Martin Antonenko
A Fixture
- Joined
- Jul 11, 2008
- Messages
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"Jäger Renz" Does Not Survive His First Battle!
On September 16, 1813, the hunter detachment of the 1st battalion of the former Lützow Freikorps, which is now part of the so-called "Russian-German Legion" under the Russian (but British-born) General Ludwig Georgjewitsch Thedel Graf von Wallmoden ...
... in the so-called battle on the Göhrde (near Bad Bevensen, then: French Départment of Aller) ...
... in a heavy battle with a French division under the command of Géneral de division Marc Nicolas Louis Pécheux ...
... involved, which belongs to the XIII. army corps of Maréchal Louis-Nicolas Davout...:
It is the baptism of fire of the unit!
Although the Allies win in the end, they suffer heavy losses.
About 1,000 men fell on the French side, the losses of the Russians, English / Hanoverians, Prussians and Russians should not have been less high ...:
Among other things, the wingman of the Lützow batallion, the JägerAugust Renz, was seriously wounded by a French grape when he was attacking his unit when he tried to carry an injured comrade out of the battle line.
The hurrying lieutenant Friedrich Christoph Förster, who wants to provide first aid, discovers that it is not a man, but a young woman ...:
Namely the soldier's daughter Eleonore Prohaska from Potsdam, who only a few months earlier, at the end of June 1813, had volunteered as a man under the false name "August Renz".
In many reports "Jäger Renz" is described as the drummer of the unit who fell with the drum. There is also a well-known picture with the title: "Jäger Renz falls" ...:
But this legend is wrong!
Renz / Prohaska was the wingman of the company (because of his unusual size), and drummers did not walk on the wing, but in the middle (or in front of the middle) of the respective unit in order to be heard well.
The "drummer story" is based on a later report by Lieutenant Förster, who later published a book about Prohaska.
For this book he sucked the heroic legend of the "Drummer Renz", who once again spurred his comrades, who wanted to back away, to attack, from his fingers!
Prohaska herself does not write in a letter to her brother that she had held the prominent position of a drummer - her goal was different: namely to fight as a normal soldier and not to attract attention (as a woman) ...:
This is what she should have looked like - but that too is very uncertain, because the picture was only taken after her death to glorify her ...:
We only know about Eleonore Prohaska's real appearance that she was not exactly small - and must have had very large feet!
This is evidenced by an entry in the diary of Lieutenant Otto Preuße from Lützow:
“We were in Sandau on the Elbe. Here also a hunter Renz came to the company - as it turned out later, a girl named Prochaska. He became a wingman, 5 feet, 8 inches, 3 lines high - English shoes were delivered to us, all significantly too big, but too small for Renz and I had to work a pair especially for him. His language was not particularly fine, so that no one could suspect a girl in him. Incidentally, he cooked splendidly in the bivouacs. "
Jäger Renz / Prohaska is rescued alive on the Göhrde and Lieutenant Förster has her brought to Dannenberg in a town house at Langen Strasse 32, where she is looked after by a civilian doctor.
The house is still standing today ...:
But the injuries turn out to be too severe - Eleonore Prohaska dies three weeks later.
She is buried in the former St. Anne's cemetery at Dannenberg ...:
In the old cemetery of her hometown Potsdam a Konotaph commemorates her ...:
On September 16, 1813, the hunter detachment of the 1st battalion of the former Lützow Freikorps, which is now part of the so-called "Russian-German Legion" under the Russian (but British-born) General Ludwig Georgjewitsch Thedel Graf von Wallmoden ...
... in the so-called battle on the Göhrde (near Bad Bevensen, then: French Départment of Aller) ...
... in a heavy battle with a French division under the command of Géneral de division Marc Nicolas Louis Pécheux ...
... involved, which belongs to the XIII. army corps of Maréchal Louis-Nicolas Davout...:
It is the baptism of fire of the unit!
Although the Allies win in the end, they suffer heavy losses.
About 1,000 men fell on the French side, the losses of the Russians, English / Hanoverians, Prussians and Russians should not have been less high ...:
Among other things, the wingman of the Lützow batallion, the JägerAugust Renz, was seriously wounded by a French grape when he was attacking his unit when he tried to carry an injured comrade out of the battle line.
The hurrying lieutenant Friedrich Christoph Förster, who wants to provide first aid, discovers that it is not a man, but a young woman ...:
Namely the soldier's daughter Eleonore Prohaska from Potsdam, who only a few months earlier, at the end of June 1813, had volunteered as a man under the false name "August Renz".
In many reports "Jäger Renz" is described as the drummer of the unit who fell with the drum. There is also a well-known picture with the title: "Jäger Renz falls" ...:
But this legend is wrong!
Renz / Prohaska was the wingman of the company (because of his unusual size), and drummers did not walk on the wing, but in the middle (or in front of the middle) of the respective unit in order to be heard well.
The "drummer story" is based on a later report by Lieutenant Förster, who later published a book about Prohaska.
For this book he sucked the heroic legend of the "Drummer Renz", who once again spurred his comrades, who wanted to back away, to attack, from his fingers!
Prohaska herself does not write in a letter to her brother that she had held the prominent position of a drummer - her goal was different: namely to fight as a normal soldier and not to attract attention (as a woman) ...:
This is what she should have looked like - but that too is very uncertain, because the picture was only taken after her death to glorify her ...:
We only know about Eleonore Prohaska's real appearance that she was not exactly small - and must have had very large feet!
This is evidenced by an entry in the diary of Lieutenant Otto Preuße from Lützow:
“We were in Sandau on the Elbe. Here also a hunter Renz came to the company - as it turned out later, a girl named Prochaska. He became a wingman, 5 feet, 8 inches, 3 lines high - English shoes were delivered to us, all significantly too big, but too small for Renz and I had to work a pair especially for him. His language was not particularly fine, so that no one could suspect a girl in him. Incidentally, he cooked splendidly in the bivouacs. "
Jäger Renz / Prohaska is rescued alive on the Göhrde and Lieutenant Förster has her brought to Dannenberg in a town house at Langen Strasse 32, where she is looked after by a civilian doctor.
The house is still standing today ...:
But the injuries turn out to be too severe - Eleonore Prohaska dies three weeks later.
She is buried in the former St. Anne's cemetery at Dannenberg ...:
In the old cemetery of her hometown Potsdam a Konotaph commemorates her ...:
