Engagement on June 14, 1849
June 14, 1849 in a Visual Depiction
Even more than the barricade, the engagement of June 14, 1849 became a myth. This was particularly contributed to by the lithograph “The Battle of the Brave Gymnasts and Freischärler near Kirchheimbolanden on June 14, 1849”, published around 1880 by Paul Stumpf’s publishing house in Mainz. Stumpf, who had been present in Kirchheimbolanden as a Freischärler, thus significantly shaped the memory of the Schlossgarten engagement.
The fact that ‘Turner’ (gymnasts) and ‘Freischärler’ (free corps members) were mentioned side by side shows their close connection in Rheinhessen. For the German Gymnastics Association, founded in April 1848, understood itself to be political from the very beginning. They wanted to work for the unity of the German people, to foster a sense of brotherhood, and to strengthen the physical and spiritual power of the German people. Ludwig Bamberger and Franz Zitz, the two “civil commissioners” of the Rhenish Hessian Freischaren in Kirchheimbolanden [Location 46] in 1849, played a leading role in the Mainz gymnastics scene. Therefore, ‘Turner’ were also very strongly represented within the Rhenish Hessian Freischaren.
The “Battle […] near Kirchheimboland”, depicted three decades later, portrays the events of June 14, 1849, in the Schlossgarten in a manner that is as brutal as it is heroic, even to the point of sensationalism: In the foreground of the image are dead and dying figures, an unarmed person in civilian clothes in a heroic pose, facing them are the densely arrayed and positioned Prussian troops, gunpowder smoke hangs in the air. Vulnerability and willingness to sacrifice define the scene. The polarity of good and evil dominates, almost challenging one to take sides with the victims.
June 14, 1849 in Eyewitness Accounts
The most direct insight into the “Battle […] near Kirchheimboland” can be gained from eyewitness accounts. However, two main things must be considered: Are the records written from the perspective of Freischärler or Prussian military personnel? And to what extent do subjective biases distort the picture?
The records of Freischärler Martin Fuchs II from Orbis, a town neighboring Kirchheimbolanden, provide direct insight into the Schlossgarten events of June 14, 1849:
I was barely 19 years old, born on October 28, 1830, when I joined the Freischärler. […]
We had to fight against the 4th Prussian Division, which, coming from Alzey, took the route via Morschheim and Orbis to Kirchheim. The Rhenish Hessians had also arrived […] and reinforced us. We carried our scythes and were very poorly equipped and organized compared to the Prussians. They had needle guns and also carried small cannons. […] The Prussian plan was known to us. They wanted to encircle and capture us, but this only partially happened. The main body of the Prussian division was supposed to attack Kirchheim from Morschheim, but only after the flanking maneuver was complete. Therefore, they had sent a fusilier company via the village of Orbis and the Leithof (Heide) to bypass Kirchheim on the left side. They had the forest here for cover. Another company was sent to our right flank via the Heuberger Mill and Bischheim.
It was on June 14, 1849, when the Prussians opened artillery fire against Kirchheim. Almost the entire group of revolutionaries turned back and prepared for a hasty further retreat. White flags waved from all houses in the town as the Prussians marched in. The Kirchheim residents even threatened to attack us from behind if we didn’t withdraw immediately! However, the enemy had anticipated them.
From our ranks, a small group of about 45 men now formed, bravely offering energetic resistance to the Prussians. We were ashamed to yield the field to the hated invaders; for they had deployed the entire division against us. We were led by two men from Mainz: Ludwig Bamberger and Franz Zitz. Both were fearless daredevils!
Initially, we sought cover behind the Kirchheim cemetery; driven from there by artillery, we found a second covered position in the Schlossgarten. One part occupied the front wall, another built a barricade at the Bischheim Gate, the rest were inside the garden. Prussian soldiers came from all sides and pushed us together in the middle of the Schlossgarten. All were wounded, approximately 16 men were captured and 15 lay dead on the ground, one of whom had been shot after already surrendering. The others fled, including myself. The prisoners were mistreated and led away, tied to the cavalry horses.
While the engagement raged, I had managed to get away in time.
How the events unfolded on the other side is described in a letter sent by a member of the Prussian division to his parents on June 19, 1849:
We are in a bad situation, as we have to march almost 4 miles daily and now we are in enemy territory. On June 14, the first encounter took place at Kirchhainburlanden. In this town were the Freischaren who received us.
The small town was still about 2000 paces ahead of us when the order was given for the first company on the left flank, a platoon from the 3rd to cover the artillery, and the others to advance at a brisk pace. Not long after, the bombardment began; grenades and canister shot whizzed through the air, and the small arms fire was incessant.
But believe me, dear parents, in such a state one feels neither hunger nor thirst, neither the burden of luggage nor blisters on one’s feet. The attack lasted an hour, then we had the town in our possession; most of the dead from the Freischaren lay in the Schlossgarten, and those who were captured had to stand against the wall and were shot.
Not a single man of ours remained, not even one wounded.
The author of a third record reproduced here is Ludwig Bamberger, one of the two Rhenish Hessian Freischaren commanders. According to his book “Experiences from the Palatinate Uprising in May and June 1849”, published in the same year, he only learned about the Schlossgarten engagement afterwards. Nevertheless, his report on June 14 in Kirchheimbolanden is of great value.
The number of approaching Prussians was at least 3000 men. We had no cavalry or artillery at all. Thus, the moment had come […] to order the retreat. Zitz and I therefore issued written orders to all individual company leaders to retreat along the mountains to Dürkheim an der Haardt and from there to Neustadt. Shortly thereafter, we went back to the assembly point and confirmed that the orders had been carried out. No one was left there; the companies had withdrawn, and the Prussian artillery fired down the country road we were on. A barricade improvised shortly before was abandoned, the troops already outside the town. It was as if it was impossible to walk any further; I had a carriage hitched, Zitz sat with me, and we drove off on the road towards Rockenhausen. When we were about a hundred paces out, the last cannon shot was fired, and the Prussians marched in from Kaiserstraße. Only later did we learn that a small number of our men had remained in the Schlossgarten. Whether they did not hear the repeatedly sounded horn signal, or misunderstood it, or simply did not want to yield; the rifle company to which they belonged withdrew without discovering where the missing men were. The advancing Prussians found them still in the Schlossgarten, and a fight ensued there. Rumor later reported that seventeen riflemen had fallen there.
Thus far Bamberger. His report reflects a completely different initial situation and set of interests than the other two records. Fuchs and the unnamed Prussian soldier recorded their notes for internal family tradition, Fuchs as a Freischärler who experienced the Schlossgarten events from ‘within’, the Prussian soldier from ‘without’. Bamberger, however, was quite different. His “Memoirs” were intended as a justification and at the same time to be of evidentiary value in an anticipated court trial, which was indeed conducted against him in absentia in 1851. In his book, he blamed others for the failure of the “Palatinate Uprising”, primarily the military inadequacy of the Palatinate Freischärler.
June 14, 1849 in Newspaper Reports
How the Kirchheimbolanden events of June 14, 1849, were registered outside the Palatinate is evidenced by a series of reports in the nationwide German press. This began with the entry of the Rhenish Hessian Freischaren into Kirchheimbolanden in mid-May 1849.
For example, the bourgeois-democratic-liberal “Kölnische Zeitung”, one of the major national German newspapers, reported with a note adopted from the “Mainzer Zeitung” under May 16, 1849:
Similarly, the “Deutsche Allgemeine Zeitung”, published in Leipzig, whose motto “Truth and Justice, Freedom and Law” indicates its liberal character, reported from the Palatinate on June 16. The first line already indicates the reporter’s location:
The parallels are thus obvious. Accordingly, there was even interest in the events in the Palatinate in Saxon local newspapers. For example, the “Sächsischer Erzähler, Wochenblatt von Bischofswerde, Stolpen und Umgegend”, a newspaper very similar to the “Kirchheimbolander Wochenblatt”, reported under June 15, 1849:
June 14, 1849 in Two Poems
That the Schlossgarten engagement was also addressed lyrically was in keeping with the literary taste of the time: Writing is no longer a game of beautiful minds, no innocent amusement, but the spirit of the age seizes the writer’s hand and writes in the book of life with the iron stylus of history.
Entirely in the spirit of Ludolf Wienbarg’s (1802-72) “Aesthetic Campaigns”, published in 1834, a spokesman for the “Young Germans” who understood literature as “political opinion-forming”, the Mainz writer Kathinka Zitz-Halein (1801-77), married to Freischaren commander Franz Zitz, dedicated herself to the “baptism of blood” in the garden of Kirchheim-Bolanden. Her extensive poem was addressed to the “Women of Mainz”, relatives of those who died on June 14, 1849. Bravery and fulfillment of duty, homeland and freedom determine the flow of thought.
Poem 1:
One day, in later times, history will report
Of Kirchheim=Boland’s garden and of the thirty heroes,
Who, enclosed within it, fought with the foe,
And there, in the fight for freedom, baptized the earth with blood,
To bravely cover their comrades’ retreat
They remained behind and fought without fear
Full of courage, resolved to die, with enemies all around,
Who outnumbered them perhaps a thousandfold.
They held their ground in battle for three long, long hours,
Then seventeen men fell from the wounds they sustained.
Truly, such brave struggle, history never saw,
They fought like lions, like heroes they died.
This was the bloody baptism of German mother earth,
So that the Imperial Constitution might gain full validity.
It was a noble struggle, a sacred martyrdom –
The blood witnesses for German freedom perished.
For German freedom! – alas! – It was stifled in the bud,
Yet it was not defeated, it was crushed by the foe.
Victory was not achieved through courage and bravery,
Superior force alone decided the fraternal strife.
But therefore, the freedom for which we bravely strove,
The proud goddess, did not die with them.
She now only slumbers, and in the course of time,
She will one day awaken, renewed and more beautiful.
Christ too has died, he lay in the bonds of the grave,
Yet after three days he rose to life.
Therefore, let not courage sink, lift your gaze freely,
The sun shines again, as soon as night is over.
But those who died a hero’s death in Kirchheim’s garden,
They have earned sacred rights to your gratitude,
Their memory will be forever dear to you
Therefore, women of Mainz, erect a tombstone for them.
And on that stone, that cold one, let it be clearly read,
How brave and courageous the seventeen were
How, to acquire freedom’s lofty good,
They sacrificed their lives, shed their sacred blood.
Then in distant days, when we no longer live,
The father will still tell his son of you;
The monument you erected will then tell the whole land
How the women of Mainz always honorably recognized greatness.
Poem 2:
In a quiet place,
Near the green, cool forest,
There sleeps a brave fellow,
Who will not soon awaken!
He sleeps in his arms,
In his free soldier’s attire,
On his chest and forehead gape
Wide death wounds.
He sleeps by an oak
Warm in its roots,
The tree holds the corpse
Like a son in its arms.
His sword, his brave blade,
Is stuck upon his grave,
May ivy entwine it,
And evergreen cover it,
And young wild roses
And woodland forget-me-nots,
That for the nameless one
Speak a tear!
A silent prayer for him!
And undisturbed asylum,
Who for freedom’s sake
Fought and fell.
