in good sites and when a
low yield is taken from the vines.
German labels are, to non-German speakers, superficially forbidding. Yet they carry much
useful detail.
The name of the producer usually comes first. Terms such as Weingut (estate) or Schloss
(equivalent to chateau) may precede the actual name.
The vineyard name is always preceded by the name of the village. The village name usually
has the letters "-er" added in the German adjectival usage. Thus Bernkastel is the name of the
village, Bernkasteler means "from Bernkastel". So Bernkasteler Doctor means that the wine is
from the Doctor vineyard in Bernkastel.
The quality category - QbA or QmP - will be stated. On QmP wines the level of distinction will be
prominent.
Decoded, the German wine label thus gives us information about who made the wine, the
region in which the grapes were grown, and the official quality level awarded to that wine.
Other, but not compulsory data may include the vintage and the grape variety.
A quality wine is vouched for by the AP (Amtliche Prufung: official testing) number, shown on
the label. This shows it comes from approved grape varieties, has reached a certain minimum
sweetness, and is from the region named.
Erzeugerabfullung means bottled by the producer, perhaps a cooperative cellar; Gutsabfullung
describes an estate-bottled wine.
capacity to ripen well in warm autumns, and thus takes full advantage of the QmP levels.
Indeed, it could be said that the QmP law was framed around Riesling. As new varieties were
developed, Riesling lost ground to more prolific and easy to grow vines.
Riesling is one of the world's classic vines and is described in the chapter on grape varieties.
In Germany it occupies the best sites: the steeper river-valley vineyards such as those in the
middle Mosel and Rheingau. These sites provide the good exposure to the sun, and the
autumn warmth, which suit Riesling, which has a long ripening period.
The other classically German white wine variety is Silvaner. It is most associated with the
Franken region, but in fact has its biggest plantations in the Rheinhessen. It can make
concentrated, lively and long-lasting dry wine, but only when grown in good sites and when a
low yield is taken from the vines.
German labels are, to non-German speakers, superficially forbidding. Yet they carry much
useful detail.
The name of the producer usually comes first. Terms such as Weingut (estate) or Schloss
(equivalent to chateau) may precede the actual name.
The vineyard name is always preceded by the name of the village. The village name usually
has the letters "-er" added in the German adjectival usage. Thus Bernkastel is the name of the
village, Bernkasteler means "from Bernkastel". So Bernkasteler Doctor means that the wine is
from the Doctor vineyard in Bernkastel.
The quality category - QbA or QmP - will be stated. On QmP wines the level of distinction will be
prominent.
Decoded, the German wine label thus gives us information about who made the wine, the
region in which the grapes were grown, and the official quality level awarded to that wine.
Other, but not compulsory data may include the vintage and the grape variety.
A quality wine is vouched for by the AP (Amtliche Prufung: official testing) number, shown on
the label. This shows it comes from approved grape varieties, has reached a certain minimum
sweetness, and is from the region named.
Erzeugerabfullung means bottled by the producer, perhaps a cooperative cellar; Gutsabfullung
describes an estate-bottled wine.
Fessenbach
Wappen Ortenaukreis
