Friedrich Wilhelm von Steuben

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Friedrich Wilhelm von Steuben, by Charles Willson Peale .
Steuben's signature:
Signature Friedrich Wilhelm von Steuben.PNG

Friedrich Wilhelm Ludolf Gerhard Augustin von Steuben , also known as Baron Steuben (born September 17, 1730 in Magdeburg , Duchy of Magdeburg , † November 28, 1794 in Utica , New York ) was a Prussian officer and American general. He reorganized the Continental Army in the American War of Independence .

Life

In the Prussian army

Friedrich Wilhelm von Steuben, by Ralph Earl

Friedrich Wilhelm von Steuben was born on September 17, 1730 in the Magdeburg Fortress as the son of the Prussian engineer captain Wilhelm Augustin von Steuben and his wife Elizabeth von Jagvodin. The young Steuben was taken to Russia by his father as a child, where he was staying with him in the Crimea and then in Kronstadt at the time when Russia was waging the Turkish War under General Burkhard Christoph von Münnich . When father Steuben returned to Prussia in 1740, the boy was enjoying schooling in the garrison towns of Neisse and Breslau . He was particularly interested in history and mathematics. Already at the age of fourteen he accompanied his father as a volunteer in the Second Silesian War and took part in the siege of Prague. Enthusiastic about the great successes of Frederick II , Steuben joined the von Lestwitz regiment in 1747 and became a lieutenant in 1753. In the Seven Years' War he first took part in the “ Regiment Prince Ferdinand on Foot ” (1806: No. 34), later in the free battalion of Lieutenant Colonel Johann von Mayr . This battalion became famous for its advance from Prussian-occupied Saxony to Franconia in May / June 1757. Steuben got to know the warfare of these light troops, which operated independently and disrupted the enemy with sudden, surprising attacks. In 1758 von Mayr appointed him his adjutant . After Mayr's death, von Steuben was transferred to the Great Headquarters of Frederick the Great as Quartermaster-Lieutenant in 1759 . 1761 he became adjutant of Major General von Knobloch at the capitulation of Kolberg in Russian captivity. After the accession to the throne of Peter III. he was released immediately.

Letter from the court marshal v. Steuben, Montpellier March 12, 1773

As an award for his services in the war, Frederick the Great accepted him as a captain in the special class for learning the art of war, which he himself directed . However, differences of opinion with the adjutant general of King Heinrich Wilhelm von Anhalt led to his transfer to the Wesel fortress . In 1762 Steuben took his leave from the Prussian army as the highly decorated staff captain of Friedrich. In 1764 he became court marshal of Prince Josef Friedrich Wilhelm von Hohenzollern-Hechingen . On May 28, 1769, Margrave Carl Friedrich von Baden-Durlach accepted him as the 168th member of the Baden House Order of Loyalty (a knightly religious order which requires unequivocal evidence of aristocratic origin and is associated with the award of the title of baron ). The German nobility predicate “Freiherr” later became the French nobility predicate “Baron” through homologation in the French aristocratic context, under which von Steuben became known.

Inspector General of the Continental Army

Friedrich Wilhelm von Steuben

Several business trips during his time in Baden took him abroad, including France. There the Prince of Hohenzollern-Hechingen undertook a journey of several years to save court costs. Steuben accompanied him as his court marshal. In 1777, at the instigation of the French War Minister Claude-Louis, comte de Saint-Germain , Steuben met the American ambassador in Paris , Benjamin Franklin . On his recommendation, he went to North America, where the American War of Independence had broken out two years earlier , and joined the American Continental Army . His emigration to America is linked by modern historians with a threatened charge of homosexual acts, then known as sodomy . That is why Steuben is regularly featured when it comes to the history of homosexual inclusion in the US military .

The Continental Army was in very bad shape at the time. The army only consisted of around 5,000 men. Uniform disciplinary and official structures practically did not exist. Steuben built the army tactically and operationally in the Valley Forge camp from 1778 as Major General and Inspector General ( Rules for the Order and Discipline of the Troops of the United States , 1779). He took care of the discipline , organization and training of the troops and was temporarily chief of staff of George Washington . He is considered the architect of American independence on a military level, as he succeeded in transforming divided and militarily inexperienced groups of rioters into a powerful army. In the individual battles, the troops he commanded also contributed significantly to the victory. His tactical instructions formed the basis for the American victory at the Battle of Monmouth , the turning point of the war, on June 28, 1778.

In 1780 Steuben Nathanael Greene became general quartermaster in Virginia , where he also operated independently and achieved significant successes with small units. Steuben also remained inspector general of the army until 1784. In the decisive battle of Yorktown , the "German Battle" in October 1781, Steuben commanded the 3rd Division and played a major role in the victory. In 1783 he was instrumental in founding the Society of the Cincinnati , which primarily looked after the officer's widows.

Following the signing of the peace treaty in Paris in 1783, Steuben retired from active service with full military honors. Despite his merits, he had to wait seven years after the end of the war before Congress fulfilled his claims for compensation for his losses and a pension - after some states had already given him land grants.

After his departure, Steuben lived partly in New York City and partly at his mansions at Bellisarius Hall and Oneida in Oneida County . He held a number of public offices, including the honorary post of regent of the University of New York State and the chairmanship of the German Society in New York , which was founded in 1784. When on March 26, 1794 Congress decided to fortify the port of New York, as there was great excitement in the States over the impending new war with England, Steuben was appointed chairman of the defense committee. He planned the construction of forts at the port entrance and floating batteries to paint the shore area. Steuben's plan was not carried out because the situation had since calmed down again.

On November 28, 1794, Steuben died childless of a stroke on his farm in Oneida County , New York , near Steuben County , which was later named after him . As heirs he appointed his two aides: William North and Benjamin Walker .

Freemasonry

Steuben was a very active Freemason , he was admitted to Trinity Lodge No. 12 in New York around 1778 .

Post fame

General von Steuben monument in Magdeburg
Steuben monument in Potsdam
Postage stamp from 1980
Special stamp for the 200th anniversary of death

The Steuben Parade has been held on Fifth Avenue in New York City in September since 1957 .

In the United States, a number of towns and counties have been named after Steuben:

Steuben's bronze statue of Albert Jaegers has been in Lafayette Park in Washington since December 7, 1910 . At the same time, the United States Congress gave Kaiser Wilhelm II a duplicate as a token of friendship with the German people . The bronze statue was erected on November 2, 1911 on the Fiakerplatz at the Potsdam City Palace and the square was renamed Steubenplatz. Torn from its pedestal during the air raid on Potsdam on the night of April 14, 1945, it was stored in a barracks area. In 1950 the SED cultural politician Paul Wandel had them melted down as " non-ferrous metal scrap ". On the occasion of the 750th anniversary of Berlin in 1987, the USA set up a cast on West Berlin's Clayallee as a testimony to German-American friendship. On November 28, 1994, with the help of numerous German and American donors, a second cast with a memorial plaque was placed on the rebuilt Steubenplatz in Potsdam. Another cast of the Washington Steuben memorial has been in his native Magdeburg since 1996. In 1915 the Swiss-American sculptor Jakob Otto Schweizer (1863–1955) created a Steuben statue for Camp Valley Forge .

Every two years the descendants of Steuben's parents hold a Von Steuben meeting in places related to him .

In Cuxhaven was Pier for emigrant ships as Steubenhöft named. In 1931 a ship got his name. Until 1993 there was a Steuben barracks in Gießen and until 2003 in Achim . Many cities in Germany and in the United States named streets after Friedrich Wilhelm von Steuben, Potsdam also a school.

So far there have been two ships in the US Navy that bore his name in honor of Friedrich Wilhelm von Steuben:

The first was the German passenger ship Kronprinz Wilhelm, confiscated after the United States entered the war in April 1917 . This was converted into a troop transport and used as the USS Von Steuben (ID-3017) from 1917 to 1919. In 1918 it escaped an ambush by German submarines in the Atlantic. The second ship was in service with the US Navy from 1964 to 1994 as a nuclear ballistic missile submarine under the name USS Von Steuben (SSBN-632) .

Fonts

  • Rules for the Order and Discipline of United States Troops. 1793, (1803 edition, books.google.de ).

Quote

"When I drew my sword in defense of these states, I did it with the determination that only death should force me to lay it down"

- Friedrich Wilhelm von Steuben on December 4, 1782 to the President of the American Congress Elias Boudinot .

literature

Monographs:

  • Friedrich Kapp : Life of the American General Friedrich Wilhelm von Steuben. Berlin 1858 ( books.google.de ).
  • Friedrich Franz von Conring : An officer of Frederick the Great under the stars and stripes. Steuben's American broadcast. 1931. Also in Dutch 1943.
  • Franz Fabian: The battle of Monmouth. Friedrich Wilhelm von Steuben in America. 1st edition 1961; 5th edition. Military publishing house of the GDR, Berlin 1988, ISBN 3-327-00583-4 .
    • Franz Fabian: Steuben. A Prussian in America. Vision, Berlin 1996, ISBN 3-928787-14-4 (supplemented and expanded new edition of the book: The Battle of Monmouth )
  • Armin M. Brandt: Friedrich Wilhelm von Steuben. Prussian officer and American freedom hero , Mitteldeutscher Verlag, Halle 2006, ISBN 3-89812-312-X .
  • Jürgen Brüstle: Friedrich Wilhelm von Steuben. A biography. Tectum Verlag, Marburg 2006.
  • John McAuley Palmer: General von Steuben. 2nd edition, Societäts-Druckerei, Frankfurt / Main 1984.
  • Paul Douglas Lockhart: The Drillmaster of Valley Forge: The Baron de Steuben and the Making of the American Army. HarperCollins, New York 2008, ISBN 978-0-06-145163-8 (English).

Further:

Documentation

  • Friedrich Wilhelm von Steuben . A podcast contribution of the radio station SWR2 from the series SWR2 knowledge: Michael Reitz of 12 April 2013, the website of podcast.de (Accessed on April 14, 2013)

Web links

Commons : Friedrich Wilhelm von Steuben  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Bob Arnebeck: Baron von Steuben. Retrieved December 21, 2009 .
  2. ^ Baron von Steuben and Homosexuality ( Memento of February 3, 2009 in the Internet Archive )
  3. ↑ gse.harvard.edu
  4. ↑ Randy Shilts : Conduct unbecoming: Lesbians and gays in the military. 1993. pp. 101-117.
  5. ↑ Erin Balkmore: The Revolutionary War Hero Who Was Openly Gay.
  6. ↑ Bernd-Ulrich Hergemöller : Man for man. P. 678 f.
  7. ↑ Eugen Lennhoff, Oskar Posner, Dieter A. Binder: Internationales Freemaurerlexikon. Revised and expanded new edition of the 1932 edition, Munich 2003, 951 pages, ISBN 3-7766-2161-3 .
  8. ↑ Frank Bauer, Hartmut Knitter, Heinz Ruppert: Destroyed, forgotten, suppressed. Military buildings and military monuments in Potsdam. Mittler, Berlin et al. 1993, ISBN 3-8132-0413-8 , pp. 181, 188-196
  9. ↑ Helmut Caspar, 200 Berlin Heads, From Friedrich the Great to Heinz Rühmann, Michael Imhof Verlag, 2008, pp. 61–62.
  10. ↑ Ute Semkat: Von-Steuben's late honor. In: The world . September 18, 1996 ( welt.de ).
  11. ↑ Quoted from Franz Fabian: The Battle of Monmouth. 5th edition, p. 4.
personal data
SURNAME Steuben, Friedrich Wilhelm von
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Steuben, Friedrich Wilhelm Ludolf Gerhard Augustin von (full name); Steuben, baron
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Prussian officer and American general
DATE OF BIRTH September 17, 1730
PLACE OF BIRTH Magdeburg , Duchy of Magdeburg
DATE OF DEATH November 28, 1794
Place of death Utica , New York