page_title: Treaty of Schönbrunn
section_title: Assassination attempt
hierarchical_section_title: Treaty of Schönbrunn / Assassination attempt
caption_attribution_description: Staps interrogé par Napoléon en présence de Corvisart.
context_page_description: The Treaty of Schönbrunn, sometimes known as the Peace of Schönbrunn or Treaty of Vienna, was signed between France and Austria at Schönbrunn Palace near Vienna on 14 October 1809. The treaty ended the Fifth Coalition during the Napoleonic Wars, after Austria had been defeated at the decisive Battle of Wagram on 5-6 July.
context_section_description: During the negotiations at Schönbrunn, Napoleon narrowly escaped an attempt on his life. On 12 October, shortly before signing the treaty, the emperor exited the palace with a large entourage to observe a military parade. Seventeen year old Friedrich Staps, son of a Lutheran pastor from Naumburg, had arrived in Vienna and demanded an audience to present a petition. He was refused by the emperor's aide General Jean Rapp, who shortly thereafter observed Staps in the courtyard pushing through the crowd towards Napoleon from a different direction, and had him arrested. 
  Taken to the palace, Staps was found to be carrying a large kitchen knife inside his coat, concealed in the petition papers. Interrogated, Staps frankly revealed his plans to kill the emperor, calling him the misfortune of his country. Brought forward to Napoleon, he asked whether Staps would thank him if he was pardoned, to which Staps replied: "I would kill you none the less."
  Napoleon left Vienna on 16 October and the next day Staps was shot by Württemberg fusiliers outside the palace. At this execution, he is said to have shouted "Long live freedom! Long live Germany!" Napoleon, impressed and fearing a greater conspiracy, instructed his police minister Joseph Fouché to keep the incident secret.
  Soon after the German campaign of 1813, Staps came to be seen as a martyr of the burgeoning German nationalism. He was the subject of a poem by Christian Friedrich Hebbel and a play by Walter von Molo.
caption: Staps is interrogated by Napoleon and his physician Jean-Nicolas Corvisart, 1866 depiction
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