Battle of Fehrbellin The Battle of Fehrbellin was fought on June 18 , 1675 between Swedish and Brandenburg - Prussia n troops . The Swedes , under Count Waldemar von Wrangel ( stepbrother of " Riksamiral " Carl Gustaf Wrangel ) , had invaded and occupied parts of Brandenburg from their possessions in Pomerania , but were repelled by the forces of Frederick William , the Great Elector , under his " Feldmarschall " Georg von Derfflinger near the town of Fehrbellin . The battle went down in history as Prussia ' s baptism of fire . Prelude . Prior to the battle the Swedes and Brandenburg had been allies in various wars against the Kingdom of Poland . However , when Elector Frederick William during the Franco - Dutch War had joined an allied expedition with Emperor Leopold I to Alsace against the forces of King Louis XIV of France , the French persuaded Sweden , which had been increasingly isolated on the continent , to attack Brandenburg while her army was away . When Frederick William , encamping at Erstein , heard of the attack and occupation of a large part of his principality in December 1674 , he immediately drew his army out of the coalition but had to take winter quarters at Marktbreit in Franconia . Leaving on 26 May 1675 , he marched to Magdeburg in only two weeks . This feat was considered one of the great marches in military history . He did it by abandoning his supply wagons and leaving large parts of the infantry behind , having his army buy supplies from the locals , but forbidding pillaging . The Swedes did not expect him to arrive that early . Once he returned to Brandenburg , Frederick William realized that the Swedish forces , occupying the swampy Havel land region between Havelberg and the town of Brandenburg , were dispersed and ordered Derrflinger to take the central town of Rathenow in order to split them roughly down the middle . The elector bribed a local official loyal to him to hold a large and elaborate banquet for the Swedish officers of the fortress in order to get them drunk before the assault began in the night of June 14 . Derfflinger then personally impersonated a Swedish officer and convinced the guards to open the gates of the town by claiming that a Brandenburg patrol was after him . Once the gates were opened for him , he led the charge of 1 , 000 dragoon s against the city and the rest of the army soon followed . He was 69 years old at the time . Once Derfflinger had expelled the Swedish garrison from Rathenow , this made the Swedish lines vulnerable . On June 17 , the Brandenburgian troops reached Nauen . The Swedes , who had planned to cross the Elbe river in order to join forces with Brunswick troops , were forced back to their last position at Fehrbellin . Battle . The Swedish commander , Wrangel , harassed by Brandenburg raiding parties under the command of Colonel Joachim Hennings , found himself hemmed in by a destroyed bridge over the Rhin River at the town of Fehrbellin . Impassable marshes on both flanks left Wrangel little choice but to give battle south of the nearby village of Hakenberg while his engineer s repaired the span . A total of 15 , 000 Brandenburgers , including 5 , 600 cavalry and 13 cannons , faced 7 , 000 infantry , 4 , 000 cavalry and 38 guns on the Swedish side . One authority gives the Swedes a total of 12 , 000 troops . Wrangel omitted to secure the surrounding heights , and Frederick William and Derfflinger , by placing their guns on a series of low hills to his left while the Swedes had only swamps to their flanks and a river behind them , gained a decisive tactical advantage . These guns opened fire around noon on the 18th and caused heavy casualties on the Swedish right flank . Wrangel , now aware of the threat , attempted several times to wrest control of the hills but was stopped each time . Frederick William had his main attack press the right flank of the Swedes , eventually causing their cavalry to flee , and exposing their infantry to a flank attack led by Prince Frederick II of Hesse - Homburg . In several hours of close combat involving heavy losses , the Brandenburgian cavalry turned and routed a regiment of Swedish infantry . The Swedish right however held up long enough though for the Fehrbellin bridge to be repaired and Wrangel was able to get a large portion of his army across before darkness fell . Frederick William rejected all his officers ' suggestions to shell the town . The Brandenburg troops lost about 500 men . Wrangel ' s forces , although routed , lost only about the same amount on the day of the battle , but lost much more in the coming days ' retreat pursued by the Brandenburgers up to Wittstock . Raiding parties , desertion , starvation , and other factors reduced the retreating Swedish army to a fraction of what it once was . Historical significance . Upon the Brandenburgian victory , the Holy Roman Empire and Denmark finally met their obligations and declared war on Sweden . While Frederick William ' s forces invaded Swedish Pomerania , the Swedes did not enter the margraviate again until the 1679 Peace of Saint - Germain - en - Laye , which — to the elector ' s great disappointment — largely restored the " status quo ante bellum " . Although only of minor importance militarily , the victory had enormous psychological impact : the Swedes , long considered unbeatable , had been bested and Brandenburg alone had prevailed against Swedish and French power politics . Frederick William henceforth was known as the " Great Elector " , and the army that he and Derfflinger had led to victory became the core of the future Prussian Army vital for the country ' s development as a European great power . Glorified in the course of rising German nationalism under the rule of the House of Hohenzollern in the 19th century , June 18 was a holiday that would be celebrated in Germany up until 1914 . Reception . The Battle of Fehrbellin is the setting of Heinrich von Kleist ' s drama " The Prince of Homburg " written in 1809 - 10 . However , the story of the prince ' s subordination , later popularised by the Prussian king Frederick the Great , may be a legend . An observation tower on the Hakenberg hill with a Victoria statue on top similar to the Berlin Victory Column commemorates the battle . It was erected from 1875 on the initiative of Crown Prince Frederick III and inaugurated on September 2 ( " Sedantag " ) , 1879 . References . " Citino is the major source for this article . "