The story of this place
On 5 November 1757 near the Saxon village of Rossbach, Frederick the Great sprang one of history's most lopsided victories. A combined French and Imperial army of 41,000 tried to outflank his 22,000, but Frederick struck their marching columns before they could deploy. His cavalry commander Friedrich Wilhelm von Seydlitz charged with 4,000 horsemen and broke the enemy in a single sweep, while masked Prussian batteries tore into the confused ranks. In roughly ninety minutes the allied army disintegrated, losing about 10,000 men to Frederick's 550. The humiliation electrified German patriotic feeling and, a month before Leuthen, saved Prussia from encirclement. A monument marks the field near Reichardtswerben.