Königreich Sachsen (de)
Kingdom of Saxony | |||||||||
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| 1806–1918 | |||||||||
 Flag
 Coat of arms
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Motto: Providentiae Memor "Providence Remember" | |||||||||
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Anthem: Gott segne Sachsenland (1815) Sachsenlied ("Gott sei mit dir mein Sachsenland", 1842) | |||||||||
 The Kingdom of Saxony within the German Empire | |||||||||
| Status |
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| Capital | Dresden | ||||||||
| Common languages | Upper Saxon German | ||||||||
| Religion | Lutheran, but monarchs were Roman Catholic | ||||||||
| Government | Constitutional Monarchy | ||||||||
• King | 1806–1827 (first) Frederick Augustus I | ||||||||
• King | 1904–1918 (last) Frederick Augustus III | ||||||||
| Legislature | Landtag of Saxony (1831–1918) | ||||||||
| Historical era | Napoleonic Wars / WWI | ||||||||
• Established | 20 December 1806 | ||||||||
• Disestablished | 13 November 1918 | ||||||||
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The Kingdom of Saxony (German language: Königreich Sachsen), lasting from 1806 to 1918, was an independent member of a number of historical confederacies in Napoleonic through post-Napoleonic Germany. The kingdom was formed from the Electorate of Saxony. From 1871 it was part of the German Empire. It became a free state in the era of Weimar Republic in 1918 after the end of World War I and the abdication of King Frederick Augustus III of Saxony. Its capital was the city of Dresden, and its modern successor state is the Free State of Saxony.
History[]
Napoleonic era and the German Confederation[]
Before 1806, Saxony was part of the Holy Roman Empire, a thousand-year-old entity that had become highly decentralised over the centuries. The rulers of the Electorate of Saxony of the House of Wettin had held the title of elector for several centuries. When the Holy Roman Empire was dissolved in August 1806 following the defeat of Emperor Francis II by Napoleon at the Battle of Austerlitz, the electorate was raised to the status of an independent kingdom with the support of the First French Empire, then the dominant power in Central Europe. The last elector of Saxony became King Frederick Augustus I.
Following the defeat of Saxony's ally Prussia at the Battle of Jena in 1806, Saxony joined the Confederation of the Rhine, and remained within the Confederation until its dissolution in 1813 with Napoleon's defeat at the Battle of Leipzig. Following the battle, in which Saxony – virtually alone of all the German states – had fought alongside the French, King Frederick Augustus I was deserted by his troops, taken prisoner by the Prussians,[1] and considered to have forfeited his throne by the allies, who put Saxony under Prussian occupation and administration. This was probably more due to the Prussian desire to annex Saxony than to any crime on Frederick Augustus' part, and the fate of Saxony would prove to be one of the main issues at the Congress of Vienna. In the end, 40% of the Kingdom, including the historically significant Wittenberg, home of the Protestant Reformation, was annexed by Prussia, but Frederick Augustus was restored to the throne in the remainder of his kingdom, which still included the major cities of Dresden and Leipzig. The Kingdom also joined the German Confederation, the new organisation of the German states to replace the fallen Holy Roman Empire.
Austro-Prussian War and the German Empire[]
During the 1866 Austro-Prussian War, Saxony sided with Austria, and the Saxon army was generally seen as the only ally to bring substantial aid to the Austrian cause, having abandoned the defense of Saxony itself to join up with the Austrian army in Bohemia. This effectiveness probably allowed Saxony to escape the fate of other north German states allied with Austria – notably the Kingdom of Hanover – which were annexed by Prussia after the war. The Austrians and French insisted as a point of honour that Saxony must be spared, and the Prussians acquiesced. Saxony nevertheless joined the Prussian-led North German Confederation the next year. With Prussia's victory over France in the Franco-Prussian War of 1871, the members of the Confederation were organised by Otto von Bismarck into the German Empire, with WIlliam I as its emperor. John, as Saxony's incumbent king, was subordinate and owed allegiance to the Emperor, although he, like the other German princes, retained some of the prerogatives of a sovereign ruler, including the ability to enter into diplomatic relations with other states.
End of the kingdom[]
Wilhelm I's grandson Kaiser Wilhelm II abdicated in 1918 as a result of a revolution set off in the days before Germany's defeat in World War I. King Frederick Augustus III of Saxony followed him into abdication and the erstwhile Kingdom of Saxony became the Free State of Saxony within the newly formed Weimar Republic.
Armed Forces[]
- List of Saxon regiments during the Seven Years' War
- List of Saxon regiments during the Napoleonic Wars
- List of Saxon regiments of the Imperial German Army
References[]
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Wikisource has the text of the 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica article Saxony (kingdom). |
External links[]
- Constitution of the Kingdom of Saxony (in German)
- Constitution of the Kingdom of Saxony (in English)
Coordinates: 51°03′N 13°44′E / 51.05°N 13.733°E
The original article can be found at Kingdom of Saxony and the edit history here.