August von Kleist

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August Christoph Viktor von Kleist (born February 19, 1818 in Perkuiken , † May 14, 1890 in Potsdam ) was a Prussian major general .

Life

origin

August von Kleist came from the ladies branch of his widespread Pomeranian nobility, von Kleist . He was the fourth son of the Prussian Rittmeister a. D. Christoph Albrecht Leopold von Kleist (born May 19, 1789 in Königsberg ; † March 25, 1823), Herr auf Perkuiken, and his wife Emilie, born von Steinwehr (born November 21, 1790; † August 5, 1870 in Lablacken ) .

Military career

Kleist chose the soldier profession not only because of the precarious financial circumstances in which his family found themselves after the early death of his father. He was educated in the cadet institutes in Kulm and in Berlin and then transferred on August 12, 1835 as a second lieutenant in the 1st Artillery Brigade of the Prussian Army . From 1842 to 1847 he was the manager of the artillery depot in Königsberg . In 1848 he was sent to Memel to set up beach batteries there, because it was feared that the Danish fleet might attack Memel in the German-Danish war of 1848 in Schleswig-Holstein . After completing this task, he was promoted to prime lieutenant in 1848 and appointed brigade jutant. In this activity on the occasion of the mobilization of 1850 he experienced a certain disorganization of the army, which led him to write in a brochure the necessity of a modification of our army organization . The brochure was then banned from the book trade on the highest orders. Nevertheless, he was appointed assistant to the Artillery Examination Commission in Berlin in 1851 and promoted to captain in 1852 . After completing the work in Berlin, he was then transferred back to the troops and in 1856 appointed captain 1st class with a predated patent and first transferred to Magdeburg , then in 1859 to Wesel with an appointment as major . Finally, in 1863 he was transferred to the 3rd Artillery Brigade and soon afterwards was promoted to lieutenant colonel commander of the Prussian artillery crew of the Mainz fortress .

In 1866 he was appointed Colonel and Commander of the 5th Artillery Fortress Regiment and was thus responsible for the reinforcement of the fortresses Glogau , Posen , Thorn and Graudenz during the German-German War of 1866 . After the war, in June 1868 he was commander of the 2nd Artillery Brigade in Stettin , in this position he was awarded the Order of the Crown, Second Class, and on July 26, 1870, he was promoted to Major General. He then took part in the war against France in 1870/71 as commander of the artillery of the II Army Corps and proved himself in the battle of Gravelotte ( Iron Cross II. Class) and the sieges of Metz and Paris . Then he took part in the campaign in the Jura , during which his health was not up to the strains of this campaign. He was therefore disabled and he was allowed to leave on September 17, 1872 with a pension and the award of the Order of the Red Eagle, 2nd class with oak leaves and swords. On December 18, 1872, Kleist and his pension were put up for disposal .

He was an honorary knight of the Order of St. John .

family

Kleist was married to Emmeline von Morstein (1827–1866) in their first marriage since April 13, 1851. From this marriage there were four sons and two daughters, including the Prussian generals Erwin and Alfred von Kleist . In his second childless marriage, he was married to Bertha von Ostau (1855-1910) from October 15, 1869.

literature

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Genealogical handbook of the nobility. Volume A XIII, CA Starke-Verlag, Limburg, 1975, p. 308 u. 326.
  2. ^ Genealogical handbook of the nobility. Volume A XIII, CA Starke-Verlag, Limburg, 1975, p. 325.
  3. ^ Gustav Kratz: The story of the Kleist family. Volume III, No. 883, p. 479.
  4. ^ Gustav Kratz: The story of the Kleist family. Volume III, No. 883, pp. 479f.
  5. ^ Gustav Kratz: The story of the Kleist family. Volume III, No. 883, p. 480.
  6. ^ Bertha Emmeline Mathilde Franziska von Morstein . In: Marcelli Janecki , Deutsche Adelsgenossenschaft (Hrsg.): Yearbook of the German nobility . Second volume. WT Bruer's Verlag, Berlin 1898, p.  592-592 ( dlib.rsl.ru ).
  7. ^ Genealogical handbook of the nobility. Volume A XIII, CA Starke-Verlag, Limburg 1975, p. 327.
personal data
SURNAME Kleist, August von
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Kleist, August Christoph Viktor von; Kleist, Christoph August Victor from
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Prussian major general
DATE OF BIRTH February 19, 1818
PLACE OF BIRTH Perkuiken
DATE OF DEATH May 14, 1890
Place of death Potsdam