Johanna Stegen

Who was Johanna Stegen?

Johanna Stegen, was a German heroine of the Napoleonic Wars.

On 2 April 1813 German troops clashed with Napoleonic troops near Lüneburg. In the course of the battle, the Prussian regiment risked running out of ammunition and so Johanna rushed ammunition to them in her apron, thus significantly contributing to the Prussian victory. She was glorified soon afterwards in the patriotic poems of Friedrich Rückert. In 1817 she married the Prussian corporal Wilhelm Hindersin in Berlin - he had recently become royal Oberdrucker in the war ministry. In her memory a young woman dresses as her once a year to clean the war monument in Lüneburg and to tell onlookers of her actions, and streets in Lüneburg and Berlin-Steglitz are still named after her.