Ferdinand Caspar von Kleist

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Ferdinand Caspar von Kleist (* 1729 ; † 1812 ) was an officer from the Electorate of Cologne .

Origin and family environment

Ferdinand Caspar Freiherr von Kleist came from a branch of the old Pomeranian aristocratic von Kleist family who had become Catholic and who had produced numerous officers in the service of the electors and archbishops of Cologne . He was the ninth son of the converted to Catholic baron and lieutenant general Ewald von Kleist (1667–1746) and Maria Anna Freiin von Manteuffel .

Military career

Ferdinand Caspar began his career in 1744 as a noble boy at the court of the Elector of Cologne. Since he, like his father and most of his brothers, aspired to become an officer , he switched from court service to the military. He quickly made a career, especially since he belonged to a regiment that the elector had to contribute to the imperial army . With this regiment, now a major, he went with the Imperial Army in the Seven Years' War against the Prussians . Here he distinguished himself particularly when taking Torgau when his battalion (it belonged to the von Wildenstein Regiment) with other units forced the Prussians on September 27, 1760 to abandon a pontoon bridge over the Elbe . The following year he fought less happily with his battalion: In the battle near Saalfeld on April 2, 1761, his unit was defeated by the Prussians and forced to surrender. He himself fell into Prussian captivity, from which he was exchanged in 1762 for a captured Prussian officer.

After the end of the Seven Years' War, Kleist continued to serve in the Electoral Cologne army. He belonged to the Kleist regiment, the unit of a relative, and was promoted to colonel in early 1770 and to general sergeant major on August 15, 1787 . On September 4, 1802, he finally became chief of the above-mentioned Kleist regiment.

In addition to his military duties, Ferdinand Caspar Freiherr von Kleist was also a chamberlain of the Electorate of Cologne and a knight of the Teutonic Order , who was sworn in on May 4, 1768 at the Ballei in Koblenz of this order. He died unmarried in 1812.

literature

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Georg Heinrich Kypke : The history of the von Kleist sex , Volume III, Berlin 1885, 3rd section, No. 356, p. 230 (digitized version)
  2. ↑ Gustav Kratz et al.: The history of the von Kleist family, Volume III. P. 242 (digitized version)
  3. ^ Notice board in the State Archive of Münster , Duchy of Westphalia, Landstands, No. 46.
personal data
SURNAME Kleist, Ferdinand Caspar von
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Elector of Cologne officer
DATE OF BIRTH 1729
DATE OF DEATH 1812