Franz von Khevenhüller-Metsch

Franz von Khevenhüller-Metsch, lithograph by Josef Kriehuber , 1850

Franz von Khevenhüller-Metsch (born October 3, 1783 in Vienna , † November 15, 1867 in Prague ) was an Imperial Austrian Feldzeugmeister and from 1846 Grand Prior of the Order of St. John of Bohemia .

Life

youth

Franz was the son of the Imperial and Royal Field Marshal Lieutenant Count Johann Josef von Khevenhüller-Metsch († February 21, 1792) and Countess Maria Josefa Schrattenbach. His mother entered into a second marriage in 1793 after the husband's premature death. In the person of the last Vice Chancellor of the empire, Prince of the Reich von Colloredo-Mannsfeld , Franz received a high-minded sponsor and stepfather. Following the tradition of his lineage, Count Franz was accepted as a third-born son on June 28, 1783 as a Knight of Justice in the sovereign Knight of St. John, to which he belonged until his death for 79 years.

In the coalition wars

After attending the Vienna Engineering Academy, at the age of 17 he was drafted into the 16th Infantry Regiment in Italy in 1800. Promoted to prime lieutenant in the same year , he took part in the blockade of Genoa in May 1800 , because of his services he was barely 21 years old, was promoted to captain in 1804 by skipping the first lieutenant charge . In the campaign of 1805 he fought in the division of the FML. Simbschen in Infantry Regiment No. 29 at the Battle of Caldiero . On November 8th his regiment stood behind the Tagliamento and was subordinated to the division of the Prince of Reuss . About Palmanova the retreat of the Austrians reached until the occurrence of the armistice on December 7 Varazdin . On February 20, 1809 his regiment was on the northern border of Upper Austria , in the association of the I. Corps under FML. Count Bellegarde was to march into Bavaria. Khevenhüller attended the meeting near Amberg and the battle of Regensburg, in May and July 1809 he fought under Archduke Karl in the battle of Aspern (May 21), Deutsch-Wagram (July 6) and Znaim . After the armistice, Khevenhüller was ordered as a courier to the imperial headquarters on August 14th. On February 8, 1810, the emperor granted him the character of major . Until 1812, Khevenhüller devoted himself to his private business and the management of his estate near St. Leonhardt near St. Pölten . On the last anniversary of the year 1813, Khevenhüller arrived at his regiment in Mulhouse and took part in the campaign of 1814 in the occupation of Colmar and the demolition of Neu-Breisach . In January 1815 his regiment marched to Germany, in February to Koblenz , in March to Frankfurt. In the late year the troops moved without a fight to Darmstadt and Karlsruhe, where Khevenhüller won the affection of the Grand Duke at the Baden court, who awarded him the Zähringer Lion Order in March 1817.

Later military career

When he was promoted to lieutenant colonel in April 1823 as the oldest major in the Peterwardein Border Regiment No. 9, the borderline conditions were uncomfortable for him; as a very special grace, he asked the emperor to be transferred back to the infantry, which he was granted without hesitation. In 1824 he was with Infantry Regiment No. 13 in Italy, and he also had the opportunity to travel to Florence and Milan. FML Graf Wimpfen and Graf Bellegarde proposed Khevenhüller as colonel in 1825, whose rank was to be assigned to him with the leadership of a battalion of the 20th Infantry Regiment.

In 1826 he was raised to the rank of Commander-in-Chief of the Order of Malta and at the same time he was awarded the seat of the Order in Bohemia. In April 1828 he was appointed commander of Infantry Regiment No. 20 and took over the active leadership of the regiment from May 27th in Josefstadt. On May 26, 1833 he rose to major general , on July 20 he took over the leadership of a brigade in Verona , the fortress commander GM. Baron von Sehe was there, his close and personal friend. In late 1834 his brigade was moved from Italy to Graz , in the winter of 1835 he moved to Vienna as a brigadier , and was appointed general receptor of the Bohemian Grand Priory by the Order of St. John . In addition, he acted as envoy extraordinary and authorized minister of the sovereign Order of St. John at the imperial court in Vienna.

Franz Khevenhüller with the Grand Cross of the Order of St. John, lithograph by Josef Kriehuber 1837

On September 2, 1840, he received the rank of imperial field marshal lieutenant and was appointed commander of the garrison division in Kosice . The appointment brought the new general to Prague , from where he made a business trip to Dresden, Leipzig and Berlin in October 1843. On December 31, 1841, Emperor Ferdinand gave him the ownership of Infantry Regiment No. 35, which he was to preside over another 26 years.

Johanniter Grand Prior of Bohemia

On October 11, 1846, Archduke Friedrich brought him the Grand Cross of the Order of St. John to Venice . In the summer he traveled privately to Paris and London, and on his return on October 28th in Münchengrätz received news of the death of the Grand Prior Count von Merzin. Khevenhüller then received the dignity of the new Grand Prior of the Order of St. John in Bohemia on December 10, 1846, but was not confirmed as such until January 31, 1857. The uprising brought him into the possession of the grand priory domains Strakonitz, Oberliebich and Warwaschau, while the headquarters of the Order of Bohemia remained in Prague.

On March 13, 1848, the news of the revolution that had broken out in Vienna reached Prague . A few days later, on May 1st, the uprising began in Prague , which the city commandant, Prince Windischgrätz , tried to contain. Khevenhüller alternately attended the student revolution in Vienna in mid-May; the storm petition persuaded the emperor to leave Vienna. On June 6th the people gathered in Prague, on June 11th a student deputation demanded rifles from the commanding general 2000. Princess Windischgrätz was one of the first victims, as was the Prince's son, Prince Alfred, who was seriously wounded. General Rainer and Major van der Nüll were shot at the head of their troops by the rebels. In this dangerous situation, Khevenhüller never lost his calm and stood by Prince Windischgrätz. On June 19, the Prague uprising ended while the rebels were disarmed. Prince Windischgrätz, at the head of all available troops, moved against Vienna, during which time he transferred Count Khevenhüller's deputy general command in Bohemia. At the same time appointed as military and city commander of Prague, he spoke in agreement with Baron Mecsery von Tsoor for the further state of siege over the city. On October 16, 1849, Khevenhüller was awarded the rank of Feldzeugmeister by the Kaiser. Appointed military and civil governor of Galicia at the end of 1849, he resided in Lviv . From April 1850 he was in command of the 14th Corps in Galicia , and on April 25 he visited Krakow. On April 30th, he was honored by the Kaiser as an effective commanding general of the fourth army command. Released from this position on February 11, 1851, Khevenhüller was appointed President of the Vienna Military Appeal Court. On October 29, 1852 he finally took his well-deserved retirement. The Feldzeugmeister spent the last years of his life in the small circle of the Count's families St. Julien and Waldstein in Prague, where he died in November 1867 at the age of 84.

literature

• Austrian Military Newspaper Vienna 1870, Issue 3, pp. 57–78
• Rittersberg: Kleines Taschen-Conversations-Lexikon, Prague 1850, Vol. II, p. 109
• Hirtenfeld: Austria. Military calendar Vienna 1853, p. 228

Web links

• Constantin von Wurzbach : Khevenhüller-Metsch, Franz Graf . In: Biographisches Lexikon des Kaiserthums Oesterreich . 11th part. Imperial and Royal Court and State Printing Office, Vienna 1864, p. 216 ( digital copy ).