Friedrich Wilhelm von Rauch (military governor)

Friedrich Wilhelm Gustav Claus von Rauch (born September 10, 1868 in Potsdam , † August 11, 1899 in Wilhelmshöhe Palace ) was a Prussian officer, military governor and educator of the sons of Kaiser Wilhelm II and Empress Auguste Viktoria .

Life

origin

Friedrich Wilhelm von Rauch was the son of the general of the infantry Albert von Rauch (1829-1901) and his wife Elisabeth, born von Bismarck (1845-1923). His grandfather was the Prussian War Minister and honorary citizen of Berlin, General of the Infantry Gustav von Rauch , his great-grandfather Major General Bonaventura von Rauch .

Friedrich Wilhelm von Rauch was the godson of Crown Prince Friedrich Wilhelm of Prussia, who later became Emperor Friedrich III.

Career

After graduating from Lyceum II in Hanover, Rauch joined the 1st Guards Regiment on foot in Potsdam in 1887 - like his father in 1847 and his younger brother in 1894, who later became Colonel Leopold von Rauch (1876–1955) . In 1888 he was promoted to Portepeefähnrich , and in 1889 to Second Lieutenant . In 1892 Rauch became adjutant of the 1st Battalion.

In 1894, Kaiser Wilhelm II and Empress Auguste Viktoria Rauch was chosen as the second military governor and tutor of Crown Prince Wilhelm and his two younger brothers, Princes Eitel Friedrich and Adalbert , for their training in the Prinzenhaus on the Plön Prinzeninsel. In 1896, Rauch was promoted to Prime Lieutenant on foot while remaining in his command and under position à la suite of the 1st Guard Regiment . In 1898 the imperial couple chose Rauch as the first military governor of their younger sons, Princes August Wilhelm and Oskar .

In 1899, Rauch accompanied the Empress and her two youngest sons on their journey through the Hohe Tauern and the Berchtesgaden Alps . After returning from Austria, Rauch died in August 1899 in the Kaiserschloss Wilhelmshöhe of the consequences of pneumonia.

His successor as First Military Governor was Lieutenant Captain Oskar Graf von Platen-Hallermund , Wing Adjutant of the Emperor, later Vice Admiral and long-standing court marshal of Wilhelm II.

Grave of First Lieutenant Friedrich Wilhelm von Rauch, Military Governor of Princes August Wilhelm and Oskar of Prussia, at the Invalidenfriedhof in Berlin (2019)

Grave in the Berlin Invalidenfriedhof

Rauch was buried in the grave of his family in the Invalidenfriedhof in Berlin-Mitte and in the vicinity of the grave of honor of his grandfather Gustav von Rauch. The preserved Rauch grave complex was designed by court architect Friedrich August Stüler on behalf of King Friedrich Wilhelm IV of Prussia .

The family grave is only a few meters away from the former Berlin Wall . After German reunification in the 1990s, it was restored by the garden monument maintenance department of the Berlin State Monuments Office . The restoration was funded by the federal government, the Foundation Deutsche Klassenlotterie Berlin and the Invalidenfriedhof eV association

literature

• Gothaische Noble paperback. Volumes B 1928, p. 470.
• Laurenz Demps : Between Mars and Minerva. Signpost for the Invalidenfriedhof. 1998, p. 125 f.
• Chronicle of the First Guard Regiment on Foot. Berlin 1902.
• Mathilde Countess von Keller : Forty years in the service of the Empress . 1935, p. 212.
• Claus Heinrich Bill: Prince Eitel Friedrich of Prussia. 1995.
• New Kreuzzeitung. (Berlin) from August 12, 1899 and August 15, 1899.