August Maria Raimund zu Arenberg

August Maria Raimund Prinz zu Arenberg ( French Auguste-Marie-Raymond Prince d'Arenberg ; also known as Graf von der Marck , French Comte de La Marck ; born August 23, 1753 in Brussels , † September 26, 1833 in Brussels) an officer in French service. At the beginning of the French Revolution, he also played a political role.

family

He came from the Arenberg family . His father was Duke Karl Maria Raimund zu Arenberg . The mother was Louise Margaretha. His brother was Duke Ludwig Engelbert. In 1774 he married Franziska le Danois von Czernay. The son Ernst Engelbert emerged from this marriage.

Life

Arenberg entered French military service at a young age. He took over the La Marck infantry regiment named after his grandfather on his mother's side . This threw a so-called foreign regiment and consisted almost exclusively of soldiers from Germany. The condition of the takeover was the acceptance of the title of Count de la Marck, which Arenberg now wielded. He served in the American War of Independence on non-European theaters of war. He was in India for several years. In 1788 he was promoted to Maréchal de camp . When there was an outrage against Austria in the Brabant Revolution in the Austrian Netherlands in 1789 , he initially participated out of consideration for his possessions, but soon distanced himself from them and paid homage to Emperor Leopold II as liege lord.

After the outbreak of the French Revolution in 1789, La Marck became a member of the Constituent Assembly . He was a member of the moderate court party and was closely related to Mirabeau . He supported this with considerable financial resources. He ensured its access to the royal family in the hope of saving the monarchy.

After Mirabeau's death in April 1791, he fled to Austria. There he took the name Arenberg again. He served several times as a negotiator with the French authorities. Since 1794 he was in the rank of Général de division , but remained without military use. After 1814 he lived in Brussels. He was a lieutenant general in the Dutch army. After Belgium was founded in 1830, he stayed in Brussels as a private citizen and worked as an author. Among other things, he left behind an exchange of letters with Mirabeau and his memoirs and an important collection of paintings.

literature

• General Military Encyclopedia Vol. 1 Leipzig, 1868 P. 187 f.
• Meyers Großes Konversations-Lexikon, Volume 12. Leipzig 1908, p. 69 ( digitized version )

Web links

• List of Austrian generals