German campaign ( Napoleonic Wars ) The German Campaign ( Ger . " Befreiungskriege " ) was the campaign which ended the War of the Sixth Coalition , itself part of the Napoleonic Wars . It took place in Germany after Napoleon ' s retreat from Russia . In Germany itself it became known as the " Befreiungskriege " ( Wars of Liberation ) or " Freiheitskriege " ( Wars of Freedom ) - both terms were used at the time , both by liberals and nationalists in terms of a unified and democratic Germany and by conservatives after the Bourbon Restoration to mean freeing Europe from French hegemony and occupation . It is also known as the " europäische Befreiungskriege " ( European Wars of Liberation ) , to distinguish it from the 1808 Spanish Uprising . Context . Since 1806 writers and intellectuals such as Johann Philipp Palm , Johann Gottlieb Fichte , Ernst Moritz Arndt , Friedrich Ludwig Jahn and Theodor Körner had been criticising the Napoleonic occupation of Germany . They advocated limitations to the dynastic princes of Germany and a joint effort by all Germans to eject the French . From 1810 Arndt and Jahn asked high - ranking figures in Prussian society again and again to prepare such an uprising . Jahn himself organised the German League and made a major contribution to the founding of the Lützow Free Corps . These forerunners took part in the outbreak of hostilities in Germany , both by serving in the armed forces and by backing the Coalition forces through their writings . Even before the German Campaign , there had been uprisings against the French troops occupying Germany - these had broken out from 1806 onwards in Hesse and in 1809 in the Tyrol , the latter led by Andreas Hofer . These uprisings intensified in the same year under Wilhelm von Dörnberg , the initiator and commander - in - chief of the Hessian uprising , and Major Ferdinand von Schill . Course . After the devastating defeat of Napoleon ' s Grande Armée in Russia in 1812 , Ludwig Yorck von Wartenburg - the general in command of the Grande Armée ' s German auxiliaries ( " Hilfskorps " ) - declared a ceasefire with the Russians on 30 December 1812 via the Convention of Tauroggen . This was the decisive factor in the outbreak of the German Campaign the following year . On 17 March 1813 - the day Alexander I of Russia arrived in the Hoflager of Frederick William III of Prussia - Prussia declared war on France . On 20 March 1813 the " Schlesische privilegierte Zeitung " newspaper published Frederick ' s speech entitled " An Mein Volk " , delivered on 17 March and calling for a war of liberation . In addition to newly formed Prussian units such as the Landwehr and Landsturm , the initial fighting was undertaken by volunteers such as German volunteer troops and Jäger and Free Corps ( such as the Lützow Free Corps ) and the soldiers of Russia and ( from summer 1813 onwards ) Sweden under Crown Prince Charles John ( the former French marshal Bernadotte ) and Austria under field marshal Schwarzenberg . Already busy with maintaining naval supremacy and fighting the Peninsular War , Great Britain did not take any direct part in the German campaign , though it sent subsidies to support it . Via the Trachenberg Plan , the ministers of Prussia , Russia and Sweden agreed to pursue a single allied strategy against Napoleon . The high point of this strategy was the Battle of Leipzig in October 1813 , which ended in Napoleon ' s defeat . The Confederation of the Rhine , an alliance of west German rulers allied to France , had already lost battles against the Allies in Bavaria and Saxony and after the defeat at Leipzig dissolved completely . This completely broke Napoleon ' s power to the east of the river Rhine . The German campaign ' s final phase took place in the early months of 1814 , coinciding with the Duke of Wellington ' s march up through southern France and ending in Napoleon ' s abdication and the Treaty of Paris . Results . The campaign ended the ' French period ' ( " Franzosenzeit " ) in Germany and fostered a new sense of German unity and nationalism . The German Confederation , formed at the Congress of Vienna in 1815 , was a precursor to the modern German nation state , which was , however , only realized more than half a century later under Prussian leadership . The popular image of the campaign in Germany was shaped by the cultural memory of its veterans , especially the many students who volunteered to fight in the Lützow Free Corps and other units who later rose to high positions in the military and political spheres . A new boom in remembrance of the war occurred in 1913 , on the centenary of its outbreak . References . Notes Bibliography