Hans Friedrich von Rochow

Hans Friedrich II. Von Rochow (* 1698 in Plessow, today part of Werder (Havel) ; † 1787 in Brandenburg an der Havel ) was a Prussian lieutenant general and commandant of Berlin during the Seven Years' War .

Life

In his youth he spent two years at the Knight Academy in Brandenburg Cathedral and began his career with the "long regiment" of King Friedrich Wilhelm I , where he had become a captain . After the dissolution of the regiment, he first served in Magdeburg under the Prince of Braunschweig , in 1744 he was appointed colonel in command of the Neisse fortress , and shortly before the beginning of the Seven Years' War he retired as major general .

Seven Years War

With the outbreak of the war back in service, he was promoted to Berlin commandant and lieutenant general at the same time as he was unfit for the front (because of a back disease he could not ride). Although he was informed of the approach of an Austrian corps in October 1757, he did almost nothing to organize the defense of the capital. After the Austrians had conquered the Köpenicker suburb of Berlin under Hadik , he fled the city to Spandau with the rest of the defeated garrison under the pretext of having to protect the queen. After his return, the angry Berliners were harassed and pelted with stones, his house had to be put under guard, but despite his embarrassment he remained in office.

In 1760 he was the first to receive the news about the preparation of a Russian expedition against Berlin and, according to a testimony, walked around for days “ as if struck by a lightning bolt ” “ without the reason being disclosed, so that people in the city worried that the king was arriving Misfortune happened ”. Field Marshal Lehwaldt and General Seydlitz took over the defense of the capital and thus saved Rochow from another embarrassment for the time being.

Then, however, the Russians received reinforcements from an Austrian corps and occupied Berlin again. After Rochow had negotiated the surrender of the city with General Tottleben on October 9, 1760 , he went into Russian captivity and, on his return in 1764, submitted his final farewell. He died at a very old age for that time and was last landlord of the older estates of the House of Rochow-Plessow, namely Plessow, Zolchow, Ferch, Bliesendorf, Kammerode, Resau, Wildenbruch, Klaistow and half Kanin. The goods were then inherited by a nephew from the Plessow-Stülpe branch line, Friedrich Ludwig von Rochow (1745–1808).

See also

• Rochow (noble family)

literature

• Walter von Leers: The pupils of the Knight Academy in Brandenburg aH 1705–1913 . Belzig / Ludwigslust 1913, p. 16
• Adolph Friedrich August von Rochow, history of the family von Rochow and their possessions . Berlin 1861, pp. 139-141, pp. 159-163
• Leopold von Zedlitz-Neukirch : New Prussian nobility lexicon . Fourth volume. Reichenbach Brothers, Leipzig 1836, p. 429f.