The Hanseatic Legion was a military unit, first formed of a group of citizens of Hamburg

Hamburg

-History:The first historic name for the city was, according to Claudius Ptolemy's reports, Treva.But the city takes its modern name, Hamburg, from the first permanent building on the site, a castle whose construction was ordered by the Emperor Charlemagne in AD 808...

. They had met in 1813 on the instigation of General Friedrich Karl von Tettenborn

Friedrich Karl von Tettenborn

Baron Friedrich Karl of Tettenborn was a famous cavalry general in the Austrian and Russian armies during the Napoleonic Wars.-Life:...

, in order to fight in the War of the Sixth Coalition

War of the Sixth Coalition

In the War of the Sixth Coalition , a coalition of Austria, Prussia, Russia, the United Kingdom, Portugal, Sweden, Spain and a number of German States finally defeated France and drove Napoleon Bonaparte into exile on Elba. After Napoleon's disastrous invasion of Russia, the continental powers...

. This association of volunteers was joined immediately by volunteers from Hamburg's sister cities Bremen

Bremen

The City Municipality of Bremen is a Hanseatic city in northwestern Germany. A commercial and industrial city with a major port on the river Weser, Bremen is part of the Bremen-Oldenburg metropolitan area . Bremen is the second most populous city in North Germany and tenth in Germany.Bremen is...

 and Lübeck

Lübeck

The Hanseatic City of Lübeck is the second-largest city in Schleswig-Holstein, in northern Germany, and one of the major ports of Germany. It was for several centuries the "capital" of the Hanseatic League and, because of its Brick Gothic architectural heritage, is listed by UNESCO as a World...

.

The Legion should not be confused with the Hamburger Bürgermilitär

Hamburg Citizen Militia

The Hamburg Citizen Militia or Hanseatic Citizen Guard was a citizen militia of the free cities and Hanseatic city of Hamburg, formed from conscripted citizens and inhabitants of the city. It was formed in 1814 and dissolved in 1868....

(Hamburg Citizen Militia). During their time of coexistence, the militia restricted itself to ejecting the French garrisons of Hamburg and the other Hanseatic League

Hanseatic League

The Hanseatic League was an economic alliance of trading cities and their merchant guilds that dominated trade along the coast of Northern Europe...

 cities, whereas the Legion also participated in the rest of the campaign under Russian overall command.

History

The Legion defended the Hanseatic cities against Davout's and Vandamme

Dominique Vandamme

General Dominique-Joseph René Vandamme, Count of Unseburg was a French military officer, who fought in the Napoleonic Wars....

's troops until Tettenborn completed the raising of their sieges in the night of 29/30 May 1813. The Legion and the Hanseatischen Bürgergarden went with Count Tettenborn

Friedrich Karl von Tettenborn

Baron Friedrich Karl of Tettenborn was a famous cavalry general in the Austrian and Russian armies during the Napoleonic Wars.-Life:...

 and in Mecklenburg

Mecklenburg

Mecklenburg is a historical region in northern Germany comprising the western and larger part of the federal-state Mecklenburg-Vorpommern...

 joined the Allied northern army under Wallmoden

Ludwig von Wallmoden-Gimborn

Ludwig Georg Thedel, Graf von Wallmoden was an Austrian "General of the Cavalry", best known for his training of light infantry and the refinement of the Tirailleur system.-Life:...

's command, later taking part in the fighting in the area around Mecklenburg and in parts of the Duchy of Schleswig.

The members of the Legion returned to Bremen, Hamburg and Lübeck on 30 June 1814, and all received the "Kriegsdenkmedaille der drei Hansestädte" (War-Medal of the three Hanseatic-League cities) in 1815.

Sources

• Perthes: W. Perthes Leben. Bd. 1 Gotha (1892)
• Heilwig Prosch: Die Hanseatische Legion 1815 nach Senatsakten und Familienbriefen. In: Der Wagen 1960, S. 66-77.
• Uniforms of the Legion