Friedrich Häusler

Friedrich Häusler on an oil painting by Heinrich Neumann (1801–1879)

Friedrich Gottlieb Benjamin Häusler (born August 6, 1780 in Grottkau , † December 26, 1865 in Braunschweig ) was a German officer, most recently a major .

Life

family

He was the son of Mayor Kaspar Benjamin Häusler (1731–1796) and Eleonore Johanna Fuhrmann (1748–1784).

On March 28, 1815, Häusler married Auguste von Papet (1789–1862), daughter of the ducal Brigade Major Johann Julius Friedrich von Papet (1741–1793). The lawyer and politician Otto Haeusler (1823–1900) was his son.

Military career

Häusler first worked in the Breslau tax administration before devoting himself to the soldier's profession in December 1806.

During the Fourth Coalition War after the defeats in the battle of Jena and Auerstedt , Prussia , which had also belonged to Silesia since 1741, defended itself against the French until the Peace of Tilsit in 1807. Häusler joined the Freiwillige Schlesische Schützenkompanie "von Reichmeister" in Reichenstein , was promoted to sergeant in 1807 and in the same year took part in battles near Königswalde , Hassitz, Rothwaltersdorf and Glatz . On June 24, 1807 he was wounded near Glatz.

After the Peace of Tilsit, many officers and NCOs in the Prussian army looked for employment in other armies in order to continue fighting against France. Napoleon had smashed the Duchy of Braunschweig , Duke Friedrich Wilhelm had to retire to the Duchy of Oels in Silesia and from there set up a free corps with which he intended to organize a popular uprising against French rule and thus to win back the Duchy of Braunschweig.

In April 1809, Häusler and his former Prussian company commander von Reichmeister joined the Braunschweig service as a volunteer and thus joined the so-called black crowd . This black crowd moved through northern Germany to Braunschweig in 1809. Meanwhile promoted to ensign , Häusler was wounded on July 29, 1809 near Halberstadt, but two days later he moved with his troops into Braunschweig and the duke took possession of the land in a proclamation. The next day the black crowd asserted itself in the battle at Ölper against the overpowering Westphalian troops under General Reubel and escaped again to Braunschweig. Here Häusler was promoted to lieutenant on August 2 and then moved with the Black Company to England, where the troops were placed in British service on September 25, 1809 under the name Brunswick Regiment. Häusler was again downgraded, as when he joined the Black Corps, and taken over as an ensign in the troops. Here he served on the islands of Wight , Guernsey and Ireland . From 1810 Häusler took part in the Peninsula War in Portugal and Spain and was promoted to lieutenant again in 1811. In 1813, after Napoleon's defeat in Spain became apparent, Duke Friedrich Wilhelm called on seven officers, including Häusler, from the Brunswick Regiment to regroup the Brunswick troops at home. On February 18, 1814, Häusler was promoted to captain . It was not until the end of 1814 that the rest of the Brunswick regiment was released from English service and returned to Braunschweig.

The Braunschweiger took part in the battle of Quatre-Bras in 1815 , in which Duke Friedrich Wilhelm fell, and in the decisive battle near Waterloo . In Waterloo, Häusler was deployed as a captain in the 3rd light battalion. After Napoleon was defeated, Häusler went back to Braunschweig and became company commander in the 2nd light battalion in 1816 , in 1819 in the body battalion, in 1822 in the reserve battalion and in 1824 in the hunter and body battalion , which was the only formation to wear the historic black uniform had retained, and was therefore considered to be the successor to the Black Horde of 1809. After the revolt of 1830 , Häusler was assigned to the reserve cadre and in 1832 dismissed as a major from military service .

In 1844 Duke Wilhelm Häusler commissioned the historian Friedrich Karl von Vechelde on a trip to Silesia. He was supposed to write a book about the campaign of the Black Squad in 1809 from Silesia to Braunschweig and on this trip, accompanied by an officer who had participated in this campaign, to make notes at the various stations of the campaign.

In the course of the revolution of 1848 , Häusler joined the Patriotic Association.

Häusler died in Braunschweig in 1865 and was buried in the Martinifriedhof .

Awards

• Silver Medal of Merit of the King of Prussia for demonstrated bravery in the battle near Rothwaltersdorf on June 4, 1807
• Cross of honor for 1809
• Peninsula Medal in 1821
• War Medal from the Queen of England in 1849
• Cross of Merit 1st Class of the Order of Henry the Lion in 1855

literature

• Ditmar Haeusler: History of the Häusler family from Braunschweig and the life story of Friedrich Häusler . ( Online ).