Dresden Rebellion of 1849

an armed uprising in Dresden on May 3-9, 1849, in the final phase of the German Revolution of 1848-49. The rebels rose in support of the imperial constitution that the Frankfurt National Assembly adopted in March 1849 but that King Frederick Augustus of Saxony refused to accept. The rebels took the arsenal by storm and erected barricades in the old part of the city. The main force of the rebels were workers, who were joined by the petit bourgeois municipal guard. A committee of public safety, which was dominated by representatives of the petite bourgeoisie, exercised the leadership of the rebellion. For several days several thousand barricade fighters, headed by S. Tzschirner, S. Born, and M. A. Bakunin, courageously fought against the superior forces of the Saxon and Prussian troops. The rebels were supported by miners from Freiberg, workers from Chemnitz and Leipzig, and a small number of the peasantry. After the defeat of the rebellion, troops and military tribunals conducted cruel reprisals against the rebels.