Franz Kasimir von Kleist

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Franz Kasimir von Kleist (born January 25, 1736 in Stettin , † March 30, 1808 in Berlin ) was a Prussian infantry general who surrendered to the French troops as governor of Magdeburg in 1806 .

Life

origin

His parents were Lieutenant General Franz Ulrich von Kleist and his first wife Luise Eleonore, a born Gans Edle zu Putlitz . He was the youngest son of this marriage.

Military career

Kleist joined his father's infantry regiment at the age of 20 . There he was promoted to prime lieutenant until 1760 . During the siege of Schweidnitz he was able to distinguish himself as an engineer, but was wounded. In 1762 Kleist became adjutant to the wing of King Friedrich II and in 1769 to crown prince Friedrich Wilhelm , with the character of a major. In 1777 he was transferred to the “Jung-Stutterheim” infantry regiment . During the War of the Bavarian Succession he was in Prince Heinrich's army and commanded a battalion of volunteers. On September 8, 1780 he was appointed colonel and regimental commander. On June 1, 1788 he was promoted to major general and appointed head of the regiment "von Wunsch" . In 1800 he received the regiment "von Kalkstein" , became a knight of the Order of the Black Eagle and was given the post of governor of Magdeburg. In 1802 he was finally promoted to general of the infantry.

Fall of Magdeburg 1806

Since the Magdeburg fortifications had not been further built since 1740 and no maintenance work had been carried out since the end of the 18th century , the fortress could not withstand the new weapon technology. After the surrender of the last larger field army at Prenzlau and the handover of the fortresses Stettin , Spandau and Küstrin, Kleist considered further resistance to be pointless and on November 8, 1806 handed the fortress with a crew of around 24,000 men, 600 artillery pieces and large supplies to the Napoleonic Marshal Michel Ney . Because Kleist had completed the surrender after only three weeks of siege and despite his superior strength, it has remained controversial to this day.

Kleist's behavior was the subject of the immediate investigation commission . This commission came on the orders of King Friedrich Wilhelm III. from November 27, 1807 to December 6, 1807 and worked until 1812. Due to the work of the commission, numerous officers were dismissed, some dishonorable. In several cases, court martial proceedings were initiated, some of the sentences were imprisonment for a fortress - in the case of the commandant of the fortress Küstrin Obersten von Ingersleben and the infantry general Kasimir von Kleist, the death penalty . Colonel von Ingersleben was convicted in absentia and died abroad; General von Kleist had died before the trial.

On January 16, 1809, at the instigation of the king in Königsberg, a court martial under General Field Marshal Friedrich Adolf von Kalckreuth negotiated the surrender of Magdeburg. It came to the conclusion:
“The General v. If he were still alive, K. would have to arquebus because of the hasty and quite contrary to duty handover of the important Magdeburg fortress to the French. "

Marriage and offspring

His wife was also a Kleist from the Zützen family: Caroline Luise Eleonore Johanne von Kleist (1747–1780). She was the daughter of Colonel Karl Wilhelm von Kleist (1707–1766) and his wife Eva Luise Eleonore, née von Schlomach (1726–1813). The couple had the following children:

literature

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Eyewitness report. In: Ruthard von Frankenberg: In the Black Corps to Waterloo. Memoirs of Major Erdmann von Frankenberg. edition by frankenberg, Hamburg 2015, p. 18f.
  2. ↑ Quotation in: 1806. The Prussian officer corps and the investigation of the war events (lit.), judgment of January 16, 1809, excerpt. concerning Kleist (original p. 299) ; (PDF file; 97 kB)
personal data
SURNAME Kleist, Franz Kasimir von
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Kleist, Casimir von
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Prussian general of the infantry
DATE OF BIRTH January 25, 1736
PLACE OF BIRTH Szczecin
DATE OF DEATH March 30, 1808
Place of death Berlin