Friedrich von Katte

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Friedrich Christian Karl David von Katte (born April 4, 1770 in Zollchow , † January 12, 1836 in Neuenklitsche ) was a Prussian officer and freedom fighter.

His parents were August Friedrich Levin von Katte (* May 23, 1743; † April 19, 1826) and Anna Elisabeth von Arnstedt (* 1749; † November 9, 1802). His brother Gottfried von Katte became a Prussian lieutenant general.

Military background

Karl von Katte came from the Brandenburg noble family von Katte . At the age of 14 he joined the Prussian army and took part in the fighting in Holland in 1787 and in the campaigns against France from 1792–1795. After the Basel peace treaty of April 5, 1795 between France and Prussia, he first served on the demarcation line on the Lower Rhine and finally in the Stendal garrison . In the Fourth Coalition War , Katte, meanwhile promoted to captain , fell into French captivity after the Battle of Lübeck in November 1806. Released as a result of the Peace of Tilsit in the summer of 1807, he went to his estate in Neuenklitsche.

Uprising of 1809

In the autumn of 1808 first contacts were made with other patriotic conspirators with the aim of initiating an uprising against the Napoleonic regime of the Kingdom of Westphalia when another war broke out between France and Austria . Eugen von Hirschfeld , supported by his brother Moritz , worked in the Thuringia and Halberstadt area , Katte in the Magdeburg and Altmark area , and Wilhelm von Dörnberg in Hesse. After what he believed was thorough preparation and in consultation with other conspirators such as Ferdinand von Schill and Eugen von Hirschfeld, Katte led a small contingent of volunteers (around 30 cavalrymen and 100 infantrymen) near Sandau over the Elbe to Stendal on April 2, 1809, occupied the city and confiscated the local treasury. Then he mobilized about 300 more irregulars for the intended march on Magdeburg, which was only weakly occupied by the French. General Claude-Ignace-François Michaud, commander of the French troops in Magdeburg since 1808, had already taken countermeasures, possibly warned by the betrayal of a chamberlain at the court of Jérôme Bonaparte in Kassel . On the evening of April 5th, near Wolmirstedt , during the final preparations for the march to Magdeburg, Katte received the message through a messenger that Hirschfeld had been arrested and that he would therefore have to postpone the attack on Magdeburg indefinitely. Katte disbanded his corps on April 6th. However, a small number of the participants fell into enemy hands: 14 of them were sure to be shot, 9 more likely.

Wars of freedom

Under pressure from the French government of Westphalen, the Prussian government declared him outlawed . Katte, a warrant searched, fled to Bohemia where he performed in the service of Duke Friedrich Wilhelm of Brunswick-oil . He marched through Saxony with his “Schwarzer Schar” , was then sent to Archduke Karl and took part in his army in the battles of Aspern on May 21 and 22, 1809 and Wagram on July 5 and 6, 1809. Then he went to England with the Duke of Brunswick, but soon returned to Austrian service. When the war broke out in 1813, he returned to the Prussian army. He took part in various campaigns of the Wars of Liberation until 1815 and received the Iron Cross . After the war he served as a major in the 11th Hussar Regiment in Münster.

In 1826 he retired as a lieutenant colonel and devoted himself to his estate in Neuenklitsche. He died there on January 12, 1836.

literature

  • Veit Veltzke (ed.): For freedom - against Napoleon. Ferdinand von Schill, Prussia and the German Nation . Böhlau, Cologne, Weimar, Vienna 2009, ISBN 978-3-412-20340-5 , passim.
  • Rudolf von Katte: The foray of Karl Friedrich von Katte on Magdeburg in April 1809. In: History sheets for city and country Magdeburg. Volume LXX – LXXI, 1935–1936, pp. 17–35
  • Bernhard von Poten :  Katte, Friedrich von . In: Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie (ADB). Volume 51, Duncker & Humblot, Leipzig 1906, p. 72 f.
  • General German real encyclopedia for the educated classes. Brockhaus, Leipzig 1827, pp. 125–126
  • Katte, Friedrich Karl von. In: Meyers Großes Konversations-Lexikon. Volume 10, Leipzig 1907, p. 756

Web links

personal data
SURNAME Katte, Friedrich von
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Katte, Friedrich Christian Karl David von
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Prussian officer and freedom fighter
DATE OF BIRTH April 4, 1770
PLACE OF BIRTH Zollchow (Milower Land) , District Jerichow II
DATE OF DEATH January 12, 1836
Place of death Neuenklitsche at Genthin