Anton von Radziwill

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Anton von Radziwill, 1901

Anton Wilhelm Prince Radziwill ( Polish. Antoni Wilhelm Radziwiłł , lit. Antanas Vilhelmas Radvila ) (* 31 July 1833 in Teplitz ; † 16th December 1904 in Berlin ) was a Prussian general of artillery and long-time adjutant later and confidant of the Prussian king and Kaiser Wilhelm I.

Life

Anton von Radziwill came from the Polish-Lithuanian magnate family Radziwiłł . He was the son of the later Prussian general of the infantry Wilhelm Fürst von Radziwill . His uncle was Prince Boguslaw Radziwill . He himself married Marie de Castellane .

In Berlin Radziwill attended the French grammar school until 1852, only to join the Guards Artillery Regiment in the same year . As a second lieutenant , he accompanied the son of the Prince of Prussia , Prince Friedrich Wilhelm of Prussia, to the coronation of Alexander II in Moscow in August 1856 . Between 1858 and 1861 he attended the military academy . As a captain he took part in the General Staff of the Guard Corps in the German War in 1866 . On September 20, 1866, the day the victorious troops entered Berlin, he was assigned to King Wilhelm I as a wing adjutant . From then on, Radziwill belonged to his personal circle until the death of the king and later emperor. He enjoyed the trust of Wilhelm I and accompanied him on important events. He gave the French ambassador Vincent Count Benedetti a letter of reply from Wilhelm I, which became known as the " Emser Depesche ", announced the Prussian cessation of fire in the Battle of Sedan on September 2, 1870 and attended the imperial proclamation in Versailles . Wilhelm I sent Radziwill several times on diplomatic trips, such as to Constantinople in 1882 . In 1885 he appointed him his adjutant general.

The Radziwills ran a hospitable house in the Palais Wrangel in Berlin . Marie von Radziwill was an important Berlin salonnière . The reception of Polish guests and politicians from the Center Party led to the distrust of Otto von Bismarck during the Kulturkampfzeit , especially since the cousin Ferdinand von Radziwill was the leader of the Polish parliamentary group in the Reichstag . Radziwill, who had large estates in the Prussian provinces of Silesia and Posen, as well as in Russia , was a hereditary member of the Prussian manor from 1871 to 1888 . Radziwill earned services to Berlin as a sponsor of the zoological garden .

After his accession to the throne in 1888 Friedrich III. Radziwill, whom he promoted to general of the infantry , as adjutant general. After Friedrich's death in the same year, Radziwill asked his successor Wilhelm II to be released.

Radziwill was now listed in the rankings of the Prussian Army as a non-serving Adjutant General of Wilhelm II, and from 1889 as General of the Artillery. Wilhelm II, who honored Radziwill in 1894 by awarding him the Order of the Black Eagle , also used him on diplomatic missions. The usual selection of four accompanying Prussian officers encountered difficulties because, like Radziwill, they had to be two meters tall. Therefore, one of them was always the younger Helmut von Moltke , who later became Chief of the General Staff .

Anton von Radziwill died in Berlin. After a funeral service on December 19, 1904 in St. Hedwig's Cathedral in the presence of Wilhelm II, he was transferred to his possession Antonin and buried in the castle chapel there.

Honors

Radziwill has received several awards for his services. So he stood à la suite of the 1st Guard Field Artillery Regiment and was the holder of the highest orders and decorations such as:

literature

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Petra Wilhelmy Dollinger: The Berlin salons. Berlin 2000. p. 251.
  2. ↑ a b c d e f g h Ranking list of the Royal Prussian Army and the XIII. (Royal Württemberg) Army Corps for 1902 , Ed .: War Ministry , Ernst Siegfried Mittler & Sohn , Berlin 1902, p. 8
personal data
SURNAME Radziwill, Anton von
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Radziwill, Anton Wilhelm Fürst; Radziwiłł, Antoni Wilhelm; Radvila, Antanas Vilhelmas
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Prussian general of the artillery and adjutant general Wilhelm I.
DATE OF BIRTH July 31, 1833
PLACE OF BIRTH Teplitz
DATE OF DEATH December 16, 1904
Place of death Berlin