Jena - Landgrafenberg

French troops climb the Landgrafenberg from Jena

The battle of Jena was fought on a plateau at the top of a steep hill overlooking the German town of Jean. This print shows Napoleon’s troops making their way up the Landgrafenberg, to reach the plateau

Jena path up the Landgrafenberg

Our group climb the same path leading to the Napoleonstein, which marks the area held by Marshal Lannes corps until the remainder of the French army arrived.

Napoleonstein overlooking Jena

The flat area at the top of the Landrafenberg is called the Windknolle. It is a flat, exposed and of course very windy area which overlooks both the Prussian positions ahead and the town of Jena behind.

Napoleon has not planned to fight a battle at Jena. He was marching towards Gera when Lannes, who was on the left flank of the army, met with the Prussians at Jena. Although Lannes was in real danger of being attacked by overwhelming numbers of Prussians, Napoleon ordered him to hold his position whilst the remainder of the French army marched to their left to concentrate within a mile of the Prussian army.

Jena from Napoleonstein

Looking back towards Jena, the ground appears flat, but in fact there is a steep climb from the town which can be seen beyond the trees.

The Windknolle from Napolstein

Looking towards the Prussian positions, in this small area Napoleon gathered 25,000 men during the night prior to the battle. To reach this area they had to climb the narrow track from Jena, and the artillery was soon brought to a halt by the large rocks which blocked the track. Each battalion of infantry climbing the Landgrafenbert had to take turns labouring to clear the path and allow the guns to reach the plateau.

Cospeda from Napoleonstein

The village of Cospeda, where we started our walking tour of the battlefield. This town was occupied by the French during the early morning of the battle.

Closwitz from Napoleonstein

This area saw the opening moves of the battle of Jena. The French infantry followed the road on the right to attack the Prussian held village of Closwitz, which was the left of their line

Lutzeroda from Napoleonstein

To the Prussian right was the village of Lutzeroda which is hidden by the bush on the left of this photograph. Both of these villages were soon in French hands, which gave Napoleon sufficient space to deploy his army for the second phase of the battle – the advance to Vierzehnheilligen.

Jena - Cospeda

Despite the terrible weather at Austerlitz, we booked a second tour with Midas Battlefield Tours. This one was called Napoleon in Germany, and would be seven days 15-22 August 1999.

The tour would visit the battlefields of Jena, Auerstadt, Dresden, Bautzen, Lutzen and Leipzig. It would also take us to Colditz castle, used to hold allied POW during WW2, and the Saxon fortress of Koenigstein.

We were due to fly to Leipzig, and then visit Rossbach battlefield on the way to our first night at Jena. It was not a good start that we actually flew to Prague, and had to wait more than two hours for our guide, Alan Rooney, to turn up. Apparently he had gone to Berlin to collect two members of the tour. However we did not find that out until he eventually arrived. Due to the change of airports we now had a long drive from Prague to Jena we had to miss Rossbach. Worst still, by the time we reached Jena it was raining. Not the best of starts.

Next morning any misgivings were soon forgotten in the excitement as we drove to Cospeda to start our exploration of the Jena battlefield. The weather has also improved, and though not yet sunny it was at least dry.

We had planned to visit the museum, but it was closed. Probably because it was a Monday, which is normal in Europe. It did not say much for the pre planning of the tour that our guide obviously did not expect it to be closed.

It was interesting to see how well signposted the battlefield is. In my experience this is very unusual. But Jena is, of course, a very important battle for Germans. Like Austerlitz, this area had been a military training area during the Cold War. Like our Salisbury Plain this had ensured that there was little building and the battlefield remains untouched by any sort of development.