Georg Freiherr von Krauchenberg

Coat of arms of the barons of Krauchenberg

Georg Krauchenberg , from 1832 Georg Freiherr von Krauchenberg (born June 12, 1776 in Celle ; † May 14, 1843 in Hanover ) was an electoral Hanoverian cavalryman at the time of the coalition wars and later a royal Hanoverian major general.

Life

Early career in the cavalry

His father had been court clerk and garrison auditor. Krauchenberg joined the tenth cavalry regiment Prince of Wallis light dragoons on March 3, 1793 and was used with the same in the unfortunate campaigns of 1793-95 in the Netherlands. However, these gave him the opportunity to perfect his independent outpost service ( skirmishers ) and to excel at an early age through boldness and skill. When the siege of Ypres began in June 1794 , he was in the fortress, not yet an officer, as the orderly of the Austrian commandant, Major General von Salis. He foresaw that these would not last long and that he would then become a prisoner of the French. Even before the encirclement took place, he rode away, contrary to his orders at the time, pretending to be the messenger of dispatches at his own outposts, and successfully reached his old regiment, while his comrades succumbed to surrender.

Incident during the invasion of Hanover in June 1803

Krauchenberg became known in broader circles in the coalition wars of 1803 when, with the rank of lieutenant, regardless of the standstill order of his superiors, he took the initiative in one of the few combat operations to actively counteract the advance of the superior French invasion army. On June 2, near the forester's lodge Weberkuhle near the village of Borstel on the Heerstraße between Nienburg and Sulingen with about 9 light dragoons behind a field guard of Lieutenant Linsingen , Krauchenberg learned that the latter, who, together with a trumpeter under a white flag, considered the French Parliamentary rode to ceasefire negotiations when a prisoner was being held back. He therefore united Linsi gene remaining Piket of 32 with his small troop and searched with these 40 riders a favorable position in the terrain . At the appropriate moment he attacked the advance of the French advance guard, numbering about 250 men, and scared the enemy back. This was repeated twice, until the skirmish, which was even accompanied by individual duels with the enemy officers, was ended by three cannon shots by the Hanoverian main force, which had meanwhile arrived, which led to the temporary withdrawal of the French. The losses on the French side amounted to about 20 men dead and wounded, one horseman among Krauchenberg's troops is said to have been killed, several wounded and 3 taken prisoner by the French.

In the Anglo-German Legion

Krauchenberg brought this intrepid attempt at defense when he appeared in a theater in Hamburg shortly after the conclusion of the Artlenburg Convention , and received enthusiastic applause from the audience. When the beginning of the establishment of the Anglo-German Legion, consideration for the advancement of others threatened to delay his employment, he was appointed Rittmeister in the 1st Light Dragoon Regiment, later in the 1st Hussar Regiment, through the intervention of the King . As early as 1807, during Lord Cathcart ’s expedition to Zealand , he knew how to justify this show of favor. During the siege of Copenhagen he led the regiment's vanguard on a reconnaissance mission. After the failed plan to intercept a transport of ammunition intended for the " Friedrichswerk " fortress , Krauchenberg received the commanding authority's consent to attempt to capture the fortress itself, the crew of which was largely made up of volunteers. On August 19, he took a nearby Danish detachment by surprise. Through the Danish leader of the same he succeeded in pretending to the commandant of the fortress that he was being besieged by 10,000 men, whereupon the Danes surrendered, and 800 Danes were captured, guns and supplies essential for the war effort were captured.

In fighting on the Iberian Peninsula, in which he participated from 1809 to 1813, he was officially commended by Brigadier General Crawford after the battle at Gallegos on July 4, 1810; on Wellington's suggestion he received the June 29, 1813 at brevet to Major. When he was transferred to the theater of war in northwest Germany in 1813, Wellington recommended him to the English commander-in-chief, the Duke of York . As a result, he took part in the last section of the campaign in Holstein with the General Staff of the Crown Prince of Sweden and was then at the blockade of Antwerp. Krauchenberg did not take part in the Battle of Waterloo because he was detached.

Later career from 1816

In 1816, when he returned to the Hanoverian service with the third hussar regiment of the King's German Legion , to which he had belonged since 1813 , he was soon commander of the same and promoted to major general. As district administrator, he represented his garrison town Northeim in the general assembly of the estates and had a villa built there in 1817 on the site of the former Bleichanger . In June 1832 he was raised to the baron status "in recognition of the cleverness, bravery and perseverance he had demonstrated in the field", which was a very rare type of award in Hanover at the time. He was appointed inspector of the cavalry and later lieutenant general. When he died in Hanover in 1843, he was in command of the first cavalry division.

One of his descendants was Helene, née Freiin von Krauchenberg (1823-1896), the mother of the genre painter Georg von Boddien . Other descendants were later resident in Vienna.

Literature and web links

• New Nekrolog der Deutschen, 21st vol., Year 1843; Article "Krauchenberg, Georg Freiherr von" by Bernhard von Poten in: Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie , published by the Historical Commission at the Bavarian Academy of Sciences, Volume 17 (1883), pages 61–63, digital full-text edition at Wikisource (version from June 2, 2020)
• Bernhard von Poten : The generals of the Royal Hanoverian Army and their regular troops . Hanover 1857, p. 303 ( wikimedia.org [PDF]).
• Friedrich von Ompteda : The overpowering of Hanover by the French: a historical-political study: with the facsimile of the Convention of Sulingen . 2nd edition. Helwing, Hannover 1866, p. 251 f . ( books.google.de ).
• A. von Ramdohr (written in mid-August 1803): Attempt to give a short but faithful account of the invasion of the Chur-Hannoversche Lande undertaken and carried out by the French in June 1803, the military measures taken against it and the consequences associated with it ; in: Archives of the historical association for Lower Saxony (Hahn'sche Hofbuchhandlung, Hanover 1846). Pages 28–59, see page 39. Online at BSB , or online at slub-dresden.de .

Individual evidence

1. ↑ cf. Friedrich von Ompteda: The overpowering of Hanover by the French: a historical-political study: with the facsimile of the Sulingen Convention ; 2nd edition (Helwing, Hannover 1866) p. 252. ( books.google.de )
2. ↑ A. v. Ramdohr, Brig.-Major (1803), in: Archives of the historical association for Lower Saxony, year 1846, Hahn'sche Buchhandlung, Hanover, part 2, page 39 ( books.google.de )
3. ↑ Friedrich von Ompteda: The overpowering of Hanover by the French: a historical-political study: with the facsimile of the Sulingen Convention ; 2nd edition (Helwing, Hannover 1866) p. 252 ff. ( Books.google.de )
4. ^ The London Gazette, 1812-1813. Page 1247 ( books.google.de )
5. ^ Gravestone Adda von Krauchenberg (1862–1944) in the Hütteldorfer Friedhof, Penzing near Vienna. Private website TNG-Adler, viewed on June 3, 2020
6. ↑ probably Alexander Andreas von Ramdohr (* 1759; † April 21, 1824); 1803 Brigade Major and Captain of the 7th Hanover Cavalry Regiment; 1814 lieutenant colonel; from 1818 Colonel a. D., as well as land and treasury. Younger brother of Basil of Ramdohr