August von Witzleben
Karl August Friedrich von Witzleben (born March 19, 1773 in Tromlitz , † July 9, 1839 in Dresden ; also Carl August Friedrich von Witzleben), Lord of the Red Court at Wohlmirstedt , was a German writer , known under the pseudonym A. von Tromlitz and Prussian Colonel.
origin
August von Witzleben came from the Thuringian Uradelsgeschlecht von Witzleben and was the eleventh child of the Saxon lieutenant colonel Dietrich Gottlieb von Witzleben (1723-1785) on Wohlmirstedt and Henriette Elisabeth von Stecher (ca. 1735-1803). His maternal grandfather was the saltworks owner Johann Christoph von Stecher .
Live and act
He received his education at the grammar school in Halle. In 1782 he came to the court in Weimar as a page. There Johann Karl August Musäus and Johann Gottfried Herder were his teachers. But in 1786 he went into Prussian service and took part in the First Coalition War. He rose and was transferred to the newly established Infantry Regiment No. 59 as a lieutenant colonel in 1803 . In the Fourth Coalition War he was in the headquarters of the Duke of Braunschweig during the Battle of Jena and then took part in the retreat with Hohenlohe, and was then taken prisoner near Prenzlau. There he also met the French Marshal Murat (Grand Duke von Berg). After the Peace of Tilsit , all foreigners had to leave the Prussian army, including Witzleben. He switched to Bergische services and was initially captain of the infantry. But he soon became squadron chief in the Bergisch Lancier Regiment. In 1809 he became a major major and formed a new regiment of lancers in Münster, of which he was commander in 1811. With the regiment he still took part in Napoleon's Spanish campaign. The regiment stood at Burgos and returned to Berg in 1812. But when Prussia declared war on France in 1813, he switched to Russian services and finally commanded the Hanseatic Legion under Count Wallmoden as a colonel. After the Peace of Paris he lived as a farmer on his wife's manor in Beuchlitz near Halle, moved to Berlin in 1821 and to Dresden in 1826.
In 1831 he bought the Kynast winery in Zitzschewig (now part of Radebeul ) just outside Dresden to spend his retirement years writing.
In the second half of his life, Witzleben was successful as a writer of entertaining short stories with a historical background. His stories, mostly published in the Dresdner Abendzeitung and the paperback Vielliebchen , including about Dyveke , lover of Christian II of Denmark, appeared as Complete Writings in three collections (Dresden 1829–1843, 108 vols .; 5th edition, Leipzig 1867 , 20 vols.).
family
August von Witzleben was married a total of four times. First on November 12, 1799 with Antoinette Freiin von Heine (1780–1809). In 1810 he married Angelie von Diest (* 1791; † March 1814), the third time on March 11, 1815 with Charlotte von Billerbeck, b. von Möllendorf (born September 15, 1782 - † July 22, 1844) the widow of his cousin, the marriage was divorced in 1820. He last married Auguste Albanus on May 16, 1825 (* October 31, 1805; † September 13, 1842). He had four children, including the Prussian generals Ferdinand von Witzleben and Gerhard August von Witzleben as well as Hermann von Witzleben (chamberlain) .
Works
- 1796, Avantures from the German campaigns on the Rhine, part 2
- 1798, The silent valley
after 1825:
- 1826, Douglas
- 1826, The Asylum at the Kynast
- 1828, Frauenwerth
- 1828, The Sacrifice
- Pappenheimer
- Franz von Sickingen
- Mutius Sforza
- The life of Margrave Albrecht of Brandenburg
- The Garraras
- 1840, romantic hike through Saxon Switzerland
Complete edition 1829 to 1832
- Tromlitz all writings, 36 volumes
editor
- together with Theodor Mügge : Vielliebchen. Historical-romantic paperback. Baumgärtner, Leipzig 1828 ff.
literature
- Max Mendheim : Witzleben, August von . In: Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie (ADB). Volume 43, Duncker & Humblot, Leipzig 1898, p. 665 f.
- New Nekrolog der Deutschen 1839, Volume 1, S.566ff
Web links
- Literature by and about August von Witzleben in the catalog of the German National Library
- Works by and about August von Witzleben in the German Digital Library
Individual evidence
- ^ Certificate of birth of the pastor of Niedersynderstedt from August 14, 1786, in: A 35, W LXVIII No. 68, Bl. 66
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Witzleben, August von |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES | Witzleben, Karl August Friedrich von; Tromlitz, August von (pseudonym); Tromlitz, A. von (pseudonym) |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | German writer |
| DATE OF BIRTH | March 19, 1773 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Tromlitz |
| DATE OF DEATH | July 9, 1839 |
| Place of death | Dresden |