Friedrich Ludwig zu Wied-Runkel

Friedrich Ludwig zu Wied-Runkel (born January 29, 1770 in Dierdorf , † April 28, 1824 in Runkel ) was Count of Isenburg , Prince of Wied-Runkel and Neuerburg and Imperial Austrian Lieutenant Field Marshal .

Life

origin

He was the son of Christian Ludwig zu Wied-Runkel (* May 2, 1732 - October 31, 1791), who rose to prince in 1791, and of Charlotte Amalia (Sophia) Augusta zu Sayn-Wittgenstein (* July 14, 1741, † 5. June 1803). He succeeded his brother Prince Karl Ludwig Friedrich Alexander (born September 29, 1763, † March 9, 1824) in the government for one month .

education

He received his first education in Dierdorf. In 1786 he began to study in Strasbourg. In 1790 he was appointed to the service of the republic by the heir to the Netherlands, Prince Orange , and employed as captain of the guard. Promoted to major in 1792 , he took part in the war between the Netherlands and France the following year, where he was captured. When France had transformed the Netherlands into the dependent Batavian Republic , Prince von Wied left the service of the Netherlands and, after a short stay in his father's Runkel, went to Austria to fight France in the war there.

In the service of Austria

In August 1797 he was hired as a captain in the Imperial Infantry Regiment No. 21 . In the campaign of 1799 he was promoted to sergeant , a year later in Infantry Regiment No. 15 to lieutenant colonel. On the special recommendation of Archduke Karl , he was appointed Colonel and Regimental Commander of Infantry Regiment No. 17 in the training camp near Prague in October 1804 .

The unfortunate campaign of 1805, with the surrender of Ulm , brought him again into French captivity for a short time. Returned after the peace, his regiment was concentrated around Leitmeritz and also led the garrison of the Theresienstadt fortress . According to the treaties of the Rhine Confederation , the paternal principality of Wied-Runkel was mediated under his brother Karl Ludwig Friedrich in 1806 and added to the newly created Duchy of Nassau , the right-wing part was incorporated into the Grand Duchy of Kleve and Berg .

After the outbreak of the 1809 campaign, the Prince von Wied-Runkel was appointed major general on February 12th . He was assigned an infantry brigade, which consisted of three regiments and was later reinforced with three battalions of Moravian Landwehr . He fought in May 1809 with his troops under Archduke Karl in the association of the II Corps under the Prince of Hohenzollern-Hechingen . During an attack in the Battle of Aspern , he personally seized the flag of the Stuart Infantry Regiment and was awarded the Knight's Cross of the Order of Maria Theresa by Archduke Karl while still on the battlefield . When Baron Weber was fatally wounded and captured, the prince was given command of the entire division. In the battle of Wagram he distinguished himself under FML Siegenthal in the storming of Paumersdorf and then took part in the battle of Znaim . In 1810 his brigade was alternately moved to Kuttenberg and Pisek in Bohemia , and later to Kaschau in Upper Hungary. In Kaschau he led the division of the then Hereditary Prince of Hesse Homburg on an interim basis .

The beginning of the Wars of Liberation brought him on July 26th, 1813, the promotion to field marshal lieutenant and the divisional command of the army in Bohemia . His troops hurried to Saxony via Theresienstadt in order to complete the enclosure of Dresden on the right bank of the Elbe. The starving garrison of Dresden under the French Marshal Gouvion Saint-Cyr saw their salvation at the beginning of November 1813 only by fighting their way across the road to Torgau and relieving this fortress, as well as the cut off garrisons of Wittenberg and Magdeburg afterwards . General Mouton Graf von Lobau started the breakthrough with his division on November 6th. On the surface of the mountains near Vordorf, Weinsberg and Reichenberg, however, after a violent fight, they were pushed back behind the city's entrenchments by the fuses of Prince von Wied and then had to surrender to General Graf von Klenau , who was in command near Dresden .

In the campaign of 1814 he moved to Lyon at the head of the now vacant Wied-Runkel division and took part in the battles at Mâcon , La Verpilliere and Dardilly between March 18 and 20 . For this he received the Commander's Cross of the Leopold Order . After the Peace of Paris he took over the division in Pilsen , and shortly after that in Prague . In early 1815 he was awarded the Hungarian Davidovich Infantry Regiment No. 34. The breach of loyalty by the King of Naples, Murat , summoned his troops to northern Italy the following month.

After the successful campaign against Naples, Prince von Wied was entrusted with embarking the troops in Livorno . On behalf of the commanding general Baron Bianchi , he ordered the advance of his corps through Piedmont to France. After the Second Peace of Paris, he returned to Italy, commanding first in Verona , then a troop corps in the Padua area . During this peacetime he devoted himself to the study of the Italian classics in addition to the weapons exercises. In September 1817 he was appointed military commander to Dalmatia and returned to Padua after a six-month stay. In 1818 he led the governorate of Venice instead of the sick Feldzeugmeister von Chasteler .

After the outbreak of the uprising in Naples in the spring of 1821, the prince commanded a division under General Frimont . His troops advanced through Abruzzo via Rieti and L'Aquila and fought the insurgents under Guglielmo Pepe . After the full occupation of the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies , the prince received military power in several provinces. In the Terra di Lavoro and Molise he commanded the permanent places Aquila, Civitella del Tianto, Pescara , the fortress of Gaeta and had his headquarters first in Capua , later in Sulmona . After the reinstatement of King Ferdinand I , he received the Grand Cross of the Neapolitan Military Merit Order of San Georgio della Reunione.

For a short time prince and death

Returning to Prague in 1823, he briefly took over the position of commanding general in Bohemia. In March 1824 his brother Karl Ludwig Friedrich died. After his marriage to Karoline Luise Friederike von Nassau-Weilburg (* February 14, 1770; † July 8, 1828) had remained childless, he should follow in the principality. The unexpected death of his brother troubled him because he was also unmarried and childless. On April 20, 1824, he left for Runkel, already ill on his arrival, he passed away on April 28 from a subsequent flux . With him, the Wied-Runkel line, which Count Maximilian Heinrich von Wied founded at the end of the 17th century, ended. The civil rights to the town and castle Runkel fell to Johann August Karl zu Wied from the Wied-Neuwied branch line (formerly Lower County).

literature

• Friedrich August Schmidt: New Nekrolog der Deutschen , Volume 2, Verlag von Bernhardt Friedrich Voigt, Ilmenau 1826, p. 708 f. ( Digitized version ).
• Constantin von Wurzbach : Wied-Runkel, Friedrich Ludwig Fürst . In: Biographisches Lexikon des Kaiserthums Oesterreich . 55th part. Kaiserlich-Königliche Hof- und Staatsdruckerei, Vienna 1887, pp. 290–293 ( digitized version ).

Web links

• Family table at dilibri.de