France
189-402: Frederick William IV ( German : Friedrich Wilhelm IV. ; 15 October 1795 – 2 January 1861), the eldest son and successor of Frederick William III of Prussia , was king of Prussia from 7 June 1840 until his death on 2 January 1861. Also referred to as the " romanticist on the throne", he was deeply religious and believed that he ruled by divine right. He feared revolutions, and his ideal state
378-465: A de facto official language of Namibia after the end of German colonial rule alongside English and Afrikaans , and had de jure co-official status from 1984 until its independence from South Africa in 1990. However, the Namibian government perceived Afrikaans and German as symbols of apartheid and colonialism, and decided English would be the sole official language upon independence, stating that it
567-402: A second language , and 75–100 million as a foreign language . This would imply the existence of approximately 175–220 million German speakers worldwide. German sociolinguist Ulrich Ammon estimated a number of 289 million German foreign language speakers without clarifying the criteria by which he classified a speaker. As of 2012 , about 90 million people, or 16% of
756-612: A "commonly used" language and the Pan South African Language Board is obligated to promote and ensure respect for it. Cameroon was also a colony of the German Empire from the same period (1884 to 1916). However, German was replaced by French and English, the languages of the two successor colonial powers, after its loss in World War I . Nevertheless, since the 21st century, German has become
945-530: A "revolution from above". For Friedrich Wilhelm, the "bureaucratic absolutism of a Hardenberg" meant moving away from the "principle of the estates " that he advocated. The high point of Frederick William's youth was his participation in the campaigns against Napoleon in the Wars of Liberation of 1813/1814 that pushed the French out of Germany. In his experience with war, which showed him to be an indifferent soldier,
1134-562: A Fabian Strategy, avoiding direct combat with Napoleon, engaging and defeating his marshals whenever possible and slowly encircling the French with three independent armies until the French Emperor could be cornered and brought to battle against vastly superior numbers. Following the conference, the Allies stood up their three armies: The Army of Silesia, with 95,000 Prussians and Russians, commanded by Field Marshal Gebhard von Blücher,
1323-575: A Russian corps, a North German contingent of 10,000, two Prussian corps, and various Prussian levies, 135,000 in all, lay in and around Berlin and Stettin; and knowing his former marshal well, Napoleon considered Oudinot a match for him. Blücher with about 95,000 Russians and Prussians were about Breslau, and Schwarzenberg, with nearly 180,000 Austrians and Russians, lay in Bohemia. In his position at Bautzen he felt himself equal to all his enemy's combinations. The advance towards Berlin began punctually with
1512-409: A battle-reserve. At length when both sides were exhausted by their efforts, he sent forward nearly a hundred guns which tore into the enemy's line with caseshot and marched his reserve right through the gap. Had he possessed an adequate cavalry force, the victory would have been decisive. As it was, the coalition retreated in good order and the French were too exhausted for a pursuit. In the opinion of
1701-612: A clear numerical superiority, which they eventually brought to bear on Napoleon's main forces, despite earlier setbacks such as the Battle of Dresden . The high point of allied strategy was the Battle of Leipzig in October 1813, which ended in a decisive defeat for Napoleon. The Confederation of the Rhine was dissolved following the battle with many of its former member states joining the coalition, breaking Napoleon's hold over Germany. After
1890-688: A conservative imperial constitution based on the Prussian three-class electoral system. Ernst August I of Hanover and Friedrich August II of Saxony, however, only heeded the King's request while absolutist Austria was tied up with uprisings in Hungary . Since eight individual German states, including the Kingdom of Bavaria and the Kingdom of Württemberg , did not participate in the Erfurt Union from
2079-632: A delay in which a new strategy was agreed upon, in early 1814 the coalition invaded France, coinciding with the march of Duke of Wellington 's British army northward from Spain into southern France. Napoleon was forced to abdicate and Louis XVIII assumed the French throne. The war came to a formal end with the Treaty of Paris in May 1814. Since 1806 writers and intellectuals such as Johann Philipp Palm , Johann Gottlieb Fichte , Ernst Moritz Arndt , Friedrich Ludwig Jahn , and Theodor Körner had been criticising
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#17327724756192268-461: A final plan, in which one again recognizes the old commander, and this he immediately proceeded to put into execution, for he was now quite aware of the danger threatening his line of retreat from both Blücher and Schwarzenberg and the North Army; yet only a few hours afterwards the portion of the order relating to St Cyr and Lobau was cancelled and the two were finally left behind at Dresden. From
2457-539: A great tactical surprise. As soon as possible the army pressed on in pursuit, Ney being sent across the Elbe to turn the position of the Coalition allies at Dresden. This threat forced the latter to evacuate the town and retire over the Elbe, after blowing up the stone bridge across the river. Napoleon entered the town hard on their heels, but the broken bridge caused a delay of four days, there being no pontoon trains with
2646-559: A greater need for regularity in written conventions. While the major changes of the MHG period were socio-cultural, High German was still undergoing significant linguistic changes in syntax, phonetics, and morphology as well (e.g. diphthongization of certain vowel sounds: hus (OHG & MHG "house") → haus (regionally in later MHG)→ Haus (NHG), and weakening of unstressed short vowels to schwa [ə]: taga (OHG "days")→ tage (MHG)). A great wealth of texts survives from
2835-458: A letter dated 13 December 1848, Frederick William stated to the Prussian ambassador to England, Christian Charles Josias von Bunsen : Such an imaginary hoop [the crown] baked from dirt and weeds – should a legitimate king of Prussia be pleased with it? [...] I tell you bluntly: If the thousand-year-old crown of the German nation, which has been dormant for 42 years, is to be awarded once again, it
3024-513: A medieval-feudal relationship of loyalty between the Prussian people and the monarch, making the liberal reform of the state along the lines of the French constitutional-parliamentary model superfluous. He believed that he derived his close ties to his people from the divine right of grace, which gave him a "sacred insight into the needs of his subjects". Any restriction of his de facto absolutist power seemed to him to be an irresponsible obstruction of his divinely ordained mission. Frederick William IV
3213-444: A mental illness". It is likely that psychopathological abnormalities occurred before the strokes he suffered, making him barely able to perform his government offices. The strokes, which began on 14 July 1857, affected his speech centre. After Prince William 's term acting as deputy for the King had been extended three times, the ailing Frederick William signed a regency charter for him on 7 October 1858, based on an expert opinion from
3402-458: A native tongue today, mostly descendants of German colonial settlers . The period of German colonialism in Namibia also led to the evolution of a Standard German-based pidgin language called " Namibian Black German ", which became a second language for parts of the indigenous population. Although it is nearly extinct today, some older Namibians still have some knowledge of it. German remained
3591-445: A new army for the reconquest of Prussia. Thanks to his having compelled his allies to fight his battles for him, he had not as yet drawn very heavily on the fighting resources of France, the actual percentage of men taken by the conscriptions during the years since 1806 being actually lower than that in force in continental armies of today. He had also created in 1811–1812 a new National Guard , organized in cohorts to distinguish it from
3780-422: A number of other notable political events during his time on the throne: In his final years, the King was affected by a serious illness, the symptoms of which, from the perspective of the medical knowledge of the era, appeared to be a "mental illness". According to current medical knowledge, Friedrich Wilhelm suffered from a "cerebral vascular disease", a "cerebral arteriosclerosis", which "could not be described as
3969-696: A popular foreign language among pupils and students, with 300,000 people learning or speaking German in Cameroon in 2010 and over 230,000 in 2020. Today Cameroon is one of the African countries outside Namibia with the highest number of people learning German. In the United States, German is the fifth most spoken language in terms of native and second language speakers after English, Spanish , French , and Chinese (with figures for Cantonese and Mandarin combined), with over 1 million total speakers. In
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#17327724756194158-420: A representative of the principle of monarchical legitimacy, he detested the idea of a unilateral taking of power that would have violated the historical rights of other German monarchs. The crown offered by representatives of the people was furthermore unacceptable to Frederick William, whose monarchical self-image was based on the traditional idea of divine right and who rejected the idea of popular sovereignty. In
4347-483: A result, the surviving texts are written in highly disparate regional dialects and exhibit significant Latin influence, particularly in vocabulary. At this point monasteries, where most written works were produced, were dominated by Latin, and German saw only occasional use in official and ecclesiastical writing. While there is no complete agreement over the dates of the Middle High German (MHG) period, it
4536-590: A revolutionary movement throughout Europe. Frederick William IV called for a congress of German states that was to meet in Dresden on 25 March. By discussing reform of the German Confederation , the King hoped to appease the people's revolutionary sentiments, but before he could implement his plans, they were overtaken by the events of the revolution in Berlin. The sound of the fighting could be heard in
4725-567: A six weeks suspension of arms under the terms of the Truce of Pläswitz . In Maude's opinion, this was perhaps the gravest error of Napoleon's military career. During the armistice, three Allied sovereigns, Alexander of Russia, Frederick William of Prussia, and Bernadotte of Sweden (by then Regent of the Kingdom due to his adoptive father's illness) met at Trachenberg Castle in Silesia to coordinate
4914-485: A summer truce ( Truce of Pläswitz ). Via the Trachenberg Plan , developed during a period of ceasefire in the summer of 1813, the ministers of Prussia, Russia, and Sweden agreed to pursue a single allied strategy against Napoleon. Following the end of the ceasefire, Austria eventually sided with the coalition, thwarting Napoleon's hopes of reaching separate agreements with Austria and Russia. The coalition now had
5103-453: A suspension of arms (to 15 August) had been agreed to, Napoleon hastened to withdraw his troops from the dangerous position they occupied with reference to the passes leading over the mountains from Bohemia , for he entertained no doubt now that Austria was also to be considered as an enemy. Finally he decided to group his corps round Görlitz and Bautzen whence they could either meet the enemy advancing from Breslau or fall on his flank over
5292-607: Is I and those like me who will award it. King Frederick Augustus II of Saxony provoked an uprising in Dresden in May 1849 by refusing to accept the Frankfurt Constitution. He wrote a letter to the Prussian king urging him to put down the uprising by force. On 5 May 1849, Frederick William sent Prussian troops to Dresden under Colonel Friedrich von Waldersee , who took control of the city on 9 May. Seven hundred revolutionaries were taken prisoner and 250 killed in
5481-601: Is a recognized minority language in the following countries: In France, the High German varieties of Alsatian and Moselle Franconian are identified as " regional languages ", but the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages of 1998 has not yet been ratified by the government. Namibia also was a colony of the German Empire, from 1884 to 1915. About 30,000 people still speak German as
5670-612: Is also notable for its broad spectrum of dialects , with many varieties existing in Europe and other parts of the world. Some of these non-standard varieties have become recognized and protected by regional or national governments. Since 2004, heads of state of the German-speaking countries have met every year, and the Council for German Orthography has been the main international body regulating German orthography . German
5859-558: Is an Indo-European language that belongs to the West Germanic group of the Germanic languages . The Germanic languages are traditionally subdivided into three branches: North Germanic , East Germanic , and West Germanic . The first of these branches survives in modern Danish , Swedish , Norwegian , Faroese , and Icelandic , all of which are descended from Old Norse . The East Germanic languages are now extinct, and Gothic
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6048-478: Is called the "German Sprachraum ". German is the official language of the following countries: German is a co-official language of the following countries: Although expulsions and (forced) assimilation after the two World wars greatly diminished them, minority communities of mostly bilingual German native speakers exist in areas both adjacent to and detached from the Sprachraum. Within Europe, German
6237-430: Is complicated by the existence of several varieties whose status as separate "languages" or "dialects" is disputed for political and linguistic reasons, including quantitatively strong varieties like certain forms of Alemannic and Low German . With the inclusion or exclusion of certain varieties, it is estimated that approximately 90–95 million people speak German as a first language , 10–25 million speak it as
6426-535: Is generally seen as ending when the 1346–53 Black Death decimated Europe's population. Modern High German begins with the Early New High German (ENHG) period, which Wilhelm Scherer dates 1350–1650, terminating with the end of the Thirty Years' War . This period saw the further displacement of Latin by German as the primary language of courtly proceedings and, increasingly, of literature in
6615-611: Is generally seen as lasting from 1050 to 1350. This was a period of significant expansion of the geographical territory occupied by Germanic tribes, and consequently of the number of German speakers. Whereas during the Old High German period the Germanic tribes extended only as far east as the Elbe and Saale rivers, the MHG period saw a number of these tribes expanding beyond this eastern boundary into Slavic territory (known as
6804-565: Is less closely related to languages based on Low Franconian dialects (e.g., Dutch and Afrikaans), Low German or Low Saxon dialects (spoken in northern Germany and southern Denmark ), neither of which underwent the High German consonant shift. As has been noted, the former of these dialect types is Istvaeonic and the latter Ingvaeonic, whereas the High German dialects are all Irminonic; the differences between these languages and standard German are therefore considerable. Also related to German are
6993-446: Is not your job to represent opinions, to want to bring the opinions of the times to the fore. ... That is completely un-German and, beyond that, completely impractical." The majority of the deputies nevertheless did not see themselves as representatives of the estates but of the Prussian people. On 20 April 1847, the parliament sent an address to the King calling for a regular convocation. Laws, they wrote, should only come into force with
7182-435: Is one of the major languages of the world . German is the second-most widely spoken Germanic language , after English, both as a first and as a second language . German is also widely taught as a foreign language , especially in continental Europe (where it is the third most taught foreign language after English and French), and in the United States. Overall, German is the fourth most commonly learned second language, and
7371-597: Is one of the three biggest newspapers in Namibia and the only German-language daily in Africa. An estimated 12,000 people speak German or a German variety as a first language in South Africa, mostly originating from different waves of immigration during the 19th and 20th centuries. One of the largest communities consists of the speakers of "Nataler Deutsch", a variety of Low German concentrated in and around Wartburg . The South African constitution identifies German as
7560-401: Is partly derived from Latin and Greek , along with fewer words borrowed from French and Modern English . English, however, is the main source of more recent loanwords . German is a pluricentric language ; the three standardized variants are German , Austrian , and Swiss Standard German . Standard German is sometimes called High German , which refers to its regional origin. German
7749-525: Is the Sachsenspiegel , the first book of laws written in Middle Low German ( c. 1220 ). The abundance and especially the secular character of the literature of the MHG period demonstrate the beginnings of a standardized written form of German, as well as the desire of poets and authors to be understood by individuals on supra-dialectal terms. The Middle High German period
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7938-578: Is the only language in this branch which survives in written texts. The West Germanic languages, however, have undergone extensive dialectal subdivision and are now represented in modern languages such as English, German, Dutch , Yiddish , Afrikaans , and others. Within the West Germanic language dialect continuum, the Benrath and Uerdingen lines (running through Düsseldorf - Benrath and Krefeld - Uerdingen , respectively) serve to distinguish
8127-485: Is understood in all areas where German is spoken. Approximate distribution of native German speakers (assuming a rounded total of 95 million) worldwide: As a result of the German diaspora , as well as the popularity of German taught as a foreign language , the geographical distribution of German speakers (or "Germanophones") spans all inhabited continents. However, an exact, global number of native German speakers
8316-689: The Ostsiedlung ). With the increasing wealth and geographic spread of the Germanic groups came greater use of German in the courts of nobles as the standard language of official proceedings and literature. A clear example of this is the mittelhochdeutsche Dichtersprache employed in the Hohenstaufen court in Swabia as a standardized supra-dialectal written language. While these efforts were still regionally bound, German began to be used in place of Latin for certain official purposes, leading to
8505-579: The Landwehr and Landsturm , the initial fighting was undertaken by volunteers such as German volunteer troops, Jäger units, Free Corps (such as the Lützow Free Corps ), and troops from Russia, (from the summer of 1813 onwards) Sweden under Crown Prince Charles John (the former French marshal Jean-Baptiste Bernadotte), and Austria under Field Marshal Karl von Schwarzenberg . Already busy with maintaining naval supremacy and fighting in
8694-639: The Alamanni , Bavarian, and Thuringian groups, all belonging to the Elbe Germanic group ( Irminones ), which had settled in what is now southern-central Germany and Austria between the second and sixth centuries, during the great migration. In general, the surviving texts of Old High German (OHG) show a wide range of dialectal diversity with very little written uniformity. The early written tradition of OHG survived mostly through monasteries and scriptoria as local translations of Latin originals; as
8883-533: The Berlin Palace . Although the Berlin barricade battle was one of the most costly incidents of the March Revolution , with 300 casualties among the demonstrators at the hands of Prussian troops, the King rejected any responsibility and instead spread the false report of a foreign conspiracy in his manifesto 'To my dear Berliners': "A gang of villains, mostly consisting of foreigners, ... has become
9072-568: The Czech Republic ( North Bohemia ), Poland ( Upper Silesia ), Slovakia ( Košice Region , Spiš , and Hauerland ), Denmark ( North Schleswig ), Romania and Hungary ( Sopron ). Overseas, sizeable communities of German-speakers are found in Brazil ( Blumenau and Pomerode ), South Africa ( Kroondal ), Namibia , among others, some communities have decidedly Austrian German or Swiss German characters (e.g. Pozuzo , Peru). German
9261-537: The Early Middle Ages . German is an inflected language , with four cases for nouns, pronouns, and adjectives (nominative, accusative, genitive, dative); three genders (masculine, feminine, neuter) and two numbers (singular, plural). It has strong and weak verbs . The majority of its vocabulary derives from the ancient Germanic branch of the Indo-European language family, while a smaller share
9450-662: The Elbe to give timely notice of an advance towards Berlin; and with the bulk of their forces having taken up position near Dresden , whence they had determined to march down the course of the Elbe and roll up the French from right to left. Both armies were very indifferently supplied with information, as both were without any reliable regular cavalry capable of piercing the screen of outposts with which each endeavoured to conceal his disposition, and Napoleon, operating in mostly unfriendly territory, suffered more in this respect than his adversaries. On 25 April, Napoleon reached Erfurt and assumed command. That same day, his troops stood in
9639-480: The European Union 's population, spoke German as their mother tongue, making it the second most widely spoken language on the continent after Russian and the second biggest language in terms of overall speakers (after English), as well as the most spoken native language. The area in central Europe where the majority of the population speaks German as a first language and has German as a (co-)official language
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#17327724756199828-671: The European Union . It is the most widely spoken and official (or co-official) language in Germany , Austria , Switzerland , Liechtenstein , and the Italian autonomous province of South Tyrol . It is also an official language of Luxembourg , Belgium and the Italian autonomous region of Friuli-Venezia Giulia , as well as a recognized national language in Namibia . There are also notable German-speaking communities in France ( Alsace ),
10017-834: The Federal Convention of the German Confederation to form a national constitutional assembly which would write a new constitution for the Confederation. Elections were held for it on 1 May 1848. Of the 379 members who attended the Frankfurt Parliament 's first session on 18 May, 132 were from Prussia. The Prussian National Assembly rejected the Camphausen government's draft constitution on 20 June 1848. Left-wing forces then began to assert themselves more and more clearly. The words "by
10206-755: The Frankfurt Constitution would have required German-speaking Austria to have a separate constitution, government and administration from the rest of the Empire. On 28 March 1849, the Assembly elected Frederick William IV as Emperor of the Germans, but he refused the crown. In a letter to a confidant, he wrote: "I can call God to witness that I do not want it, for the simple reason that Austria will then be separated from Germany." The exclusion of Austria would have ruined Frederick William IV's vision of
10395-622: The French period ( Franzosenzeit ) in Germany and fostered a new sense of German unity and nationalism. It also marked the exit of Sweden as a player in German affairs after 175 years, as Sweden ceded Swedish Pomerania to Prussia for its recognition of the Treaty of Kiel (including the Union of Sweden and Norway) and £500,000. The German Confederation , formed at the Congress of Vienna in 1815,
10584-743: The Friedenskirche in Potsdam after his heart had been removed and buried separately alongside his parents in the mausoleum in Charlottenburg Palace Park. German language German (German: Deutsch , pronounced [dɔʏtʃ] ) is a West Germanic language in the Indo-European language family , mainly spoken in Western and Central Europe . It is the most spoken native language within
10773-522: The German states . While these states were still part of the Holy Roman Empire , and far from any form of unification, the desire for a cohesive written language that would be understandable across the many German-speaking principalities and kingdoms was stronger than ever. As a spoken language German remained highly fractured throughout this period, with a vast number of often mutually incomprehensible regional dialects being spoken throughout
10962-746: The Holy Roman Emperor Maximilian I , and the other being Meißner Deutsch , used in the Electorate of Saxony in the Duchy of Saxe-Wittenberg . Alongside these courtly written standards, the invention of the printing press led to the development of a number of printers' languages ( Druckersprachen ) aimed at making printed material readable and understandable across as many diverse dialects of German as possible. The greater ease of production and increased availability of written texts brought about increased standardisation in
11151-439: The Old High German language in several Elder Futhark inscriptions from as early as the sixth century AD (such as the Pforzen buckle ), the Old High German period is generally seen as beginning with the Abrogans (written c. 765–775 ), a Latin-German glossary supplying over 3,000 Old High German words with their Latin equivalents. After the Abrogans , the first coherent works written in Old High German appear in
11340-408: The Peninsular War , Great Britain did not take any direct part in the German campaign, though it sent subsidies to support it. A single congreave rocket battery commanded by Captain Richard Bogue took part in the 1813 campaign. He was killed at Leipzig. The Convention of Tauroggen became the starting-point of Prussia's regeneration. As the news of the destruction of the Grande Armée spread, and
11529-402: The Ruhr region , Silesia and Berlin slowly developed into centres of industrialisation. In spite of his politically backward-looking attitude, Frederick William supported the technological progress brought about by the Industrial Revolution , notably by using government bonds to promote the expansion of the railway network. The rapid industrial growth was accompanied by social tensions to which
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#173277247561911718-405: The Russian campaign of 1812, Johann Yorck – the general in command of the Grande Armée 's German auxiliaries ( Hilfskorps ) – declared a ceasefire with the Russians on 30 December 1812 via the Convention of Tauroggen . This was the decisive factor in the outbreak of the German campaign the following year. The spring campaign between France and the Sixth Coalition ended inconclusively with
11907-427: The Sprachraum in Europe. German is used in a wide variety of spheres throughout the country, especially in business, tourism, and public signage, as well as in education, churches (most notably the German-speaking Evangelical Lutheran Church in Namibia (GELK) ), other cultural spheres such as music, and media (such as German language radio programs by the Namibian Broadcasting Corporation ). The Allgemeine Zeitung
12096-422: The Standard German language in its written form, and the Duden Handbook was declared its standard definition. Punctuation and compound spelling (joined or isolated compounds) were not standardized in the process. The Deutsche Bühnensprache ( lit. ' German stage language ' ) by Theodor Siebs had established conventions for German pronunciation in theatres , three years earlier; however, this
12285-400: The Upper German dialects spoken in the southern German-speaking countries , such as Swiss German ( Alemannic dialects ) and the various Germanic dialects spoken in the French region of Grand Est , such as Alsatian (mainly Alemannic, but also Central–and Upper Franconian dialects) and Lorraine Franconian (Central Franconian). After these High German dialects, standard German
12474-494: The mountains if they attempted to force their way into Saxony by the valley of the Elbe. This latter manoeuvre depended, however, on his maintenance of Dresden, and to this end he sent the I Corps up the Elbe to Pirna and Königstein to cover the fortifications of Dresden itself. His instructions on this point deserve the closest study, for he foresaw the inevitable attraction which a complete entrenched camp would exercise even upon himself, and, therefore, limited his engineers to
12663-408: The pagan Germanic tradition. Of particular interest to scholars, however, has been the Hildebrandslied , a secular epic poem telling the tale of an estranged father and son unknowingly meeting each other in battle. Linguistically, this text is highly interesting due to the mixed use of Old Saxon and Old High German dialects in its composition. The written works of this period stem mainly from
12852-519: The 10 to 13 October Napoleon lay at Düben, again a prey to the most extraordinary irresolution, but on that day he thought he saw his opportunity. Blücher was reported near Wittenberg, and Schwarzenberg was moving slowly round to the south of Leipzig. The North Army under Bernadotte, unknown to Napoleon, lay on Blücher's left around Halle. Napoleon decided to throw the bulk of his force on Blücher, and, having routed him, turn south on Schwarzenberg and sever his communications with Bohemia. His concentration
13041-438: The 18 October the fighting was resumed and by about noon Bernadotte came up and closed the gap to the north-east of the town between Blücher and the Austrians. At 14:00 the Saxons, who had remained faithful to Napoleon longer than his other German allies, went over to Bernadotte's Army of the North a week after the Crown Prince had issued a proclamation calling for the Saxons to rejoin their former commander (Bernadotte had commanded
13230-463: The 4th or 5th day), the movement being continued thence to extricate the French garrisons in Küstrin , Stettin and Danzig. The moral effect, he promised himself, would be prodigious, and there was neither room nor food for these 100,000 elsewhere. Towards the close of the armistice Napoleon learned the general situation of the Coalition allies. The Crown Prince of Sweden, Charles John, formerly Marshal Jean Baptiste Jules Bernadotte , with his Swedes,
13419-427: The Allies, insofar as holding a wealthy center of finance was a blow against Napoleon. However, Bernadotte's initial misgivings at extending his troops so far from the Allied lines were validated when Marshal Davout approached Hamburg with a large French force of 35,000, intent on retaking the city. The Swedes quietly withdrew on 26 May and Davout would occupy the city until after Napoleon's abdication in 1814. It would be
13608-710: The Army of the North, 135,000 Swedes, Russians, Prussians, and German troops from Mecklenburg, the Hanseatic region and North Germany, under the independent command of Sweden's Crown Prince Bernadotte, and the primary Allied force in the field, with which the Allied sovereigns Alexander, Francis and Frederick William oversaw the Campaign, numbering 225,000 Austrians and Russians commanded by Prince Karl von Schwarzenberg. As soon as
13797-505: The Austrians had no intention of attacking him, for time was now working on their side and, leaving his men to starve in the exhausted district, Napoleon again returned to Dresden, where for the rest of the month he remained in an extraordinary state of vacillation. On 4 October he again drew up a review of the situation, in which he apparently contemplated giving up his communications with France and wintering in and around Dresden, though at
13986-541: The Bohemian mountains in the general direction of Königstein, a blow which must have had decisive results. But the news from Dresden was so alarming that at the last moment he changed his mind, and sending Vandamme alone over the mountains, he hurried with his whole army to the threatened point. This march remains one of the most extraordinary in history, for the bulk of his forces moved, mainly in mass and across country, 90 miles (140 km) in 72 hours, entering Dresden on
14175-582: The Christian estates. He made this clear to the governor of the province of Prussia not long after his coronation: I feel myself [to be king] entirely by the grace of God and will feel that way with His help until the end. Without envy I leave splendour and artifice to so-called constitutional princes, who have become a fiction, an abstract concept to the people through a piece of paper [a constitution]. As his alternative to parliamentary-style popular legislatures, Frederick William IV focussed his attention on
14364-515: The Dresden road, Blücher for Bernadotte to come in on his left, and by some extraordinary oversight Giulay was brought closer in to the Austrian centre, thus opening for the French their line of retreat towards Erfurt, and no information of this movement appears to have been conveyed to Blücher. Napoleon when he became aware of the movement, sent the IV Corps to Lindenau to keep the road open. On
14553-407: The Elbe, and in the first fortnight of April, they were duly concentrated in the angle formed by the Elbe and Saale, threatening on the one hand Berlin and on the other, Dresden and the east. The coalition, aware of the gradual strengthening of their enemy's forces but themselves as yet unable to put more than 200,000 in the field, had left a small corps of observation opposite Magdeburg and along
14742-447: The Elbe, making only dashes of a few days duration at any target the enemy might present. Reinforcements had been coming up without ceasing and at the beginning of August Napoleon calculated that he would have 300,000 men available about Bautzen and 100,000 along the Elbe from Hamburg via Magdeburg to Torgau . With the latter he determined to strike the first blow, by a concentric advance on Berlin (which he calculated he would reach on
14931-670: The Empire. Its use indicated that the speaker was a merchant or someone from an urban area, regardless of nationality. Prague (German: Prag ) and Budapest ( Buda , German: Ofen ), to name two examples, were gradually Germanized in the years after their incorporation into the Habsburg domain; others, like Pressburg ( Pozsony , now Bratislava), were originally settled during the Habsburg period and were primarily German at that time. Prague, Budapest, Bratislava, and cities like Zagreb (German: Agram ) or Ljubljana (German: Laibach ), contained significant German minorities. In
15120-526: The Erfurt Union in the Prussian government, Austria was able to revive the German Confederation, which had been inactive since the 1848 revolutions. In the Punctation of Olmütz , Prussia declared its willingness to return to the German Confederation without Austria having assured it of legal equality in the leadership of the Confederation. In addition to the 1848 revolution and the constitutional question that dominated Frederick William IV's reign, there were
15309-516: The French occupation of much of Germany. They advocated limitations to the dynastic princes of Germany and a joint effort by all Germans, including Prussians and Austrians, to eject the French. From 1810, Arndt and Jahn repeatedly asked high-ranking figures in Prussian society to prepare such an uprising. Jahn himself organised the German League and made a major contribution to the founding of the Lützow Free Corps . These forerunners took part in
15498-469: The French. Suddenly Napoleon's plans were again reviewed and completely changed. Calling up St Cyr , whom he had already warned to remain at Dresden with his command, he decided to fall back towards Erfurt, and go into winter quarters between that place and Magdeburg, pointing out that Dresden was of no use to him as a base and that if he were to have a battle, it was much better have St Cyr and his men with him than at Dresden. On 7 October Napoleon drew up
15687-748: The Frisian languages— North Frisian (spoken in Nordfriesland ), Saterland Frisian (spoken in Saterland ), and West Frisian (spoken in Friesland )—as well as the Anglic languages of English and Scots. These Anglo-Frisian dialects did not take part in the High German consonant shift, and the Anglic languages also adopted much vocabulary from both Old Norse and the Norman language . The history of
15876-483: The German language begins with the High German consonant shift during the Migration Period , which separated Old High German dialects from Old Saxon . This sound shift involved a drastic change in the pronunciation of both voiced and voiceless stop consonants ( b , d , g , and p , t , k , respectively). The primary effects of the shift were the following below. While there is written evidence of
16065-451: The German states; the invention of the printing press c. 1440 and the publication of Luther's vernacular translation of the Bible in 1534, however, had an immense effect on standardizing German as a supra-dialectal written language. The ENHG period saw the rise of several important cross-regional forms of chancery German, one being gemeine tiutsch , used in the court of
16254-681: The Germanic dialects that were affected by the High German consonant shift (south of Benrath) from those that were not (north of Uerdingen). The various regional dialects spoken south of these lines are grouped as High German dialects, while those spoken to the north comprise the Low German and Low Franconian dialects. As members of the West Germanic language family, High German, Low German, and Low Franconian have been proposed to be further distinguished historically as Irminonic , Ingvaeonic , and Istvaeonic , respectively. This classification indicates their historical descent from dialects spoken by
16443-604: The Irminones (also known as the Elbe group), Ingvaeones (or North Sea Germanic group), and Istvaeones (or Weser–Rhine group). Standard German is based on a combination of Thuringian - Upper Saxon and Upper Franconian dialects, which are Central German and Upper German dialects belonging to the High German dialect group. German is therefore closely related to the other languages based on High German dialects, such as Luxembourgish (based on Central Franconian dialects ) and Yiddish . Also closely related to Standard German are
16632-698: The King did not respond with any significant policies beyond donations to private social associations. In 1844, for example, he provided the Association for the Welfare of the Working Class with 15,000 thalers. The next year he issued a General Prussian Industrial Code that included a ban on strikes and prison sentences of up to a year for conspiring to encourage one. The overthrow of the French July Monarchy on 24 February 1848 triggered
16821-428: The King out of his short-term plans to abdicate. Otto von Bismarck , the future chancellor of a united Germany, joined the group towards the end of 1848. The second United Parliament called by Frederick William on 2 April 1848 announced elections to form a Prussian National Assembly , which convened in Berlin on 22 May. Frederick William IV submitted a draft constitution in which the balance of power continued to favour
17010-518: The MHG period. Significantly, these texts include a number of impressive secular works, such as the Nibelungenlied , an epic poem telling the story of the dragon -slayer Siegfried ( c. thirteenth century ), and the Iwein , an Arthurian verse poem by Hartmann von Aue ( c. 1203 ), lyric poems , and courtly romances such as Parzival and Tristan . Also noteworthy
17199-617: The Provincial Estates, the representative bodies of the eight Prussian provinces, which had been founded in 1823. In 1847 he summoned all representatives of the Prussian provincial parliaments to Berlin. He was prepared to give the United Parliament the right to discuss the financing of railways, canals and roads – specifically a request for a 25 million thaler bond for building the Berlin to Königsberg railway. He did not want to levy new taxes or take out loans without
17388-727: The Prussian military to help put down revolutionary forces throughout the German Confederation . Frederick William IV had an artistic nature and an interest in architecture. He extended the building ensembles of the Berlin-Potsdam Residence Landscape , Museum Island , and the cultural landscape of the Upper Middle Rhine Valley, and he supported the completion of the Cologne Cathedral . All are now UNESCO World Heritage Sites . From 1857 to 1861, he suffered several strokes and
17577-745: The Prussian state treasury. For negotiations with the Roman Curia , the King announced in June 1840 that within the Ministry of Culture he would set up a department for Catholic affairs which was to consist exclusively of Catholic councillors. With the founding of the Protestant Church in Prussia in 1817, in which Calvinists and Lutherans were united, Friedrich Wilhelm's father had created an institution for all Protestants in his kingdom that
17766-529: The Saxons during the Wagram Campaign). All hope of saving the battle had now to be given up, but the French covered their retreat obstinately and by daybreak next morning one-half of the army was already filing out along the road to Erfurt which had so fortunately for the French been left for them. It took Blücher time to extricate his troops from the confusion into which the battle had thrown them, and
17955-404: The United Parliament's consent, envisioning that their approval would not restrict his power but strengthen it by eliminating future constitutional demands. In his opening speech, Frederick William reiterated that he did not want a "piece of paper" to come between himself and the people and replace the "old, sacred loyalty with it". He told the deputies of the limits he saw on their duties: "... it
18144-541: The advancing troops to Memel . After Prussia's defeat and the family's return to Berlin, Frederick William's education was adapted more to prepare him for governing. He was generally dismissive of the Prussian reforms that were then underway with the aim of modernising the state from within. His tutor Friedrich Delbrück had instilled in him a disgust of revolutionaries, so that he had no sympathy for Karl August von Hardenberg 's insistence that Prussia be reorganised through
18333-525: The advice of Alexander von Humboldt , he founded the separate civil class of the Pour le Merite , the Order Pour le Mérite for Sciences and Arts ( Orden Pour le Mérite für Wissenschaften und Künste ). The civil order is still being awarded today. Frederick William IV's accession to the throne came with great expectations among liberals and nationalists. By beginning his reign with a policy of reconciliation,
18522-400: The appearance of countless stragglers convinced the Prussian people of the reality of the disaster, the spirit generated by years of French domination burst out. For the moment the king and his ministers were placed in a position of the greatest anxiety, for they knew the resources of France and the boundless versatility of their arch-enemy far too well to imagine that the end of their sufferings
18711-601: The architects – included the Alte Nationalgalerie (Old National Gallery) and the Neues Museum in Berlin, the Orangery Palace at Potsdam as well as the reconstruction of Stolzenfels Castle on the Rhine and Hohenzollern Castle , in the ancestral homelands of the dynasty which became part of Prussia in 1850. He also enlarged and redecorated his father's Erdmannsdorf manor house. In 1842, on
18900-468: The army. Ultimately on 18 May the march was renewed, but the Coalition allies had continued their retreat in leisurely fashion, picking up reinforcements by the way. Arrived at the line of the Spree, they took up and fortified a very formidable position about Bautzen . Here, on 20 May, they were attacked, and after a two-day battle dislodged by Napoleon; but the weakness of the French cavalry conditioned both
19089-718: The boundaries between patriotism and religious fervour became blurred. He saw the conflict as a crusade against the ideas of the Enlightenment and the French Revolution. In many pieces of correspondence from the period, the Crown Prince wrote about religious experiences using elements of the Pietist revivalist movement, including the subjective experience of God, the power of personal prayer and individual striving for salvation and redemption. Frederick William
19278-557: The bulk of his forces on his right in the vicinity of Gross-Görschen and Kaya. At around 09:00 on 2 May, Wittgenstein began his attack on the French advance guard in Lützen, whilst the remainder of his army was directed against Napoleon's right and rear. Just as the latter were moving off the heads of the French main body suddenly appeared, and at 11:00 Napoleon, then standing near the Gustavus Adolphus Monument on
19467-491: The campaign, and working in collusion they put pressure on the not unwilling representatives of the civil power to facilitate the supply and equipment of such troops as were still in the field; they could not refuse food and shelter to their starving countrymen or their loyal allies, and thus by degrees the French garrisons scattered about the country either found themselves surrounded or were compelled to retire to avoid that fate. Thus it happened that Prince Eugène de Beauharnais ,
19656-477: The city wearing a black, red and gold armband – the colours of the revolution – and had an officer dressed in civilian clothes carry a similarly coloured flag in front of him. The King repeatedly stopped to make improvised speeches to affirm his alleged support for German unity. The next day he secretly wrote to his brother William: "I had to voluntarily raise the Reich colours yesterday in order to save everything. If
19845-436: The command of General Karl Philipp von Wrede to intercept his retreat, followed in a most leisurely fashion. Blücher did not succeed in overtaking the French, but the latter, near Hanau, found their way barred by Wrede with 40,000 men and over 100 guns in a strong position. To this fresh emergency, Napoleon and his army responded in most sacrificial fashion. As at Krasnoi in 1812, Napoleon ordered his troops to go straight for
20034-420: The consent of the United Parliament. Discrimination based on the estates should be abolished and the citizenry guaranteed legal protection against arbitrary measures by the state. If their demands were not fulfilled, they concluded, the parliament would be forced to reject the King's spending plans. Frederick William stopped attending parliamentary sessions and on 26 June 1847 dissolved the United Parliament. With
20223-495: The constitution with the King's cooperation, and on 31 January 1850, the Constitution of 1850 was promulgated. The Parliament had two chambers – an aristocratic upper house and a lower house elected by all male Prussians over 25 years of age using a three-class franchise that weighted votes based on the amount of taxes paid, with the result that the wealthy had far more influence than the poor. The constitution reserved to
20412-400: The construction of a strong bridge head on the right bank and a continuous enceinte , broken only by gaps for counter attack, around the town itself. Then Napoleon turned his attention to the plan for the coming campaign. Seeing clearly that his want of an efficient cavalry precluded all ideas of a resolute offensive in his old style, he determined to limit himself to a defence of the line of
20601-407: The courtiers who had belonged to Frederick William IV's camarilla. On 24 November 1859, the king suffered a stroke that paralysed his left side. Since he was no longer able to be transported, the court remained at Sanssouci . On 4 November 1860, he lost consciousness after another stroke, and on 2 January 1861 he died. In accordance with his testamentary instructions from 1854, the King was buried in
20790-656: The death of his father in 1840. Through a personal union , he was also the sovereign prince of the Principality of Neuchâtel (1840–1857), which at the same time was a canton in the Swiss Confederation and the only one that was a principality. In 1842, he gave his father's menagerie at Pfaueninsel to the new Berlin Zoo , which opened its gates in 1844 as the first of its kind in Germany. Other projects during his reign – often involving his close collaboration with
20979-430: The development of non-local forms of language and exposed all speakers to forms of German from outside their own area. With Luther's rendering of the Bible in the vernacular, German asserted itself against the dominance of Latin as a legitimate language for courtly, literary, and now ecclesiastical subject-matter. His Bible was ubiquitous in the German states: nearly every household possessed a copy. Nevertheless, even with
21168-456: The dialect so as to make the work as natural and accessible to German speakers as possible. Copies of Luther's Bible featured a long list of glosses for each region, translating words which were unknown in the region into the regional dialect. Luther said the following concerning his translation method: One who would talk German does not ask the Latin how he shall do it; he must ask the mother in
21357-634: The dynastic tradition into question, the execution of Louis XVI in 1793 helped create the conditions for Frederick William's later political orientation towards historical continuity and tradition. Since there was a danger that he and his younger brother William might be captured by the French after the Prussians lost the Battle of Jena–Auerstedt on 14 October 1806, they were taken to Königsberg in East Prussia on 17 October 1806. After their parents arrived on 9 December 1806, they fled together from
21546-519: The eastern provinces of Banat , Bukovina , and Transylvania (German: Banat, Buchenland, Siebenbürgen ), German was the predominant language not only in the larger towns—like Temeschburg ( Timișoara ), Hermannstadt ( Sibiu ), and Kronstadt ( Brașov )—but also in many smaller localities in the surrounding areas. In 1901, the Second Orthographic Conference ended with a (nearly) complete standardization of
21735-484: The enemy and after a series of artillery movements, directed by General Drouot, they marched right over the enemy, practically destroying the whole force, yet taking heavy casualties in the process, depleting Napoleon's troops even further. Henceforward, their march was unmolested and the French reached Mainz on 5 November to prepare for the invasion of Eastern France. When the last of the French troops crossed Rhine back into France, divided counsels made their appearance at
21924-490: The enemy's field army. From these reveries he was at length awakened by news which indicated that the consequences of Macdonald's defeat had been far more serious to the morale of that command than he had imagined. He immediately rode over to establish order, and his manner and violence were so improper that Caulaincourt had the greatest difficulty in concealing the scandal. Blücher, however, hearing of Napoleon's arrival, at once retreated and Napoleon followed, thus uncovering
22113-449: The expiration of the armistice. However Napoleon, in command of the main French army, waited to see more clearly his adversaries' plans. At length becoming impatient he advanced a portion of his army towards Blücher, who fell back to draw him into a trap. Then the news reached Napoleon that Schwarzenberg was pressing down the valley of the Elbe, and, leaving Macdonald to observe Blücher, he hurried back to Bautzen to dispose his troops to cross
22302-584: The failure of the First United Parliament, the government not only lost its ability to act on fiscal policy – the Prussian National Debt Act of January 1820 stipulating that the government could only take on new debt if it was co-guaranteed by the "imperial estates" remained in force – but also faced increased doubts within Prussia about the legitimacy of the existing state order. During the reign of Frederick William IV,
22491-416: The field of Lützen, heard the roar of a heavy cannonade to his right rear. He realized the situation in a moment, galloped to the scene, and at once grouped his forces for a decisive action—the gift in which he was supreme. Leaving the leading troops to repulse as best they might the furious attack of the Prussians and Russians, and caring little whether they lost ground, he rapidly organized for his own control
22680-541: The fighting. The suppression of the uprising in Saxony strengthened Prussia's negotiating position in its attempt to establish a united German federal state of princes under Prussian leadership. The basis for the union was the Three Kings' Alliance of 26 May 1849 between Prussia, the Kingdom of Saxony and the Kingdom of Hanover . The three monarchs committed themselves for a period of one year to work together to realise
22869-464: The following day; Blücher had about 60,000, but Bernadotte now could not arrive before 18 October. Napoleon prepared to throw the bulk of his force upon Schwarzenberg and massed his troops south-east of the town, whilst Schwarzenberg marched concentrically against him down the valley of the Elster and Pleisse , the mass of his troops on the right bank of the latter and a strong column under Giulay on
23058-473: The following positions. Eugène, with Marshal Jacques MacDonald's and Generals Jacques Lauriston 's and Jean Reynier 's corps on the lower Saale, Marshal Michel Ney in front of Weimar , holding the defile of Kösen ; the Imperial Guard at Erfurt, Marshal Auguste de Marmont at Gotha , General Henri Bertrand at Saalfeld , and Marshal Nicolas Oudinot at Coburg , and during the next few days
23247-496: The form of the attack, which was less effective than usual, and the results of the victory, which were extremely meagre. The Coalition allies broke off the action at their own time and retired in such good order that Napoleon failed to capture a single trophy as proof of his victory. The enemy's escape annoyed him greatly, the absence of captured guns and prisoners reminded him too much of his Russian experiences, and he redoubled his demands on his corps commanders for greater vigour in
23436-508: The gamble is successful ... I will take them down again!" On 29 March 1848, Frederick William appointed a liberal government led by Minister President Ludolf Camphausen and Finance Minister David Hansemann . The following day, the King founded a secret secondary cabinet, the ministre occulte , as a counter to Camphausen's government. The courtly interest group, which included General Leopold von Gerlach , his brother Ernst Ludwig von Gerlach and Count Anton of Stolberg-Wernigerode , talked
23625-535: The garrison of Leipzig and the troops left on the right bank of the Elster still resisted obstinately—hence no direct pursuit could be initiated and the French, still upwards of 100,000 strong, marching rapidly, soon gained distance enough to be reformed. Blücher followed by parallel and inferior roads on their northern flank, but Schwarzenberg knowing that the Bavarians also had forsaken Napoleon and were marching under
23814-452: The ghastly author of bloodshed." On 21 March 1848, the King, or rather his camarilla , initiated an apparent change of course by placing Frederick William IV at the head of the revolution, whereas the truth was that he lacked the means to pursue a policy independent of the citizens' movement. The King announced that he would support the formation of an all-German parliament, one of the revolution's key demands. On 21 March 1848, he rode through
24003-487: The grace of God" were removed from the draft on 12 October, openly calling into question the divine right of kings . The break with the crown culminated on 31 October when the Assembly abolished nobility, titles and privileges. Frederick William IV then launched a political counterattack. On 1 November he appointed his uncle Frederick William of Brandenburg , who came from the conservative military camp, as minister president of Prussia. Unlike previous minister presidents during
24192-475: The headquarters of the coalition. Every one was weary of the war, and many felt that it would be unwise to push Napoleon and the French nation to extremes. Hence a prolonged halt arose, utilized by the troops in renewing their equipment and so forth, but ultimately the Young German party, led by Blücher and the principal fighting men of the army, triumphed, and early in 1814 the coalition invaded France. At
24381-435: The home, the children on the streets, the common man in the market-place and note carefully how they talk, then translate accordingly. They will then understand what is said to them because it is German. When Christ says ' ex abundantia cordis os loquitur ,' I would translate, if I followed the papists, aus dem Überflusz des Herzens redet der Mund . But tell me is this talking German? What German understands such stuff? No,
24570-481: The influence of Luther's Bible as an unofficial written standard, a widely accepted standard for written German did not appear until the middle of the eighteenth century. German was the language of commerce and government in the Habsburg Empire , which encompassed a large area of Central and Eastern Europe . Until the mid-nineteenth century, it was essentially the language of townspeople throughout most of
24759-698: The initiator and commander-in-chief of the Hessian uprising, and Major Ferdinand von Schill . Following the near-destruction of Napoleon 's Grande Armée in Russia in 1812, Johann Yorck – the general in command of the Grande Armée 's German auxiliaries ( Hilfskorps ) from the Confederation of the Rhine – declared a ceasefire with the Russians on 30 December 1812 via the Convention of Tauroggen . This
24948-457: The king the power of appointing all ministers, re-established the conservative district assemblies and provincial diets and guaranteed that the civil service and the military remained firmly under control of the king. It also contained a number of liberal elements such as jury courts and a catalogue of fundamental rights that included freedom of religion, speech and the press. It was a more liberal system than had existed in Prussia before 1848, but it
25137-472: The king's dominant position in the state. It stipulated that the army and bureaucracy were answerable to the king and not the National Assembly. It also enshrined his view that he was "King by the grace of God" and that the constitution was merely an "agreement between the crown and the people". At the beginning of April, a national pre-parliament sitting at Frankfurt-am-Main decided to work with
25326-401: The largest concentrations of German speakers are in the states of Rio Grande do Sul (where Riograndenser Hunsrückisch developed), Santa Catarina , and Espírito Santo . Wars of Liberation 16 August 1813: Total: 860,000 men 16 August 1813: Total: 700,000 men The German campaign ( German : Befreiungskriege , lit. ' Wars of Liberation ')
25515-463: The last major action of the spring before the Armistice of Pläswitz. Still, the coalition continued their retreat and the French were unable to force them into battle. In view of the doubtful attitude of Austria, Napoleon became alarmed at the gradual lengthening of his lines of communication and opened negotiations. The enemy, having everything to gain and nothing to lose thereby, agreed finally to
25704-525: The left working round to join Blücher on the north. The fighting which followed was most obstinate, but the Austrians failed to make any impression on the French positions, and indeed Giulay felt himself compelled to withdraw to his former position. On the other hand, Blücher carried the village of Möckern and came within a mile of the gates of the town. During the 17th there was only indecisive skirmishing, Schwarzenberg waiting for his reinforcements coming up by
25893-466: The majority refused to comply, the King ordered General Friedrich von Wrangel to march through the Brandenburg Gate at the head of 13,000 soldiers and sixty guns. That Wrangel met with no resistance was due in part to the disillusionment of the craftsmen and industrial workers with the revolution. It had done nothing to change their economic hardship, which had led to isolated riots. Although
26082-558: The middle and upper classes sympathised with the workers, they did not want a violent social upheaval and sided with the King. On 5 December the King dissolved the Prussian National Assembly and imposed the Constitution of 1848 . Although Frederick William IV personally opposed the idea of introducing a constitution, the majority of his ministry urged him to take the step in order to prevent protests from flaring up again. The first Parliament of Prussia then modified
26271-527: The military historian Frederic Maude writing in the Encyclopædia Britannica 11th Edition (1911) perhaps no battle better exemplifies the inherent strength of Napoleon's strategy, and in none was his grasp of the battlefield more brilliantly displayed, for, as he fully recognized, "These Prussians have at last learnt something—they are no longer the wooden toys of Frederick the Great", and, on
26460-485: The morning of 27 August, only a few hours before the attack of the Coalition allies commenced. Dresden was the last great victory of the First Empire. By noon on 27 August the Austrians and Russians were completely beaten and in full retreat, the French pressing hard behind them, but meanwhile Napoleon himself again succumbed to one of his unaccountable attacks of apparent intellectual paralysis. He seemed unaware of
26649-402: The mother in the home and the plain man would say, Wesz das Herz voll ist, des gehet der Mund über . Luther's translation of the Bible into High German was also decisive for the German language and its evolution from Early New High German to modern Standard German. The publication of Luther's Bible was a decisive moment in the spread of literacy in early modern Germany , and promoted
26838-471: The new king fulfilled their hopes during his first six months on the throne. Through an amnesty enacted on 10 August 1840, all "political criminals" were released, politically motivated investigations and court proceedings were discontinued, and press censorship was eased. As a result of the concessions, liberals initially overlooked the fact that Frederick William IV was not of one mind with them. The King intended his policy of reconciliation to restore trust in
27027-431: The next two days Napoleon examined his situation and dictated a series of notes which have been a puzzle to every strategical thinker ever since. In these he seems suddenly to have cut adrift from every military principle the truth of which the French military so brilliantly demonstrated for decades, in them he considers plans based on hypothesis, not knowledge, and on the importance of geographical points without reference to
27216-653: The ninth century, chief among them being the Muspilli , Merseburg charms , and Hildebrandslied , and other religious texts (the Georgslied , Ludwigslied , Evangelienbuch , and translated hymns and prayers). The Muspilli is a Christian poem written in a Bavarian dialect offering an account of the soul after the Last Judgment , and the Merseburg charms are transcriptions of spells and charms from
27405-426: The other hand, the relative inferiority of his own men as compared with his veterans of Austerlitz called for far more individual effort than on any previous day. He was everywhere, encouraging and compelling his men—it is a legend in the French army that the persuasion even of the imperial boot was used upon some of his reluctant conscripts, and in the result his system was fully justified, as it triumphed even against
27594-520: The outbreak of hostilities in Germany, both by serving in the armed forces and by backing the coalition through their writings. Even before the German campaign, there had been uprisings against French troops occupying Germany – these had broken out from 1806 onwards in Hesse and in 1809 during the Tyrolean Rebellion . These uprisings intensified in the same year under Wilhelm von Dörnberg ,
27783-540: The outset, Frederick William IV began to lose interest in the project. By the winter of 1849, the Kingdoms of Hanover and Saxony had withdrawn their consent as well. In contrast to Prussia, Austria wanted to restore the German Confederation and opposed Prussia's Erfurt Union plans. Saxony, Hanover, Bavaria and Württemberg sided with Austria in the Four Kings' Alliance . With the backing of the conservative opponents of
27972-401: The passes over the Bohemian mountains, a fact of which Schwarzenberg was quick to take advantage. Learning of his approach, Napoleon again withdrew to Bautzen. Then hearing that the Austrians had counter-marched and were again moving towards Dresden, Napoleon hastened back there, concentrated as many men as could conveniently be handled, and advanced beyond Pirna and Königstein to meet him. But
28161-431: The persuasions of Blücher and Gneisenau could move him. Thus if the French movement momentarily ended in a blow in the air, it was indirectly the cause of their ultimate salvation. On the 15 October Napoleon concentrated his forces to the east of Leipzig, with only a weak detachment to the west, and in the evening the Coalition allies were prepared to attack him. Schwarzenberg had 180,000 men available at once and 60,000 on
28350-462: The pronunciation of the ending -ig as [ɪk] instead of [ɪç]. In Northern Germany, High German was a foreign language to most inhabitants, whose native dialects were subsets of Low German. It was usually encountered only in writing or formal speech; in fact, most of High German was a written language, not identical to any spoken dialect, throughout the German-speaking area until well into the 19th century. However, wider standardization of pronunciation
28539-409: The pursuit. This led the latter to push on without due regard to tactical precautions, and Blücher took advantage of their carelessness when at the Battle of Haynau (26 May), with some twenty squadrons of Landwehr cavalry, he surprised, rode over and almost destroyed General Nicolas Maison's division. The material loss inflicted on the French was not very great, but its effect in raising the morale of
28728-507: The raw Prussian cavalry and increasing their confidence in their old commander was enormous. Meanwhile, on 19 May 1813, a Swedish corps of 15,000 occupied Hamburg without orders from Bernadotte, following a Danish declaration that they would hold the city for Napoleon, irrevocably binding Denmark to France, an action that would guarantee full Swedish cooperation in North Germany. The Swedish occupation of Hamburg came as welcome news to
28917-512: The regular army, and for home defence only, and these by a skillful appeal to their patriotism and judicious pressure applied through the prefects , became a useful reservoir of half-trained men for new battalions of the active army. Levies were also made with rigorous severity in the states of the Rhine Confederation, and even Italy was called on for fresh sacrifices. In this manner by the end of March, 200,000 men were moving towards
29106-477: The renewal of a Holy Roman Empire of the German Nation , of which Austria had been part for centuries. Accepting the imperial dignity would also have meant an open foreign policy snub of Austria and probably have provoked a war. Even more important was the fact that, in the King's opinion, the imperial dignity could only be conferred by the princes or a college of electors, as had been the case until 1806. As
29295-504: The revolutionary period, Brandenburg was closer to the King than to the National Assembly. The National Assembly sent 25 deputies to the King on 2 November to protest against Brandenburg's appointment. He cancelled the audience after the deputies had read out their request. Under the pretext of removing the National Assembly from the pressure of the Berlin streets, the King told the deputies that they would be moved to Brandenburg an der Havel on 9 November and adjourned until 27 November. After
29484-561: The royal personal physicians. The charter included the formal possibility of a resumption of official duties. The signing of the Regency Charter heralded the New Era in Prussia, marking the end of Frederick William IV's idea of government. Prince Regent William dismissed the reactionary minister president Otto von Manteuffel and recruited Karl Anton von Hohenzollern-Sigmaringen from the liberal-nationalist camp. He also dismissed
29673-436: The same time he is aware of the distress amongst his men for want of food. Meanwhile Blücher, Schwarzenberg, and Bernadotte were working round Napoleon's flanks. Ney, who had joined Oudinot after Grossbeeren, was defeated at the Battle of Dennewitz (6 September) by Bernadotte's Army of the North, with Prussian troops doing a majority of the fighting until the end of the battle when Swedish and Russian troops arrived and routed
29862-608: The same time, Field Marshal Arthur Wellesley, the Duke of Wellington invaded France over the Pyrenees . Leaving Marshals Jean-de-Dieu Soult and Louis-Gabriel Suchet to defend southwestern France, Napoleon fought and lost a campaign in northeastern France , that ended with the occupation of Paris, the abdication of Napoleon, his exile to Elba, and the Bourbon Restoration under King Louis XVIII . The campaign ended
30051-417: The south of the direction taken by the French. On 1 May, Napoleon and the advance guard entered Lützen . Russian General Peter Wittgenstein , who now commanded the Coalition allies in place of Field Marshal Mikhail Kutuzov , hearing of his approach, had decided to attack the French advance guard, which he mistakenly believed to be their whole force, on its right flank, and during the morning had drawn together
30240-492: The states of North Dakota and South Dakota , German is the most common language spoken at home after English. As a legacy of significant German immigration to the country , German geographical names can be found throughout the Midwest region , such as New Ulm and Bismarck (North Dakota's state capital), plus many other regions. A number of German varieties have developed in the country and are still spoken today, such as Pennsylvania Dutch and Texas German . In Brazil,
30429-449: The third most commonly learned second language in the United States in K-12 education. The language has been influential in the fields of philosophy, theology, science, and technology. It is the second most commonly used language in science and the third most widely used language on websites . The German-speaking countries are ranked fifth in terms of annual publication of new books, with one-tenth of all books (including e-books) in
30618-420: The title of Emperor of the Germans offered by the Frankfurt Parliament in 1849, believing that it did not have the right to make such an offer. In December 1848 he dissolved the Prussian National Assembly when he found its constitutional proposals too radical. At the urging of his ministry, which wanted to prevent a renewal of unrest, he imposed a constitution with a parliament and a strong monarch. He then used
30807-412: The viceroy of Italy, felt compelled to retreat from the positions that Napoleon ordered him to hold at al costs to his advanced position at Poznań (German: Posen), where about 14,000 men had gradually rallied around him, and to withdraw step by step to Magdeburg , where he met reinforcements and commanded the whole course of the lower Elbe . Meanwhile in Paris, Napoleon had been raising and organizing
30996-402: The view of the "political romantics", the structure of the estates took the natural inequality of man into account. Individuals should fulfil the tasks and duties that serve the good of society as a whole in the place assigned to them by God. In the Prussian constitutional question, Frederick William IV was not striving for the realisation of a constitutional monarchy but rather a state governed by
31185-402: The vital importance of the moment, crouched shivering over a bivouac fire, and finally rode back to Dresden, leaving no specific orders for the further pursuit. The Coalition allies, however, continued to retreat, and unfortunately for the French, Vandamme, with his single corps and unsupported, issued out of the mountains on their flank, threw himself across their line of retreat near Kulm, and
31374-401: The war effort. Allied staffs began creating a plan for the campaign wherein Bernadotte put to use his twenty years of experience as a French general, as well as his familiarity with Napoleon. The result was the Trachenberg Plan, authored primarily by Bernadotte, with contributions from the Austrian Chief of Staff, Field-Marshal Lieutenant Joseph Radetzky, that sought to wear down the French using
31563-464: The whole were set in motion towards Merseburg and Leipzig, in the now stereotyped Napoleonic order, a strong advanced guard of all arms leading, the remainder—about two-thirds of the whole—following as "masse de manœuvre", this time, owing to the cover afforded by the Elbe on the left, to the right rear of the advanced guard. Meanwhile, the Prussians and Russians had concentrated all available men and were moving in an almost parallel line, but somewhat to
31752-438: The world being published in German. German is most closely related to other West Germanic languages, namely Afrikaans , Dutch , English , the Frisian languages , and Scots . It also contains close similarities in vocabulary to some languages in the North Germanic group , such as Danish , Norwegian , and Swedish . Modern German gradually developed from Old High German , which in turn developed from Proto-Germanic during
31941-415: The written form of German. One of the central events in the development of ENHG was the publication of Luther's translation of the Bible into High German (the New Testament was published in 1522; the Old Testament was published in parts and completed in 1534). Luther based his translation primarily on the Meißner Deutsch of Saxony , spending much time among the population of Saxony researching
32130-403: Was 14, he saw it as a punishment from God and linked it directly to his outlook on life. He believed that only by leading a life more pleasing to God would he be able to absolve himself of the guilt he felt for her death. Frederick William's early childhood fell during a period in which the European monarchies were confronted with the revolutionary challenge of the French Revolution . By calling
32319-420: Was a Romanticist , and his devotion to the movement, which in the German states featured nostalgia for the Middle Ages , played a part in his developing a conservative worldview at an early age. In 1815, when he was twenty, the Crown Prince exerted his influence to structure the proposed new constitution of 1815, which was never enacted, in such a way that the landed aristocracy would hold the greatest power. He
32508-429: Was a "neutral" language as there were virtually no English native speakers in Namibia at that time. German, Afrikaans, and several indigenous languages thus became "national languages" by law, identifying them as elements of the cultural heritage of the nation and ensuring that the state acknowledged and supported their presence in the country. Today, Namibia is considered to be the only German-speaking country outside of
32697-416: Was a Roman Catholic, the preparations for the marriage included difficult negotiations which ended with her conversion to Lutheranism . There were two wedding ceremonies – one in Munich by proxy according to the Catholic rite, and the other in person in Berlin. The couple had a harmonious marriage, but after Louise had a miscarriage in 1828, it remained childless. Frederick William became king of Prussia on
32886-450: Was a precursor to the modern German nation state, which was, however, only realized more than half a century later under Prussian leadership, with the exclusion of Austria, including Germans in the Sudetanlands of Bohemia. The popular image of the campaign in Germany was shaped by the cultural memory of its veterans, especially the many students who volunteered to fight in the Lützow Free Corps and other units who later rose to high positions in
33075-527: Was against the liberalisation of Germany and aspired to unify its many states within what he viewed as a historically legitimate framework, inspired by the ancient laws and customs of the Holy Roman Empire , which had been dissolved under Napoleon in 1806. He was a draftsman interested in both architecture and landscape gardening and was a patron of several great German artists, including architect Karl Friedrich Schinkel and composer Felix Mendelssohn . In 1823 he married Elisabeth Ludovika of Bavaria . Since she
33264-407: Was an artificial standard that did not correspond to any traditional spoken dialect. Rather, it was based on the pronunciation of German in Northern Germany, although it was subsequently regarded often as a general prescriptive norm, despite differing pronunciation traditions especially in the Upper-German-speaking regions that still characterise the dialect of the area today – especially
33453-403: Was completely overwhelmed by sheer weight of numbers ( Battle of Kulm , 29 August). In spite of this misfortune, Napoleon could claim a brilliant success for himself, but almost at the same moment news reached him that Oudinot had been severely defeated at the Battle of Grossbeeren (23 August) near Berlin by Bernadotte as had Macdonald at the Battle of Katzbach (26 August) by Blücher. During
33642-441: Was deeply religious. Influenced by Romanticism and the Pietist revivalist movement, he envisioned a Christian state and believed that only Christianity could protect his subjects from revolutionary utopias and reverse the secularisation, growing materialism and other processes of modernisation that he considered harmful. For Friedrich Wilhelm, religion and politics were inextricably linked. In contrast to his father, Frederick William
33831-431: Was directly dependent on the sovereign as the summus episcopus (high bishop). In response, the Old Lutherans formed their own church in 1830, claiming to represent the "true" Lutheran Church, and were consequently subjected to state persecution. In 1845 Frederick William lifted the ban on the formation of Old Lutheran churches and released imprisoned pastors. As part of his policy of reconciliation, Frederick William IV
34020-499: Was effected with his usual sureness and celerity, but whilst the French moved on Wittenberg, Blücher was marching to his right, indifferent to his communications as all Prussia lay behind him. This move on 14 October brought him into touch with Bernadotte, and now a single march forward of all three armies would have absolutely isolated Napoleon from France; but Bernadotte's nerve failed him, for on hearing of Napoleon's threat against Wittenberg he decided to retreat northward, and not all
34209-427: Was established on the basis of public speaking in theatres and the media during the 20th century and documented in pronouncing dictionaries. Official revisions of some of the rules from 1901 were not issued until the controversial German orthography reform of 1996 was made the official standard by governments of all German-speaking countries. Media and written works are now almost all produced in Standard German which
34398-446: Was fought in 1813. Members of the Sixth Coalition , including the German states of Austria and Prussia, plus Russia and Sweden, fought a series of battles in Germany against the French Emperor Napoleon , his marshals, and the armies of the Confederation of the Rhine – an alliance of most of the other German states –, which ended the domination of the First French Empire . After the devastating defeat of Napoleon's Grande Armée in
34587-411: Was interested in finding a solution to the question of a constitution for Prussia. At the core of his political philosophy was the doctrine of the organic nation of the estates of the realm , which was based on philosophers such as Friedrich Schlegel , who wrote in 1805: "The only lasting constitution is the monarchy of the estates, tempered by priests and nobility, and it is also the oldest and best." In
34776-404: Was left incapacitated until his death. His brother and heir-presumptive William served as regent after 1858 and then succeeded him as king. Born to Frederick William III and his wife Queen Louise , Frederick William was his mother's favourite son. He was educated by private tutors, including the historian and statesman Friedrich Ancillon . When Queen Louise died in 1810 when Frederick William
34965-451: Was one governed by the Christian estates of the realm rather than a constitutional monarchy. In spite of his conservative political philosophy, he initially pursued a moderate policy of easing press censorship, releasing political prisoners and reconciling with the Catholic population of the kingdom. During the German revolutions of 1848–1849 , he was initially forced to accommodate the people's revolutionary sentiments, although he rejected
35154-434: Was still a conservative form of government in which the monarch, the aristocracy, and the military retained most of the power. The constitution of 1850 remained in effect, with numerous amendments, until the dissolution of the Prussian kingdom in 1918. Emperor Franz Joseph I of Austria had made it clear in November 1848 that he would not accept the title of "Emperor of the Germans" from the Frankfurt National Assembly because
35343-412: Was sympathetic to Catholicism. Under Frederick William III in 1825, the Archbishop of Cologne was arrested in a conflict over the law on mixed marriages. In order to reconcile with the Catholic population, Frederick William IV authorised the founding of the Cologne Cathedral Building Association in 1840 to promote and finance the completion of the Cologne Cathedral . Half of the funding for it came from
35532-470: Was the decisive factor in the outbreak of the German campaign the following year. On 17 March 1813 – the day Emperor Alexander I of Russia arrived in the Hoflager of King Frederick William III – Prussia declared war on France. On 20 March 1813, the Schlesische privilegierte Zeitung newspaper published Frederick's speech entitled An Mein Volk , delivered on 17 March and calling for a war of liberation. In addition to newly formed Prussian units such as
35721-427: Was yet in sight. To disavow the acts and desires of the army and of the secret societies for defence with which all north Germany was honeycombed would be to imperil the very existence of the monarchy, whilst an attack on the remnants of the Grande Armée meant the certainty of a terrible retribution from the new French armies now rapidly forming on the Rhine. But the Russians and the soldiers were resolved to continue
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