May Uprising in Dresden (1849)
드레스덴 5월 봉기 (1849)
Part of Imperial Constitution campaign (1849)
The rising in Dresden, capital of the Kingdom of Saxony, on 3–9 May 1849 against the king's rejection of the Frankfurt Constitution and dissolution of parliament. When the king fled to the fortress of Königstein, Tzschirner, Todt and Heubner formed a provisional government, and Bakunin, Richard Wagner, Gottfried Semper and Stephan Born stood on the barricades. Saxon and Prussian troops crushed it on 9 May.
In depth
Within hours 108 barricades went up. Estimates of its size differ widely: about 12,000 insurgents (German Wikipedia), about 2,500 combatants (English Wikipedia's article on the German revolutions), or about 3,000 revolutionaries against 5,000 government troops (the article on the Dresden rising). One count gives about 200 dead insurgents and 8 Saxon and 23 Prussian soldiers killed, another 250 killed and 700 taken prisoner. Bakunin was arrested, while Wagner and Semper escaped to Zurich.