In 1683 the Turkish army tried their second attempt to take the Austrian capital Vienna.
It started in October 1682 when "Grosswesir Kara Mustapha" left Stambul (today's Istanbul). When the Austrian King "Leopold I." received this message in Vienna he was quite upset, and started to look for allies. But all his neighbours were not too excited to help Vienna against the Turks.
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The Surpreme Commander
of the Turkish Forces:
Kara Mustapha |
On the 3rd of May 1683 the Turks took Beograd. 150 000 soldiers, of them 40 000 elite soldiers, seasoned "Janitscharen" and "Spahi" were on the way to take Vienna. Leopold I. only had 32.000 men in his army. Not enough to fight with the enemy in open field, so the Imperial Austrian army retreaded from Hungary.
While Leopold I. and his family escaped to the Bavarian city "Passau", 60 000 citizens followed them, the Viennese mayor "Andreas Liebenberg" organized the defence of the city with people like the bishop "Leopold Kollonitsch", the politican "Kaplirs" and Earl "Rüdiger Starhemberg". Something like 16 000 soldiers were standing inside of Vienna to wait the Turkish invaders.
16th July 1683. The Turks were standing infront of Vienna's gates again, like in 1529. Horrible stories were told in Vienna about the people who were not able to escape from the enemy. All inhabitants of the town "Perchtoldsdorf" were beaten to death by Turkish soldiers, althought they had made an agreement with the Turks, that they should be protected if they give them all their possessions. The villages Lilienfeld, Wilhelmsburg, Hainfeld, and Türnitz were losing all their citizens. 225 married couples were killed, also 46 children and 89 servants. The rest was kidnapped and brought to Turkey to work for them as slaves. They have never seen Austria again. The Viennese people knew that it would be also their fate, if the invaders were able to take their city.
The Turkish soldiers were quite motivated because Vienna was a rich city, and they could make a paying loot. Turks were attacking the city permanently, wave after wave. The situation inside the city became worser and worser. Ammunition scarcity, serious diseases like dysentery broke out and decimated the defenders to two third. Turks were shooting with artillery day and night. The effect was terrible. It was burning everywhere, roofs, structural members were falling down on the streets and made them impassable. The last hope was help from outside.
On the 9th September the rescue was close. The Christian Army started to march against the invaders from Asia:
21 000 Imperial soldiers
11 000 Bavarian soldiers
10 000 from Swabia und Franconia
10 000 Saxons
24 000 Polish (14 000 by horse)
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Turkish army leader Kara Mustapha was well informed about what was going on, but he expected to take Vienna in the next five hours, and did very bad tactical mistakes. He did not fortify his army, neither secure the hills of the Viennese wood, which made it quite easy for the enemy to take them (11th September).
The main battle took place at the hill "Kahlenberg" on the 12th September 1683. At four o'clock in the morning the Christian soldiers were praying to God to help them in a big ceremony in open field. Then they started to march against the Turks. The Polish King "Jan Sobieski" had the supreme command, and divided the army in three groups. Imperials and Saxons built the left wing, Bavarians the center, and the Polish with Sobieski took the right wing. The hill terrain and the woods made some difficulties for the Polish horsemen. But the Turkish battle order was soon dissolved. There was a heavy battle for every vineyard. During lunchtime the first Christian soldiers reached the tent base of the Turks. In the afternoon the left wing was able to take the heavy defended headquater of the Turks in Döbling. Some hours later the whole Turkish army was on the run. The longest battle lasted in the center, where Kara Mustapha himself was standing very brave. But in the evening he also had to start running. Later at home in Turkey he lost his head, because of his bad mistakes during the battle.
The Turkish army was now totally destroyed and not a danger anymore. In the next decades, Austria was able to take more and more land from the south and east. Hungary was taken and brought totally under Austrian control, and also today's Yugoslavia was libarated from Turks and brought into the Austrian Empire.
As Turkish soldiers were running so fast, they had to leave all their equipments in their tents. So the winners made a good loot. Those things which stayed from the Turks Siege in Vienna were the "croissants", which have their bending in dependence of the Turkish half moon. Traces of the Turkish Siege can also be found in the music. The "Alla Turca" was big in fashion. It became also popular for decades to include Turkish symbols like turban into womens fashion. There were also those Turkish pictures on playing cards, which go back to that event in 1683.
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The glorious victory of 1683 brought Austria a lot of power, more land in the east and the south, and Vienna turned from the frontier town, to the central of the new Austrian Empire.
