The Schleswig-Holstein Medal of the Duchy of Brunswick

[BlackcowboyBS]

Since I could recently acquire this beautiful set of the Brunswick commemorative medal for the campaign 1848 / 1849 together with certificate and original ribbon on single clasp I would like to introduce this medal and the history here behindit. I describe the battles only briefly and only when Brunswick troops were significantly involved.

 

Historical Background:

In 1846, the Danish King Christian VIII had tried to prevent the imminent breakup of his kingdom by abolishing the rules of succession. His only son, although married three times, was childless. Due to different succession regulations in the Kingdom of Denmark and in the Duchy of Holstein, this would have led to different successors to the throne and ultimately to the secession of Holstein. However, the indivisibility of the duchies of Schleswig and Holstein was stipulated in the Treaty of Riepen of 1460. Literally it says there: "up ewig ungedeelt".  In Denmark the female line would come to the throne, in Holstein the Augustenburg line, the younger royal line.  The Danish king was also Duke of Holstein and thus had a vote in the Frankfurt Federal Assembly in the German Confederation, which was created at the Congress of Vienna in 1815. The Duchy of Schleswig, on the other hand, was a Danish fief and not a member of the German Confederation. His advance in the form of an open letter had caused great commotion in the duchies, and the Danish national liberals, the Eider Danes, and their pro-German counterparts tried to capitalize on this confused situation. The Danes wanted the Duchy of Schleswig integrated into the Kingdom of Denmark, and the Holsteiners feared just that. There were riots, uprisings and minor skirmishes after an independent government was formed in Kiel, which also sought support from Prussia, Oldenburg, Hanover and Schwerin. After the defeat at Bau, their troops took refuge in the fortress of Rendsburg. However, their situation was not hopeless. In the meantime, Prussian King Frederick William IV had pledged his support to the provisional government and also called on the states of the 10th Federal Army Corps to do likewise.
On April 4, 1848, the Federal Assembly in Frankfurt decided that " in accordance with Article 38 of the Final Act, that danger of attack exists for the German Federal State of Holstein, and expresses its full appreciation for the federal and national initiations taken by Prussia and the states of the 10th Army Corps for the protection of the federal border in Holstein."
The 1st Battalion of the Brunswick Infantry Regiment was placed under the command of Royal Hanoverian Lieutenant General Halkett by Duke Wilhelm of Brunswick-Luneburg in a personal meeting at Harburg on April 8, 1848. It was to arrive in Harburg by rail from Uelzen on April 10. The duke did not want to decide on further troops until later. In another conversation on the same day, General Hugh Halkett came to the conclusion that it would best serve the Holstein cause if he crossed the Elbe as quickly as possible and advanced to the Eider. Duke Wilhelm agreed with the Lieutenant General and urged him to seek permission from the King of Hanover. Should General Halkett get permission, the Duke promised in return to let most of his corps join the division. On the morning of April 9, Duke Wilhelm returned to Brunswick. He was the first reigning German prince to show his face and become personally involved in the theater of war.

The campaign of 1848 was characterized by the fact that there were occasional major engagements, but losses and gains in terrain - apart from tactical evacuations and regroupings - were the exception rather than the rule. Notable actions by Brunswick troops were rare. In the battle of May 28, however, which was lost for the Federal troops, the 2nd Company of the 1st Brunswick Battalion, under the command of Captain von Ehrenkrook, did particularly well. After fierce attacks by the Danes against his outpost chain at Reventlau and Sandberg and the Piket position behind them, he received orders to retreat to Saltrup. Wanting to give his men, who were on field posts, enough time to still reunite with his company, the captain held his position and when he started to retreat, he found Saltrup already occupied by the enemy.  Captain von Ehrenkrook attacked the enemy lines frontally with the bulk of his troops and broke through them with several bayonet charges. His flanks were protected by a tirailleur platoon. One was led by Premier-Lieutenant von Holy and the second by Seconde-Lieutenant von Frankenberg. In the evening the Brunswickers reached the battalion at Atzböl. During this engagement the Brunswickers suffered one casualty and one prisoner. They themselves were able to capture one enemy officer and eight soldiers.
On August 28, 1848, under pressure from foreign European powers, the Malmö Armistice was concluded. It included the evacuation of Schleswig and Holstein from federal as well as Danish troops, release of prisoners of war, lifting of blockades and cessation of all hostilities for a period of seven months.  The Brunswick troops left Holstein and were transported back to the Duchy of Brunswick by rail.
The Treaty of Malmö was denounced by Denmark on February 22, 1849, which led to the resumption of hostilities between the federal army led by Prussian General Karl von Prittwitz and Danish troops.  The fighting in 1849 was led by Prussian troops and contingents of the Thuringian princes (i.e. the Grand Duchy of Saxe-Weimar-Eisenach, the Duchies of Saxe-Altenburg, Saxe-Coburg and Gotha and Saxe-Meiningen, and the Principalities of Reuss and Schwarzburg).  The Brunswickers again provided the first and second battalions, their 6-pounder battery, and two esquadrons of hussars, which now moved into the field.
On June 6, 1849, a skirmish lasting several hours occurred between the Danes, Nassauers, and Brunswickers, with the homesteads lying between the lines being occupied several times by both sides in the assault. The initially local skirmish continued to expand and attempts by the respective leaderships to end it failed several times. Worth mentioning was the behavior of the Brunswick battery. When its commander Major Orges, a veteran of the 1809 march to the North Sea, saw that he could not destroy an enemy homestead with his 6-pounders, he sent forward a detachment of gunners with fuses to set fire to the homestead. Infantrymen of 2. and 4. Company joined this attack. The fighting finally died down in the evening. In all, both sides lost 16 men that day and there were 36 wounded. On the side of the Federal troops, a total of 44,500 cartridges had been fired and replacements had to be rushed in.
Again England, Russia and France intervened and under their pressure another armistice was signed on July 10, 1849 and less than a year later on July 10, 1850 the Peace of Berlin was signed.
From the Brunswick side, the following units had participated in the campaigns of 1848 / 1849:

• Infantry and Leib Battalion: 1500 men
• Artillery:                                 300 men
• Hussars:                                 600 men
• Officials, doctors, etc. :         600 men
• in total:                                 3000 men

In total, the Brunswickers had only 19 casualties.

 

Order bestowals:

To his soldiers, Duke Wilhelm awarded the following decorations of the Duke of Brunswick's Order of Merit Henry the Lion for bravery or other military merit with reference to the campaigns of 48 / 49:

• Cross of Merit 2nd Class 18 times
• Cross of Merit 1st Class 6 times
• Knight's Cross (at that time still one class) 12 times
• Commander's Cross 2 Class 3 times
• Commander's Cross 1 Class 1 times

Officers of friendly troops were also awarded Brunswick orders, here even up to the Grand Cross. 
Interestingly enough, the officers of Brunswick, who had been decorated in 1848 / 49 with orders HdL, were allowed to apply after the foundation of the swords in 1870, also to get the swords for their orders retroactively. Each request submitted accordingly was also approved by Duke Wilhelm.
Although other German states donated commemorative medals for their troops quite soon after the end of the campaigns, Duke Wilhelm refused the requests. For him, there was something unsavory about this war, which was partly related to family and friendly relations with the Danish royal house. In addition, the duke probably felt that he had sufficiently honored the bravery of his soldiers with his medal awards. Moreover, no battle in these campaigns came close to the battles of the Napoleonic era or those of the German War of Unification of 1870 / 71.
Only when, after the death of Duke Wilhelm and the vacancy of his throne, the Prussian Prince Albrecht was appointed Prince Regent, this attitude changed. The Prince Regent took the Prussian view and on May 8, 1891 - the anniversary of the London Protocol - he endowed the corresponding commemorative medal by Decree No. 19 of May 11, 1891. Albrecht instructed the Adjutant General Robert von Wachholtz to compile figures on the number of awards to be expected. Wachtholz calculated that 2/3 of the participants of the war at that time would not be alive anymore and assumed a demand of 1000 medals. Those entitled had to apply for the medals themselves at the respective ducal district administration. So the General-Adjutantur as the responsible authority for the bestowals demanded the corresponding numbers from them. 
In total, only 426 entries for the awarding of the memorial coin had been received. Since one counted still on latecomers and/or applications from outside of the duchy, one suggested to procure 700 pieces.
The design of the commemorative coin by the Duke of Brunswick's court engraver Carl Peterson had turned out to be satisfactory and so the procurement order was also signed by the first Minister of State Dr. jur. Albert Otto on June 17, 1891. However, it did not yet contain the number of medals to be produced. It was only later that the responsible finance councilor, Dr. jur. August Trieps, after consultation with Minister of State Otto, added 800 medals in a handwritten note. The medals were ordered from the stamp cutter Petersen. The order for the ribbons was placed with the military effects dealer Roehll in Braunschweig. For the delivered ribbons, which were 34 mm wide and had two 10 mm light blue side stripes and a 1 mm wide border, Roehll charged 270 Marks on November 20, 1891. The engraver and stone cutter Gustav Hanneck in Braunschweig produced the accompanying certificates. He delivered 1000 copies, for which he charged 329 marks on November 5, 1891. 
The awards were made in October and November 1891.

 

The bearer Heinrich Kaufmann:

Investigations about the former Hussar Heinrich Kaufmann from Wenzen, which is meanwhile a district of Einbeck, led after first research in my documents as well as in the archives of Lower Saxony to no result, so that only assumptions can be made here:

• The commemorative medal is attached to a single clasp. This and the fact that no Heinrich Kaufmann appears in the award lists of the Brunswick Order of Merit suggest that he did not receive any other awards.
• Heinrich Kaufmann will have been proud of his medal, because he had it tied on a single clasp. The medal was presented along with a certificate in a dark burgundy leather case lined with dark red velvet. Apparently it was not enough for him to wear it only on the ribbon.
• The condition of the medal is good, i.e. he will not have worn it too often, considering that 42 years passed between merit and award, he may not have been able to wear it much longer before he left for the Grand Army. 

I am pleased to say that I now have a medal on a single clasp, a certificate and a case of this beautiful Brunswick medal. I hope you enjoyed this little excursion into Brunswick history.

 

 

 

[VtwinVince]

A pretty scarce and complete set, congratulations.

[Wild Card]

Absolutely fantastic presentation.

 

Reading through your analysis of this very complex subject, I now realize why so little was known about this rare decoration. You have managed to seek out and put all of the pieces of this puzzle together.

 

Congratulations, cheers and thank you! 

[bolewts58]

Really interesting historical summary and excellent research, the kind makes GMIC a cut above the rest.

 

This rare seldom seen grouping is amazing.

 

Thank you very much for doing all this work and sharing it with us.