The German Question, Part Thirty-Six

"German Liberation"

There were various coalitions formed by many of the states of Europe, including many German states (usually led by Austria and Prussia), which then went to war against Napoleon and his allies over the years, and I will not get into all of the wars and the multitude of individual battles fought on German territory during those times. There are, however, a couple of important events that I will briefly deal with. Napoleon defeated the Prussians, who were part of one of those coalitions I mentioned, in 1806, bringing about the occupation of Berlin* and forcing the Prussian king, Friedrich Wilhelm III, to set up his government in the Prussian province of East Prussia for a time. In that same time frame, Napoleon reconstituted a "Polish state," called the "Duchy of Warsaw," which comprised a great deal of territory ceded by Poland to Prussia earlier in the various "Partitions of Poland."

The Prussian army was a total mess after defeat at the hands of Napoleon, but in one case, the Prussians managed to deprive the French of victory and simultaneously inspire some Germans to resist Napoleon.** This was at the town of Kolberg, located on the Baltic coast. The French besieged Kolberg for more than two months, and even heavy bombardment didn't bring a French victory. The Prussians held out until events elsewhere brought about a peace treaty. The military forces were led by someone who became famous in German history, Prussian officer August von Gneisenau.***

Gneisenau and Gerhard von Scharnhorst, another military man who became famous, pursued reform of the Prussian military. Already by that time, Scharnhorst had written a couple of manuals on military matters. The overall success by these two men helped foster a sense of German patriotism in the Prussian forces, and thus began the more "national" movement, not just Prussian, to liberate the German territories from French control. With Napoleon's famous defeat in Russia, the Germans rose up, inflicting a major defeat on the French near Leipzig, known to history as "The Battle Of Nations." Some of Napoleon's German allied states then defected to the cause to remove the French from German territory. The Confederation of the Rhine was abolished, and the defeated Napoleon (defeated by the coalition, which invaded France and forced Napoleon to abdicate) was exiled to the Italian island of Elba. Not long afterward, Napoleon escaped captivity, returned to France and mounted a new military campaign against his enemies. He was defeated at the famous "Battle of Waterloo" (located in modern Belgium, but then called the "United Netherlands") by British and Prussian forces, with the Prussians playing a decisive role near the end of the battle. Thus ended Napoleon. So what now for the Germans? (A Word History is below the notes)

* Napoleon went to visit the tomb of "Frederick the Great," which was in nearby Potsdam (about 15-20 miles south of Berlin). Napoleon so admired Frederick, that he ordered his officers to remove their hats in respect, and he "supposedly" said over the tomb, "If you were still alive, would we be here today?" (I've also seen it as, "If you were still alive, we would not be here today.") Whatever the case, the Nazis later made much of this Napoleonic visit to the tomb of one of Germany's most admired historical figures.

** It should be noted that there are numerous accounts from those times of German apathy about being subject to French dominance. In some areas actually occupied (or annexed) by the French, many French words crept into the German language (and the local dialects), displacing original Germanic words.

*** The Nazis, after seeing the potential for defeat in World War Two, began the production of an elaborate movie based on the historical siege of Kolberg, with the title simply, "Kolberg." While many Nazi themes echo through the scenes of the movie, the basic script has much based upon the actual historical events. No question though, it was a propaganda film with the main purpose of encouraging Germans to resist overwhelming odds. The movie is in color (I believe much of the color has been "restored," as it had faded a good deal), and it has English subtitles. The making of the film was considered so important by propagandist Joseph Goebbels and by Hitler himself, that thousands of soldiers, dressed in costumes from the 1800s, were made available for the battle scenes, even though German forces were under pressure in the real life war. There are some great battle scenes, for those who like such things. While many a German paid with their life for any kind of "defeatist" sentiment under the Nazis, it is interesting to note that the writing for the movie began in 1942, when Germany occupied much of Europe, and before Germany had suffered any of the major defeats which came later in the war. So, it looks to me as if the Nazis had a premonition of defeat, or at least of a long struggle. The movie was gradually filmed and edited over the next couple of years, only being released in the waning weeks of World War Two, in 1945.

WORD HISTORY: 
Foster-This word traces back to the Indo European base "pa," which meant "to feed, protect." In the Old Germanic offshoot the "p" became an "f" sound, giving Germanic the base "fo," (which also became the base of our word "food") and then "fostrom/fostra." This then gave Anglo-Saxon (Old English) "fostrian," with the meaning "to feed, to nourish." The more extended meaning, "to support a child in growing up," came along in the 1100s or 1200s. As part of this, "fostor" (as it was frequently spelled long ago, then later "fostren"), was coupled with other words to indicate someone "supporting a child, or helping to raise a child, who was not the actual parent, as Old English had "fostorfæder," "foster father." Its Germanic relatives' words are all centered around "food, fodder," and the specific meaning and usage of "foster" appears to only have developed in English.