Christian Julius de Meza

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Christian Julius de Meza

Christian Julius de Meza (born January 14, 1792 in Helsingør , † September 18, 1865 in Copenhagen ) was a Danish lieutenant general . At the beginning of the German-Danish War in 1864, De Meza was Commander-in-Chief of the Danish field army.

Family and origin

The origin of the family goes back to Sephardic Spaniards , who were expelled from the Iberian Peninsula and found refuge in the liberal Amsterdam. De Meza's paternal grandfather, the doctor and son of a rabbi Christian Julius Frederik de Meza (1727–1800), had emigrated to Copenhagen from the Netherlands in 1753 . He was the father of the doctor, Stadtphysicus' and judicial councilor Christian Jacob Theophilus de Meza (1756–1844), who with his wife Anna Henriette, née. Lund (1768–1825), Christian Julius de Meza fathered. His parents' marriage was later divorced and his father married Anne Marie Prip (1783–1862) in 1814. Christian de Meza married on June 17, 1821 in Frederiksværk Elisabeth Birgitte Tscherning (1793–1861), daughter of the officer and inspector of the factories in Frederiksværk, Eilert Tscherning (1767–1832) and his wife Marie, nee. Lützow (1767-1830).

Life

The cold air phobia

Ch.J. de Meza with fez and a pajama over his uniform

De Meza was considered a hypochondriac, or at least an eccentric. The tendency to do this increased steadily in old age: he played the piano and guitar every day, he composed himself and you could also hear him sing. He was fluent in languages ​​and read French, German, Italian, English and Dutch books. Although he was a friendly man, he made fun of smearing chalk on his students at the artillery school as punishment. His particular eccentricity was his phobia of cold air and drafts. He was convinced that it was harmful to breathe cold air. When he entered a room, he first had to acclimate himself. In winter he stuck his head behind the tiled stove to warm up a head of hair, according to the military historian Knud Christian Rockstroh . If you wanted to visit his office, you had to wind your way through a labyrinth of furniture that he set up between the door and the desk, with the intention that the visitor would have shaken off the cold air before he reached him. In old age he rarely left his office and was dressed in a dressing gown over his uniform and a Turkish fez on his head.

Until 1864

De Meza joined the Artillery Cadet Institute in Copenhagen as a cadet in 1806. When Copenhagen was encircled and bombed by the British in September 1807 , he took part in the defense of the city as a playjunker . In 1810 he got his officer's license and in 1811 he completed the general staff course .

In the long period of peace that followed, de Meza taught history, geography, German and French at the Artillery Institute and the Royal Military College until 1842 . From 1842 he did practical service in an artillery regiment with the rank of major .

Over the years de Meza developed a number of peculiarities, including an almost pathological fear of cold, wet and draft. He was also noticed with his manners and clothing, which made him a target of ridicule and laughter among his colleagues and students as well as in the Copenhagen citizenship. De Meza had a gift for languages ​​and spent a lot of time studying language. He was also artistically gifted, played the piano and guitar excellently, composed smaller pieces that - in his own opinion - could compete with those of Beethoven , and also drew very well. The fact that he spent so much time on off-duty matters, together with the particularities mentioned, meant that his military career made slow progress.

When the Schleswig-Holstein uprising and with it the first German-Danish war broke out in March 1848 , de Meza was the longest serving artillery officer, and although he was not considered fit for the field, War Minister Anton Frederik Tscherning - his brother-in-law - became the leading artillery officer at the Army Headquarters appointed. Surprisingly, he turned out to be a cold-blooded, personally brave and quorum officer with a good overview of the battlefield. In the first year of the war he was promoted to colonel and used as commander of an infantry brigade . In April 1849 he was characterized as a major general in command of the armed forces concentrated on the Baltic island of Alsen . With a brigade he took part on July 6, 1849 in the defeat of the Fredericia fortress . His leadership on horseback in the forefront made him heroic and made him a real major general. In the Battle of Idstedt on July 24, 1850, he took command of the split up 2nd Division after the division commander General Friderich Adolph Schleppegrell had fallen. His lead was crucial to the Danish victory.

After the end of the war he was appointed inspector general of the artillery. In 1858 he went to Flensburg as a commanding general in Schleswig , Jutland and Funen . In 1860 he was appointed lieutenant general.

German-Danish War and Death

De Meza in 1860

When a German-Danish war threatened again in 1863, the 72-year-old de Meza was placed at the head of the Danish field army as commander-in-chief . His opponent was the 80-year-old Prussian Field Marshal von Wrangel . On January 31, 1864, he received Wrangel's message at his headquarters in the Prince's Palace . Shortly after the outbreak of the war on February 1, 1864, de Meza vacated the Danewerk without first seeking political support and withdrew with the army to the flank positions in Düppel and Fredericia. Only in this way could he save his troops from evasion and destruction by the Prussians and Austrians. De Meza handed over the command to Lieutenant General Lüttichau to justify himself to War Minister Lundbye for his evacuation of the Danewerk. Despite resistance from the king , de Meza was forced to resign as commander. On February 29th, Lieutenant General Gerlach followed de Meza's post.

In the following year de Meza died deeply bitter and worked to the last on his defense. However, from a military-historical point of view, his evacuation of the Danewerk in the German-Danish War is considered a prudent decision. The historian Olaf Haselhorst writes:

“With his timely and strategically correct decision to rescue the Danish army from the Dannewerke positions, General de Meza was able to prevent the allied forces [Prussia and Austria] from achieving a quick and devastating victory. He had returned the army largely intact, thus giving the Danish government options for political action to end the war diplomatically. "

- Olaf Haselhorst

Awards

Works

  • Christian Julius de Meza: General de Mezas krigs-dagbøger fra aarene 1849-1851 . Reitzel, Copenhagen 1928.

literature

Footnotes

  1. ^ Gordon Norrie: Christian Julius Frederik de Meza . In: Svend Cedergreen Bech , Svend Dahl (eds.): Dansk biografisk leksikon . Founded by Carl Frederik Bricka , continued by Povl Engelstoft. 3. Edition. tape 9 : Levi – Moltesen . Gyldendal, Copenhagen 1981, ISBN 87-01-77452-2 (Danish, biografiskleksikon.lex.dk ).
  2. ↑ a b c d e K. C. Rockstroh : Christian de Meza . In: Svend Cedergreen Bech , Svend Dahl (eds.): Dansk biografisk leksikon . Founded by Carl Frederik Bricka , continued by Povl Engelstoft. 3. Edition. tape 9 : Levi – Moltesen . Gyldendal, Copenhagen 1981, ISBN 87-01-77452-2 (Danish, biografiskleksikon.lex.dk ).
  3. ↑ Wolfgang Zank: "In God's name on it!" The campaign against Denmark 150 years ago is the first of Bismarck's three wars of unification. In: The time. January 30, 2014, p. 17.
  4. ^ A b c d Olaf Haselhorst: The German-Danish War of 1864. In: Jan Ganschow, Olaf Haselhorst, Maik without time (ed.): The German-Danish War 1864. Prehistory - course - consequences. Graz 2013, pp. 87–149, p. 108.
personal data
SURNAME Meza, Christian Julius de
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Danish general
DATE OF BIRTH January 14, 1792
PLACE OF BIRTH Elsinore
DATE OF DEATH September 18, 1865
Place of death Copenhagen