Bogislav Friedrich Emanuel von Tauentzien

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Count Tauentzien, 1816

Bogislav Friedrich Emanuel Count Tauentzien von Wittenberg (born September 15, 1760 in Potsdam , † February 20, 1824 in Berlin ) was a Prussian infantry general .

Life

Bogislav Friedrich Emanuel Count Tauentzien von Wittenberg, 1813. Graphic by Hermann Scherenberg.

Bogislav was the son of Friedrich Bogislav von Tauentzien and joined the Prussian Army on July 22, 1776 at the age of 16 . As ensign and adjutant to Prince Heinrich of Prussia (1726–1802) , brother of Frederick the Great , he joined his infantry regiment . Heinrich soon developed a deep affection for the young nobleman and made him his favorite. Tauentzien subsequently accompanied him on all trips and also in the War of the Bavarian Succession as a personal adjutant. A painting by Edward Francis Cunnigham shows the Prince (then 59 years old) and Tauentzien (25 years old) in “very personal togetherness. The old man's shy affection for the boy is touchingly evident here, ”writes Christian Graf von Krockow in his book“ The Prussian Brothers ”

The relationship with the prince ended when Tauentzien , who had meanwhile advanced to major , joined the entourage of his successor - Friedrich Wilhelm II. - after the king's death in 1791 . On August 5, 1791, Tauentzien was raised to the rank of Count of Prussia and was awarded the order of Pour le Mérite on December 13, 1792 for his work as a liaison officer in the Austrian army in the Netherlands . For his services, the king appointed him on December 31, 1792 to adjutant wing and promoted Tauentzien to lieutenant colonel . From January 24, 1794 to May 3, 1797 he was envoy extraordinary to the court of Catherine II in St. Petersburg . After his recall from Russia , Tauentzien , who had meanwhile been promoted to colonel , took part in the major maneuvers in the autumn and then took a longer vacation. Friedrich Wilhelm III. promoted him on June 4, 1801 to major general and appointed him on September 24, 1804 chief of the vacant infantry regiment "von Laurens" . During the war with France in October 1806, Tauentzien was subordinate to an observation corps advanced by Prince Hohenlohe to Saalburg . He was pushed back to Schleiz by the French Marshal Soult , but managed to retreat to Hohenlohe despite the unfortunate battle of October 9th.

In the battle of Jena , Tauentzien commanded the avant-garde of the Hohenlohe Corps. After the Peace of Tilsit he received the command of the Brandenburg Brigade as lieutenant general and later took part in the reorganization of the army. After the collapse of Prussia in 1806, as a result of the work of the Immediate Investigation Commission, 86 of the 142 Prussian generals resigned honorably and 17 as punishment; six had died. Tauentzien was one of the 22 generals the king kept in service.

At the beginning of the wars of liberation at the beginning of 1813 he was appointed military governor between the Oder and Vistula rivers , and led the siege of Stettin . From August 1813, as infantry general, he commanded the IVth Army Corps, which mostly consisted of Landwehr , and fought at its head near Großbeeren (23 August) and Dennewitz (6 September). On September 15, 1813 he was made Knight of the Order of the Black Eagle . In October his corps was left behind to cover the crossing over the Elbe near Dessau .

Tauentzien memorial stone in Dennewitz
Grave site in the Invalidenfriedhof , Berlin

After the Battle of the Nations near Leipzig he forced Torgau to surrender (December 26th) and took Wittenberg by storm on the night of January 13-14, 1814, giving himself the honorary title " von Wittenberg " (an increase in the coat of arms ) and on January 26th In 1814 he was awarded the Grand Cross of the Iron Cross for his military services. At least that was the official but wrong version of the storming of Wittenberg. The fact is that Lieutenant General Leopold Wilhelm von Dobschütz town and fortress Wittenberg on 13/14 January alone, as Tauentzien wasn't there at all. Carl Gottlieb Merker, pastor in Kurzlipsdorf, wrote correctly in his book The War Year 1813 : “When Dobschütz actually took Wittenberg, it was not him, but Commander-in-Chief Tauentzien who was given the honor of being called“ Tauentzien von Wittenberg ” which the latter was in Kemberg during the siege of Wittenberg . Dobschütz, however, subsequently became governor of Dresden . ” Magdeburg also fell on May 24, 1814 after being enclosed by Tauentzien.

In the campaign of the following year Tauentzien received the command of the VI. Army Corps . But the war had already been decided by the battle of Waterloo when it set foot on French soil . After the peace Tauentzien received the supreme command of the III. Army Corps .

Tauentzin was a member of the Magdeburg Masonic Lodge "Ferdinand zur Glückseligkeit". He died as commandant of Berlin on February 20, 1824 and was buried in the local Invalidenfriedhof .

family

Tauentzien was married to Elisabeth Karoline Isabella von Marschall. The couple had a daughter:

  • Henriette Elisabeth (Lisinka) Johanna Ulrike (* February 5, 1785; † December 28, 1859) ∞ Gustav Leopold Graf von Hake (1776–1838), Prussian lieutenant general, commandant of Magdeburg

After her death in 1785 he married Luise Friederike Juliane von Arnstedt on September 27, 1787 in Berlin (* January 4, 1760 - † March 25, 1840). He had four children in total, including:

  • Friedrich Heinrich Bogislav (1789–1854), Prussian major general
  • Johanna Emilie Wilhelmine Charlotte (1792–1792)
  • Wilhelmine Luise Katharina Cäcilie (1798–1802).

With the death of his son Heinrich Bogislav in 1854, the count's branch of the Tauentzien family died out .

Honors

According to him, which is Tauentzienstraße in Berlin Generalszug named.

literature

Web links

Commons : Bogislav Friedrich Emanuel von Tauentzien  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ dtv-Taschenbuch 1998, p. 191 ff.
  2. ↑ Großer Generalstab (Ed.): 1806 - The Prussian officer corps and the investigation of the war events . Mittler, Berlin 1906, pp. 103-105 (the information is inaccurate due to tradition) Digitized
  3. ^ Manfred Steffens: Freemasons in Germany. Balance of a quarter of a millennium. Cristian Wolff Verlag, Flensburg 1964, p. 294.
predecessor Office successor
Leopold Heinrich von der Goltz Prussian envoy to Saint Petersburg
1794–1797 		Erasmus Ludwig Friedrich von der Groeben
personal data
SURNAME Tauentzien, Bogislav Friedrich Emanuel von
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Tauentzien von Wittenberg, Bogislav Friedrich Emanuel Graf
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Prussian general of the infantry
DATE OF BIRTH September 15, 1760
PLACE OF BIRTH Potsdam
DATE OF DEATH February 20, 1824
Place of death Berlin