Friedrich von Gagern (General)

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General Friedrich von Gagern

Friedrich Balduin Ludwig Freiherr von Gagern (born October 24, 1794 in Weilburg , † April 20, 1848 near Kandern (in the battle on the Scheideck )) was a Dutch general of German origin and commander of the troops of the German Confederation against the Hecker uprising .

Life

Origin, youth and study time

Gagern came from the old Rügen noble family von Gagern and was born as the eldest of seven sons of the Nassau Minister Hans Christoph Ernst von Gagern . His mother was born Freiin v. Gaugreben . He is a brother of the President of the Frankfurt National Assembly Heinrich von Gagern and the politician Maximilian von Gagern . When West Germany became a theater of war in 1795, the parents followed the Nassau princely house to Bayreuth ; they did not return to Weilburg until 1800. Gagern attended high school and accompanied his father several times on his diplomatic trips. During 1809 and 1810 Gagern stayed in Paris to prepare for a visit to the École polytechnique . He then studied law in Göttingen , Marburg and Gießen .

In Göttingen he became a member of the Corps Hannovera and Rhenania in 1810 . In 1814 he became a member of the Teutonia Heidelberg fraternity and in 1817 he was a co-founder of the Heidelberg fraternity .

Military career

Wars of Liberation

After completing his studies, he embarked on the officer career that his father had set out for him. He went to Vienna, where he served as a cadet in Austria and in 1812 took part in Austria's campaign against Russia under Prince Schwarzenberg . In 1813 he was promoted to officer and took part in the wars of liberation against France. His regiment belonged to Count Gyulay's corps . The father, who had meanwhile entered the service of the Prince of Orange as a general agent , brought the son after him. When the prince had taken over the government of the northern Netherlands as King Wilhelm I , Gagern was hired in January 1814 as captain of the general staff and ordinance officer of the prince of Orange in the Dutch army. As such, he took part in the Battle of Waterloo and the Battle of Quatre-Bras in 1815 , in which he was wounded.

Dutch services

In Paris, through his father's connections, he got into the political circles of the time. After the peace Gagern was attached by his father, who represented the Duchy of Luxembourg at the Bundestag of the German Confederation in Frankfurt, and studied at the same time in Heidelberg until the end of 1816 . He then returned to the Netherlands and worked as a general staff officer until 1823 on the great national triangulation . From 1824 to May 1825 he was assigned to the Federal Military Commission in Frankfurt; In 1826 he became major and until 1830 found various uses as a general staff officer within the Belgian provinces. After the outbreak of the Belgian Revolution in 1830, when Prince Friedrich of Orange was forced to give up the attack on Brussels, he became Chief of the General Staff under Duke Bernhard von Weimar .

In 1834 he was promoted to lieutenant colonel , and has now left his relationship with Duke Bernhard. He went over to the cavalry and there soon received the command of a dragoons garrison in Deventer ; he was promoted to colonel . As such, he accompanied Prince Alexander of Orange (son of the Prince of Orange) to Saint Petersburg and Moscow in 1839 . In 1842 Gagern was appointed Brigade Commander and Provincial Commander of North Holland in Haarlem .

In October 1843, Gagern went into "inactivity" as a result of a general reduction in the army made necessary by the Dutch financial situation. King Wilhelm II appointed him his "personal adjutant in extraordinary service" . During the leave of absence he stayed at his parents' house in Hornau.

Trip to Southeast Asia

In June 1844, Gagern was sent to the Dutch colonies in the Sunda Islands as a major general on a special confidential mission . There he inspected the military and defense systems of the colonies. The official part of the trip covered Java , Madura and Sumatra . The trip there and back gave him the opportunity to get to know Madeira and Brazil and to get an in-depth look at British India and Egypt . The expedition, the results of which received the full approval of the King and the Ministry, took three full years to complete. His collection of animal preparations later came to the Wiesbaden Museum . After his return, Gagern was appointed provincial commander of South Holland and governor of the residence of the Dutch royal family in The Hague in 1847.

Baden uprisings and March revolution

The March Revolution of 1848 prompted Gagern to return to his German homeland. On April 13, 1848, the Hecker uprising began in Constance and on April 14, Gagern was appointed by the Baden Grand Duke Leopold and his War Minister Hoffmann as temporary deputy of Prince Maximilian as commander of the mobile troops of the Baden Division of the VIII Corps of the Federal Army and received the rank of a lieutenant general. The House of Baden did not want to expose its members in the upcoming disputes with its own population. Gagern, who was still in the service of King Wilhelm II of the Netherlands and was only on leave, had the German Federal Assembly confirm the urgency of accepting this appeal for the security of Baden. Gagern did not obey the order to return to the Netherlands immediately, which he received on April 19 in Schliengen. As early as April 20, he met with his contingent of Baden and Grand-Ducal Hessian federal troops in a battle on the Scheideck against an insurgent freelance led by Hecker . After a conversation with Hecker on a bridge near Kandern did not lead to the bloodless solution of the conflict that both sides wanted, an hour later a fight broke out at the Scheideck pass between Kandern and Steinen . In response to the call from the ranks of the free troops: “General ahead!”, Gagern went ahead and tried in vain to determine the rebellious troops through negotiations and verbal requests to lay down their arms. This was answered with the call to the troops led by Gagern to fraternize with the insurgents. Gagern mounted his horse and in the following firefight he was shot under circumstances that were never clarified. Both sides claimed the enemy had started the fighting. Gagern became the first victim of the battle near Kandern, which was victorious for his troops. In 1851 a memorial was erected to him at the top of the pass.

His grave is located near the family estate in Hornau.

Heinrich von Gagern became the brother's biographer ("The life of General Friedrich v. G."; by Heinrich v. G., Leipzig and Heidelberg 1856–57, 3 vols.). With the biography, a valuable literary estate has been published.

Awards

Friedrich von Gagern was a knight and officer of the Military Wilhelms Order .

literature

Web links

Commons : Friedrich von Gagern  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Kösener corps lists 1910, 70 , 12; 83 , 2
  2. ^ Heinrich von Gagern : The life of General Friedrich von Gagern Volume 2, Leipzig 1857, p. 798 in the Internet Archive
  3. ^ Heinrich von Gagern: The life of General Friedrich von Gagern Volume 2, Leipzig 1857, p. 80 in the Internet Archive
  4. see The battle at Kandern and the death of Lieutenant General von Gagern on April 20. According to new, previously unpublished files . Verlag Franz Nöldeke, Karlsruhe 1848. online on Google Books . Collection of reports and reports on the battle, contains among other things: Friedrich Hecker: Explanation of Dr. Hecker of May 12, 1848 ; Heinrich Wilhelm von Hinkeldey: Report to the War Ministry on the battle between the Grand Ducal Baden and Grand Ducal Hessian troops against the rebels near Kandern on April 20, 1848