Georg Ludwig von Kielmansegg

Georg Ludwig Count of Kielmansegg (1735)

Georg Ludwig Graf von Kielmansegg (born August 22, 1705 in Hanover ; † May 14, 1785 ibid) was an electoral Brunswick-Lüneburg general of the infantry . He is one of the first German Freemasons and participated in 1738 in Braunschweig when recording the Crown Prince of Prussia and later Friedrich II. And Frederick the Great as a Freemason in the oldest of documented German Loge Société des ACCEPTES Macon Libres de la Ville d'Hambourg with .

Life

Georg Ludwig Graf von Kielmansegg was the son of in the November 25, 1717 London died Upper equerry Johann Adolph Kielmansegg and its 1721 as Countess Darlington gegraften wife Sophia Charlotte von Platen-Hallermund (1675-1725). His mother was the illegitimate half-sister of Elector Georg Ludwig .

Born on August 22nd, 1705, he stayed in Hanover at the Page Institute when his parents left Courland as George I in Great Britain on the occasion of Georg Ludwig's accession to the throne. He later attended the University of Leyden , was in 1728 with his brothers by Emperor Charles VI. raised to the rank of count and in the same year appointed ensign in the Electorate of Hanover's footguard regiment. Presumably because of his family's close ties to the ruling family, he made a rapid career. Georg Ludwig hardly took part in military events, in 1734 he fought as a volunteer in the campaign on the Rhine and later for a short time in the War of the Austrian Succession in the Netherlands . By acquiring goods in Lauenburg and Holstein, he significantly expanded his family's possessions.

Seven Years War

The Seven Years War brought him more military activity . It began with participation in a deployment of Hanoverian troops to Great Britain before the outbreak of war , where a French landing was feared, but he returned from here earlier than the expeditionary corps because the conflict of one of his subordinates with the civil authorities at Maidstone brought him back with him so opposed public opinion that it was recalled.

When, soon afterwards, in the spring of 1757, the six-year struggle broke out in northwestern Germany, Count Kielmansegg was one of the older generals in the Allied army and was therefore called to lead larger and more important commands. In 1759 he was promoted to major general. Wherever he had duties, he proved himself a brave and dutiful soldier; But wherever it was a matter of performing independently and making decisions on your own, he was not always happy. This was particularly evident when, after the Brunswick General von Imhoff had prematurely given up the Ohm line in June 1760, he took its place and was charged with the defense of Kassel. Without compelling necessity, prompted by an order that was taken too literally, he went back a long way, was then replaced by General von Wangenheim and received a less important command. Furthermore, if Kielmansegg's orders are not wrongly attributed to the losses that resulted from the defeat from Münster on August 30, 1761, then the inadequate exploitation of the successes achieved at Wilhelmsthal on June 24, 1762, which he and Luckner are accused of, are to be blamed not just to answer from him, since he was under the command of General Friedrich von Spörcken , his brother-in-law.

Most of the fame brought him the successful defense of the city of Munster against the attacks of the Marquis d'Armentières in October 1758 and on August 1, 1759 his behavior in the battle near Gohfeld , where the Hereditary Prince of Brunswick was on the same day as his uncle, Duke Ferdinand von Braunschweig-Wolfenbüttel , achieved the brilliant victory in the battle of Minden , which defeated the French. “The most excellent praise goes to Lieutenant General Graf Kielmansegg,” reports the nephew to the uncle. The latter himself writes to Lord Holdernesse that Kielmansegg distinguished himself very much in the meeting near Korbach on July 10th, 1760 and praises the “only imaginable bravery and unsurpassable zeal” which he demonstrated in the attack on Duderstadt on January 2nd and 3rd, 1761 have laid the day.

post war period

After the peace treaty, Count von Kielmansegg received the then important command of the Stade Fortress and on June 19, 1776, the requested dismissal.

Freemasons

Count von Kielmansegg became a Freemason in 1732 and a member of the Bear and Horrow Lodge in London .

Through the mediation of Albrecht Wolfgang zu Schaumburg-Lippe and the Hamburg lodge member Friedrich Christian von Albedyll (1699–1769) with the further participation of Georg Ludwig von Kielmansegg, on the night of August 14th to 15th, 1738 in the Kornschen Gasthof in Braunschweig the previous only as "Illustre Inconnu" called Crown Prince of Prussia and later Friedrich II. or Friedrich the Great in the presence of the Hamburg delegation members Georg Wilhelm Ludwig von Oberg (1711–1762), Jakob Friedrich Bielfeld and Fabian Löwen under the membership number 31 as a Freemason in the Hamburg Société des Acceptés Macons Libres de la Ville d'Hambourg and today's Hamburg Masonic Lodge Absalom added to the three nettles . At the request of the Crown Prince, his companion, the then captain and later Prussian Lieutenant General Leopold Alexander von Wartensleben, was also accepted into the Freemasons' league immediately after him.

marriage and family

On July 11, 1726, Georg Ludwig married Melusine Agnes Freiin von Spörcken (* May 6, 1701, † August 10, 1777). She was a sister of the later Field Marshal Friedrich von Spörcken . Fourteen children were born in this marriage, six of whom died in childhood. In addition to six daughters, two sons reached adulthood:

• Friedrich Graf von Kielmansegg (born September 10, 1728 - † June 5, 1800), Landdrost in Ratzeburg , second marriage to Charlotte Wilhelmine Hedwig Freiin von Spörcken, who gave birth to four daughters and ten sons between 1765 and 1787, including:
  • Ludwig von Kielmansegg (1765–1850), Hanoverian head stable master
  • Friedrich von Kielmansegg (1768-1851), Hanoverian general of the infantry
• Carl Rudolph August von Kielmannsegge , later Privy Councilor and Chamber President in Hanover. This remained unmarried.

Honors

• Knight of the Hesse-Kassel House Order of the Golden Lion (August 14, 1770)

Individual evidence

1. ^ Johann Friedrich Seyfart : Plan of the action which occurred on Aug. 30, 1761 between a Royal French and an Allied Hanöverische Corps near Schaapdetten and Bossensel, not far from Münster . Part col. Copper card, 19 × 27.8 cm. With legend . In: JFS History of the war that has been waged in Germany and its neighboring countries since 1756 [...], Frankfurt and Leipzig, 1758-1765 .

literature

• GW v. Düring: History of the Schaumburg-Lippe-Bückeburg Carabinier and Jäger Corps. Berlin, Posen and Bromberg 1828. - In memory of Mr. von Monkewitz by HF Froriep, Bückeburg 1789 (in the library of the high school in Bückeburg).
• C. v. Decker, F. v. Ciriacy, L. Blesson: Journal of the Art, Science, and History of War. Berlin, Posen and Bromberg 1828.
• Bernhard von Poten :  Kielmansegg, Georg Ludwig Graf von . In: Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie (ADB). Volume 15, Duncker & Humblot, Leipzig 1882, p. 718 f.
• Klaus Mlynek : Kielmannsegg, Georg Ludwig Graf von. In: Dirk Böttcher , Klaus Mlynek, Waldemar R. Röhrbein, Hugo Thielen : Hannoversches Biographisches Lexikon . From the beginning to the present. Schlütersche, Hannover 2002, ISBN 3-87706-706-9 , p. 199.