Friedrich von Ribbentrop

Friedrich Ribbentrop around 1815

Friedrich Wilhelm Christian Johann Ribbentrop , from 1823 von Ribbentrop (born October 6, 1768 in the Mariental domain ; † February 7, 1841 in Potsdam ), was a real secret councilor , administrative lawyer, influential military and reformer of the Prussian military administration, general manager of the Prussian army during the Wars of Liberation in 1815 and from 1835 Chief President of the Royal Prussian Chamber of Accounts in Potsdam, Dr. iur. and Dr. phil. hc

Life

Ribbentrop was born on October 6, 1768 on the monastery domain of Mariental near Helmstedt as the son of the ducal Brunswick Chamber Councilor Philip Christian Ribbentrop . He finished his legal training at the University of Helmstedt in 1787. He entered the Prussian civil service in 1788 as a trainee lawyer at the War and Domain Chamber in Minden . In 1790 he became an assessor ; From 1793–1806 he worked for the chambers in Minden, Hamm and Münster (all in Westphalia ) as a chamber and domain councilor. 1798-1800 Ribbentrop was a member of the field war commissioner in the so-called observation army under the command of Duke Karl Wilhelm Ferdinand of Braunschweig .

1801/02 in the field war commissariat of the Blücher Corps , which the Principality of Münster took possession of. From this time came a close friendship with Prince Blücher. 1802/05 as a member of the organizing commission in the diocese of Münster , he was at the head of poor relief in the township and founded working schools for the town's poor youth.

In 1805/06 Ribbentrop was director of the field war commissioner at Blücher's Westphalian army corps, and after the lost battle at Jena and Auerstedt , he saved the Prussian war chest with a stock of 965,000 thalers via the Magdeburg fortress to Königsberg . In 1808 a permanent General War Commissariat was set up under the direction of Ribbentrop, with the aim of sustainable reorganization of the military administration; he was now entitled "Council of State". With the beginning of the wars of liberation 1813-1815 he rejoined Blücher's corps as director. After the Battle of the Katzbach , he declared himself the commander of the chaos-sinking city of Jauer and, without the assistance of a military authority, took care of the wounded, the collection and repatriation of the prisoners, the recovery of the spoils of war and the restoration of an orderly city administration. His successful work led to his appointment as general manager of the Prussian armies for the duration of the war through cabinet orders. After the occupation of Paris in 1815, Blücher transferred the entire administration of the occupied French parts of the country to Ribbentrop. He succeeded in tracking down the Quadriga of the Brandenburg Gate - which Napoléon Bonaparte had removed from Berlin in 1806 and transferred to Paris - and returned it to Berlin along with other art treasures. The rescue of the war chest in 1806, the intervention in the administration of Jauer in 1813 and the tracing of the Quadriga in 1814 are examples of his determined drive, which did not wait for orders. Significantly, he was on friendly terms with the military officers Blücher, Scharnhorst and Gneisenau , who were similar in this respect .

After the war, Ribbentrop returned to the General War Commissariat, which had meanwhile been converted to the War Ministry , where he worked for another 20 years. Through the reform of the army administration that he implemented, which in particular included the creation of permanent intendants for the army corps and divisions and the establishment of regiments - quartermasters (officials) instead of accounting officers, he created the basic features of military administration that have survived to this day . In 1835 Ribbentrop resigned from the War Ministry.

As Chief President, he took over the management of the Prussian Chamber of Accounts in Potsdam, while retaining his position as General Director.

He was raised to the Prussian hereditary nobility on February 6, 1823 in Berlin and in 1838 he was made honorary citizenship of Potsdam.

family

He married twice. His first wife was Isabella Keller on April 7, 1792 (* May 11, 1771, † July 25, 1861). The couple divorced. But the couple had the following children:

• Friedrich Wilhelm Franz (* June 8, 1803; † February 7, 1883), Prussian Privy Councilor ⚭ March 15, 1828 Henriette Förster (* March 24, 1808)
• Louis (May 9, 1807, † June 4, 1879), Lieutenant Colonel ⚭ July 19, 1850 Marie von Mach (May 17, 1819, † May 1902), widowed Sommerfeld

After his divorce, he married Auguste von Schon (1800-1854) in 1825. The couple had the following daughter:

• Marie (* 1828) ⚭ NN Leirens, writer

Memberships

• Tugendbund zu Königsberg from 1808
• Lawless Society in Berlin from 1809
• Christian-Brandenburg Table Society 1817 to 1917
• Johannisloge "Friedrich zur Vaterlandsliebe" from 1817

Works

• Constitution of the Prussian Canton system. JA Müller, Minden 1798.
• Field Marshal Prince Blücher v. Election instead. Westphalian national calendar from 1806.
• Instruction for the field lazareth inspectors. Koenigsberg 1812.
• Collection of regulations, instructions and other articles in relation to the service of the military economic officials of the Royal Prussian Army. 13 volumes, Berlin 1814–21.
• Collection of regulations, instructions and other articles on the clothing of the Royal Prussian Army. Berlin 1815. Digitized
• Archives for managing the budget of the European armed forces. Berlin 1818.
• Some news about the storage of troops under tents for the Intendanturen of the Royal Prussian Army. Berlin 1823.
• Regulations on the Service of Nursing in the Field. 2 volumes, Berlin 1832.

literature

• G (ebhard) B. (Leberecht) v. Blücher : Campaign Journal of the years 1793 and 1794. Edited by Kriegsrath Ribbentrop and Adjutant Graf Golz, G. Decker, Berlin.
• JD: Braunschweigische letters from Paris from the year 1815. In: Braunschweigischen advertisements. Nos. 89, 102, 116, 130, 144, supplements Braunschweigisches Magazin nos. 7-11, 1896.
• Scholarly Berlin in 1825. Berlin 1826 (with a biography of Friedrich v. Ribbentrop)
• Albrecht Erlenmeyer : The founding of the St. Johannis-Lodge Friedrich zur Vaterlandsliebe in Or .: zu Coblenz; A contribution to the history of Rhenish freemasonry. W. Büxenstein, Berlin 1901.
• Albrecht Erlenmeyer: Friedrich Ribbentrop as a Freemason. Self-published, Bendorf / Rh. 1903.
• W. v. Unger: Blücher. ES Mittler & Sohn , Berlin 1907.
• Friedrich Kallmorgen: A German man - communicated from old letters. In: Daily review. 38th year 1918, No. 10.
• Hans Helfritz: History of the Prussian Army Administration. C. Heymann, Berlin 1938.
• Jürgen Kloosterhuis : Peasants, Citizens and Soldiers - Sources for the Socialization of the Military System in Prussian Westphalia 1713–1802. 2 volumes, self-published by the NW Staatsarchiv, Münster 1992.
• Bernhard von Poten :  Ribbentrop, Friedrich von . In: Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie (ADB). Volume 28, Duncker & Humblot, Leipzig 1889, pp. 398-402.
• Gothaisches genealogisches Taschenbuch der Briefadeligen houses, 1909, p. 629.

Web links

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

• Literature list in the online catalog of the Berlin State Library