Ferdinand von Meyerfeld

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Ferdinand Alexander Ludwig von Meyerfeld (born November 11, 1808 in Kassel , † October 28, 1882 there ) was a German officer and politician . He was the last Minister of War for the Electorate of Hesse .

Life

origin

His family originally came from Konstanz , had lived in Hesse since around 1700 and was raised to the imperial nobility on March 15, 1757 . The father, Wilhelm August von Meyerfeld , was the Hessian envoy to the Bundestag and president of the higher court in Marburg .

Military career

Ferdinand von Meyerfeld joined the Hessian cadet corps in 1820 . In 1825 he became an ensign and in 1835 an officer . From 1847 - with interruptions in 1851 and 1863 - he was a member of the General Staff , in 1854 he became its interim chief, and finally in 1856 its chief. During this time he occasionally represented the Minister of War. In 1849 he took part in the war against Denmark .

In 1863 he was adjutant general of the Elector Friedrich Wilhelm and the following year major general . As Chief of the General Staff, he had military responsibility for the operations of the Hessian military in the Austro-Prussian War of 1866 . Shortly before the end of the electoral state caused by this war, he was appointed Elector of Hesse's War Minister on May 16, 1866. A little over a month later, the commanding general of the Prussian occupation troops deposed him on June 20, 1866.

Then was Meyersfeld temporarily in Minden and Berlin in captivity , but then entered Prussian service and received a generous compensation for his imprisonment. On October 30, 1866, he became the commander of the 14th Infantry Brigade in Magdeburg . On July 11, 1870, he was retired as Lieutenant General , but was reused as city ​​commander of Frankfurt am Main for the duration of the mobilization on the occasion of the war against France .

family

Meyerfeld married Wilhelmina Bertha Elise Therese Emma Rüppel von Helmschwerdt, daughter of Lieutenant General Wilhelm Burghard Rüppel von Helmschwerdt (1791–1860) and Wilhelmine Caroline Friederike Rüppel on August 15, 1840 in Kassel . The later Rittmeister Wilhelm August Burghard (1842–1875) emerged from the marriage.

After the death of his first wife, on June 14, 1870 in Falkenberg, he married his niece Klothilde von Blumenstein (1829–1906), the eldest daughter of his sister Johanna Caroline Friederike von Meyerfeld (1799–1866) and her husband Ernst von Blumenstein (1796– 1875), the illegitimate son of Landgrave Karl Emanuel von Hessen-Rotenburg (1746–1812).

literature

personal data
SURNAME Meyerfeld, Ferdinand von
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Meyerfeld, Ferdinand Alexander Ludwig von (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Minister of War in Hesse
DATE OF BIRTH November 11, 1808
PLACE OF BIRTH kassel
DATE OF DEATH October 28, 1882
Place of death kassel