The first Battle of Heligoland took place on 4 June 1849 during the

First Schleswig War The First Schleswig War (german: Schleswig-Holsteinischer Krieg) was a military conflict in southern Denmark and northern Germany rooted in the Schleswig-Holstein Question, contesting the issue of who should control the Duchies of Schleswi ...

and pitted the fledgling ''

Reichsflotte The ''Reichsflotte'' (, ''Imperial Fleet'') was the first navy for all of Germany, established by the revolutionary German Empire to provide a naval force in the First Schleswig War against Denmark. The decision was made on 14 June 1848 by the F ...

'' (Imperial Fleet) against the

Royal Danish Navy The Royal Danish Navy ( da, Søværnet) is the sea-based branch of the Danish Defence force. The RDN is mainly responsible for maritime defence and maintaining the sovereignty of Danish territorial waters (incl. Faroe Islands and Greenland). O ...

, which had blocked German naval trade in

North Sea The North Sea lies between Great Britain, Norway, Denmark, Germany, the Netherlands and Belgium. An epeiric sea on the European continental shelf, it connects to the Atlantic Ocean through the English Channel in the south and the Norwegian ...

and

Baltic Sea The Baltic Sea is an arm of the Atlantic Ocean that is enclosed by Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Germany, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Russia, Sweden and the North and Central European Plain. The sea stretches from 53°N to 66°N latitude and from ...

since early 1848. The outcome was inconclusive, with no casualties, and the blockade went on. It remained the only battle of the German fleet.''die erste und einzige Seefahrt unter der Schwarz-rot-goldnen Flagge'' – Georg Wislicenus, ''Deutschlands Seemacht'

/ref>

Battle

Korvetten Valkyrien i kamp med tyske dampskibe

At the outbreak of the First Schleswig War, the Danes instituted a

blockade A blockade is the act of actively preventing a country or region from receiving or sending out food, supplies, weapons, or communications, and sometimes people, by military force. A blockade differs from an embargo or sanction, which are leg ...

, stopping all German trade in the

and the

. This prompted the German parliament at Frankfurt to form a new all-German navy. The Germans had to build a fleet from scratch, buying ships abroad and converting them, and hiring foreign officers (British, Belgian) to lead native veteran merchant mariners.Lawrence Sondhaus, ''Naval Warfare, 1815–1914'' p. 49
/ref> After about a year of preparation, on 4 June, German Admiral

Karl Rudolf Brommy Rear Admiral Karl Rudolf Brommy (changed his name to reflect the English pronunciation of his original name, Bromme) (10 September 1804 – 9 January 1860) was a German naval officer who helped establish the first unified German fleet, the Reich ...

left

Bremerhaven Bremerhaven (, , Low German: ''Bremerhoben'') is a city at the seaport of the Free Hanseatic City of Bremen, a state of the Federal Republic of Germany. It forms a semi-enclave in the state of Lower Saxony and is located at the mouth of the Riv ...

with the steam frigate SMS ''Barbarossa'' (formerly RMS ''Britannia'') and the smaller steam corvettes '' Lübeck (1844)'' and '' Hamburg (1841)'' in order to disperse the Danish ships which were guarding the mouth of Weser River. The Danish forces present that day were inferior and retreated, but Brommy managed to cut off the sailing corvette ''Valkyrien'' which under captain Andreas Polder sought refuge near the island of

Heligoland Heligoland (; german: Helgoland, ; Heligolandic Frisian: , , Mooring Frisian: , da, Helgoland) is a small archipelago in the North Sea. A part of the German state of Schleswig-Holstein since 1890, the islands were historically possession ...

which at the time belonged to the

United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Europe, off the north-western coast of the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotland, Wales and ...

. The British, while being neutral, had made clear beforehand that a German Navy was not welcome and might be treated as pirates. Ships of both sides fired some shots, with no effect. When the German approached the island's three-mile zone, the British forces fired warning shots towards them, while allowing the Danish corvette to stay close. Brommy, not willing to draw the

Royal Navy The Royal Navy (RN) is the United Kingdom's naval warfare force. Although warships were used by English and Scottish kings from the early medieval period, the first major maritime engagements were fought in the Hundred Years' War against Fr ...

into the war, stayed at a distance while the Danish captain Polder was waiting for the arrival of reinforcements from the Danish main fleet. When the modern steamer ''Gejser'', under Kaptajnløjtnant (captain lieutenant) Jørgen Peter Frederik Wulff, came into sight, Brommy retreated, fearing further Danish reinforcements. The Danes followed the Germans to the mouth of the

Elbe The Elbe (; cs, Labe ; nds, Ilv or ''Elv''; Upper and dsb, Łobjo) is one of the major rivers of Central Europe. It rises in the Giant Mountains of the northern Czech Republic before traversing much of Bohemia (western half of the Czech Re ...

near

Cuxhaven Cuxhaven (; ) is an independent town and seat of the Cuxhaven district, in Lower Saxony, Germany. The town includes the northernmost point of Lower Saxony. It is situated on the shore of the North Sea at the mouth of the Elbe River. Cuxhaven ...

before resuming the blockade. It was the first and the last excursion of the small fleet under the black-red-gold

Flag of Germany The national flag of Germany is a tricolour consisting of three equal horizontal bands displaying the national colours of Germany: black, red, and gold (german: Schwarz-Rot-Gold). The flag was first sighted in 1848 in the German Confeder ...

Notes

Literature

* Guntram Schulze-Wegener: ''Deutschland zur See . 150 Jahre Marinegeschichte.'' Mittler, Hamburg 1998. * Jörg Duppler : ''Germania auf dem Meere / Bilder und Dokumente zur Deutschen Marinegeschichte 1848 –1998.'' Mittler, Hamburg 1998. * Giese, Fritz: Kleine Geschichte der deutschen Flotte * Hansen, Hans Jürgen: Die Schiffe der deutschen Flotten 1848–1945 * Hildebrand, Hans H. / Henriot, Ernest:: Deutschlands Admirale 1849–1945 * Kroschel, Günter / Evers, August-Ludwig: Die deutsche Flotte 1848–1945 * Rhades, Dr. Jürgen: Die deutsche Marine in Vergangenheit und Gegenwart * Röhr, Albert: Deutsche Marinechronik * Witthöft, Hans Jürgen: Lexikon zur deutschen Marinegeschichte * Georg Wislicenus: ''Deutschlands Seemacht'', Published 2007 Reprint-Verlag-Leipzig, 206 pages,

* Lawrence Sondhaus:
Naval Warfare, 1815–1914
', Published 2001, Routledge, 272 pages,

External links

Deutsche Marine, History

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{{DEFAULTSORT:Heligoland, Battle of 1849 1849 in Denmark 1849 in Germany Conflicts in 1849 Battle 1849 Battles and conflicts without fatalities Naval battles involving Germany Naval battles of the First Schleswig War June 1849 events

Battle

See also

Notes

Literature

External links