Moritz von Hirschfeld

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Karl Friedrich Wilhelm Ulrich Moritz von Hirschfeld (born July 4, 1790 in Halberstadt , † October 13, 1859 in Koblenz ) was a Prussian infantry general . He became known as an officer in the Spanish army in the war with France from 1810 to 1815 and as a commander in the campaign against the revolution of 1849 in the Palatinate and Baden .

Life

Origin, childhood and youth

Eichenbarleben Castle, owned by the related Alvensleben family, served the Hirschfeld brothers as a hiding place in 1809. Drawing by Anco Wigboldus, around 1750
The battle at Ölper . In the black crowd , Moritz von Hirschfeld's brother Eugen commanded the rearguard cavalry. Contemporary representation

Moritz von Hirschfeld was a son of the Prussian general Karl Friedrich von Hirschfeld from his first marriage to Karoline Friederike Philippine von Faggyas (1761–1795). From January 1803 he was a pupil of the cadet institute in Berlin . On the occasion of his 14th birthday, his father hired him as a private corporal in the “Guard” regiment he commanded in Potsdam . Since 1804, Hirschfeld attended Scharnhorst's courses at the school for young officers . In November 1805 he became an ensign in the regiment's "Life Guard" battalion. In the campaign of 1806/07 , Hirschfeld took part in the battle of Auerstedt and at the end of October 1806 fell into the surrender near Prenzlau , as a result of which the regiment was disbanded. On his word of honor, "not to serve until the replacement" in this war, Hirschfeld was freed. Inactive and on half his salary , he returned home.

His older brother, the Hussars Lieutenant Eugen von Hirschfeld was in Kolberg first the volunteer corps Schill joined, had then but in December 1806 Stargard along with his brother, the infantry lieutenant Alexander Adolf von Hirschfeld own volunteer corps established that until the Treaty of Tilsit was . Eugen and Moritz von Hirschfeld's home now belonged to the Kingdom of Westphalia . They did not get a job in the Prussian army and were given half pay. In constant contact with active Prussian officers, both prepared an uprising against the French occupiers.

The 1809 survey

During the presence of the Hirschfeld brothers in Cádiz, the opening of the Constituent Cortes took place there. Painting by José María Casado del Alisal, 1862

In April 1809 Austria began a war of liberation against France , which was to be waged as a people's war throughout Germany . The widely ramified plans envisaged a coup-like occupation of the Magdeburg fortress by free troops under Friedrich von Katte and the Hirschfeld brothers as part of the Dörnberg uprising . As a result of Dörnberg's failure, the element of surprise was lost and the project had to be abandoned at the last hour. The alarmed French drove the already assembled formation of the Hirschfeld brothers apart at Burg . Both hid at Eichenbarleben Castle , from where they were able to flee to Prussian territory with the help of their relatives Minettchen von Alvensleben (1777–1852).

Together with Katte they joined the black crowd under Duke Friedrich Wilhelm von Braunschweig and reached London . On the recommendation of Braunschweig, Eugen entered the British service as a major and in June 1810 received permission to go to Spain on half the salary to continue the fight against Napoleon in the ranks of the Spanish army in the Iberian theater of war . Moritz von Hirschfeld followed him three months later as a lieutenant with a British 2/3 salary. The Duke of Braunschweig had promoted him after having passed an officer examination himself.

In Spain

The battle of Sagunto on October 25, 1811 nearly cost Hirschfeld his life. Illustration from 1837

Moritz von Hirschfeld followed his brother to Cádiz , the center of the Spanish resistance against Napoleon, seat of the Junta Suprema Central and the meeting place of the Constituent Cortes . The besieged capital of Spain was the most promising meeting place on the European mainland for those Germans who wanted to continue fighting after the unsuccessful uprisings of 1809, such as Karl von Grolman and Leopold von Lützow . The Hirschfeld brothers received officer positions in the "Alcántara" cavalry regiment in Catalonia , which they reached in September 1810 after a sea voyage through the Mediterranean. Eugen was seriously wounded on January 14, 1811, now a colonel, at the head of General Pedro Sarsfield's vanguard in an attack on the French Palombini division near Pla de Cabra and died the next day in his brother's arms.

Moritz von Hirschfeld's successes in the Little War prompted General Enrique José O'Donnell to entrust him with the surprise of the citadel of Barcelona , Fort Monjuich . The enterprise failed, but its results amounted to a successful violent reconnaissance and Hirschfeld became Rittmeister . When Figueres was conquered in April 1811, he was awarded the "Gold Medal for Bravery".

His regiment was in besieged Tarragona in June . On the evening before the conquest, Hirschfeld and his squadron escaped from the enclosed fortress. After being severely wounded in the lost battle of Murviedo on October 25, 1811, Hirschfeld received a coup de grace in the head and was believed to be dead for two days, stripped on the battlefield. Placed in a mass grave and only then recognized as alive, Hirschfeld was taken prisoner in a hospital in Saragossa .

Shortly before his recovery, he managed to escape and return to the Spanish army in the summer of 1812. As a result of the wounds, Hirschfeld was initially unable to work and could never use his left arm fully, which limited his ability to ride. The usual investigation of a cleaning commission in Spain brought him praise, published on the occasion of his rehabilitation in an army order of February 1, 1813. Now assigned to an infantry regiment, he rose to major . There is no information on further operations. Because of his excellent knowledge of the English language and the conditions in the British army , it can be assumed that he was transferred from Catalonia to Arthur Wellesley's army in the Basque Country .

At the beginning of the war of liberation in Germany in the spring of 1813, Hirschfeld asked to leave in order to return to the Prussian army. Instead he was promoted to Spanish lieutenant colonel in 1814, took part in the advance to France and was not allowed to leave after the Peace of Paris in 1814 . This only happened on February 24, 1815 after an intervention by the Prussian ambassador in Madrid. In the spring of 1815 Hirschfeld returned to Prussia.

Because he had gained a high reputation in Spain, King Ferdinand VII subsequently awarded him the Military Order of San Fernando II. Class. When Hirschfeld's son Urban Karl, a Prussian major, traveled to Spain in 1860, the regiment "Alcantara", in which his father and his uncle had served , paraded in front of him on the orders of Queen Isabella II .

Years of peace

Because the 25-year-old Hirschfeld would have been by far the youngest lieutenant colonel in the Prussian army, they hired him as a major in September 1815. Hirschfeld took command of the Fusilier Battalion in the 25th Infantry Regiment . In the long period of peace until 1849 he rose from Lieutenant Colonel 1830, since 1831 commander of the 29th Infantry Regiment , to Colonel in 1837, from 1838 commander of the 15th Infantry Brigade to major general in 1840. On January 18, 1833, Grand Duke Leopold von Baden decorated it with the Commander's Cross of the Order of the Zähringer Lion . In the spring of 1846 Hirschfeld was appointed commander of the 1st division in Königsberg and promoted to lieutenant general in 1847 .

His war experience from “seven campaigns ”, which included successful, independent commands via mixed units, was noticed in the army . His superiors certified Hirschfeld's entitlement to a “higher sphere of activity”, to “extraordinary promotion” and “in the event of a war” to “special trust”. "Much can be expected" from him.

In the days of the March Revolution , Hirschfeld was city ​​commander of Potsdam. After King Friedrich Wilhelm IV ordered on March 21, 1848 that the Prussian soldiers should wear the black, red and gold cockade, Hirschfeld had a black, red and gold flag hoisted at the commandant's office. The order was officially announced and implemented in Potsdam on May 3, 1848, when the garrison moved to war against Denmark .

In the imperial constitution campaign

The triumphant entry of the Grand Duke of Baden and the Prince of Prussia into Karlsruhe took place without Hirschfeld. Contemporary representation

Friedrich Wilhelm IV. Sent Hirschfeld back to the Rhineland in June 1848 and appointed him commander of the 15th division and ad interim commander of Cologne . In May 1849, Prussia set up two improvised army corps under the command of the Prince of Prussia to put down the uprising in the Palatinate and Baden on behalf of the German Confederation . Hirschfeld took over the leadership of the first of the two corps. Chief of his staff was Lieutenant Colonel Albrecht von Roon .

Hirschfeld's corps occupied the Palatinate “methodically and carefully” from the north and west between June 11th and 18th, which also included the relief of the Landau Fortress, held by officers loyal to Bavaria, on June 18th. The Palatinate revolutionary troops, organized by Daniel Fenner von Fenneberg and under the command of Franz Sznayde , withdrew to the rebellious Baden army in the Neckar region after battles near Homburg , Kirchheimbolanden , Dürkheim , Ludwigshafen and Rinnthal . At Mannheim and Heidelberg this stood opposite the Prussian II Corps under Karl von der Groeben and the Federal Corps Eduard von Peuckers .

To her surprise, she did not attack Hirschfeld in the flank, but crossed the Rhine near Germersheim on June 20 and was thus in her back. Hirschfeld was approaching Bruchsal when the main force of the Baden army under Ludwik Mierosławski attacked the vanguard of his left wing. This led to the battle at Waghäusel on the 21st . Mieroslawski, confused his opponent Moritz von Hirschfeld with his brother Alexander Adolf von Hirschfeld, whom he saw as his "mortal enemy" because of his role in the Wielkopolska uprising in 1848. He now wanted to “take revenge” on him, but after initial successes had trouble avoiding being encircled by fighting at Ubstadt and Durlach . On June 25th, Hirschfeld took Karlsruhe . He united with the Corps Groeben and Peukert. The fighting morale of the rebels was badly shaken by their defeat at Waghäusel and the news of the collapse of the revolution in Paris and the Russian invasion of Hungary .

Mieroslawski awaited the enemy in a fortified position south of the Murg . Hirschfeld's corps broke through the left wing of the insurgent army in one-on-one battles , for example at Kuppenheim and Muggensturm , from June 28 to 30, 1849, while it threatened to be encircled again from the right after the lost battle in Gernsbach . This time their retreat went into flight and Mieroslawski resigned from his command. Part of the insurgent army escaped to the Rastatt fortress , which included Groeben's corps. The rest of the Hirschfeld chase did not stop and the troops largely disbanded. On July 7, 1849, Hirschfeld took Freiburg im Breisgau , the last seat of the revolutionary government. There was no fighting because there was a change of mood and numerous Baden revolutionary soldiers were taken prisoner in Prussia. Hirschfeld released them all immediately. While Hirschfeld's corps occupied southern Baden, the last of the insurgents crossed the Swiss and French borders in mid-July , where they laid down their arms.

With the surrender of the enclosed Rastatt fortress in front of Groeben, the campaign ended on July 23, 1849. The 19,400 man strong Hirschfeld corps had to mourn over 50 dead and 400 wounded after five weeks of deployment.

The Dortu case

On the occasion of the handover of their city, the citizens of Freiburg, loyal to the Duke, handed over the already imprisoned Max Dortu , who was a major in the insurgent army and a former Prussian Landwehr sergeant , to Hirschfeld. He let Dortu court-martialed ask that him for war treason sentenced on July 11 to death. Dortu renounced a plea for clemency. His father, who was allowed to visit him, did not ask for mercy either, but instead asked for a conversation with Hirschfeld. He was turned away.

Hirschfeld had sent the judgment to the auditor general of the army in Berlin for review because, in the opinion of his corps auditor, it contained legal defects . This caused the king's displeasure. To his brother and presumptive successor Wilhelm, Hirschfeld's superior, he wrote: “Dortü had to be cold 12 hours after his Kaptur. Instead, Hirschfeld has a democratic auditor make an opinion, and the whole effect falls into the well. ”General auditor Karl Friedrich Friccius found no serious legal defects in the death sentence. At the beginning of the campaign on June 14, 1849, Friedrich Wilhelm IV ordered that it was not his brother in command that had to confirm the court martial judgments, but the respective corps commanders Hirschfeld and Groeben. Requests for clemency addressed to the king should be judged by the State Ministry . After a request for clemency from mother Dortus was rejected in Potsdam, Hirschfeld signed the death sentence on July 30th. The next day, Prussian soldiers shot Dortu in the Wiehre cemetery in Freiburg.

Hirschfeld's signature was also emblazoned under the rulings of the Prussian military justice in Baden, which were distributed in poster form as a deterrent , including the one for Gottfried Kinkel on September 30, 1849. Hirschfeld's statement on his role has not survived. His biographer and friend Heinrich von Holleben only briefly mentions the “operation at the time” in Hirschfeld's biography, does not mention the commander-in-chief by name, but writes that Hirschfeld was “under a higher command” and continues: “But the German disunity and it is true that among the princes themselves, who revealed themselves on this occasion, Hirschfeld appeared more dangerous and harmful than those uprisings ”. At the solemn entry of the Grand Duke and Prince of Prussia into Karlsruhe on August 18, 1849, which had the character of a victory celebration, Hirschfeld, unlike Groeben and other commanders, was absent.

The confusion between Moritz von Hirschfeld and his brother Alexander in the battles of 1848/49 can also be found in more recent literature: Moritz is attributed the battle at Sokołowo in the Wielkopolska Uprising and Alexander signed the death sentence for Dortu.

Last years

After his return in September 1849, Friedrich Wilhelm IV initially entrusted him with the business of the Commanding General of the VIII Army Corps in Koblenz . From March 1852 Hirschfeld also carried the title of Commanding General. In the name of King Friedrich Wilhelm IV., He accompanied Charles-Louis-Napoléon Bonaparte , the President of the French Republic, on his homage journey from Nancy through Alsace to Strasbourg in 1852 . Hirschfeld's 50th anniversary of service on July 24, 1854, on the occasion of which he received the Order of the Red Eagle 1st Class with oak leaves and swords in diamonds, was celebrated as a social event in the Rhine Province .

Became general of the infantry in October 1856, in the crisis of 1859 he led the mobilization there from April and since June also officially in the position of governor general of the Rhine province . The plans of the Chief of Staff Helmut von Moltke for the war with France provided for the formation of the Second Moselle Army from the VII , VIII and the advancing IV Army Corps near Trier . With around 100,000 men, it should comprise a third of the Prussian field army . Hirschfeld was appointed their commander. As early as July 1859, the preliminary peace at Villafranca prevented the outbreak of war.

After a few days of slight malaise, Moritz von Hirschfeld spent the evening of October 13, 1859, “happy and cheerful” with the family, went to bed and died. He was buried in the main cemetery where he lived for many years in Koblenz .

Personal and family

Hirschfeld was seen as not very talkative, did not like to be the center of attention, seemed a bit aloof when on duty and only went out of his way with friends and family. He and his brother had kept diaries in Spain that came into the possession of the later Lieutenant Field Marshal Palombini in 1811 . When he was able to identify Hirschfeld as the author in 1843, he sent it back to him. Hirschfeld's friend General Heinrich von Holleben published it in 1863.

In 1825 Moritz von Hirschfeld married Ida von Kamptz (1801–1875). The marriage gave birth to the above-mentioned son and two daughters. Ida Isabella married Lieutenant Friedrich Wilhelm von Holleben (born October 13, 1824), a son of Heinrich von Holleben, in 1856, and Wilhelmine Ida married later General Karl Gustav von Sandrart in 1861 .

literature

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ The surrender conditions are printed in: Großer Generalstab (Ed.): 1806. The Prussian officer corps and the investigation of the war events. Mittler, Berlin 1906, p. 193.
  2. ^ For the Freikorps Hirschfeld see Curt Jany : History of the Prussian Army from the 15th Century to 1914. Third Volume. 1763-1807. Biblio, Osnabrück 1967, pp. 623f.
  3. ↑ See the website of the family v. Alvensleben eV: XI 8. Wilhelmine Karoline Amalie Friederike (Minettchen)
  4. ↑ Holleben (lit.), p. 4f.
  5. ↑ Today Regimiento de Caballería Acorazado “Alcántara” nº 10
  6. ↑ Illustration of the medal struck on site and its later engraved duplicate in the catalog archive of the antiques dealer Hermann-Historica, requested on February 25, 2017
  7. ↑ Quotations from Priesdorff (Lit.), pp. 406f.
  8. ↑ Gerd Heinrich (Ed.): Berlin 1848. The memorial work of Lieutenant General Karl Ludwig von Prittwitz and other sources on the Berlin March Revolution and the history of Prussia around the middle of the 19th century. de Gruyter, 1985, Berlin, New York 1985, ISBN 978-3-11-008326-2 , p. 415
  9. ↑ The representation of the battles is based on Wilhelm Blos : The German Revolution. History of the German Movement from 1848 and 1849. Dietz, Stuttgart 1893, pp. 549–600, esp. Pp. 565–588 and Heinz Helmert, Hansjürgen Usczeck: Armed people's struggles in Europe 1848/49 . Military Publishing House of the GDR, Berlin 1973, pp. 248–266, “methodical and careful advance” p. 256.
  10. ↑ See Joh. Phil. Becker , Chr. Essellen : History of the South German May Revolution of 1849 . Verlag von Gottfried Becker, Geneva 1849, p. 320 (reprint of the original from 1849 by Salzwasser-Verlag, 2012, ISBN 978-3-8460-1088-4 ).
  11. ^ Veit Valentin : History of the German Revolution from 1848–1849. Volume 2: Until the end of the popular movement of 1849. Kiepenheuer & Witsch, Cologne, Berlin 1977, p. 533.
  12. ↑ The losses of both corps amounted to 76 dead and 571 wounded out of a total of 35,000 men, see Staroste: Diary of the events in the Palatinate and Baden in 1849. A memory book for contemporaries and for all who took part in the oppression of that Uprising. Volume II. Verlag der Riegel'schen Buch- und Musikalienhandlung (A. Stein), Potsdam 1853, p. 286f.
  13. ^ Wording from David E. Barclay: Monument and fear of revolution. In: Wolfgang Neugebauer (Ed.): Potsdam. Brandenburg. Prussia. Contributions of the regional history association to the millennium of the city of Potsdam (= yearbook for Brandenburg regional history. 44th volume). Berlin 1993, ISSN  0447-2683 , pp. 130-160, here p. 142, with evidence
  14. ↑ To this Julius Haeckel: The revolutionary Max Dortu. In: Hans Hupfeld (Ed.): Potsdamer Jahresschau. Havelland calendar 1932. Verlag der Potsdamer Tageszeitung, Potsdam 1932, p. 51ff.
  15. ^ Judgment for Dortu in facsimile from Karl Gass: Aim well, brothers! The short life of Maximilian Dortu . Märkischer Verlag, Wilhelmshorst 2000, ISBN 3-931329-24-0 , p. 24, printed for Kinkel by Blos, p. 666.
  16. ↑ Holleben (Lit.), p. 172.
  17. ^ Description of the event in Staroste, pp. 243–248. Lieutenant General Holleben, who was in Wilhelm's entourage, was also not mentioned among the participants
  18. ↑ By Krzysztof Makowski: The Grand Duchy of Posen in the revolutionary year of 1848 . In: Rudolf Jaworski, Robert Luft (Ed.): 1848/49 Revolutions in East Central Europe. Lectures at the conference of the Collegium Carolinum in Bad Wiessee from November 30th to December 1st 1990 (= Bad Wiesseer Tagungen des Collegium Carolinum. Volume 18). Oldenbourg, Munich 1996, ISBN 3-486-56012-3 , p. 160.
  19. ^ As with Gebhard Falk (arr.): The Revolution 1848/49 in Brandenburg. A collection of sources . Lang, Frankfurt am Main, Berlin, Bern, New York, Paris, Vienna 1998, ISBN 978-3-631-31872-0 , p. 232, note 232.
  20. ^ Curt Jany : History of the Prussian Army from the 15th Century to 1914. Volume 4: The Royal Prussian Army and the German Imperial Army 1807-1914. 2nd, supplementary edition. ed. by Eberhard Jany. Biblio, Osnabrück 1967, ISBN 3-7648-1475-6 , pp. 217f. For Hirschfeld's command, see Holleben, p. 178, there also the following description of death
  21. ↑ Information about the online project Fallen Memorials - by genealogists for genealogists on Hirschfeld's grave
personal data
SURNAME Hirschfeld, Moritz von
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Hirschfeld, Karl Friedrich Wilhelm Ulrich Moritz (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Prussian general of the infantry
DATE OF BIRTH 4th July 1790
PLACE OF BIRTH Halberstadt
DATE OF DEATH October 13, 1859
Place of death Koblenz