The Swedish invasion of Brandenburg (1674–75) (German: Schwedeneinfall 1674/75) involved the occupation of the undefended Margraviate of Brandenburg by a Swedish army launched from Swedish Pomerania during the period 26 December 1674 to the end of June 1675. The Swedish invasion sparked the Swedish-Brandenburg War that, following further declarations of war by European powers allied with Brandenburg, expanded into a North European conflict that did not end until 1679.
The trigger for the Swedish invasion was the participation of a 20,000 strong Brandenburg Army in the Holy Roman Empire's war on France as part of the Franco-Dutch War. As a result, Sweden, a traditional ally of France, occupied the militarily unprotected margraviate with the declared aim of forcing the Elector of Brandenburg, Frederick William, to sue for peace with France. In early June 1675 the Elector and his 15,000 strong army decamped at Schweinfurt in Franconia, now southern Germany, and reached the city of Magdeburg on 21 [O.S. 11] June 1675. Frederick William, led the campaign against a Swedish force of between 11,000 and 12,000 men. After one week the Swedish troops had retreated from the Margraviate of Brandenburg.
Background
After the War of Devolution, Louis XIV, King of France, pressed for retribution against the States-General. He initiated diplomatic activities with the aim of isolating Holland completely. To that end, on 24 April 1672 in Stockholm, France concluded a secret treaty with Sweden that bound the Scandinavian power to contribute 16,000 troops against any German state that gave military support to the Republic of Holland.
Immediately thereafter, in June 1672, Louis XIV invaded the States-General - thus sparking the Franco-Dutch War - and advanced to just short of Amsterdam. The Elector of Brandenburg, in accordance with treaty provisions, supported the Dutch in the fight against France with 20,000 men in August 1672. In December 1673, Brandenburg-Prussia and Sweden concluded a ten-year defensive alliance. However, both sides reserved freedom to choose their alliances in the event of war. Because of his defensive alliance with Sweden, during the period that followed the Elector of Brandenburg did not expect Sweden to enter the war on the French side. And despite the separate Treaty of Vossem agreed between Brandenburg and France on 16 June 1673, Brandenburg rejoined the war against France in the following year, when the emperor of the Holy Roman Empire declared an imperial war (Reichskrieg) against France in May 1674.
On 23 August 1674, therefore, a 20,000 strong Brandenburg army marched out again from the Margraviate of Brandenburg heading for Strasbourg. Elector Frederick William and Electoral Prince Charles Emil of Brandenburg accompanied this army. John George II of Anhalt-Dessau was appointed Statthalter ("Governor") of Brandenburg.
Through bribes and by promising subsidies France now succeeded in persuading its traditional allies, Sweden, which had only escaped losing all of Pomerania with France's intervention in the Treaty of Oliva in 1660, to enter the war against Brandenburg. The decisive factor was the concern of the Swedish royal court that a French defeat would result in the political isolation of Sweden. The goal of Sweden's entry into the war was to occupy the undefended state of Brandenburg in order to force Brandenburg-Prussia to withdraw its troops from war zones in the Upper Rhine and the Alsace.
Preparations for war
The Swedes then began to assemble an invasion force in Swedish Pomerania. From September more and more reports of these troops movements were received in Berlin. In particular, the Governor of Brandenburg notified his Elector in early September of a conversation with the Swedish envoy, Wangelin, in which he had announced that about 20,000 Swedish troops would be available in Pomerania before the end of the month. The news of an impending attack by the Swedish army grew stronger when, in the second half of October, the arrival in Wolgast of the Swedish commander-in-chief, Carl Gustav Wrangel, was reported.
John George II of Anhalt-Dessau, clearly troubled by news of the troop build-up, asked Field Marshal Carl Gustav Wrangel several times in late October, through Brandenburg colonel, Mikrander for the reasons for these troop movements. Wrangel, however, failed to answer and refused another attempt at dialogue by the Prince of Anhalt In mid-November the governor, John George II, had received assurance of an impending Swedish invasion, but in Berlin the exact causes and motives for such imminent aggression remained unclear.
In spite of the disturbing news coming from Berlin, Frederick William himself did not believe that there was an imminent Swedish invasion of the Margraviate of Brandenburg. He expressed this in a letter to the Governor of Brandenburg on 31 October 1674, which stated: "I consider the Swedes better than that and do not think they will do such a dastardly thing."
The strength of the assembled Swedish invasion army in Swedish Pomerania before they entered the Uckermark at the end of December 1674 was, according to the contemporary sources in the Theatrum Europaeum as follows:
- Infantry: eleven regiments with a total of 7,620 men.
- Cavalry: eight regiments, totalling 6,080 men.
- Artillery: 15 cannon of various calibres.
The forces available on 23 August 1674 to defend the Margraviate of Brandenburg, following the departure of its main army for Alsace, were pitiful. The Elector had few soldiers, and they were mainly old or disabled. The few combat-capable units at his disposal were stationed in fortresses as garrison troops. The overall strength of the garrison troops that the Governor had at his disposal at the end of August 1674 was only around 3,000 men. In the capital city, Berlin, there were at the time only 500 older soldiers, left behind due to their limited fighting ability, and 300 new recruits. The recruitment of fresh troops had therefore to be enforced immediately. In addition, the Elector ordered the Governor to issue a general call up to the rural population and the towns and cities, in order to compensate for the lack of trained soldiers. The so-called Landvolkaufgebot ("people's call up") went back to medieval legal standards in the state of Brandenburg, by which farmers and citizens could be used in case of need for local defence. But only after protracted negotiations between the Imperial Estates, towns and cities on the one hand and the privy councillors and the Governor on the other hand did the state succeed at the end of December 1674 in enforcing the call up. Most of this edict was applied in the residenz towns of Cölln, Berlin and Friedrichswerder (8 companies of 1,300 men). It was also successfully employed in the Altmark to mobilize farmers and heathland rangers (mounted forestry personnel familiar with the terrain) and for defence. The governor received more reinforcements at the end of January 1675 through the dispatch of troops from the Westphalian provinces.
Invasion
Occupation of the Margraviate (25 December 1674 – April 1675)
On 15/25 December 1674 Swedish troops marched through Pasewalk and invaded the Uckermark without a formal declaration of war. In fact, according to a message from the Swedish field marshal, Carl Gustav Wrangel, to the Brandenburg envoy, Dubislav von Hagen, on 20/30 December 1674, the Swedish Army would leave the Mark of Brandenburg as soon as Brandenburg ended its state of war with France. A complete break of relations between Sweden and Brandenburg was not intended however.
Figures relating the initial strength of this army, almost half of which was to consist of Germans by spring, vary in the sources between 13,000 and 13,700 men and 15 guns.
To support Field Marshal Carl Gustav Wrangel, who was over 60 years old, often bedridden and suffering from gout, field marshals Simon Grundel-Helmfelt and Otto Wilhelm von Königsmarck were appointed alongside him. However, this unclear assignment prevented, inter alia, clear orders being issued, so that directions for the movement of the army were only put into effect very slowly.
The entry of Sweden into the war attracted the general attention of European powers. The military glory of the Thirty Years' War had made the military power of Sweden seem overpowering in the eyes of her contemporaries. German mercenaries willingly offered their services to the Swedes. Some German states (Bavaria, the Electorate of Saxony, Hanover, and the Bishopric of Münster) agreed to join the Swedish–French alliance.
The Swedish Army established its headquarters at Prenzlau. It was joined there another department, established in Swedish Bremen-Verden, under General Dalwig.
At the same time, after the defeat of imperial Brandenburg in the Battle of Turckheim against the French on 26 December 1674, Brandenburg's main army marched to its winter quarters in and around Schweinfurt, reaching the area on 31 January 1675. Because of wintry weather and the losses he had suffered, the Elector decided that he would not deploy his main army immediately on a new campaign in the Uckermark. In addition, a sudden withdrawal from the western theatre of war would have alarmed Brandenburg-Prussia's allies – thus achieving the ultimate goal of the Swedish invasion, i.e. to force Brandenburg to withdraw from the war with France.
Without further reinforcements the open regions of the Neumark east of the Oder and Farther Pomerania could not be held by Brandenburg, except at a few fortified locations. The Mittelmark, by contrast, could be held with relatively few troops, because to the north there were only a few easily defended passes, near Oranienburg, Kremmen, Fehrbellin and Friesack, through the marshlands of the Havelland Luch and the Rhinluch. In the east, the March was covered by the river course of the Oder. The few available Brandenburg soldiers were recalled to fortified locations. In this way, as a result of the prevailing circumstances, Brandenburg's defences were formed along the line from Köpenick, via Berlin, Spandau, Oranienburg, Kremmen, Fehrbellin and Havelberg to the River Elbe. In addition the garrison of Spandau Fortress was reinforced from 250 to 800 men; it also had 24 cannon of varying calibres. In Berlin the garrison was increased to 5,000 men, including the Leibdragoner ("dragoon bodyguard") dispatched by the Elector from Franconia and the reinforcements sent from the province of Westphalia at the end of January.
The Swedes, however, remained inactive and failed to take advantage of the absence of the Brandenburg army and occupy wide areas of the Margraviate of Brandenburg. They focused first – whilst maintaining strict discipline – on the levying of war contributions and on building up the army. This inaction was partially due to the internal political conflict between the old and the new government of Sweden, which prevented clear military aims being set. Contradictory orders were issued; command was soon followed by counter-command.
At the end of January 1675, Carl Gustav Wrangel assembled his forces near Prenzlau and, on 4 February, crossed the Oder with his main body heading for Pomerania and Neumark. Swedish troops occupied Stargard in Pommern, Landsberg, Neustettin, Kossen, and Züllichau in order to recruit there as well. Farther Pomerania was occupied as far as Lauenburg and several smaller places. Then Wrangel settled the Swedish army into winter quarters in Pomerania and the Neumark.
When it became clear in the early spring that Brandenburg-Prussia would not withdraw from the war, the Swedish court in Stockholm issued the order for a stricter regime of occupation to be enforced in order to raise pressure on the Elector to pull out of the war. This change in Swedish occupation policy followed swiftly, with the result that repression of the state and the civilian population increased sharply. Several contemporary chroniclers described these excesses as worse, both in extent and brutality, than during the Thirty Years' War. There was no significant fighting, however, until spring 1675. The Statthalter of the March of Brandenburg, John George II of Anhalt-Dessau, described this state of limbo in a letter to the Elector on 24 March/3 April 1675 as "neither peace nor war".
Swedish spring campaign (early May 1675 – 25 June 1675)
The French envoy in Stockholm demanded on 20/30 March that the Swedish Army extend its occupation to Silesia and conduct itself in agreement with French plans. The French position changed, however, in the weeks that followed and gave the Swedes more leeway in decision making in this theatre. However the envoy in Stockholm expressed concern due to the alleged failure of the Swedish troops.
In early May 1675 the Swedes began the spring campaign that had been strongly urged by the French. They had been recruiting soldiers, but suffered losses due to disease and desertion. One infantry regiment (1,100 men) and eight companies of horse had also been relocated elsewhere. The total army number available for the upcoming campaign had thus shrunk to between 11,000 and 12,000 men, by 10 May.