Alexander Ypsilantis (General)

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Alexander Ypsilantis.

Prince Alexander Ypsilantis or Ypsilanti ( Greek Ἀλέξανδρος Υψηλάντης Alexandros Ypsilandis , born December 12, 1792 in Constantinople ; † January 31, 1828 in Vienna ) was a Greek general in Russian service in the fight for the independence of Greece .

Life

Alexander Ypsilantis, from the Phanariotic family Ypsilantis and grandson of the voivode of Wallachia of the same name , served as an officer in the Russian army . In 1820, after Ioannis Kapodistrias , Minister of the Tsar, had previously refused, he took over the management of the until then headless organization Philiki Etaireia (about "Friendship Society") to prepare and plan the Greek fight for freedom against the Turks . In the general plan, which was drawn up in the same year, it was provided that the fight should initially start in the areas north of the Danube ( Moldavia and Wallachia ).

Memorial plaque on the Sankt Marxer Friedhof in Vienna

The Greek army, however, which consisted of only a few volunteers, was defeated by the Ottoman forces on June 19, 1821 near Drăgășani . Ypsilantis survived because he got away in time. Most of the remaining insurgents were killed on June 29, 1821 in the Battle of Sculeni . Ypsilantis was arrested by the Austrian authorities on his way to Greece and initially held at Munkács Castle , then from 1823 in the Small Fortress in Theresienstadt . In 1827 he was released from captivity and died a year later in Vienna- Landstrasse ; he was buried in the Sankt Marxer Friedhof , where a plaque commemorates him today.

The royal Greek consul general and entrepreneur Georg Simon von Sina commissioned Theophil Hansen with a mausoleum for Ypsilantis in the park of Rappoltenkirchen Castle near Sieghartskirchen . His bones rested there from 1906 to 1964. Today the bones of Ypsilantis rest in Thessaloniki.

Alexander's brother Dimitrios (1793-1832) gave the city of Ypsilanti (Michigan) its name .

literature

  • Polychronis Enepekides : Rigas - Ypsilantis - Kapodistrias (= Pige ke erefne peri tis istorias tou Ellinismou apo tou 1453 , volume 2). Athens 1967 (Greek)
  • Lulu Countess Thürheim : My life. Memories from Austria's big world 1788–1852 . From the French, ed. by René van Rhyn. 4 volumes. G. Müller, Munich 1913 f. ( archive.org )
  • Peter Broucek : Alexander Ypsilantis imprisonment in Austria. In: Communications from the Austrian State Archives. 17/18, 1964/65, ISSN  0078-3676 , pp. 550-559.
  • Georg Veloudis: Ipsilantis, Alexandros . In: Mathias Bernath, Felix von Schroeder (Ed.), Gerda Bartl (Red.): Biographical Lexicon for the History of Southeast Europe . Volume 2. Oldenbourg, Munich 1976, ISBN 3-486-49241-1 , p. 233 f.
  • Ilse Eichler: Memory of Alexandros Ypsilantis and his death in Vienna (ETEOKPHTIKA Supplement 2), Phoibos, Vienna 2018, ISBN 978-3-85161-183-0

Web links

Commons : Alexander Ypsilantis  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ The Little Encyclopedia . Encyclios-Verlag, Zurich 1950, Volume 2, p. 950
  2. ↑ Constantin von Wurzbach : Sina, Georg Simon (senior) . In: Biographisches Lexikon des Kaiserthums Oesterreich . 34th part. Imperial and Royal Court and State Printing Office, Vienna 1877, p. 351 ( digitized version ).
personal data
SURNAME Ypsilantis, Alexander
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Ypsilantis, Prince Alexander (full name); Ypsilanti; Ypsilandis, Alexandros; Υψηλάντης, Ἀλέξανδρος (Greek)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Greek general in Russian service in the fight for Greece's independence
DATE OF BIRTH December 12, 1792
PLACE OF BIRTH Constantinople
DATE OF DEATH January 31, 1828
Place of death Vienna