Friedrich Wilhelm Walther von Walderstötten

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Johann Friedrich Wilhelm Ritter Walther von Walderstötten (born March 4, 1805 in Rothenburg ob der Tauber , † September 19, 1889 in Munich ) was a Bavarian infantry general , cartographer and member of the Academy of Sciences and an honorary citizen of Nuremberg .

Life

family

Friedrich Wilhelm came from an old patrician family from Rothenburg ob der Tauber. The family provided mayors and councilors in their hometown for several generations . Johann Florian Adam Walther (1686–1730) received as a lieutenant in a freestyle shaving regiment in 1702 the imperial nobility with the title “von Walderstötten”.

Johann Georg Walther (1731–1804), Friedrich Wilhelm's grandfather, was a consultant , his father Georg Christoph Walther (1773–1836) died as a Bavarian major . His mother Marie Euphrosine Franziska (1777–1844) was also born Walther.

Military career

Walther entered the cadet corps in Munich as a pupil in 1815 and was appointed Junker in the 7th Line Infantry Regiment of the Bavarian Army on October 9, 1824 . On October 9, 1825, he was promoted to lieutenant in the 16th Line Infantry Regiment . From 1833 Walther was employed as a professor in the Cadet Corps, where he initially taught geography and later also natural history and history. He worked on a large work on the topography of the Kingdom of Bavaria, the first part of which, published in 1844, was dedicated to Crown Prince Maximilian . As the author of this work, he was elected an extraordinary member of the Bavarian Academy of Sciences in 1846. In 1848 another outline of a military geography and war history of Bavaria, written by him, appeared .

On January 20, 1844 Walther was promoted to first lieutenant in the 1st Infantry Regiment König , on April 7, 1847 to Captain 2nd Class in the 2nd Infantry Regiment Kronprinz , on August 21, 1848 to Captain 1st Class, on April 25th , 1847 . June 1854 to major in the 11th Infantry Regiment "Ysenburg" , on March 31, 1855 to Lieutenant Colonel in the 1st Infantry Regiment "König" and with army order of 9 May 1859 to Colonel .

Walther, who was appointed major general and commander of the 6th Infantry Brigade on January 2, 1865 , received command of the mobile 6th Infantry Brigade when the campaign against Prussia broke out on May 26, 1866, but was unable to take part in the campaign because he had broken and dislocated his left arm as a result of falling off his horse . After the end of the war, he was transferred to the 2nd Infantry Brigade in the same position and on January 16, 1867 was appointed commander of the capital and residence city of Munich. For his services he was awarded the Knight's Cross of the Order of Merit of the Bavarian Crown on January 9, 1868 . On January 8, 1869 he was promoted to lieutenant general and appointed commander of the 3rd Army Division in Nuremberg.

With this major unit, Walther fought in the war against France in 1870/71, belonging to the II Army Corps under General Jakob von Hartmann , in the battles near Weißenburg (August 4, 1870), Wörth (August 6, 1870), Sedan (1. September 1870) and the siege of Paris . For his outstanding achievements in the Battle of Sedan, Walther received the Grand Commander's Cross of the Order of Military Merit and the Iron Cross, 2nd class, by army order of October 11, 1870 .

After the end of the war he was awarded the Iron Cross First Class and the city of Nuremberg granted him honorary citizenship on his return home. A chapter of the Military Max Joseph Order , held in Chatanay near Paris on January 12, 1871, chaired by General Jakob von Hartmann, had voted unanimously in favor of his acceptance into the order. With the very highest signature on January 26, 1871, Walther was named a Knight of the Military Max Joseph Order on September 1, 1870 because of his brave and successful command of the Battle of Sedan.

On September 24, 1872 he received the Cross of Honor of the Order of Ludwig for 50 honorable years of service . On March 22, 1873, he was granted the requested dismissal and pension and at the same time was awarded the Grand Cross of the Order of Military Merit. Ten years later he was given the character of General of the Infantry. After leaving the army, he settled in Munich, where he died on September 19, 1889, at the age of 84.

Marriage and offspring

Friedrich Wilhelm Walther von Walderstötten was raised to the personal nobility on August 8, 1868 and on December 4, 1871 in Hohenschwangau to the hereditary nobility in the Kingdom of Bavaria with the title of Walderstötten. On January 8, 1872, he was entered in the nobility register in the Kingdom of Bavaria. Since 1846 he was an extraordinary member, at times also a corresponding member and from 1873 a permanent full member of the Bavarian Academy of Sciences.

He married Wilhelmine Ludovike Dorothea Geiger (1825-1897) in Ulm in 1842 . The couple had two sons and three daughters. Otto Heinrich (* 1848), the eldest son, served as Bavarian major general. His younger brother Wilhelm Karl Georg (1858–1942) became general of the cavalry and lecturer general adjutant of King Ludwig III. of Bavaria . Of the daughters, Klementine Johanna Julie (* 1851) married the Bavarian captain Gottlieb Freiherr Stromer von Reichenbach in 1873 .

Fonts (selection)

  • Bavaria's land and nature for the pupils of the k. Cadet Corps designed. Caster. Munich 1833.
  • Outlines for the state, people and state of Bavaria - designed for the use of the pupils of the K. Cadetten Corps. Giesser, Munich 1833.
  • Topical geography of Bavaria. Verl. Of the literary-artistic institute. Munich 1844.
  • Ground plan of a military geography and war history of Bavaria. 1848.

literature

Web links
personal data
SURNAME Walther von Walderstötten, Friedrich Wilhelm
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Walther, Friedrich Wilhelm
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Bavarian general of the infantry
DATE OF BIRTH March 4, 1805
PLACE OF BIRTH Rothenburg ob der Tauber
DATE OF DEATH September 19, 1889
Place of death Munich