Christian Alexander von Hagken

Christian Alexander von Hagken

Christian Alexander Freiherr von Hagken zu Pornimb , Herr auf Venninghausen (born September 30, 1744 in Onolzbach ; † May 8, 1808 in Uentrop ) was a Prussian major general and chief of infantry regiment No. 44 .

Life

origin

Christian was a son of Wolfgang Julius Friedrich Freiherr von Hagken (* 1700; † August 21, 1757) and his wife Friederike Dorothea Elisabeth, born Freiin von Seckendorff († 1776). His father was princely Brandenburg, Guolzbacher Privy Councilor and chief steward of the Margravine of Ansbach and Bayreuth Wilhelmine , a sister of Frederick the Great as well as Oberamtmann von Colmberg and inheritance of Pornimb.

In 1757 and 1771 Christian and his brother Johann received the Wiesensteig'sche fiefdom consisting of a farm in Sontheim an der Brenz and the Langenau Easter mill .

Military career

On April 1, 1758 Hagken Page was at the court of the Duke of Württemberg in Stuttgart . On March 1, 1763 he became second lieutenant in the life guard on foot. Because he had access to the court of the Margrave of Ansbach and Bayreuth through his father's position as chief steward, he had also been the personal page of Margravine Wilhelmine. Frederick the Great had often seen him as such. The latter also met him once, when he was already a second lieutenant in the Württemberg Guard. The king recognized Hagken and made him an offer to transfer to Prussian services. On August 17, 1764, he said goodbye to the Württemberg service and three days later transferred to the Prussian service . Hagken was employed there with a patent from October 4, 1764 as a prime lieutenant in the "Beckwith" No. 48 infantry regiment . On July 12, 1773 he was staff captain and on February 12, 1776 captain and company commander in the infantry regiment "von Eichmann" No. 48 in Wesel. With the regiment he then took part in the War of the Bavarian Succession with distinction. On February 1, 1787, Hagken was promoted to major and in the same year came to Holland with the Prussian Army , where he took part with distinction in the battle of Schoonhoven . On March 12, 1791 he became the commander of the grenadier battalion of the infantry regiment "von Kunitzki" No. 44.

In the First Coalition War against the French Army in 1792/95, Hagken fought in the Battle of Kaiserslautern and in the battles at Famars , St. Amand, St. Imbert and Trippstadt. For his work at St. Imbert in this Rhine campaign, he received the order Pour le Mérite on December 6, 1793 . On April 25, 1794 he was commander of the infantry regiment "Koethen" No. 48 and in this position on January 12, 1795 promoted to lieutenant colonel and on May 26, 1798 to colonel .

Together with Major General Ludwig von Strachwitz , he had a birthday party with his regiment and the regiment "Landgraf von Hessen-Cassel" on August 3, 1801 with a summer camp with splendid tents for King Friedrich Wilhelm III. organized.

On May 5, 1803 he was appointed chief of the Strachwitz Infantry Regiment No. 44 in Münster , which, according to the usage at the time, bore his name from then until its dissolution. Shortly after his appointment as head of the regiment, he became major general on May 20, 1803 with a patent from May 27, 1803 . On September 13, 1804, some officers of the garrison visited the city of Wesel with Hagken at their head, Emperor Napoleon in Rheinberg . They were invited to breakfast by Napoleon, and the emperor brought out a drink on the health of Friedrich Wilhelm III. and his "Braave Army". Hagken then brought out a drink for the emperor's welfare. “The Prussian officers cannot sufficiently praise the kind manner in which they are received by His Majesty. After breakfast, His Majesty drove to Cologne in his carriage amidst the cheering of the locals. The streets of the city were decorated with trees, triumphal arches, wreaths and corresponding inscriptions. A few hours after the emperor's departure, Mr. Schimmelpenninck, ambassador of the Batavian Republic in Paris, also arrived in Rheinburg, after which, after a short while, he followed the emperor ”.

It was certainly a rarity for an officer, from the oldest prime lieutenant to major general, to have been in the same garrison in Wesel for forty years. In the spring of 1805 Hagken came to Münster with his regiment. However, the troubled times led to numerous desertions , so that the Hagken promised all returnees impunity, but that didn't help either. On November 25, 1805, the regiment returned to Wesel. Hagken himself came to a Prussian-Hessian corps under the Electors of Hesse .

With the outbreak of the Fourth Coalition War in 1806, General Blücher received the order from General Friedrich Ludwig Fürst von Hohenlohe on September 6, 1806 to leave a detachment at Münster. The regiments "von Hagken" and "von Brüsewitz" were there and came under the command of General Le Coq . Already 62 years old, sick and weak, Hagken nevertheless went to battle with his regiment on October 9th. On October 19, 1806, Hagken and Le Coq received the news of the catastrophic defeat of the Prussian army near Jena-Auerstadt on October 14, during which the main army was defeated and withdrew to the Hameln fortress about 36 kilometers from Hanover , where they arrived October 23rd. Le Coq brought the fortress into such a state that it could endure a siege.

Between November 7th and 10th, 1806, French troops came to Hameln, which in the meantime was filled with around 1000 refugees from Jena-Auerstadt. On November 19, General Anne Jean Marie René Savory came to Hameln on behalf of Napoleon and demanded surrender. Many cities and large fortresses such as Erfurt, Spandau, Stettin, Küstrin, Magdeburg and Hanover had already capitulated. Under the leadership of Le Coq, the other generals with long war experience among whom Hagken agreed to surrender instead of shedding blood and sacrificing human lives, apparently of the opinion that surrender would be inevitable anyway.

Hagken withdrew into private life after his regiment was dissolved as a result of the fall of Hameln. Because the city of Wesel had been occupied by the French, he moved with his wife and two small children, one of whom had just been born, to Uentrop near Hamm to the house of his brother-in-law, Pastor Joseph Neuhaus, who was with his wife's sister, Charlotte von Schwedler, was married. On November 4, 1807, as usual with inactive officers, he was given half the salary . On May 8, 1808, at the age of 64, he died of severe nervous fever. He was buried in the local churchyard and shadowed with a modest tombstone on which it read: "Here rests a good soldier".

family

Christian Alexander von Hagken had several brothers and sisters:

• Wilhelmine Johanna Amalia († April 3, 1768 in Heilbronn Monastery)
• Henriëtte ⚭ with Mr. von Schott
• Johann Friedrich Albert Ernst (born October 10, 1741 in Ansbach). Johann went to East India in 1764, came to Samarang , from where he wanted to undertake a journey into the interior of the country in 1770; From then on there was no further news and at the request of Christian von Hagken he was declared dead by a judgment of the Royal Prussian Government of the Principality of Ansbach on July 15, 1801. In 1802, his share of the feudal loan was passed on to his brother Christian as the sole tenant.
• Wilhelm died unmarried.
• Frederike Louise ⚭ Major and Chamberlain von Wildungen zu Helmershausen. They lived in the Red Castle in Helmershausen in Ansbachischen.

Hagken married on July 5, 1768 in Wesel Maria Johanna Tendering (* June 7, 1748 - † January 25, 1801), daughter and only child of the mayor of Wesel, Hermann Tendering and his wife Catharina Maria Cramer (* February 25, 1725; † June 7, 1814).

Marriage Portrait (1802)

The couple had the following children:

• Friedrich Konstantin Ludwig Hermann (born April 26, 1769 in Wesel; † January 31, 1835 in Wesel), Prussian major ⚭ 1802 Anna Christina Hannes (born January 5, 1762; † October 24, 1844). She was the widow of the customs inspector Johann Alexander Graff.
• Luise Katharina Johanna (born February 9, 1771 in Wesel)
• Alexander Karl Franz (born July 10, 1772 in Wesel)
• Karl Florenz Heinrich (born October 18, 1773 in Wesel)

In his second marriage, he married on July 18, 1802 in Wesel Dorothea Friederike Susanne Freiin von Schwedler (born October 3, 1782 in Broich near Hattingen ; † August 28, 1830 in Kalkar ). The following children were born from the marriage:

• Friedrich Alexander Christian Leopold (born October 6, 1803), forestry master
• Friederike Christine Alexandrine (born November 10, 1806 in Münster; † March 16, 1873 in Hameln) ⚭ May 24, 1842 in Wesel Friedrich Alexander Graff (born April 11, 1813 at the Spycker house near Wesel; † November 22, 1873 in Hameln) , Prussian Colonel.

• 

  Frederike von Schwedler, marriage portrait (1802)

• 

  Alexandrine von Hagken (1824)

• 

  Birthday celebration of King Friedrich Wilhelm III. (1801)

literature

• Kurt von Priesdorff : Soldier leadership . Volume 3, Hanseatische Verlagsanstalt Hamburg, undated [Hamburg], undated [1937], DNB 367632780 , pp. 142-143, no. 1049.
• Pedigrees and family records: Von Hagken, von Schwedler, Graff, Tendering
• Dutch newspaper. September 13, 1804
• Digby Smith: Biographies Prussian Generals Napoleontic wars.
• Mortgage bank Amts Brünen Nro. VII. Fol. 371

Web links

• Biography napoleon-series.org
• Digital Archive Marburg http://www.digam.net/index.php?dok=6197