Palatine uprising

The movement of the March Revolution in the member states of the German Confederation had led to the election of the Frankfurt Assembly, the first all-German parliament.

King Frederick William IV of Prussia refused to accept the imperial crown under this constitution.

The result was a majority in favour of the Left (die Linke), the so-called "Followers of Popular Sovereignty and the Unity of Germany".

Palatine deputies returned to the municipalities with a resolution: it said that failure to recognize the constitution was "a criminal rebellion against the newly created legal order; and any use of force [would be] treason against the German Nation".

On 17 May 1849, a people's assembly in Kaiserslautern decided to establish a five-man provisional government under the leadership of lawyer Joseph Martin Reichard.

In place of the absentees, Peter Fries, Jean Louis Christian Greiner and Nicholas Schmitt were selected.

The command of the revolutionary units was transferred on 9 May 1849 to Daniel Fenner von Fenneberg; however, he relinquished this position on 20 May.

The advance guard of the 1st Division of the 1st Prussian Army Corps under Major General von Hannecken crossed the Palatine border unopposed near Kreuznach.

Against the army of 19,000 Prussian soldiers under Moritz von Hirschfeld, the revolutionary troops were poorly armed and vastly outclassed in training.

On 9 March 1850 in Landau in der Pfalz, Lieutenant Graf Fugger was executed; but Major Fach was able to escape.