Entry into Berlin — 27 octobre 1806

Thirteen days after Jena and Auerstedt, Napoleon entered Berlin, the honour of the vanguard going to Davout's corps. He had Frederick II's sword sent to the Invalides and confiscated the quadriga from the Brandenburg Gate. Prussia, halved at Tilsit, would answer the humiliation with the reforms of Stein and Scharnhorst.

Thirteen days

On 14 October 1806 the double battle of Jena and Auerstedt destroyed the Prussian army in a single day. The pursuit that followed was as decisive as the battle: the corps of Murat and Lannes collected the surrender of fortresses reputed impregnable almost without firing a shot.

Berlin lay open. The honour of entering first, on 25 October, fell to Davout's III Corps, which at Auerstedt had beaten the main Prussian army with half its numbers. Napoleon made his entry on 27 October.

The trophies of Potsdam

The Emperor went to Frederick II's tomb at Potsdam. He had the great king's sword, sash and guard colours sent to the Invalides; the quadriga of the Brandenburg Gate was taken down and shipped to Paris.

The staging was calculated: it was Frederick's army, reputed the best in Europe, that had just been destroyed, and the victor was installing himself in its inheritance. Berlin would pay a war contribution, and it was from there that the decree establishing the Continental Blockade was signed on 21 November 1806.

What the humiliation produced

At Tilsit, in July 1807, Prussia lost half her territory and population and had to maintain an army of occupation. She was reduced to the rank of a secondary power.

It was this collapse that set off the reforms of Stein and Hardenberg — abolition of serfdom, municipal reform — and those of Scharnhorst and Gneisenau in the army, which got round the limit on numbers imposed by France. It was also in occupied Berlin that Fichte delivered his Addresses to the German Nation. The Prussia of 1813 came out of the defeat of 1806.