Franz Karl Cura
Franz Karl Cura (born June 5, 1716 ; † April 29, 1769 ) was a Bavarian master chimney sweep in Burghausen and a free corps fighter in the War of the Austrian Succession (1741–1745).
Life
Cura came from a Piedmontese family who immigrated to Burghausen around 1680 and held the office of court chimney sweeper for several generations. This function was extremely poorly paid and involved extensive travel activities, as the castles Wald ad Alz, Mattighofen , Uttendorf , Mauerkirchen belonged to the district in addition to Burghausen Castle .
When the War of the Austrian Succession broke out in 1740, Franz Karl Cura formed a volunteer corps “made up of fifty courageous and good marksmen” to wage war against the Austrians on their own. Cura thus belongs to the tradition of German Freikorps fighters like Johann Kaspar Thürriegel before , and later the Prussian major Ferdinand von Schill . Initially, Cura was very successful in raiding Austrian patrols. He and his troops are said to have massacred 127 Austrian officers and commons, including hussars and mounted Croats , but had to get to safety when the Austrian army advanced with larger units. On February 3, 1742, Burghausen was handed over to the Austrians under General Bentzel .
In October 1742, when the Bavarian Army approached Burghausen, Cura rallied his Freikorps again, attacked an 11-man division of the Austrian hussars in Neuötting on October 15 and put them prisoner. That same night, Cura set out for Burghausen with his free corps, accompanied by the Prince of Hildburghausen and 20 Bavarian grenadiers. There Cura conquered the castle in a flash. There was a fierce, bloody battle for the city, which was only decided when 500 Bavarian grenadiers had advanced to reinforce it. After the victory over the Austrian occupation, Cura joined a newly formed Bavarian rifle and hunter corps as a corporal , but was quickly reliant on his free corps again when the Austrians gained the upper hand again and occupied Burghausen again on May 9, 1743.
Cura then fought in the southeast Bavarian area near Landshut , Moosburg an der Isar , Erding , Dorfen and Anzing . In the autumn of 1744, Cura urged the Bavarian military leadership to launch a major attack on Burghausen, which also took place on November 20, 1744 from 2 a.m. onwards. Cura single-handedly climbed the Burghauser Castle, showed the troops the way and thus made the victory of Bavaria possible. Of the 1,300 Austrian soldiers, around 400 are said to have died in the fight and 600 were taken prisoner. The others fled across the Salzach . Cura then worked as a field courier and used 1,700 guilders of his private fortune for the fight against the Austrians.
Even before the Peace of Füssen on April 22, 1745, Cura was injured by a knee shot while fighting in Augsburg . As a reward for his military service, Cura received from the Bavarian Elector Maximilian III. Joseph an apartment in Burghauser Burg, the right to run a pub there, as well as wood and grain for life.
reception
After his death, Cura was completely forgotten. It was only after his memoirs (Pro Memoria) were (re-) published in the Upper Bavarian Archive in 1878 by Josef Würdinger , who headed the Bavarian War Archives , and Thomas Firmian demanded a memorial for Cura in the magazine Das Bayerland in 1893 , that a real Cura enthusiasm broke out . In 1895 a memorial plaque was placed on the Burghauser castle, and a year later a Cura Street and a Cura Square were named. In the years after the turn of the century , Joseph Nömeier published his drama Cura, the master chimney sweeper of Burghausen . In 1968 the historical ballad The Liberation of Burghausen by Max Dingler was published in Upper Bavarian dialect .
literature
- Bonifaz Huber: History of the City of Burghausen , Burghausen 1862, pp. 306-320 ( digitized version ).
- Max Dingler, Josef Pfennigmann, Hans Prähofer (illustrations): Franz Karl Cura - Promemoria of the Burghauser Hofkaminkehrermeister to his wartime acts in the Austrian War of Succession 1741–1745 and The Liberation of Burghausen - A historical ballad , Burghausen 1968, DNB 456305831 .
- Joseph Nömeier: Cura, the master chimney sweeper from Burghausen. Patriotic drama in five acts .
- Carl Hans Watzinger: The strange life story of Franz Karl Cura, court chimney sweeper and citizen of Burghausen . In: Upper Austrian homeland sheets. 40 (1986), pp. 95-99 online (PDF) in the forum OoeGeschichte.at
Individual evidence
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Cura, Franz Karl |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | Bavarian free corps fighter |
| DATE OF BIRTH | June 5, 1716 |
| DATE OF DEATH | April 29, 1769 |