Friedrich August Rutowski

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Friedrich August Graf Rutowski, portrait by Nicolas de Largillière , around 1729, today in the Detroit Institute of Arts
Fatima Kariman, aka Maria Anna. Well-known booty Turk and mother of Friedrich August Graf Rutowski.
Friedrich August Graf Rutowski in armor and with the sash of the Order of the White Eagle , painting by Louis de Silvestre , before 1750, today Dresden, Staatliche Kunstsammlungen Dresden , Gemäldegalerie Alte Meister , Schloss Pillnitz
Friedrich August Graf Rutowski in court costume and with the sash of the Order of the White Eagle , painting by Louis de Silvestre , 1724, today Dresden State Art Collections , Old Masters Picture Gallery
Friedrich August Graf Rutowski in armor and with the sash of the Order of the White Eagle , painting by Louis de Silvestre , 1740

Friedrich August Graf Rutowski , also Rutowsky , (born June 19, 1702 in Warsaw or Dresden , † March 16, 1764 in Pillnitz ) was an illegitimate son of Augustus the Strong and gained importance as a field marshal in Electoral Saxony .

Origin and family

Rutowski came from an improper and extramarital union of the Polish King and Saxon Elector Friedrich August I , "the Strong", with the Turkish girl Fatima (or Fatime ), baptized Maria Aurora, who was stolen by Hans Adam von Schöning or other soldiers during the capture of the fortress of Ofen who has since stayed at the Dresden court as August's mistress . After birth, the child was given the name of the father and, at August's instigation, Fatima was married to his valet Johann George Spiegel, in order to give the child a proper upbringing, which led him to Paris , among other places , where he also had his half-sister Anna Karolina , later Countess Orzelska and was able to bring her to Dresden.

Fatima remained the king's mistress and in 1706 gave him her daughter Maria Anna Katharina , later widowed Countess Bielińska, married in second marriage to Claudius Maria Graf von Bellegarde, royal Polish and Electoral Saxon chamberlain and major general, as well as envoy to the court of Turin .

However, August the Strong recognized the two children as his own in 1724 and legitimized them. In addition, he raised both in his capacity as King of Poland to the Polish counts Rutowski and Rutowska. The coat of arms awarded to them shows a Saxon diamond wreath and a Polish white eagle. Friedrich August, now Count Rutowski, also received the highest award in the Wettin sphere of influence on October 8, 1724, the Order of the White Eagle , newly founded by his father , and the rank of Colonel in the Saxon Army .

Military career

After traveling via Munich and Venice, Rutowski arrived in Turin in February 1725 at the court of the King of Sardinia and Duke of Savoy, Viktor Amadeus II. , Where he took over the Piedmont regiment and was transferred to the garrison town of Alessandria . He did not like staying there, which is why he wrote to his father asking him to give him permission to enter French services, but the latter refused.

Later, when he returned to his father's court, his father appointed him Colonel of the Garde du Corps and Major General of the Cavalry in 1727, and sent him to Prussian service in 1728, where he took over Thiele's regiment. After King Friedrich Wilhelm I of Prussia reluctantly allowed him to leave, in 1730 he was given command of the Saxon body grenadier guard in order to be able to participate in the Augustan army reform. Under his leadership, these troops aroused general admiration in the famous Zeithain pleasure camp of the same year. The Prussian King, who was also present, is said to have carried away himself to the remark “The Canaille stole everything from us”.

After the death of Augustus the Strong in 1733, his half-brother, who was now Elector and King August III, left him . , in his position and in the war of succession to the Polish throne that followed, he participated in the conquest of the city of Danzig under Burkhard Christoph von Münnich and Johann Adolf von Sachsen-Weißenfels .

After this task he went to the troops of the allied Habsburgs under Prince Eugene of Savoy on the Rhine in 1734 to support the fight against the French. On September 16, 1735 he was promoted to lieutenant general, after his return from the campaign on January 1, 1736 he was given command of the Garde du Corps on horseback stationed in Dresden, and on October 7 of the same year he was transferred to the Hubertusburg hunting lodge with the military St. . Heinrichs Order awarded.

Then in 1737 he was given command of the Saxon auxiliary corps, which the Russians and Austrians were horrified in the Turkish war . On April 21, 1738 he was promoted to General of the Cavalry and Commander of the Saxon Guard in Warsaw. However, he resigned his two commands, the one for the Grade du Corps and the one in Warsaw, as early as 1740 to become Governor of Dresden on August 9, 1740, and Chief of the Obristhaus and Landzeugmeister on August 10, 1740 and to be able to officiate as commander of the body grenadier guard. On January 10, 1742 he was appointed head of a dragoon regiment .

After the death of Emperor Charles VI. , whom Rutowski had supported in the fight against the Turks, the great German princes and anti-Habsburg France rebelled against Austria in order to undermine the agreements on female succession made in the Pragmatic Sanction . Saxony, to whom it seemed politically opportune to turn against the Habsburgs, because it hoped for shares in the hereditary property through its close family ties (Rutowski's sister-in-law Maria Josepha was a daughter of Emperor Joseph I ), joined the Bavarians, Prussia and French.

In the First Silesian War that followed, Rutowski led the Saxon troops at the side of their allies against Prague, which was conquered on November 26, 1741. However, disputes between Rutowski and Friedrich II of Prussia cause the latter to relinquish command of the Saxon troops to his half-brother Johann George, Chevalier de Saxe .

During the Second Silesian War , Saxony changed sides in 1745 and allied itself in a quadruple alliance with the Austrians, as Prussia, now strengthened by the possession of almost all of Silesia, threatened to become too big an aggressor for them.

In the following battle near Kesselsdorf on December 15, 1745, Rutowski received for the first time the sole command of the troops that had been drawn up to protect Dresden and that were exposed to the Prussians under Leopold von Anhalt-Dessau . Despite initial successes for the Saxons and Austrians, due to the unexpected absence of the allied Austrian auxiliaries under Prince Karl Alexander of Lorraine and operational errors of the officers, they did not succeed in securing their positions during the pursuit of the Prussian battalions, which in turn enabled them to conquer the Batteries in the village succeeded. Although this disaster cost the lives of 7,500 Saxon regional children and the Prussians succeeded in occupying the royal seat of Dresden and thus the end of the war in their favor a short time later, Rutowski was appointed general en chief of the Saxon army on January 6, 1746 and on January 11, 1746. / 22. (?) January 1749 finally appointed field marshal of Saxony.

Although Rutowski, known as a capable reformer and organizer, tried to improve the Saxon army in this function in the following years, he did not succeed in the reductions imposed by Prime Minister Count Brühl on the army in the coming years of peace , which called its repartee into question to avert.

In the Seven Years' War he again led the army of Saxony. The concentration of the Saxon army in an almost invulnerable position near Pirna, which he initiated , initially prevented Saxony from being taken by surprise when the Prussians marched in on the night of August 28th to 29th, 1756. The Saxon army was able to defeat the Prussian siege for about six weeks resist, but in view of the increasing food shortage and a failed attempt to break out, the capitulation finally concluded on October 16 on the " Liliensteiner Ebenheit " was inevitable. After the forcible incorporation of large parts of the Saxon army into the Prussian army, Field Marshal Rutowski stayed in Dresden and from there continued to take care of the interests of individual officers and the "collection work", in which the Saxons deserted in large numbers from the forced Prussian service Soldiers were reorganized and then made available to the Austrian and French armies. In the spring of 1763 Rutowski was responsible for the repatriation of these troops to Saxony.

For health reasons, after the Hubertusburg Peace was concluded on March 8, 1763, he renounced all of his military dignities, took his leave on April 2, 1763 and handed over his function as Commander-in-Chief of the Saxon Army and Governor of Dresden to the Chevalier de Saxe .

Rutowski died after a long illness on March 16, 1764 in Pillnitz. The burial of this well-known, but always in the shadow of his famous half-brother Hermann Moritz von Sachsen , took place with a solemn funeral procession on May 20, 1764 in the St. Marienstern monastery near Panschwitz-Kuckau .

Activities for the Freemasons

His Masonic activities, which fall in 1738, are remarkable ; He founded the first Saxon lodge Aux trois Aigles blancs ("To the three white eagles") in the city palace in Dresden, later known as the Kurländer Palais . It was only the third Masonic lodge built in Germany .

Marriage and offspring

On January 4, 1739 he married Ludovika Amalia, Princess Lubomirska (* May 3, 1722 - † July 27, 1778), daughter of the influential Polish general of the artillery Aleksander Jakub, Prince Lubomirski (* May 11, 1695 - † November 16, 1772 ) from his marriage to Countess Friederike Charlotte Vitzthum von Eckstädt. The marriage resulted in the son August Joseph on August 2, 1741, who, however, died of the Blattern in Braunschweig on January 17, 1755 while still a child .

Trivia

He was played by the actor Stefan Lisewski in the film series Sachsens Glanz und Preussens Gloria .

literature

Web links

Commons : Friedrich August Rutowski  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Archives for Saxon History. Karl von Weber , New Series - Second Volume. Verlag von Tauchnitz, Leipzig 1876.
  2. ^ Archives for Saxon History. Karl von Weber, New Series - Second Volume. Verlag von Tauchnitz, Leipzig 1876.
  3. ↑ Necessary Supplements to the Great Complete UNIVERSAL LEXICON of All Sciences and Arts, Which have been invented and improved so far by human understanding and wit. Third volume, Barc-Bod, Leipzig, 1752
personal data
SURNAME Rutowski, Friedrich August
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Friedrich August Graf Rutowsky
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Electoral field marshal
DATE OF BIRTH June 19, 1702
PLACE OF BIRTH Warsaw or Dresden
DATE OF DEATH March 16, 1764
Place of death Pillnitz