Achaz Heinrich von Alvensleben

Achaz Heinrich von Alvensleben (1716–1777), painting by Anna Dorothea Therbusch

Achaz Heinrich von Alvensleben (born October 6, 1716 in Zichtau , † April 3, 1777 in Friedeberg (Neumark) ) was a Prussian major general .

Life

family

He comes from the Low German noble family von Alvensleben and was the third son of Friedrich Wilhelm II. Von Alvensleben (1683–1752) on Zichtau ("Neue Seite") and his wife Henriette Sophia, née. von dem Werder (1686–1750) from Werdershausen. He remained unmarried.

Career

In 1733 he began studying at the University of Halle , but in 1734 he embarked on a military career and became an ensign in 1735 and a lieutenant in Dragoon Regiment No. 3 in 1739. As such, he was foot wounded in the Battle of Mollwitz (1741). The bullet remained in his body until he died. After the battle of Zorndorf (1758), in which two horses were shot from under his body as a major and company commander , he was awarded the order Pour le Mérite and promoted to lieutenant colonel . In 1761 he was already a colonel , in 1763 chief of Dragoon Regiment No. 3 in Friedeberg / Neumark and in 1766 major general. In this position he had difficult tasks to fulfill on the troubled Prussian-Polish border. After the first partition of Poland (1772) he and his regiment took part in the occupation of West Prussia . The king honored his achievements in 1775 with a gift of grace of 6,000 thalers.

Ober- and Nieder-Alvensleben

Two colonist villages newly founded in 1770 in the Warthebruch south of Landsberg / Warthe (Polish: Gorzów Wielkopolski ) were named Ober-Alvensleben (Polish: Krupcyn) and Nieder-Alvensleben after Major General Achaz Heinrich von Alvensleben.

Grave monument of Achaz Heinrich von Alvensleben (1716–1777), painting by Bernhard Rode

Funerary monument

Alvensleben died in 1777 and was buried in the town church in Friedeberg. The officers of his regiment donated a grave monument for him. It consists of a large allegorical painting by Bernhard Rode , in which a life-size female figure - representing gratitude - puts a wreath on an urn standing next to her. The urn is adorned with the bust of Alvensleben and bears the inscription Prefecto equitum forti pio commilitones amici (= comrades and friends to the brave and pious rider leader). After the church was renovated in 1858, the painting came to Erxleben II Castle , Haldensleben district , and has been missing since 1945.

literature

• Udo von Alvensleben-Wittenmoor : Zichtau under the gentlemen v. Alvensleben . Homeland book. Contributions to Altmark local history, Volume 4, Gardelegen 1940/41, pp. 219–249
• Udo von Alvensleben-Wittenmoor: The Alvensleben in Kalbe 1324-1945 , edited by Reimar von Alvensleben , Falkenberg August 2010 (180 pages)
• Otto Kaplick: The Warthebruch. A German cultural landscape in the east . Würzburg 1956, pp. 133-150.
• Anton Balthasar König : Achaz Heinrich von Alvensleben . In: Biographical lexicon of all heroes and military figures who made themselves famous in the Prussian service . tape 1 . Arnold Wever, Berlin 1788, p. 6 ( Achaz Heinrich von Alvensleben at Wikisource [PDF]).
• Kurt von Priesdorff : Soldier leadership . Volume 2, Hanseatische Verlagsanstalt Hamburg, undated [Hamburg], undated [1937], DNB 367632772 , pp. 39-40, no. 564.
• Kurd Wolfgang von Schöning : History of the royal Prussian third dragoon regiment and those dragoon regiments from which the same emerged during the reorganization of the army in 1807 . Berlin 1835 (438 pages)
• Siegmund Wilhelm Wohlbrück : Historical news of the Alvensleben family and their goods . Third Part, Berlin 1829, pp. 337–338