Friedrich Wilhelm von Rauch (General, 1790)

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Portrait Lieutenant General Friedrich Wilhelm von Rauch
Lieutenant General Friedrich Wilhelm von Rauch, pastel sketch from Franz Krüger's school , 1848

Friedrich Wilhelm von Rauch (born March 15, 1790 in Potsdam ; † June 9, 1850 in Berlin ) was a Prussian lieutenant general , adjutant general of King Friedrich Wilhelm IV and Prussian military representative at the Russian court under Tsar Nicholas I.

Life

Origin and childhood in Potsdam

Friedrich Wilhelm von Rauch was the son of the Prussian major general and engineer officer Bonaventura von Rauch (1740-1814), director of the royal engineering academy in Potsdam, and his wife Johanna, née Bandel (1752-1828). He was a godson of King Friedrich Wilhelm II of Prussia .

Rauch's father, orphaned at an early age, probably the son of a teacher from Peterskirchen in the Bavarian Chiemgau according to the baptismal register , had first attended a Jesuit school near Altötting . His pronounced mathematical and technical talent, educational talent and princely recommendations later made King Frederick the Great pay attention to him. After joining the Prussian army from Brunswick in 1777, Rauch made a career and rose to major general. When he moved to Prussia, he - like his descendants in the Rauch family - carried the title of nobility without objection. The case of Bonaventura von Rauch was all the deeper in 1806, when he agreed to hand it over to the French troops in his position as vice-commander of the fortress Stettin . Rauch's father was released from the army without saying goodbye and sentenced to life imprisonment in the fortress or city ​​of Spandau . Friedrich Wilhelm von Rauch's mother came from a family of domain tenants and farmers from Kunow and Wildenbruch, who originally lived in Anhalt and Braunschweig .

Rauch grew up in the Potsdam cabinet building on Neuer Markt 1 in his father's official apartment. The cabinet house once served as the residence of the Prussian Crown Prince and has been the seat of the engineering academy since 1788. Rauch's childhood and youth in Potsdam took place in the immediate vicinity of the royal city ​​palace and the Regiment Guard with the associated barracks in Priesterstrasse, today's Henning-von-Tresckow-Strasse.

Rauch was the tenth of the twelve children of the married couple Bonaventura and Johanna von Rauch. His brothers included the Prussian War Minister and Infantry General Gustav von Rauch (1774–1841) and Major General Leopold von Rauch (1787–1860), director of the Prussian War Academy in Berlin. His sisters were among others Charlotte (first wife of Levin Friedrich von Bismarck , Prussian district president and honorary citizen of Magdeburg ), Friederike (married to Major General Heinrich von Knobelsdorff , inspector of the Prussian Guard Cavalry ) and Cecilie von Rauch (wife of Gustav Freiherr von Maltzahn Graf von Plessen , Majorate on Ivenack in Mecklenburg and Lieutenant Colonel in the Regiment of the Gardes du Corps ).

Engineering Academy and Guards Regiment

Like his father and his older brothers, Rauch - at the age of 13 - first entered the Prussian engineering corps , as a trainee at the Potsdam Engineering Academy run by his father . Only a short time later, however, he was drawn to the Guard Regiment , to which he was able to change on July 1, 1804 as a private corporal . As a member of the guard regiment, Rauch took part in the armed conflicts of his time, for example in the 1806 siege of Spandau . In 1807 he was promoted to ensign in Memel . Also in 1807 he was promoted to second lieutenant with a patent on August 24, 1806. His regimental commander wrote an assessment of the young Rauch: “His service is very easy for him with his particularly bright mind combined with military knowledge. With a little more effort he would achieve a lot. "

Towards the end of 1812, the choice fell on Rauch, when the position of adjutant at the commander of the Guard Brigade, Colonel and later Lieutenant General Johann Friedrich Karl von Alvensleben , had to be filled. Since 1813 Prime Lieutenant, he took part in the Battle of Großgörschen at the side of his brigade commander, who was one of the outstanding Prussian military leaders of the Wars of Liberation , and was awarded the Iron Cross, 2nd class. And in the same way, Rauch followed Alvensleben to the Battle of Bautzen , the Battle of Nations near Leipzig and the Battle of Paris . After the Battle of Leipzig he received the Iron Cross First Class, the Order of Saint Anna II Class and the Knight's Cross of the Military Karl Friedrich Order of Merit . In 1814 he was promoted to staff captain in the 1st Guards Regiment on foot and in 1815 was promoted to captain and company commander . At the beginning of November 1821, Rauch was promoted to major and commander of the training infantry battalion, whose Potsdam quarters were in the Communs across from the New Palais . He was aggregated on foot at the same time as the 1st Guard Regiment . At the end of March 1826 he was transferred to the Guard Reserve Infantry Landwehr Regiment, also in Potsdam.

Wing adjutant and military officer in St. Petersburg

In 1829, Friedrich Wilhelm von Rauch's time in the guard ended. After King Friedrich Wilhelm III. As his wing adjutant, Rauch only served in the immediate vicinity of the Prussian kings and the Russian tsars until his death in 1850.

First he stayed at the royal court in Potsdam and at the end of December 1832 received the Order of St. Anne II. Class with diamonds as a Russian award. 1833 Smoke - under promotion to lieutenant colonel and maintaining his position as a royal aide - Prussian military representative in St. Petersburg , and Tsar Nicholas I. allocated. In 1817 Nicholas I had married Charlotte of Prussia , a daughter of King Friedrich Wilhelm III. This gave Rauch a special position of trust at the court of his king's son-in-law.

In 1834 the Tsar honored him by awarding him the Order of St. Vladimir III. Class. The Prussian king confirmed Rauch's position in St. Petersburg in 1835. In that year he received a gift of 2000 thalers in order to be able to settle in the expensive Russian capital. Promoted to colonel in March 1835 , Rauch was primarily concerned with the planning and preparations for the great Kalisch revue , which in September 1835 brought together 60,000 soldiers in a joint maneuver of both armies as an expression of close ties between Prussia and Russia. In the same year, Rauch was awarded the St. Stanislaus Order II. Class and the Commander's Cross I Class of the Grand Ducal Hessian Order of Ludwig . The Persian sun and lion North II. Class with diamonds was awarded smoke. 1838 In 1839 Rauch received the order as a gift from Friedrich Wilhelm III. to solemnly hand over the bust of the Russian ruler made by Christian Daniel Rauch to the tsar .

King Friedrich Wilhelm III. Rauch repeatedly acknowledged his work at the St. Petersburg court and his services to the relations between Prussia and Russia as well as between the closely related rulers of the Hohenzollern and Romanovs . With his direct access to both the Prussian king and the Russian tsar, Rauch assumed a singular position that the Prussian ambassador in St. Petersburg could not reach.

Confidant and adjutant general of King Friedrich Wilhelm IV.

When Friedrich Wilhelm IV. 1840 Prussian King and successor to his father Friedrich Wilhelm III. Rauch's position at the Russian court of the tsars seemed indispensable to him. The new king held Rauch in high esteem and hoped that he would continue to have good access to Nikolaus I. Friedrich Wilhelm IV. Therefore left Rauch in his military and dynasty-political influential dual position as royal wing adjutant and military representative in St. Petersburg. A few months after taking over the reign, the king promoted him to major general à la suite . In 1843 he appointed Rauch as his adjutant general, where he continued to pursue his duties at the interface with Tsar Nicholas I.

Friedrich Wilhelm von Rauch enjoyed the special trust of Friedrich Wilhelm IV. From this developed his leading role in the court camarilla with which the Prussian king surrounded himself. Although basically still on post in St. Petersburg, Rauch stayed near Friedrich Wilhelm IV from March to September 1848 and stayed in Berlin and Potsdam for this purpose. At his request, Rauch accompanied the Prussian king on March 21, 1848 during the tour, which he carried out through the streets and across the squares of Berlin under a black, red and gold banner. In 1849 Friedrich Wilhelm IV expressed to General Leopold von Gerlach and Otto von Bismarck how much he had been convinced by Rauch's personality: “Do not seek extraordinaires in political wisdom - cleverness - cunning etc. in him; not the Russians out of inclination, not the aristocrats out of blood, but only the Potsdam officer, that is, the genuine nobleman out of a sense of honor , the Prussians from head to toe. "

In May 1848 Friedrich Wilhelm von Rauch was promoted to lieutenant general by the king and in November 1848 he was awarded the star for the Order of the Red Eagle, 2nd class with oak leaves. Tsar Nicholas I also paid tribute to Rauch, who was also a legal knight of the Order of St. John , by awarding him the Alexander Nevsky Order on March 16, 1850 .

Three months later, on June 9, 1850, Rauch died in Berlin. General Leopold von Gerlach followed him as adjutant general to the Prussian King, and General Hugo Graf zu Munster-Meinhövel as military plenipotentiary to Nikolaus I in St. Petersburg .

family

  • Laurette von Rauch, née Countess von Moltke (1790–1864)

  • the ladies-in-waiting Elise (1820–1908) and Blanka von Rauch (1817–1905)

  • Cavalry General Alfred Bonaventura von Rauch (1824–1900)

  • Amélie von Rauch (1825–1850)

  • Lieutenant General Friedrich Wilhelm von Rauch (1827–1907)

Rauch married Laurette Countess von Moltke of the Wolde family (1790–1864) in 1816 . Her father was Friedrich Detlev Reichsgraf von Moltke, chief hunter of King Friedrich Wilhelm III. von Prussia as well as owner of Wolde and the manors Walkendorf and Schorssow . His second wife Eleonore, born von Prittwitz (1763-1829), was her mother. Her maternal grandfather, the Prussian cavalry general Joachim Bernhard von Prittwitz , had saved King Frederick the Great from death, at least from captivity, in the battle of Kunersdorf in 1759 .

The following children emerged from the marriage of Friedrich Wilhelm and Laurette von Rauch:

⚭ I 1843 Roderich Freiherr Spiegel von und zu Peckelsheim (1817–1852), Prussian Rittmeister
⚭ II 1854 Wilhelm von Schönermarck († 1878), Prussian colonel

Grave monument in the Berlin Invalidenfriedhof

Rauch found his final resting place in the Berlin Invalidenfriedhof in the immediate vicinity of his brother, the Prussian Minister of War Gustav von Rauch, who died in 1841. His grave monument was donated by King Friedrich Wilhelm IV. And probably participated personally in the design. The king's court architect Friedrich August Stüler , who was probably based on Schinkel's tomb for the ancient historian Barthold Georg Niebuhr in the old cemetery in Bonn , also entrusted a foundation of Friedrich Wilhelm IV with the execution . The Prussian king paid tribute to Rauch, his confidante Dedication plaque on the base of the tomb with the inscription: "To the loyal friend and brave warrior - Friedrich Wilhelm IV., 1850."

  • Grave cross for Lieutenant General Friedrich Wilhelm von Rauch - in the back under aedicule (2019)

  • Grave monument Lieutenant General Friedrich Wilhelm von Rauchs with dedication plaque to King Friedrich Wilhelm IV of Prussia (2019)

  • Grave cross for his wife Laurette von Rauch, née Countess von Moltke (2019)

  • Grave cross for his daughter Amélie von Rauch (2019)

  • Grave cross for his son General of the Cavalry Alfred Bonaventura von Rauch (2019)

  • Grave cross for his grandson General of the Cavalry Friedrich von Rauch and his wife Amélie nee. by Bülow- Gudow (2019)

Rauch's grave became the hereditary burial of the von Rauch family for four generations over the next hundred years. His wife Laurette, born Countess von Moltke, his daughter Amélie and his son General of the Cavalry Alfred Bonaventura von Rauch with his wife Elisabeth, born Countess von Brühl, were later buried there, later also his grandson General of the Cavalry Friedrich von Rauch and as a last burial 1950 his wife Amélie, née von Bülow. Likewise, descendants of his brother Gustav were buried in Rauch's inheritance, including the cavalry general Gustav Waldemar von Rauch and the military governor or prince educator of the same name, Friedrich Wilhelm von Rauch .

The family grave, which goes back to Friedrich Wilhelm von Rauch and is only a few meters away from the former Berlin Wall , was restored after German reunification in the 1990s by the Berlin State Monuments Office. The restoration was funded by the federal government, the Foundation Deutsche Klassenlotterie Berlin and the Invalidenfriedhof eV association

literature

  • Kurt von Priesdorff : Soldier leadership . Volume 6, Hanseatische Verlagsanstalt Hamburg, undated [Hamburg], undated [1938], DNB 367632810 , pp. 30-33, no. 1672.
  • J. Schott: The von Rauch family in the Prussian army. In: Military weekly paper . No. 79 of September 6, 1893, p. 1979 ff.
  • Carl von Reinhard: History of the Royal Prussian Guard Regiment on foot 1740–1857. Publishing house August Stein, Potsdam 1858.
  • Otto von der Mülbe : The Guard Fusilier Regiment (2nd edition) . Verlag R. Eisenschmidt Potsdam, 1901.
  • Gothaisches aristocratic paperback . Volumes B 1928 (older genealogy) to 1939, p. 472 f.
  • Otto von Bismarck: Thoughts and Memories (unabridged edition). Goldmann Verlag Munich, 1981. pp. 51 ff., 108, 215, 432, 438.
  • David E. Barclay: Anarchy and Goodwill. Friedrich Wilhelm IV. And the German monarchy. Siedler-Verlag , Berlin 1995. pp. 227 ff., 292 ff., 321, 349.
  • Gordon A. Craig : The Prussian-German Army 1640-1945. State within the state. Athenäum Verlag Königstein im Taunus / Droste Verlag Düsseldorf , 1980. pp. 119, 130.
  • Walter Bussmann : Between Prussia and Germany. Friedrich Wilhelm IV. Siedler-Verlag, Berlin 1990. pp. 112, 156, 286, 292, 307, 457.
  • Marianna Butenschön: The Prussian on the Tsar's throne. Alexandra, Empress of Russia . Piper Verlag , Munich / Berlin / Zurich. 3rd edition, 2016. pp. 340, 344.
  • Königlich Geheime Oberhofbuchdruckerei: Handbook on the Royal Prussian Court and State . Berlin 1839. p. 28.
  • René Wiese (ed.): Vormärz and Revolution. The diaries of Grand Duke Friedrich Franz II of Mecklenburg-Schwerin. Böhlau Verlag Cologne Weimar Vienna, 2014. pp. 226, 255, 263, 293, 306.
  • Laurenz Demps : Between Mars and Minerva. Signpost for the Invalidenfriedhof. Verlag Bauwesen, Berlin 1998, p. 125.
  • Georg Dehio : Handbook of the German art monuments. Bd. Berlin, 2nd edition, 2000. p. 147.
  • Eva Börsch-Supan , Dietrich Müller-Stüler , ed. from the Berlin State Monument Office : Friedrich August Stüler 1800–1865. Deutscher Kunstverlag , Berlin 1997, p. 973.

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Leopold von Zedlitz-Neukirch : New Preussisches Adels-Lexicon . Volume 4, 1837, p. 88 ; Genealogical manual of the nobility . Nobility Lexicon. Volume XI, Volume 122 of the complete series, CA Starke Verlag , Limburg (Lahn) 2000, ISBN 3-7980-0822-1 , p. 192.
  2. ↑ Gothaisches genealogical pocket book of the baronial houses . Fourteenth year, Justus Perthes , Gotha 1864, p. 798.
  3. ^ Also the GHdA GA VII (1973), p. 179 and Ernst von Engelhardt: Excerpts from the church registers of the St. Petersburg consistorial district. In: Jb. GHS 1905 u. 1906 (Mitau 1908), p. 35, no. 1254, in contrast to Priesdorff (Lit.), mention December 30, 1855 as the marriage date.
  4. ^ Genealogical handbook of the Baltic knighthoods. Part 1, 1: Livonia. Görlitz 1929, pp. 164-165.
personal data
SURNAME Rauch, Friedrich Wilhelm von
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Prussian lieutenant general, adjutant general and military representative in Russia
DATE OF BIRTH March 15, 1790
PLACE OF BIRTH Potsdam
DATE OF DEATH June 9, 1850
Place of death Berlin