Franz Ludwig von Hatzfeldt

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Franz Ludwig von Hatzfeldt

Franz Ludwig Graf von Hatzfeld , (also: von Hatzfeldt, von Hatzfeld-Schönstein), from 1803 Prince von Hatzfeld zu Trachenberg (born November 23, 1756 in Bonn , † February 3, 1827 in Vienna ) was first an Elector of Mainz and later a Prussian lieutenant general and envoy.

origin

His parents were Count Karl Ferdinand von Hatzfeld (* October 12, 1712; † August 25, 1766), Electoral Cologne Privy Councilor and Oberhofmarschall as well as Herr zu Wildenburg, Schönstein and Werther, and his wife Freiin Maria Anna Elisabeth von Venningen (* July 21 1719 - March 31, 1794), daughter of Baron Karl Ferdinand von Venningen and Countess Elisabeth Claudia Reich von Reichenstein . Hatzfeld embarked on a military career at the age of 13. Thanks to his family's connections, in 1769 he received an officer’s license in the von Kleist regiment. Three years later he became chamberlain to the Electorate of Cologne . In 1779 he left the services of the Electorate of Cologne as colonel sergeant .

Kurmainz officer

At this time, his half-sister Sophie von Coudenhove was able to win the favor of her great-uncle, the Elector of Mainz, Friedrich Karl Joseph von Erthal , who let people she promoted rise to the highest offices. Accordingly, Hatzfeld rose quickly in the service of the elector. In 1782 he was already colonel and commander of the "Regiment von Fechenbach", before his 30th birthday he rose to major general, electoral chamberlain and privy councilor and became owner of the former "Regiment von Fechenbach", which took his name from da sn wore. As a commander, Hatzfeld was conspicuous for his great cruelty towards his soldiers and led several internal power struggles with the incumbent governor of the fortress Mainz , General Clemens August von Gymnich , whereby duels could often only just be prevented. Hatzfeld had set himself the goal of taking over the supreme command of the Kurmainzer army and the influence of powerful allies like his half-sister Sophie or the Prussian ambassador Johann Friedrich von und zum Stein brought him closer and closer to this goal.

In the spring of 1790, Hatzfeld took over command of a 1,500-strong brigade that was to be used in the context of the Reich execution against Liège (see Liège Revolution ). Strengthened by troops from Kurköln and Electoral Palatinate to 3000 men, the thirsty general, who had never fought before, launched an attack on the rebellious city of Hasselt , contrary to what had been agreed with his allies . On May 27, 1790, his troops appeared in front of the fortified city, but a chaotic attack plan and the unexpected resistance of the defenders drove Hatzfeld's troops to retreat. This defeat plunged the young general into deep despair and dejection. From then on, Hatzfeld avoided all further attack orders from his elector or only answered them with empty phrases or further requests for supplies. The execution corps lay idly on the Liège border for more than a month, and the tone of the letters from the Elector from Mainz grew increasingly angry. When Hatzfeld ruled out another attack on Hasselt at the beginning of July as "very daring", Friedrich Karl wrote to him on July 13th:

“ So this is the big decision that the generals have come to terms with after seven weeks of deliberation, since the loss of two men who unfortunately fell outside Hasselt! And you wrote to me a dozen times that the lack of a food magazine that would last six weeks was the only reason for your hasty withdrawal, and I don't know how often you assured me that if you had stayed only a quarter of an hour longer, Hasselt would come with you Your artillery, the effect of which you described so devastatingly on the fortification and the inhabitants, and which has since increased significantly, would have been forced to surrender! I would be grateful if you wanted to resolve these contradictions, because I no longer understand what you wanted to do and what is now preventing you from acting. "

When Hatzfeld then offered to leave, the Elector of Mainz gave in again, provided Hatzfeld with further reinforcements and promoted him retrospectively to lieutenant general for July 13, but now demanded an immediate attack. The promotion of Hatzfeld was by no means a reward; the elector believed much more that Hatzfeld's lower rank could be a reason for the fact that there was no further plan of attack in the Allied War Council. In fact, on August 3, the corps, which had meanwhile grown to 7,000 men, set off again against Hasselt under the command of the Elector Palatine Lieutenant General Prince Friedrich Wilhelm von Isenburg . But logistical and tactical mishaps increased on this advance, too. Hatzfeld called in sick on August 4th and let his deputy, Colonel Johann Philipp von Faber, take the lead. The rebel resistance had increased in the meantime. Even if the Allied troops achieved their first successes, their advance soon stalled in front of Hasselt. After a night attack by the rebels on August 9, which the Palatinate troops were able to repel, Palatine staff officers, but also a suddenly recovering Hatzfeld, demanded a retreat to the border. In the following months the Electoral Mainz troops were again in waiting position at the border. A local advance over the Meuse, ordered by Hatzfeld without authorization, claimed one dead, five wounded and 15 prisoners on the Electoral Mainz side, while the rebels had no casualties.

Ultimately, it wasn't until the arrival of Austrian troops in January 1791 that the turning point and the end of the rebellion were brought about. In the spring of 1791, the Electoral Mainz troops returned to Mainz as the official victors of the Reich execution. There Hatzfeld discovered that the new electoral court chancellor, Franz Joseph von Albini, had meanwhile broken the power and influence of the Coudenhove and Hatzfeld families. Hatzfeld's reputation as a troop leader had been badly damaged, and the costs of the Reich execution were now so high that it was unlikely that Liège could ever repay them. When the war with France broke out, an internal political dispute over command of the field troops in the fight against France almost led to the dismissal of Hatzfeld and the expulsion of Freiherr vom Stein. Disappointed, Hatzfeld then traveled to Luxembourg in the hope of being able to take command of a regiment of the Duke of Braunschweig's army. There he learned of the defeat of the Mainz troops at Speyer on September 30, 1792 and hurried back to Mainz. During the siege of Mainz by General Custine, he took over the defense of the strategically important section of the Karlsschanze. The Mainz fortress itself was considered to be the strongest fortress in the empire at the time, but after its defeat in Speyer the occupation was so under-manned that it only had a fraction of the infantry and artilleryman needed. Under this impression, Hatzfeld saw no other option than to plead for the handover of the city after a French ultimatum. Afterwards it turned out that Custine had neither the means nor the appropriate troops to take Mainz.

After the Allied troops had recaptured the city and Gymnich had been overthrown over the loss of the city, Hatzfeld hoped for the post of governor of the city - although neither Prussians nor Austrians attached great importance to the further defense of the city. Even if he was officially installed as vice governor, both the imperial governor von Neu and the imperial army commander Clerfait categorically ruled out any leadership responsibility for Hatzfeld. With the increasing threat to the fortress, Hatzfeld took more and more of his responsibilities. When the fortress was again in dire straits at the beginning of September 1795, he left the city without informing his superiors and traveled to Frankfurt. From there he made contact with the Prussians.

In Prussian service

In December 1795 Hatzfeld was awarded the honorary rank of Prussian major general, and in 1802 he was promoted to lieutenant general. Hatzfeld repeatedly asked for his own troop command, but this was always refused. In 1799 he married Frederike Karoline Sophie, b. Countess von der Schulenburg-Kehnert, the 23 years younger daughter of the Berlin governor and state minister, Count Friedrich Wilhelm von der Schulenburg-Kehnert . On August 10, 1803, he was made Prussian Prince. When Berlin was evacuated by the Prussian troops in 1806, his father-in-law placed him in charge of public affairs. Hatzfeld was arrested on October 28 because of a report on the French army that had been sent to the king on October 24, a few hours before the arrival of the French, but had been intercepted. His wife threw herself at Napoleon 's feet. When the latter presented her husband's letter as the only evidence of his guilt, she took it resolutely and destroyed it in a light beside it. Hatzfeld was then released.

On March 7, 1812, King Friedrich Wilhelm III beat him . to the Knight of the Black Eagle Order . From August 1816, Hatzfeld worked as the Prussian envoy at the Dutch court in Haag . On the occasion of George IV's coronation , he took part in the festivities in London in June / July 1821 as envoy . After Hatzfeld had been recalled from the Netherlands, he received the post of Prussian ambassador at the imperial court in Vienna on May 5, 1822, where he died on February 3, 1827.

The princely dignity passed to his older son, Prince (Friedrich) Hermann Anton von Hatzfeld (1808–1874).

Trivia

His escape from Mainz sparked so little interest in the Kurmainz government that Hatzfeld, injured in his vanity, complained about it in several letters to his successor in Mainz and to the electoral court chancellor.

family

On December 1, 1799, he married Countess Friederike von der Schulenburg-Kehnert (* May 6, 1779; † November 23, 1832), a daughter of General and Minister Friedrich Wilhelm von der Schulenburg-Kehnert (1742-1815). The couple had the following children:

  • Ludowica Friederike Wilhelmine Josepha (born November 1, 1800; † January 22, 1835) ⚭ Baron Ludwig Roth von Schreckenstein (1789–1858), General, Minister of War
  • Wilhelmine Helene Sophie (born October 29, 1801; † April 1, 1838) ⚭ Baron Maximilian von Loë (1801–1850)
  • Wilhelmine Johanna Christine Franziska (born October 29, 1802)
  • Sophie Wilhelmine Charlotte Matianne (December 17, 1803, † 1804)
  • Sophie Josephine Ernestine Friederike Wilhelmine (1805–1881) ⚭ August 10, 1822 Count Edmund von Hatzfeld (1798–1874)
  • Luise Auguste Elisabeth Friederike (* March 6, 1807; † January 14, 1858) ⚭ Count August Ludwig von Nostitz (1777–1866)
  • Hermann Anton (born October 2, 1808; † July 20, 1874), general landscape director, Prussian mansion
⚭ Mathilde von Reichenbach-Goschütz (born February 15, 1799 - † April 10, 1858)
⚭ Marie von Nimptsch (1820–1897) (parents of Hermann von Hatzfeldt )
  • Maria Josepha Hermann Pauline Maximiliane Ludovica (* October 16, 1809; † February 24, 1889) ⚭ Baron Engelbert von Landsberg-Velen and Steinfurt (1796–1878)
  • Maximilian (June 7, 1813 - January 19, 1859), Prussian envoy in Paris ⚭ 1844 Pauline de Castellane (July 6, 1823 - March 9, 1895)

literature

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Lübcke, Christian: Kurmainzer military and Landsturm in the 1st and 2nd coalition war . Ed .: RWM-Verlag. Paderborn 2016, p. 40-41, 94-107, 119 f .
  2. ^ Lübcke, Christian: Kurmainzer military and Landsturm in the 1st and 2nd coalition war . Ed .: RWM-Verlag. Paderborn 2016, p. 133 .
  3. ^ Lübcke, Christian: Kurmainzer military and Landsturm in the 1st and 2nd coalition war . Ed .: RWM-Verlag. Paderborn 2016, p. 124-139 .
  4. ^ Lübcke, Christian: Kurmainzer military and Landsturm in the 1st and 2nd coalition war . Ed .: RWM-Verlag. Paderborn 2016, p. 285-287 .
  5. ↑ Michael Sachs: 'Prince Bishop and Vagabond'. The story of a friendship between the Prince-Bishop of Breslau Heinrich Förster (1799–1881) and the writer and actor Karl von Holtei (1798–1880). Edited textually based on the original Holteis manuscript. In: Medical historical messages. Journal for the history of science and specialist prose research. Volume 35, 2016 (2018), pp. 223–291, here: p. 246.
  6. ^ Digby Smith : Prussian Generals of the Napoleonic Wars 1793-1815: Hatzfeld, Franz Ludwig Fürst von. The Napoleon Series, accessed August 24, 2013 .
  7. ↑ Michael Sachs: 'Prince Bishop and Vagabond'. The story of a friendship between the Prince-Bishop of Breslau Heinrich Förster (1799–1881) and the writer and actor Karl von Holtei (1798–1880). Edited textually based on the original Holteis manuscript. In: Medical historical messages. Journal for the history of science and specialist prose research. Volume 35, 2016 (2018), pp. 223–291, here: p. 246.
personal data
SURNAME Hatzfeldt, Franz Ludwig von
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Hatzfeldt, Franz Ludwig Fürst von (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Prussian lieutenant general and envoy
DATE OF BIRTH November 23, 1756
PLACE OF BIRTH Bonn
DATE OF DEATH February 3, 1827
Place of death Vienna