Georg Friedrich Dürk

Permission to wear the Legion of Honor Cross from King Ludwig II of Bavaria, 1867

Georg Friedrich Dürk (born May 2, 1788 in Meckenheim , Electoral Palatinate , † December 22, 1877 in Hochdorf ) was a highly decorated soldier of German descent in the French army.

biography

He was born in Meckenheim as the son of Johann Franz Dürk and his wife Margaretha. Michels born.

Meckenheim belonged to the Electoral Palatinate on the left bank of the Rhine . This area had been under French occupation since 1795 and was officially ceded to France by the Peace of Campo Formio (1797), confirmed by the Treaty of Lunéville (1801). Dürk's homeland was now, until 1814, part of the French Département du Mont-Tonnerre , with the main town in Mainz .

In 1806 Georg Friedrich Dürk was drafted into the French military, he was drafted in Mainz and assigned to the "Chasseurs à Cheval" (hunters on horseback). He took part in the Napoleonic Wars in Spain for three years , taking part in the costly siege of Saragossa (1809) . The man from the Palatinate was wounded in the thigh by 2 bayonet stabs and was taken to the military hospital of the fortress Metz . He then fought in the Russian campaign .

Because of his bravery and his exemplary attitude to service, he was transferred to Napoleon's Imperial Guard . In April 1814 he was one of the seven chosen body hunters who accompanied Napoleon to Fontainebleau , where he abdicated after the surrender of Paris . On April 20, 1814, Dürk and his comrades escorted the dethroned monarch to Malmaison Castle . Here, according to Dürks, he said goodbye to each of them with a handshake in order to go into exile in Elba . He had commissioned Marshal François-Joseph Lefebvre to ensure that all seven bodyguards received the cross of the Legion of Honor for their various services . Due to the political situation, however, it was no longer awarded.

In 1815 the Palatinate on the left bank of the Rhine fell to the Kingdom of Bavaria and became the Bavarian Rhine District . Georg Friedrich Dürk returned home, married Elisabetha Langhäuser from Ruppertsberg in 1817 and settled as a farmer in the nearby Hochdorf. Here he bought a property in Hauptstrasse and lived as a respected and popular citizen or veteran.

After Napoleon Bonaparte's nephew, when Napoleon III. , Who had also become French emperor in 1852, Dürk moved to Paris in order to obtain the once promised order. Since his own family always wanted to dissuade him from the project, he was supported by the local Catholic pastor Martin Ludwig Frübis and the mayor and cigar manufacturer Peter Zimmermann. They obtained the necessary papers for the elderly man from the authorities and issued him a certificate of repute. With this, Georg Friedrich Dürk traveled to Paris in 1867, at the age of 79. Through the Bavarian ambassador Maximilian Joseph Freiherr Pergler von Perglas , Dürk managed an audience with Emperor Napoleon III. to obtain. He was very impressed by the veteran who had traveled especially to see him and his detailed descriptions of his uncle and at the end of the audience decorated him with the cross of the French Legion of Honor. He also presented him with a reward of 1,000 francs and arranged for a pension of 1,200 francs annually, which was actually paid out until the fall of the French monarchy. When leaving the palace with the Legion of Honor cross on, the imperial palace guards presented in front of Dürk what he described at home as the greatest honor that had ever befallen him in his life. His son Adam picked him up from the train when he returned to Neustadt an der Weinstrasse and he was received triumphantly in Hochdorf. On July 4, 1867, King Ludwig II of Bavaria approved the acceptance and wearing of the high foreign honor.

Georg Friedrich Dürk had three children (two daughters and a son) with his wife, who died in 1865. The veteran died in high regard on December 22nd, 1877 and was solemnly buried on December 25th in Hochdorf. Pastor Ludwig Zeller gave a commemorative speech and the war clubs Meckenheim, Hochdorf, Böhl , Ruppertsberg and Mutterstadt escorted him with flags and gunfire. His Legion of Honor cross was on the coffin at the funeral.

literature

• Alois Krämer: The great Hochdorfer , in the homeland yearbook of the Ludwigshafen am Rhein district , Volume 10, 1994, pages 69-72, ISSN  0939-0103

Web links

• Genealogical website of Georg Friedrich Dürk

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Genealogical website on the wife, with data on marriage
2. ↑ Biographical website about Pastor Frübis  ( page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.  
3. ^ Government Gazette for the Kingdom of Bavaria , No. 38, of July 22, 1867