Franz Kuhn von Kuhnenfeld

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Franz Kuhn von Kuhnenfeld, lithograph by Eduard Kaiser , 1866

Franz Freiherr Kuhn von Kuhnenfeld (born July 15, 1817 in Proßnitz, Moravia , Austrian Empire , today Prostějov in the Czech Republic ; † May 25, 1896 near Strassoldo , County of Gorizia and Gradisca, Austria-Hungary , today in Friuli , Italy) was Imperial War Minister by Franz Joseph I , Giuseppe Garibaldi's opponent and proponent of Austria-Hungary's distanced attitude towards the German Empire. During his term of office in Cisleithanien (Old Austria) as well as in Transleithanien by agreed laws the introduction of general conscription and the final abolition of corporal punishment in the military.

Life

Baron's coat of arms Kuhn von Kuhnenfeld, awarded in 1852.
Franz Kuhn von Kuhnenfeld (portrait of Ludwig Ferdinand Graf , 1890, Army History Museum )

Kuhn was the son of Major Franz von Kuhn (1772–1842), ennobled in 1823, and the farmer's daughter Johanna Schwab (1787–1856). He graduated with honors from the Theresian Military Academy in Wiener Neustadt and entered military service in 1837. During the fighting in Italy and Hungary from 1848 to 1849, he was a major on the General Quartermaster's staff . Kuhn then became Chief of the General Staff in the 11th Army Corps in Hungary for several years . In the meantime he had been raised to the rank of baron in 1852 and promoted to lieutenant colonel in 1853 . In 1856 Kuhn came to the war school in Vienna as a professor of strategy . As Chief of Staff of Feldzeugmeister Ferencz József Gyulay , he took part in the Sardinian War in 1859 . On October 29, 1863, he was appointed major general.

In the Third Italian War of Independence in 1866, General Kuhn was entrusted with the independent management of the defense of Tyrol against the Italians. He could the attacks of numerically superior irregulars Garibaldi in several battles of Monte Suello (July 3), Vezza (July 4), Spondalunga (July 11), Cimego (July 16) and Monte notta (July 18th) sent fend off. On July 21, his middle group was defeated by Garibaldi near Bezecca , Trento was in immediate danger, but on July 23 he was able to restore the situation to the Italian division under General Medici at Borgo and on July 25 at Vigolo. Thanks to its well-chosen dispositions and its elastic warfare, the Trentino could continue to be maintained. For the successful defense of the southern border of Tyrol he was awarded the Commander's Cross of the Order of Theresa and promoted to Lieutenant Field Marshal on August 17th, 1866 .

On January 18, 1868, Kuhn was appointed Reich Minister of War by the monarch . During his term of office until June 14, 1874, identical Austrian and Hungarian laws introduced general conscription in both states of Austria-Hungary and the permanent abolition of corporal punishment in the military. When the new Austrian Defense Act was signed on December 5, 1868, War Minister Kuhn received the Grand Cross of the Leopold Order in an imperial handwriting on the same day. In the following years he began to dissolve the outdated military border with the Ottoman Empire. On April 23, 1873 he was promoted to Feldzeugmeister. On June 14, 1874, Kuhn was replaced by the monarch as minister of war and appointed general commander of Styria , Carinthia and Carniola .

The old Austrian patriot and opponent of Prussia was a proponent of Austria-Hungary entering the war on the side of France in 1870. In the 1880s he made no secret of his aversion to the dual alliance and, as an alternative, called for an alliance with France and Russia, surrendering policy on the Orient (i.e. evacuation of Bosnia and Herzegovina) and the annihilation of Prussia. Kuhn fully agreed with Crown Prince Rudolf on these questions . Seven weeks after a conversation with Rudolf about this in May 1888, Kuhn was suddenly and unexpectedly retired, presumably because Rudolf had referred to him as a like-minded person.

Kuhn succumbed to a severe heart condition on May 25, 1896, at his country estate in Strassoldo in the county of Gorizia and Gradisca, bitter about his "cold position".

Land recording

Since the existing military maps had not proven themselves in the lost war against Prussia, War Minister Kuhn proposed to the emperor on October 8, 1869 that the entire dual monarchy be re-measured. Franz Joseph I approved this after only two days.

The new Franzisco-Josephinische Landesaufnahme , also called Kuhn'sche Landesaufnahme or Third Landesaufnahme , was carried out by the Vienna Military Geographic Institute on a scale of 1: 25,000 in the metric system for the first time and completed in just 18 years. 752 sheets of the special map Austria-Hungary on a scale of 1: 75,000 with contour lines and hatching were published. Some of these cards remained in use until the 1960s.

During his time as major general in Tyrol, in September 1864, Kuhn became aware of a young lieutenant named Julius Payer, who had drawn his own maps while mountain climbing on vacation. Payer later described the encounter with the general as everything that was decisive for his life.

When Kuhn became Minister of War in early 1868, he remembered Payer and appointed him to the Military Geography Institute , whose director August von Fligely Payer further promoted. To create new maps of the Adamello and Ortler areas , Payer received three mountain-experienced Tyrolean Kaiserjäger , 1,000 guilders and a theodolite .

After Payer had completed the surveying work in the autumn of 1868, the Minister of War released him from his official duties in January 1869 to enable him to participate in the Second German North Polar Expedition (1869/70) by Petermann and Koldewey . Kuhn was later one of the supporters of the Austro-Hungarian North Pole Expedition by Payer and Weyprecht (1872–1874).

The historian Günther Hamann described Kuhn as a key figure for Payer's entire scientific career and thus also for the Tegetthoff's voyage of discovery .

The island of Kuhn Ø on the coast of Greenland and the Kuhn Island (Franz Josef Land) in the Russian Arctic are named after General Kuhn.

literature

Web links

Commons : Franz Kuhn von Kuhnenfeld  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ In Austria: RGBl. No. 151 of December 5, 1868
  2. ↑ https://www.wienerzeitung.at/mappen/portraets/224468_Franz-Kuhn-Freiherr-von-Kuhnenfeld.html
  3. ↑ Also an anniversary. In:  Badener Bezirks-Blatt , January 3, 1894, p. 5 (online at ANNO ).Template: ANNO / Maintenance / bbb
  4. ^ Article  in:  Wiener Zeitung , December 8, 1868, p. 1 (online at ANNO ).Template: ANNO / Maintenance / wrz
  5. ↑ Neue Freie Presse daily newspaper , Vienna, May 26, 1896, p. 3.
  6. ^ Ernst Hofstätter: Contributions to the history of the Austrian regional surveys: An overview of the topographical survey procedures, their origins, their developments and organizational forms of the four Austrian regional surveys. Published by the Federal Office for Metrology and Surveying. 2 volumes. Vienna 1989, pp. 99-100, DNB 943727200.
  7. ^ A b c Frank Berger: Julius Payer. The unexplored world of mountains and ice. Tyrolia-Verlag, Innsbruck-Vienna 2015, pp. 17–19. ISBN 978-3-7022-3441-6 .
  8. ↑ Julius Payer about himself. In:  Teplitz-Schönauer Anzeiger , February 10, 1916, p. 3 (online at ANNO ).Template: ANNO / Maintenance / tsa
  9. ↑ Understanding and experiencing the world. Essays on the history of science and discovery. Günther Hamann on retirement, ed. by Johannes Dörflinger (= Perspectives on the History of Science; 1). Böhlau, Vienna 1993, ISBN 3-205-98041-7 . P. 251
personal data
SURNAME Kuhn von Kuhnenfeld, Franz
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Kuhn von Kuhnenfeld, Franz Freiherr (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Austrian Reich Minister of War
DATE OF BIRTH July 15, 1817
PLACE OF BIRTH Proßnitz , Moravia
DATE OF DEATH May 25, 1896
Place of death Strassoldo