David Salomon Rapin de Thoiras

David Salomon Rapin de Thoiras , often just David Salomon Rapin (* 1712 in Payerne , † after 1762 ), as a Prussian colonel, was the last chief of the F 6 Free Battalion .

Life

Origin and family

Rapin came from a French-speaking , Reformed , Swiss family. A relationship to the historian Paul Rapin de Thoyras (1661-1725) was assumed. Nothing is known about marriage or offspring.

Career

Rapin became acquainted with Wilhelm Otto Friedrich von Quadt (* July 7, 1717, † July 1, 1785) in Wesel in 1736 . In 1739 he became Hofmeister on his Grand Tour .

In 1740 he began his officer career, first in French , then in Dutch and finally in Prussian service. As a captain , he had received his farewell in the Netherlands in 1756 . Afterwards he was in 1757 a Prussian lieutenant colonel and general police master of the army . At that time he had recommended himself to King George II as a recruiter . In 1758 he set up a free battalion with the strength of 820 men from French deserters and prisoners of war in Magdeburg and commanded it with the rank of colonel . As early as 1759, Wilhelm Adolph von Lüderitz took over the "Rapin" free battalion as his successor. There was already speculation about the reasons for the quick departure, they remain obscure to this day. A falling out with the king can be ruled out.

He went to the Allied Army under General Georg Ludwig von Schleswig-Holstein-Gottorf and is probably with him also transferred to Russian services . He recommended himself to Catherine the Great as recruiter for 2,000 men in order to create a country militia among the Volga Germans . However, the empress refused because she needed colonists and not soldiers.

literature

• Anton Balthasar König : David Salomon Rapin de Thoiras . In: Biographical lexicon of all heroes and military figures who made themselves famous in the Prussian service . tape 3 . Arnold Wever, Berlin 1790, p. 261 ( David Salomon Rapin de Thoiras at Wikisource [PDF]).
• Wolfgang Löhr: We're fine! Study and educational trips of Lower Rhine nobles in the 17th / 18th centuries Jh. In: Rheinischen Vierteljahrsblätter , Volume 70, (2006), pp. 225–226
• Johann Friedrich Seyfart : History of the war that has been waged in Germany and its neighboring countries since 1756 , Volume 2.1, Frankfurt and Leipzig 1760, pp. 95–96, FN 114

Web links

• Correspondence with the king (digitized version of the University of Trier )

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Johann David Erdmann Preuß : Friedrich the Great - A Life Story , Volume 5, Berlin 1834, p. 29.
2. ↑ Main State Archives Hanover , order number: Hann. 9e No. 90; Holdings name: Secret Councilors / Duke Ferdinand: Seven Years War; Signature: No. 90.
3. ^ Frank Wernitz: The Prussian Free Troops in the Seven Years' War 1756 - 1763. Podzun-Pallas-Verlag GmbH, 1994, p. 38.
4. ↑ Gerhard Bonwetsch : History of the German Colonies on the Volga , 1919, p. 21. ( Memento of the original from June 25, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.