Friedrich von Clausewitz

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Friedrich von Clausewitz (ca.1860)

Friedrich Karl Wilhelm Heinrich von Clausewitz (born December 15, 1807 in Burg (near Magdeburg) , † July 31, 1866 in Tscheitsch ) was a Prussian lieutenant general and commander of the 2nd division .

Life

origin

In his résumé, Friedrich shows some parallels with his famous uncle Carl von Clausewitz (1780–1831). His father was the eldest son of the royal Prussian tax collector Friedrich Gabriel Clauswitz (1740–1802). Friedrich's father Gustav Friedrich Marquard (1769–1830) was chief tax collector and tax advisor in Burg, while his mother Johanna Christiane, née Trillos.

Military career

Friedrich von Clausewitz joined the 11th Infantry Regiment of the Prussian Army on January 15, 1824 . At the beginning of his career as a soldier, the young officer candidate was supported by his older brother as captain . On December 21, 1824 Clausewitz was promoted to ensign and on March 10, 1826 to secondary lieutenant. His uncle Carl only trusted his nephew Friedrich to be mediocre in his ability as an officer. From 1829 to 1832 Clausewitz attended the General War School in Berlin . For a few months he stood there under his uncle, the director of the war school. After successfully completing his studies, Clausewitz served as a teacher for young officers and ensigns at the division school of the 11th Division in Breslau. From June 15, 1841 he served as an adjutant in the staff of the 11th Infantry Brigade . Promoted to Premier Lieutenant on September 18, 1842 , he served in the General Staff from April 1, 1843 . On April 4, 1844, he was transferred to the General Staff while being promoted to captain . Here he was the conductor of a surveying department and in 1846/48 also worked as a teacher at the General War School. In the revolutionary year of 1848 Clausewitz was assigned to the mobile guard brigade in the campaign against Denmark in February 1848 , and from June to the general staff of the 2nd Division , which belonged to the 1st Army Corps under Moritz von Hirschfeld , in the campaign against the revolutions in the Palatinate and Baden . The Prince of Prussia had the supreme command of the entire operation . Clausewitz took part in the battles near Homburg , Rinnthal , Ubstadt , Durlach and the Murg . For his work he was awarded the Order of the Red Eagle, IV class with swords. On November 29, 1849 he was promoted to major .

The autumn crisis of 1850 resulted in a general mobilization in Prussia , with Clausewitz on November 30 of the mobile field division in III. Army Corps was assigned. With the demobilization , Clausewitz returned to the General Staff and taught again at the General War School in Berlin from 1851 to 1855. On July 12, he was promoted to lieutenant colonel and on July 18, 1855 appointed chief of the general staff of the VII Army Corps . After only three months he was transferred to the war ministry in Berlin as head of the army department .

On the side, Clausewitz taught again at the General War School in Berlin from 1851 to 1855. On July 12, he was promoted to lieutenant colonel and on July 18, 1855 appointed chief of staff of the VII Army Corps . On October 15, 1855, he was appointed head of the Department for Troop Deployment in the War Ministry . Clausewitz worked out a plan for the reorganization of the Prussian army in 1857, which he deepened in a memorandum at the request of the Prince of Prussia, now the Prussian regent . It caused Wilhelm to try again to implement an army reform. Clausewitz's memorandum thus belongs to the prehistory of the Prussian constitutional conflict . When the reform project succeeded in 1862, Wilhelm had become king and Clausewitz had returned to the front line.

He had been promoted to colonel on November 22, 1858 , and on January 18, 1859 received his first active command as commander of the Emperor Alexander Guard Grenadier Regiment No. 1 . This command was extended until he was appointed regimental commander after his promotion to colonel on January 18, 1859. In this position he was also a member of the study commission of the War Academy in Berlin from the end of July 1860. In position à la suite of his regiment, Clausewitz was appointed commander of the 31st Infantry Brigade in Trier on September 3, 1861 and promoted to major general on October 18, 1861 . From January 14, 1862, he was in command of the 2nd Guard Infantry Brigade and received the Order of the Red Eagle, 2nd class with oak leaves and swords on the ring, on the occasion of the festival in January of the following year.

When Prussia on the occasion of the January Uprising in neighboring Congress Poland in March 1863 the troops of the adjacent districts of the I. , II. , V. and VI. Army Corps placed under the command of General Franz Karl von Werders , Clausewitz was given the post of Chief of Staff. During this command he was released from his relationship as a member of the study commission of the War Academy in early March 1863. In January 1864 Clausewitz returned to his brigade and was again a member of the study commission from the beginning of February. On 17 October 1864, he was appointed the Inspector of the crews of the Federal fortresses Mainz and Rastatt . In this position, Emperor Franz Joseph I awarded him the Commander's Cross of the Leopold Order and on June 18, 1865 he was promoted to Lieutenant General.

Clausewitz's grave in Čejč, 2018

Appointed commander of the 2nd division on January 4, 1866 , Clausewitz led his large formation from May 5, 1866 into the war against Austria as part of the 2nd Army under Crown Prince Friedrich Wilhelm . In June he marched through Silesia to Bohemia . His division advanced via Trautenau , which is about 30 km north of Nachod and covered by the Aupa, forming an important Austrian point of defense. In the battle of Königgrätz (July 3rd) he could hardly distinguish himself because the 1st Army Corps no longer properly entered the battle. But his division pursued the fleeing Austrian army to South Moravia , where he received the order to stop near the village of Tscheitsch. Here, about 40 km south-east of Brno , he found catastrophic conditions; cholera had broken out. Clausewitz used his medical staff to care for and treat the sick. When the division received the order to march home on July 30th, Friedrich was no longer able to obey this order. Like his uncle, he fell ill with cholera, to which he succumbed on July 31, 1866. As a Protestant Christian , Clausewitz was given a grave in the park by the Catholic Church.

literature

  • Kurt von Priesdorff : Soldier leadership . Volume 7, Hanseatische Verlagsanstalt Hamburg, undated [Hamburg], undated [1939], DNB 367632829 , pp. 108-109, no. 2180.
  • Bogislaw von Kleist: The generals of the Royal Prussian Army from 1840 to 1890. Helwigsche Verlagsbuchhandlung, Hanover 1891, p. 301.
  • Claus von Lettow-Vorbeck: Commemorative sheets on the ranking list of the Kaiser Alexander Garde Grenadier Regiment No. 1. W. Moeser, Berlin 1899, pp. 157–158.

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