Battle of Leipzig

The largest military engagement in 19th-century Europe, the Battle of Leipzig was fought from 16 to 19 October 1813 following a major preliminary clash on the 14th. The battle marked the climax of the campaigns in Germany that began in the wake of Napoleon’s disaster in Russia in 1812. Early in 1813, Russian forces, soon joined by the revitalized Prussian army, pursued the defeated French into central Germany. Napoleon, however, assembled a large but raw army and won two incomplete victories in May 1813 before exhaustion led both sides to accept an armistice over the summer. The renewal of fighting in August saw another partial victory by the French emperor at Dresden, but his subordinates elsewhere suffered crippling defeats and, by mid-September, he was withdrawing to concentrate in a central position near Leipzig. Austria and Sweden had joined the coalition against Napoleon (the Sixth Coalition or simply the “Allies”) during the armistice and the converging Allied armies caught up with the French in mid-October. The congregation of troops was immense: the French and their various satellite contingents numbered more than 190,000, while the Allies brought some 350,000 to the field. These vast forces made Leipzig the largest European battle prior to the First World War. The colorful mix of armies quickly led observers to refer to Leipzig as the “Battle of Nations” or Völkerschlacht. Leipzig was also unusual in its duration: a cavalry clash on 14 October being followed by four days of battle from the 16th to the 19th. Napoleon lost his only real chance for victory when fighting on the 16th proved bloody but inconclusive. After a pause on 17 October, the final two days consisted of concentric Allied blows against fierce resistance, but the French defense collapsed when the bridge that constituted the sole French line of retreat was prematurely destroyed. Thousands of men were trapped in the city and forced to surrender as Napoleon retreated toward the Rhine. Casualties in the four days of carnage were enormous, estimated at more than 60,000 killed, wounded, or captured on the French side against Allied losses of 46,000. The Allied victory was decisive. Napoleon’s empire in Germany was gone forever and he would abdicate for the first time only five months after Leipzig. Beyond its significance for the military-political history of the Napoleonic era, the battle became a central point in the “Wars of Liberation” (Befreiungskriege), a potent symbol in the development of German nationalism and political consciousness. Assigned different meanings by monarchists, constitutionalists, Nazis, and Communists over the years, the commemorative events on the 200th anniversary in 2013 transformed the grand bloodletting into a celebration of European unity.