Ferdinand von Wintzingerode

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Ferdinand Frhr. v. Wintzingerode

Ferdinand Freiherr von Wintzingerode (born February 15, 1770 in Allendorf an der Werra, † June 16, 1818 in Wiesbaden ) was a German nobleman and officer in various armies, most recently a general in the Russian army .

Life

The noble family Wintzingerode comes from what is now Thuringian Eichsfeld. Ferdinand's father, Wilhelm Levin Ernst Freiherr von Wintzingerode (1738–1781), owned the Unterhof manor in Kirchohmfeld and was a royal Prussian and Hesse-Kassel colonel, wing adjudicator to King Friedrich II of Prussia and Brunswick chief stable master. Ferdinand's mother, whom he lost at the age of 12, was Eleonore Ernestine von Wintzingerode (1747–1782).

Ferdinand began his military career as an eight-year-old boy in the Cadet Corps in Kassel . At the age of fifteen he became an ensign in the landgrave's footguard. When he was demoted for an alleged Subordinationsverletzung he is he an affair with the mistress of I. Wilhelm , Rosa Dorothea Baroness von Lindenthal , have had, he quit the service and settled as Common from the Imperial Army recruit. On the march of the recruit contingent through Coburg , he was noticed by Prince Josias of Coburg , who had his story told and immediately awarded him a Coburg lieutenant patent. In 1790 he took part as a volunteer with the Austrian troops in the fight against the uprising in the Netherlands . Because of his excellent behavior in this campaign , the Landgrave of Hessen-Kassel took him back into his service. As a lieutenant in the Hessian Feldjägerkorps he took part in the campaigns against the French in 1792/93. Then he left the Hessian service again to become chamberlain to Prince Ferdinand of Prussia .

General Baron v. Wintzingerode
Ferdinand von Wintzingerode (drawing by Louis de Saint-Aubin)

But his restless character did not like the court life and after a few months he returned to the Austrian service as a lieutenant. He participated in the war of 1795/96 on the theater of war in Germany and distinguished himself above all at Amberg . After the Peace of Campoformio (October 17, 1797) he accepted a major position offered to him in the Russian army. There he soon won the trust of the royal family as an adjutant to a grand duke. In 1800 he received permission to take part in the war in Italy with the Austrian army. He returned to Russia at the end of the war with high honors, but also with a badly injured hand. As adjutant general to Tsar Alexander I , he carried out diplomatic and military assignments in the following years.

In 1805 he went to Berlin as an envoy to persuade Prussia to form an alliance with Austria and England against France, then to Vienna to conclude the treatise with the allied powers, and was with the emperor during the war.

Fighting with Russian troops in Austria in 1805, he acquired the Order of St. George on November 11 at the Battle of Dürnstein . In the "Battle of the Three Emperors" near Austerlitz , which is the theme of Leo Tolstoy's novel " War and Peace " , he was in the wake of the tsar. Prince Kutuzov had the supreme command of the Russian troops . In 1809 he - by now already major general - changed service again and rejoined the Austrian army. On May 20, near Aspern , he led the vanguard brigade of General Bellegarde's I. Army Corps . While attacking the French position, a ball of grapes smashed his right leg. Even on the battlefield promoted him Archduke Carl to Field Marshal Lieutenant . Awarded the Maria Theresa Order , he returned to Russia in 1812.

Now he fought as a Russian general against Napoleon. During the French occupation of Moscow, he was briefly captured by the French. Napoléon Bonaparte wanted to have him shot as a supposed subject of a prince of the Rhine Confederation. On November 20th he was liberated by General Chernyshev between Minsk and Vilnius , whereupon he was given command of the 2nd Corps of the Russian main army.

The Russians crossed the Rhine near Düsseldorf under the leadership of General von Winzingerode on January 13, 1814 , hand-colored etching, Düsseldorf around 1815

In 1813 he commanded the left wing of the allies in the battle of Großgörschen . After the armistice, he joined the Northern Army with his corps and participated in the victories of Großbeeren and Dennewitz . At the Battle of the Nations near Leipzig he acquired the rank of Russian general of the cavalry. In the later course of the campaign he remained assigned to the Northern Army, went with them to Holland, later united with Blücher at Laon , then commanded the avant-garde, took Reims and Soissons, the last French fortress outside Paris and connected the Blücher army with them the Schwarzenbergschen.

After the battle of Arcis sur Aube he followed Napoleon's army to the east, whereby he knew how to keep them in the opinion that the whole main army was following him. On March 26, 1814, however, the emperor turned against the pursuer, and Wintzingerode was defeated at Saint-Dizier , while the main Allied army gained three days to get to Paris.

The Prussian side accused him of indecision. August Neidhardt von Gneisenau judged him: "It is not acceptable to place Bülow under Wintzingerode, a general of so little determination and perhaps even little good will." Tsar Alexander I, on the other hand, said after the capture of Paris that he thanked him General Wintzingerode and awarded him a brilliant sword of honor in gratitude.

In the campaign of 1815 he commanded a Russian corps against France. After the end of the war he was the commanding general in Volhynia and Belarus.

During a stay in Wiesbaden he died of a stroke on June 16, 1818 at the age of 50. His tomb, donated by Alexander I, is the last of the old cemetery at the Römertor and still bears the inscription: "His life is spread out without wrinkles and shining, not a dark spot remained in it."

In Vienna, Wintzingerodestrasse in the 22nd district and in Leipzig, Wintzingerodeweg , a residential street in the Meusdorf district , is named after him. There is also the Winzingerodeweg in Hanover (without “t”).

Wintzingerode was married to the Polish Countess Helene Rostworowska (1783-1829) since September 19, 1801. His son, Ferdinand von Wintzingerode (1809–1886), named after him , also entered the Russian military and advanced to lieutenant general.

gallery

  • Tomb in Wiesbaden

  • Tomb in Wiesbaden

  • Tomb in Wiesbaden

  • View from the tomb to the Marktkirche in Wiesbaden

  • Tomb in Wiesbaden

  • Dedication at the tomb in Wiesbaden

  • New dedication plaque

  • View of Wiesbaden from the Römertor below the tomb

literature

Web links

Commons : Ferdinand von Wintzingerode  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Lindenthal, Rosa Dorothea Freifrau von. Hessian biography (as of July 29, 2016). In: Landesgeschichtliches Informationssystem Hessen (LAGIS). Hessian State Office for Historical Cultural Studies (HLGL), accessed on January 27, 2017 .
  2. ↑ Jaromir Hirtenfeld : The Military Maria Theresa Order and its Members , Imperial Court and State Printing Office, Vienna 1857, p. 1747.
  3. ↑ The life and campaigns of field-marshal prince Blücher of Wahlstatt, tr., With considerable additions, by JE Marston pp. 64–65
personal data
SURNAME Wintzingerode, Ferdinand von
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Wintzingerode, Ferdinand Freiherr von (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German nobleman and Russian general
DATE OF BIRTH February 15, 1770
PLACE OF BIRTH Allendorf on the Werra
DATE OF DEATH June 16, 1818
Place of death Wiesbaden