Georg Friedrich von Kall

Theodor Georg Friedrich von Kall (born October 31, 1781 in Stallupönen ; † May 5, 1813 in Hartha ) was a Prussian major and commander of the 2nd Leib-Hussar Regiment .

Life

origin

Georg Friedrich von Kall was the son of the later Prussian major general Friedrich von Kall (1742-1809) and his wife Helene Christiane Juliane, born von Heilsberg (born April 28, 1761, † November 18, 1831 in Königsberg ). His three brothers also embarked on a military career in the Prussian Army .

The family was wealthy in East Prussia at Cranz , Lenkeninken and Thengen and the Kölmergut Lenkeninken in the district of Insterburg belonged to a widowed wife von Kall in 1857.

Military career

Grave of Georg Friedrich von Kall in Waldheim

As a child he lived for a time in Krefeld with relatives . In 1795, not yet 14 years old, Kall was employed as a flag junior in the “von Suter” hussar regiment. In the same year he was promoted to cornet and in 1799 to second lieutenant. As such, he served as a regimental adjutant from 1801/03 . In the New Year 1807 he was promoted to Premier Lieutenant and appointed Adjutant General to Lieutenant General Anton Wilhelm von L'Estocq . In February 1807 he was staff assistant master .

In the Fourth Coalition War against Napoleon in 1806/07 he distinguished himself in an excellent way and received the Order Pour le Mérite and the Russian Order of St. Vladimir after the Peace of Tilsit . In 1808 he was promoted to Rittmeister .

The officer did not like peacetime service. He said:

“The life of a soldier in peace is extremely miserable, servile and humiliating. The soldier in war has a sad but great destiny. I am heartily fed up with the former as there is no prospect of becoming the latter. "

In the meantime assigned to the 1st West Prussian Dragoons Regiment, Kall came to the 2nd Leib-Hussar Regiment in 1810. Here he was promoted to major to squadron chief in spring 1811 .

In 1812 he held the post of high commander and war commissioner in Rastenburg and later in Tilsit , but he would have much preferred to have been in the field. So he asked King Friedrich Wilhelm III. to use in a mobile body. But the king's answer was:

"I appreciate the zeal for my service, which continually inspires you and which you have proven anew through your wish to be employed in the mobile troops, as expressed in the letter of 9th DM. It is true that I am now unable to satisfy this wish, since there is no longer any opportunity to place you with those troops in an appropriate manner; If, however, you can also render me useful service in your current circumstances, I hope that this conviction will make it easy for you to renounce that wish and all the more induce you to calm down in your determination.
Potsdam, April 20, 1812
Friedrich Wilhelm "

On March 27, 1813 he was appointed commander of the 2nd Leib-Hussar Regiment, which was assigned to General Yorck .

In the battle near Möckern on April 5, 1813, he showed himself to be a leader to whom the regiment could confidently abandon itself. General Bülow reported in his report on that battle:

"The commanders Major von Kall etc. did everything that was possible and gave their units a praiseworthy example and have proven their old good reputation anew."

He also led his regiment excellently at the Battle of Großgörschen on May 2, 1813.

Three days later he was badly hit on the right arm and hip by a cannonball in the battle near Gersdorf . The deacon of Hartha Johann Christoph Friedrich Sparfeld was brought to the battlefield, and it was decided to bring Kall to Hartha. There he died. So that the advancing French troops could not desecrate the body, the deacon Kall went to Waldheim to see pastor Wiegand there, so that he would bury him on May 6th.

Inscription of the tombstone slab

family

On May 6, 1810, Kall became engaged to Adelheid von Domhardt from Königsberg, whom he married on July 7, 1811. The marriage had a son in 1812 and a daughter in 1813, which he never saw because she was born after he left for the field.

Honors

In 1913, Major von Kall's grave was rebuilt and covered with a grave slab in his honor. The inscription reads:

" Georg Friedrich von Kall
Royal Prussian Major and Commander of
the 2nd Leibhusaren Regiment
born October 31, 1781
stayed with Hartha May 5, 1813"

The stone inscription is already badly weathered. Therefore, a new metal plate was placed next to the grave, which shows the inscription.

Pastor Wiegand from Waldheim describes how highly this officer was also regarded by the enemy:

"On the evening of May 6, 1813, a French general came to see him and addressed him with the following words:" Are you the honorable man who defended the Prussian major against the willful mischief of brute men ? " "Yes," answered Pastor Wiegand, "I am pleased that I have done my duty and even more that you approve of it." Here he pressed my hand with such warmth of emotion and with tearful eyes that at that moment I was still moved by it. "Herr von Kall," he said warmly, "oh, he was an excellent man and a soldier. I got to know him before Danzig, we saw each other every day, and there was no one in the whole corps whom I would have liked to put by his side . ""

Family coat of arms

Blazon :

• Shield bordered in gold and quartered:
• 1 and 4 in red with a golden bar slanting to the right over both fields;
• 2 in blue with three six-pointed golden stars, one below the other, to the right;
• 3 in blue with an armored arm protruding from the right side of the shield, turned inward and holding a white human bone in its hand;
• On the shield is a helmet with an open, black eagle flight between which the arm of the 3rd field with the bone hovers;
• The helmet covers are red and silver on the right, blue and gold on the left

literature

• Döbelner home treasure. Collection of local history essays by the "Döbelner Narrator", Volume 2, Döbeln 1923.

Individual evidence

1. ^ Kurt von Priesdorff : Soldatisches Führertum . Volume 3, Hanseatische Verlagsanstalt Hamburg, undated [Hamburg], undated [1937], DNB 367632780 , p. 176, no. 1085.
2. ^ Ernst Heinrich Kneschke: New general German Adels Lexicon. 5th volume. Leipzig 1864. p. 8.
3. ^ Döbelner Heimatschatz, collection of local history essays by the "Döbelner Narrator". 2nd volume. Döbeln 1923. p. 209.
4. ↑ ^{a b} Döbelner Heimatschatz, collection of local history essays by the "Döbelner Narrator". 2nd volume. Döbeln 1923. p. 211.
5. ^ Döbelner Heimatschatz, collection of local history essays by the "Döbelner Narrator". 2nd volume. Döbeln 1923. p. 219.
6. ↑ Ernst Heinrich Kneschke: The coats of arms of the German baronial and noble families. 1st volume, Leipzig 1855, p. 229.