Siege of Gana | |||||||
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| |||||||
Belligerents | |||||||
Kingdom of Germany | Glomacze | ||||||
Commanders and leaders | |||||||
Henry the Fowler | Unknown | ||||||
Strength | |||||||
Unknown | Unknown | ||||||
Casualties and losses | |||||||
1,000 killed or wounded | Garrison killed Young boys and girls enslaved |
The siege of Gana was a twenty-day siege by a German army led by King Henry the Fowler against a Slavic Glomacze fortification, that took place in early 929 at the fort of Gana, named so after the nearby Jahna river.
In early 929, King Henry led a campaign along his realm's eastern frontier against a multitude of Slavic forts. After capturing his first target at Brandenburg, he seized several more Slavic forts in the area and constructed German ones to establish and secure German control over the territory. A powerful Glomacze fort at Gana near modern-day Stauchitz was Henry's second primary target of the campaign. Henry's army took the fort after expending at least 110,000 man-hours of labour filling in a section of the ditch that protected it. Upon conquest of the stronghold, the Glomacze garrison was exterminated on Henry's orders and the young boys and girls in the fort were enslaved to Henry's milites professional soldiers.
The siege and the subsequent establishment of a German fort at Meissen guaranteed permanent German dominance along the middle Elbe river and led to the creation of the Marca Geronis to maintain the conquests. The siege at Gana, combined with the large number of sieges in the rest of Henry's 929 campaign, show the considerable resources that could be mobilized by the German kingdom for extended warfare to conquer, control and annex territory. [1]
In the winter of 928, King Henry the Fowler of Germany organized a military expedition along his eastern frontier against various Slavic fortifications. His first objective was the Hevelli tribe's princely seat Brandenburg, located along the Havel river. [2] The Germans reduced Hevelli military power through a multitude of battles, before closing in on the Brandenburg fortress and capturing it by a storm. [3] Upon occupation of the fort, Henry proceeded to take over all of Hevelli territory. [4] The next German campaign target was the Glomacze fortress of Gana near the Jahna river. [5] On their way to Gana, Henry's army marched along the Plane valley to the Fläming hills, conquering more Slavic forts at Belzig, Mörz, Niemegk and Zahna. [6] Nearby, German forts were constructed in 929 at Strehla, controlling a ford over the Elbe, at Osterburg and at Dahlen, securing the area. [6]
Archaeological excavations have uncovered a fortress in the Jahna river valley near Stauchitz that may be identified with the Gana site. [7] The fort had walls 15 meters thick at their foundation and with a height of 6 meters. [7] It was enclosed by a 15-meter wide and 5-meter tall ditch. [7] The circuit of the walls was 700 meters long and the fort encompassed an area of 4 hectares, not including a possible outer fort. [7]
Filling in a 200-meter section of the ditch was necessary for Henry's men to storm the walls, a process that would have required the excavation of 15,000 tons of earth with at least 50,000 man-hours of work. [8] The earth then needed to be transported and unloaded on the ditch using wagons. [9] At least 750 carts and 30,000 wagon-loads of earth would have been needed, requiring another 60,000 man-hours of loading, transport and unloading. [10] With only 8 hours of daylight in the winter, it would have taken 1,000 men two weeks to accomplish the task. [10]
Once Gana was stormed at the end of the 20-day siege, Henry gave the order for his men to kill all the defenders and enslave the young boys and girls to his milites professional soldiers. [11] Given the ferocity of the German conquest, it is likely they had sustained heavy losses in the assault. [11] Bachrach estimates more than 1,000 Germans killed or wounded, based on a mathematical siege attack model for the Brandenburg fortification. [11]
After conquering Gana, Henry marched up the Elbe to accomplish his ultimate campaign aim, the siege of Prague and the subjugation of Duke Wenceslaus I's Duchy of Bohemia. [11] Along the way, he constructed a fortress at Meissen, as proven by dendrochronological dating of the wooden construction at Meissen, which establishes an early building stage for 929. [11] Meissen secured German control over the middle Elbe and was followed by the establishment of the Marca Geronis to maintain the German hold. [11] [12] With the help of Duke Arnulf of Bavaria's troops, Henry invaded Bohemia with a total force of 12,000–15,000 professional soldiers and expeditionary militia levies and compelled the surrender of heavily-fortified Prague, concluding a highly successful campaign. [13] [12]
The extensive and successful German siege operations over some period of time show that Henry and the German kingdom could mobilize thousands of soldiers and supply them with the transport animals, food and fodder necessary to maintain them. [1]
Henry the Fowler was the Duke of Saxony from 912 and the King of East Francia from 919 until his death in 936. As the first non-Frankish king of East Francia, he established the Ottonian dynasty of kings and emperors, and he is generally considered to be the founder of the medieval German state, known until then as East Francia. An avid hunter, he obtained the epithet "the Fowler" because he was allegedly fixing his birding nets when messengers arrived to inform him that he was to be king.
Meissen, is a town of approximately 30,000 about 25 km (16 mi) northwest of Dresden on both banks of the Elbe river in the Free State of Saxony, in eastern Germany. Meissen is the home of Meissen porcelain, the Albrechtsburg castle, the Gothic Meissen Cathedral and the Meissen Frauenkirche. The Große Kreisstadt is the capital of the Meissen district.
Year 929 (CMXXIX) was a common year starting on Thursday of the Julian calendar.
Year 928 (CMXXVIII) was a leap year starting on Tuesday of the Julian calendar.
The Altmark is a historic region in Germany, comprising the northern third of Saxony-Anhalt. As the initial territory of the March of Brandenburg, it is sometimes referred to as the "Cradle of Prussia", as by Otto von Bismarck, a native of Schönhausen near Stendal.
The Northern March or North March was created out of the division of the vast Marca Geronis in 965. It initially comprised the northern third of the Marca and was part of the territorial organisation of areas conquered from the Wends. A Lutician rebellion in 983 reversed German control over the region until the establishment of the March of Brandenburg by Albert the Bear in the 12th century.
The Wendish Crusade was a military campaign in 1147, one of the Northern Crusades, led primarily by the Kingdom of Germany within the Holy Roman Empire and directed against the Polabian Slavs. The Wends were made up of the Slavic tribes of Abrotrites, Rani, Liutizians, Wagarians, and Pomeranians who lived east of the River Elbe in present-day northeast Germany and Poland.
Polabian Slavs, also known as Elbe Slavs and more broadly as Wends, is a collective term applied to a number of Lechitic tribes who lived scattered along the Elbe river in what is today eastern Germany. The approximate territory stretched from the Baltic Sea in the north, the Saale and the Limes Saxoniae in the west, the Ore Mountains and the Western Sudetes in the south, and Poland in the east.
The Albrechtsburg is a Late Gothic castle erected from 1471 till about 1495. It is located in the town centre of Meissen in the German state of Saxony. It is situated on a hill above the river Elbe, adjacent to the Meissen Cathedral.
The Hevelli or Hevellians/ Navellasîni were a tribe of the Polabian Slavs, who settled around the middle Havel river in the present-day Havelland region of Brandenburg in eastern Germany from the 8th century onwards.
The Margravate or Margraviate of Meissen was a medieval principality in the area of the modern German state of Saxony. It originally was a frontier march of the Holy Roman Empire, created out of the vast Marca Geronis in 965. Under the rule of the Wettin dynasty, the margravate finally merged with the former Duchy of Saxe-Wittenberg into the Saxon Electorate by 1423.
The Saxon Eastern March was a march of the Holy Roman Empire from the 10th until the 12th century. The term "eastern march" stems from the Latin term marchia Orientalis and originally could refer to either a march created on the eastern frontier of the East Frankish duchy of Saxony or another on the eastern border of the Duchy of Bavaria: the Bavarian marchia Orientalis, corresponding to later Austria.
The March of Merseburg was a short-lived march of the Holy Roman Empire. It comprised the lands of the Polabian Slavs beyond the margravial residence at Merseburg on the Saale river.
Dietrichof Haldensleben was a count in the Schwabengau, later also in the Nordthüringgau and the Derlingau, who was the first Margrave of the Northern March from 965 until the Great Slav Rising of 983. He also bore the title of a dux (duke) in contemporary sources.He was a ancestor of John V
The March or Margraviate of Lusatia was an eastern border march of the Holy Roman Empire in the lands settled by Polabian Slavs. It arose in 965 in the course of the partition of the vast Marca Geronis. Ruled by several Saxon margravial dynasties, among them the House of Wettin, the lordship was contested by the Polish kings as well as by the Ascanian margraves of Brandenburg. The remaining territory was finally incorporated into the Lands of the Bohemian Crown in 1367.
The Glomacze, also Golomacze or Dolomici - were a West Slavic Lechitic tribe of Polabian Slavs inhabiting areas in the middle Elbe (Łaba) valley. Other West Slavic tribes such as the Milceni settled east of them. About 850 the Bavarian Geographer located a Talaminzi (Dala-Daleminzi) settlement area east of the Sorbs. According to later chronicler Thietmar of Merseburg, the people called themselves Glomacze after a central cult site, a now dry lake near the present-day town of Lommatzsch.
The Lutici or Liutizi(known by various spelling variants) were a federation of West Slavic Polabian tribes, who between the 10th and 12th centuries lived in what is now northeastern Germany. Four tribes made up the core of the federation: the Redarians, Circipanians (Circipani), Kessinians and Tollensians (Tholenzi). At least in part, the Lutici were a continuation of the Veleti. In contrast to the former and the neighboring peoples, the Lutici were not led by a Christian monarch or duke, rather power was asserted through consensus formed in central assemblies of the social elites, and the Lutici worshipped nature and several deities. The political and religious center was Radgosc.
In the Slavic revolt of 983, Polabian Slavs, Wends, Lutici and Obotrite tribes, that lived east of the Elbe River in modern north-east Germany overthrew an assumed Ottonian rule over the Slavic lands and rejected Christianization under Emperor Otto I.
The Battle of Lenzen was a land battle between a Saxon army of the Kingdom of Germany and the armies of the Slavic Redarii and Linonen peoples, that took place on 4 September 929 near the fortified Linonen stronghold of Lenzen in Brandenburg, Germany. The Saxon army, commanded by Saxon magnate Bernhard, destroyed a Slavic Redarii army. It marked the failure of Slavic attempts to resist German king Henry the Fowler's expansionism to the Elbe.