Friedrich von Hellwig

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The Hellwig stone in Schloßvippach

Karl Ludwig Friedrich Hellwig , von Hellwig since 1826 , (born January 18, 1775 in Braunschweig , † June 26, 1845 in Liegnitz ) was a Prussian officer , most recently a lieutenant general , who gained fame as a free corps leader during the wars of liberation . He was the first recipient of an Iron Cross 1st class (for his service with Wanfried ).

Life

origin

Friedrich was the son of Johann Christian Ludwig Hellwig , Braunschweiger Hofrat and mathematician at the Collegium Carolinum and his wife Dorothea Henriette, née Schonewald.

Military career

After Hellwig broke off his training at the Katharineum at the age of 16 without a qualification, he joined the Prussian Hussar Regiment H 3 under v. On May 19, 1791 through the mediation of the Brunswick Duke Karl Wilhelm Ferdinand as a Junker . Köhler , who was stationed in Upper Silesia . With him he immediately took part in the campaigns of 1792/95 .

Hellwig's "hussar coup"

The Hellwig monument near Eichrodt

After Hellwig should have received the order Pour le Mérite for storming Münchweiler Castle near Trier with dismounted hussars, he became known after the battle of Jena and Auerstedt when he was a lieutenant with 25 hussars at Eichrodt on October 17, 1806 4000 Prussians, the garrison of the Erfurt Fortress , freed from Napoleonic captivity. This hussar coup was of little military importance, but it was all the more psychological for the defeated Prussian army. For this act he received the medal from the hands of the Prussian Queen Luise and was promoted to squadron chief. After the defeat of Prussia , Hellwig fled to Silesia and initially retired from military service due to a wound he received at Glatz .

Wars of Liberation

Memorial plaque at the entrance to the town hall of Wanfried
From Hellwig's patrol corps 1813

When the Wars of Liberation began in 1813, Hellwig served as a major in the 2nd Silesian Hussar Regiment . In the spring of 1813 Hellwig received from Field Marshal Blücher the permission to found a "Partisan Corps", at the head of which he moved into Braunschweig on November 25, 1813 to the cheers of the people liberated from the French occupation.

His military deeds during the Wars of Liberation:

  • April 12, 1813, Langensalza : The Prussian Major von Hellwig attacked 2,000 French with around 150 men and stole 5 guns, 3 wagons and 20 horses from them. In Gotha the Prussian hussars arrest a French legation secretary and steal important papers. For this Hellwig was awarded the Iron Cross 2nd class.
  • April 23, 1813, Wanfried; the Prussian major von Hellwig attacked a Westphalian hussar regiment, which almost all ran away, so that only 32 men and 50 horses could be taken. The leader, Lieutenant Colonel von Göcking, went over to the Prussians. Hellwig was awarded the Iron Cross 1st class for this - as the first soldier ever.
  • October 17, 1813, Schlossvippach near Sömmerda : As leader of a volunteer corps, Hellwig captured 70 Polish Uhlans and three officers and took 80 horses as booty.
  • On October 17th, 18th and 19th, 1813, the Battle of Nations raged near Leipzig , a terrible slaughter. The royal Saxon army and the Württemberg cavalry defected to the Allies during the battle. At the end of the battle there are dead and wounded everywhere. On October 20, the Hellwig Corps arrives in Heldrungen, Thuringia . It did not take part in the battle itself, but instead took on the task of unsettling the retreat area of ​​the French army and its allies. Hellwig moves on via Weißensee , Langensalza and Sondershausen to Nordhausen .
  • On October 29th, the Hellwig Corps took Halberstadt .
  • When Major von Hellwig entered Brussels on January 29, 1814 , he was enthusiastically received.

At the end of the war in April 1814, Hellwig's Freikorps was disbanded. Hellwig became the commander of the 9th Hussar Regiment , which he also commanded during the summer campaign of 1815 . Hellwig's last deployment was to attack a battalion from General Grouchy's rearguard as they retreated from Wavre to Charleroi on June 20, 1815.

Even after the peace treaty of 1815, Hellwig remained a soldier and was ennobled in 1826 . In 1830 he was appointed brigade commander in Cologne . In 1838 he took his leave with the rank of lieutenant general and with an annual pension of 2250 thalers and retired to Silesia, where he died on June 26, 1845 in Liegnitz.

family

Hellwig married Josepha, nee von Faldern, widowed von Görtz (* 1775) in Pitschen on September 24, 1804 , from whom he divorced on October 31, 1809. He then married on February 27, 1810, Klara Susanne Charlotte Wilhelmine Freytag (* October 5, 1790 in Nienburg, † July 30, 1852 in Großrösen), the daughter of the tenant and bailiff of Nienburg (Saale) . He had the following children with her:

literature

  • Kurt von Priesdorff : Soldier leadership . Volume 5, Hanseatische Verlagsanstalt Hamburg, undated [Hamburg], undated [1938], DNB 367632802 , pp. 134-137, no. 1458.
  • Festschrift for the inauguration of the Hellwig stone in Schloßvippach on October 17, 1913 . Georg Rupprecht and other memorial committee members, Schloßvippach, printed by Richard Wackes in Großrudestedt, 1913.
  • Horst-Rüdiger Jarck, Günter Scheel (Ed.): Braunschweigisches Biographisches Lexikon. 19th and 20th centuries. Hanover 1996
  • Bernhard von Poten :  Hellwig, Rudolf Friedrich von . In: Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie (ADB). Volume 13, Duncker & Humblot, Leipzig 1881, p. 499 f.
  • Friedrich August Karl von Specht : The Kingdom of Westphalia and its army in 1813 as well as the dissolution of the same by the Imperial Russian General Count A. Czernicheff . Luckhardt Verlag, Kassel 1848, p. 84 ( books.google.de ).
  • Johanniter-Ordensblatt: official monthly of the Balley Brandenburg, volumes 4–6, p.70
  • New Nekrolog der Deutschen, 1845, part 1, volume 23, p.561ff

Web links

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

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Horst-Rüdiger Jarck, Günter Scheel (ed.): Braunschweigisches Biographisches Lexikon. 19th and 20th centuries , p. 258
  2. ↑ From the contemporary newspaper “Das neue Deutschland”, published in Berlin.
  3. ↑ Festschrift for the inauguration of the Hellwig Stone in Schloßvippach on October 17, 1913 . Georg Rupprecht u. a. Published by the community of Schloßvippach. Printed by Richard Wackes, Großrudestedt 1913
personal data
SURNAME Hellwig, Friedrich von
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Hellwig, Karl Ludwig Friedrich von
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Prussian officer
DATE OF BIRTH January 18, 1775
PLACE OF BIRTH Braunschweig
DATE OF DEATH June 26, 1845
Place of death Liegnitz