Friedrich von Spörcken

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Friedrich von Spörcken (around 1770)

August Friedrich von Spörcken (born August 28, 1698 in Harburg , † June 13, 1776 in Hanover ) was an electoral Brunswick-Lüneburg field marshal and commanding general in the Seven Years' War .

Life

family

August Friedrich von Spörcken's family came from "the house of Suschendorf and Wendewisch". Spörcken's father Georg Friedrich von Spörcken was Landdrost zu Harburg, his mother Anna Elisabeth von der Schulenburg (1673–1725) a sister of the Venetian field marshal Matthias Johann von der Schulenburg . His brother Rudolph von Spörcken (1696–1766) was chamberlain and envoy of King George III. of Great Britain. His daughter Charlotte Louise von Spörcken (* 1733 Den Haag; † 1816 Hamburg) married Seneca Inggersen in 1763 , his son Simon Friedrich Adolph von Spörcken (1729–1784) married his daughter Gertruyda Johanna (1744–1802) on the same day.

The young years

Carefully educated and with a taste for science, von Spörcken joined the 3rd Infantry Regiment von Gauvain in the military service in 1715 as an ensign , was transferred as a lieutenant to the Guard Regiment in Hanover in 1716 and, supported by family connections in his career, moved already in 1733 to lieutenant colonel . The desire to complete his theoretical knowledge of war science by participating in military campaigns prompted him to request that the war events that occurred in 1734 and 1735 on the occasion of the dispute over the succession of Poland on the Rhine as a volunteer with the Hanoverian troops sent there under the orders of General du Pontpietin to be allowed to attend. When the peace was made, he returned home.

The struggle for Austrian succession gave him the first opportunity to participate in the war on his own in 1740. In 1742 he became a colonel and commander of a regiment on foot . At the head of the same he marched in autumn 1742 first to Brabant, from where the so-called pragmatic army was to move into France, but in the spring of the next year, after King George II had taken over the supreme command himself, to the Main and was here on 27 June 1743 present at the victorious battle of Dettingen . The Hanoverian troops were then transferred to the theater of war in the Netherlands, where von Spörcken remained until 1748. At the head of his regiment (in reality it was only one battalion ) he fought here in the battles of Fontenoy (May 11, 1745), Rocour (October 11, 1746) and Lauffeld (July 2, 1747). A shot through the chest at Fontenoy kept him out of campaign life for nine months; at Rocour he was contused in the neck by a rifle bullet. In 1745 he was promoted to brigadier, a rank between colonel and general , and in 1747 to major general. When peace was made on October 18, 1748, von Spörcken led his regiment back to the Münden staff garrison .

Von Spörcken married a Countess Kielmansegg in 1729, who passed away in 1731 when her only son was born. The later abbot Jerusalem stayed in Spörcken's house in Hanover in 1741/42 as tutor of the latter, who died in 1755 as a legation councilor .

Von Spörcken wrote a French diary about the campaigns of the Austrian War of Succession in Brabant and on the Rhine, the title of which is listed in the library catalog of the royal Hanoverian artillery brigade; Five of the eight existing issues of this work are in the possession of the family archive in Lüdersburg.

His younger brother, Moritz August Freiherr von Spörcken, born in 1711, joined the Electoral Saxon - Polish army as a colonel from Hanoverian service in 1746 , was major general and adjutant general at the outbreak of the Seven Years War , and concluded with the Prussian lieutenant general Hans Karl on October 16, 1756 von Winterfeld signed the agreement by virtue of which the fortress Königstein was declared neutral for the duration of the war. He was also head stables and kitchen master.

Seven Years War

The activity to which his seniority called him during the Seven Years' War brought him a larger sphere of activity . Soon after the beginning of the war, he was the oldest of the Hanoverian officers and therefore often had to command larger army departments independently. It cannot be said that he possessed the necessary skills and that he always met the demands placed on him. In battle, his achievements sometimes left a lot to be desired, and he did not behave clumsily when completing other tasks assigned to him. The trusted secret scribe of the Commander-in-Chief, Duke Ferdinand von Braunschweig , Westphalen, whose verdict on the generals subordinate to the Duke is almost generally a very unfavorable one, names him in his history of the campaigns of Duke Ferdinand von Braunschweig-Lüneburg , Berlin 1859, "  bête  " (2nd part, p. 375), “  indolent  ” (2nd part, p. 570), and speaks of his “  babil  ” (2nd part, p. 376); he judges when it is about von Spörcken or Oberg (ADB XXIV, 90): "One is as bad as the other, it is meanwhile true that Oberg is better than Spörcken", and thinks, as in May 1758 von Spörcken has submitted a petition for resignation because of a dispute over a rank that it would be regrettable if the king did not approve it; Riedesel (ADB XXVIII, 531) names (5th part, p. 523) von Spörcken in a letter written on July 4, 1761 from Detmold to the Duke "  le plus honnête homme du monde  ", adding "  mais les differents conseilles , reports et discours mettent tout en confusion  ». As Frederick the Great did with some of his generals, the Duke also gave General von Spörcken several times, if the latter had to make independent decisions, younger officers, such as his own adjutant, the lieutenant, later Major von Bülow and, afterwards, the latter In the autumn of 1761, the engineer lieutenant Georg Josua du Plat had died .

Even before the start of the hostilities of the Seven Years' War, von Spörcken, lieutenant general since 1754, belonged to the troop corps that went to England in 1756 under the command of General von Sommerfeld to be used against a French landing that was feared there; soon after returning in spring 1757, war broke out on the north-western scene. The first section of the same went very badly. The Commander-in-Chief, Duke August Wilhelm von Cumberland , led his army into Bremen after the Battle of Hastenbeck (July 26th) and here entered the Zeven Convention, which was concluded for the Hanoverian troops von Spörcken. King George II refused to give his consent, recalled the duke and gave orders to renew the hostilities. The ministers assembled in Stade were to deliberate on the measures to be taken for this purpose; Generals von Zastrow and von Spörcken were brought in to negotiate. The arrival of Duke Ferdinand von Braunschweig, who had been requested by the King as Commander-in-Chief, on November 23, helped these intentions to be carried out quickly. In the Ordre de Bataille issued by the Duke, we find von Spörcken as the commander of the 2nd meeting (18 battalions, 18 squadrons) and in the first undertaking led by the Duke, the attack on the enemy position near Celle, he carried out various tasks independently with skill out. During the advance against the Rhine, which began in February 1758, he received command of the right column, with which the Duke was, and when the army was redistributed after crossing the Weser line, that of the left column, consisting of 13 battalions and 16 squadrons, which were divided into 3 divisions. On June 8th, he led the troops under his command across the Rhine at Rees. The battle of Krefeld followed on the 23rd . Von Spörcken commanded the left wing of the army. He is rightly accused of having adhered too closely to the wording of the plan of attack and neglecting to take decisive action to make the victory a more complete one than was already achieved. During the summer he was promoted to general of the infantry.

Details of the Battle of Minden with von Spörcken troop positions

When, at the beginning of the campaign in 1759, the duke and the main part of the army turned to Hesse, he left von Spörcken with the "small army" to cover Westphalia; in the glorious battle of Minden (August 1st), however, the latter was reunited with the main army and von Spörcken was one of the leaders, to whom the duke particularly "tempted his respect and thanksgiving" in a general order of August 2nd. The 3rd column under his command consisted of the majority of the battalions whose brave behavior was recognized by Marshal de Contades' report with the words: "  J'ai vu ce qu'on ne vit jamais, une seule ligne d'infanterie percer et culbuter trois lignes de cavalerie, rangées en bataille.  »Von Spörcken then took part in the armed conflict in Hesse and moved from here with 15 battalions and 16 squadrons to winter quarters in the Münsterland .

The assertion of Westphalia, along with covering the lower Weser and keeping the connection with England free, was the task that fell to him in 1760. At this end the "small army" was again placed under him, consisting of 22 battalions, 22 squadrons, 44 heavy artillery pieces and 4,000 light troops, a total of about 24,000 men. Bülow , the Duke's adjutant general, stood by his side; the Duke of Spörcken referred to his advice in a long instruction given to the latter, which was subject to confining itself to the defensive. He would have liked to keep Bülow himself, but, "  il est indispensablement nécessaire de laisser un homme de confiance chez Spoercken  ". During this time in Hesse, the Duke faced Broglie, who operated from the Main . When the latter had achieved its union with Saint-Germain, who came from the Rhine, von Spörcken was called up again to the great army; on July 13th he joined Landau in Waldeckschen. Several bloody skirmishes followed, in which von Spörcken took part; among them is the victory of the Hereditary Prince of Brunswick and him on July 31st in the battle of Warburg . This gave the duke the opportunity to maintain the line of the Diemel, in this position von Spörcken commanded the first meeting, the bulk of the army, and when the duke turned against Göttingen at the end of November, he assumed the supreme command of the remaining army corps to which, however, nothing remarkable happened.

During the winter of 1760–61, von Spörcken was appointed chief of the guard regiment in place of the late General von Sommerfeld. The war year 1761 began for him with a victory, which he achieved together with the Prussian General von Syburg on February 15 over the French and Saxons near Langensalza. The battle was part of a series of endeavors by which the duke hoped to drive the enemy out of Hesse. When the plan failed, the troops returned to the Diemel and Weser; the campaign did not begin again until June. When the Duke then turned to Westphalia, he left von Spörcken with 13,000 men; in July he was also drawn there, but did not take part in the battle of Vellinghausen . Later von Spörcken commanded the Weser again. Here the Braunschweig General von Mannsberg, commanding under von Spörcken, was attacked by the French on the night of 13-14 September near Neuhaus im Sollinge. The Duke blamed von Spörcken for taking the orders he had received too literally, and gave him a hurtful expression of his dissatisfaction. Von Sporken now asked the King to dispense him from further service in the field. He justified his request by stating that he "had been given undeserved reprimands unheard and these would have passed through the hands of a can list". The Duke gave him permission to go to Hameln for the time being and on this occasion assured him of his "  amitié sincère, non equivoque et nun simulée  ". The dispute was settled. How it happened is not known. There is only one letter from King George III in the Hanoverian war files. of October 27, in which he expresses his satisfaction to the general at the decision to return to service. In fact, in November the latter had taken over the command of troops which were in winter quarters in Westphalia, and in the Ordre de Bataille for the next year's campaign he appears as commander of the first meeting of the infantry in the great army; when the latter marched in meeting, he had to command the first column. The Duke preferred to transfer the command of the separate theaters of war to the Hereditary Prince. Spörcken's behavior in the battle of Wilhelmsthal delivered on June 24 is made a similar reproach as he had learned about it in Krefeld; A lack of energetic intervention on his part was also to blame here for the fact that the successes of their own party were not sufficiently exploited and the victory did not bear enough fruit. It was the last fight in which von Spörcken took part.

The war ended at the end of the year. On December 23, after an armistice had put an end to hostilities on November 15, the Duke surrendered the high command to von Spörcken and left the army; the latter led the Hanoverian troops back to their homeland at the beginning of 1763 and took up residence in Hanover, where he was also governor.

post war period

In 1764 he was appointed field marshal and in all form the commanding general of all German troops of his royal majesty of Great Britain and the electoral highness of Braunschweig and Lüneburg, when he had been active since Sommerfeld's death on October 12, 1760. Von Spörcken was very effective in this position. The transfer of the large number of forces that the war had caused to a very reduced level of peace and the formation of a militia force, the presence of which was to compensate for the shortcomings of the latter; the enactment of new tactical regulations based on experiences made in the field by issuing drill regulations for the infantry in 1764 and for the cavalry in 1766; the care for the training of the artillery, characterized by the organization of various exercises; the order that the replacement of horses should be procured in one's own country if possible; the issuance of new budget regulations for infantry and cavalry; the establishment of the Michaelis' widow's bank, which he established in 1762, and a savings bank for the children of fallen NCOs and soldiers, testify to Spörcken's varied and successful activities.

death

Tomb of a still unidentified sculptor for von Spörcken in the Christ Church in Hanover

Von Spörcken died in Hanover on the night of June 12th to 13th, 1776; His funeral took place on July 11th with great pomp, of which the disposition of the corpse conduct printed by Sichart and the parentation occasionally held by the first funeral marshal Count Oeynhausen (printed and available at HM Pockwitz , printer in Hanover) bear witness.

His tomb can be found today in the Christ Church in Hanover; an epitaph in the arcade hall of the Engesohder cemetery .

Honors

Spörckenstraße , laid out in 1928 in the Hanover district of Ledeburg , honors the field marshal with its name.

literature

Web links

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

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b Klaus Mlynek: SPÖRCKEN ... (see literature)
  2. ↑ Compare the inscription under this tomb
  3. ↑ No. 2-A, cf. List of the regiments of Kur-Braunschweig-Lüneburg
  4. ^ Helmut Zimmermann : Spörckenstrasse. In: The street names of the state capital Hanover . Hahnsche Buchhandlung, Hannover 1992, ISBN 3-7752-6120-6 , p. 232
personal data
SURNAME Spörcken, Friedrich von
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Sporken, August Friedrich; Spörcken, August Friedrich von (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION electoral Brunswick-Lüneburg field marshal and commanding general
DATE OF BIRTH August 28, 1698
PLACE OF BIRTH Harburg
DATE OF DEATH June 13, 1776
Place of death Hanover