Alexander Hermann von Wartensleben

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Alexander Hermann Graf von Wartensleben, contemporary 1701–1710, today in Molsdorf Castle
Alexander Hermann Graf von Wartensleben.
Alexander Hermann Graf von Wartensleben, engraving by Johann Georg Wolffgang after Antoine Pesne (1717)

Alexander Hermann von Wartensleben , Count von Wartensleben since 1703 , (* December 16, 1650 in Lippspringe ; †  January 26, 1734 in Berlin ), was an officer in various services, Prussian General Field Marshal and, as a real secret council , part of the Three Counts Cabinet .

Life

youth

Alexander Hermann was born in Lippspringe as the son of the landowner Hermann Hans von Wartensleben and his wife Elisabeth von Haxthausen . His father owned properties in Exten , Rinteln , Nordhold and Ottleben. Exten was the ancestral home of the family; Lippspringe became the place of birth because his mother was visiting her brother there. Alexander Hermann was baptized on January 15, 1651 in Exten. He had six brothers and four sisters. His four older brothers all died as soldiers, and a younger brother died as a result of the war.

France

Waiting life came to the landgrave's court in Kassel as a page at the age of 13 , where he was brought up with the Hessian princes. In 1666 he joined the French Grands Mousquetaires , but left again in 1667 and instead switched to the Alsatian regiment of Count Palatine Christian II of Pfalz-Zweibrücken-Birkenfeld , with whom he took part in Turenne's campaign in the Netherlands in 1667/68 as a Fähnleinführer . He was wounded several times, but also in 1668 as a lieutenant and aide-de-camp in the Alsace regiment.

Hessen-Kassel

In 1673 he resigned from the French service and joined the Brandenburg Guard on horseback as a volunteer who fought on the Upper Rhine. In the summer of 1675, when Elector Friedrich Wilhelm von Brandenburg withdrew his troops from the Imperial Army because of Sweden's invasion of his country, Wartensleben switched to the service of Hesse-Kassel as captain and became a major that same year . 1677–1679 he took the position of constable sergeant and company commander in the regiment of Colonel Johann ufm Keller , which the Kassel regent Hedwig Sophie at the request of Emperor Leopold I (HRR) made available to her son-in-law, the Danish King Christian V , in the Scandinavian War against Sweden took part in the fighting off Malmö in June 1677 and in the lost battle of Landskrona in July . He then fought from September 1677 with the Hessian regiment on Rügen , where he was wounded on January 8, 1678 in the Battle of Warksow and was captured by the Swedish.

After he was released again in the course of a prisoner exchange, Landgrave Karl promoted him to lieutenant colonel in his brother Philipp's regiment on July 10, 1680 . At the beginning of 1683, Landgrave Karl made him the commander of the infantry regiment that had been founded shortly before as the "Lippe zu Fuß" regiment, which in May 1684 was named "Leibregiment zu Fuß". In 1683, Wartensleben took part as adjutant general of Prince Georg Friedrich von Waldeck , the commander of the district troops of Bavaria , Franconia and Upper Hesse , in the relief of Vienna during the Turkish siege in September 1683 and then as a volunteer in the persecution battles in Hungary , u. a. at the conquest of Gran on October 9, 1683 and the siege of Ofen from July 1684. Immediately after his return to Kassel, he was promoted to colonel on October 30, 1684 and in early 1685 he took over the "Prince Philip on foot regiment" . In March 1686 he was subordinated to Colonel Johann zur Brüggen as Oberamtmann and Commander of Ziegenhain , but before he could take up this post he was sent to Venice to negotiate a subsidy contract for the seconding of a Kassel regiment to the Republic of Venice . This regiment then fought under his command in 1687 on the Morea , today's Peloponnese , against the Ottoman Empire .

In view of the threatened outbreak of war between France and the Reich , he set up a new cavalry regiment in 1688 , the so-called Wartensleben Dragoons . After the beginning of the Palatinate War of Succession in September 1688 and the formation of the Magdeburg Concert on October 22nd, he marched with his two regiments as part of the concert partner's army on the Middle Rhine. At the request of the city of Frankfurt , he became city commander there and protected the city with his troops from French attacks. In the following year he took part in the siege and conquest of Mainz with his two regiments . On February 2, 1690 he was promoted to major general, then commanded the entire Hessian infantry during Landgrave Karl's fruitless Moselle campaign and in the winter of 1690/91 all Hessian troops between Bonn and Heidelberg.

Saxe-Gotha-Altenburg

In June 1691, Wartensleben entered the service of Duke Friedrich I of Saxe-Gotha and Altenburg and became commander-in-chief of the troops of the Saxon dukes of Saxe-Gotha-Altenburg, Saxe-Weimar and Saxe-Eisenach in the Imperial Army . He immediately set up six new regiments and marched with nine regiments towards the Upper Rhine at the end of July, but only got as far as Nuremberg . There he received the news of Duke Friedrich's unexpected death on August 2, 1691 and his appointment to the Guardianship Council for the Duke's 15 and 14-year-old sons, and he marched back with his troops.

On 27 December 1691 he became Emperor Leopold I to Field Marshal Lieutenant promoted, and in November 1692, he moved with his regiments to the Upper Rhine, where Margrave Ludwig of Baden-Baden , the "Turkish Louis" just taken over the command of the imperial troops had . However, he was not involved in combat operations there, as he was sent almost immediately to the Lower Rhine to negotiate with the allies. There he was given the prospect of commanding part of the army formed to relieve the city of Namur, which was besieged by the French , but the Namur fortress surrendered on June 5, 1692 before the relief army arrived, and Wartensleben returned to the Upper Rhine. There he took part in a failed train to the Palatinate in autumn and then saved Heilbronn from a French attack with a skilful march . Even in the following war years until the Peace of Rijswijk he remained stationed on the Upper Rhine - with the exception of a mission to the imperial court in Vienna - without being involved in major combat operations with his troops. In 1695 he became the Imperial General Feldzeugmeister .

Prussia

Wartensleben, who had previously tried to recruit the Republic of Venice and King August II of Poland, switched to the service of the Prussian King Frederick I on August 18, 1702 with imperial and Gothic permission , who appointed him Field Marshal General and Privy Council of War and on August 19th appointed as the successor to the powerful Prime Minister Johann Kasimir Kolb von Wartenberg's uncomfortable Count Hans Albrecht von Barfus as governor of Berlin . He held this position until his death in 1734. As a member of the so-called " Three Counts Cabinet " - because of the first letters of their names, Wartenberg , Wartensleben and Wittgenstein , also called Das dreifache Weh Prussens - he was instrumental in shaping Prussian politics involved from 1702 to 1710. The king no longer used him for military service, although the War of the Spanish Succession would have given him the opportunity.

On September 2, 1702, he received the Order of the Black Eagle from the King, as well as the cavalry regiment that had been freed by Barfus's release. In 1703 King Friedrich raised him to the rank of Count of Prussia. This was followed in the next few years by other favors associated with considerable income, such as in 1705 the administration of the royal treasury offices in Potsdam and Saarmund with a total annual income of 500 thalers and in December 1705 a pension of 4000 thalers annually. On March 29, 1706 received by Emperor Joseph I , the hereditary imperial earldom .

When the horrific mismanagement and corruption of Wartenberg and Wittgenstein led to the overthrow of these two at the end of 1710, Wartensleben remained relatively unchallenged and only had to relinquish the management of the military administration. Even under King Friedrich Wilhelm I , who came to the throne in February 1713 , he remained in office, dignity and royal favor, and he accompanied the king in the Pomeranian campaign of 1715/1716 . During the siege of Stralsund , his eldest son fell from his second marriage. A second blow hit him in 1730, when the king's only son, his daughter Dorothea Sophie, the 26-year-old first lieutenant Hans Hermann von Katte , despite the insistent appeals for clemency from his father and grandfather, on 6 November 1730 heads left because he had helped Crown Prince Friedrich in his attempt to escape.

death

Wartensleben died on January 26, 1734 in Berlin. He received a state funeral and a hereditary burial for himself and his family in the Berlin Garrison Church , which was destroyed in World War II. All the bones of the approximately 200 people buried there were collected in 47 coffins in 1949 and reburied in a communal grave in the south-west cemetery in Stahnsdorf near Berlin.

family

He was married to Sophie Dorothea von May (* 1655, † December 10, 1684) in his first marriage since March 12, 1676. She was the daughter of the Hessian general Peter Adolf von May († 1663). Through the marriage of his daughter Dorothea Sophia, he became the father-in-law of the later Field Marshal Count Hans Heinrich von Katte , and thus the grandfather of Lieutenant Hans Hermann von Katte , who was beheaded in 1730, and for whose life he asked the king in vain. Wartensleben had the following children with Sophie Dorothea von May :

  • Adolf Friedrich (* 1678; † July 4, 1701), Lieutenant Colonel Saxe-Gotha
  • Karl Sophronius Philipp (born September 21, 1680 - † October 7, 1751), Polish minister ⚭ Jeannette Marguerite Huyssen van Kattendijke (1691–1724) in-laws of Heinrich IX. Reuss zu Köstritz establishes the Wartensleben-Flodroff line
  • Wilhelmine Charlotte (* January 1, 1683; † November 28, 1742), chief stewardess to the Margravine of Ansbach-Bayreuth ⚭ November 3, 1704 Johann Bertram Arnold von Diepenbroick (* November 4, 1657; † January 18, 1720) councilor in Kleve
  • Karl Aemilius (7 July 1683 - 19 January 1685)
  • Dorothea Sophia (born November 13, 1684; † November 5, 1707) ⚭ GFM Hans Heinrich von Katte (1681–1741)

Wartensleben married Anna Sophia von Treskow a. dH Lobeda (* November 12, 1670 - January 2, 1735), the couple has the following children:

  • Heinrich Friedrich Christian (born July 15, 1694; ⚔ December 19, 1715 on Rügen ), Prussian major
  • Sophus Friedrich (1695–1695)
  • Joachim Wilhelm August (born August 15, 1696 - † September 15, 1718), Lieutenant Colonel Saxe-Gotha
  • Eleonore Friederike Sophie (* December 15, 1697 - † August 28, 1757) ⚭ Count Anton August von Hagen , Polish-Saxon Chamberlain, son of FML Busso von Hagen
  • Marie Henriette (April 5, 1699 - 1699)
  • Hermann (born June 25, 1700; † October 20, 1764), canon in Magdeburg ⚭ Countess Johanna Albertina von der Groeben (born September 2, 1707)
  • Sophie Charlotte (September 2, 1702; † 1771) ⚭ Johann Friedrich von Westerholt
  • Friedrich Wilhelm (1703–1703)
  • Friedrich Ludwig (February 12, 1707; † January 5, 1782), Oberhofmeister ⚭ Agnes Augusta von Flemming (* February 22, 1716; † March 3, 1780), daughter of Bogislaw Bodo von Flemming
  • Friedrich Sophus (July 10, 1709 - November 10, 1772), Prussian envoy to Stockholm and Copenhagen
  • Leopold Alexander (October 1, 1710 - September 21, 1775), Prussian Lieutenant General ⚭ Anna Friederike von Kameke (March 4, 1715 - October 22, 1788), daughter of Paul Anton von Kameke

literature

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Julius von Wartensleben: News from the family of the Counts of Wartensleben. Second part: Biographische Nachrichten , Berlin, 1858, p. 48 digitized
  2. ↑ Julius von Wartensleben: News from the family of the Counts of Wartensleben. Second part: Biographische Nachrichten , Berlin, 1858, p. 59 digitized
  3. ↑ Julius von Wartensleben: News from the family of the Counts of Wartensleben. Second part: Biographische Nachrichten , Berlin, 1858, p. 58 digitized
  4. ↑ She had married the future General Field Marshal Hans Heinrich von Katte .
  5. ^ Julius von Wartensleben, Nachrichten von dem Geschechte der Grafen von Wartensleben , Volume 2, p. 47, digitized
  6. ↑ Family tree
  7. ^ Christian Friedrich Jacobi, Gottlob Friedrich Krebel, European genealogical manual 1782 p. 262f, digitized
  8. ^ Christian Friedrich Jacobi, Gottlob Friedrich Krebel, European genealogical manual 1752 p. 266f, digitized
  9. ^ Julius von Wartensleben, Nachrichten von dem Geschechte der Grafen von Wartensleben , Volume 2, p. 104, digitized
  10. ↑ Waiting life Flodroff
  11. ↑ Julius von Wartensleben, Nachrichten von dem Geschechte der Grafen von Wartensleben , Volume 2, p. 102, digitized
  12. ↑ http://www.geneall.net/D/per_page.php?id=1777699
  13. ^ Julius von Wartensleben, Nachrichten von dem Geschechte der Grafen von Wartensleben , Volume 2, p. 99, digitized
  14. ↑ Julius von Wartensleben, Nachrichten von dem Geschechte der Grafen von Wartensleben , Volume 2, p. 109, digitized

Web links

  • Entry in preußenchronik.de
personal data
SURNAME Waiting life, Alexander Hermann von
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Wartensleben, Alexander Hermann Reichsgraf and Count of
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Prussian Field Marshal General
DATE OF BIRTH December 16, 1650
PLACE OF BIRTH Lippspringe
DATE OF DEATH January 26, 1734
Place of death Berlin