Friedrich von Hotze

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Friedrich von Hotze.

Johann Konrad Friedrich Freiherr von Hotze, actually Johann Konrad Hotz (born April 20, 1739 in Richterswil , † September 25, 1799 near Schänis ), was an imperial-royal field marshal lieutenant ( division officer ) of Swiss origin. He came from a surgeon dynasty from Lake Zurich .

Life and military career

Grandfather and father had learned their trade as " field shearers " in foreign armies ( Hessen-Kassel and France ). A sister of the father was the mother of the pedagogue Johann Heinrich Pestalozzi . The mother Judith geb. Gessner was a citizen of the city of Zurich. The brother Johannes Hotze (1734–1801) was an internationally known doctor.

Hotze attended the Carolinum in Zurich in 1754 and then studied at the University of Tübingen . He remained single all his life. In 1758 he took up military service as an ensign in the Duchy of Württemberg . In 1759 he was promoted to lieutenant . In the Russian army, to which he belonged from 1768, he rose to major in 1776 . In 1778 he joined an Austrian cuirassier regiment as a major. Transferred to Vienna in 1783, he was positively noticed by Emperor Joseph II. In 1786 he was sent to Galicia as a lieutenant colonel to set up the first Austrian Uhlan Corps . On this occasion he introduced the lance as a cavalry weapon in Austria. In the following years of peace he became colonel and commander of the Hohenzollern cuirassier regiment and was seconded to Russia for some time to set up a cuirassier corps for Catherine II . Hotze was promoted to major general in 1793 and to field marshal lieutenant in 1796.

When the Revolutionary War against France began, he joined Field Marshal Wurmser's army and became major general in 1793. For storming the Weissenburg line, which was considered impregnable, he was awarded the Maria Theresa Order . In the further course of the war he succeeded - meanwhile promoted to field marshal lieutenant - among other things the conquest of Mannheim . His successes in 1796 were particularly numerous, where he commanded Cannstatt and Esslingen am Neckar , defeated the French at Neresheim and finally proved himself at Neumarkt, Lauf and Würzburg . For these achievements he was awarded the Commander's Cross of the Maria Theresa Order.

In 1798 he decided to support the old Confederation in the fight against the French army and temporarily left the Austrian army. As he, after Switzerland arrived, was Bern already the French have been taken , and in Zurich was the Helvetic Revolution erupted. He therefore returned to the Austrian army and fought there on the side of the 2nd coalition against France . As a Lieutenant Field Marshal, he commanded the Austrian troops from Feldkirch against the French under General André Masséna .

In this theater of war, too, he was initially still successful, defending Feldkirch, conquering the Luziensteig fortification and defeating Masséna near Winterthur . In the First Battle of Zurich on June 4-7, 1799, as the commander of the left wing, although wounded himself, he forced the French to retreat.

Conflicts and disputes in the Austrian leadership as well as with the allied Russian commanders led to a difficult situation in the summer of 1799. The original cantons had to be evacuated in August. In the second half of September Masséna ousted the corps of Russian General Alexander Rimsky-Korsakov from his positions near Zurich, while Nicolas Jean-de-Dieu Soult took on Hotze on the Lin Plain between Zurich and Walensee. On the morning of September 25th, he personally carried out a reconnaissance ride near Schänis because of the confused situation; in the process he fell in enemy fire when he was surprised in the morning mist by advancing French.

Honors

For “the storming of the Weissenburg lines on October 13th as major general” he was awarded the Knight's Cross of the Maria Theresa Order in 1793 and soon afterwards also raised to the rank of baron. In 1797 he also received the Commander's Cross of this order for “merits in 1796 as a field marshal lieutenant”. From 1797 he called himself Friedrich Freiherr von Hotze . In 1851 a memorial was erected to him in the cemetery in Bregenz . The General-Hotze-Weg in Schänis is named after him.

literature

Web links

personal data
SURNAME Hotze, Friedrich von
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Hotze, Johann Konrad Friedrich Freiherr von (full name); Hotz, Johann Konrad (real name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION imperial-royal field marshal lieutenant (division general)
DATE OF BIRTH April 20, 1739
PLACE OF BIRTH Richterswil
DATE OF DEATH September 25, 1799
Place of death Schänis