On August 23, 1813, the Sixth Coalition under Crown Prince Charles John of Sweden and General Friedrich Wilhelm Freiherr von Bülow defeated three corps of the Imperial French Army under Marshal Nicolas Oudinot in their advance on Berlin at the Battle of Großbeeren.
In 1833 Theodor Fontane - then a fourteen-year old boy - visited the site of the Battle of Großbeeren and was deeply impressed, later writing a school essay about this battle - the first work known to have been penned by a man who would become a major German writer.