Adrian Bernhard von Borcke

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Adrian Bernhard von Borcke , also called the Pomeranian Marshal , (* July 21, 1668 in Döberitz near Regenwalde in Western Pomerania ; † May 25, 1741 in Berlin ) was a Prussian field marshal and minister. He was one of the closest confidants of the Prussian King Friedrich Wilhelm I.

Life

Origin and youth

Adrian Bernhard von Borcke comes from the old Pomeranian noble family Borcke . He was born on July 21, 1668 in Döberitz near Regenwalde . His father Andreas von Borcke (1646–1675), an electoral Brandenburg cornet and lord of Regenwalde, Stargordt and Döberitz, died early. His mother was Benigna Maria von Wedel († 1690) from the Schwerin family.

Borcke attended the grammar school in Neustettin from 1683 to 1686 . In 1686 he went to the Brandenburg University of Frankfurt for two years and from there to the University of Leipzig with his friend Jakob Heinrich von Flemming , who later became the younger field marshal .

This was followed by a two-year cavalier tour through Italy and France. When his mother died in 1690, he first returned home.

Officer under Friedrich I.

Borcke decided to become an officer. In June 1690, he went to Brabant , where the coalition war against Louis XIV was raging. The Field Marshal von Flemming , the father of his college friend, recommended him to the General of Spaen that the young man as adjutant took. For seven years he took part in the battles and sieges during the Palatinate War in Flanders . Elector Friedrich III appointed him as early as 1691 . from Brandenburg to captain and company commander in the Holstein regiment. His company was in Namur , which was besieged and taken by the French soon after his arrival. But Borcke distinguished himself when he withdrew from the fortress. In 1694 Field Marshal General von Flemming appointed him to his staff, promoted him to major and appointed him adjutant general. As a lieutenant colonel and chief of his regiment , he took part in the campaign until the end.

In 1701 he took part in the coronation celebrations in Königsberg , with which the new Kingdom of Prussia was founded. At the request of Crown Prince Friedrich Wilhelm, with whom he had been friends since those days, he took over the Crown Prince Regiment in 1704 as colonel and commander.

Borcke spent the next few years in the War of the Spanish Succession . In the Netherlands he fought with varying degrees of fortunes, was wounded, captured, exchanged and promoted to major general in 1709 . Together with the old man from Dessauer , he stormed Moers fortress in one stroke . Borcke himself reports:

“We started our march from Aachen and we succeeded so that we passed the place at night. The prince did me the honor of assuring me that my assistance would not have been of no use to him. He went to Berlin, was field marshal for the same cause, I was no longer thought of. That's how it works. "

Confidante of Friedrich Wilhelm I.

At the accession King I. Friedrich Wilhelm in 1713 to Borcke went to Wusterhausen for homage and received the newly built Regiment. 22, and the reversion of the post of governor in Szczecin . For many years he has made a great contribution to the renovation and expansion of the city, which was badly destroyed in the Northern War . For this he received the Order of the Black Eagle from the king . Stralsund and the island of Rügen were snatched from the Swedes for a short time under Borcke's leadership . He was appointed lieutenant general and sent to Vienna as the Prussian envoy to the German imperial court for two years .

In 1722 he was commissioned to set up the city ​​treasury in Pomerania, and as a reward for his conscientiousness in reforming the civil service, Borcke was appointed to the secret Council of State in Berlin. The king wanted his opinion not only on the secret affairs of state, but also on the personal affairs of the royal house and his family. He was often an involuntary witness in the fight between father and son and in the dispute about the orientation of Prussian foreign policy in the circle of the royal family. In his memoirs he writes about this:

"I myself found a lot of difficulity (difficulty) in the royal family, I endured a lot, yet I had to keep myself so closed (secretive)."

King Friedrich Wilhelm I felt more and more drawn to him, especially since Borcke had gradually adopted the same drastic expression as his master. He once reported from Szczecin:

"I humbly report to his royal majesty that Lieutenant Hoym of my subordinate regiment has finally drunk himself to death in brandy."

When Minister Heinrich Rüdiger von Ilgen died in 1728, Friedrich Wilhelm I made Borcke his State and Cabinet Minister with responsibility for foreign affairs. On July 16, 1737, his king and friend appointed him Field Marshal General.

Under Friedrich II.

King Friedrich II left Borcke in his office as minister when he took office in 1740. On June 24, 1740, Friedrich II even visited Borcke personally and raised him to the rank of count . In October 1740, Friedrich II. Sent Borcke on a diplomatic mission to Hanover to meet the British King George II. But after Borcke's return from Hanover, his strength dwindled.

Adrian Bernhard Graf von Borcke died on May 25, 1741 at the age of 72 in Berlin. He was buried in the Berlin garrison church . After the garrison church was destroyed by a bomb on November 23, 1943, the undestroyed tombs were looted several times. The remains of the approximately 200 people buried there were collected in 47 coffins in 1949 and reburied in the garrison grave in the Stahnsdorf south-west cemetery in the Epiphany block, field 1a.

First lord of the castle on Stargordt

Stargord Castle around 1860, Alexander Duncker collection

From 1717 to 1721 Borcke built a castle in the style of the North German Baroque on his property in Stargordt near Regenwalde . The castle remained in the family's possession, was rebuilt in 1860 and burned down in 1945 by the advancing Red Army .

marriage and family

In 1699 Borcke married Antoinette Hedwig von Hallard-Elliot, the daughter of the Prussian general Heinrich Hallard called Elliot (1620–1681). With her he had three sons and seven daughters, of whom only two sons and two daughters survived him. His daughter

  • Sophia Hedwig (March 27, 1700; † December 4, 1721) ⚭ 1720 Karl von Tettau († March 10, 1723)
  • Maria Auguste (November 5, 1702; † August 30, 1730) ⚭ 1729 Friedrich Wilhelm von Borcke (1693–1769), Prussian minister
  • Antoinette (January 18, 1704; † June 16, 1729) ⚭ 1727 Carl Ludolph von Danckelmann (1699–1764), Prussian minister
  • Frederike Charlotte (* June 23, 1705) ⚭ 1733 Friedrich Ernst Bernhard Finck von Finckenstein (* February 8, 1694 - September 8, 1750), bailiff of Barthen and heir to Dublin.
  • Henriette Bernhardine (1706–1709)
  • Dorothea Luise (14 October 1707 - 22 July 1725)
  • Margarete Helene Bernhardine (October 17, 1712; † April 21, 1762) ⚭ 1732 Friedrich Wilhelm von Borcke (1693–1769), Prussian minister
  • Friedrich Wilhelm (1713–1742)
  • Heinrich Adrian (April 4, 1715 - April 17, 1788) ⚭ 1743 Helene Wilhelmine Henriette von Brand
  • Ludwig Christian (1722–1723)

Borcke's heir was initially his eldest son Friedrich Wilhelm, after whose death in 1742 Borcke's next son, Heinrich Adrian (1715–1788), Prussian general and economist.

literature

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Genealogisches Reichs- und Staats-Handbuch for the year 1805, p. 592.
personal data
SURNAME Borcke, Adrian Bernhard from
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Borcke, Adrian Bernhard Graf von; Pomeranian Marshal
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Prussian field marshal and minister
DATE OF BIRTH July 21, 1668
PLACE OF BIRTH Döberitz near Regenwalde in Western Pomerania
DATE OF DEATH May 25, 1741
Place of death Berlin