Friedrich Karl of Prussia (1828–1885)

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Prince Friedrich Karl of Prussia
Signature Friedrich Karl von Prussia (1828–1885) .PNG
On an artist's impression, painting by Emil Hünten , 1870
Prince Friedrich Karl of Prussia
Friedrich Karl (relief section of the Berlin Victory Column by Moritz Schulz , 1872)

Friedrich Karl Nikolaus von Prussia (born March 20, 1828 in Berlin , † June 15, 1885 in Klein Glienicke ) was a Prussian prince and field marshal .

Life

Friedrich Karl was the only son of Prince Carl von Prussia , a younger brother of Kaiser Wilhelm I , and Princess Marie of Saxe-Weimar-Eisenach , the older sister of Empress Augusta . From 1842 to 1846 Friedrich Karl received instruction in the military disciplines from the then major and later Minister of War Albrecht von Roon . He was also his military companion when the prince moved into the University of Bonn in 1846 . There he became a member of the Corps Borussia Bonn in 1847 . In the same year he was awarded the Rescue Medal on a ribbon for rescuing a child from the Rhine near Bonn.

After completing his studies in 1848, the prince took in the wake of General Friedrich Graf von Wrangel as captain at the Schleswig-Holstein war part and excelled in the battles at Schleswig and chaff by personal courage from. In 1849 he took part in the Baden campaign as a major in the general staff and was seriously wounded in the battle near Wiesenthal at the head of a squad of hussars.

In the peacetime that followed, during which he became a colonel in 1852 , major general in 1854 and lieutenant general in 1856 , he devoted an ardent study to military science. He communicated its results to a narrow circle of officers in lectures and lithographed treatises. The latter published "A military memorandum from P. F. K." in 1860 without the knowledge of the prince, which caused a sensation with its reform proposals. As commanding general of III. Army Corps (since 1860) he carried out these reforms in practice, made this corps the nursery school for his military ideas and thereby made outstanding contributions to the development of the Prussian army.

In 1864 the prince, meanwhile promoted to general of the cavalry , received supreme command over the Prussian troops in Schleswig-Holstein . After the unsuccessful attack on Missunde at the beginning of February, he crossed the Schlei near Arnis and forced the enemy to give up the Danewerk and to retreat to the Düppeler Schanzen . On April 18, he stormed it and achieved the decisive victory for Prussia and Austria in the German-Danish War . After Wrangel resigned his command in May, the prince became commander-in-chief of the Allied army, conquered Jutland and, on June 29, Alsen . In gratitude for his victory, Wilhelm I gave the prince's estate the status of a manor . In memory of the decisive battle at the Düppeler Schanzen, the property was named Düppel from January 13, 1865 .

1866 Friedrich Karl commander who was the first Army (II., III. And IV. Corps) appointed, moved from the Oberlausitz in Bohemia one, struck on 26 and 27 June in Liebenau and Podol, on the 28th at Miinchengratz , on 29th at Gitschin the Austro-Saxon troops under Eduard Clam-Gallas and attacked the Austrian position at Königgrätz on July 3rd . In a persistent fight he held the numerically superior enemy on the front until the Crown Prince Friedrich Wilhelm arrived on the battlefield and intervened on the right, General Eberhard Herwarth von Bittenfeld on the left flank of the enemy. From there the prince marched as far as Vienna .

In the constituent North German Reichstag of 1867 he represented the East Prussian constituency of Labiau - Wehlau .

Unveiling of the monument to Field Marshal Prince Friedrich Karl of Prussia in Friesack in 1899

In the Franco-Prussian War entrusted with the high command of the second German army, he held the French Rhine Army under Marshal François-Achille Bazaine near Metz on August 16, 1870 at the Battle of Mars-la-Tour and taught on August 18 Gravelotte made the decision by defeating the enemy right wing at St.-Privat. Then he received the supreme command of the first and second armies to take over the enclosure of Metz . He repulsed all of Bazaine's surrenders and forced him to surrender on October 27th. Appointed Field Marshal General on October 28th , Friedrich Karl von Metz marched with three army corps on November 2nd against the Loire in forced marches to prevent the French Loire Army from advancing against Versailles and Paris . After repulsing the French attacks, he took the offensive on December 3rd, occupied Orléans on December 4th and drove the enemy army back to Bourges and Le Mans .

In January 1871 he defeated Antoine Chanzy in several skirmishes at Le Mans (January 6-12) and so completely dispersed Chanzy's army that any further attempt to terrorize Paris from the west was made impossible.

For his services in this war he received an endowment of 300,000 thalers.

After the war, Friedrich Karl was appointed inspector general of the III. Army inspection and appointed inspector of the cavalry of the Prussian Army. Tsar Alexander II appointed him Russian field marshal . He was also the chief of several Prussian, Russian and Austrian regiments.

Friedrich Karl made several trips to the Orient ; A magnificent work was published on the last trip to Egypt and Syria made in 1883 (Berlin 1884).

He found his final resting place in the marble vault in St. Peter and Paul (Berlin-Wannsee) .

Dreilinden hunting lodge

Friedrich Karl's hunting lodge Dreilinden with the Hærulfstein as a personal memory of the war, around 1900

Friedrich Karl's favorite stay was the "Dreilinden hunting lodge" built in 1869 near Berlin in the Dreilinden forest of the same name . Theodor Fontane dedicated a detailed chapter to the hunting lodge and Friedrich Karl in the last volume of the walks through the Mark Brandenburg ("Five Castles"), in which the prince's trip to the Orient is described in detail:

"Everyone [...] knew the castle [...] from the court news, in which it was said at certain intervals:" His Royal Highness came into the city from Dreilinden today and returned there towards evening. "

As is often the case in Brandenburg, the term “castle”, which is still used today, is exaggerated - elsewhere Fontane also speaks of the “hunting lodge” or the “princely villa”. In line with this characterization, the saying on the house was: “Small, but mine”. Friedrich Karl is said to have spent around five months a year in his refuge, the rest of the time he lived in his apartment in the royal Berlin Palace. In addition to the hunt, to which he regularly invited hunting parties, a major reason for his stays in Dreilinden was the forest management of his lands. The prince was more successful with the establishment of forest cultures and the care of the wild stocks than with the agriculture, which according to Fontane had previously failed.

In 1859 he founded the Very Noble Order of the White Deer Sancti Huberti .

In 1954 the hunting lodge was demolished and the " Dreilinden Revierförsterei " is located in its place .

progeny

Friedrich Karl had been married to Princess Maria Anna (1837–1906), daughter of Duke Leopold Friedrich von Anhalt-Dessau and Princess Friederike of Prussia , since November 29, 1854 . Children of this marriage are:

⚭ August 1, 1878, Prince Heinrich of the Netherlands (1820–1879)
⚭ May 2, 1885 Prince Albert of Saxony-Altenburg

literature

Web links

Commons : Friedrich Karl von Preußen  - Collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Kösener corps lists 1910, 19/261
  2. ^ HA I, Rep. 90 A, No. 3192, Secret State Archives Prussian Cultural Heritage.

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personal data
SURNAME Friedrich Karl of Prussia
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Friedrich Karl Nikolaus of Prussia
SHORT DESCRIPTION Prussian Prince and Field Marshal General
DATE OF BIRTH March 20, 1828
PLACE OF BIRTH Berlin
DATE OF DEATH June 15, 1885
Place of death Klein Glienicke