As part of the festivities, held under the aegis of Franc-German friendship, the local museum had an exhibition of military events related to the battle of Jena, 14 October, , a special Audio Walk had been created at Cospeda for visitors to the battlefield.
Both were resolutely emotional in their approach. The museum had produced six tableaux showing the civilian and military experience of the battle β pillaged houses, burning buildings, field hospitals, military uniforms -, the audio walk was a poetical reflection on memory, realms of memory such as battlefields and the emotional experience of remembering war. Neither had made any attempt to explain why the battle took place. This essay considers the events which brought about the confrontation.
In the history of Prussia, the nine years leading up to the decisively catastrophic battle of Jena in were, geographically speaking, no different from the centuries that had preceded them. As a small state, with unprotected borders, sandwiched between the great powers of France to the West and Russia to the East and faced with an Austrian sphere of influence to the south, Prussia was always concerned for her existence.
Quoted in A. The best position to take has been to let these powers mutually destroy themselves, to strengthen ourselves from their weakness and to gain time to prepare for the future. As the above-cited brochure noted, this policy was problematic but it was not without gain. John Holland Rose, Napoleon, a life, vol. But this passive position of accepting indemnities which some historians have seen as land-grabbing whilst it enhanced Prussia territorially it harmed her in terms of her self-respect, in that Prussia found herself the junior partner, being patronised and protected by Alexander and Napoleon instead of being able patronise and protect her clients.
Prussia was seen as no longer defining her own destiny. Nor could the French be encouraged to abandon the port of Cuxhaven or to deblockade the Elbe and Weser rivers key Prussian access to the sea. Given the fait accompli of France directly on her borders, Prussia began timidly to make propositions for the creation of a defensive alliance with Napoleon.
